The Revelation of the Father’s Heart

In the Old Testament, in answer to the heart hungry request of Moses to see God’s glory, God revealed what He was really like. The greater revelation was not in what He showed Moses, but in what He said to Moses: Exodus 34:6, “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, (34:7) “keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin

Centuries after this revelation to Moses, Jesus came and spoke forth and fleshed out the heart of the Father to us. In what He said and what He showed, He revealed the true nature of the Father. What Jesus revealed was the same traits that Moses received in Exodus 34.

The life Jesus lived, the works He did, the wisdom He taught, and the vicarious suffering he endured on the cross, gave the world its first true and complete revelation of what God was really like – a FATHER. In John 14:8, Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” The Jesus answered by saying: “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9). In Jesus’ final words to His disciples in the Upper Room, He referred to God as Father, fifty-one times (John. 13-17)!

When Jesus says, “has seen the Father,” what did He mean? It is obvious that this cannot refer to the essence or substance of God, for He is spirit and invisible, and in that respect no man has seen God at any time. What Jesus meant when He said that God is seen, is that He (Jesus) has “fleshed out” a clear, correct, and what should have been, convincing, manifestation of God in His life and work so that we may learn what God is really like. And the full revelation that Jesus gives can be summed up in one comprehensive name of God – FATHER. 

From the creation of the first man and woman, God revealed that the only plan He had was a Family Plan. This revelation of God was dimly at times, yet distinctly portrayed in the Old Testament, but only THE SON can fully reveal THE FATHER.  Thus, when we come to the New Testament, Jesus takes this great word, “Father,” and reveals that it is the Christian name for God. Father God, with His Forever Family Plan should be the word and way in which we frame all our thoughts about God and His will for our lives and for His world. 

Jesus never preached a sermon without using the name “FATHER”.  He never uttered a prayer without the word “FATHER” being at the head of it. The first sentence recorded in the Bible from the lips of Jesus is this: “Know you not that I must be about my FATHER”S business?”  His last words on the Cross were: “FATHER”, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Thus, throughout His ministry, Jesus attempted to impress upon men the fact that Almighty God’s nature is that of FATHER. In all His dealings with us, He only has one plan, His Family Plan that will bring many prodigal sons to glory. His acts are those of a Father’s hand; His love is that of a Father’s heart; His home is that of a Father’s forever presence!

If we were required by law to eliminate all the teachings that Jesus gave which presented the true picture of what God was like except one, which one would you choose that would most clearly reveal the nature of God? As for me, my one choice would be to retain the one parable with three parts to it in Luke 15. Three parts to the one parable were necessary in order to reveal that salvation is the work of the Triune God. It reveals the work of God the Son in the story of the one lost sheep; of the God the Holy Spirit in the story of the one lost coin, and of God the Father in the story of the two sons. This very familiar and famous parable is best known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. But to put the spotlight on the sons in the story is to miss the main point. Jesus gave this part of the parable as a revelation of what God is really like, i.e. the perfect, forever, Loving Father.

With this triune parable in mind (take time to read Luke 15:1-32),  we will lay it alongside the revelation God gave Moses in Exodus 34:6-7 and get a clear view what our Father in Heaven is really like.

1. Jesus Revealed that Our Heavenly Father Cares Tenderly and Compassionately – (Remember the revelation to Moses in Exodus 34:6, “…The LORD, the LORD God, merciful…”) The first image of the father in Jesus’ story in Luke 15 is that of a tender, merciful, compassionate, broken-hearted Father. Unlike the distorted image that the Devil had sketched of God down through the ages — that of being tough, terrible, touchy, tyrannical, and temperamental, Jesus said my Father is preeminently tender. Tenderness is expressed by not only loving someone, but liking them as well. One man asked his uncle why he always seemed to look so happy. To which he replied, “It’s because the Father of Jesus is very fond on me.” Do you as a born-again child of God believe that God really likes you?
Psalm 103:13, “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.” James 5:11, “…and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

Dudley Hall said, “Other gods have power, but only our God has mercy!”

Puritan John Owen said, “The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to Him is not to believe that He loves you!”

2. Jesus Revealed that Our Heavenly Father Loves Graciously and Passionately – God is not an austere being, impassively dispensing justice. He does not merely smile benignly upon the good and the righteous. His grace is almost undignified in its exuberance as Jesus revealed in Luke 15 the picture of Heavenly Father who runs, rejoices and embraces not a dry-cleaned, sanitized boy, but a filthy, financially destitute, physically starving wayward son!

In the parable, Jesus reveals the Father’s heart as He says, “He (the Father) had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”  Herb Hodges challenges us to “Remember that this is a picture of God drawn by Him who knows God best.  Jesus pictures God running — God in a hurry — to welcome a sin-stained prodigal returning from the far country.  This is the only time in the Bible God is ever pictured as being in a hurry.  This dramatically illustrates His willingness — yes, His eagerness — to receive repenting sinners who come to Him.  “He ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” That one kiss of fatherly love obliterated and erased all the sins of the past and the memory of those sins. And then began the great process of restoration. As the father and the son are locked in each other’s arms, from the middle of the roadway, the father gives the orders that will restore this prodigal boy to the full position of complete sonship in his home. ”

One poet who had come to experience Father’s love and compassion wrote: “The fatted calf, the robe, the shoes, the ring, They are all for me, though I am an unworthy son, But the most wonderful thing is that God ran to meet me, Yes, I saw God run.” 

Can you declare by confident faith that “This is OUR (MY) FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN and now on earth, My Heart is His Home?