“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 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’? 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. 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 “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. 13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
We have come to what is commonly referred to as Jesus’ farewell discourse to His disciples. In fact, it may even say that at the top of the page in your Bible, or as a subheading inserted between the chapters, for example at the beginning of chapter 14.
This discourse actually begins at chapter 13 verse 31, which refers to Judas when it says ‘When therefore he had gone out…’ It is then that Jesus begins saying things to the eleven who are left, which He can say only to true believers.
The discourse begins there at verse 31 and continues to the end of chapter 16, and for the believer they are possibly the most amazing chapters of the Bible, in that everything Jesus says to the disciples and through the Holy Spirit to us is for comfort and assurance and sure and certain promise for our immediate and present walk with Christ and for our eternal future.
Someone has called chapter 14 the ‘comfort chapter’, and not unrightly so, for it does offer great comfort for the person who finally comes to believe who Jesus really is, and how who He is relates to the assurances and promises He makes here.
The chapter even starts out with words of comfort. “Let not your heart be troubled”, and in the second half of that verse Jesus states why Peter’s heart and therefore our hearts should not be troubled, or distressed, “…believe in God, believe also in Me.”
A sermon could easily be written – and I’m sure many have over the years – staying on just that one verse. Because, my fellow Christ-followers, coming to know and believe in the heart who God is and who Jesus is will relieve the distress and anxiety in any heart. For to truly believe in God in the way Jesus calls for in this verse is to place absolute trust in Him for all things, including life itself.
KNOW ME, KNOW THE FATHER (7-9)
Commentator Warren Wiersbe explains this word translated, ‘know’.
“What does it mean to “know the Father”? The word know is used 141 times in John’s Gospel, but it does not always carry the same meaning. In fact, there are four different “levels” of knowing according to John. The lowest level is simply knowing a fact. The next level is to understand the truth behind that fact. However, you can know the fact and know the truth behind it and still be lost in your sins. The third level introduces relationship; “to know” means “to believe in a person and become related to him or her.” This is the way “know” is used in John 17:3. In fact, in Scripture, “to know” is used of the most intimate relationship between man and wife (Gen. 4:1).
The fourth use of “know” means “to have a deeper relationship with a person, a deeper communion.” It was this level Paul was referring to when he wrote, “That I may know Him” (Phil. 3:10). “
So according to what Wiersbe has said in this excerpt, when Jesus said to His disciples that if they had known Him they would have known the Father also the disciples would have taken Jesus to mean that if they had gotten to know Him on more than a surface level, if they had really paid attention and grown close to Him in relationship, they would have no need to ask questions about the Father for they would know Him also in Christ.
Keep in mind that Jesus has just told them in no uncertain terms that He is leaving. He is leaving and they cannot follow. Even His assurance that they will follow later does little if anything to ease their minds, for Peter says, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now?”
Well, the fact is, they still don’t understand. They are saddened that Jesus has said He is leaving them, they are confused about the things He is saying that seem to indicate events are not going to transpire the way they had expected, and they are probably even physically weary at this point which also takes its toll during times of emotional unease.
So Jesus is very graciously speaking clearly and plainly now because there are truths they must know to help them survive the coming days and the first thing they need to know and comprehend is that Jesus is God.
All along, He has said on numerous occasions that He came from the Father. He has said the Father sent Him. He has declared that His words and His works were given Him by the Father to do. He is even going to say that once more here in verse 10.
But in the opening line of verse 7 Jesus is very plainly telling them that to know Him is to know the Father, and here is why that should have been a most encouraging truth for them to grasp.
Imagine you are about to go on a long trip to a place you have never seen. You have been assured that the people there are friendly and the person who is in charge there, who is going to be there upon your arrival, is kind and generous and good and looking forward to your company. You have never seen him; you don’t even know what he looks like. So even with assurances you are just a little apprehensive about the trip. It’s all going to be so new.
Now think about the person closest to you in your life, whomever that may be, and imagine that person, as you are packing to leave, saying, ‘By the way, I’ve held this back until now so I could surprise you; I’m going ahead and I will be the one to greet you when you get to that strange land. I have actually already been there and I know the place well, and I am intimately familiar with the person in charge, and mine will be the first face you see’.
Wouldn’t that put your mind at ease immediately about the whole trip? The person you love most in the whole world is going to be there with you, and even better, they are going ahead so you don’t have to spend one moment there in the company of only strangers.
