Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 14. We'll be looking at verses 7 through 11 this morning in our study of God's Word. In this text are these words of Jesus, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And that would be the most important focal point of this message today. John 14 verse 7, Jesus is speaking. He's replying to Thomas who had asked a question. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do 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 with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever 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 authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or else believe on account of the works themselves. In our last study in the Gospel of John, we mulled over a question put to Jesus by Thomas, and then we focus most of our attention on the answer that Jesus gave. The question is recorded in verse five, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? He raised this question after Jesus had told his disciples, you know the way where I'm going. Jesus was going back to the father, but Jesus would go to the father's house in a different way then they would go. Jesus would go to the Father's house after he had laid down his life for them. They would go to the Father's house, and that's us too, through faith in him. So his act of redemption would open up the only way for them to enter God's presence and reside in glory forevermore. Thomas's question led to one of the greatest statements Jesus ever made, and we examined that, I think, fairly thoroughly last week, where Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. So Jesus left off speaking about the way he was taking to the Father, and address the way the disciples must travel. And he told them that he was the way. And not only was he the way, he added in the truth and the life. And then he made that statement, which is most controversial in our pluralistic society. Jesus said that no one comes to the Father except through me. He's the only way of salvation. There are not multiple paths that lead to God. There's one path, one way, and that way is Jesus. Salvation is exclusively in Jesus Christ. But if you want to go to heaven, come to him. It's inclusive. All who believe. will be saved and receive eternal life. Well, after stating that no one could come to the father except through him, Jesus followed with an affirmation of the unique relationship between he and his father. Jesus said in verse seven, if you had known me, you would have known my father also. And then he made this sweet promise, these words of comfort, from now on you do know him and have seen him. Jesus had been addressing Thomas, verses five and six, but now he addresses the others too. We know that because the second person pronoun in verse seven, used three times, is plural. Now modern English doesn't distinguish between the singular and the plural. The King James did. You and ye. And you find that ye here. These disciples had not yet put all the pieces of the puzzle together. They were slow in learning the things Jesus had taught them. They were dull of hearing. They'd come a long way in their understanding, but they should have known. More should have registered in their minds and hearts. The bottom line of Jesus's teaching is that to know him is to know the father. Now he's going to clarify that further in the next few verses. You remember how this chapter begins. Jesus called them not only to believe the Father, but also to believe Him. Let not your hearts be troubled. And our version has a command, believe in God. Some have the indicative, you believe in God. But the latter part, believe in God, believe also in me. So the object of faith is both the Father and the Son. And both are intertwined mysteriously in eternal union, and of course, that includes the Holy Spirit as well. So Jesus comforted them. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. So their eyes were beginning to open. They were beginning to see who Jesus really was. They had been grappling with so many issues. Of course, this truth came home in a very direct fashion after the resurrection of Jesus. It is difficult for anyone to comprehend the relationship between the Father and the Son. Christians are, as the Jews were and are, monotheistic. And it is difficult for monotheists to understand how the Father and the Son could be one. how they could be distinct persons, but only one God. And that's what the disciples were struggling to understand. They heard all these claims of deity by Jesus. Every I am statement was a claim to deity. And we have one right here in this context. I am the way, the truth, and the life. It's interesting that as the disciples struggled to understand this, the enemies of Jesus didn't struggle. They knew exactly what Jesus was saying. They sought on several occasions to stone him because in the words of John 10, 33, they said, you being a man, make yourself God. So even though he had spoken clearly, the disciples were struggling to understand a Trinitarian monotheism. Well, our Lord's comment in verse seven brought a response from another disciple. The first disciple to raise the question was Thomas. Now here we have another disciple, Philip, and he stepped forward with a request, Lord, Show us the Father. And it is enough for us. What was Philip asking for? He was asking for a visible manifestation of the Father. It sounds like he wanted to have an experience like many people in the Old Testament had. Some under the Old Covenant experienced what theologically is called a theophany. A theophany is a direct physical or visual manifestation of the presence of God. The Old Testament reading was about Jacob who wrestled with the Lord. He saw God in some fashion. Moses had the same experience. God revealed himself to him in the burning bush. visible manifestation of God's glory. Isaiah had that same experience when he saw in the temple