Knowing Jesus - John 14:8-11
Jonathan Stephen -
To know God is man's most basic need. That is hardly surprising because, according to the Lord Jesus Christ, to know God is to possess eternal life (John 17:3). To know God speaks of an intimate, loving union which can never be broken.
In further preparation for his imminent departure, Jesus wants his disciples to understand more fully the eternal security that knowing him has given them. In these verses, he is not questioning their salvation, simply the extent and depth of their knowledge of him and its spiritual implications. Their spiritual situation was far more privileged than they had yet come to perceive.
Seeing
God
Talk of 'seeing the Father' in verse 7 is deliberately provocative - and Philip takes the bait in verse 8. He hasn't understood what Jesus has been saying but he knows he would love to experience a theophany, an appearance of God, like the favoured saints of the Old Testament. Just as Moses cried out: 'Now show me your glory' (Exodus 33:18), so Philip here longs for a vision of his Creator. Deep in the innermost being of us all is the desire to see the One in whose image we have been fashioned. And from the remarkable prophetic insight of ancient Job (19:23-27) to the apostle John himself (1 John 3:2), it has been revealed that we shall!
What we need to recognise is that every appearance of God has been, and will be, an appearance of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. Read John 1:14,18; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3. These passages of Scripture are simply recognising what Jesus has himself said (John 12:44-45).
Jesus
is God
Though Jesus' enemies grasped Jesus' claims to be God readily enough (John 5:18; 10:33), his
-friends, ironically, did not. It was now time they did. Jesus replies to Philip's request in verses 9-11. Repeatedly in these verses we are told that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. This 'mutual indwelling' speaks of the total unity of the Godhead (compare John 10:30). That is why, when the Son speaks the Father works (verse 10). The words and the works are both expressions of an identical will. Whether Philip grasped the enormity of what Jesus was saying at this point or had to wait for the aid of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we do not know. But we may make four important and practical applications:
If
you want to know God, you have to know Jesus
Read Matthew 11:27. Jesus is the only, the complete and the final revelation of God to man. Miss him and there is no more. If knowing God sums up man's basic need, if it is to possess eternal life, then we must come to know Jesus!
We
come to know Jesus by trusting him
Three times in verses 9-11, Jesus speaks of the importance of 'believing'. All true spiritual knowledge is based on faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 11 reminds us that the highest and purest form of faith is simply taking Jesus at his word. Is that that what you do?
True
believers may know less than they should
Read the gentle rebuke of verse 9. How long have you been a Christian? Has your faith and therefore your knowledge of Jesus grown as fast as it should have done in that time? Remember Paul's passion for knowing more and more of Jesus (Philippians 3:7-11).
You
may wrongly assume that others know as little as
you do!
Philip claims to speak for his fellow disciples in verse 8, but Jesus answer is in the singular and confined to him. Philip is isolated in his ignorance: It is always better to assume that other believers know more than you do. Then you will aspire to increase in your knowledge and love of your Saviour.