See, Know and Go to the Father through Jesus

It is my sincere hope that if you have heard about Jesus, or even spent many years in churches but have never really put your trust in him you will be enabled to do that this morning. If you are a follower and believer, I hope this time will encourage you and galvanize you for what is to come!

Let’s pray as we prepare our hearts and minds to hear God speak to us through His word this morning:

<PRAY>

Usually you need to be able to meet them, know them personally.

I have to start on a bit of a sedated note. We will start sad, but there’s a happy ending I promise! We have to start, like the bible reading does, by considering loosing someone very dear to us.

I’m certain that all of us here have lost people very close to us, friends, family members, spouses.... I’m sure for some of you it seems like a never ending list of people in your life who are passing beyond the veil of death as the years go by.

We know what it is like to be separated from those we love. We feel the disconnect where we cannot see them, hold them or speak to them face to face. It is devastating to be left behind by those we love.

You know, there are people that I know OF but don’t know them personally, I don’t have a bond with them. I know OF Leonardo da Vinci. I can know stuff about him, and I can go visit the Louvre and experience something of the man by seeing his artwork. But, I cannot see and know Leonardo himself. While I can experience something OF him, I cannot go meet him. It’s beyond my human capabilities to be able to SEE, KNOW and GO to Leonardo the long dead artist.

You know, we have a similar problem when it comes to God. As a mere man, I cannot SEE, KNOW or GO to God. Yet I do want to see Him, Know Him and Go to Him. Our heavenly Father is the greatest of all beings, he is love, he is mercy, he is kindness, he is the very embodiment of goodness and justice. He is our peace and our blessing, and to worship him in his perfection of beauty is the greatest thing a human could ever hope for.

Yet if we are Christians, there is some hope! There is hope that we might one day see them and be joined to them. We may yet embrace them with joy!

Though in case of God I’m not merely constrained by the boundary of time as we are with Leodardo da Vinci, rather I’m constrained by my “human-ness” that makes it impossible to SEE, KNOW and GO to our Father. There are things incompatible about yours and my nature that divide us from God, that fundamentally separate us from God. For instance:

God is invisible, we’re visible

But that’s not our reality yet. At the moment we live in the ups and downs of this present life. Separated.

That’s the prospect that Jesus disciples are facing. Jesus is helping his disciples come to grips with the fact that he is leaving them. But it will not be a permanent separation.

He is not going to leave them alone forever,

God is unchangeable, we’re easily manipulated

He’s not going to abandon them,

He’s not going to give them up,

Instead Jesus is going to complete his mission to bring his people to Himself.

God is most holy, we’re impure

God is sinless, we’re sinners

It’s good that he goes away so that he can finish the work. It means that not only will The disciples be able to be reunited with Jesus, but they will be united with God the Father himself!

If we’re so fundamentally different from God, can we ever expect to know God personally? How can we see the invisible? How can we go to the Spirit?

God is our Heavenly Father; he created us and sustains us. He protects us and guides us. He will judge us and reward us. He is over us, and has concern for us, yet how can we ever know a Father so different from us?

They will get the whole package, all of God, in his blessedness, beauty and perfection.

Can the pot ever SEE the Potter?

Can the creature ever KNOW the Creator?

Can the art ever GO to the Artist?

Imagine that! That people might be able to SEE, KNOW and GO to God the Father, to live with him!

Imagine that! That we might be able to SEE, KNOW and GO to God the Father, to live with him!

No more relational separation. No more shame. No more pain.

For the Christian, being with the Father means eternal blessed joy.

Jesus lays out the picture of this in our passage today.

It’s a comforting and encouraging passage that shows us how to see, know and go to the Father! Let’s look at the text of the passage in three sections.

A Place Prepared for Us (v1-3)

This story of Jesus and his disciples is set in a tense scene. It’s the Last Supper that Jesus will share with his disciples. It’s been a weird evening already, with Jesus washing their feet, and then talking about leaving, as if he were going on a journey without them. The disciples were confused, especially when Jesus started to make accusations about a traitor in their midst. Judas had run off on some unknown business, and then Jesus said some very hard words to Peter by predicting that he wouldn’t stick around when times got tough.

Jesus speaks to comfort his followers. He says in v1: “Let not your hearts be troubled” ( ESV). He speaks to assure them that everything is in hand, and that he goes to Prepare a Place. He continues: “Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” ().

Jesus is saying that his upcoming departure is actually for their benefit. Jesus isn’t off on a holiday, or starting a new job, he’s still on mission for their benefit. He is getting ready to bring his Disciples to the Father, and Jesus is going to come back for pick-up. He’s not going to leave them hanging or stand them up.

He’ll be back. No need for alarm. He will take them to the Father, even though he has to leave for a bit.

So here we have a partial insight about how we might See, Know and Go to the Father: Jesus will take us, He takes his people to the Father. He’s setting up accommodations at God’s place, so to speak, Preparing a Place in preparation for us moving in permanently. “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” ().

We don’t know how long it will be till everything is ready. It might be tomorrow, it might be in a thousand years, but when the time comes Jesus will return so that we might GO to be with him in our Father’s house.