God exalted, highly lifted up, and the seraphim crying, holy, holy, holy. Now those people in old covenant days did not actually see God himself, that's impossible, but they saw a miraculous effect of God's presence. And Philip, it seems, wanted to have a dramatic experience like that. But let's look at this and see how foolish that was. He had something greater than a burning bush, than an angel of the Lord, than some manifestation of the holy God in the temple. He witnessed the physical presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, come into the world in the flesh. Now, His glory was veiled by His humanity. His glory was hidden, except on a few occasions where His radiant glory burst through. The one we think of most often is the Mount of Transfiguration and three of the disciples were there. Peter later wrote about it in 2 Peter chapter 1 and they saw the majesty of God in that. But on the Mount of Transfiguration they saw the radiant glory of Jesus Christ and that's what Philip is asking for. Now remember Philip has been with Jesus from the outset. Go back to chapter 1 verse 43 and you read about his conversion. And so all these years, three years had passed, he had heard the words of Jesus, he had witnessed the works of Jesus, he lived with God incarnate for three years and now he foolishly asked Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus we would be reassured If you showed us the Father, that would be enough, that would be sufficient. Well, let's look at Jesus' response to Philip. Our Lord had made clear his relationship with the Father many times before, recorded several times in this Gospel. But with patience and grace, Jesus returns to the subject to teach these slow learners once again about the nature of his relationship with the Father. Now, I suppose you would join me in saying we ought not be too hard on these disciples. Would we have fared any better if we stood where they stood? Probably not. Even though these men had been taught that he was the word who became flesh, our Lord has to go back over the ground that he had covered before. So let's pick up with the conversation Jesus had with Philip and of course by extension with the other disciples. First, Jesus begins the conversation with a gentle rebuke. Or Jesus said to Philip, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Philip was not content to have Jesus only. You know, there are a lot of people that way today. Oh, we need more than what we've got. That's in essence what Philip was doing. He wanted more. That's because he didn't realize fully what he had. He wanted this theophany. He wanted a physical manifestation of the Father. But he had Jesus. And our Lord's response to Philip was patient and gentle. He could have lashed out against him for his ignorance. His stubbornness, his refusal to come to grasp with these things, but he was tender and forbearing. Yet the picture is a sad one. This is ignorance without excuse. I picture a mother who's teaching her children, and some children are just more stubborn than others. Some children have a more difficult time in learning. Son, how many times am I going to have to tell you this? Let me tell you again. And then next week, son, I told you this last week. Let me tell you again. We can get frustrated, exasperated in moments like that. Jesus certainly could have been that way. He had clearly taught them, and yet they did not retain the clear teaching that they had received. Why do you think they had such a difficult time coming to terms with the relation of Jesus and the Father? Their failure was probably due to unrealistic expectations that they still harbored about what the Messiah, what they thought the Messiah ought to be like. You remember John the Baptist suffered with that, had that difficulty. That's why once when John sent messengers to Jesus asking, are you the one that is to come? Or shall we look for another? And you remember that confirming word that Jesus sent back to John through these messengers? Go and tell John what you see and hear. Now that's what Jesus is going to talk to him about here. What you see, my works. What you hear, my words. We're gonna come to that in a bit. Go back and tell John what you see and hear. What did they see and hear? The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. You see how patient Jesus was with John? And he's exercising patience with the 11 disciples now. And as he was patient with them, so he is patient with us. But that does not excuse our ignorance. We must apply ourselves in the study of scripture so that we might rightly understand. And I think the failure of many when it comes to understanding orthodox theology, proper doctrine, is because they just don't study the scriptures. They watch more TV than they read the Bible. They're engaged in all kinds of activities and hobbies more than they read the Bible. Do they ever even think about picking up a theology book? Systematic theology that MacArthur and professors and masters have written? Wayne Grudem, theology, Burkoff, not many people, average, ordinary people in the pew study theology, but all of us should to learn more, to wrestle with and grapple these great truths. The conversation of Jesus with Philip began with a gentle rebuke. But we now see next that Jesus continues the conversation with a clear revelation. After the rhetorical question, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Jesus made this astounding statement, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. And then he asked Philip, How can you say, show us the Father? Because you have seen me, and if you've seen me, you have seen the Father. Now that's the truth. I hope you'll take home with you tonight, this afternoon, this morning, whatever time of day it is. To see Jesus is to see the Father. Whoever has seen the incarnate Word has seen the Father. We often go back to the prologue of John's Gospel. Chapter 1, verse 1 through verse 18. You know how verse 1 begins. