John 14:7-14
Introduction
Did you feel like you ever asked a dumb question? If so then you are in good company with the disciples. In Mark chapter 8 the disciples were asking where they could possibly get food for the 4,000 people that were with Jesus. The reason that might qualify as a dumb question is that only a couple weeks earlier Jesus had fed 5,000 miraculously. Another question is found in Luke 9. The Samaritans wouldn’t give any room and board for Jesus and so on their way out of town the disciples were pretty mad and asked Jesus, “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy them?”
Well, at this point in John’s Gospel, the disciples are only full of questions. Last week we saw Thomas ask, “Where are you going and how do we get there?” This week, the disciple that asks is Philip. Actually it’s a request, He says in verse 8, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
I like Philip. Whenever the Bible talks about Philip, he is always feeding people. He is either feeding people the gospel or he is feeding them food.
1. Evangelist - In chapter 1 Philip led Nathanael to Jesus(1:46)
2. Food management/Accountant - In chapter 6 Jesus asked Philip where they would buy food for the 5,000 (6:5-7).
3. Evangelist - In chapter 12 Philip was bringing Gentiles to Jesus (12:22)
4. Food management - In Acts 6 Philip was chosen as one of the 7 men who would be in charge of the food distribution
5. Evangelist – In Acts 8 Philip is seen preaching to large crowds and then evangelizing an Ethiopian who was reading the book of Isaiah
But Philip was hungry himself. He wanted to see the Father.
The Father’s Revealed in the Son (7-9)
First, the Father has Revealed Himself to us through His Son. Notice verses 7-9, “If you really knew me you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him. Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say ‘show us the Father?”
Phillip wanted to see the Father in some way. Maybe he felt left out when Peter, James, and John saw the Transfiguration while he and the rest of the disciples didn’t get to.
But Phillip’s problem was that He was trying to see the Father through some other way than Jesus. He was noble to seek the Father, but He was in error to seek the Father by some other way than Jesus.
In answering Phillip, Jesus points to Himself, “Have I been around you for so long and you still don’t recognize Me?”
---Philip said, “just show us the Father” ----but Jesus says, “just look at Me.”
What Phillip was learning was that everything he knew to be true of Jesus was true of the Father. He did see the Father – he had been watching the Father in the man he’d been following for 3 years. He knew the Father because he knew Jesus Christ.
Application: Have you been around Jesus for a long time but still don’t recognize Him for who He is? Have
Jesus makes the Father known. That is the theme John started with in this Gospel. In chapter 1 verses 18 he says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” (1:18; 17:26).
That phrase “has made him known” is the Greek word “exegeomai”, and it means to explain forth, or, to describe. Jesus is the perfect description of the Father. He is the perfect explanation of the Father. Everything that God wants man to know about Him is contained in the person of His Son. A man who wants to have knowledge of God can only find it in Jesus Christ. Knowing Christ is knowing the Father. Who He is is the perfect and complete explanation of the Father.
Application: As Jesus is the perfect description of the Father, so that people could know what the Father is like, are we accurate descriptions of what Christ is like? Do we show Him? In other words, does my person conform to the person of Jesus Christ? “We are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory…” (2 Cor 3:18).
Revealing the Father was the objective of Jesus ministry. He prayed in 17:26, “I have made you known to them and I will continue to make you known to them…” John 17:3, Knowing the Father is eternal life. Eternal life is defined as knowing the Father and the Son. If you want to have eternal life you have to know the Father and the One He sent, Jesus Christ.
Application: What does “knowing” mean? It starts by knowing the claims Jesus made. What did He say? But knowing is more than just memorizing or being familiar with what Jesus said. It is not just knowing about someone. It is knowing them personally.
Illustration: FB Creeping, checking Annie out. You can know about someone by looking at their FB page. Knowing in the Bible means knowing by relationship. It is knowing someone by personal interaction and personal experience with them.
Verses 10-11
Notice next in verses 10-11, the reasons to believe. Jesus gives them 2 reasons to believe He is the revelation of the Father in verses 10-11, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”
Jesus wants them to believe that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. This phrase occurs twice in this passage here where He is talking privately to His disciples. But, we read Jesus say it before in 10:37-38 when He was speaking to the unbelieving Jewish crowds.
