John 14:7-11

Jesus had made the amazing claim to be the only way to the Father, and He continues preparing His disciples with extremely bold statements about Himself:

“If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:7)

This confuses Philip:

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” (vs. 8)

I’m not sure if Philip literally wanted Jesus to give them a peek into Heaven, or what, but Jesus seems to give Philip a gentle rebuke:

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone 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 that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. (vs.9-11)

Philip, like the others, had been with Jesus for three years, seeing Him do a multitude of amazing miracles, including raising Lazarus just a week before this. Maybe Jesus wanted to thump Philip on the head at this point and say,”What aren’t you getting???” But He patiently and boldly explains to these beloved men exactly who He is: One with the Father. What He has said were the very words of the Father. What He has done He has done through the Father living in Him. The miracles He performed were confirmation of this.

When unbelievers state that Jesus never claimed to be God, they have not read His own word It was talk like this that put the price on His head. It enraged the Jewish leaders, to whom it was blasphemy! These are radical statements and crazy talk if they were not true!

Jon Courson makes an excellent point in his commentary on this passage (Courson, P. 556). He writes of how people in our times are so anxious to lay blame at their parents’ feet for all of their problems. They often say things like, “I can’t relate to the Father because my earthly father ignored me, abused me, or abandoned me.” Courson’s point is that we are not to look at our earthly parents to understand our Heavenly Father. Rather, we are to look to Christ. Learn about Jesus if you want to understand the Father. Courson says the character of your earthly father is “irrelevant.” Amen!

This is why reading and rereading the gospels is so important. These are accounts of men who walked with Jesus or with His original disciples. They give eyewitness testimony to the character and work of Jesus Christ. They include His very words. And if we want to understand the Father, we must know the Son. Thanks for meeting here each morning that we might all get to know Him better!