Title: My God, My Father / John 20:17
Content: My God, My Father
John 20:17
Today we hear some very moving words from the Lord's many words.
“My Father and your Father, and my God and your God.”
The Lord is speaking these words to Mary and the other women who came to the tomb at dawn with a lot of meaning.
Let us first consider what the Lord meant by using these expressions.
First, it explains the restoration of the relationship between God and humans.
The words of the Lord today are the words spoken after He overcame the power of death and was resurrected.
This moving teaching of the title of God was emphasized only after the resurrection, and it seems that he wanted to teach the women who came to him first.
Because of the Lord's death and resurrection, our relationship with God has been completely restored.
The Lord bore our sins and died, showing that He has overcome the power of death by His resurrection.
Therefore, now, by the grace of the Lord, a new relationship has been established again in which we can call God our Father, just like Adam before we sinned.
The Lord wants to tell our lives about this fact now.
After tasting the pain of death, and overcoming the power of death, the first words he spoke to our lives were, “My Father and your Father, and my God and your God.”
We can fully guess the Lord's heart to find and know this God again from the context of the text.
The Lord speaks again.
"I died to bear your sins, so I have paid for your sins, and now I am raised from the dead and become your Savior, the God whom I called, the Father whom I called! The God who delights in the restoration of a normal relationship with you now. I want to inform you.”
Now, in this expression of the Lord, we must boldly come before the throne of the holy God, feeling the fact that our relationship with the God who made heaven and earth has been normalized, and that we can have fellowship and communion with God.
Second, nevertheless, it implies the distinction between Jesus Himself and us in his relationship with the Father.
For example, it is the fact that the Lord is the fittest, and we are adoptive.
As it is said in Romans 8:15, "You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, so we cry, Abba, Father.
In the face of this fact, we come to realize that we must always be humble.
We often come across people who claim to be the Second Advent Jesus Christ or one of the prophets.
They think it's pride that comes from not acknowledging this distinction. We should always be humble before God and people, remembering that we were sinners who could not even call God our Father.
Third, it emphasizes identity, that is, unity at the same time as differentiation.
“My Father and your Father” and “My God and your God” emphasize the sense of unity between the Lord and us.
Isn't this lesson confirmed through various places in the Bible?
Consider the parable of the vine.
Jesus Himself called the stem, and we called the branches. In order for a stem and a branch to stick together, don't they have to have the same constitution? You will not be able to graft pear and persimmon trees.
For example, a person with blood type A must transfuse type A blood, but cannot transfuse type B blood.
In this way, we can see that the Lord expressed our relationship with the Lord in a unified way through the parable of the vine. Also, the Lord said, "I will no longer call you servants" and "I will call you friends" (John 15:15).
In addition, through the parable of the bridegroom and the bride, the Lord is the bridegroom and we are the brides, so that we are one with the Lord.
Therefore, while feeling a sense of oneness with the Lord now, we should have the thought that we should be more like the Lord.
This is why God said, "Be holy, because I am holy." This is what the Lord said, "Be ye perfect as the Father is perfect."
Also, as the Philippians say, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
Because the Lord and we are calling the holy God our Father together, God is demanding a more complete and spiritual dimension from us.
We are no longer like the golden beasts and those who have the form of decaying filth.
The children of God who have been called by God and washed with the blood of Christ must ascend to the height of the fullness of Christ because they have been restored to the image of God.
This fact is implied in the words of the Lord, which introduced, “My God and your God, and my Father and your Father.”
Fourth, in this expression of the Lord, we read a sign of boundless intimacy and affection.
While living on this earth, we see that Jesus always called God so intimately.
In front of the tomb of Lazarus, the Lord said, "My Father, I thank you for always listening to me." As I prayed like this, even death was commanded.
When Jesus was twelve years old, when he went up to Jerusalem, Joseph and Mary knew that Jesus was with them, and on their way home, they realized that Jesus was not there, and when they found Jesus again in the temple, they said, “Why did you seek me? Didn't you know that I had to be at my father's house?" This is why the Lord always called his father in a friendly way from a young age.