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God. Verse 14, and the Word became flesh. But remember how the prologue ends. 18, and I'm going to read the New English translation. No one has ever seen God. That's why we say those theophanies in the Old Testament, they never saw God fully. No one has ever seen God. The only one, Himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known. That's Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He himself is God. He was with the Father, in closest fellowship with the Father. And He has made God known. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. He is the one who reveals the Father to us. Now they had Jesus in the flesh. They actually heard the words. They actually saw the miracles. They live with him day in and day out. We do not see Jesus in the flesh. We see him with the eyes of faith. We have his word which tells us what he was like and the things that he did, the things that he said. So in the prologue, John declared that no one has ever seen God. There were people in the Old Testament who caught a glimpse of God's glory but they never saw him fully. We read in Exodus 33 20, it isn't possible to see God in his fullness and live. So God's total essence will never be able to be seen by us. But we can see what God is like in the person of the Son who became flesh and dwelt among us. And that's what Jesus meant when he told Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Jesus is God manifested in the flesh. He has made God known. Jesus is the one who explains, interprets, exegetes God to man because he himself as the Son is God. This wasn't new to the disciples when Jesus said to Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. This wasn't the first time anything like this had been said. Go back to John 10, I and the Father are one. Know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Go to John 12 verse 45, whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. Fast forward to chapter 17, the high priestly prayer of Jesus. In verse 11, he prayed, keep them in your name, which you have given me that they may be one, even as we are one. It couldn't be stated any clearer. The father and the son are one. We would add the Holy Spirit there too. The Holy Spirit will, much will be said of him, just in the next few verses, the helper, the comforter who come, the spirit he sends. I'll not leave you orphans. So we're going to have much about the Holy Spirit, but we're talking about one God, We sing God in three persons, blessed Trinity. The Bible teaches one God with three persons, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one in essence, one in being, but not one person. The recently elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention is from Alabama. He pastors a church down around Mobile. He made some serious errors in plagiarizing others. But it was also discovered that on the website, the doctrinal statement of the church, they had a most unorthodox statement about the Trinity. Now, when it was pointed out, they removed it quickly and corrected it, and that is good. But here's what the doctrinal statement said, talking about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that doctrinal statement said, these three are co-equal parts of one God. They're co-equal. persons, but they're not co-equal parts. Now that's sloppy at best. It is erroneous and heretical at worst. God? Three co-equal parts? A third of God is the Son? A third of God is the Father? A third of God is the Holy Spirit? No. Is Jesus very God of very God? Yes. Every man a very man. So very sloppy theology. We need to be careful how we frame these things. So Jesus said, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. The Son, the second person, shares the same nature with the Father. The Son is divine and equal to the Father in every way, though he became a man. He did not make himself God. or claimed to be God, as the Jews said, making himself God. He was God from eternity who took on flesh like us, apart from sin. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul said that Jesus was the image of the invisible God. Chapter 1, verse 15. In the next chapter, chapter 2, verse 9, he said, in him the whole fullness of deity, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And the writer of Hebrews, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Paul used the word equal in Romans or in Philippians chapter two, verse six, he's equal with the father. And the disciples knew all this because Jesus had taught it to them, but they had failed to comprehend it. And so Jesus continues here to reiterate things that he had already taught them. You know, repetition is a good thing, isn't it? It's how you learn. Have you ever learned another language? How do you learn it? Well, it's not Barney Fife fashion. Oh yeah, I got that. No, you've got to go over it again. Memorize, repeat. That's how you memorize the Scripture. It's repetition, repetition, repetition. And that's what Jesus is doing here. Notice He says in 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 authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. So this is another summary statement of things that Jesus had taught them before about his relationship with the Father. So he's highlighting here that ignorance wasn't their only problem. They also were demonstrating lack of faith. Look at that verse again. Do you not believe? