Worship the Father and Honor the Son

May 15, 2026

I have been pondering the way Jesus spoke of the Father, and the way He taught His followers to worship.

There is something really lovely and clear in the scriptures when they are gathered together. Jesus did not come to draw worship away from the Father. He came to reveal the Father, to do the Father's will, to speak the Father's words, and to bring the children of God back to Him.

This does not lessen the Son. It honors Him properly.

Jesus said that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He said, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." He said that no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. He also said that what He did was so "that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

So the pattern Jesus gave is clear to me:

That is a wonderful order.

The Messiah never acted as one trying to replace the Father. He said He came to do the will of Him who sent Him and to finish His work. He said the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do. He said He sought not His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him. He said He came down from heaven not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.

This is so important.

If we say we follow Jesus, then we should look carefully at what Jesus did. He worshiped the Father. He prayed to the Father. He submitted His will to the Father. He spoke what the Father gave Him to speak. He did what pleased the Father.

Even in the garden, when the weight of what was before Him was terrible, He said, "Not as I will, but as thou wilt."

That is the pattern of the Son.

Then when Jesus taught His disciples how to worship, He pointed them to the Father. He said the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. He taught them to pray, "Our Father which art in heaven." He taught them to seek the Father's will, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." He said the one who enters the kingdom is the one who does the will of His Father which is in heaven.

After His resurrection He said, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."

That statement is so plain and so beautiful.

The Father was His God, and the Father is our God.

So when I honor the Son, I honor Him as the One the Father sent. When I believe in the Son, I believe Him when He points me to the Father. When I come through the Son, I come to the Father. When I receive the Son rightly, the Father is glorified.

This is not confusion. This is order.

The Messiah is central because through Him we return to the Father. He is the Lamb, the Teacher, the Redeemer, the King, and the Son who shows us what complete obedience to the Father looks like.

To follow Jesus is to do as Jesus did.