Knowing the Son of the Father

Fathers in the Faith

(1 John 2:13a, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 10, 2016)

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.

Fathers

In John 8 we read of an extended discourse between Jesus and His Pharisee enemies who wanted to kill Him. They were offended by the way that Jesus spoke of God as His father. Throughout this chapter the topic of who is the father of whom causes quite the violent controversy. Jesus insists that God is His father, and that they do not even know His father. He says that He has been sent by the Father, and that what He declares to Israel is precisely what He has heard from Him. He also tells them that the Father is with Him, and that He always does “the things that are pleasing to Him.”

While many believe what Jesus is saying, some do not. They take offense when He says, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They then bring the conversation back to the matter of who is the father of whom. “Abraham is our Father.” Jesus insists that their malice toward Him, the true Son of the Father, is a sign that their real spiritual father is the devil, even though they are physical descendants of Abraham.

Throughout this tense interchange, the Pharisees are making not so subtle insinuations that Jesus is the son of an unknown father—that He is actually a Samaritan, the mixed race people to the north who were the descendants of various groups that were displaced by the Assyrians in previous centuries. They mean this as an insult. They assert, perhaps by contrast, “We were not born of sexual immorality.” Then they add this phrase, “We have one Father—even God.” Jesus insists that they are not the true children of the Father, and that He is the true Son of God.

Finally the conflict returns to Abraham. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” They countered with this incredulous question: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” That was all they could take. John ends his account of this episode with these words: “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

Another day in the life of the Son of God who came to die for our sins—a day that was leading to the cross. When Jesus was naked before the world as a sin offering, it must have surely appeared that the Pharisees were right—He did not know the Father. Wasn't this what the crowd insists on in Matthew 27:43? “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Jesus had said that He was the Son of the Father. His detractors claimed that He was instead the illegitimate offspring, probably of the Samaritans. We are not left to guess as to the truth. On the third day He rose from the dead. His resurrection is a declaration by God concerning Jesus. As Paul writes in Romans 1:4, Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”

You know Him

In 1 John 2:13 John writes with confidence now to those in the church that he calls “fathers.” These more experienced men in the faith, these leaders among God's flock, are not like the Pharisees who slandered our Lord. They knew Him. They demonstrated their knowledge of God by their knowledge of His Son.

This knowledge is not merely an intellectual admission of a fact. Everyone knows that there is a God. In Romans 1:21 Paul writes about all humanity, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” The knowledge of true fathers in the church is a love for Christ and for the Father. The best fathers in the church know and love the Savior.

He is from the beginning

This Savior, in His divine nature, is from the beginning, just as the Father and the Spirit are also from the very beginning. He is the eternal wisdom of God written of in Proverbs 8:30, who says of His relationship with the Father, “I was beside Him, like a master workman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always.” In the account of creation from Genesis 1, He was the eternal Word who said, “Let there be light.” As John said in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As Paul wrote in Colossians 1:15-17, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

We need good fathers in the faith. They help us to see what it is to know Him who is from the beginning. They do more than acknowledge Jesus as a man. They have come to believe His own testimony about Himself, that He truly is the Son of God. More than this—for even the demons knew this and shuddered—the best fathers in faith show forth fruit in their lives of knowing our risen Lord.

Fathers take there place in a long line of faithful men extending back to men like Abraham and Job. They testify to the Christian hope in the most desperate times. They follow the apostolic fathers of the church in being willing to give their lives for Jesus. They are not Jesus. They just know Him. And they live that faith out in love, even unto death.

Take a look at our church's Book of Church Order in BCO 8-3 for the duties of elders. They are pastors of the flock, guardians of worship and teaching, prayer warriors, missionaries, and evangelists. Best to mention a word about our failings before all of our leaders resign from a heightened sense of inadequacy. Like Abraham, Job, and the original hand-picked disciples, today's church fathers are sinners. Where do these men, these fathers, get their gifts and graces to undertake such weighty tasks? They know Him who is from the beginning.

They are like you, in that they do not exercise their calling perfectly. See BCO 57-5 question 4. The best sign that they are genuine shepherds of the flock that will not devour the sheep is a growing humility and gentleness in the face of their own failing, yielding a listening ear. What is their best hope for growth in usefulness? They know the one who did all things well, and they turn to Him. He gives more grace, and makes us less like accusing Pharisees and more like Him.

Old Testament Reading—Job 19:23-27 – Job as a father in the faith

Gospel Reading—Luke 6:12-16 – Apostles and an apostolic foundation for the church