Have You Seen the Father Yet — David Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P .O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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Jesus Reveals the Heavenly Father

He came as a man, and most of us know and we're convinced that He came to redeem man from his sin, break his chains, all the bondages that bind him. Now that's been settled. Folks, we want you to know that He also came to this earth to reveal who the Heavenly Father is.

He came to reveal. In fact, Jesus said, I came from the Father, and then while He's on earth, He said, everything I say and do, I see what my Father's doing. I do only what my Father tells me to do. Then He said, I'm going to go to my Father.

I came from the Father. While I'm here, I'm going to do His will. I do nothing of my own will, and then I'm going to go back to my Father. It was all about the Heavenly Father, about His Father, your Father, and my Father.

Listen carefully to John 5. Go to John 5, if you will, please. John, the fifth chapter. Let me hear the rustling of the leaves here, please. If you come to Times Square Church, you must come with your Bible.

Fifth chapter, beginning to read at verse 19. John 5, beginning to read verse 19. Look at verse 30 also. Do you hear what He's saying? He said, I can do nothing on my own. Everything I'm going to do on earth.

In fact, He gathered 12 disciples to be His witnesses, and He was telling, He told the disciples, He told the Pharisees, He told the scribes, you watch my life. You watch my ministry. You look at my miracles and all the good works that I intend to do.

And you're going to see the Heavenly Father, because everything I do is going to be a reflection of who my Father is. I am an expression of the Father. I am the absolute essence of my Father. I'm here not only to redeem you from your sins, not here only to be honored as the Son of God, but I'm here to reveal the Father to you.

So you watch my actions. Everything I do, I will not do on my own. I will do it for the express purpose of revealing who the Heavenly Father is to you. The very next verse after you read that in Matthew 11 .22, you read these words.

Listen very, very closely. Matthew 11 .22 says, All things are delivered unto me. Don't turn there, but listen. All things are delivered unto me of my Father. No man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth no man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.

Now look at me please. He said it's impossible for any living human being to know who the Father is unless I reveal Him to you. You can't just get that revelation on your own. You can't get it by just reading this.

You have to have the revelation from Christ Himself who the Heavenly Father is. He says, No man comes to the Father except by me and through me. He said, I am the Father and one. Then the very next verse he says, Come unto me all you that are labor and heavy laden.

I will give you rest. Now it's important that we understand why that verse is connected there. Listen closely. He said if you want rest, if you're struggling and you want your soul to be at rest, you want to end your struggle and your strife, that inner strife, then you have got to have a revelation of who the Father is.

You've got to know that you have a Heavenly Father in heaven, in glory, who cares about you, who wants to be your Heavenly Father. And he says the only way that can happen is if I reveal Him to you. Is that understood now?

How many understand what Jesus is saying? There's no revelation of the Father unless it comes through the Son. He's saying all that the Father is, all that He wants to do for you and mankind, He has shown it to me.

I came to the earth with the full knowledge of what He wanted to accomplish. He told me what to do. He told me what to say. So everything you see, everything you hear, I am showing you what God is like.

I'm showing what your Father is like. This will unfold to you as we go on a little more in the message. Jesus said to His disciples, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see. He said the prophets longed to see what you see and hear what you hear, but they could not.

In other words, He's saying you're just babes, but God has so chosen to send me to reveal Him to you. And all the prophets, they had just a glimpse of the Father. You hear David talk about the Heavenly Father.

Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. Isaiah talked about the everlasting Father. Jeremiah said, Thou shalt call me My Father. Now these were just little glimpses of the Father.

But in the Old Testament, there was no true revelation of the Father. First of all, Jesus said very clearly that they longed to see what you see and they didn't see it. They never did see the vision of the Heavenly Father.

They knew Jehovah. They knew Him, all the names that He revealed to them. But He had not revealed Himself as Father because that revelation can't come until the Son comes to reveal Him. Jesus said, No man can know the Father unless I reveal Him.