This was a full-on claim to be God. This was a statement by Jesus to be nothing less than equal with God. This is the point of John’s Gospel – to show us that Jesus is God. Each Gospel has a certain emphasis on the nature of Jesus –they each have a particular angle, or flavor.
Matthew shows Jesus as the King of the Jews. Mark shows Jesus as the servant. Luke emphasizes His humanity. But, John, is writing to emphasize that Jesus is God. And from the very beginning of His gospel He says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The
The word, “believe” occurs 3 times in these 2 verses, which is no surprise because believing is the theme of John’s gospel (20:31). As a matter of fact, the word “believe” occurs 98 times throughout this gospel alone. That is more than 3 times as many occurrences in all 3 other gospels combined. If there is one thing John wants to change in your life when you’re done reading his gospel, it’s that you’d believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Jesus wants His disciples to understand that the Father is in Him, and that He is in the Father. His point is the oneness, the unity, the equality between Himself and the Father. And He gives the disciples two reasons to believe this:
First, His words are the Father’s words. “The words I say to you are not just my own” He says. His words He spoke were provided to Him by the Father to speak to the world. We see this again and again in the Scriptures.
In verse 24 when He says, “These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
In chapter 3:34, “For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.”
In chapter 7:16, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me.”
In chapter 12:49, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.”
In chapter 17:8, when He prayed to the Father, “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.”
His words were the Father’s words, and so, His words were powerful with men. After preaching the Sermon on the Mount, it says in Matthew 7:28-29 that “the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”
Another great example of how powerful His words were is in John 7, when the temple guards were sent to arrest Jesus. They came to Jesus to arrest Him, but, they heard Him preaching and they couldn’t bring themselves to do it. And when they returned back to the leaders empty handed they were asked why they didn’t arrest Him. The guards said in verse 46, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”
So Jesus wants His disciples to His works are the Father’s works (5:36; 10:25, 37-38)
The Son Revealed in You (v12)
Believers will extend the work Jesus did.
The Apostles were enabled to do powerful signs and wonders and miracles in order to authenticate themselves as apostles and authenticate the message they preached. But, Jesus wasn’t saying all believers will be able to perform powerful miracles. He was speaking about His total ministry of bringing the Gospel to the lost. Anyone who has received the Gospel themselves will be bringing the Gospel to others. As Jesus led a life of commitment to the Father’s will, and, to glorify the Father, so too will Christ’s followers live a committed life to his will and to glorifying the Father.
Application: Are we doing what Jesus did?
Believers will enlarge the scope of what Jesus did
“Greater things” does not mean that Jesus’ followers will do more powerful and spectacular miracles than those that Jesus did. It’s not the miracles, but, the ministry that will become greater than Jesus’ own.
Jesus never left Palestine, but, His followers would go into all the world (Acts 1:8).
Jesus had a limited outreach to the Gentiles, but, His disciples would reach the Gentile world with the Gospel.
The number of believers from Christ’s ministry was in the hundreds, the number of believers from the disciple’s ministry was thousands (Peter’s sermon alone on Pentecost resulted in 3,000 converts, Acts 2:41)
Verses 13-14
Now notice verses 13-14, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.”
Prayer is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. We can approach Him through prayer. Because of our relationship to the Father through Jesus Christ, we have the attention of the Eternal Creator. Notice a few things Jesus says here about our prayer life T.W. Hunt Ask (Mth 7:7-12; Lk 11:1-13; Jam 4:2b-3)
First, we should pray in all things. “You may ask me for anything..” Paul said the same thin in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he said, “Pray continually”, which means in every circumstance and in regards to all matters that face us. The point is to develop a continuous stream of communication with God in our everyday life; growing a mind that is directed towards God daily in all moments of the day.
Secondly, we are to pray according to Jesus Name. Twice Jesus says, “ask in my name”. That means according to His will, His purposes. This is the great contingency in prayer. Asking in Jesus name is not asking selfishly for our wants and then slapping His name on the end of a prayer. It’s not some magic formula to get what we want. That’s witchcraft and that’s idolatry.
