The Father Revealed
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 26 September 2021
John 13 through 16 are called the Upper Room Discourse. It’s unique in the gospels. No one else records this. But John does and he does in detail. This is Thursday night. This is the night that Judas left, where Jesus gathers with the disciples; and after they gather and sing a hymn, they go to the Mount of Olives, and He goes to pray. And then He is arrested; and then on Friday, He is crucified.
So this is His last night with His disciples, and He provides for them the most marvelous, commands, warnings, promises, commitments that have ever been given. This is His final will and testament to His apostles. They have an immediate application to these 11 men and they have an extended application to all of His disciples through all of history. He seals all these promises in 13 to 16 with a prayer in John 17.
That same night, when He offers that great prayer He says, “I pray not only for these, but for all who will believe in Me,” which means He’s extending these promises to all of us. It is an unparalleled portion of Scripture. We want to listen to the last words of people just before they die. Those are important things that are on their mind at the end. Well, this is our Lord’s final earthly talk with those He loves.
We looked at John 13, and it’s about love, how much Jesus loved them, and how much He wanted them to love each other. In the middle of that chapter, there are two dark moments. First, He exposes and confronts Judas who is about to betray Him. The second comes when Peter is told that he will deny Christ three times. Judas hanged himself and Peter was restored and he started the church on the Day of Pentecost.
But as we come to John 14, it’s time to comfort these disciples. They now know He is leaving. He is going to die. He has told them that repeatedly, although they had a hard time processing it. He described to them details: “I will be arrested by the chief priests and those who are in charge in Israel. I will be beaten; I will be spit on; I will be abused. I will even be lifted up. I will be crucified.”
And then He went on to tell them that in three days He would rise from the dead. And just hours before this, He had told them that the temple system would be completely destroyed; not one stone would be left on another. Divine judgment would come on Israel on Judaism. They thought the Messiah would bring divine judgment on the rest of the world. But Jesus says it’s coming on the Jews.
Jesus is saying there is a transition about to take place. “I’m handing you off to God. I am leaving.” “I go to My Father.” They understood God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They knew He was the Son of God, and now He’s saying, “I’m going to the Father,” and they are deeply troubled by this. And so He is saying, “You’ve got to trust Me and the Father.”
Nobody in the Old Testament could say, “We lived in the presence of God physically.” There were people in the Old Testament who had visions of God. There was Jacob who, in Genesis 32, wrestles with an angel. Moses in Exodus 33 and 34 has a glimpse of the glory of God. Manoah, father of Samson sees God. There’s Moses and Aaron and Nadab and Abihu who see God’s glory.
But apart from those rare and unique and muted visions of God, there’s no actual physical presence of God. Yes, there’s a cloud while they’re wandering in the wilderness, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, but nothing like God in human flesh. So this is an incredibly experience for 12 people and the women who were surrounding them and often traveled with Jesus.
That sets up the reason for verses 7 to 14, because here, our Lord wants to assure them that being handed over to God is better. Look at John 16:7, same Upper Room, same evening, a little later, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.” He wants them to understand that being handed over to the Father is better for them because Christ in His incarnation had physical limits.
So to comfort them, our Lord reveals three things. He reveals His person, His power, and His provision. And it’s all about this whole idea of getting them to be able to deal with the transition to the care of the Father. Let’s look first at the revelation of His person beginning in verses 7, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
So what they didn’t really understand was that He is God incarnate. Is He God as well? Yes. But what did that mean? What they didn’t understand is what I read to you in Colossians 1:15, that He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that He is, “The exact representation of God.” In Hebrews 1:3 it says, that Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God, the Father.
In other words, their Christology was accurate, but not complete. And, furthermore, they didn’t understand the relationship between Him and the Holy Spirit. He had told them that He did everything by the power of the Holy Spirit, and to blaspheme Him was to blaspheme the Spirit who is doing the work through Him. But they didn’t understand that. Their Trinitarian theology was not complete.
Jesus said to them, “I’m going to My Father and I’m going to My Father’s house, and in My Father’s house there are many rooms. So I’m going to start making rooms ready for you, and I’m going to come back and get you and take you there. And I am the way there; you don’t have to worry about that. I am the way; there’s no other way. Only through Me, you will get there.
“From now on, you know Him and have seen Him,” present tense. What does He mean? From this moment forward, your knowledge of the Father and My relationship to the Father is going to grow through My death and My resurrection particularly. Do you remember what happened when Thomas walked in the room and saw Jesus? John 20:28. “Thomas answered, ‘My Lord and my God.”
The resurrection was what validated His claim to be one with the Father. Then when they understood that He and God were one, they could then trust that the same care He gave them would be what God would provide for them because they were one. But there’s so much more than that. John 14:16, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”
Who is the other helper? Verse 17, “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” He’s going to give you the Holy Spirit. The Father is going to give you someone to take My place, and that someone is going to be the Holy Spirit. You’re going to have the Spirit of truth as your instructor.”