Well, they have been with Jesus for over three years and at this point we don’t need to go down the list of experiences they have had with Him and the teaching He has given them and the miracles they have witnessed and so on. They are comfortable with Jesus, they love Him, they are saddened at the news He is going away, and now they are even further troubled because He has said they cannot follow but will follow later, and finally Jesus fundamentally says, ‘Don’t worry about what kind of reception you will receive from the Father; He won’t treat you any differently than I because we are One’ The more you know Me the more you will know the Father.
What is He telling them? I AM GOD! Jesus is not a manifestation of God, Jesus is not a reflection of God, Jesus is not a small sample of God like a chip off of a larger diamond.
For more than three years they have seen a Man. They have eaten with Him, walked with Him, watched Him wash dust off of His feet in a clear stream (probably) and do all the things a man does, except sin of course. They have seen Him perspire in the heat, shiver in the cold; they’ve seen Him respond to rejection and laugh with joy at seeing the dawning of belief in people’s eyes, and they’ve probably even believed that He really did come down from the Father as the Messiah, anointed of God to do good works.
Now, they need to understand that He is God.
They’re not getting it though. “Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Why is he asking that? Well, who needs faith if you have sight. Right?
Thomas had wanted a road map, now Philip wants a face to look for when they get there. Sadly, he asks to see what Jesus had just told him he has already seen and known.
‘If you know Me you know the Father’. ‘Show us the Father’. What?
I can’t help thinking there might have been some sadness in Jesus’ own voice when He responded. “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’?”
They still didn’t get it, but they would later and that was why He was telling them these things here. How does this make any sense?
Well, the main thing we need to understand is that Jesus didn’t mean that right then, that night and at that very moment they knew the Father and Him in the intimate way He is declaring to them. Obviously not, because each time one of them has opened his mouth during this discourse it is confirmed to us that they didn’t get it. Peter – “Why can I not follow now?” Thomas – “We don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?” Philip – “Lord, show us the Father”.
And of course since we know the rest of the story we know that at His arrest they ran off and hid and deserted Jesus, and we know that even after His resurrection they were in hiding, doubting, still saddened and confused, still refusing to believe unless they could see.
But when Jesus said ‘from now on you know Him, and have seen Him’, He was speaking in the same sense that He was in verse 4 when He said ‘And you know the way where I am going’. They didn’t, and He knew they didn’t at that moment, but He knew that the events of the coming days and then the coming of the promised Holy Spirit would bring the fulfilling of His declaration here in the privacy of this room.
And after His resurrection, one by one and two by two, they saw Him, they watched Him eat fish and bread, they heard Him speak, and they began to really believe; really trust; really know.
The two from Emmaus said, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke to us on the way?” Thomas bowed down and said “My Lord and…” Listen now… “…my God”! Were they getting it now? You bet!
Then about 40 some days later the Holy Spirit came as promised – the gift of the Father to the Son to give to the church – and Peter and the others immediately stepped out of hiding into the open air, into the crowded Jerusalem streets and in what could only possibly be a Holy Spirit-inspired and empowered sermon, declared Jesus as Lord and the one David called Lord, meaning God, and that He had risen from the dead and ascended back to the Father’s right hand, and that repentance and salvation were now available to ‘as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself’.
They got it.
BELIEVE ME, BELIEVE THE WORKS (10-11)
Listen again to verses 10 and 11.
“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. 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
There is something here that strikes me as odd and I wonder if it has you. Jesus, at this point in their relationship, should not be having to call for belief, should He? Remember, the only ones in the room are the ones who should know Him best, yet they are still expressing little faith, and He is having to say, ‘Believe in God, believe also in Me’. ‘If you had known Me, you would have known the Father also’. ‘Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?’
Do you think they are only now beginning to hear things from Jesus about the Father and about Heaven and eternal life? No! He has spent much time teaching them and they have been there to listen when He was teaching the multitudes. What do you think He was teaching them? Well, what does any preacher teach? God’s Word!
I guess I should qualify that; preachers are supposed to teach God’s Word; that isn’t necessarily happening in many cases these days. But Jesus certainly did.
When on the road to Emmaus Jesus began from Moses and all the prophets to teach them things concerning Himself, do you think that was the first time He had done so? No. I think that is exactly what He had been doing for over three years. Preaching from the Scriptures, which then consisted of Moses, which is the Law, primarily the first 5 books of the Bible, and all the prophets…things concering Himself.
Yet here they are on the last night they’ll spend together. Jesus is going to be crucified within about the next 12 hours, and He is having to say, ‘Believe in Me, believe I am in the Father and the Father in Me, believe my words and if that’s too tough at least believe the works.’
