026 - Show Us the Father

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, you've heard one of these famous lines of Jesus, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Yeah, like the way where?

The way where? The truth about what? And life? I think I know what that is, but most of us think we have a handle on that verse, and I'm not sure we do. Let's find out what Jesus really meant. Yeah, today.

More Than Ink. Well, good morning. We're so glad you joined us today. I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And we're going to sit here in a relaxed format and continue to read the Word together. By the way, I might put in a plug for why a relaxed format is nice. I mean, a lot of people, you know, you think about Bible study, you go to a kind of a, I don't know, kind of like a school context, and you sit down at tables and you study the Bible. Well, a lot of people think lecture context.

Yeah, right. Well, for me at least, the most productive ways I have ever related with the Word is when I just sat down in a big chair, and I'm not in a rush, and I say, well, let's just see what this says, and not be too overwhelmed by the scholastic and the academic burdens of looking at the Bible. Just read it. So that's what we're doing today. And we're not only just doing it, I mean, we're modeling it for you. Well, and not just reading it, but talking about it informally with other people who are like-minded, who are also interested in finding out what does this really say, and what does that mean to us.

And it doesn't have to be a burdensome process. It can be just like a joint discovery together. So that's kind of like, that's what we're doing. We're doing a joint discovery together. Well, and just so that you all know, I lead a number of women's Bible studies, and the strength of those Bible studies is that we sit around a table and we do very much what we're doing here. I mean, I have prepared and am leading them, but it's a very open discussion, and I am always humbled and amazed by the degree to which the women teach one another by their varied insights and their varied life experience and their varied spiritual maturity always ministers to me. Yeah, so that's a good plug for the fact that if you can get together with some other people where you can sit down informally and just look at it. And you don't have to be an expert. Experts help, and some of us read stuff that comes from experts.

Well, and we need them. Yeah, they have their place, but what we're trying to communicate through how we're doing this, not so much what we're coming up with, but how we're doing it is the fact that the Bible is very accessible. And it's not meant just for experts, but it's very accessible, and I guarantee you the next time if you just sit down with the word in your lap and you ask God, you know, show me something about yourself and what I'm going to do right now, He will. Well, and that actually directly relates to this passage because one of the things that Jesus is going to say about the Holy Spirit is that because He's in you and He indwells you and He opens your mind, your understanding of what God has said, He will give you understanding of the words that I've spoken to you. So you're not alone.

So when you are sitting quietly with the Spirit of God and open to hearing His voice, He will give you understanding. Exactly. Yeah, and so that's what we're doing. So we just encourage you to do that. Let me put, can I put one more plug in before we dive into this? Yeah, clock's running. Just one more quick thing is that we get no feedback about how this is impacting your life or where it's going or if anyone's listening.

Well, a little. We've heard from a few people, but we'd love to hear from you. But since we're just newly into this, we're about six months into this, it would be good for us to understand whether we're hitting any bells for you if this is valuable to you. So the very simple thing you can do, I'm not going to ask you for money, I just ask for a little feedback. We don't want your money.

So, no, no. But if you go to the website, the website is morethanink.org, no spaces, morethanink.org. And there's a button up there on the top right that says contact.

Or if you're really good at email, just type in contact at morethanink.org. And just tell us, you know, should we keep doing this? I guess that's really the question we constantly ask ourselves. Yeah, we'd love to hear from you. Love to hear and just a little encouragement to us and a reason that we should keep on. But we'll keep on starting with today. So where are we today? Where are we in John today? Oh, John 14. But as we said last week and as we've said all along, this section, because this is a single conversation the night before Jesus went to the cross, we need to read the whole thing.

So that actually is my study principle that I would put on the table. The whole thing being chapters? Oh, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. They all are a piece.

And so that's going to figure into our conversation a little bit today and going forward. Because just to give you an idea of the narrative overview, before 13, when you get into 13, you're going to the upper room with the apostles. For the Passover supper. The Passover supper.

