John 14:8-14

⁸Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." ⁹Jesus 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'? ¹⁰Don'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. ¹¹Believe 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. ¹²I 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. ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. ¹⁴You may ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it."

Jesus has just said, “You know the Father and have seen Him,” and what does Philip say? “Show us the Father; that will be enough.” He just said, “Philip, you’ve seen Him!” We are the same way – poor and slow to learn.

Philip understands that Jesus is the One who reveals the Father, and so his statement is really a question in statement form. He’s asking meekly, “Jesus, would You reveal the Father to us right now?” The request shows that Philip does not yet understand what Jesus is saying, any more than Thomas did. Jesus is disappointed with Philip’s words. He is not going to allow them some mystical ability to “see” the invisible God at some point in the future; on the contrary, He Himself is the image of the invisible God, in a form that man can see! Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the invisible God, for Jesus is God, and He and the Father are One in the strongest sense of the word. In fact, they mutually indwell each other! If Philip knew Jesus, he should have realized that he already knew the Father – through Jesus’ words, which were the Father’s, through Jesus’ works, which were the Father’s, and through Jesus’ display of the glory of the Father, which the Father displays in His Son.

Even if Philip had not understood Jesus’ words and teachings on the subject, he ought to have recognized from Jesus’ sign-miracles, at the least, that Jesus was One with the Father, and that He was the One who came down to provide a way to the Father. The very nature of the signs, displaying as they did Jesus’ nature as the Light of the world, the Bread which came down from heaven, the Resurrection and the Life, and so on, ought to have taught him and convinced him of that much. Jesus is the living word – the sermon on God the Father.

Now in v12, Jesus continues on the subject of His sign miracles, and tells the disciples something truly staggering: “Anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing.” Indeed believers (not limited to the twelve) would do greater signs than Jesus had done! How could this be? In order to understand Jesus, we must pay close attention to His reasoning: this astonishing teaching is only true because Jesus is returning to the Father, and together, they would send the Holy Spirit (v16-17); This staggering truth is only true, because Jesus would do mightier works than He had yet done in answer to the prayers of the believers through the power of His Holy Spirit. His power extends to and through the Church as His body. Although this teaching is nearly unbelievable, at first, it begins to make sense when one considers the marvelous plan of redemption: We are in the business of showing people God the Father when we show them Jesus. And we do this knowing the great truth that Jesus taught: “Where I am, there you will also be.”

Jesus would no longer be seen just by thousands – He would make Himself known, through the prayers of His witnessing people, to millions. He would not just walk among men – He would dwell within them through His Spirit! As great as Jesus’ signs were, something better was waiting to be accomplished by His people, or rather, by Jesus Himself as He answered the prayers of and indwelled and worked through His people through His Spirit.