Knowing the Father

What has Jesus come to do? That’s a good question to ask because the Bible answers it in lots of ways. And seeing the different ways the Bible answers this question will help you to understand better what Jesus has come to do for you. Our text, this morning, gives one of the Bible’s answers to this question. My hope is that it will help you understand yourself, your life and your God a little bit better.

Our text is John 1.14: ‘No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.’

Let’s start where the sentence does, ‘No one has ever seen God…’ That seems obvious. No one gets to see God. We all understand that. It’s just the way life works. So, why does John state the obvious? It’s because that’s not the way that life is supposed to work. What we accept as normal John identifies as a problem. The way that life is supposed to work is that we get to walk with a very visible God in the cool of the day, chatting with Him about this and that. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. But it isn’t that way. And why is that? Why is it that people don’t get to see God day after day? Here, the answer is obvious. It’s because of sin. It’s our anti-God rebellion that started back when Adam and Eve decided to pursue their independent course. As a result, they were banned from God’s presence; excommunicated from the Garden; kicked out. And this exclusion included all the generations that have been born since. When Moses stands on Mt. Sinai and requests to see God’s glory, his request is granted but with this warning. ‘You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ Sin. And thus, John writes, ‘No one has ever seen God.’

And yet, John does not stop there. There is a solution to the problem. ‘…the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.’ Consider what is behind this statement. There is a desire in God to know and be known. Bear in mind that this desire does not come from some need that He has for us. Remember the eternal relationship within God as Father, Son and Spirit. God is an eternal family. He does not need us. We are unnecessary. And yet, He desires relationship with us. He desires us to know Him. And so, the Father sent the Son. Jesus has come. And He has come with a mission: to make the Father known. This is one way that the Bible answers that question: What has Jesus come to do?

There are a couple of things you should note here. First, John tells us that the one sent comes to us from the Father’s side. Or as the old King James has it, he was ‘in the bosom of the Father’. The point here is simple. The Father could have sent an angel on this mission. But as close as angels are to God, as well as they know Him, they are not ‘in the bosom of the Father’. But the Son was. He has known the Father’s heart. He was that close. As a result, Jesus is eminently qualified to make Him known. 

Here’s another thing to note here. This mission has to do with intimacy. That becomes clear when you remember how the Bible uses this word ‘know’. Listen to something from Genesis. ‘Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived.’ Moses was writing about sex. But he didn’t use that word. ‘Adam knew his wife Eve.’ When that happened, something intimate, something mystical, something invisible but quite real, occurred between husband and wife. They knew each other in a sense that only a husband and wife can. When John writes about Jesus’ mission to make the Father known, he is not talking about something that is primarily an intellectual thing, like knowing your math facts. He’s talking about relationship, intimate relationship. This knowing the Father is, in fact, the heart of Jesus’ definition of true life. Listen to this from Jesus’ prayer in John 17: ‘And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.’

We were created for the purpose of knowing God, of enjoying the intimacy of knowing and being known. That desire is built into every person alive – but because of sin it has been crushed. And now, everyone is afraid to be known. And so, we all have our walls. And these walls don’t just keep out other people. They also keep out the Father. Jesus has come to change that. Jesus has come so that we might get to know the Father, to know and be known.

Jesus has come for many reasons. He has come to be the sacrifice for sin. He has come to conquer Satan. He has come to vindicate the Father’s justice. And He has come to make the Father known. There are many aspects to the Gospel. We need to see them all so that we can get the full picture. So, as you read your Bible, be on the lookout for the different ways that Jesus’ mission is described.

