In the Gospel of John, when Jesus speaks of his Father, his words are much more personal than when he speaks of his Father in the Synoptics. Indeed, Jesus speaks of the Father much more often in John’s narrative than in any of the Synoptics, nearly three times as often as he speaks of him in Matthew, which comes second in frequency. Moreover, when he uses the phrase: my Father, he does it nearly twice as often in John as he does in all the Synoptics combined. While the critics conclude the Synoptics don’t say God is literally Jesus’ Father, John leaves no doubt. In fact, Jesus’ enemies sought to slay him on several occasions, because they understood him to claim God as his own, personal Father.
At this point in our study of the Gospel of John, Jesus points out to his disciples that, if they had come to know him, Jesus, or more specifically, if they had come to know him as the Way, the Truth and the Life, then they have also come to know the Father. In other words, if they know Jesus as the Way, then they have been brought to the Father. If they know Jesus as the Truth, then they have learned what the Father is like. That is, they could identify him from the false statements made about God by the Jewish authorities and the nations. They know God, because they know Jesus. If they have come to know Jesus as their Life, something which would become much more apparent to them after Pentecost, but, if they cannot imagine life without Jesus, if he is the very reason they rise in the morning and spend their final thoughts thinking of him as they drop off to sleep at night, if they know this Life, then they have come to know the Father. And, Jesus concludes by saying, from henceforth, that is because they had come to know Jesus through being with him these past three and one half years, from henceforth, they can say they know the Father, and have seen the Father by seeing him in Jesus (John 14:7; cp. 1John 1:1-3).
This time, it is Philip who interrupted Jesus, and he asked him to show the Father to them, and they would believe (John 14:8). It is obvious, in Philip’s question, that the disciples were missing Jesus’ point. They didn’t realize what they had, what Jesus had already given them through their experience of being with him. It is a struggle almost beyond comprehension what it means to change one’s worldview of things. The disciples’ thoughts were fleshy, because, just all unbelievers, they had believed within themselves lay the ability to see (John 9:40-41), and they had allowed their hearts to become dull of hearing, because they had blinded their own eyes through the false doctrines they’d come to believe through their teachers (Matthew 13:15). Nevertheless, they had been chosen out from among the people (Matthew 13:16-17), for the very purpose that they would understand that they were truly spiritually blind, and they didn’t have the ability within themselves to understand without being taught. They had come to know Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, because they had no understanding of a way within themselves; and they had no truth, only lies, which they were taught to believe, and they had no spiritual life (cp. John 3:3) without Christ.
Therefore, Jesus brought Philip, and with him the rest of the disciples, back to perceiving the Father through him, the true Image of God (Hebrews 3:3). In other words, fix your eyes upon Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). He who has seen Jesus has seen the Father (John 14:9; cp. John 1:18), for Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30)! Jesus is the Father fleshed out in the physical world (John 1:1, 14), in order that he could be seen, heard, and touched (1John 1:1-3).
What it comes down to is this, changing one’s worldview is a leap of faith! Jesus asked his disciples, if they believed he is in the Father and the Father is in him (John 14:10). In other words, Jesus, wasn’t like the rabbis they had come to know. He wasn’t speaking on his own initiative. He wasn’t challenging their concept of reality with some new doctrine he had thought up on his own. He was speaking the very words of God prompted by the Father within him (John 14:10).
Jesus knew this was challenging for them. This was a spiritual matter, and, although they had come to believe he was their Messiah (the King AND Prophet who was to come), they were having a difficult time taking in all of what they were hearing. Therefore, if they were to get from point “A” to point “B” they needed help. So, Jesus concluded with believe ME, the one you have come to know these past few years, believe what I am telling you: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me!” If you cannot believe what I am telling you, even though you know me and have been with me for three and one half years, then believe the works I did. Can any man, of and by himself, do such works? If you cannot believe ME, believe the works. They were of God. Were they not? If so, then God (the Father) must be in ME, and I, must be in the Father! (John 14:11).
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