Jesus hasn't been sent to earth yet. And when Jesus came, He came to reveal Him to this generation, the last generation, in a way no other generation has ever known. You have a Heavenly Father. You have a Father.

Unknown to the prophets in this way. Unknown to all the great men of God in the Old Testament. But Jesus came to reveal Him in a new way as our Heavenly Father. He says, He's my Father and He's your Father.

Hallelujah. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Hallelujah. Now, I want you to get this revelation and I'm going to make it as simple as I can because this could be life-changing for us.

Jesus and the Father Are One

In the midst of all the accusations and all the rejections by the Pharisees and the scribes, Jesus could stand and say, I'm not alone, but I am my Father that sent me. He said, Say what you will, I have a Father.

I and my Father are one. The Father sent me. I'm here to do only His will. He said, I do nothing of myself, but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things. And He that sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him.

The Pharisees came to Him and He said, Where is your Father? And what they were saying is, We have no revelation of who He is. Where is He? Show Him to us. We have Abraham as our Father. And they said, Show us.

You know what Jesus answered? And listen closely. These are words that you and I are going to have to deal with this morning. He said, If you had known me, you would have known the Father. He said, If you would have really trusted my word.

I told you. He's speaking to the Pharisees. He said, I've spoken freely all through this land. I told you when I came, when I walked the streets of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Judea, I told everybody time and time again, everything I do is the Father.

It's the Father. He said, If you would have just been watching me, if you would have just opened your eyes and ears and accepted my word and believed what I said, I would have shown Him to you. He has been revealed.

He said, If you would have known me, you would have known the Father. How many are there sitting here now saying, I know Jesus. I'm intimate with Jesus. We talk about intimacy drawing close to Him. But folks, the purpose of intimacy with Jesus is to have a revelation of who the Father is.

And if you say that you're intimate with Jesus and you don't know the Father, you have not yet had the blessing of intimacy. You've not gone into the fullness. You've not allowed Christ to open your eyes yet to the Heavenly Father.

Very, very important what we're understanding here this morning. The Pharisees and the religious Jews were satisfied simply to say, Abraham was our Father. Jesus said to them, in fact, He said, I came from my Father.

My Father and I are one. And they were so indignant at that that He's saying He's one with God, that He and the Father, that He's an expression of the Father. They picked up stones to kill Him. And Jesus said, and they were calling Him a devil.

He said, you call me a devil, but I don't have a devil. But I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. And I seek not my own glory. It is my Father that honors me. Yet you have not known me, but I know Him.

And I keep His saying because I am the Father of one. And they came at Him with stones, and Jesus stopped them a moment. He said, you are going to stone me? You're telling me that I'm a blasphemer? You say that the one whom the Father Himself has chosen and sent into the world, you're going to stone the chosen one of God who came in to reveal the Father?

You're going to stone Him? You're going to call Him a blasphemer? He said, if I've done the works of my Father, believe the works of nothing else, that ye might know and believe that the Father is in me, that I'm in Him.

He said, if you don't want to take my word, look at what I'm doing. He said, if you don't believe, believe. If you're not going to believe in me, believe that what I did was an expression of the Father.

I'm trying to tell you, Abraham is not your father alone. You have a heavenly Father. And it was important to Jesus. He knew His time was short on earth. He knew that if they didn't have a revelation of the heavenly Father, of His love, of His mercy, His grace, if they didn't have a heavenly Father, they would have nothing but Abraham.

They would have nothing but their dead religion. There'd be nothing to lay hold of. There was no sense of direction. There was no hope for these people because they had no revelation that they had a Father in heaven.

And that's why it's so important for you and I today to understand this same truth. Jesus said to them, No man cometh to the Father except by me. Let me tell you what must have been one of the most painful experiences Jesus ever had.

Philip’s Request to See the Father

Don't turn there, but it's found in John the 14th chapter. We come to what I would consider to be one of our Lord's most painful experiences of all. As painful as it was to be rejected by the Pharisees and not understood, and His revelations not open to their minds.

