John 14:8-17

The Father is in me.

Throughout the book of John we have seen miracles that Jesus has done. Jesus teaching his disciples on how to carry out his ministry with also alluding to the idea that he will not be with them much longer, because he will soon have to go to the cross to pay for the sin of thw world.

In the beginning of this chapter we see Jesus explain that the only way to the father is through him because Jesus is the perfect representation of God,

The idea of God wanting his people to know him is not new to the NT we see verses like Jer 24 7

Jeremiah 24:7 ESV

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

God’s desire has always been for his people to know him

Philip asks for some physical appearance of God In the OT We see it with Moses and he was given a limited version where he tells him to stand in a cleft on the rock and he says while I pass by you Ill put my hand over the cleft because if you were to see all my glory you would die. So he says after I pass you can see my back

We also see in chapter 6 of Isaiah he gets a limited vision of the Lord

Jesus is the greater fulfillment of these OT events, so he says if you have seen me you have seen the father a clear claim to be God, which points us too the trinity. Jesus and the father are one

So Philip asking to see this he has not understood the reason Jesus coming to earth which was to reveal the father. So you can almost picture why Jesus responds with sort of gentle rebuke of like Philip get the hint knucklehead .

The trinity is a tricky concept to understand 1 God with three distinct persons being the Father the son and the HS

Whiteboard presentation ?

V12 This verse is saying they will be able to do greater works because totality of Jesus ministry will be finished when he goes to the cross so they will be able to spread the gospel and they will reach far more people than Jesus did in his short 3 year ministry, in Peters first sermon found in acts 3000 people are saved through it.

Also they will be empowered by HS which will now be dwelling within people, so the ability to share the faith will be much easier with HS

Its not meaning they will do greater miracles than Jesus in the sense of healing the sick, walking on water and raising the dead, while the apostles had the abilty for a short time it was still not greater than Jesus.

V13-14 Asking in Jesus is basically like whatever you ask for let it be your will father, So to ask in his name is to pray according to fathers will not so much like Lord let us win this soccer game or basketball game and then it will be done, because that's praying your will not his

But praying Lord let this be an opportunity to show your character through this game, like keeping a good moral, not trash talking others and staying positive so that you would get the glory that would be more aligned with his will.

So do you guys find yourself doing the works of Christ because the reality is if you call yourself a christian there should be a desire to.

We can pray prayers like Lord send me someone to share my faith with and help them grow in you

Or the person you know struggling with deppression or always fighting pray for them go out of your way to be there for them.

V15 The commandments mostly in view here would be to love those around you, trust Jesus and believe that he is in the father and the father is in him. Our actions demonstrate what we truly care about. So Jesus says if you love him you will obey him.

The bible says from the abundance of the heart your mouth speaks in other words whatever is going on in your mind is what you say, so if your angry, you will say harsh things, if your not following God it will be shown in the way you talk and act, but when your Striving after God you will obey him.