He is teaching us to call the Father, whom we have always called friendly throughout our lives.
I am sure that the more deeply I meditate on this content of my Father and My God, the more I will feel the love of God overflowing with affection.
This expression of the Lord is what He wanted us to always have a tender and intimate feeling when we think of God.
How do you feel and feel about your Heavenly Father now!
I hope you have the wisdom to understand God's will to approach you intimately through the Lord's expression today.
Considering these facts, we realize two facts:
First, the Lord, who called God as our Father, has always revealed the Father on this earth.
We believe that these facts are teaching us that we should always express God on this earth.
Philip asked Jesus. "Show me the Lord God the Father." Then the Lord speaks to Philip. "He who has seen me has seen the Father, so why do you ask him to show the Father?"
These words of the Lord would not mean that Jesus, who had a physical face, resembled the face of his Father. His words, actions, and thoughts always revealed God.
Therefore, in John 14:11-12, it is said, “Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; if not, believe me because of the works that I do.”
The Lord's deeds, words, and miracles have always been a manifestation of God. When He raised Lazarus from the dead, He opened the eyes of the blind, healed the paralytic, fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, and left twelve baskets of bread. All of these were to represent God.
On a continuous basis, the Lord gives us a task that we can call a homework assignment.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he also do, because I am going to the Father.”
What is the meaning of these words? We are showing that we must testify to the Father by showing the Father's work while we live on this earth. Just as Jesus always showed God.
The Lord showed the Father in words, deeds, and miracles.
Dear saints, like Jesus, you are always calling on God the Father.
Have you not lived your life calling that great person like the Lord, like my Father and my God? Also, isn't that what it should be called?
If so, how much did you testify to God?
How much did you show the father?
He said to Phileb, "He who has seen me has seen the Father. Can you not understand the words of the Lord? Those who believe in the Lord can do what the Lord has done.
Above all, we must show our Father in love.
If the greatest thing the Lord has done for this earth, isn't it the love of the cross? Therefore, there is no greater love than this to lay down your life for your friends.
It is only that we love each other that we testify of our Father and show him to many.
John 13:35 says, "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Only loving each other shows a father.
If we neglect this work, no matter how much we did evangelism at Seoul Station or on the train, we never witnessed or showed our father.
On that day many will say in my name, Lord, have I not prophesied in your name, cast out demons, and healed the sick? The Lord said, "Depart from me, all you who practice lawlessness, for I never knew you."
It is because they have done iniquity, and please realize that the lawlessness is that they did not love each other.
I hope that we will have the wisdom to strengthen our faith again and to see if there is any iniquity in our life where we do not love one another while we are awake and sober.
Jesus gave a new commandment.
It says to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
He emphasized the love of God and the love of neighbor as the best expression, with a strength that cannot be emphasized any more.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we must show and testify to God by loving one another, so that we can live as God's letters and as the fragrance of Christ.
Second, we must live strong and boldly while deeply grateful for these emotional expressions.
Think about it.
The One who created the heavens and the earth and rules the universe is what we call “My Father and My God.”
But, how could we not live in this world strong and boldly!
God told Joshua to be strong and courageous. He said to be strong and courageous, but to be bold like a general.
How can there be fear or anxiety in those who live their lives looking at God as their Father!
In fact, the Lord was not guaranteed material things in this world. Also, nothing of the world had been prepared.
But he was always strong and bold.
He was always strong and courageous even when food ran out, in the presence of the dead, when the sick ran out to be healed, and even in the middle of the Sea of Galilee when a storm was about to devour a ship.
Dear saints, God wants us to be strong and courageous, relying on Him like His Son, Jesus Christ.
Let's not tremble at the power of material things.
Let's be bold in the face of the world's diseases.
What does he mean when he said that he gave us authority to tread on serpents and scorpions? What does it mean to rule and conquer? It means to live strong and bold in this world.
Let us remember again the words of the Lord, "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
What will a young baby be afraid of in his mother's arms?
Anyone who calls God “My Father and My God” can live strong and boldly. End.