I Came From The Father Series

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” [1]

Speaking with His disciples, the testimony of Jesus our Lord gave concerning Himself was, “I came from the Father.” The implications of what He said is stunning! It was as He spoke these words that the disciples belatedly began to realise the significance of Jesus’ presence in the world. They recognised that Jesus was a gifted teacher, that He possessed amazing power over nature and that He possessed amazing compassion for hurting humanity. These qualities had drawn them to follow Him as Master. The disciples appear to have had a hazy understanding that Jesus had some sort of relationship with God, but they seem to have been oblivious concerning either His origin or His purpose on the earth. These men had been with Jesus for months—they had heard Him speak, witnessed His power, shared hardships and travelled to multiple towns and villages throughout the land while in His company; and yet, they seem not to have recognised who He was.

Separated as we are by two millennia from the days when the first disciples walked with the Son of God, we modern people exalt our knowledge, murmuring in astonishment at how dense those disciples were. “Had we been there,” we are wont say, “we wouldn’t have been so slow to understand what Jesus was saying.” However, we weren’t there! Moreover, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given—that divine Spirit Who “convict(s) the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” [JOHN 16:8]. Without His prompting, none of us could have believed. And until He opened the eyes of these first disciples, they could not understand either who Jesus was or where He came from or why He had come to earth.

We are privileged, living as we do at the end of this Church Age. Christ ascended into the heavens and sent His Spirit to live with those who followed Him as Saviour. Within the churches the Spirit of Christ dwells, uniting believers and equipping them to be the Body of Christ. Perhaps we wouldn’t expect outsiders to be greatly moved by the presence of the Son of God, but surely Christians should be humbled by the knowledge that God sent His Son!

PLAIN SPEECH — “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father” [JOHN 16:25]. Jesus did speak in parables, doing so for a reason. In the Gospels, we read, “[Jesus] told [the crowds] many things in parables” [MATTHEW 13:3a]. The disciples were wondering about this, so they asked, “Why do you speak to them in parables” [MATTHEW 13:10]? The Lord gave a rather pointed reason for employing parables whenever He spoke to the crowds. What Jesus said merits careful consideration.

Jesus responded to the question His disciples asked, explaining, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will indeed hear but never understand,

and you will indeed see but never perceive.”

For this people’s heart has grown dull,

and with their ears they can barely hear,

and their eyes they have closed,

lest they should see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their heart

and turn, and I would heal them.’”

[MATTHEW 13:10-15]

To understand the message Jesus delivered would require a spiritual perspective. His words would require those who wanted to know the meaning of His message to listen with humility—genuine humility, not a practised act of some pious Terpsichore. Those wishing to understand what Jesus was saying would need to think; they would have to develop an understanding of the fallen condition of this present world and their own fallen condition, in order to begin to see with the eyes of the Living God.