He’s really being gracious, isn’t He? They’ve been asking for signs and for visible proofs all along while Jesus has consistantly been calling for faith, but now for the sake of strengthening their little faith He is saying ‘remember the works’. Remember all the things you’ve seen Me do that only God can do! You don’t even have to go back far, guys. A couple of weeks ago you saw Me give sight to a man born blind, and shortly after that you saw Me call our friend Lazarus out of the grave.
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me”
What about this statement? “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative…”
There are a number of instances in this Gospel where Jesus makes this same assertion. Two of them are 7:16 and 14:24, but listen to chapter 12 verses 49-50
“For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”
What does Jesus mean when He says that His words are not His but the Fathers? Doesn’t Jesus have authority to speak? I mean, the whole point here is that He is God, right? Yes.
But Jesus came to do the Father’s will. Remember something we have said many times in the past. The Son of God temporarily lay aside the independent prerogative of His own divine attributes and made Himself dependant on the Father. It says in Philippians 2 that He humbled Himself taking the form of a bondservant, not considering equality with God a thing to be clung to.
Therefore the writer to the Hebrews explains that God, who in times past spoke to us through the prophets in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son. Jesus is the Word of God.
So Jesus came and instead of saying, ‘These are My words spoken out of My authority’, He said ‘I get My words directly from the Father and I tell them to you’. Jesus did not come to judge the world but to save it. But the words that He said, since they are from God, judge the world when the world rejects them and rejects the One who brought them.
No one else ever said ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in Me’. This is a claim to Deity in and of itself. The Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son. Therefore the Son does not act or speak independantly, but the Father speaks through the Son so that they are acting together and as One. The Father gives the words and the works and the Son speaks them out…carries them out… so how can you say, ‘show us the Father’?
Do you not believe?
In verse 10 when Jesus asks ‘Do you not believe…’ the word believe is in the singular; so there Jesus is still addressing Himself directly to Philip. But in verse 11 the word believe is plural, indicating that He has now turned His attention back to the entire group as He says, “Believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
Jesus is telling them, I am God, I am one with the Father. If you knew Me you would know the Father also. Now is the time to believe. Believe My words, which are not My own but the words of the One who sent me, and remember the works, and by this your faith should be strengthened. Dark days ahead, guys…you’re going to need to hang on to the things I’m telling you now so that your faith will survive. I am leaving you, but I am God, so when I say I’m going to prepare you a place, and when I say I am coming back for you, you should believe My words and take them to heart.
But wait; there’s more!
DO GREAT WORKS, ASK GREAT THINGS (12-14)
Remembering that this is the comfort chapter and that Jesus is talking to a group of men who are at that moment confused and sad, imagine the encouragement these words should bring.
“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. 13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Jesus has been talking about belief. He has been calling for belief from those who should have been first in line with their faith. They should have been right there! Jesus said it, I believe it, that settles it!
Believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. Remember the works you have witnessed as I have performed them and believe. Now Jesus is going to bring it home; bring it right down to how their faith will immediately benefit them and glorify God.
‘Truly, truly, (amen, amen) 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’
Now this seems to be a strange thing for Jesus to say on the surface, and I know that in some denominational circles it has been grossly misapplied.
Obviously, no one is ever going to do greater works than Jesus did in power or in quality. It is impossible to try to make that application and make any sense. Jesus gave life to the dead. Jesus gave sight to the blind. Jesus multiplied small amounts of food and fed thousands. Jesus walked on water and commanded nature and was obeyed.
To understand what He said to His apostles here I think we need to start with the last phrase of verse 12. “…because I go to the Father.”
What did Jesus do when He went to the Father? He sent the Holy Spirit, right? He will be teaching them much more about that in the coming verses, but we already know that the Holy Spirit came because Jesus went. He went back to the Father and He sent the Holy Spirit who indwelt every believer, and through the believer does the things Jesus did. Therefore the works that Jesus did, ever since the day of Pentecost after His ascension, have been done on a larger scale and all over the world through believers.
Now I do believe that in part what He was saying was only for the Apostles. They actually did do some of the miracles Jesus did which affected the establishing of the early church. So many miracles were happening through Peter that people were bringing their sick and lame out and laying them in the streets when Peter walked by because many were being healed just because his shadow passed over them.
God was doing this to help people’s faith and further anchor His new church in the world.
Listen to what the writer to the Hebrews says about the early proclamation of the Gospel.
“After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” Heb 2:3b-4
After the Lord spoke it, He went back to the Father and then it was confirmed to us by ‘those who heard’, that would be the Apostles; and God added His testimony to their message by performing signs and wonders through them, through spiritual gifts given to them, according to his own will.
