Christianity A-Z

Welcome to the first of our Christianity a to z podcast We did something of an introduction to the series last week and you can go back and listen to that if you haven't already. But essentially, in this series, we're gonna be having a think about key doctrines in the bible truth about God, and we're hanging it on the letters of the Alphabet. So every week with the a b c d EG and a doctrine that corresponds to the first letter of of of that. And today, we're looking at a, we're looking at adoption, I'm Tom Sweetman. I'm the assistant pastor here at Cornerstone Church.

I'm with Pete Woodcock, who's the pastor, and I'm with Ben, who is our trainee pastor as well. So thank you brothers for joining us again this week. And Pete, you're gonna kick us off. Just tell us about adoption. Well, it is is a wonderful start because it's a very beautiful thing adoption, really.

So Anne and myself and my daughter, we decided to adopt a long time ago now. And I think the beautiful thing is that you're bringing into your family someone from an from another family. But you are really bringing them into the family. It's they're not a slave. They're not a servant.

They're not just you know, someone that you're calling a son but really isn't. They are actually legally become your son. Mhmm. And you illegally become their their father and their mother -- Mhmm. -- and their sister.

Mhmm. And so it goes before a court. Mhmm. And that it's quite a long it's a very long legal process, and you have to go before a court, and you have to stand up before a judge who sits on his little thing with his wig on and everything like that. And we had to go through that.

So that he then says, this now is legal. He is your son. You are his father, you are his mother, and you are his sister. Mhmm. And and that's what happens.

But it's a it so when I die, you know, Carl can get the inheritance. Mhmm. And that's what he's asked. Which is being spent by you rapidly at the moment. Exactly.

Yeah. Wonderful. So When we adopt, you know, we're we're not just bringing in a long term lodger -- No. -- who's living it's they become either a full son or daughter part of the family. And it's different to fostering, you see.

So fostering is that you look after someone you care for them. So terrific -- Yes. -- in fostering. Yeah. Don't don't get me wrong.

It's different. Mhmm. Not there's a legal process going on here in adoption. Mhmm. Thank you.

And lots of that is how the bible describes the spiritual reality of our adoption as Christians, isn't it, Ben? Do you wanna take us into take us into some verses to help us unpick that a bit? Yeah. Definitely. Galatians to 4 has a really lovely little summary, which uses this kind of language to describe the relationship we now have with God.

So Galatians 4 from verse 4 when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the spirit of His son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out abba father. Yeah. Fantastic there because we haven't got got on to God yet. Although, you know, you to do doctrine of the bible without God would be mad.

Mhmm. But you see the trying God there, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yeah. And you see their whole purpose, their whole heart, their whole working, is to bring people into the family of God -- Mhmm. -- is is and that's amazing.

So a Christian and I think this is important is not just a forgiven person, and not just set free. So we often talk about and it's it's good in a right illustration that we we are forgiven of our sins like you're in a law court. It's been you've been justified. The sins have been dealt with. You are now guiltless before God, but we're not set free -- Mhmm.

-- just to go out into a world where there's no home, where there's no family. What God does in setting us free is to bring us to himself -- Mhmm. -- into his family. Mhmm. And that's really afford to this.

Mhmm. Definitely. Yes. It's not just like sponsoring a child, you know. When you adopted, you didn't just send money monthly towards your son's bank account.

It but it was you're now in the family. You get to enjoy all the same privileges, all the same inheritance. All the same responsibilities as well. Now you're in the family, you behave like we do as a family in some ways as well. And and the the the intimacy in knowing God as father is incredible, isn't it?

And, you know, when you look at other world religions and beliefs, there is nothing there is nothing like this. You know, so I don't know how many names for God there are in Islam. There's a lot, isn't there a hundred or so? Well, 90 and 99, and there's 1 that a camel knows. Only a camel.

That's the that's the that's the theory. Which camel? Well, they don't know which camel or no. No. Can't ask Yeah.

But father father is not 1 of them. And this is this is this is a wonderful thing, isn't it? The the intimacy with which we can know God. That he becomes our father. We can talk to him.

We are his children. He's invested in us. He loves us. He cares for us. He wants to hear us speak him.

He blesses us in Christ. That the words here, Abba Father, are words of tenderness, aren't they? Of a child? Calling out to the Father. And so, we don't relate to God as just a distant deity or 1 we have to summon and call down with our religious actions.

