On Father’s Day at Ocean City Tabernacle, Rev. Chris Durkin asked a deceptively simple question: What is the Bible’s greatest subject? His answer led to a rich and tender message about God’s nature, Jesus’ relationship with the Father, and what it means to live as a beloved child of God.
Speaker: Rev. Chris Durkin
Message: “Jesus’ View of the Father”
Date: Sunday, June 21, 2026—Father’s Day
Venue: Ocean City Tabernacle, 550 Wesley Ave., Ocean City, NJ
A Father’s Day Service to Remember
Father’s Day mornings at Ocean City Tabernacle carry a particular weight. Family, summer, faith, and a day set apart to honor those who have shaped us create an atmosphere all their own. On June 21, the service felt carefully woven together from the opening song to the final prayer.
Worship was led by John Taylor, a former Director of Music at the Tabernacle with more than 35 years of history in the space. He arrived after a difficult morning of travel carrying an even more remarkable story: a testimony about December 29 of the previous year that brought the room to a standstill.
Then Pastor Chris Durkin of Colts Neck Community Church delivered a theologically rich and pastorally warm Father’s Day message. He asked what the Bible is ultimately about and spent the rest of the hour showing why the answer is more wonderful than many of us realize.
Who Is Rev. Chris Durkin?
Rev. Chris Durkin is Senior Pastor of Colts Neck Community Church in Colts Neck, New Jersey. He has helped the congregation grow from a small gathering into a thriving church of approximately 800 people.
A South Jersey native raised in Galloway Township, Pastor Chris knows the region well. His wife, Melissa, is from Egg Harbor Township, and the couple brought their six children—from two-year-old Charlie to 17-year-old Ethan—to worship alongside him at the Tabernacle.
He preaches with a combination of theological depth and pastoral warmth that makes doctrine feel like good news. On Father’s Day, with a message centered on how Jesus reveals the heart of our heavenly Father, that was exactly what the room needed.
Before the Message: John Taylor’s Testimony
Between hymns and praise songs, John Taylor shared a story he felt called to tell. On December 29, while sitting at his computer writing a book, he experienced the most severe chest pain he had ever felt. His daughter urged him to go to the hospital. Tests confirmed that he was having a massive heart attack.
Four major arteries were at least 95 percent blocked, and the right side of his heart had stopped working. He was rushed into surgery. Halfway through the procedure, the surgeon received a message to stop because John’s heart was not strong enough. The surgeon—whom John later learned was a Christian—continued.
After six and a half hours, the surgical team told the family that John was unlikely to survive. His father-in-law was allowed into the room to pray. Seeing John on life support, he initially thought he was already gone. He touched John’s arm, felt warmth, and prayed. John opened his eyes.
John’s wife told the hospital that he believed in the power of God and prayer. When he was taken off life support, he breathed on his own. Later that afternoon, his surgeon found him walking in the hallway and said he had never seen anyone in John’s condition recover that way.
“He’s a good, good Father. I think it’s important to share that on Father’s Day.”
What Is the Bible’s Greatest Subject?
Pastor Chris opened with a question he called simple but profound: What is the Bible about? What is its grandest subject—its beating center?
He offered several true answers. The Bible is inspired wisdom and a moral compass. It is the story of how God saves sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But he pressed further.
“I believe the Bible’s grandest subject is God Himself. Everything God does is the overflow of who He is. Everything God has said, spoken, and promised is the overflow of who He is.”
He turned to Genesis 1:1. The opening verse is not first about humanity, salvation, purpose, or meaning. “In the beginning, God.” Everything begins with the Creator.
“Your life is not about you. That’s the best news we ever heard. In the beginning, not you—but Him. In the beginning, God.”
Before God Was Creator, He Was Father
From Genesis 1:1, Pastor Chris moved to Genesis 1:26: “Let us make mankind in our image.” He drew attention to the plurality in the voice of the one God. Christians worship one God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—a triune God who has existed in loving relationship from eternity past.
This, he said, helps explain the universal human longing for something better: better health, relationships, families, communities, and even a better version of ourselves. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has set eternity in the human heart. That longing is not merely a flaw; it is a fingerprint.
