Christ and the Father

John 14:7-15

Have you ever asked God to show you a sign?

To reveal Himself to you in some way to help your faith and to remove your doubt?

I think most Christians have asked for that at one time or another. We know we walk by faith and not by sight but we believe somehow if we were given a sign it would help us to believe.

However, the bible teaches us the opposite is true. It teaches us that faith requires spiritual perception and not a physical sign.

We see that in this passage. John 14:8 “Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”” Philip is asking for the same thing we have all asked for, Lord show me some proof, so I can believe.

But the truth is it is no matter what Jesus had shown Philip it wouldn’t have been enough because he needed to believe with his heart, not with his eyes. Look at Vs. 9, Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? God in the flesh spent three and a half years standing right in front of Philip and he couldn’t see Him. He wanted to see more.

The truth is you and I could not know God unless He makes Himself known to us. You and I could not see God unless He shows Himself to us. God is completely unknowable and unvisible to us unless He takes the initiative and makes Himself visible and knowable. And the only time He has chosen to that is in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the final and fullest revelation of God to the world.

In the OT God showed up as a Theophany to Abraham and to Jacob wrestled with some form of God but it is unclear. We are not sure this individual is called the angel of the Lord.

In Exodus 33 Moses asked to see the glory of God and God told Moses no man can see me and live. So, God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and as God passed by He allowed Moses to see His glory from behind, but we have no idea what that looked like.

God revealed Himself to Elijah in 1Kings 19:11. Elijah was running from Jezebel. God told Elijah to go stand on the mountain and God passed by. First, there was a great wind that shook the mountain, but God was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake that caused the mountain to break, but God was not in the earthquake. Finally, there was a still small voice and God spoke to Elijah.

The point is in Jesus Christ God chose to reveal Himself to us fully and completely for the purpose of saving us. He has given us Jesus so we can know Him and see Him, and so we can know and worship God.

And that is what we learn from this passage. The unity of Christ and the Father is so we can know, see, and believe in God.

John 14:7-14

John 14:7–15 NASB95

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Background and context

This is called the upper room discourse because Jesus and His disciples have gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem to celebrate His final Passover with them. This is also known as the last supper.

A lot has happened on this night. Jesus began by teaching the disciples what it means to be a servant by washing their feet. He was giving them an example to follow. He taught them serving others is how you will serve God.

During the last supper He announced one of them would betray Him, and then He sent Judas away, out into the night to do what Satan had put in his heart to do.

Next, He announced He would be going away and predicted Peter would deny Him three times by the morning, and then He told them it was time for Him be glorified.

All of this was overwhelming to the disciples and created a lot of fear and doubt in them. They had no idea what was going to happen next. Only Jesus knew that in just a short time He would be arrested, put on trial, and in the morning crucified!!

So, Jesus begins to try and comfort their fears. He wants them to understand that everything He is doing is a part of God’s plan for the world. In fact, He wants them to understand that He and the Father are one.

This is important because the unity of Christ and the Father teaches us we can trust Jesus as God based on His character. We can have faith in Him as the one true God of the bible. The God of the Old Testament, that promised to send the Messiah to reconcile man to God and covenant with us.

He is our God and we are His people, and we can have faith that Jesus is the one God has sent for the purpose of saving us!!

I. The Proclamation of the unity of Christ and the Father Vs. 7-10

Vs. 7 begins with one of the most bold statements of Jesus in the bible. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

What a statement for all those people out there they say Jesus never claimed to be God!!

This statement is actually a rebuke of the disciples. All though it is a mild one. The disciples should have known Jesus, they had spent the last three and a half years with Him. Yet they were still not able to comprehend who Jesus was.

We can’t blame them though because even today, on this side of the cross, scholars struggle to understand the incarnation of Christ. (The hypostatic union )Christ was both fully God and fully man. He had to be to be the perfect sacrifice for man.

He had to be fully man to be man’s representative before God, and die for the sin of the world, to satisfy the wrath of God, to endure the punishment we deserved, and He had to be fully God to live the perfect, sinless life that we could not live, and fulfill all God’s commands.

But in this passage, Jesus gives us another reason for the incarnation. He tells us that He came to reveal God to the world. Look at what He says, “if you see Him, you see the Father.” He is saying you physical see and know God by seeing and knowing Him.

What is important for us to understand is; that the disciples knew Jesus well enough to leave their families, homes, and friends to follow Him yet they still didn’t know Him completely.

Today, we have the full revelation of who Christ is. We know He is The Son of God. The second member of the Trinity who came into the world to bring us the forgiveness and grace of God, and even though we don’t fully comprehend the incarnation we have enough information to trust and believe.

This statement from Jesus is also a Promise. He says, Vs. 7 “From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” That phrase “from now on” is speaking of how the events that are getting ready to take place are going to change everything!!

The death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit were going to fill the disciples with a deeper understanding of all these things.