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Sometimes we have to believe what's difficult and what's hard to believe. We might give up and say, but God's just too complicated. We really can't understand Him. Well, it's a good thing He's complicated because if He wasn't, and we could understand him, well, he'd be just like us. We ought to expect mystery when we come to try to understand the things about God. So sometimes we have to believe what's difficult to understand. That doesn't mean that faith is a leap in the dark. That doesn't mean that faith is irrational. It only means that there are some things in the words of the Apostle Peter, 2 Peter chapter three, There are some things that are hard to understand. Who among us can really understand the Trinity? We often use bad analogies to try to explain the Trinity. I think every analogy I've ever heard is a bad analogy to explain the Trinity. And I have used those in the past. I didn't know better. as bad off as these disciples were. I used to say things like, well, I'm a father, I'm a son, and I'm a husband. That helps me understand the Trinity. No, that's a poor analogy of the Trinity. Well, it's like an egg. You got the shell and the white part and the yellow part. No, that's a bad analogy. We just have to say we can't fully grasp it. Who among us can comprehend the deity of Jesus? How can He be a man and be God at the same time? How can He be fully God and fully man? We can't fully grasp it. But we are called to believe many things that we cannot fully understand. We are called to believe Jesus who said, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The doctrine isn't simple, but a look at the life of Jesus ought to dispel our darkness because his life backs up his claim and provides overwhelming evidence of the truth of his words. Listen to his words. Look at His works. His words and words find place in Jesus' appeal to their faith. Note, the words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works. And then the next verse, verse 11, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. We saw this play out in chapter 10. The Jews cornered Jesus. They said, if you are the Christ, tell us plainly. And he replied, I told you and you do not believe. They refused to believe all that Jesus had told them. He had disclosed to them that he was the long-awaited Messiah. But at that point, Jesus directed them away from his words to his works. For John 10, verse 25, the works that I do in my Father's name bears witness about me. So the works Jesus did confirmed the words Jesus said. What are his works? They are the miracles he performed, the mighty acts. They were irrefutable evidence of his mighty words. You will remember, of course, that in John's gospel, the miracles are called signs and seven of them are recorded. These signs give visible, tangible revelation about the truth of Jesus, the signs he performed, proved he was the Christ, the Son of God who became man. Go back to chapter 9. Go back to chapter 11 and you'll see two of our Lord's greatest miracles, two of his greatest signs. He gave sight to a man born blind and no one had ever seen that before. And he raised the man from the dead. who had been in the tomb for days. And those mighty signs point directly to his messianic claims. If you struggle with believing what I say, at least look at my works and believe on me because of the things I do. The very argument that Jesus used with unbelievers, words and works, he is appealing to his own disciples now. My words and my works. And these are things that could not be denied. Back in chapter 10, Jesus told his opponents, if I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. That's fair, isn't it? But if I do them, even though you do not believe in me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. The very language that we have used here. Our Lord's mighty works were signs of his unique relationship with the Father. John MacArthur says, if Jesus did not do the works of the Father, they would have been right to refuse to believe him. On the other hand, because he did do them, they should have put aside their reluctance to believe his words and chosen instead to believe the clear testimony of his works. What our Lord is saying here is anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear ought to believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God. He told the Jews who he was by what he said. He showed them who he was by what he did. his works attested to the truth of his words. That's why we say the miracles Jesus did are important. They have evidential value. Put to that, the greatest of them all, he rose from the dead. And so these things reveal who he is. James Montgomery Boyce said, belief is as objective and tangible as the words and works of Jesus. Jesus does not call us to blind faith. He calls us for a thinking faith. He here challenges faith by asking us to test his claims on the basis of the things said and the deeds done. So the very message that Jesus delivered to his enemies in John 10, he imparts to his disciples in the upper room in John 14. Who else could do what he did? No one. So believe his words about his unique relationship with the Father. But I can't fully understand it. Believe his words. The Father is revealed in the Son. What these disciples have been witnessing the past three years as they live with Jesus day by day, as they traveled with Jesus from one place to another, was nothing less than the revelation of the Father in the Son. And yet, as D.A. Carson says, the disciples are still asking to see the Father when all along they have been enjoying the brightest possible revelation of the Father without recognizing it. So slow is the mind of man in thinking over spiritual things that he stumbles over central truths that have been taught again and again. One more thing in this passage. The conversation of Jesus with Philip began with a gentle rebuke, continued with a clear revelation, and now it extends to a bold reminder. Remember how this chapter began. Believe in God, Jesus said, believe also in me. And I want to reemphasize the words here in verse 11. Believe in me, Jesus said. Believe in me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The word believe here, used twice, does not mean begin to believe, but go on believing. Go on believing what you really already know. Go on believing what you already