Now, let’s take the next step with a question. How does Jesus pursue His mission? What does He do so that He can make the Father known? Listen to some things Jesus says that help answer this question. Here are some that are as close as the next section of John. Andrew and John became curious about Jesus. With a simple, ‘Come and see’, He invited them to spend time with Him. Jesus found Philip and likewise invited him by saying, ‘Follow Me’. Then, Mark, in his Gospel, explains why the Twelve were chosen, ‘And Jesus appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles) so that they might be with Him’. Jesus invited people to spend time with Him. And it is clear that this made a difference. So, from Acts when Peter and John stood accused before the Council: ‘Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.’ So, how does Jesus pursue His mission? He calls people to Himself and He tells them, ‘Watch Me! Follow Me into daily life and watch what I do.’ And when you think about the structure of John’s Gospel, this is exactly what you see. Chapters 2-12 are a series of episodes in Jesus’ life. John records Jesus’ interactions with people in various situations while His followers watch. The Twelve need some explanation. And we’ll find that. That’s what happens, for example, in the upper room, recorded in chapters 13-16. But where does it begin? ‘Come, follow Me and watch!’

So, do you see how this works? Jesus gathers some men around Him who follow Him here and there and watch him. As a result, these men get to know Him. They see him deal with life as it comes His way. Sometimes it’s a miracle and other times it’s a conversation. Some things are part of the expected routine of life. But there are also the times that no one could have anticipated. Day by day, they get to know – really know – Jesus. And as Jesus lets them get to know Him, He reveals to them the Father’s heart. The Son, sent from the bosom of the Father, makes the Father’s heart known. And He does that by letting people see His own heart. And so, at the end of His ministry, Jesus says to His faithful watchers, ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’ Jesus has made the Father known.

That was about the ‘how’. Now, let’s look at the ‘what’. What is it that Jesus revealed about the Father? What did these watchers see? Here is a quick list of some things He did: He completely flipped out in the Temple. He made wine for a wedding. He reached out to a woman who was an outcast of her own outcast group. He healed a man who had no evidence of faith. He washed dirty feet. He suffered tremendously as He died as an outcast Himself. Each of those episodes in Jesus’ life are recorded in John’s Gospel, and in each Jesus is revealing something of the Father’s heart. 

Let me offer a quick thought on just a couple of these. The Temple scene where Jesus flipped out: The Father hates sin, and He’s going to be making a huge fuss about it. Those who continue cling to their anti-God rebellion, He will damn forever. The Father really hates sin. The church word for this is ‘wrath’. But – and you need to see this also – at the same time what happened at the Temple shows how the Father desires the people to repent. Jesus’ actions at the Temple are a shot across the bow, a warning. No one was eternally condemned by what Jesus did. Part of the message of that day was that there was still time for them to repent. And they really need to. Wrath is coming. So, do you see what Jesus was doing? He revealed the Father’s intense hatred of sin as well as His intense desire that people turn from it. 

Then there is the wedding: the Father is not some stern, rigid, ever-serious person. Many think of the Father’s attitude in these sorts of terms. But Jesus made wine. He made really good wine. And He made a lot of it. He made that wine so that people could celebrate a wedding. What was Jesus revealing about the Father? He is no killjoy. In fact, He wants His creatures to be happy. So, if I may put it in these terms, what is the Father’s normal facial expression? It’s not a scowl. It’s not even all serious and somber. It’s a smile. 

Let me mention one more episode that reveals the Father’s heart. Consider Jesus writhing on the Cross. What is the revelation here? What is it of the Father’s heart that we are shown? Remember that the Father hates sin. He’s going to damn forever all who cling to their rebellion. And that’s what happened to Jesus as He died. Damned! Jesus’ suffering on the Cross shows how much the Father hates sin. It must be condemned. But at the same time, Jesus’ suffering on the Cross shows how much the Father loves. God sent His cherished Son to the Cross so that you could be happy. 

While Jesus was here, He acted and He taught. Many watched and heard. He revealed the Father’s heart. But not all who watched and heard came to know the Father. Why? There are different ways the Bible answers that question. But consider how John has already answered it earlier in this chapter. ‘He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ While some rejected Jesus and were still clinging to their rebellion, others believed. They watched and they heard, and then they believed. Jesus had made the Father known to them. The world is divided into two groups: those who believe Jesus, and those who don’t. Or you could put it this way: those who know the Father and those who don’t. There is no more basic way of understanding people than this. Jesus has come to make the Father known and He has succeeded – at least in some.