God did not need to create humanity to find someone to love. Love already existed eternally among the Father, Son, and Spirit.
“Before God was even Creator, He was Father.”
That is why the longing for a perfect father is more than sentimental. It is theological—woven into the image of God stamped on every human soul.
Jesus’ First Recorded Words Were About His Father
No teacher in history spoke about God as Father more than Jesus. Pastor Chris traced that theme through the Gospels, beginning with Jesus’ first recorded words.
After Mary and Joseph found the young Jesus in the temple, He asked, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” His first recorded words were about His Father.
At Jesus’ baptism, the three persons of the Trinity appeared together: the Son in the Jordan, the Spirit descending like a dove, and the Father declaring from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Before any miracle, public sermon, or the cross, the Father declared His delight in the Son.
Jesus taught about the Father repeatedly in the Sermon on the Mount. His most famous prayer begins with “Our Father.” His beloved parable of the prodigal son is ultimately a story about a father, two sons, and what happens when the wandering child comes home.
“With all the names and titles given to God in Scripture—Rock, Refuge, Redeemer, King of Glory, Most High God—Jesus described God most as a Father. We should marvel at that.”
The Miracles Always Have a Message
Turning to John 5:19–24, Pastor Chris explored what Jesus says about His relationship with the Father. The Son does only what He sees the Father doing. Everything Jesus did perfectly reflected the Father’s character.
The miracles were never displays without meaning. When Jesus healed the sick, He revealed the Father as healer. When He multiplied loaves and fish, He showed God as provider. When He cast out demons, He demonstrated God’s authority over evil. When He raised the dead, He revealed God as the author of life.
The miracles, covenants, kings, laws, prophets, priests, apostles, Pentecost, and the filling of the Holy Spirit all point toward reconciliation with God the Father and life with Him forever.
“If you want to know who God is, read His Word. His Word points to His Son. In knowing God’s Son, you know the Father. Jesus Christ is the visible image of our invisible God.”
When Was the Last Time You Marveled?
John 5:20 says the Father will show the Son greater works “so that you may marvel.” Not merely so that people will be informed or become more moral, but so that they will marvel.
Pastor Chris offered a spiritual inventory question: When was the last time you were amazed by the gospel, by the love of your heavenly Father, or by the truth that God gave His Son and Spirit so you could be forgiven and made new?
He quoted theologian J. I. Packer: “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child.” If being called a child of God no longer moves us, something important may be missing.
“Many Christians who say ‘Our Father’ on Sunday act like orphans Monday through Saturday. We forget on a daily basis that we have a Father in heaven who loves us, who is with us, and who will provide and protect.”
A Vision of Home in Revelation 21
Pastor Chris closed with Revelation 21 and its vision of a new heaven and new earth. God will dwell with His people, wipe away every tear, and bring an end to death, mourning, crying, and pain.
He held that image before the congregation not as distant consolation, but as the destination toward which Scripture points. Everything God has done makes it possible for people to be reconciled to the Father through Christ and finally come home.
“There is nothing, Christians, that you are facing—no trial, hardship, or difficulty—that a good resurrection cannot fix.”
A Closing Word—and a Room That Responded
John Taylor returned for one final song. Tom Sherf sent the congregation into the Father’s Day afternoon with a fitting benediction: proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, nurture the next generation, and serve your community, family, and church.
The service honored earthly fathers while pointing fathers and children alike toward the heavenly Father. Tom acknowledged that theme in his opening remarks when he described his stepfather—a man who cared not only about who Tom became, but also about his understanding of Christ and his daily spiritual walk.
That was the portrait the whole morning painted: a Father who pursues, provides, and does not abandon—and who will one day wipe every tear from every eye.
Watch the Full Service
Watch Rev. Chris Durkin’s complete message, “Jesus’ View of the Father,” from Ocean City Tabernacle. Share it with a father, a prodigal, or anyone who has found it difficult to believe that God could be this good.
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550 Wesley Ave., Ocean City, NJ 08226
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