SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/13/2016 9:18 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Comfort Comes From Trusting Christ’s Person”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 14: 7-11
Message of the verses: “7 “If you had known Me, you would have known
My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." 8 Philip said
to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said
to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know
Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ’Show us
the Father’? 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 initiative, but the
Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and
the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”
As we begin
to look at verse seven we can see that the Lord was going to bolster the
disciples’ faith that had been wavering because of what Thomas had said in
verse five “"Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the
way?"” Jesus is telling the disciples, all of them, that He is really God
incarnate. MacArthur points out that the
verbs in verse seven are plural, indicating that He was speaking to all of the
disciples’ and not just Thomas. Jesus
tells them that “If you had known Me, you would have known My father also.” Jesus is saying that He is God, always has
been God, and always will be God, now questions asked.
Jesus is
telling that He is nothing less than God, and equal with the Father, and that
He is the way to God as we saw in verse six.
Some may have thought and still do think that He is a manifestation of
God, but that is not the case, for He is truly God, as much God as the Father
and the Holy Spirit of God.
MacArthur
adds “It is possible to interpret the phrase ‘from now on you know Him, and
have seen Him, as referring to that very moment in the upper room. However Philip’s question in verse 8,
suggesting that the disciples still did not understand Jesus’ point, argues
against an immediate fulfillment of His words.
It was only after Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and the
coming of the Spirit at Pentecost (John 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:13) that the disciples
would finally understand Jesus’ deity and relationship to the Father (John 20:28; Acts 2:22ff.; 3:12ff.’ 4:8-12;
5:29-32). Because that understanding
would certainly come in the future, Jesus spoke of it as if it were a present
reality.”
We have to
believe that the disciples were still not convinced of who Jesus was saying
that He is and so Philip seems to ask the question that was on all of their
minds that they want Jesus to show them the Father and that will be enough to
convince them. What Philip wanted was to
actually see the Father, a manifestation of His presence in order to sustain
his faith. He may have been thinking of
the times in the OT when there was a manifestation of God found there like when
Samson’s parents saw God or Moses or perhaps Isaiah or Ezekiel, were not sure,
but this is possible.
We will
wait until tomorrow’s SD to find out the answer that Jesus gave to him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Asia” (2 Corinthians 1:8).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who took the Baby Jesus and his mother to Egypt?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/13/2016 9:40 PM
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