Seeing the Father in the Son | Sermon 11/26/23

Seeing the Father in the Son

Okay, if you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel according to John. The Gospel of John, still in chapter 14. We're going to be in verses 7 through 15 today. The Gospel according to John.

The title of the sermon today, Church, is Seeing the Father in the Son. Seeing the Father in the Son. So starting in verse 7 of the Gospel according to John, chapter 14, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God.

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 I will 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. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray as a church body. God, I ask that you would illuminate the scriptures today by your Spirit.

By the Spirit who gave us these holy scriptures, Lord. We thank you, God, for your word. We thank you, God, that we can know what to believe, that we're not agnostic, that is, we're not without knowledge.

You have given us your word, and it is sufficient to know you, and to know how to be saved, and of course, accompanied by your Holy Spirit in that process. And so, Lord, I pray today, that we, as your people, would be greatly impressed upon by the fact that Jesus wants us to believe so greatly in the oneness that he has with the Father, that he has with you, Lord.

God, show us how important this doctrine of the Trinity really is to belief. God, we pray that you would show us your word today, that we would see you, and enjoy you, and be encouraged by you. I pray this in Jesus' holy name.

Amen. So, church, we have been in the gospel according to John. Previous chapters showed us the public ministry of Jesus, but for a few chapters now, we've been seeing behind the scenes, behind the scenes, how Jesus was having these discussions with his disciples, behind closed doors.

We get to see into it. We get to peer in. These have been the final words of the Master to his students. So, in this chapter, Jesus has already linked himself with the Father. He said in verse 1, what?

Believe in God, believe also in me. Jesus told them, two persons to believe in, Father and Son, because they, along with the Spirit, make up the single object of faith, God. Jesus put himself on the same level as God, the Father.

In fact, he is the one who gets to prepare a place for us at his Father's house. We saw he has the authority to bring people to his home because the Father's house belongs to him, just as much as it belongs to the Father.

And then Jesus ended our section last week as saying that no one can come to the Father except through him. And to give all those statements even more weight, he made an I AM declaration, Yahweh, that is the divine name of God, and he made it his own.

He said, I am on purpose. I am the way, the truth, and the life. That was all planned out. And so, this theme has been predominant throughout the entire Gospel according to John. In fact, if you remember, if you've been with us since a little over a year ago, I think I started John in August of 2022, and we saw in the first two sermons in John 1, which is famously called the prologue of John.

It is in such a way, it is like an introduction. It's like as if John is saying, here's everything I'm going to talk about that's laid out in chapter 1. It's almost like a table of contents mixed with an introduction.

This is what I'm going to talk about, John says. And then all the rest of the Gospel according to John has been expounding and expanding on chapter 1. And what was one of the biggest things in chapter 1?

We talked about it last week. That in the beginning was the Son. And the Son was with God, and the Son was God. And that was God and with God are things that Jesus and John, through the Holy Spirit, have been trying to impress upon us this whole time.

There have been dozens and dozens of examples of that very thing. And John isn't done yet. He's going to continue to show that. In fact, he'll go all the way to chapter 21 by the time that he feels the Holy Spirit has told him to stop.

If you remember, he said, Jesus did so many things, even all the books in the world couldn't contain all that He did. Interesting. And yet, he stopped at 21 chapters because he wanted to expand on the prologue, on John 1.

If you haven't read John 1 in a while, I encourage you to go back to it just to think about these things. But this is so very important. John and the Holy Spirit and God Himself wants us to believe so intensely that Jesus is God.

It's important on how we're regenerated, how we ought to believe. It's important on how we're sanctified. It's important to understand on how we're resurrected and glorified. For lack of better terms, Jesus being God is everything.

It's everything. Now, these disciples' Master will continue to impress this in our section of Scripture. Verse 7, If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on, you know Him and have seen Him.

What Jesus is saying is if they knew Him for who He was, or the language is a little strange here, or since they know Him for who He is, if they knew the glory He came from, the glory that He's going to, if they knew Him for His identity, and not just that of the carpenter's son from Nazareth who is the Messiah somehow, if they understood this, then they would really know the Father.

They would know the Father also. But from now on, they know Him and they have seen Him. They know the Father and they have seen Him. And He says that phrase, from now on. From now on, maybe indicating to the hour that has finally come upon Him.

That hour that is the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and giving of the Holy Spirit. Now what does Jesus mean though?

What does He mean?