The disciples, His own disciples come to Him. The Last Supper has just ended. Judas has already received the supper and he went out immediately to betray the Lord. And Jesus is on His way to Golgotha very soon.

He's given the last instructions to His disciples. He's saying, I want you to love one another even as I've loved you. And He's given them all these instructions. And by now the Lord who has spent all this time revealing the Father, believing that they have the revelation, is shocked when Thomas comes to Him.

Jesus said first of all to them, I'm going back to my Father. In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place, get ready for you. One day I'm coming for you. I'm going to have you come.

Be with me where I am that you may be also. And then suddenly Thomas speaks up, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? And by the way Jesus answered Thomas, you understand the full question.

What Thomas said is not fully recorded, but the way Jesus responded. What Thomas was saying, Jesus, you speak of your Father so intimately. You speak about going your way to the Father, but we don't know that way.

We don't have a revelation of who the Father is. You do, but we don't have that revelation. How will we get to the Father? You say we have a heavenly Father. You say you're going to our Father. You've taught us to pray our Father.

He's your Father, but we don't have that revelation yet. He says, how do we know the way to the Father? This is a confession that says, Lord, we don't know. We know you. We've been intimate with you for the past three years.

We know you. We followed you. We don't know anything about the heavenly Father. We don't know about his love, his care, his tenderness. We don't know those things. And then suddenly Philip speaks up. And he says, Master, show us the Father and we'll be satisfied.

Jesus was aghast. Jesus couldn't believe it. You could almost hear his incredulousness as he listens to Philip saying, Lord, before you go, show us the Father. I love it. That's what he'd been doing for three years.

And they missed the revelation. And many of us sitting here right now have walked with Jesus for years, and you still don't have the revelation of the heavenly Father? You talk about intimacy. You talk about knowing Jesus.

You talk about knowing him fully, but you don't understand the Father. If you understood you had a heavenly Father, if you understood him the way Jesus wants to reveal him to you, why would you be sitting in despair when the enemy comes against you?

Why would you be downcast when you have a financial burden that doesn't seem to be there? Why would you be wondering that you will never have victory over sin? Why would you be always under guilt and condemnation and fear if you had the revelation of a heavenly Father?

And listen to what Jesus answered. He said, Philip, and Jesus is incredulous. He says, Philip, have I been so long with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, show us the Father? How can you say that to me? Philip, Thomas, my precious disciples, how can you even ask such a question? You say you know me, you say you're intimate with me, but did you miss the revelation I've been giving you for the past three years?

Didn't I say that all the works I did, every word that I spoke was a revelation from Him? It was God, it was the Father at work. You know why this is important to Jesus? Because He knows He's going to leave.

And He knows that sinful man has to have a revelation of a Father. Because you see, the revelation of a human father has failed, has always failed. It failed in the Old Testament, failed... This generation doesn't even know what a father is.

There has to be a revelation of a Father, a caring, loving, compassionate, merciful, heavenly Father. And Christ is that human expression of that heavenly Father. He came to humanly express who the Father is.

This was an illustrated sermon. Day by day, everything He said, every miracle He did. And He's saying to the disciples, I'm about to go, you have to have a revelation of the Father. You've got to be able to tell these people out here that are like sheep without a shepherd.

These are children that are like illegitimate children, they have no father, they're running around thinking nobody cares. You're going to have to be able to go out and do works like I did, and speak like I did, that they will know there's a Father in heaven.

That every generation will know it. You have to have that revelation. We have to have that revelation. We have got to be able to say to the world, what's my life? Listen to what I say. See the works. Jesus said, greater works than these shall you do because I go to my Father.

The Father’s Compassion Displayed in Jesus’ Miracles

Get into a little deeper. He's saying, Philip, you want me to show you the Father? He said, all right. Think back at the wedding of Canaan. Remember when the mother of Jesus came and said they needed wine, and so she's bringing the water pots, and she's saying to me, turn this water into wine.

