Everlasting Father

During the Advent season, we are working our way through the four names or titles attributed to Jesus in Isaiah 9:6 –

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Each of these names reveals something beautiful about the character and mission of Jesus. This morning, we will focus on the title “Everlasting Father.”

At first glance, it might seem unusual to refer to Jesus as “Father,” since He is technically the Son of God. But Isaiah is not concerned here about roles within the Trinity. Instead, this title speaks to the eternal, fatherly love that Jesus embodies. He brought the love of the Father to us.

Jesus Himself describes this relationship best in John 14. To encourage his disciples, that they are known and loved by the Father, Jesus tells them – “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

Jesus says this because it is true, in some mysterious way. The Father and the Son are in perfect union with each other. But He also says it because He wants his disciples to know and experience the love of the Father for themselves – through Him!

There’s an old classic book called The Railway Children. In the story, a family is broken up when the father is wrongfully accused of a crime and sent to prison. The mother and her three children are forced to move to a small house by a railroad office.

The owner of the railroad is an elderly man. He meets the family and feels compelled to start providing for some of their needs. But the man also knows he can never take the place of their missing father. Eventually, he discovers that the father was wrongfully imprisoned, and he uses his money and influence to correct the injustice.

At the end of the story, the children see their father stepping off a train – free and home, their family restored by the kindness of a stranger who made it possible.

Likewise, Jesus is our Advocate, seeking to restore our relationship with His Father. He knows that we are floundering, desperately in need of the love, safety, and care that we were created to experience. He knows that we seek it in all the wrong ways. He was moved by compassion to do something about it.

The difference of course is that WE caused that rift, and He had to suffer injustice to repair it. The only way we can experience the love of the Father is through the cross of Jesus.

Why would He do that? We know it was grace, that we don’t deserve such sacrifice. But what it tells us is that the love of the Father must be so amazing, so rich, that Jesus was willing to die for us to experience it.

In fact, in John 14 – just before Jesus says He is one with the Father, he says, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms, and I’m going to prepare a place for you.”

I’m bringing you home with me! You’re going to meet my Father and you’re going to live with us forever. What does that sound like? It sounds like adoption – because that’s exactly what it is and how the Bible describes it.

To all who believe in the name of Jesus, it is granted the right to become children of God. He has chosen us for adoption in himself as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ.

And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

I want to pause here and say, I know that for some the word “father” carries a lot of emotional weight. Some think of a loving, steadfast presence, someone who protected, provided, and guided them. Others may feel pain, loss, or even anger when they hear the word, due to broken relationships or unmet expectations.

But God is a perfect Father, even if you struggle to imagine what that could mean. He doesn’t abandon us when life gets hard. His care isn’t fleeting or conditional—it’s eternal and unchanging. Psalm 91:4 says:

He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

Even in your most difficult moments, God sees you, He knows your fears, and He is committed to protecting you as only an Everlasting Father can.

Unlike human relationships, which can waver or fade, His love endures forever. His love is not bound by time, nor is it diminished by our failures or circumstances.

Throughout the Gospels, we see the tender care of Jesus for people. He embodied this fatherly love time and time again, moving toward people in need, offering compassion, healing, and restoration. His care wasn’t superficial or temporary; it reflected the unchanging heart of God.

But Jesus also called people to repentance. He takes us the way He finds us, but He doesn’t leave us that way… and He doesn’t take us home that way. He called us to leave the world behind and follow Him home.

Practically speaking, what that means is that it’s not enough to intellectually acknowledge that God is love. It’s meant to be embraced. HE is meant to be embraced. We are meant to find our hope and security in His embrace.

1 Peter 5 invites us to cast all our anxieties upon Him, because He cares for us. James 4 invites us to draw near to God, promising that He will draw near to us.

This relationship with our Everlasting Father – it won’t be perfect on our end until Jesus returns or until we die and go to be with Him. We may struggle to feel it… to believe it… to embrace it.

But for His part, it is perfect and unchanging whether we feel it and believe it or not. And that’s because His love for us is not anchored in our efforts to love Him. His love for us is anchored in God’s own character and nature, demonstrated by the redemptive work of Christ on our behalf.

If perfect love exists in this world, it would have to be the kind of love that persists through even the worst offenses.

In 1974, 10-year-old Chris Carrier was abducted by a man who held a grudge against Chris’s family. The man drove him to a remote place, stabbed him, shot him, and left him for dead. Miraculously, Chris survived but was blinded in one eye. The man who did this was never caught, and Chris’s life moved on.

Years later, when Chris was an adult, he received a phone call from a hospice nurse. The nurse explained that a man named David McAllister was dying and had confessed to being Chris’s attacker.

Instead of seeking revenge, Chris chose to visit McAllister in the hospice. When Chris met the frail and blind McAllister, he saw a broken man who was nearing the end of his life. Over time, Chris not only forgave McAllister but also began visiting him regularly. Chris talked with him, brought him meals, and shared the gospel with him.

McAllister, who had no family or friends to care for him, was shown compassion by the very person he had tried to kill decades earlier. Before McAllister died, he expressed sorrow for his actions and placed his faith in Christ.

That’s the kind of love we’re talking about… a love that honestly makes no sense to us. We expect fathers to love their children. We don’t expect people to love their worst enemies.

But that’s God of the Bible kind of love, because we deserve love and forgiveness as much as old Mr. McAllister did – which is to say not at all. And nothing we do right is ever going to change that.

But one question remains:

How do you know you have the love of the Everlasting Father in your life? It’s the same as it is with any relationship. The person who loves you starts to rub off on you. His love starts to change you.

It starts with placing your faith in Jesus – today and every day, because He is our connection to the Father. And over time, we begin to recognize His love spilling over into our lives. We start to recognize His fatherly care and provision in our lives.

We start to see His character developing in our life – things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And when we fail, which we will, the humility to confess it and repent.

We start to develop peace and contentment, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. The promise of eternal life with Him becomes an anchor.

Most importantly, a deeper personal relationship with God begins to grow. The evidence of it is worship – not just on a Sunday morning in this room, but an every moment kind of worship. We start to live every moment before the loving face of our Father.

I imagine, in a much more perfect way, that God looks at me the way I look at my children when I feel proud of them. My heart literally fills with joy and I’m sure that is reflected in the way I look at them. And I want them to know it and feel it.

How much more amazing must it be to know and feel the love of a perfect Father? Especially knowing I could never do anything to earn it?

But this is where some of us go in the wrong direction. We know we don’t deserve it, but sometimes we get stuck there and it prevents us from really experiencing God’s love for us.

And I want you to know, Jesus really, really wants you to experience His love. My favorite example of Jesus demonstrating the love and concern of a father is found in John 2. In fact, it was His very first miracle. Jesus attended a wedding feast and provided 180 gallons of wine when the party ran out – that’s almost 1,000 bottles!

In our culture, it’s the father of the bride who pays for the wedding. But at that time, it was the groom’s father who was responsible for the feast and the groom’s father failed. But Jesus showed up and proclaimed Himself the life of the party!

That was the first impression Jesus made in His ministry. It must be one of the first things God wants us to know about who He is.

He’s the father who shows up. He’s the father who loves you. He doesn’t want you to be miserable and embarrassed by life. Not anymore.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.