You know the Father. You've seen the Father. Was it when an audible voice of God spoke on the day of Jesus' baptism? Did they see the Father then? When the Father spoke in chapter 12 and it sounded like thunder, did the apostles see His image in the skies?

How have they seen the Father when the Scriptures from front to back have said that no human has seen Him? This word know is important. This word know can also be an intimate knowledge. It's not simply to know of the Father, but know Him deeply.

And this word see isn't always just to set eyes upon an object. It's that something about the Father has become visible. It's become visible. An appearance has been made. And it's the oneness, the oneness in the Trinity we have talked about and we've seen this whole time.

The oneness of the Father and the Son. And I'm going to go again back to the prologue. John 1 .18 It said this, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God, that is the monogamous Theos, that is the Son, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

No one has seen God at any time, John writes. And John wrote this introduction to his Gospel after the events that happened here in chapter 14. Still, no one has seen the Father even all these years later.

The unique one and only Son of God, it says He has explained Him. I talked about this over a year ago in chapter 1. This word explained is exegesato. It's how we get the word exegesis. You've heard me say that word before, exegesis.

That simply means to draw out of the text the meaning. That is opposed to eisegesis which is to take an interpretation or a meaning that I like and inject it into the Scriptures and see it there. Exegesis is to properly go to the text and draw out from it the correct understanding of what it means.

That's something that we seek to do here. What's interesting is that word is used in how Jesus demonstrates the Father to the world. He has exegeted Him. He has explained Him. What that means is Jesus is the greatest self-disclosure of God that the world has ever seen.

The Son is the greatest manifestation of God on earth. In Christ, the invisible God becomes visible. He says, if you knew Me,.

You would know My Father.

But from now on you know Him deeply and you have seen Him revealed to you in Me. That's why there's no going to the Father.

But through Him.

That's what He just said. There's no going to God without going through God the Son. This is why Jesus is supremely and chiefly positioned to tell us how to get to God. Because He is God. The disciples don't recognize the monumental aspect of this relationship that they have with Him.

People have longed for the day when Adam walked in the cool of the garden with God. People have looked at Moses and said, oh, Moses got to see His backside. Even Moses did when He passed by him. Oh, even Abraham got to have God, according to Genesis, come to him under the oak trees at Mamre and they shared bread together.

There's been these moments, what's called theophanies, which means an appearance of God. There's been these moments. And people longed for this. Because if only I could see God. That's why so many people make false images of Him, right?

But what the disciples don't realize is each one of those times that God showed up, the same God is standing right in front of them. That's Him. He is God. He said before Abraham was, I am. Abraham lived to see His day, He said.

He said Moses wrote about Me. He was able to write about the One who visited Him and spoke to Him. And Jesus said, that was Me. As they have gotten to know and love the Son, they have gotten to know and love the Father.

That's a fact. As the apostles have gotten to know and love Jesus, they've gotten to know and love the Father. Same goes for you and me. You know, it's interesting though, so many people think though that Jesus is the approachable one and the Father is very scary.

I don't know if we make projections from our own broken households and we project that onto God and the Son. But so many people put the Son, Jesus, at odds against the Father. Now the fact is, of course, what the Bible calls a fear of the Lord, that's a good thing.

There's a reverence to God that we ought to have. Not that He is scary to come to Him, especially as a believer. But really, we ought not to divide the Son from the Father. And Jesus can be just as terrifying.

He can. We saw in His immense power in His voice, He spoke and He calmed a storm system over an entire sea in Galilee. Jesus tread upon chaos as He walked upon waves of water and they didn't break Him down.

He had all this power when He commanded death itself. When He called Lazarus to come forth who was in the grave, this man was dead. Rotting. Four days. Corpse was stinking for four days. And Jesus had the power to raise him up.

I mean, just read the descriptions in the book of Revelation. It says that His eyes are like a flame of fire. He has many crowns upon His head. On His thigh is written, King of kings, Lord of lords. And it says in the Revelation that the blood of His enemies is filled to the bridles of the horse.

He treads the fierce winepress of wrath. It talks about Jesus. And yet they make Him this hippy, dippy guy in the media. And so, you know, it's not either or. It's the fact that Jesus is God and He can demonstrate amazing power.

And yet also at the same time, Jesus is someone who is Savior, who is Lord, someone who we adore, someone who we can come to and say, Lord, why weren't You there when my brother died? And He would actually cry in front of you.

That's who Jesus is. He's everything. He's all of those things.