believe. You see, their faith was wavering, they were unsure. But the fire had not been extinguished. They were not to remain in their ignorance. They were to grow in grace and the knowledge of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so he says, keep on believing, keep on trusting, keep on growing in your knowledge of me. And he says that to us. There are always going to be challenges to our faith. But we must not waffle. We must not desert him who called us in the grace of Christ and turn to a different gospel. That's what Paul said to the Colossians. And to the Colossians, let us continue in the faith. stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel. And throughout the book of Hebrews we read things like we do in chapter 10 verse 39, let us not be of those who shrink back and are destroyed but are of those who have faith and preserve their soul. You remember John 6, great crowds coming, Jesus had fed 5,000 Oh, they wanted to inaugurate him as king. He began to preach to them. They didn't like what he said. And most all of them walked away. And he said to the 12, do you want to go away too? And that's when Peter made the great confession, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life. Friends, we are seeing people abandon the faith all around us today. We all know people who were active in church, maybe a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. They don't even go to church anymore. Or some of them say, might be. If they are, I tell them you better duck. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges as sons. But many of those folks were never in the faith. You remember, I gave the wrong reading to Bob for the New Testament reading this morning, and I didn't catch it until he said, turn to Luke 23. It was supposed to be Luke 24. But I'm confident whatever portion of the word of God is read, it's good for our souls, right? What Paul said to Timothy, until I come, give attention, devote yourself. to the public reading of scripture. So we were blessed in that. But it was supposed to be Luke 24. That's where Jesus joined two disciples, we don't know who they were, as they were traveling on the road to Emmaus. And they failed to recognize him. Do you remember what Jesus said to them, Luke 24, 25? Oh, foolish ones. and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Dear friends, that's exactly the frame of mind of Philip here and the other disciples. They were slow of heart to believe, to believe his words. And if you don't believe his words, do you believe him? There are people around us today who say, oh, I believe in Jesus, I just don't believe half of what He said. Well, that's not the same Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you will believe His words. Like what Richard Phillips said, Jesus validated His coming by fulfilling all that was foretold Him in the prophecies and He displayed in His words and deeds the work of God for the salvation of men. His dual testimony, His words and His works leave us without excuse if we remain in unbelief. There is literally nothing that God can do for our salvation if we will not believe in his son through his teaching and his saving deeds. Now we acknowledge that's true but at the same time we know many things Jesus revealed about himself are hard to understand and some of those things are found right here in our text. But he calls us to believe in him and if we believe in him We must believe his word. We've once again looked at a glorious revelation that Christ gave of himself. The question is, do we believe him? Do we believe his word? Now let's refresh our minds here for a moment of some of the things he says here. If you had known me, you would have also known my father. Whoever has seen me has seen the father. I am in the father and the father is in me. J.C. is absolutely right. J.C. Ryle is absolutely right when he said sayings like these are full of deep mystery. We have no eyes to see their meaning fully, no line to fathom it, no language to express it, no mind to take it in. We must be content to believe when we cannot explain and to admire and revere when we cannot interpret. Let it suffice us to know and hold that the Father is God and the Son is God and yet that they are one in essence though two distinct persons. So let's not be discouraged that we cannot understand spiritual things fully as we would like to. No mortal mind can understand the Trinity. No human mind can understand the person of Christ being fully God, fully man. But we're called to believe Him. to believe in him and to believe what he teaches is the truth because he is the way, the truth, and the life. What the disciples needed in the upper room more than anything else at that moment was to believe Jesus. and to believe that what He said was true. And that's what we need. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him? Do you believe that He is very God of very God and very man? a very man. Oh, let's ensure that we know Him. And when He calls us, we hear Him, we respond to Him, we follow Him. And let us especially be thankful for His grace, for His death on our behalf. What a costly gift that's given to us that we might be saved. Our Father and our God, we come to you pleading, asking you to help us this day to understand truth more clearly, to understand more about Jesus. We sing more about Jesus, would I know more of his saving grace And to show that to others, oh God, may we be students of your word. May our greatest interest be knowing more about Jesus. We must confess that we're slow learners, we're like Thomas, we're like Philip. Judas, another Judas, not as scarce, gonna be mentioned later in this chapter too. How slow we are, how dull of hearing we are. but quicken our minds. Help us to wrestle with these deep things and to be content, if we can't fully understand it, to know that our trust is in Jesus and Jesus alone. We pray these things in his holy name. Amen.