8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
Philip didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about. Jesus told them that anyone who has seen Jesus has seen God himself, the Father. But you must acknowledge that this was something that every Christian should want. To see the Father is the culmination of our hope. It is to be in the presence of the one who is perfect in every way, in beauty, holiness, justice, mercy, love, and even wrath. But we can’t currently exist in his presences. How badly do you want to see the Father? We will one day and I’m sure it will be enough. Enough to keep us in awe of him for eternity.
Philip thought that just one glimpse of the Father would be enough for him. He may have been thinking about Exodus 33:18-23 where Moses asked to see God’s glory. The Lord told him, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Ex 33:20 NIV). Yet God did let Moses see his back. Somehow Philip is thinking that he is going to get to do something that Moses didn’t. He is going to get to see the Father’s face, his glory, and still live.
9 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'?”
Alas, Philip still didn’t understand. This is Trinity stuff. He had been walking with the Father for the last three years and still hasn’t recognized it. We wouldn’t have either, unless the Lord had revealed it to us. Peter was only able to declare that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God because the Father had revealed it to him (Matt 16:16-17). They still hadn’t made the connection between Jesus being the Son of God and that it means he is also God, the second person of the Trinity. People still chafe against this doctrine that is an essential doctrine of Christianity. Anyone who cannot see the Father in Jesus, isn’t a true Christian.
10 “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. 11 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 doesn’t explain the whole Trinity to his disciples. What he does explain is that if you have Jesus before you, you also have the Father. If you know Jesus, then you know the Father. It is because they are in each other. You say, how can that be? If you are talking about purely physical beings, that doesn’t make sense. If you are talking about Jesus being God in the flesh, and God the Father being spirit, then it can make sense.
Jesus continues to make his point by pointing to all that he has been saying. All his preaching has been the Father speaking through him because the Father lives in him. That alone should make us take notice and pay more attention to everything Jesus has said in the Gospels and in Revelation.
If you can’t get these words to make sense, then look at what Jesus had been doing. John the Baptist was despondent in prison and wondered if he had baptized the wrong person:
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matt 11:2-6 ESV)
Jesus is telling his disciples and us that his miracles should explain that God the Father is in him. Even Nicodemus recognized this in part when he came to Jesus and admitted that he came from God (John 3:2). If Jesus was lying about the Father being in him and he in the Father, if Jesus were only a prophet, or a good teacher, then he would not have been able to do what he had been doing. Anyone who tries to say that Jesus never turned water into wine, healed the blind, lepers, lame, paralytics, raised the dead, walked on water, or was raised from the dead, just doesn’t want to admit that Jesus and the Father are one and that we will all be accountable to them on judgment day.
12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
We can’t accuse Jesus of lying as was just explained. When he says he is telling the truth, we better believe it. However, I find his next statement one of the hardest to believe. Am I to believe that I will do, not just be able to do these things that Jesus has been doing? Wow! I can look back through the Gospel of John and see miracles of all kinds. The biggest is when Jesus raised Lazarus. Does this mean I should be able to raise someone from the dead? To make this even harder to believe, he says I will do even greater things. I tell you the truth, I have not done anything like what Jesus has done.
So, I read a couple of commentaries to try to make sense of this and they basically changed the anyone in this verse to refer only to the Apostles. I can understand this in respect to the fact that they performed similar miracles in the book of Acts. The commentaries and footnotes also refer to the greater being greater in quantity rather than greater in quality. For example, Jesus only ministered to a few thousand people in Israel. The Apostles spread the word to the whole Mediterranean area. In addition, Jesus changes from talking about anyone to just the Apostles when he says he will do whatever “you” ask in both verses 13 and 14.
What I really need to do is expand the context even further and that includes the purpose of the works and what they were to accomplish. Going back to verse 11 really helps. Going back to what Jesus told John helps. The result of the miracles is more important than the miracles themselves. They point to Jesus being the Messiah. They point to Jesus being in the Father and the Father is in him. About John 14:7-14, Henry Ironside clearly states, “But He was not speaking of miracles. His chief work was not performing miracles but revealing the Father, bringing knowledge of the Father. It is that of which He was speaking.”[1]
So we will do the same that Jesus did. We will bring the knowledge of the Father through Jesus Christ to people. We will do it in more places and at more times that Jesus did. We will continue doing this until Jesus comes back.
13 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
This is not a “name it and claim it” blank check that Jesus has given us. But even before I get to that, I must ask who is Jesus talking to in this passage? He is talking to his disciples, the Apostles who were with him at the Last Supper. He isn’t addressing every Christian in all ages. So, why do we automatically apply this promise to ourselves? The first reason is that we have applied every other promise to the Apostles to every Christian. We started with Jesus preparing a place for us. We added to that knowing the Father through Jesus. Jesus switches between “you” and “anyone” and “no one” to help us understand that these promises are more than just for the Apostles.
However, this promise is not a blank check for any Christian to ask for anything they want and think that they will get it because they ended their prayer with “In Jesus, Name, Amen.” This is a conditional promise. The condition is that what we ask must bring glory to the Father by Jesus when he answers the prayer. No prayer that goes against the will of the Father will bring glory to God. We can’t ask for things to simply spend them on our pleasures for that is wrong motive (James 4:3).
This also brings up the question of praying for the salvation of our loved ones. Doesn’t 1 Timothy 2:4 say that God desires everyone to be saved? Yes, he does say that, but there is a difference between God’s “wants” or “desires” and his “will” which he has decreed from the beginning of creation. This is in essence the same thing as expressing my desire for world peace My desire in this case is not something that I know will happen. It will not happen until Jesus comes back. In the case of asking for specific people to be saved, we must understand the whole concept of election and the fact that those who are to be saved have been given to Jesus (John 10:29). Since we don’t know who they are, we can pray for their salvation and God will save them in his time if it is his will. So, there will be times when we ask for something in Jesus’ name and the Lord will answer with a “No.”
This is a hard pill to swallow because we want to take these verses out of context with the rest of the Bible and assume Jesus will do whatever we want. When he doesn’t do what we ask, what do we do? The “name and claim it” preachers will tell you that you don’t have enough faith in what Jesus said. The truth is that what we have asked for either doesn’t bring glory to the Father, or it simply isn’t in his will, or the answer will be given in the future.
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