It was God doing it through the Apostles by the Holy Spirit, and all the signs and wonders they performed were according to His will in the establishment of the church and in glorifying the Son in whose name the church lived.
This was a special time and these things were being done for a special purpose, and once that purpose of God was completed they stopped. That is not to say that God does not heal or do other things in space and time that we would consider miracles; it does not mean that we shouldn’t pray for the sick or intercede for those in trials. The New Testament tells us to. James teaches that if anyone is sick they should call upon the elders of the church to come and pray for them.
But when Jesus was talking to the eleven there in the Upper Room, He was speaking specifically of the things the Holy Spirit would do to confirm their testimony after He returned to the Father.
And that was an important message for them to get. He had said He was leaving. Peter said ‘why can’t I go with you?’ Thomas said ‘how will we follow?’ Philip said ‘give us a vision to get us through’. Jesus said, this is a good thing and it is a necessary thing that I go back to the Father.
Why? Because Jesus on the earth was in one place at a time and He covered a very small area and had a very small response to His ministry. Jesus in the believer, however, well, He can be all over the world bringing glory to the Father and spreading the Good News to every continent, every nation, every people group.
“Because I go to the Father”
Well, the last thing we need to cover is this invitation from Jesus, which was for the Apostles and also for us, to ask anything in His name and get a positive answer to prayer.
Now here again there is a key phrase. It is ‘in My name’.
If that wasn’t there then what Jesus said to them would have been a carte blanche to be as selfish as our self-centered, evil hearts desired. But that is the kind of ‘jesus’ many are preaching these days, isn’t it?
The teaching in many places and from some celebrity preachers is as though Jesus simply said, “Whatever you ask, that will I do, so that you will be glorified by the things I give you”
The “What Would Jesus Do” people would better serve the church if they would come out with a “What Would Jesus Ask” bracelet. Because, Christians, that is exactly what we should be seeking to know when we go to prayer and take our requests to God.
Would Jesus ask the Father for this? Because that’s what is happening when we pray and actually ask for things according to His will. We’re asking the Father to answer our prayer so that Jesus might be glorified, and when it is according to His will Jesus is the one who brings the answer so that the Father will be glorified.
If we kept that in mind it would change a whole lot of our praying, wouldn’t it? We might catch ourselves frequently starting out with “Lord, please give me…oh…um…never mind. Let me start over…”
Listen. Jesus said, ‘Whatever you ask in My name…’ and by that He meant according to His character, according to His will according to who He is.
Our saying, “In Jesus’ name, Amen”, does not necessarily mean we have prayed in Jesus’ name. Let me repeat; have we asked for something that Jesus would ask for? Have we desired a result that would please and glorify the Father?
Any prayer request that does not glorify His name cannot be asked in His name.
“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son”. So that the Father may be glorified in the Son. So I will repeat: Any prayer request that does not glorify His name cannot be asked in His name.
Do we always know what to pray for and how to pray? No, we do not. We are even told that we do not.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; “ Romans 8:26
We have the Spirit’s help in knowing how to pray, but when in our minds we don’t know, that is why it is wise always to pray, ‘Thy will be done’, as long as it is truly the desire of our heart that in any situation, God’s will be done. That is also something that can be prayed disingenuously; just remember you’re praying to the One who knows your heart.
The last phrase I’ll highlight from our text is ‘I will do it’. Jesus said that twice; in verse 13 and again in 14. Jesus is the one who brings the answer; He is the one who does it. If He does not then it does not get done. He’s still the Vine and we only the branches. He is the one who sent the Holy Spirit and He is the one who accomplished the work that saves men and glorifies the Father.
Therefore He is the one who will do what you have asked in His name and according to His character and according to His will.
So there it is. Words of comfort and encouragement from Jesus to eleven clueless, selfish disciples who can’t figure out a thing without the help of the Holy Spirit; so they really were just like us, huh?
Philip asked for something that was not according to the will of Jesus. It was not according to His will because it was prayed in ignorance of who He is, and it was prayed in faithlessness which can never bring glory to the Father.
Philip had asked for what seems at first to be a pretty big request. “Show us the Father”. Let me see God. Give me a vision. That will convince me.
Jesus actually had a plan for them and for us that was so much grander, so much bigger, so much more wonderful than a vision.
He will go on now to promise them all the help they’ll ever need to live Godly in an ungodly world; and the promise is for us also, and all whom the Father chooses to call to Himself. And it’s going to be absolutely amazing. So if the Lord wills we will continue this chapter and be amazed.