And then chapter 18, he's getting arrested in the garden. So we're looking at the discourse that goes on between the apostles and Jesus during that time. Well, and the question that runs in my mind always is, if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you say tonight to the people who were the closest to you?

The kind of reason what's most important. And that's really what this conversation is. So again, in terms of your study skill as you come to this, I would say, have your eyes and your ears open to what is Jesus saying about himself? What is he saying about the Father? What does he say about the Holy Spirit? What does he say to the disciples about themselves?

And what does he say by the same means to us about ourselves? And so have a piece of paper handy as you read and write those things down. Just reduce them to your own words and make a list.

What does he say? Because we like to snatch little pieces out of this conversation, but we don't always Oh yes, they're very famous, but we don't always see them as a whole. And so that is the study skill that I would put before you as we come into this section. Yeah, if you've got the time, read 13 through 17 all by itself as a sit down. And watch for those repeated words, love, keep, abide. These are the important things. So if you remember last week when we started into this section, Jesus washed their feet. Unusually so. We had the unusual and unexpected betrayal. We had the announcement that Jesus broke on them that I'm going someplace that you cannot come. Yikes!

That caused a lot of problems. And then you got Peter saying, well not me, I'm not going to leave. And Jesus says, yes you will. So that's the prelude to this. But he also had said to them, a new commandment I'm giving you now, love one another the way I have loved you.

That's how the world is going to know that you belong to me. You're my disciples. So let's stop talking about it and let's dive into it. We're going to look at the first half of chapter 14 today because it's just too thick. So you want to start in reading verse 1 in chapter, so this is chapter 14 verse 1 in John. Okay. Let not your hearts be troubled.

Now the chapter break is awkward because he had just said to Peter, you're going to deny me three times. But let not your heart go on being troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, says the ESV, dwelling places, says the American Standard. Places to settle down. If it were not so, what I've told you, that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and will take you to myself. That where I am, you may be also and you know the way where I'm going. Should we stop there? Oh, let's go on.

Okay, keep going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How do we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him. So this is the immediate response to being troubled in heart. Right.

I'm leaving, you can't come along. It's a bummer. But there are some key words that come up here in this entire thing. And he mentions in the first breath, that word believe. That word believe is gigantic.

Believe me. I mean it shows up like five times I counted here. And it showed up five times in another chapter in John we're familiar with. And that's when Jesus sat down with Nicodemus. For God so loved the world that whoever believes in him. So it's the same word. And it also came up, I think we mentioned this once before, John tells us later on the purpose of even writing the whole book.

Right. And he says, I think I wrote, oh it's in John 20 verse 31. It says I'm doing this so that you believe. And then in believing, you'll find life in his name. Life in his name. Life in his name. In his name is going to come up again and again and again in this evening conversation. So as Jesus sues their troubled hearts, the key issue is belief. It seems to be, he's going to mention it several times.

And that has been the issue through his whole ministry. Yeah. Do you believe that I am who I say I am? Yeah. And let the works that I'm doing testify to the fact that I am who I say I am.

Yeah. So it always comes down to who is Jesus. And Jesus is saying if you get it right. Well and we better pause for a minute and talk about what is believing. Because you can intellectually assent to something without actually leaning your weight on it. And so that's probably important to believe means to lean your weight on something. There's an attitude of trust that's involved. And by the way, this word is closely connected to the other big word we use, faith. And if you look in the Greek, they actually are, they're one and the same.

One's a verb and one's a noun. So when you're faithing, you're believing. So it really does strongly imply not only that you understand and accept the truth but that you actually do something in response. Yeah. That you rest your weight on that reality. Yeah.

And blessed are you if you do these things. So the illustration I use all the time is stepping onto an airplane. You step off that jet when you do that one step onto the plane. You are saying that you trust this plane is going to keep you alive.

I believe this plane is going to fly because I've stepped on and buckled into the seat. Exactly. But with someone who says, I believe flying is safe and they stop short and they stand right on that threshold and they go, well, I don't know.