Asking in Jesus name is asking according to Jesus name. That means seeing things from His perspective and then wanting what He wants and asking for it. This means that through prayer we conform our will to His will, our attitude to His attitude, and our desires to His desires.
I like how T.W. Hunt describes asking according to Jesus’ name, “The context of John 14:14 indicates that this promise is for disciples, learners of Jesus who are anxious to do His will. The name of Jesus is your legal authorization for prayer. Without Him you would have no claim on God’s attention. However, when you offer your prayer in Jesus’ name, you base your prayer on Jesus’ moral worth, His purity, and His value to the Father. You base your requests on the legal authority of His name. When you approach prayer for the standpoint of Jesus’ desires and reputation, your answered prayers bring God glory.”
Hunt goes on to say, “When you prepare to make a request in Jesus’ name, first ask yourself, ‘What would Jesus want in this situation?’ Let His desires become your desires. When you use His name, you claim to represent Him and to act like Him. You have His desires, His qualities, His gratitude, and His outlook.”
How do we do that? First of all, as Hunt said, you have to be a disciple, a learner of Jesus who is anxious to do His will. Second, we have to let the Holy Spirit develop the mind of Christ in ourselves. Without the mind of Christ we can’t know how to pray according to His name, His will, His desires. We come to know these things about Jesus through knowing of His Word and submitting to it in our lives.
Well, what if I don’t know how to pray according to Jesus name at this point in my life? First, become an eager disciple to know and do His will. Then, as you grow in learning His will, remember the words of Romans 8:26-27, “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because he Spirit prays for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
First, pray in all things. Pray according to Jesus name. And third, when you pray like that, know that He will answer. “I will do whatever you ask in my name…” and then, “whatever you ask in my name I will do it.” Jesus says it twice because He wants them to know that He answers prayer. Prayer is not some impotent, ineffective Christian ritual.
We are heard when we pray. We are heard when we pray in Jesus’ name because we come in His name, in His merits, seeking His will to be done. If we come in that way, then we know that what we pray for is what God wants, because the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father.
So that He brings glory to the Father.
That’s how we have confidence in prayer (1 John 5:14)
Introduction
Did you feel like you ever asked a dumb question? If so then you are in good company with the disciples. In Mark chapter 8 the disciples were asking where they could possibly get food for the 4,000 people that were with Jesus. The reason that might qualify as a dumb question is that only a couple weeks earlier Jesus had fed 5,000 miraculously. Another question is found in Luke 9. The Samaritans wouldn’t give any room and board for Jesus and so on their way out of town the disciples were pretty mad and asked Jesus, “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy them?”
Well, at this point in John’s Gospel, the disciples are only full of questions. Last week we saw Thomas ask, “Where are you going and how do we get there?” This week, the disciple that asks is Philip. Actually it’s a request, He says in verse 8, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
I like Philip. Whenever the Bible talks about Philip, he is always feeding people. He is either feeding people the gospel or he is feeding them food.
1. Evangelist - In chapter 1 Philip led Nathanael to Jesus(1:46)
2. Food management/Accountant - In chapter 6 Jesus asked Philip where they would buy food for the 5,000 (6:5-7).
3. Evangelist - In chapter 12 Philip was bringing Gentiles to Jesus (12:22)
4. Food management - In Acts 6 Philip was chosen as one of the 7 men who would be in charge of the food distribution
5. Evangelist – In Acts 8 Philip is seen preaching to large crowds and then evangelizing an Ethiopian who was reading the book of Isaiah
But Philip was hungry himself. He wanted to see the Father.
The Father’s Revealed in the Son (7-9)
First, the Father has Revealed Himself to us through His Son. Notice verses 7-9, “If you really knew me you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him. Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say ‘show us the Father?”
Phillip wanted to see the Father in some way. Maybe he felt left out when Peter, James, and John saw the Transfiguration while he and the rest of the disciples didn’t get to.
But Phillip’s problem was that He was trying to see the Father through some other way than Jesus. He was noble to seek the Father, but He was in error to seek the Father by some other way than Jesus.
In answering Phillip, Jesus points to Himself, “Have I been around you for so long and you still don’t recognize Me?”
---Philip said, “just show us the Father” ----but Jesus says, “just look at Me.”