Here is our Lord instructing them on the essence of the Trinity, on the nature of the Trinity. There’s no loss with Jesus leaving. “It’s the same God who is in Christ meeting your needs, who will be back meeting your needs through the sending of the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father just as I proceeded from the Father, who is one with the Father just as I am one with the Father.”
Then in John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.” Again, the emphasis here is on instruction of truth. “He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears He will speak.” He speaks for the Trinity. He speaks for the Father, He speaks for the Son, and He will disclose to you what is to come. And He will glorify Me and the Father.
He’s making this promise. And they hadn’t heard all that I just read to you because it’s coming a little bit later. But He says, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you know Him and have seen Him. You’re going to begin now to know Him,” although that knowledge didn’t come until after the resurrection when Thomas says for everybody, “My Lord and my God.”
And then the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and all that is the Father’s and all that came through the Son comes now through the Holy Spirit, and they have the fullness of everything. And then it’s really clear to them, and they launch on the Day of Pentecost; they launch with a full Trinitarian theology. And now, Jesus says, “From now on, this will become knowledge to you.”
Philip shows at that moment they’re still ignorant. Verse 8, “Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father and it’s sufficient for us.” This is disappointing. He’s talking for the rest of these guys who are having the same problem. Maybe he’s thinking of God visiting Abraham earlier in Genesis. Maybe he’s thinking of the Mosaic vision of God, or Ezekiel, or Isaiah.
Verse 9, “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Verse 10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”
Verse 11, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.” No man has seen God at any time in His fullness. God is an invisible God. Sometimes He manifests Himself in a cloud, or a pillar of fire, or some vision; but has never manifested Himself with such clarity as He did in the person of Jesus Christ.
If you came here to see God in some vision or some form; it won’t happen. If you came to experience some supernatural revelation or some phenomena; sorry, it’s not available. If you came here to be surrounded by angels or to talk with your dead uncle; not going to happen. You’d be better to go to a séance because Satan can falsify all of that. Here, we live in faith. I have never seen Jesus.
But I believe with all my heart that God is, Christ is, and the Holy Spirit is. Why do I believe? I have this bible and it is all the evidence I need. It is obviously the revelation of God and the only one I need. I do see God revealed throughout the pages of this book. And this book has stood the scrutiny and the tests of all the true believers and all the haters and skeptics throughout history.
But we don’t live by sight, we live by faith. We are the blessed who having not seen, yet believe. So my prayer is not, “Show me God; show me Jesus; show me the angels; do a miracle; give me a mystical experience.” My prayer is the prayer of the apostles in Luke 17:5, “Lord, increase my faith.” And your faith will increase proportionately to your understanding of Scripture.
So this is the revelation of His person meant to comfort them to know that He is one with the Father, and it will have a reality that will eventually grip their hearts and anchor them down. There’s a second revelation of His power. Verse 12, “Most assuredly, 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 My Father.”
What does that mean? “You’re going to do miracles.” Read the opening of Acts. The apostles and the associates of the apostles had that miraculous power. They used their miracle power to do the very same miracles that Jesus did – miracles over disease, miracles over demons, miracles over death. That power was extended beyond Jesus, so in a sense, it’s greater in extent.
And this miracle power is multiplied through all of you starting on the Day of Pentecost.” In Acts 2, this is the power given to the apostles. It’s defined for us in 2 Corinthians 12:12, the signs and wonders, and miracles of an apostle. And it’s in Hebrews 2:4 where it says that the message the apostles preached was confirmed by signs and wonders and mighty deeds.
But when that Apostolic Era ended, there’s still a sense in which greater works are being done. Compare that Jesus’ entire ministry was in a little country about 60-plus miles long and a few miles wide. And now look what’s happened. Through the disciples of Jesus, the gospel has encircled the entire globe. It’s alive right now in the air, on the internet, through radio, media and print.
“One of the reasons that it’s better that I go away is that when I go away, you’re going to have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to come and fill up your Trinitarian understanding of Me. And you’re going to do greater works, and the works are going to get out of this little country and cover the globe. And you’re going to do even more miracles than I did because of the Holy Spirit.
And our Lord reveals to them His provision. Verses 13 – 14, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” You’ll have a clearer revelation of My person, a greater expression of My power, and you will have an unparalleled opportunity at my provision, whatever you ask in My name.”
So, what does that mean? Does that mean if you ask anything and say, “In Jesus’ name,” that will happen? No. So, ‘If you ask anything in My name,’ means that it has to be consistent with My will.” 1 John 5:14, we have this confidence that we ask anything according to His will, we know that He hears it, and if it is consistent with His person, His purposes, His perfections and His glory it will happen, Amen? Let us pray.