Is Jesus Enough?
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“Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
“If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own. The Father who lives 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.
“Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself.” -14th Dalhi Lama
“Satisfaction in the effort not the attainment. Full effort is full victory.” -Mahatma Gandhi
“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” -Steve Jobs
“He that has satisfied his thirst runs his back on the well.” -Baltasar Gracian
“I am easily satisfied with the very best.” -Winston Churchill
Are we easily satisfied with the very best? Am I statisfied with the very best? I believe this statement is false for reason being that man has not found the very best, or man never believes that he has found the very best. Maybe we can be satisfied with the best that we have or are capable of having or achieving, but man will never be truly satisfied. If we were truly satisfied we would never move on from the job we were so excited to get so many years ago. We would never get tired of that great video game or video game system we purchased. If we were truly satisfied we would simply replace the parts on our aging vehicle instead of trading in on a new one every couple of years. If we were truly satisfied divorce would not be a measurable statistic and war and murder would never be soundbites on the evening news or internet. Pornographers would never have existed and garage sales would be strange. Little black books would have one name in them and the iphone would not have 12 generations, it would never have been born. We would have one song in our library, not 10000 and we are still wanting more. A few close friends would suffice, not hitting 1000 friends or likes on Facebook. Facebook would not exist. If man was easily satisfied, we would never have walked on the moon, we would still be riding horses and the candle would still light our homes and torches our fireplaces. If we are so satisfied then why so many choices of places to tantalize our palates and the variety in our food stores? Are we really satisfied? If human happiness and satisfaction ultimately come from within ourselves, and this world is it’s mirror, we are pretty unhappy and dissatisfied, depressed, destructive and dark actually.
King Solomon was the richest man in the world, having lack of nothing he desired. This is what he discovered about being satisfied:
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Does our world know wisdom, knowledge and joy today? To be truly happy one must consume. And the truth is one will never have enough. John D. Rockefeller, of the Rockefeller fortune, was asked once, “How much money is enough money?” He replied, “Just a little bit more.” He also stated, “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.” -John D. Rockefeller. There is a lot of blood running in our streets today. Somebody is making a lot of money. According to King Solomon, we should not be worried about this, for the one who pleases God will receive that which is collected.
The truth is my house is filled with stuff. Your house is filled with stuff. We go to “Stuff-Mart” everyday to collect more stuff. But stuff will never be enough. Stuff never satisfies. I saw this at home. My mom never had enough stuff. We never had enough money. Growing up raised by a single mom on Government assistance because of a medical condition was not easy. Gambling with bingo was a regular occurance to help make ends meet. My mom was quite lucky at bingo, but I think less than what she let on. If she did as well as she led people to believe, she would not have ended up in jail as she did and me in foster homes and friends couches.
After a while, kids figure things out, they begin to see discrepancies in adult words and stories, that are carefully formulated to hide embarrasement and fault and lay blame at other peoples feet or “the system”. I believed for a long time that the other men in my mom’s life were the issue. They may have contributed in some way, because we all have sin, problems, and our own issues. My mom’s was never being satisfied with what she did have. Never seemingly having enough. God revealed to King Solomon this truth about the pursuit of money and wealth,
The one who loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile.
The verse echoes the truth spoken by John D. Rockefeller, “Just a little bit more”. It begs the question, when is enough, enough? As long as our gaze is upon the riches of this world, and all this world has to offer, we will never be satisfied with enough. So it is interesting, when Jesus is talking to the disciples about His eventual departure from this world, that Philip says to Jesus in response, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us” (John 14:8). Jesus has spent three and a half years with these men, revealing who He was, by what He did, and they still did not recognize Him. Jesus states clearly to them, “If you know Me, you know the Father and have seen Him.” (John 14:7). The disciples have witnessed the healings, the feedings, the raising of the dead, but this is not enough for them to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Just like the Sadducees, Scribes and Pharisees, the disciples desire “just a little bit more” of Jesus’ wonder works. Forget faith, just show us the Real Thing and we will be satisfied, we will be good.
Ever discovered that you thought you knew someone when you really did not? All the actions and words pointed in one direction, but the heart was pointed in another. Being burnt by someone, or something, you thought you could trust, should be able to trust, creates suspesion, doubt and raises questions surrounding a person, or things, authenticity. Today is a perfect example in dealing with Covid. There is a lot of suspesion concerning how it came to be and why. There is a lot of suspecion concering those in power, who are advising as to how to deal with it. The reason these suspecisions exist is because people have been burnt one too many times by those in authority. It is unfortunate, but it is reality, it is the truth.