And he said, I turned the water into wine. He says, Philip, don't you understand that wasn't my will, that wasn't my plan. Didn't I tell you that everything I did was an expression of the Father's heart?

He said, do you want to know who the Father is? That was the Father. The Father was trying to tell you how he cares for the most insignificant things in life. He cares about marriage. He cares about your daily food.

He cares about these little things, and that was his first expression. That was the first miracle I did. I was trying to show you that you have a heavenly Father in glory who cares about every bill, every financial problem, every problem for food on your table.

This was God at work. This was an expression of who God is, the Father. That was the Father at work, Philip. That was the Father. Because you know I didn't do anything on my own. I did only what I saw and he told me to do.

Because he's trying to show you how he cares for his children. He goes on, he says, Philip, do you remember that widow from Nain, that little lady who was weeping as she went to the burial plot to bury her son?

Do you remember that crowd of people came by as we were walking toward Nain and she's sobbing and she's weeping? Do you remember I reached out and I touched the casket and they set it down and that young man rose up from the dead?

That wasn't my plan. That wasn't my thought. That was the Father trying to show you who he is, that he was moved by that widow's tears, by her hopelessness, and my father said, reach out and touch that casket.

That was an expression of my father's love for the care about the pain and the hurt and the sadness and sorrow of his children. That's who the Father is. How can you say, he says, show me the Father? Where have you been?

He says, do you remember feeding the 4 ,000 and the 5 ,000? Do you remember all those baskets? Do you remember looking at that hungry multitude and I asked you where they're going to get food and you said you had five loaves and a few fishes and do you remember how I broke those and you filled your baskets?

And do you remember the joy you had because you were feeding people who'd been almost three days without food and you saw how hungry, you saw those children just eat it, you saw those men grab that food?

He said, don't you understand? That wasn't my work. He said, don't you understand I was doing only what the Father told me? That the Father saw those hungry people and even though he knew they're going to despise me later, even though he knew that they were there for the food and the miracles mostly, he said, he was concerned about their stomachs.

He was concerned about their physical needs. He said, that was the Father at work. He cares about people. He cares about those who seek him. They were coming to seek. He said, you seek the Father. He's going to reach out and take care of all your needs.

Hallelujah. He says, do you want to know the Father? Philip, Thomas, disciples. Do you remember the woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to me? They caught her in the very act. And those self-righteous priest and Pharisees were going to kill her on the spot, stone her to death.

Remember, I just knelt down and wrote in the sand and I just said, he that's without sin, let him cast the first stone. He said, who said that? He said, that was my Father. That was my Father. He said, remember what I said to her.

Woman, thy sins be forgiven thee. I condemn you not. Go and sin no more. He says, don't you see it, don't you understand God was trying to tell his people who he is and what he's like. That he's ready to forgive.

Here's a woman caught in the act of adultery. Here are accusations and enemies on all sides. And here's the heavenly Father saying, I forgive you. Go and sin no more. He said, that was the Father at work.

He said, go back now. And that's why the Bible said the Holy Spirit's going to bring to our remembrance all the things that he said. Why would the Holy Spirit bring all these things to our memory? So we can have a revelation of who the Father is.

We can replay it in our mind. Go over every miracle and everything he's done. Remember everything that Jesus has done in your life. Jesus is trying to say, everything I've done for you has been an expression of the heavenly Father.

Who he is. Glory be to God. He's a caring, loving, heavenly Father. Then he said, by the way, Thomas. He said, gentlemen, do you remember when we got off the boat and we were met by a demoniac that had a legion of demons.

And did you see the fear? Did you see the terror in his face? And did you hear it in his voice when he cried out, have mercy? He said, do you remember the man was bound by chains? Did you see the cuts and bruises on him?

