Hast thou not known me?

 

Philip still has a question     v8-21

The intimacy of the Father and the Son   v8-11

They had been three years in his company.  They had witnessed things, marvellous things, which proclaimed that He was more than a man, that He was in fact God in human flesh.  Yet they still did not really know Him, and Phillip is expressing this fact.  He said, “Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.”   He requested a theophany, an appearance of God, just as Moses did back in the days of the Exodus when he asked to see God’s glory-Exodus 24v9-10, and 33v18.  Jesus answers this at length, first of all with a slight rebuke, “Have I been so long time with you yet thou hast not known me, Phillip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, show us the Father?  Believest thou not, that I am in the Father and the Father in me?  The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father, that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work’s sake.  .”

Jesus answers Phillip question by referring to His essential unity with the Father.  The Father and I are one and the same; in seeing me you have seen the Father He refers.  We really have to grasp this, that in every sense the Father and Son are one.  This is denied today by most world religions, including some pseudo-evangelical groups, a fact which differentiates between real and false Christianity.  John will make this clear in his epistle-1^st John 2v22-23 “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?  He is antichrist which denieth the Father and the Son; again 2^nd John v9 “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.  He abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.”  The words that He spoke were the Fathers’ words-v10 “I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me…  Chapter 3v34 “He that God hath sent speaketh the words of God”; Chapter 7v16 “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me”; Chapter 8v28 “As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things”.  He goes on to speak about the works-in scripture words and works are close partners, we are not to be talking without walking, and God Himself is the supreme example; when He speaks, He acts.  And so it says “ My Father ….doeth the works.” My father sent me He did the works; if you will not believe my words, believe me for the very works sake.  He has said this all the way through. Chapter 5v20 “The Father showeth Him all things that He doeth”; chapter 5v30 “I can of mine own self do nothing”; chapter 5v36 “The works which my Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me.”  This is an unbreakable, and essential unity in thought, in deed and in action, which culminates in the perfection of a work conceived in eternity, and accomplished in time upon the earth.  In essence, His answer to Philip can be summarised as follows;

He is the same essence with the Father-v9; He is the same expression of the Father-v10; He demonstrates the same energy as the Father-v10/11