What Phillip was learning was that everything he knew to be true of Jesus was true of the Father. He did see the Father – he had been watching the Father in the man he’d been following for 3 years. He knew the Father because he knew Jesus Christ.
Application: Have you been around Jesus for a long time but still don’t recognize Him for who He is? Have
Jesus makes the Father known. That is the theme John started with in this Gospel. In chapter 1 verses 18 he says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” (1:18; 17:26).
That phrase “has made him known” is the Greek word “exegeomai”, and it means to explain forth, or, to describe. Jesus is the perfect description of the Father. He is the perfect explanation of the Father. Everything that God wants man to know about Him is contained in the person of His Son. A man who wants to have knowledge of God can only find it in Jesus Christ. Knowing Christ is knowing the Father. Who He is is the perfect and complete explanation of the Father.
Application: As Jesus is the perfect description of the Father, so that people could know what the Father is like, are we accurate descriptions of what Christ is like? Do we show Him? In other words, does my person conform to the person of Jesus Christ? “We are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory…” (2 Cor 3:18).
Revealing the Father was the objective of Jesus ministry. He prayed in 17:26, “I have made you known to them and I will continue to make you known to them…” John 17:3, Knowing the Father is eternal life. Eternal life is defined as knowing the Father and the Son. If you want to have eternal life you have to know the Father and the One He sent, Jesus Christ.
Application: What does “knowing” mean? It starts by knowing the claims Jesus made. What did He say? But knowing is more than just memorizing or being familiar with what Jesus said. It is not just knowing about someone. It is knowing them personally.
Illustration: FB Creeping, checking Annie out. You can know about someone by looking at their FB page. Knowing in the Bible means knowing by relationship. It is knowing someone by personal interaction and personal experience with them.
Verses 10-11
Notice next in verses 10-11, the reasons to believe. Jesus gives them 2 reasons to believe He is the revelation of the Father in verses 10-11, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”
Jesus wants them to believe that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. This phrase occurs twice in this passage here where He is talking privately to His disciples. But, we read Jesus say it before in 10:37-38 when He was speaking to the unbelieving Jewish crowds.
This was a full-on claim to be God. This was a statement by Jesus to be nothing less than equal with God. This is the point of John’s Gospel – to show us that Jesus is God. Each Gospel has a certain emphasis on the nature of Jesus –they each have a particular angle, or flavor.
Matthew shows Jesus as the King of the Jews. Mark shows Jesus as the servant. Luke emphasizes His humanity. But, John, is writing to emphasize that Jesus is God. And from the very beginning of His gospel He says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The
The word, “believe” occurs 3 times in these 2 verses, which is no surprise because believing is the theme of John’s gospel (20:31). As a matter of fact, the word “believe” occurs 98 times throughout this gospel alone. That is more than 3 times as many occurrences in all 3 other gospels combined. If there is one thing John wants to change in your life when you’re done reading his gospel, it’s that you’d believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Jesus wants His disciples to understand that the Father is in Him, and that He is in the Father. His point is the oneness, the unity, the equality between Himself and the Father. And He gives the disciples two reasons to believe this:
First, His words are the Father’s words. “The words I say to you are not just my own” He says. His words He spoke were provided to Him by the Father to speak to the world. We see this again and again in the Scriptures.
In verse 24 when He says, “These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
In chapter 3:34, “For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.”
In chapter 7:16, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me.”
In chapter 12:49, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.”
In chapter 17:8, when He prayed to the Father, “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.”
His words were the Father’s words, and so, His words were powerful with men. After preaching the Sermon on the Mount, it says in Matthew 7:28-29 that “the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”
Another great example of how powerful His words were is in John 7, when the temple guards were sent to arrest Jesus. They came to Jesus to arrest Him, but, they heard Him preaching and they couldn’t bring themselves to do it. And when they returned back to the leaders empty handed they were asked why they didn’t arrest Him. The guards said in verse 46, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”
So Jesus wants His disciples to His works are the Father’s works (5:36; 10:25, 37-38)
The Son Revealed in You (v12)
Believers will extend the work Jesus did.