Maybe not, maybe not. Well, no, then you're not really, you're not completing that whole idea of the trust. So you're informed about something or someone and as a result you're willing to put your life in their hands, that trust kind of thing. And that's all together in this belief word, believe in God, believe also in me. So is he saying here, don't go on letting your hearts be troubled because believing me is the antidote to that.

That's the antidote. To that continually troubled heart. And that's what the verb tense is here.

It is that kind of continuous. Don't go on being troubled. Right. I've told you something that's troubling you, but the answer to that is to believe me because I'm coming back for you. I'm going to prepare a place for you and I'm coming back to you. Isn't that an amazing thing that what troubles our hearts can be counteracted by our belief and trust in who God is. And not lingering in the fear. And he's going to talk a little bit about fear as the evening unfolds and peace and all these, and you'll recognize these little nuggets of verses when we come to them, but we don't always place them in their larger context. Yeah, exactly.

Do you think it looks kind of blasphemous that he says believe in God and believe also in me? Isn't that a strong connection? He had been saying that all along. Yeah. There's nothing new here.

Nothing. He had been saying that all along. Because that's why he says to them, now you know the way where I'm going. And Thomas says, hey, we don't know where you're going. He's still thinking in terms of. He needs a road map. They had been walking on the path with Jesus for these three years. He says, hey, we don't know where you're going this time. Right. So how do we know the way? However, to kind of finish that thought, they also didn't know where he was going day to day either.

All they had to do was get up and follow him. Yeah. So it's not really changed. So nothing is different.

Yeah. But here's where he casts it into a whole different realm when he says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. So he's going to amplify that as the conversation goes on.

I'm going to the Father. Right. He said, you can't come with me now but you'll come later. Right. Right.

Because he had to go there by way of the cross. Yep. Yep. And it'll also amplify the fact, you know, we talked about following Jesus as opposed to following a route. That's what Thomas is thinking about. A road map. If you follow a road map or a route, you don't really need Jesus. That's right. Yeah, tell me how I can find my way there and I'll find my way there. When I'm looking at a map, I want to know where the rest stops are. That's right. And Jesus is saying, dudes, you don't need maps. You need me. Just follow me. Right.

And you've got it. Take that verse six out of context so much, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Why did he broaden it? Why didn't he just say, I'm the way, instead of the way, the truth, and the life? I am the way to God.

Because the way was the issue here in Thomas' question. Right. He says, I am the truth of God. Right? I am the embodied visible representation of who God is. I'm the truth and I'm the life, the life of God in me, in you. Right? Right. At the beginning of John's Gospel, he said, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Grace and truth. Yeah, and it also makes me think of the fact, I love when I'm reading the Bible, and this is kind of a steady technique, is to always postulate the opposite of something. You're good at that.

Yeah. And in this particular case, I think about all the paths in life that are offered to you. You know, as you walk through life, paths in life, do this, do that.

You know, try drugs, do sex, all this kind of stuff. These paths that are offered to you, and they promise something, but you know, if you actually pursue many of them, you find out that these things really didn't have life at the end of the road, nor were they necessarily telling you the truth about the fact that the path was going there. They not only didn't have life, they actually led to death.

To death, yeah. So this is the contrast that's interesting here. He says, I am the way, but the other stuff, those competing things, you know, they lead to death and they're lying to you. So that's the contrast he's saying. If you follow me at the end of that road and through that road, you'll find life, and speaking straight to you, it's truth.

It's not lying to you. So that's just a great contrast, and the fact that you find that life in the presence of the Father, no one gets there except through Christ himself. He's the only way. He's the only way.

I can almost hear him sighing when he says this. He says, if you had known me, you would have known my Father too. From now on, you do know him, and you have seen him. John had already said in his Gospel, we saw his glory. We saw the Father in the flesh in him. And let's read on here, because Philip then says, Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for us. Praise the natural question.

Right? Show us the Father. And Jesus, I guess, like smacks his forehead.