Right?

But just as Jesus is someone you can come to, so is the Father. If you see Jesus and love Him, then you see and love the invisible Father. The One who we thought was never manifest to us and maybe even mysterious in a way, is manifest and made known to us in Christ.

So church, if you know Jesus, you know the Heavenly Father. However, the disciples don't see it this way. Look in your Bible, verse 8. At this point, Peter isn't talking right now. He was strictly rebuked and told that he would deny Christ.

Thomas took a shot at it. Thomas spoke and said, how do we get there? We don't know where you're going.

Right?

And Jesus gave him an answer. I'm sure Thomas felt like it was kind of a cryptic answer. Thomas is like, what is it? I literally asked him where he's going, and he says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

What is Jesus saying?

Right?

And so now, you have Peter, Thomas, and Philip is going to speak up. The other men are quieted. Philip speaks up. The One who in chapter 1 spoke to Nathanael. Philip came to Nathanael and said, this is the Messiah.

The One whom the Law and the Prophets spoke about. He's here. But here's what Philip says, verse 8. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. He wants an immediate display of God Himself.

It reminds me once again of Moses who begged to see God. Let me just see you, God. I want to see your glory. And again, you look in the Exodus. All that Moses got to see was the passing glory. He said, you're going to go on this crack in the cliff and you're going to go there, and lest you die, I'm going to walk by that crack, that cleft in the rock, and you'll see my back.

But if you were to see me completely, you would be dead. We saw that. You see that, of course, in Exodus. And so, Philip is saying, just show us God. Just show us the Father, and that will do. That will be enough.

We'll believe all that you're saying, Jesus, if you just simply show us the Father. Verse 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 know, I can't help but read that and detect a tinge of sadness and disappointment in the Savior's words. You know Me. Show us the Father. Give us a grand display of God Almighty.

Philip, don't you know? Have I been with you so long? How often are we doing that? God, just show us the biggest miracle, and then I'll move forward. God, just show us Your will, lay it out plainly, and I'll do whatever You say.

God, show us who You are, and I'll believe in You. And it's the audacity, right? It's the entitlement. And God says, I have sent My Son. It's all recorded in the Holy Book. Believe by the Spirit of the living God.

Believe.

Have faith in that. And we go, do this. We act like Philip. Show us the big display. Haven't I been with you? Haven't I shown you who I am? It makes sense that the Jewish leaders who have opposed him don't know his true identity.

But these men have been so close to him for three years. They've been, as it's said in John 6, they've been taught by God. They've walked with Him. They're loyal, but they're ignorant. Loyal, but ignorant.

Jesus' words, person, and works are not insufficient to show the Father, but Philip and the apostles' vision is insufficient to see the oneness of the Father and Son. The insufficiency isn't in Jesus and the Father.

The insufficiency is in the apostles. They don't realize they have known and seen God this whole time with Christ. Have I been with you this long, Philip, and you don't recognize this? It's been three years, and Jesus has done things that only God can do.

He has said things that only God is in a position to authoritatively say. Jesus has heard things from the Father and given it to them that only someone with direct access to the Father could hear. Jesus has given these men everything He has, the power to give, but they still don't get it.

But what has He not given them yet? What do the apostles not have yet? The cross and the Spirit. Maybe these are the missing elements. Jesus, at least at this time, doesn't indicate that yet. What's been given is sufficient, He demonstrates.

Verse 10, 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. Philip, do you believe in the oneness of the Father and the Son?

Do you believe in the oneness of God? It seems the Trinity is very important to Jesus. This is something that ought to be believed, and when it is not believed, it impedes the belief of other things concerning Jesus.

It's hard to explain something that is near inexplicable, but he says the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father. And this isn't figurative. This isn't just a way to get the disciples to believe Him.

This isn't like when someone has passed away, and someone goes, I just miss this person. And someone well-meaning goes, well, you know what? They're still with you. They're with you right here. They're inside of you.

I appreciate that someone cares for someone to say that, but that's a completely different category to what's being said here. The Father isn't in Jesus in a sentimental way. This is something completely different.

There's something about this that no one has ever seen or experienced. Before Jesus descended and became man, there has always been one divine will of God. There's been one divine will of God among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

And that is the same to this very moment in John 14. There is one divine will. They share the same essence. I know some theology today. Jesus being totally God is also tapped into the one divine will.

But here's the thing. Here's what's unique. Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, took on an additional will in His incarnation. Incarnation simply means coming to earth, taking on flesh, becoming man, by the way.

