Jesus, on this occasion, told His disciples that He was going back to the Father. Philip made this request: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Well, that should settle all things that there is a God in heaven and reinforced his faith.
Philip
thought that seeing God would produce faith. Yet, how is it that he has been
with Jesus for three years and hearing His teachings and seeing all those
miracles but still lack faith in Jesus? How about the Jews in Jesus’ time? Did
they have faith?
How
many times have you thought that faith would be easier if you had lived in the
first century and saw Jesus with your own eyes? How many times have you thought
that if you could simply see the miracles or hear the teachings of Jesus that
it would be enough to solidify your faith? But look what happened in the first
century when Jesus was living and performing miracles among the Jews? Did they
believe in Him? Nay; they crucified Him instead.
Today,
many Christians would like to see the Father. The world likewise say: “Show us
God and we will believe in Him.” But Jesus was very explicit in telling them
that if they could see and know Him, then they would not only “see” the Father,
but more importantly, they would “know” the Father! (John 14:7-9).
We
think our faith would be stronger and easier to build if we have actually seen
the Lord for ourselves. But we are fooling ourselves. It would not have made
any difference. Philip said it would be enough; it would clear his doubt; he
would be satisfied just by seeing God. But we are never satisfied. How many
miracles did Jesus perform to prove He was the Son of God? Plenty (John 20:30).
Still, they weren’t enough to produce faith in the Jews.
It
took the preaching of the gospel to produce faith (Acts 2:37-41). What the
miracles of Jesus could not do, the preaching of the word accomplished it. The
preaching of the gospel established Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the
living God, what the miracles couldn’t. It resulted in about three thousand
souls that were added to the church. It never happened when Christ was alive on
this earth.
If
you still think that it was a reasonable request of Philip, think again. Think
what will happen when we walk by sight. If we need to see everything with our
own eyes before we will believe it, then we honestly cannot know or trust in
anything unless we see it with our own eyes. We won’t believe Hitler existed or
there were two great world wars. We simply cannot trust world history. We
cannot trust the news on the television. We cannot trust the words of our
children when they say the school brought them to the zoo today. You can’t
trust the words of your parents when they told you they watch Titanic on their
first date.
But
Jesus told Philip: “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest
thou, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9). He said too: “If ye had known
me, ye should have known my Father also” (John 14:7). Philip failed
to comprehend that the Father was to be seen in Christ. Hence, by asking to see
the Father, Philip was saying he didn’t know Jesus. How is it so? Because if he
had known Jesus to be honest and truthful, he would have
known what He said concerning Himself and the Father must be true.
When
we know Christ, we know the Father. We cannot imagine anything in God which is
not made known to us in Christ. The attributes of God are all seen in Christ
(Colossians 1:15; 2:9; Hebrews 1:3). We can believe Him when He says that he
that has seen Him has seen the Father.
God
has left the world with so many evidences of his existence: “The heavens
declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm
19:1). An honest mind will come to the conclusion that there is a God. A
hardened mind will reject evidences even if placed before him.
Do
you want to see God now? I won’t. I prefer to keep it in mystery until I see
Him face to face; this is the hope that my faith rests on: “For we are saved
by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he
yet hope for?” (Romans 8:24).
Jimmy Lau
Psa
119:97 Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
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