My Father & Your Father, My God & Your God.

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“Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” – __ John 20:17

The above Bible verse is one of my favorites among others. Because it is so significant and precious. Let’s read the context of the verse for you to understand and appreciate it more.

Read with me.

JOHN 20: 1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” (Emphasis added: He called her by her name).

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). (Emphasis added: She knows his voice.)

¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

I love this bible passage. So significant and assuring. First, I don’t know if you noticed, but Jesus called Mary by name and the scripture tells us that the sheep knows the voice of the shepherd and that of a stranger he will not follow (John 10: 4-5 and John 10: 27-28). This does not particularly have anything to do with what we are talking about today but I had to point it out. She saw him but because his appearance was different, she didn’t recognize him. But when he called her once, by her name, she recognized him immediately as Jesus, She said, “Rabboni” meaning teacher. She had previously spent time with Jesus, he had called her by her name. They had exchanged interactions and even though he looked different, the voice and the way he called her name. She didn’t fail to recognize him.

P.s. You want to hear and recognize God’s voice, spend time with him. Learn his voice.

With this excitement and recognition, Mary reached for a hug or hold of Jesus, but he said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

The inclusion in that statement makes my heart glad. Jesus often referred to God as his father. That was not new. But this time, he said my father and YOUR father, my God, and YOUR God. I don’t know about you but I am glad that I am a child of God.

He is my father and my God.

He is your father and your God.

Before Jesus laid down his life for us on the cross and was buried and rose again, we had no real relationship we God. In fact, many were of their father the devil. We could not have a father-child relationship with God because Jesus is the only way to the father. But with his sacrifice for us, we now have a way to the Father.

All who believe and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, NOW have the right to become children of God. We have been chosen and adopted into the family of God.

John 1:12

To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

 

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

It is for freedom that you have been saved. You are a child, not a slave. You have been saved to freely serve and worship your God and Father.

When Mary (the mother of Jesus) was pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth was also pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah could not speak because he doubted God. But at the birth of his son, John, he could finally speak and the first thing he did was praise God and prophesied about Jesus.

It is a very beautiful prophecy.

Read below

LUKE 1: 67-75.

⁶⁷ His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

⁶⁸ “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David
⁷⁰ (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
⁷¹ salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us—
⁷² to show mercy to our ancestors
    and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³     the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
⁷⁴ to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
    and to enable us to serve him without fear
⁷⁵     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Darling, again, it is for freedom that you have been saved to serve your father and God without fear. He is your father.

ROMANS 8: 14-17

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by the Holy Spirit, we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Hebrews 8:10

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

You are a child of God.

He is your father and your God.

On this special Christmas day, remember the gift of God, that is Jesus.

Jesus Christ, the horn of our salvation.

Through whom we have the right to call the one who sits in heaven and in us, my Father (Abba) and my God.

Halleluyah!

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In the next part, we will talk about baptism. It is important for my salvation or not?

God bless.

You are Eternally Loved.