The Names of God - Abba Father

Introduction
A few weeks ago, a friend told me a funny story I thought you might like.
God said, it’s not good for man to be alone.  So God brought various animals to Adam to see what he would call them and see if any would be a good companion for man, but none were a good match.  So God made a companion for man.Now, you know God created a woman from Adam’s rib to be his perfect companion. But here’s a funny joke about God’s trial run.

First, God said, “I will create a companion that will reflect My perfect love for you.  Regardless of how
selfish and childish and unlovable you may be, this companion will always accept you just as you are and will love you as I do, no matter what.”  And God built the animal and it came up to Adam wagging it’s tale and licking his face.  And Adam said, “Since you are a reflection of God’s love, I will name you ‘DOG’!” 

Everything was going well, until a Satan complained to God. “Dog loves Adam so much he will become puffed up with pride.  Dog thinks Adam can do no wrong!  Adam needs to learn humility!”  

So God created Cat to be Adam’s companion along with Dog.  And Cat would not obey Adam.  And when Adam gazed into Cat’s slitted eyes, he knew man is not the supreme being. And Adam learned humility.  And God was pleased.  And Adam was pleased. And Dog wagged it's tale.  And Cat didn’t care one way or the other. 

This summer, we are studying the names of God from the Bible to learn what God is really like.  God is infinite, and His character is vast.  I challenge you to expand your thinking about God and consider the many beautiful facets of His character.  Most of all, I want you to follow God as the fulfillment of your life’s true purpose. 

So far, we have learned that God is Elohim—that He is many and one, both plural and singular.  This is something beyond human language and logic.  Thus is the mysterious character of God.

We also learned God is El-Shaddai—that He is Almighty and All-Sufficient; He’s all you need.

Today, for Father’s Day, we consider the name Jesus used for God; a name we can use too—Abba, Father. 

Romans 8:15-16
¹⁵ So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

Abba Father
According to Dr. Deborah MacNamara: “Cross cultural research on baby’s first words shows that the clear winner is Dada. Tardif and colleagues found in over 900 babies, age 8 to 16 months from English, Cantonese, and Mandarin speaking homes, Dada was the most common first person identified. Mama is not far behind…”[i]  This is surprising because most linguists agree Dada is harder for babies to say than Mama.  MacNamara goes on, “When mothers are the primary attachment, babies are still quite fused to them well into their first year of life. The first separation they see from themself is to their father. Dada is usually the first person they identify outside of the mother and baby bond.” 

Romans 8:15 says that because of what Christ did for us on the cross, we can call God “Abba, Father.”  Abba is the Aramaic word for Father.  Actually, Father may not be the best translation.  Abba is an easy word for babies to pronounce.  Babies don’t say “Father”.  They say, “Dada” or “Papa” or (in Aramaic) “Abba”. 

So in this Scripture, we see that Christians have the right to go before the Infinite, Immortal, Holy, Lord of the Universe, and call Him Abba (or Dada).  That’s an incredible revelation if you think about it.  So many people feel dread in God’s presence or like they have to talk to God with very religious language.  I am always perplexed when I hear someone pray to God using King James type language: “Oh Lord God, we bow before Thee and ask for Thine help!”  Who talks like that?  Why would Christians talk to God like that?  Especially when we understand He is our spiritual Dada! 

Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) Yes, God is holy and infinite and immortal.  But He is also a loving Father, a perfect Father, who shelters and protects and welcomes his little children into His arms.  If you trust Christ and believe His teaching, come to God like He is your perfect Father, because He is. 

Did you have a good father?  If you did, you know something of God’s character.  No matter how wonderful you father is, he is only an imperfect reflection of the God Christians call Abba.  Not everyone had a great father.  If you had problems with your Dad, I want you to know, Abba Father is the perfect Dad.  He will never let His children down.  Everything you wish you father was for you, God is and more. 

Are You A Child of God?
Now I need to make something clear.  Not everyone is a child of God.  This is something that confuses many people.  It is quite popular these days to say, “We are all God’s children.”  Now that may be true in a general sense because we are all created by God.  And it is true in the sense that no race or nation is more important to God than any other.  We’re all equal before God in this respect.  But Romans 8:15 says, “You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” Why would God need to adopt us if we are already His children?  God needs to adopt us because sin has separated us from God.  

Sin is not just a minor separation.  Sin is an absolute separation.  It’s not that God left us.  No. We left God through Sin.  And the separation caused by our sin completely severs our relationship with the Abba Father.  God is not a Father to those who do not follow Christ. 

The Pharisees were surprised to hear this truth from Jesus in the 8^th chapter of John.  As biological descendants of Abraham, the Pharisees believed God was their father through Abraham.  Jesus set them straight.  He said their evil actions showed they were not God’s children; the devil was their father.  Being part of the family in the Kingdom of God is not biological.  It’s about faith and choice and action.  It's a choice we make to repent and follow Jesus as Lord. It's a choice God makes to adopt us and save us for eternal life.