And do you remember I commanded those demons to leave and they went into a herd of swine and were destroyed? He said, you see, show me the Father. He said, that was the Father working through me. Showing how he will drive the devil away from his children and everybody who reaches out that he has all power and might.

That he cares about those who cry out to him out of the pits of hell. That was the Father. Beloved, you and I have not only the testimony that they had, the New Testament, but you and I have had 2 ,000 years, the history of the church, the New Testament church, of all the disciples, those at Pentecost and all the great miracles and the things that have been done.

All the greater works Jesus said that we would do. All of the past generations we have that testimony before us of who the Heavenly Father is. And you sit here this morning and you say, I know the Lord, I know Jesus, I know him, he's close to me.

I have a full knowledge of who my Jesus is. Yet I hear Jesus saying, alright, have we been together so long? And you still do not see. You still don't know him as your Father. Let me say it again, out of intimacy with Jesus, there must come a revelation that we have a Father in Heaven who has painstakingly, listen to me, he has painstakingly shown us what he's like and what he longs to be for us.

He's shown us what he's like and what he wants to be to us. Let me give you this morning what I believe is Christ's revelation of the Father to my heart. I don't know how he revealed him to you, but here's how Jesus has revealed his Father to me.

His Father, my Father, your Father. First of all, the Holy Spirit made this very clear to me. Number one, and I hope you hear this in your spirit, he chose to be a Father to me, that's the role he chose.

I didn't choose him, you didn't choose him. God said, you didn't choose me, I've chosen you. And God says, I've chosen you, I have chosen for myself a role. In other words, I have chosen who I want to be to you.

I've chosen how I want you to look at me, how I want you to view me, how I want you to see me. I want you to know me and see me, God says, as your loving heavenly Father. I want to be a Father to you and I want you to be a son or daughter to me.

You see, Jesus went all through his lifetime on this earth knowing who the Father was, knowing his voice, knowing his will. He didn't walk in confusion. He could withstand anything the enemy threw at him.

He could withstand the temptations of the devil because he says, I know I have a Father. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over. I have a Father. He chose me. He appointed me. He sent me.

I have a Father in heaven. Folks, you didn't choose him to be your father. He chose you. He chose you. And he said, I chose you to be my son, to be my daughter, and I choose to be a father to you. How sad that some of us won't let him do what he wants to be.

And we won't let him be to us what he wants to be. I will be to you a father and you will be a son or a daughter. Jesus said, you are not of this world even as I am not of this world. Jesus prayed that they may all be one.

As thou, Father, are in me, I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that they may be one even as we are one. He's saying, do you want... Jesus is saying, do you want to know me? That's fine. Now, I want you to know the Father.

I want you to know who he is. Hallelujah. He said, I'm going to him, but when I go to him, I want to leave you this revelation that you have a Father in heaven who has numbered every hair on your head that there's not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father knowing it.

He says, I want you to know that your Father knew you when you were in your mother's womb and he has thoughts towards you that are so wonderful that you can't even number them. He said, you have a heavenly Father.

You've got to know that or you can't face the devil. You can't face life. You have to have a heavenly Father. You have to know that. You have to be sure of that. And that he chose that role for himself.

And it's the Father saying, I want to hover over you. I want to be your protector to drive out all demonic attacks, to supply every need, to see you through all your trials. I choose to be a father to you.

Folks, when that really hit me, when I fully understand, he chose me. He picked me out. Think of that. Of all the millions, hundreds of millions on the face of the earth, you sit here now. God picked you out and adopted you.

He adopted you as his child. You didn't go looking for him. You didn't ask to be born into his kingdom. You didn't ask to be adopted. But he not only adopted you, he says, now cry, Abba, my Father, my Father.

You're my father. You're not just Abraham's father. You're not Peter and John and Paul's father. You're not just the father of Jesus. I'm his heir, joint heir. I'm a brother to Christ. He's my father.

