You must have confidence in every word of God. Believe them all. Trust them all. If there are any you do not understand, do not dismiss them as meaningless. If there are any your world knowledge and experience say is not correct, replace your world knowledge and experience with the word of God. Every word of God is perfect and accomplishes what God speaks it about. Here are some passages for your consideration:
“As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.” (2 Samuel 22:31) and (Psalm 18:30).
“Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.” (Proverbs 30:5).
Believing in Jesus Christ is believing in God; the Father of all mankind and all creation. Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”(John 12:44-46).
“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” (John 12:47-48).
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”(John 14:5).
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”(John 14:6-7).
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”(John 14:8).
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’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 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 works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.(John 14:9-14).
CONCLUSION: Jesus answered, “… From now on, you do know him, and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7).
Did Jesus just convinced His disciples to take His word for it and they simply went along with Him not to provoke Him? That is the way it may appear to anyone who go through the passage the simple human way we go through all conversations. For a minute, it appears Jesus was telling them to pretend that they know something they really didn’t; especially when after His statement—“From now on, you do know him and have seen him,”(John 14:6-7)—Philip went ahead and asked that Jesus showed them the Father to satisfy their curiosity.
So, did Philip not hear Jesus the first time? Why did Philip not go on and pretend to know the Father because Christ had told them that from that point forward they knew the Father? Or was Philip doubtful of Jesus being what He told them He was? It was none of the above. Philip was just being a human being: if one or more of the senses got it, the man himself will get it. What convinces more than sight? Show us and when we see, we will believe. And there will be no more questions asked on this issue!
Philip was relying on his human senses, reasoning and understanding. Show us and we will figure the rest of it out through our natural ability to figure things out.
That Philip went ahead and asked for Jesus to show them the Father so they may believe, says it all. The human being is so limited in his perception. Anything beyond the scope of the five senses almost does not exist. If we cannot see it, taste it, smell it, hear it or touch it, we cannot comprehend it. It is critically important that Philip exhibited this limitedness of man in this scenario to establish, once and for all, the power of the word of God. If God speaks it, it does what He says for it to do.
This is also the reason why Christ says: “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn the mat the last day.” (John 12:38).
So in this passage, the very words Christ spoke to His apostles “—“From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)— has the power to make the apostles‘ know God’ and ‘see God’.
Christ had spoken the words, but the disciples were still operating in their human capacity for comprehension. They failed to gain the understanding that Christ intended for them to gain. And Philip’s question demonstrated that disconnect: Not only did they not understand what Christ had said, it was almost like Philip did not hear Him at all.
Otherwise, Philip would not have requested a physical evidence of something He was already given supernaturally. He asked that the evidence be made available to them physically when it was already before them spiritually.
And because humans are limited to the five senses, when man stumbled on to abstract thinking—which is nothing but the stretching of the imagination into dimensions beyond the physical senses—we, in our minds, become of equality with God, and ultimately came to elevate ourselves above God but denying that He never existed. Just like Philip ignored the spiritual evidence that was given to them by Jesus and requested for physical evidence; human beings, in specialized studies of science and astronomy, are making their case for physical evidence about God’s existence to help them understand the claims of the Bible and the Christian preachers and teachers. But while Philip and the other apostles were able to switch from their minds to their spirits and finally discerned what Christ had given to them, the scientists and other world experts are stuck in their minds and their abstract thinking prowess and would never attain the discernment necessary to ‘see’ or ‘know’ God. That is why the Bible says:
"Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”" (John 12:44-46).
In essence, anyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ does not believe in God the Father. And anyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ can neither see Him nor the Father, and as such, the person “stays in darkness.”
Therefore, when the world scientists condemn the Bible and everything God, they are being misled by the limitedness of the human perception because they have not been given the power of spiritual discernment which only comes from God to those who believe in Him and His Christ. Believers have been brought into the light which was activated by their faith.
When Jesus Christ says to His disciples: “From now on, you do know him and have seen him,”(John 14:6-7), he was giving them the power of discernment to ‘know’ and ‘see’ God. He was not trying to coax them into believing that they did when in fact they didn’t. Following Philips request to show them the Father, Christ sort of chided them:
“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’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 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 works themselves.” (John 14:6-7).
“I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” (John 14:10).These statements finally awakened their spirit and they finally got it.
The Father in me and I in the Father—no wonder He had been amazing. The God of all mankind, the creator of heavens and the earth had been with them all this time and they had been imagining what it would be like meeting Him; they already met Him. There is no question that their perspectives on God and the Christ living with them changed from this moment on. They had been let into the deepest secret.
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