Sin separates us from God.  But the Good News is, Jesus we can be adopted into the family of God.  God wants to be your perfect Abba Father.  He wants to love you and nurture you and protect you and bless you, and give you eternal life, but you have to choose Him.  You have to turn to Him through Jesus Christ. 

Now, if you are not a child of God—adopted into God’s family because you turned away from your sins and put your faith in Jesus death for you on the cross—the conviction you feel before God is justified.  It’s no wonder you dread His presence.  You feel guilty in God’s presence because you are guilty.  But when you pray, “God, please forgive my sins!” and you invite Jesus to be the Lord of your life, then you are no longer a fearful slave.  You are adopted as a child of God.  You can call God “Abba Father!” just like Jesus does.  In fact, Jesus is your brother! 

Galatians 4:5-6 it says, “⁵ God sent [Jesus] to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. ⁶ And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 

This tells us that Jesus own spirit comes to live inside a Christian’s heart when they become a Christian by believing in Jesus.  So when God looks at a Christian, He doesn’t see a sinner.  He doesn’t see someone who has hurt Him or rebelled against Him.  He doesn’t see in a Christian anything that would upset or disappoint Him.  If you are a Christian, God sees Jesus in you and God calls you His child and you can call Him “Daddy”.  Isn’t that amazing! 

Invitation
And so today Jesus pleads with everyone listening.  If you want God to be your Abba Father, you have to make a choice.  Why don’t you make that choice today?

Here's a prayer you can pray that can help you make that choice today.

Abba Father, I'm sorry I've been living my life my own way.  I repent of all that today. Please forgive me.  I want to follow Jesus as my Lord from this day forward.  Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and show me how.  Surround me with Christians who can help me and hold me accountable.  Cleanse me and and heal me so I can become more and more like Jesus.  For it is in His name that I pray. Amen.

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[i] https://macnamara.ca/portfolio/mama-or-dada-what-do-babies-say-first-and-why/

The Names of God - Elohim

Introduction
I enjoyed a vacation last week--spending time with family and resting and recharging.  My wife and I hiked through “Tate’s Hell” and saw a pigmy rattlesnake!   Tate's Hell State Forest got its name from a farmer named Cebe Tate who in 1875 took a shotgun into the swamp to search for a panther that was killing his livestock. Tate got lost for seven days, was bitten by a snake, and had to drink murky swamp water. Finally, he stumbled into a clearing, living only long enough to murmur the words, "My name is Cebe Tate, and I just came from Hell." There were so many biting flies buzzing around us we could stop to rest or the flies would land on us to bite.

We went fishing and looked up all the names of the different fish we caught.  We caught a lot of Whiting (AKA Gulf Kingfish or Sea Mullet) and Red Fish (AKA Red Drum), which are quite tasty.  I enjoyed watching and learning the names of so many different birds that we don't see wear I live, but are native to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico--Great Blue Heron, Laughing Gulls, Anhingas, and Purple Gallinules.  We visited Wakula Springs and saw Alligators, Manatees, and Suwanee Cooters (a funny name for a turtle!)  We had a great week and I am thankful to have been able to take that vacation. I feel rested and recharged for ministry.

Not long after I came to be the pastor of Pleasant Grove, one of our older members died, Nina Miller.  Nina's family had been close to a former pastor of our church, Renfro Watson, and we invited him to speak at her funeral.  Renfro recounted how Nina loved to grow flowers.  Walking through Nina's garden one day, Renfro said he loved flowers but didn't know any of their names.  Nina replied, “You can’t fully love something until you now its name.”  

The Bible tells the story of how all the animals got their names. And it also reveals some important things about God's name. I want to share that Scripture with you today as I begin a new series for this summer – “The Names of God”.

Genesis 2:18-24
¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” ¹⁹ So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. ²⁰ He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

²³ “At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone,
    and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
    because she was taken from ‘man.’”

²⁴ This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

Elohim - God
In our passage, we see that Adam (the first man) names all the animals.  Then, when God makes a woman from Adam’s rib, Adam names her “Woman”.  The word Adam was not originally a proper name.  It simply meant “human being” and the word Eve meant “life” or “life-giver”.  These weren't proper names, just descriptions.

We also see another common name in the passage—God.  In verse 21, the word we translate into English as “God” is Elohim.  Elohim is a plural common noun.  The singular is just “El.”  In the Bible, you will often see names with the word “el” imbedded in them.    For instance Bethel and Daniel.  The “El” in these names almost always means "god". So Bethel means “House of God”.  Daniel means “God is my judge”. 

Elohim is not a proper name like Chris or Kelly.  Just as Adam and Eve originally simply meant man and woman, Elohim was originally a descriptive name for god, similar to other descriptive words like man, woman, alligator, or fish.  So in the Genesis passage, we see all these descriptive names.  And Adam, the man, decides what to call everything. “This is a sunflower, a red-tailed hawk, a manatee.”  And this is a man and this is a woman.  And this is God who made them all.