You guys. Have I been with you so long and you still don't know me, Philip? Whoever 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 the Father is in me? Okay, I'm going to stop there.

That's a lot of ends. I kind of feel the earth shake when he says that. Don't you know, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. The Scripture says nobody can see God. Nobody has ever seen God. Paul writes in Colossians, he says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. God's not seeable. But through Christ, he is.

But in Christ, he is. And then he introduces this idea of being indwelt. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. And a little bit after this, he's going to say, and the Father and me are going to come and be in you. In you.

Get out of here. So this is a huge idea, this living in, this abiding in. And he's already introduced this indwelling, this abiding in. At the beginning when he said, I'm going to prepare an abiding place for you. What a great antidote to their fear.

Their hearts are troubled because Jesus said, I'm going someplace where you can't go. And he counters it by saying, guess what guys? We're going to be in you. You know?

We're going to be ahead of ourselves, and that's my fault. Let's go back to reading the text. He says, in the words, this is in verse 10, do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me, here it comes again, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or else believe on account of the works themselves. There's a lot of ends going down here.

Yeah. Now, how can that be? The Father can be in him and he can be in the Father simultaneously. Well, you know, it's not that hard. We live and breathe air.

We're in the air and the air is in us. Right? It's just not that hard a concept. But when we talk about it as personalities, Jesus, the Son, in the Father and the Father in the Son, that becomes a much bigger idea. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great meditation thing to think about too.

How can Jesus be in the Father and the Father is in Jesus, which, by the way, to the Jews, the religious Jews of the time who didn't believe who Jesus was. That was blasphemous. That was blasphemous. Yeah. Come on now. No. God's the big God who's out there who runs the whole show and you're saying he's in you?

Come on. That's just like blasphemy. But he introduces then this idea. He says believe on account of the works themselves because you woke what they saw him do. Yeah.

Yeah. And he says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father. I write the flesh man that who's here with you and whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Which brings up this ritual that Christians do that as long as they pray something in tag at the end of that in your name, he's bound, he's obliged to answer you. Yeah. Well, we're going to get into that more later, I think. Let's not take time to it right now.

We only have a few minutes left. Just pointing out the origins of some of this stuff. You got to read this knowledgeably to understand this is not a formula. But he does say, I don't speak on my own authority, but the Father dwelling in me is speaking. Right. And then he says that you are going to ask in my name. Well, if you're doing something in someone's name, that means you're doing it as if you were them. As if you were them. And with their authority. Right.

I served on a jury on a fraud case one time where somebody had signed somebody else's name to a check. Uh-oh. You know, that was the whole issue.

They had no authority and no right to put that name on the check, but they did it and cashed it. Right. Oh, but Jesus is saying, if I'm dwelling in you, you can ask for anything and sign my name to the check.

So that opens the question, what is the effect of him dwelling in us? And so he's going to start talking about loving me and keeping my words. Yeah. And we have to understand, too, that this is more than just colloquially in you. Like I always think at the end of E.T., and E.T. 's going back to his planet and he's standing there in front of Elliot and he pokes him in the chest, you know. Right.

I'll be right here. Right. Well, we know that it's figurative because of emotionally. That's not what we're talking about here. Even close. Right.

It doesn't mean we're just going to think about him or keep him close in our heart. Right. Right.

This is in. This is an indwelling. This is an indwelling. This is a being filled with God.

Yeah. And so in the same sense that Jesus as a human being was indwelled by God himself, which we all call, that's Emmanuel, God with us, he's indwell. That's what we call the incarnation, that means to be in the flesh. In a similar way, he's saying that we will suddenly, in this changed life, we are kind of a new incarnation of God in the flesh in us. Well, he's going to draw a straight line there and a little bit later in this chapter, and we'll get into it more next week, when he says, just like the Father sent me, I'm sending you. Yeah.

