Christ leaves His word behind and preserves it: Canonicity Part 6. John 14:7; 1 Co 2:16

John 14:8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."

 

Philip is a believer, but he has failed to mix faith with what he has heard.

 

John 14:9 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 do you say, 'Show us the Father'?

 

Verse 9 - the Lord rebukes Philip.

           

“Have I been with you so long,” means that three years was enough for them to come to the conclusion that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him.

 

/“and yet you have not come to known me, Philip?” Perfect active indicative of ginwskw[ginosko] = to come to know. Two big enemies for the believer: ignorance and arrogance.\

 

Both go hand in hand. Philip has ignorance - show us the Father; and he has arrogance - then I’ll be satisfied.

 

/Arrogance always says that God hasn’t done enough. But no matter what God does arrogance is never satisfied.\

 

Philip saw the miracles of the Lord and heard the teaching of the Lord, but he never mixed it all with faith. He believed that Christ was the Messiah [he calls Him kurios] so he was saved, but the plan of the Father for the Lord escaped his notice.

 

/Philip was waiting for rational and empirical proofs while the truth was right under his nose, ready to be mixed with faith.\

 

Example Jacob:

 

GEN 32:1 Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him.

 

GEN 32:2 And Jacob said when he saw them, "This is God's camp." So he named that place Mahanaim.

 

/Mahanaim = 2 camps. Jacob’s and God’s camps.\

 

Jacob first saw the angels of God in a dream ascending and descending up and down a ladder.

 

GEN 28:10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.

 

GEN 28:11 And he came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place.

 

GEN 28:12 And he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

 

GEN 28:13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.

 

GEN 28:14 Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

 

GEN 28:15 And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

 

GEN 28:16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."

 

GEN 28:17 And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

 

Sounds so good, doesn’t it? How many times have you made proclamations like this, verbally or not? Your actions speak so loud, I don’t hear a word you are saying.

 

/The angels of God were with him when he was leaving the land and in Gen 32 the angels of God are with him when he’s returning to the land. Jacob was under divine escort for 20 years.\

 

Upon seeing them a second time after so many years you might think that Jacob’s faith would have soared through the clouds.

 

 

GEN 32:6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."

 

GEN 32:7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies;

 

GEN 32:8 for he said, "If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape."

 

Oh, brave Jacob. Send the women and children up first. If they die, the rest will escape, and of course that includes him, because he’s way, way in the back.

 

/Jacob calls Esau “lord” and himself “servant.” This is the opposite of the patriarchal blessing. What is your birthright? “Sons of God!”\

 

Are you going to ignore that and call the world, the sin nature, and the KOD, “lord?”

 

Does God quit on Jacob? Does the Lord quit on the disciples because of their silly questions? Will the Lord quit on you, even when you have little faith?

 

GEN 32:24 Then Jacob was left alone [this is the first key to having your lack of faith fixed - you’ve got to be alone with the Lord], and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

 

GEN 32:25 And when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

 

GEN 32:26 Then he said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." But he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me [not ability but availability - don’t quit]."

 

A church age translation of this might be:

/ “I will not let go until I grow up spiritually, when I have the capacity for escrow blessings.”\

 

GEN 32:27 So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."

 

GEN 32:28 And he said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob [liar, swindler], but Israel [prince of God]; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed."

 

GEN 32:29 Then Jacob asked him and said, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" [Have I been with you so long, and yet you still do not know me] And he blessed him there.

 

GEN 33:1 Then Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids.

 

GEN 33:2 And he put the maids and their children in front, and Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

 

GEN 33:3 But he himself passed on ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

 

At least he came to his brother.

 

[slide]Map [slide] We have 40 things given at salvation and we will never improve on them. We are on a learning curve to become in our thinking what we already are in position.

 

Philip was impressed with the miracles but never concentrated on the doctrine. He was so occupied with the Lord’s life that he didn’t concentrate on the message. That is lack of concentration.

 

It isn’t the life of the Lord that counts, it is His message. “I keep on being so long a time in association with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip?”

           

 

John 14:9 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 do you say, 'Show us the Father'?

 

“he that hath seen me” - perfect active participle of o(raw. Philip has been around for three years and has had a panoramic view. The perfect tense indicates that ‘having seen me you have seen the Father.’ In other words, I am the revealer of the Father, is what He is saying.

           

“and how can you say, Demonstrate” - aorist active imperative of deiknumiagain. Philip has had three years! How can you say demonstrate when the exact image of the Father has been with him all this time.