And there is an interesting thing about the descriptive name for God, Elohim, that gets lost in translation from ancient Hebrew to modern English.  Elohim is plural.  So technically, it should be translated gods (plural), not god (singular).  However, one of the crucial points throughout the Bible is that there is only one God.  And whenever the Bible uses the plural word Elohim, it uses it in a singular sense.  This is a great mystery about God that boggles the simple human mind.  God is One (singular) but He is also many (plural).How can God be both one and many?

The early Church wrestled with the singular/plural nature of God and formulated the doctrine of the Trinity to describe God.  There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—the Holy Trinity, the Holy 3-in-1.  It’s a mind-boggling doctrine that confuses everyone.  Critics of Christianity like to tease, “So you Christians say there are three gods: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?”  No.  There is only One God.  However, He is a Three-In-One God.  And nobody understands it fully--not even Christian scholars.  Likewise, we are totally confused when we say, “Jesus is both God and man."  We don't believe Jesus is half-God and half-man.  No.  Jesus is 100% God and also 100% man.  What???  How is that possible?  It’s totally confusing, but it’s the best we can do to use limited human logic and language to describe the unlimited and infinite nature of God.

After sin corrupted the world, the ancients turned from worshipping the One, True God and began inventing all kinds of different gods to worship.  Either they didn't like the One True God or they forgot His true nature and so they invented imaginary gods that had the kinds of attributes they wanted.  They also named their imaginary gods like they named their children and animals.  

Have you ever though the immense power parents possess in the right to name their children? Think about it.  Parents give life to a new himan being and then they decide, "From thence forth, you shall be known as John (or Charles or Susan or whatever...)!"  For the rest of that human being's life, they bear the name their parents gave them.  My little sister was named Katie.  All my life I called her Katie, but when she became an adult, people started calling her Kathryn (which was her full name, Katie was the nickname).  I still call her Katie though.  She will always be my little sister and she will always be Katie to me.

Naming your pets is even more fun than naming children, because you can name them anything.  You don't have to give them regular human names.  You can name your pets: Fluffy, or Bowzer, or even Dumb Dog if you like.  Humans have the power to name their pets.

Parents have the power to name their children, but children don't have the same power to name their parents.  It doesn't work that way.  They can't say, "I don't like your name, Steve; I'm going to call you John."  now sometimes children do give their parents a new name like Daddy or Mom or Pop, but these are not proper names, they are common names--descriptive names that describe the relationship.

But the ancient sinful people who turned away from, rejected, and forgot God, invented new gods that they could name what ever they wanted.  Isn't that a silly idea?  God is God.  He is who He is.  People don’t get to name God or change His name. We don’t get to decided who God is.  But people still try.

Some people today don't like what the Bible says about God and so they think, "I don't like that and I don't believe that.  I would rather God be like this instead."  Others choose instead to reject the very existence of God.  And still, God is who He is.  It doesn't matter whether people like it or believe it.  And if He is who He is and people choose not to accept it, we would call that delusion.  

LORD God - Yahweh
People have always wanted and tried to re-invent God.  That’s why the Bible adds the proper name for God in the passage.  Paired with the common descriptive name “Elohim”, is the proper name LORD—which in Hebrew is Yahweh.  Whenever you see the word LORD in the Holy Bible (and it’s in all-caps), you should know that LORD is the translation of Yahweh (God’s actual proper name).  So we learn that the One True God who created Man and Woman and Alligators and Blue Herons and Red Fish and even Rattlesnakes is The LORD God.

He is Lord.  He is Sovereign.  He is who He is.  He does not change.  We cannot control Him.  We don’t name Him. He names us.  And rather than try to imagine God to be the way we wish Him to be, we should turn to the Holy Bible to see the names or God The LORD God has revealed to us so we can better know The LORD God’s character.  For we are to love God, and (as Nina Miller said), "You can’t really love something unless you know its name" (and what it really is).

Thankfully, the LORD God has always wanted His creatures to know Him.  He has used all His resources to reveal Himself to us.  Romans 1:20 says, “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”  God even spoke to people in the Bible and revealed some of His many names.  We will look at some of these in the course of this series—name like El Shaddai, Jehovah-Jirah, Alpha and Omega, and others.

Jesus, the Best of All Names for God
But as we conclude, I want to share one more of God's names.  It is the best name of all by which we can know God.  It is the name of Jesus—which means, “The Lord Saves”.  You see, though all people sin and fall short of the glory of God leaving us all in jeopardy of punishment in Hell, God doesn’t want us to suffer in Hell for eternity.  Therefore, The LORD God came as the Son, Jesus, to save us.  On the cross, Jesus died for our sins so we can be saved if we repent and put our faith in Him.  Will you?  The choice is yours.

In the sacred ceremony of Holy Communion, we recall the sacrifice Jesus made for us that shows the depths of God's love.   We also remember Jesus rose from the grave and is here with us now to offer new life and eternal life with God forever in Paradise.

Will you repent of your sins and accept the free gift of grace God offers you through Jesus today?