We know this is a promise for the future because of Philip’s response in Vs. 8. Philip obviously believed if the disciples had a little more proof it would help them overcome the fears they were facing.

Notice Jesus response in John 14:9 “Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

You can hear the exhaustion in Jesus voice. How is it possible that Philip needed to see more. And the fact that Philip says, show us the Father, tells us he was speaking for all the disciples.

They had seen the water changed into wine. They had seen Jesus feed thousands with a few fish and loaf of bread. The sick have been healed, the Lepers have been cleansed and the dead have been raised, what else could He possibly do to show the power of God was at work with in Him?

This is the very heart of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal God to us. The life He lived and the lessons He taught, teach us what God is like and what He wants us to know and understand.

This is so important John taught us this at the very beginning of his gospel. John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

Ill. give you an example. When people see me they see my dad. My dad passed away in 2003 and at his funeral a man from Georgia I had never met before, came up to me and said, “He lives!!” I knew exactly what He was talking about because not only do we look identical, but we have the same mannerisms and expressions. I am a mirror image of my father.

In the same way Jesus is the exact representation of His Father in heaven, and when we reflect on what Jesus is teaching us we see and know the heart of God!!

II. The Proof of the unity of Christ and the Father Vs. 10-11

John 14:10–11 ““Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”

Here Jesus points to three things that should reassure them He is the embodiment of God.

Is His Character. “Do you not believe Me?” In other words, have you not seen the presence of God with in me. The mind and the Spirit of God by my conduct and My Life. The point Jesus was making is that the presence of God was not only with Him but was in Him. The person, the nature, and the being of God could be seen i the character, love, and care of Christ. He was revealing exactly what God is to the world.

The words of Jesus are proof that He is the embodiment of God. Vs. 10 “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative,” His words were the very words of God that He wanted to say to the world. When Jesus spoke It was the Father speaking. We can look at His words and His teaching and know He was who He claimed to be.

Jesus taught truth. He taught us that we should forgive one another just as in Christ God has forgiven us. He taught is that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. He taught us we should treat others the way we want to be treated. There was the truth of God in everything He said and He himself said He came from the Father as the very Son of God.

Compare what Jesus taught with Islam and decide what is true and what is a lie. Islam teaches you should kill the infidel. The infidel is anyone who disagrees with you. But Jesus taught we are to pray for our enemies. Islam teaches there are 72 virgins waiting for the Muslim martyrs in heaven. Jesus teaches there is a crown of righteousness for the faithful servant. Tell me who speaks the truth for God!

3. The works of Christ are proof He was the embodiment of God. Vs. 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”

The works of Christ were greater than all the prophets combined and point to the fact that He was on a mission from God. Even the Pharisees recognized the works He was doing set Him apart from anything they had ever seen.

However, instead of worshipping Him as God they wanted to destroy Him. John 11:47–48 “Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. Notice that even His enemies admit His works!

In vs. 11 Jesus is issuing a challenge here not only to the disciples but for us today, to believe. If you struggle to believe in the person of Jesus as the very Son of God, believe in the record of the works He did. He was supernatural and they knew it.

Even the non-Christian historians wrote about how special He was. Josephus and Eusebius record the fact that this man Jesus lived and walked among them and He did extraordinary things that made people believe He was God.

The words of Luke tell us what they believed at the time. Acts 2:22 ““Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—”

Remember the miracles and works of Jesus were done so we would believe He is the Son of God.

III. The Provision of the unity of Christ and the Father Vs. 12-14

Jesus would continue to prove He was from the Father by empowering believers to continue His mission in the world. The explosion of Christianity throughout the world speaks of God’s work in Christ.

John 14:12–13 ““Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

How do we do greater works than Jesus did now that He is gone? We obviously are not capable of healing the sick or raising the dead.

The greater works we can do is to point people to Jesus who offers forgiveness and grace. We can share the gospel of eternal life with the world. When Jesus was here His impact was incredible but it was limited to those He came into contact with as a man. Now His Spirit lives within us and millions of Christians can testify to the greatness of God all over the world.

What do we learn from this passage.

The unity of Christ and the Father teach us we can trust Jesus as God based on His character and the work of God in Him!

There will never be enough physical evidence for you to believe. We need to see with our spirit. We need to recognize the impact Jesus has on our life and the life of those around us.

We need to trust in the truth of the gospel He taught. There has never been a clearer teaching of truth than the words of Christ because they are the very words of GOd.

They are the expression of what God wanted to say to the world. John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This is a truth that God wanted us to know and He used Christ to teach us.

We have the power of the works of Christ as a testimony to us. The miracles He performed were meant to prove to us He was God. No one including, the prophets had ever done the works Jesus did. Even His enemies testified of His works.

And finally the works that continue today tell us He is God. The lives that have been changed the hearts that have been saved all speak of the supernatural authority of Christ.