Our Wonderful Way (v4-6)

Next, Jesus tells the disciples they already know the way. They already know how to get to the Father’s heavenly house from v4: “ ‘And you know the way to where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ ” ().

These are striking words! Jesus shows his disciples the Wonderful Way to the Father. Jesus himself is the Way, the only way! If we want to go to God the Father we must go by Jesus.

Don’t rest on your laurels, we’re not there yet!

Brothers and sisters, in our world we must guard ourselves against the idea that there are many ways to God. For God, there’s no “close enough” when it comes to faith. We’re on our way to a destination, God’s place, and we can’t get there by taking the wrong track. There is a saying that goes “All roads lead to Rome”, and that’s how many folks think about religion: “As long as I have some faith in something I’ll get there eventually” as if it’s inevitable, as if it doesn’t matter if it’s Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or some kind of “choose your own adventure” religion.

Well it does matter. It’s not the inevitable that you go to the One, True and Living God – there is only one road, and it’s a narrow way that leads to eternal life. We need to take the right way to make sure we reach the right destination.

Jesus is our Wonderful Way, he is the way for us to GO to the Father. Like the disciples, if we know Jesus, we know the Way.

Our Father Found (v7-11)

So Jesus has shown us how we might GO to the Father, but he will soon show us how we can SEE and KNOW the Father too!

If we come back to the text, Jesus continues his response to Thomas to reveal how the Father is Found. Look at v7: “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” ()

Here we have it! To KNOW the Father is to KNOW Jesus! To SEE the Father is to SEE Jesus! God is revealed, he is made manifest in Jesus. There is some intrinsic connection between Jesus and God the Father so that to SEE and KNOW one is to SEE and KNOW the other.

But Philip didn’t understand, so Jesus had to lay it out for him from v8: “Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still don’t know me, Philip? Whoever 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 don’t speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves” ()

In graciously responding to Philip, Jesus gives us further insight into the connection between Jesus the Son and God the Father. Jesus is operating under the Fathers direction. Jesus is doing what the Father wants and saying what the Father says. They are linked, Jesus is the embodiment of God on earth.

Jesus is God made Human.

Jesus is the invisible made visible.

Jesus is the Spirit made Flesh.

Jesus is the un-containable nature of God contained.

Jesus is how we, though human and utterly different for God may have some way to understand and see God. He is where we restricted and weak beings may reach out and touch God. Here in Jesus our heavenly Father is Found.

Does this make you marvel?

The closest person in the world to me is my wife. We live together in love and (relative) unity. We know each other intimately, usually being able to anticipate each other’s moves or read each other based on the smallest sign. Yet there is no way in the world I would be able to say that when you see my wife that you see me, or that to know me is to know my wife! We love each other dearly, and are dependent on each other, but we don’t dwell “in” each other.

The kind of connection between Jesus and the Father is other-worldly, somewhat intangible. It’s outside our human experience and understanding. Yet somehow it’s made understandable by Jesus words “the Father who dwells in me does his works.” God works in the world through Jesus. The Father brings about his will through Jesus. The Father is accessible through Jesus.

That access to that Father through Jesus would be made possible by the events that would follow the Last Supper, when Jesus would be arrested, beaten, abused, mocked, slandered, and crucified. He would march into Death and offer himself as the once-for-all atoning sacrifice. He offered up himself to the Father as a worthy payment for the sins of many. By his blood there is “new and living way that he opened for us” ().

Jesus actively did the work of the Father to open the Way. A way that was blocked by your sin and mine. Your guilt and mine. Your brokenness and mine. The only open way to God is through Jesus, we must come to him to be granted entry.

Friends what must we do to enter the Way? What must we do to be able to SEE, KNOW and GO to the Father? Jesus said it in the passage: “Believe in God; believe also in me,” and then “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. That means we must put our Trust, our Faith and our Confidence in Jesus as the one from the Father.

Conclusion

Friends we’ve been swimming in the deep waters of the nature of God, Lord almighty and eternal. They swirl around us as Jesus reveals to us the mind-bending concepts of God-incarnate, God revealed and God known by mere men.

Jesus has made it clear to us that he is the Way to the Father, and the embodiment of God the Father himself!

Brothers and Sisters, friends, are you ready to live in light of this?

Are you trusting is Jesus in order to see

Are you waiting in hope for Jesus? Or have you lost hope? Are your hearts troubled? “Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust i God, trust also in Jesus”

Are you prepared? Prepared so that whether you spend another 40 years on earth, or perhaps only a week, are you prepared to meet your heavenly Father?

Are you patient in your waiting? Jesus has not come back for 2000 years now. His timing is not our timing, but while we wait we patiently trust in Jesus.

Speak to the heart. Did you know this is waiting? What do you need to do to be prepared?

Jesus is our Wonderful Way, to a Prepared Place, with our Father Found in Jesus.

How can we SEE, KNOW and GO to the Father?

Jesus. Jesus is the Way.

[1] The Westminster Confession of Faith (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).

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