And and as Christians, we are no longer at war with him. You know, we're no longer his enemies. He has overcome us sin. And in Christ bought us into his household and just knowing God in this way is essential to being a disciple. Isn't it?

Yeah. And the delight of having having that father I mean, that that as you say, that abba father is is very very intimate. He's not talking about some, you know, seventies pop band. Mhmm. It's it it's dada.

It's daddy, it's the first words that kids use, the sort of stuff, you know, mama, dada. Saying, I really am. Mhmm. You really I am related to me in that way. Mhmm.

And it would be quite amazing if if this was the case, this would be amazing in and of itself that God has looked around for the best description he can find of how he wants to relate to and he sees the father and the young child and goes, wow. That's pretty close. Mhmm. But it's beyond that. It's better than that because he he designed that relationship.

In order to express that truth about himself. So when we look at a father holding their child lovingly -- Mhmm. -- god has designed that as a direct picture of what he really has been for. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's what we were saying in the in the sort of introductory to this series is that this this is the revelation. Mhmm. And, you know, even father son relationship or family relationship is an is the revelation to us. Mhmm. And that's why, you know, there are many satanic and evil things try to break up family.

Mhmm. Break up the idea of a father and a mother and a child and a son and a daughter, isn't it? But because this world is is is wickedly, you know, taken over if you like by Satan that's trying to break up this beautiful revelation. Yeah. It's an it's an assault on the way God images himself in family, isn't it?

And, yeah, that's really helpful. So let let's think about then, because 1 of the things we said in the introduction is what, you know, we wanna try to help people see what why this matters and what difference these doctrines make in the Christian life. So perhaps 1 each you could just tell us starting with u p. What what difference does it make to a Christian? Knowing they've been adopted by adopted my god.

Well, I remember when we adopted my son. He he had gone from, you know, diff to from Foster Home -- Yeah. Yep. -- from Foster Home. I mean, great people that just not belittling those Foster They were doing the foster homes doing a wonderfully important job in our culture and but they weren't adopting And and so he he got the impression that, you know, if he was a bit naughty, he'd be moved to another foster home.

If he was a bit naughty, he'd get moved to another foster home. And so I remember the first time I had to sort of tell him off properly after we adopted him. And I did tell him off, and and maybe too strongly, you know, sometimes us fathers are are not like our heavenly father. And he said to me, is that it then. Do I mean, it's I find this quite nice to say, actually.

Mhmm. Is that it then? Will he will will he have to move on? And I said, no. No.

You're my son. And you'll never have to move on because you're my your you you you really are my son. Mhmm. And because I'm your father, I I I need to discipline -- Mhmm. -- to make you more like the family.

That you've come into. Yeah. So this is it it provides wonderful comfort, doesn't it? Because, you know, if God has adopted us, Even though he has to discipline us, even though we fail, he is never going to eject us from the family. We're never gonna come home 1 day, and find that he's packed our bags and left them on the front drive.

You know, we are we are in the family, aren't we? And so no matter what we go through both in our own battles with sin and in suffering, God is for us and God is our God is our father. Ben, other things to add -- Yeah. -- how this always helps. I I think the church must look quite strange from the outside.

It looks a little bit like a club that you attend regularly and that you give money to, that you enjoy. It's sort of like a singing choir sort of thing. But, actually, if you were adopted into the family, you become brothers and sisters with other believers, which is an intentionally close sort of description for the relationship we now have with people. We're not just members of the same club. We're not even saint the supporters of same football team, like you, you know, go and sit in the away end together and you're all singing the same songs.

It's way more than that. And there's so much blessing in being brothers and sisters with people. It's a different level of relationship you have. People care about you as if you're family, they want to see you sort of grow in the family. So if someone started if someone in in your own if you if your own brother or sister in your own real family turned to you and said, oh, I'm starting to I feel like I don't belong in this family.

I feel like Actually, I wanna sort of be independent and sort of legally break free. That your brothers and sisters would get around you and say, what are you talking about? And, of course, you're a part of this family. You're a really valued member of this family. We love you.

Mhmm. And so being part of god's family is exactly that. And and suddenly, by no means of your own ability or goodness, you are surrounded by brothers and sisters who who love you. I think that's really good. And that that whole point is built on the very right assumption that we are adopted into a family, aren't we?

