- Pastor Tom Cunningham
WHO'S YOUR DADDY?
Scripture Reading: John 8:37-45
John 8:37-45 37 "I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father." 39 They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41 You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God." 42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.
The Israelites came into this world, lived in this world, and passed from this world
believing that they were the children of Abraham, and as such, they were heirs of
the promises that God made with Abraham concerning his offspring. The
Pharisees, in particular, saw themselves as the seed of Abraham, the genuine
article, the elite of the elite, the chosen of the chosen — but according to Jesus, they
didn’t really know who their father was.
Sometimes we think we know whose side we’re on. We can be convinced in our
own mind that we are right, that we are in the right, and that what we do is right,
and yet be completely wrong. Sometimes we want to claim that we are following
Father God, but our lives tell a different story. We want to claim that we are heirs
and joint heirs with Jesus, but we are self-centered and self-serving rather than
being a servant and living a sacrificial life. We want to claim that we are the
loving spiritual offspring of a loving heavenly Father, but sometimes our lives, our
words and our attitudes tell a different story.
Who’s your daddy? Who is your father? Your father is the one whose works you
follow. Your father is the one whose words you listen to. Your father is the one
who shapes your personality, impacts the way you live and the way you talk.
“The results of the spiritual DNA test are in; who is your daddy?”