The Perfect Father

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This is a sermon that was given on June 19, 2016 for a Father's Day message.

The Perfect Father

Matthew 5:48 (NKJV) ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Introduction:

How many of you had a perfect father?

My father certainly wasn’t perfect. He was a great man and a good father, but he wasn’t perfect. Nobody knew that any better than he did.

But… dad wasn’t wrong all the time. In fact, he wasn’t wrong most of the time.

If I had to select just one thing about my dad that he really got right, I think I would say it was this:

Dad had a tender heart and he freely expressed his love to Mom and us kids.

I’ve talked to so many men throughout my life and ministry and I’m amazed at the number of men who say that they never, ever heard their dad tell them he loved them, or ever felt a loving embrace from their father. Well, that is one thing my dad got right. 

In our Scripture verse today we find the words of Jesus, “Therefore, be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

About 1 yr. ago in a series of messages I was doing on sanctification, I talked a little bit about this text in Matthew 5:48. Let me just review a little bit before we go any further in our study this morning.

In the NT there are two Greek words used to translate one O.T. Hebrew word for “perfect”. The basic idea is the same, i.e. wholeness, completeness. It sometimes also carries the idea of being mature as adults rather than infants. But, it goes beyond the mere idea of maturing to adulthood. It also implies having become all that can be expected.

Remember, the concept we discussed before in the OT carries the idea of being all that is expected. A “perfect lamb” is a lamb that is all it’s supposed to be. It didn’t have to win the prize as grand champion lamb at the “Jerusalem Intn’l. Farm Expo.” It just needs to have all its body parts and be absent of any other obvious defects.

Quite often the newer translations of the Bible use the word “mature” instead of “perfect.” However, Dr. John Oswalt observes, “… it means more than just becoming an “older” Christian, it means becoming all that can rightly be expected of a follower of Christ.”

The word often translated as “perfect” also carries the meaning of being finally brought to the appropriate end for which it was created.

In relation to Matt. 5:48, Jesus is obviously not demanding absolute perfection to the same degree as God. No, (understood in the context) He seems to be emphasizing the fact that God’s love for people is not mixed, diluted, or polluted. So our love should be the same kind.

We are urged to be perfect because God is. Our performance will not be error-free, but the quality of our love can be just like God’s.

Let’s turn a corner now and apply this text to the subject of fatherhood. I want to take several minutes to talk about the one and only perfect Father, our heavenly Father. Every father here on earth has made mistakes and/or failures. Every earthly father has those choices and actions he wishes he could undo or redo. But all of us have a heavenly Father who is perfect in everything. Let us think about Him and exalt Him today.

1. Our Father God demonstrates perfect love.

Psalm 68:5 (NKJV) A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.

Matthew 5:45 (NKJV) that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

1 John 4:8, 16 (NKJV) He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

We sometimes discover that we haven’t demonstrated love like we should. We make mistakes and misjudgments. But God is perfect in His love.

Sometimes we miss opportunities or we simply lack the understanding to demonstrate compassion like we should, but God knows exactly and perfectly how to show compassion and mercy.

 2. Our Father God demonstrates perfect justice.

God knows exactly how to exercise judgment, mercy, punishment and rewards.

God knows exactly when and how to discipline His children.

Proverbs 3:11-12 (NKJV) ¹¹ My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; ¹² For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.  (Quoted in Heb. 12)

We have faulty reasoning and limited understanding, so we sometimes misapply justice. We sometimes misapply discipline or punishment.

God never does. He is perfect in justice and holiness.

Ps. 145:17 “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.”

Ps. 9:7-8 “The LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment. And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.”

3. Our Father God demonstrates perfect reliability.

He is a God of truth.

Truth is the quality of being consistent, genuine or authentic, and without contradiction.

(H. Orton Wiley) Truth includes both veracity and faithfulness. Veracity means that God’s manifestations and actions are in strict conformity with His own nature. That is, He is the God of no contradictions, hypocrisies or inconsistencies.

Exodus 34:6 “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth”

Numbers 23:19a “God is not a man, that he should lie…”

Deut. 32:4 “[God] is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”

Since He is a God of truth, then He is faithful, trustworthy and reliable. God can always be trusted and counted on.

Another reason for His reliability rests in His infinite knowledge and understanding. So often when we fail to demonstrate faithfulness or consistency, it is because we are working with faulty understanding and limited knowledge. God doesn’t have that problem.

Conclusion:

I have tried to describe a few of the ways that our heavenly Father is a perfect Father.

All of us who are fathers do well to emulate our heavenly Father as closely as we can.

There are many ways that our earthly fathers may let us down and make errors of judgment and fail to meet the needs we have.

Some of those failures may be completely unintentional and others may be the result of deliberate choices to indulge in wrong or sinful lifestyles.

In spite of those failures, we all can trust in our heavenly Father to provide for us and lead us safely through this life to His eternal home.

I want to close the service by singing a relatively new hymn that has tremendous words,

How Great the Father’s Love for Us