We're not just God doesn't just adopt us as individuals for us to have our own personal experiences of him. You know, we only learn what he is as father as being part of the family. And as you're saying there, when you I was taught you, I was thinking of, you know, when Paul is telling Timothy how he's to treat various people in the church. He says treat young, you know, treat treat younger women sisters in all purity, treat older men as far you know, fathers, and he's to relate to them and to think about family categories as he's relating to them. So that that becomes our model for interacting with 1 another, doesn't it?

The family? Yeah. Other things to any other things to say on that? Sorry. What was the question?

We're just thinking about sort of, you know, why this matters, why it's good to know this in the Christian architecture. In fact, you can call God father. Mhmm. So, I mean, you're not alone in the universe. You're you're not trying to find your own way in the universe.

You know, I've got to discover what life is about. You're in a family. You have God as a father. He's not just some theory or spiritual superpower that I tap into. He's the father.

And Jesus teaches us this, doesn't he? Mhmm. That because of what Christ has done, we can call God our father. And there's the hour. Mhmm.

It's not just my father. I mean, of course, he is my father, but it's our father who is in heaven. And so we're not alone in the universe. We can talk to our father who has plans to bring us home. Mhmm.

And so there's hope for home as well. This world is not our home. So don't settle we're looking to our father in heaven, and he's drawing us home. Mhmm. Have you ever used this?

I'm just thinking about because I know you've done years of evangelistic work and evangelistic talks. Do you do you find yourself using this doctrine in evangelism? If I can put it out. Well, I haven't used it that, but I mean, I often go with the shocking words in 1 sense that that that what are you are you alone in a universe. Are you a bastard?

Mhmm. I don't know whether that you can use that word. I mean, you know, what the the the point of a bastard is that they have no father. You don't know who your father is. Mhmm.

You're an illegitimate person. And that actually is how we're born into this world. Mhmm. And that's why we need to be adopted. So this is a wonderfully evangelistic thing that God is father.

Mhmm. And I wonder whether we got to talk more See, the word God -- Yes. -- it just doesn't really mean much, does it? It can mean anything to anyone. It's almost devoid of meaning the word God.

And I I think more and more, we ought to talk about the covenant name. Mhmm. So in the old testament, Yahweh, He's the named God that has done these things in history. Mhmm. In the new testament, it seems to me that the the covenant name is is is is his father.

He's my father. Yeah. Mhmm. I think that's right. And I think that that is 1 of the ways that we it's good to help people, isn't it?

Thinking about our home groups and church members. If if they're coming out of church backgrounds perhaps where they haven't been introduced to that language that they may just say God and lord and use very generic terms, but actually part of our discipleship for them is is helping them to enjoy the richness of the language that God gives us about himself, isn't it? To know him as father, son, and spirit, distinct persons with distinct roles, and to relate to him in that in that personal way, I think is really important. I I I remember a time that my son sort of went through. I don't know quite where he got it from.

I think maybe from those American films. Mhmm. Where he started to call me sir It might have been from school and stuff like that. And I had to say, don't call me that. I don't personally like that.

Don't don't call me, sir. Mhmm. I mean, a dad. Call me dad. Mhmm.

Because that that's a different relationship, isn't it? Mhmm. And now, of course, God is the lord. He is the king in king of kings, but he wants to be known as and Jesus teaches us that as father, abba father. I think just to come back to a point that you made earlier about Karl, I think the assurance that this gives us is Christians is so wonderful.

Isn't it? Because I can't remember who it was. I remember hearing somebody talking about knowing whether you're a Christian or not, how to know whether you're a and he used this illustration of, you know, of being of living living a day when he'd fat, you know, he'd failed to live for odd and you get to the end of the day and you're just conscious of the sins that have gone before you, the relationships you've messed up. And yet, as you put your head down on the pillow, you you still know that you're a child you know that you're a child of God. There's something I know it's sort of subjective, but there's something that you know you still belong to God and they're in the family of God.

And I think that's what Paul is describing here when he says it's the spirit's role to testify to the heart. There is a sort of God testifies in you that you belong to God and are a child of God. And that, you know, that's a wonderful Well, I that's for sure. -- where the whole sort of triunity of God comes in. Mhmm.

So it's the father's delight to be called father. Mhmm. And to bring that's his purpose is to bring us in. Mhmm. And then Christ, why why did he come where he came to bring us into the family by dying on across by dealing with the thing that separates us -- Mhmm.