Adoption, Love, and the Father’s Unconditional Care

Secondly, he chose to be my father. Chose me to be his child on the basis of love and mercy and no other condition. He didn't wait until I got good enough to be his son. He didn't wait until I had it straight.

He didn't wait until I had all the doctrines figured out. He said, even when you are lost in sin, I came to you to be reconciled. I loved you when you were in your filth. He said, and I called you and I chose you and I adopted you for no other reason because I loved you.

I loved you. I don't know why God could look down at me and love me. I don't know why God could look down on you and so many and love us. We are so unlovable. We are so mean sometimes. We are so unworthy.

But God in his mercy looked down and says, I want you, I want you, I want you. I choose you to be a father to you. Now look, think about this. He chose this role to be a father to me. Then he chose me to be his son.

I didn't choose him. And then he chose me simply because he loves me. So that brings me to a wonderful conclusion. And you know what it is? It's simply this. I don't have to figure things out. I don't have to understand fully justification, sanctification, mortification, glorification.

We need to study these things. But folks, I still don't understand in fullness many of these gospel truths. But I know one thing. I may not have it all figured out. I'm not nearly where I want to be. But I know one thing.

No matter what hell tries to throw at me, I am loved by God the Father. I am loved. I am chosen. And I know that he picked me as his son because he loved me and no other reason. I can rest in that love.

He would not have chosen me if he intended to drop me. Do you understand? He wouldn't have chosen you and set himself up to be your father if he planned to abandon you. I'm an earthly father. You can't name any reason on heaven or earth why I would abandon one of my children.

You can't give me one reason that's legitimate, that is honest or righteous. You can't give me a reason, not even an evil reason, why I should ever abandon or leave my children. How much more your heavenly Father is going to be there through everything that you endure in this life.

Hallelujah. Because he's Abba. He's mine. He's mine. If he's truly my father, then he's going to do what any true godly father would do. First of all, he's going to provide for me, he'll protect me, he'll deliver me, he'll bless me.

But, he cannot be a godly, loving, righteous father unless he warns me when I'm in danger. Do you understand? If he loves me and I allow him to be the father that he wants to be in a righteous way, then I have to allow him to speak to me in truth no matter whether I like it or not.

Folks, some of the best fathering I've ever done has been with the belt and the rod. I told you a couple of times how my father used to make me kneel over the bed and he had a big, there was a big black strap that used to sharpen razors with it.

It was hanging on a nine penny nail on the stairs before going to the basement. And my dad would bring out his rod of authority and I'm leaning over the bed praying and I'm crying, I'll never do it again, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll never do it again as long as I live.

Never, dad! And that wouldn't move his heart because he knew what the Bible said, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him. And the Bible says, spare the rod, you'll damn the child.

And my dad did everything according to the book. He had a revelation of what a father is like. And so he would come down across my backside quoting scripture. Foolishness is bound in the heart of the child and the rod will drive it far from him.

But the hardest part came next. And he'd kneel beside me, you know, David, hug me. Hug you. And then he'd let me cry my tears on his shoulder and he said, I love you, David. God has his hand on you and I'm not going to let the devil have you.

He said, I know what God's going to do for you. And my father lovingly reproved me. And if you go to 2 Corinthians before I close, I'll show you this loving rebuke of the Lord. 2 Corinthians, 6th chapter, beginning to read at verse 14.

Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Young lady, if you're running around with a wicked young man, he's not saved, you're already defeated right there. You're already in unbelief. You're already in rebellion.

You want me to repeat it? Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? Folks, that means every ungodly friend you're running around with can be a curse to you.

Every ungodly thing that holds on to you. And what concord or what agreement hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

For you're the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.

I will save you. Read the last verse with me if you have King James. And will be a father unto you. Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Now look this way, please, before I close.

The Lord's saying, look, I choose to be your father and I've chosen you. But he said, I will not share this role with the devil. The devil has his people. He's a father. He's the father of all lies. He's the father of those who are in rebellion.