The Apostles were enabled to do powerful signs and wonders and miracles in order to authenticate themselves as apostles and authenticate the message they preached. But, Jesus wasn’t saying all believers will be able to perform powerful miracles. He was speaking about His total ministry of bringing the Gospel to the lost. Anyone who has received the Gospel themselves will be bringing the Gospel to others. As Jesus led a life of commitment to the Father’s will, and, to glorify the Father, so too will Christ’s followers live a committed life to his will and to glorifying the Father.
Application: Are we doing what Jesus did?
Believers will enlarge the scope of what Jesus did
“Greater things” does not mean that Jesus’ followers will do more powerful and spectacular miracles than those that Jesus did. It’s not the miracles, but, the ministry that will become greater than Jesus’ own.
Jesus never left Palestine, but, His followers would go into all the world (Acts 1:8).
Jesus had a limited outreach to the Gentiles, but, His disciples would reach the Gentile world with the Gospel.
The number of believers from Christ’s ministry was in the hundreds, the number of believers from the disciple’s ministry was thousands (Peter’s sermon alone on Pentecost resulted in 3,000 converts, Acts 2:41)
Verses 13-14
Now notice verses 13-14, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.”
Prayer is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. We can approach Him through prayer. Because of our relationship to the Father through Jesus Christ, we have the attention of the Eternal Creator. Notice a few things Jesus says here about our prayer life T.W. Hunt Ask (Mth 7:7-12; Lk 11:1-13; Jam 4:2b-3)
First, we should pray in all things. “You may ask me for anything..” Paul said the same thin in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he said, “Pray continually”, which means in every circumstance and in regards to all matters that face us. The point is to develop a continuous stream of communication with God in our everyday life; growing a mind that is directed towards God daily in all moments of the day.
Secondly, we are to pray according to Jesus Name. Twice Jesus says, “ask in my name”. That means according to His will, His purposes. This is the great contingency in prayer. Asking in Jesus name is not asking selfishly for our wants and then slapping His name on the end of a prayer. It’s not some magic formula to get what we want. That’s witchcraft and that’s idolatry.
Asking in Jesus name is asking according to Jesus name. That means seeing things from His perspective and then wanting what He wants and asking for it. This means that through prayer we conform our will to His will, our attitude to His attitude, and our desires to His desires.
I like how T.W. Hunt describes asking according to Jesus’ name, “The context of John 14:14 indicates that this promise is for disciples, learners of Jesus who are anxious to do His will. The name of Jesus is your legal authorization for prayer. Without Him you would have no claim on God’s attention. However, when you offer your prayer in Jesus’ name, you base your prayer on Jesus’ moral worth, His purity, and His value to the Father. You base your requests on the legal authority of His name. When you approach prayer for the standpoint of Jesus’ desires and reputation, your answered prayers bring God glory.”
Hunt goes on to say, “When you prepare to make a request in Jesus’ name, first ask yourself, ‘What would Jesus want in this situation?’ Let His desires become your desires. When you use His name, you claim to represent Him and to act like Him. You have His desires, His qualities, His gratitude, and His outlook.”
How do we do that? First of all, as Hunt said, you have to be a disciple, a learner of Jesus who is anxious to do His will. Second, we have to let the Holy Spirit develop the mind of Christ in ourselves. Without the mind of Christ we can’t know how to pray according to His name, His will, His desires. We come to know these things about Jesus through knowing of His Word and submitting to it in our lives.
Well, what if I don’t know how to pray according to Jesus name at this point in my life? First, become an eager disciple to know and do His will. Then, as you grow in learning His will, remember the words of Romans 8:26-27, “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because he Spirit prays for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
First, pray in all things. Pray according to Jesus name. And third, when you pray like that, know that He will answer. “I will do whatever you ask in my name…” and then, “whatever you ask in my name I will do it.” Jesus says it twice because He wants them to know that He answers prayer. Prayer is not some impotent, ineffective Christian ritual.
We are heard when we pray. We are heard when we pray in Jesus’ name because we come in His name, in His merits, seeking His will to be done. If we come in that way, then we know that what we pray for is what God wants, because the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father.
So that He brings glory to the Father.
That’s how we have confidence in prayer (1 John 5:14)
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