-- from the family by making the legal transaction so that we're redeemed and brought into the family. That's what that verse is saying. And then that that I mean, it's interesting because we were talking about church and and in Hebrews too, it see it it it it there's this whole sort of delight of Christ. So for the joy set before him -- Yeah. -- talking about the cross.

He endured the cross for the for for the joy set before What is the joy set before him that he would bring many children -- Mhmm. -- to the father And again, you get that in in in that amazing psalm about the cross. Psalm 22. It's all about the horror of the cross and that all that crisis going through. And at the end of that song, there's this sort of glory as he's he's bringing the children and singing to God about the children that he's brought in.

Mhmm. And so it's a it's a it's a wonderful picture of of what church is, brothers and sisters. Mhmm. And then, sorry, No. No.

So you've got the father's purpose. You've got Christ's whole purpose in in doing it. And the spirit is there to keep convincing us through his spirit word, the bible, that we are his children, his his babies, his abba, we can keep calling in that again and again. Mhmm. And it's Satan that's saying, you're not his child.

Look what you did. You're not his child. Look what you did sort of thing, isn't it? You go back to a slave. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So from beginning to end and into eternity, this is something that we're gonna we're gonna be celebrating, isn't it? Perhaps as we wrap up just thinking partially, have you ever well, you will have met Christians or spoken to Christians who, for whom this father were has been a struggle, either because the earthly fathers that they've experienced have been so unlike the thing that we've been describing, and therefore it's become even the word is a bit of a stumbling block. And and if so, how have how have you tried or how would we try to pass to people through that?

Do you want to start, Ben? Yeah. I mean, personally, I used to pray when you're very little, you just pray dear Jesus, don't you? Dear Jesus, thank you for my food, amen. Mhmm.

And please keep me safe. And then you sort of pray, lords, and then God, father is is weird. It's not natural. You kind of have to be told you have to have someone to encourage you. What you should pray this way because this is how Jesus taught us to pray.

I personally have found I found it slightly odd at first, but have have enjoyed it more and more. And I think my understanding of my relationship with the father has has increased. As you praying's a funny thing, isn't it? Because sometimes you pray to Jesus. Sometimes you pray to God.

Sometimes you pray. But it it helps order your prayers, I think. To begin by praying to the father. And then it and then everything that you pray afterwards is always done in the context of this is your father you're going to ask. You know?

It Jesus says, which of you though your humans would give you know, wouldn't give a good gift to your children? How much more so your heavenly father. Mhmm. And so when you approach God as Father, you suddenly go, I'm I'm not just in the court of a king here. But actually, I mean, I've gone into my daddy's office, you know?

I've come into my father's presence. Mhmm. So personally, it's helped me be perhaps more intimate with our heavenly father, and I think understand him better and order my prayers better as well. Yes. I I mean, obviously, there are some wicked people -- Mhmm.

-- that don't fulfill the responsibilities of what what they are. You know, that the man that has sex with a woman just in order to have his own way and she gets pregnant and he walks out. That's not a father. Mhmm. That's the the the the abusive father, you know, or the drunk father or the, you know, the distant father or whatever, the workaholic father that's been there for his kids and so forth.

You know, the world is full of this. And they're all sort of abdicating responsibility. And we do have to be tender with people and show them that that what you've experienced is certainly not what God is. Mhmm. But most people know that.

Yep. And that's why they say he was an abusive father. And and they're they're comparing, you know, what is a good father, what is a bad father to at least this this projection of a first father. Yeah. And so we know a bad father.

Therefore, there must be a good father. Mhmm. If you wanna go down sort of plato roots, which I don't want to. But, you know, so So the point is they're not to jettison the word? No.

Because of a bad experience. But rather to have it, to let God redefine it for us in a Yeah. And so everything you've known about your bad father, God isn't. Mhmm. And So and people do need teaching and and and tender over that.

And and as as Ben said, sometimes it's it will be hard for someone that's been abused by their father to call them father. Mhmm. But they need to keep looking at the scriptures. Mhmm. We need to not define it by our experience.

Mhmm. That's why we need revelation. That's why we need doctrine. That's why we need to be washed. By the the revelation of God of who he is -- Mhmm.

-- that washes out our false ideas. Mhmm. Yeah. Well, thank you. I think there's loads of good ground covered there and what a wonderful what a wonderful doctrine.

What a wonderful thing to celebrate that we can know God as father how that affects how we relate to him, you know, how we pray every aspect. There's really no area of the Christian life untouched by this, is there. So thank you for joining us.