 

/Every believer must recognize God in his life as well as what God has predestined him to be. \

           

In verses 10-12, we have the dynamic life that comes from the application of doctrine.

 

First, doctrine must be metabolized under the power of the filling of the Holy Spirit.

 

/Metabolization chart.\

 

Once metabolized we have an opportunity to apply that doctrine to circumstances.

 

We get into the plan of God by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Once we are in the plan of God we are then expected to orient to the plan of God, to understand the plan of God and to function under the plan of God.

 

We live in the devil’s world. He is the ruler of this world, the guiding influence of this world, and it is only through Bible doctrine that we can fulfil the very reason for our existence under grace in the CWL.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ rebukes Philip, and Philip’s recovery from the rebuke is very rapid. This is an important principle.

 

/No matter how you get hit in life by what, when, where, or how it is imperative that you get on your feet as soon as possible and keep moving. \

 

 

 

The problems, failures, difficulties and the disasters of life are not meant to keep you down. Philip snapped right back into it so that the Lord recognised that Philip recovered and was ready to hear and metabolize doctrine again.

 

John 14:10 "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.

 

/ “Do you not believe,” is a challenge to metabolize more doctrine.\

 

/ “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me,” means that TLJC and God the Father have identical essence.\

 

/Essence Box\

 

Despite possessing these attributes, the deity of TLJC took humanity upon Himself and restricted the independent use of His divine essence.

 

Therefore, for the humanity of TLJC to learn doctrine and the plan of the Father, He had to metabolize it for Himself just like we all do.

 

The humanity of TLJC metabolized doctrine for Himself before He ever taught anyone. Every teacher must metabolize doctrine himself before he can teach anyone.

 

The deity of Christ does not need to be taught, but the humanity of Christ humbled Himself under the teaching of the word of God.

 

/Luke 2:47

And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. \

 

Philip has a mind with knowledge in it, but he has not mixed that knowledge with faith. Now the Lord is going to try and break down the roadblock that Philip has constructed between the mind and the heart.

 

Principle:

/Lack of faith in the perceived word of God produces a roadblock between the mind and the heart.\

 

This roadblock produces confusion and emotionalism since without faith the creature must resort to rationalism and empiricism.

 

John 14:11 "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.

 

Believe that I and the Father are identical in essence. The miracles are examples of that very thing.

 

/Since Philip is a “show me and I’ll believe,” type believer, the Lord reminds him of the miracles that he has seen.\

 

The Lord often does this for us in what we sometimes call, “coincidences,” where God is whispering to us from our circumstances.

 

/God will do whatever it takes, within the framework of His Justice, to reveal Himself to you.\

 

John 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [the preposition “eis” shows us that this is not for salvation but post salvation faith in His word], the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.

 

This is not faith for salvation, but faith in the truth of doctrine after salvation. This is why we go back to the original language.

 

/ “in” - eij[eis] = preposition of direction - into, to, or toward. “Believe towards Me,” - divine good works will not be accomplished by negative believers.\

 

And:

 

/The greater works are in quantity and not quality. Why? The HS will be released to the entire church and Advocate will be seated at the right hand of God interceding for us.\

 

/HEB 7:5

Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.\

 

The greater works have to deal with the quantity of believers that will exist all throughout the Church, all of whom are indwelt by the Spirit, in union with Christ, and royal priests.

 

It is through Christ that the word, the plan, and the power to execute the plan will come to each individual believer.

 

In addition to this, there will be an enormous amount of answered prayer.

 

/As the Advocate seated at the right hand of God, all prayer goes through Christ, as we pray in His name, therefore all merit goes to Him.\

 

John 14:13 "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

 

John 14:14 "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

 

Since Christ is the source of salvation, truth, power, prayer, etc. the greater things that the Church will do are really the greater things that He will do through the Church.

 

EPH 1:15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints,

 

EPH 1:16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;

 

EPH 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

 

EPH 1:18I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

 

EPH 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might

 

EPH 1:20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

 

/The session is when the power was given: the filling of the HS, the mystery doctrine, and the plan that He prototyped.\

 

EPH 1:21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

 

EPH 1:22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,

 

EPH 1:23 which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.

 

/Whatever divine good the church accomplishes it is a direct result of the Head of the church.\

 

John 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [the preposition “eis” shows us that this is not for salvation but post salvation faith in His word], the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.

 

“Because I go to the Father,” means the session will unlock the windows of heaven and the surpassing power of the church will be poured out to all who believe.