Jesus took on a human will. He is totally God. So He's part of the one divine will of God. And yet, at the same time, miraculously, mysteriously, He is totally man and He has a human will as well. And so, He has both.

This is how Jesus, whom they know as the Messiah, but still they may not fully understand His deity at the moment, can say these words. This is how Jesus can say, the Father is in Me and I am in the Father.

And notice that there is a distinction between the holy Persons, yet a unity. We see it all the times in our videos, do we not? We see it in our interactions. Maybe you've seen it in your interactions, especially here in this context in Utah.

And people go, what you're telling me is the Father is Jesus and Jesus is the Father and the Spirit is the Father and the Spirit is Jesus. And they're all just different modes. They just put on a different hat.

Well, that is a heresy, according to our belief, number one. But that is not what the Scriptures show. It shows all at once that there is a distinction, a complete differentiation between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and yet they are one.

It's suspended and held up in midair. They are all true. That is true. And just because we can't always comprehend that reality doesn't make it not so. The Bible says so. And so, we're not saying, if anyone ever says to you, you believe in the Trinity, you believe the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father.

Nope, nope, that's not what we believe. That is not what we believe. They are distinct. Three persons, one being completely different. And so, belief in this is crucial. That's what He's saying. And even now, the divine will of God is being exercised.

Jesus reveals, these words don't come from His humanity only, but the words that I say to you, I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. That word I talk about, that abiding, remaining.

The Father is in Him. He is in the Father. Something divine is happening, even in His giving of these words. Speaking through the Son of Man to show that He is the Son of God is a work of the Father. For everyone in this world who has said that they believe in God, religions that call God their Blessed Father, when they deny that Jesus is God and they deny the oneness of the Father, Son, and Spirit, they do not believe the words of Jesus, the Son, number one.

But number two, they deny and reject what Jesus says is a work of the Father, the Father whom they supposedly love. This is a work of the Father. And Jesus appeals to them and He commands them again, knowing how hard this is for them.

Verse 11. Go down to verse 11. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. See how important this oneness is? He says, believe it. This is in the imperative form in the original language.

That is a command form. Believe it. And He's not saying it like, believe Me. You know, like a trust Me, trust Me. You know, I'm telling you the truth. He's saying authoritatively, believe this.

Believe this.

Believe all that I have said about Me and the Father. The Father abides in the Son, and the Son abides in the Father. And where did this all stem from? This stemmed from Philip saying he and the others want to see the Father.

Do you want to see God? Do you want to be in His presence? Do you want to know the Lord? You must know Jesus Christ. You must know the Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father but through Him.

And so if you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father, He says believe this and believe also because of the works themselves. Believe because even now, Jesus can relate these things to men from the divine will of God in a way that is conscious.

It's not like a prophet seeking the words of God where there is this line where God has given the prophet the words to say, Jesus has these words in Him because He shares of the divine will. This is no ventriloquist act.

You get what I'm saying? This is no dummy being spoken through. This is God Himself. Jesus' words are divine because He is also divine. And when Jesus has done some of these incredible things, He says you're supposed to believe because of those.

What? Raising people from the dead. Healing people. Bringing people back to life. Multiplying creation like He did with multiplying bread and fish. He was able to change the elements of something by changing water into wine.

That's huge. We look at that and we go, water into wine. That's incredible. That's element changing power. He had a voice that calmed the storm system over the sea. He taught with insightful truth and with authority, and not a derivative authority.

All these works, He did from a power within. A power inherent from the oneness that He has with the Father. That's the point. You see, the mighty men of old, Elijah, Moses, Elisha, they did amazing things.

The apostles did amazing things. But they did their deeds petitioning God to be able to do them. They needed to petition God to give them a power that was not their own to do those sort of works. While Jesus acknowledges the Father and gives Him glory, this power to do these works comes from within.

Why is that important? Because then men like Elisha, men like Moses, or even the apostles later could say, yeah, believe that I'm God because I can do these things. It's not simply because Jesus can do powerful things.

It's because the power doesn't come from God into Him and outward. The power is from within Him. That's the difference. He doesn't have to petition the Lord for it. So He says believe these things. Believe these works.

Someone greater than Elisha and Moses is here. And also, don't merely believe because of the power shown in the works. If we've learned anything through the Gospel of John is that each specific miracle, everything has been a sign that pointed to His identification.