Right. And I love my Father, and so I do what he told me. And if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So he's making this very direct connection between his own relationship with the Father and our relationship with the Son. Yep, yep, yep. And the Son's words, by the way.

We'll get to that. We're jumping ahead to the last half. But it really is an astonishing thing. I mean, in this section in 14, he starts off by saying, I don't want your hearts to be troubled. Right.

And halfway through 14, he's saying, because guess what? The separation is not what you think, because pretty soon we're going to talk about the reality of the Father and me in you. Right. And the separation is not an issue. Right.

Wow. And I think their heads are spinning. Just totally their heads are spinning. And the part of the equation at this point, and we're going to stop at this verse and come back next week and finish up 14, but the part of the equation that at this point in the discussion they don't know about is, how is this possible? How can Jesus quote, unquote, go somewhere, and yet he and the Father can still be in us? Didn't he leave the room?

Didn't Elvis leave the building? How is it we can still maintain a connection with him? And of course we know the answer to that is the Holy Spirit. So that's what he jumps to next when he talks about in the rest of 14. This is physically how it's going to work.

Okay. And that's how it's going to happen. Then he says, you know, if you believe in me in verse 12, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do. I'm going to the Father. But the second half of that thought is when I go to the Father, I'll send you the Holy Spirit, your helper.

Yeah. This new incarnation now will be somewhat looking like what Jesus did. Greater works. Does that mean I'm going to raise people from the dead or more people from the dead? You've got to be careful when you interpret the word greater. It could just be larger scope.

I mean it means greater. But I mean it does mean that there's sort of a carrying on of the ministry of Jesus in this new incarnation in us through the Holy Spirit. And that should be a visible resident part of what our new life with Christ is all about. And this is what he's trying to introduce to these guys, not just I'm going someplace and you can't come, but I am going someplace, but the whole way you relate to God is shifting into a much more intimate and a much more powerful way for the Kingdom of God. And you're going to like it.

And you should have rejoiced when I said I'm going back to the Father. Because this is really, this is a good turn in the plan. This is not an accident. It's not an accident. No.

And it was all pre-planned. Yeah. Exactly.

And it's more about the nuts and bolts about how that happens in the second half of chapter 14. But I don't want to leave this first half without going back to the emphasis on this word believe. I mean do you really believe all this stuff?

Do you really, is it enough for you to not just kind of intellectually say yeah I get this. Because you know the word pistus or pistuo, this whole believe or faith thing is really developed from this idea of being persuaded by something. So are you persuaded enough by what John's writing here. He says in chapter 20 that's why I'm writing it. Are you persuaded enough to say I'm willing to trust my entire life to this God.

And that's what he's saying right here. And so that if we are actively trusting this God that is a remedy, an antidote, a way to deal with the continual eruption of a troubled heart. We all are vulnerable to that eruption of fear and that sudden attack. That Jesus says now don't go on in that condition because you believe in me. You believe me. Believe in God, believe in me, right.

And my intention is that we would be together. I love quoting Revelation 20, 21, 3. Because there at the end of all things it says very plainly that the dwelling place of God is with man. And what a great thing that is because that's exactly what Jesus is trying to say here. That not only is the dwelling place of God with man, it's in man.

Now we're talking big time changes. And we're gonna see when he gets to chapter 17 with that prayer, we're gonna see Jesus praying, asking the Father for that very thing. Father I want them to be with me where I am. And I never saw that so clearly until the last couple of years when I've been studying that passage deeply. So we want you this coming week to read not just John 14 but press on all the way through 17. Go through 17. And make a list of those things you observe.

What is he saying to you about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and you yourself. Yeah and he's unfolding something that no one would have ever believed of. So come back next week. We'd love you to join us in the second half of 14. First half is not enough without the second half. We just once over lightly that.

That's right. So I'm Jim and I'm Dorothy and we'd love to have you this coming next week. Join us in the second half of John 14 on More Than Ink. More Than Ink, bye. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content.

To contact us with your questions or comments just go to our website morethanink.org. That's not bad.