Evil is a reality and history is not on the side of innocent men. As John D. Rochefeller has said, “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.” Winston Churchill is credited with saying, “Never let a good crisis go to waste” after post World War II, in 1945. United States Congressman Rahm Emanuel, during the 2008 recession, expanded on Churchill by saying, “Never allow a good crisis go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible” (Greg Alcher, Never Waste a Good Crisis; April 22, 2021); like a ‘Great Reset’. I believe God’s word of comfort and security is needed during this time of turmoil and suspecision, “A king’s heart is like streams of water in the LORD’s hand: He directs it wherever He chooses. All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD evaluates the motives” (Proverbs 21:1-2).
The fact of the matter is, the disciples really had no reason to question Jesus any further as to the authenticity of what He was claiming. Jesus stated so much when he said to Philip, in response,
Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own. The Father who lives 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.
The word “knowing” that Jesus uses here is used in the context of character. After having spent so much time together, the disciples are questioning Jesus’ character; that He is being truthful. They do not believe that the Father is in Him. That His words are not the words of the Father. That His actions, are not the actions of the Father. After having seen so many false prophets come and go, these disciples are not going to be taken. You say you are going to die, so have so many false prophets. If you are, who you say you are, you will not die. It is impossible for the Messiah to die, it would make no sense. In all actuality, it made no sense for the disciples to not believe that Jesus was/is the Messiah for He passed all the tests of a prophet of God: He healed the sick, restored the mute and deaf, cast out demons, what He spoke came to be and He raised the dead. Not to mention He feed the 4000 and the 5000, and would die, rise on the third day and ascend to Heaven, appearing before 500+ witnesses. Is Jesus enough?
Jesus says, ‘If you are not going to take My word for it Philip, then believe because of the works I do themselves.’ (John 14:11). King Solomon said, further, in his discovery of life,
I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. God repeats what has passed.
If I cannot believe that Jesus is whom He has claimed to be, how do I explain His works? Are His works not sufficient to satisfy your need of belief? of faith? What Jesus said to Philip was that ‘what you have seen in Me, is the Father. When you look at Me, you see the Father. When you listen to me, you are hearing the words of the Father. Do you believe Me? If not, how is it possible for Me to have done what I have done?’ Seeing 1 = 2.
Illustration: Mathematics 1=2
Do you believe this?
What the disciples were desiring from Jesus was plain evidence, a plain statement. A test possibly? The disciples would have known the Torah, and knowing the Torah they would have been familiar with the conversation between Moses and the LORD from Exodus 33:12-23. Moses asks to see the LORD’s glory, but the LORD answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live” (Ex. 33:20). Jesus presses Philip, AM I not enough? Sometimes seeing leads to belief, sometimes not. Belief in God, in Jesus, depends upon the condition of one’s heart, in response to the drawing of God. Men willingly supress the truth of God, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:18, a one-time fellow supressor of God and His truth. He says God’s divine nature and eternal power are evident, clearly, through what He has made (Romans 1:18-20). For though we knew/know God, we choose not to glorify, or acknowledge Him as so. Instead, claiming to be wise, and being know-it-all fools, we exchange the glory of God for images of men and creatures, saying this is ‘god’ for me (Romans 1:22).
For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.
Jesus came to remove the darkness from our minds. He came to be “the way, the truth and the life” for us to the Father (John 14:6). We ignore the truth of Jesus because it is not inclusive of other opinions on truth. Well, when someone gives up their life for mine, I will choose to listen. When one will take the penalty for my sin, and die on a cross, I will consider what they have to say on truth and the way of life. The truth is “Truth is always in some sense narrow. It is error that is broad and accomodating” (John Philips Commentary, John). Truth is dogmatic and intolerant of error. 2 + 2 always equals four (sometimes 5 in God’s economy). 2 X 2 does not equal three. This is the kind of “tolerance” that Jesus cannot accept, nor will He. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” No one except Me! Can we live with this truth? If so, then we have to accept the truth that Jesus is the Life also.
Jesus is:
Your physical life & existence (Acts 17:25)
He gave life to every living soul (Gen 2:7)
He is life after death (Rom. 5:10)
He is life without end (Heb. 7:16)
He is Eternal life (Mt. 7:14)
He is the Manner of Life (Rom. 6:4) - the measure what and how to live life.
If you and I are expecting to fulfill an eternal desire with something limited, you will not be satisfied, it will not be good enough. You cannot put a square peg into an eternal whole.
If Jesus was not enough, humanity is not enough. So, why are we looking still to man and manmade solutions for our eternal satisfaction? Is Jesus enough?
We do not have to wonder what God the Father is like, we already know, we have heard about Jesus, and of Jesus and from Jesus. This is the Spirit’s role and working. This is the Bible’s purpose and work, to paint and reveal the portrait and person of Jesus.
My mother turned away from Jesus when she gave an ultimatum to her future husband. She said you either choose God or me. Whom do you choose today? Who do you choose to believe? Do you have to see the personal evidence to believe? Jesus said that those who would choose to believe and follow Him would do so by, and in faith.
Is Jesus enough? Jesus is more than enough for me.