Do you get that? These aren't just indiscriminate miracles just like heal you, got you, stand upright. In the Gospel of John, John has chosen particular miracles and signs to show us particular and specific things.

About Jesus.

They aren't just to show that He has power. They're to show His identity. He is the eternal bridegroom who makes water into wine. He's the one who in the book of Isaiah and Jeremiah who is the Messiah who brings this kingdom that has lavishness and things abounding and this messianic abundance and wine and He heals people and He cleanses people and He fulfills Old Testament Scripture.

The lame will walk. They will leap for joy. Things that are identifying markers. Each act had a greater purpose that went beyond its immediate effects. And so He says, believe because of the works. He said something similar to this in chapter 5 when He spoke of what He called the witnesses.

Do you remember the four witnesses? It was John the Baptist, it was the works He performed, the Father and the Scriptures. Those were the four witnesses where Jesus said, believe Me because of those four things.

Like witnesses called to the court stand where they could verify the words of the one speaking. John the Baptist comes to the stand. John the Baptist, come up. Yes, I am the forerunner of the Messiah.

I'm the one who makes straight the way of the Lord. He is, and He points Him out, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The works that Jesus does then comes to the stand. And the works show that there is a power in Christ of heavenly origin and inherent in Himself.

The Father comes. He testifies from the heavenly throne that in every single prophecy,.

Every single act,.

Every single word, every single movement of the Son, He endorses. And the Scriptures, the very Word of God, centuries prior, recorded the future that is happening right now with Christ. So Jesus says, believe Me.

Believe the Father. Believe My words. Believe because of the works. Believe all the witnesses. So Jesus has thus far spoken of the unity He has with the Father, but now there is another unity He has. It's a different form of unity.

It's a different category. But there is a unity with those who believe in Him. Just as He has done works, so will those who believe in Him. Go to verses 12 -14 in the text. 12 -14, it says, 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 I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

That's amazing. So Jesus is looking directly at the remaining 11 apostles, and He tells them what belief in Him and the works He does will grant them. They will do works, and greater works, because Jesus goes to the Father.

When the hour has passed and the cross has finished, and the Son has paid for the sins of His people, resurrected and ascended to heaven, something incredible will happen to these men, and to those who believe in Him.

Next week, we will see how Jesus is giving a hint on how these greater works will occur. It's going to come through who's called the Helper. The Holy Spirit is going to be sent to them in Christ's place.

We'll see that next week. I'm very excited to cover the Holy Spirit. The disciples aren't going to become better, necessarily. They're not going to become more divine, or divine in any sense. They're still creatures.

Belief is necessary for these things, and that belief is in what? In Christ. In Christ. And therefore, the abilities and gifts they will receive don't come from themselves, but from being what? In Christ.

They come from being in Christ. And the Lord Jesus has a purpose in this. Right now, as we know in this context in John, He's ceased all His activities and healings and miracles among the people publicly.

We saw at the end of chapter 12, He gave His one last warning to the people to repent and believe, but no one has seen Him do anything since. He's been with His own. He's been with His disciples. But the miracles are not over.

They're not even over after the greatest miracle is ever done, that is the cross and resurrection. There are even more miracles to be had after the empty tomb. Miracles and signs are about to cover the known world so as to get the message of the good news of Christ out to that world.

The question is though, why does Jesus say that these works are going to be greater than His? Why will the disciples' works be greater than His own? Surely, believers won't be able to perform things in such a way where they calm storms or change the elements of something, walk on water, raise the dead in such a way that they command death like Jesus, or even raise themselves back to life.

How will what they do be greater than what Jesus has already done? Because they aren't. That's the truth. None of the works that they've done or we've done have been greater than what Jesus has done,.

So what does He mean?

One commentator says, the works that the disciples perform after the resurrection are greater than those done by Jesus before His resurrection due to belonging to an age of clarity and power that was introduced by Jesus' sacrifice and exaltation.

Both Jesus' words and His deeds were somewhat veiled during the days of His flesh. Even His closest followers, as we've seen in these chapters, make it clear that they only grasp a small part of what He was saying.

In other words, in salvation history, everything becomes greater after the greatness of the cross. Everything becomes greater after the greatness of the Messiah's sacrifice. Because that's a fact. These things now after the cross aren't simply signs that point to miracles or something about God.

They point to an empty tomb. They point to a Messiah who paid for the sins of His people. They point to amazing things. The pre-glorification works of Jesus assured that at least 11 men would follow Him.