Now, what do I want you to do with this? I have a couple of thoughts here. 

Here’s the first. I want you to see that Jesus has done something in you; not just for you but in you. He has revealed the Father to you. He has made Him known to you. There is between you and the Father this bond. Something mystical has happened. You know Him, and He knows you. This is a fact, an objective fact. It’s one of those indicatives of the Gospel. It’s something that is just true of you.

So, reflect on this for just a moment. You can say to yourself, ‘I know God. There is a bond between the Father and me.’ Do you have a sense of how astounding that is? What Jesus has accomplished for you is no little thing. You know God in a way that most of the people you know do not. Something amazing has happened to you. This is tied to being God’s child, His favorite child. It’s tied to being given His life, the life of eternity. This is what the church word ‘salvation’ is about. This is what it means to be a Christian. Something big has happened to you, happened in you. Jesus has revealed to you the Father. You know Him. And you will never be the same. 

Let me take this one step further. The bond between you and the Father, this knowing Him, is true whether you feel it or not. This bond, this knowing, can be felt.  It is something you do experience. But there are times, for lots of different reasons, when you don’t feel it. But even then, when you can’t feel it, it’s still true. The bond between you and Him is still there. At times, your experience of knowing the Father is so very intense. And then, there are times when it so very faint. But it is still the same objective fact. You know the Father, and the Father knows you. And there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can change that. Even when you have fallen into some nasty sin, it’s still true. The bond is still there. I would encourage you to think about this a bit. If it is just flat-out true that you know God and He knows you – and it is – then what else is true about you and your situation?

And all of that leads to this second thought. Jesus has most certainly made the Father known to you. But there is more of the Father for you to know. There is more of the Father’s heart for you to enjoy. And that is something that will remain true for all of eternity. So, a question fits here. How can you get to know the Father better? What do you do? The key to the answer is tied to this very important fact: Jesus is still making the Father known. His ascension into heaven did not stop that. He is still pursuing His mission. It’s just that He does that now by the Spirit. And because Jesus is still busy with this mission, you know what you need to do. You do what those first century disciples did when He was here in the flesh. You watch Him. You watch what He is doing day by day. 

Think about what happened back then. From the perspective of the Twelve and those with them, things just happened. Jesus is invited to a wedding. He bumps into a woman at a well. He has a conversation with some scholar. Jesus didn’t tell them, ‘Okay, what happens next is going to end up in the Bible so watch carefully.’ No. It was just another day of life where things happened, Jesus responded and they were there watching. But as they watched Jesus in these various situations, He expected them to ask themselves a question. ‘What just happened? What was that about?’ And that’s what you are to do also. As many of you know, I’ve been having some health issues. These did not come into my life out of the blue. Jesus led me into them. So, the question for me to ask is the same that those first century watchers were to ask. ‘What is this about? What is Jesus doing now? How is He making me know the Father’s heart better in this situation?’ And that covers everything from health problems to celebrating weddings. And that’s what you need to do. You need to be watching Jesus doing this and that in your life, and asking yourself questions. We do not do this on our own. We have the Scriptures, we have the Spirit, we have prayer and we have each other. And taking advantage of these gifts, we discern what Jesus is doing and how He is making the Father known among us. 

To be sure, this will take effort. But it’s worth the effort. And here’s why: There is more of the Father’s heart for you to enjoy. Pursuing this doesn’t mean that you forget about the rest of life. The ideal is not a life spent in a monastery. Quite the opposite! The way that you get to know the Father better is by living each day as it comes at you: projects, shopping, conversations, laundry, problems, joys. But you do that ready to interpret the things that go on during your day so that you can discover what Jesus is revealing to you. You watch. And as you do that, you will discover new things about your heavenly Father. And in that way, you begin the enjoyment of eternity now.