Yeshua Reveals the Father

14 ⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” ⁹ Yeshua replied to him, “Have I been with you so long without your knowing me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. This apparently contradicts 1:18 (“No one has ever seen God”) and 5:17–30, which focuses on the distinctions between the Father and the Son. The paradox is resolved by Colossians 2:9: “In him,” Yeshua, “bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is.” The human mind is stretched beyond its limits in trying to cope with the idea that the Creator of the universe and one of His creations, a human being named Yeshua, are to be identified with each other. The language of the Brit Hadashah, in how it treats this issue, shows that God respects our difficulty in apprehending it. The Brit Hadashah never says directly, “Yeshua is God.” Nor does it say, “Yeshua is only a man and not God,” except in the mouths of His opponents. The Brit Hadashah adds insights in one place and another, “line on line, precept on precept, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:10, 13).

¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with me? What I am telling you, I am not saying on my own initiative; the Father living in me is doing his own works. ¹¹ Trust me, that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with me. But if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves.

I am united with the Father and the Father united with me. This adds to what v. 9 has taught.

Praying in Yeshua’s Name

¹² Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever trusts in Me will also do the works I do! Indeed, He will do greater ones, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ In fact, whatever you ask for in my name, I will do; so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me for something in my name, I will do it.

Yeshua empowers believers to do God’s work on earth, which includes performing miracles (compare Acts 2:43). Greater. This term refers to the number of miracles (as described in John 14:11). Believers will collectively (and perhaps individually) perform more miracles than Yeshua. Yeshua intends to extend the Ruach’s work beyond Himself to all Believers, as He had already begun to do (Luke 9:1–6). Whatever you ask in my name refers to those occasions when He is given credit for the work, rather than the person performing the work, and when it is in His will. Yeshua gives several examples (e.g., John 11:41–42). Miracles must be performed for the purpose of leading others to believe (11:15).

Another Counselor Promised

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commands;

If you love me, you will keep my commands, my mitzvot. It is wrong to think of Messianic Judaism or Christianity as “easy,” requiring only pleasant feelings of love but no actions to prove it. Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible lists 1,050 New Testament commands which, according to this verse, are to be obeyed by those who love Yeshua. The distinction drawn between Old Testament Judaism as a religion of law and Brit Hadashah faith as a religion of love is unfounded. In both the Tanakh and the Brit Hadashah, biblical religion is based on both love and law, both mercy and justice; it always has been and always will be.

¹⁶ and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever. ¹⁷ The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees nor knows him. You know him, because he is staying with you and will be united with you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans – I am coming to you.

Another comforting Counselor like me, or the Spirit of Truth, is the Ruach HaKodesh (v. 26), who guides talmidim into all truth (16:13). The Spirit replaces Yeshua’s physical presence by permanently indwelling His followers. Divine presence for Yeshua’s followers includes the Ruach (14:15–17), Yeshua (vv. 18–21), and the Father (vv. 22–24). The Spirit’s presence within disciples essentially amounts to Yeshua own presence, because the Spirit testifies about Yeshua (15:26) and helps talmidim understand the significance of what Yeshua has done (16:14). Yeshua assurance, I will not leave you as orphans, echoes Moshe’s parting words to Isra’el (Deuteronomy 31:6; cp. Joshua 1:5). By saying this, Yeshua likely had in mind both His resurrection and the coming of the Spirit at Pesach.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

¹⁹ In just a little while, the world will no longer see me; but you will see me. Because I live, you too will live.

Because of His resurrection and by the indwelling life of the Spirit of Yeshua, Believers possess eternal life (see Romans 6:1–11; Colossians 3:1–4).

²⁰ When that day comes, you will know that I am united with my Father, and you with me, and I with you.

“ When that day comes” refers to His resurrection, when He returns to them alive.

²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” ²² Y’hudah (not the one from K’riot) said to him, “What has happened, Lord, that you are about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ Yeshua answered him, “If someone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ Someone who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words—and the word you are hearing is not my own but that of the Father who sent me.

Once again, Yeshua emphasized the need for the habitual practice of obedience to His commands as evidence of the Believer’s love for Him and the Father. This is consistent with James 2:14–26, which teaches that true saving faith is manifest in works produced by God through the Spirit’s transforming, regenerating power. Those works are expressions of the love which the Spirit pours into the believer’s heart (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22).

²⁵ “I have told you these things while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything; that is, He will remind you of everything I have said to you. ^[1]

Will teach you everything. The Ruach HaKodesh energized the hearts and minds of the Apostles in their ministry, helping them to produce the New Testament Scripture. The talmadim had failed to understand many things about Yeshua and what He taught; but because of this supernatural work, they came to an inerrant and accurate understanding of the Lord and His work and recorded it in the Gospels and the rest of the Brit Hadashah (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Kefa 1:20, 21).

^[1] Yochanan 14:8 – 14:26

In our next post, we will continue to explore the Gospel of Yochanan.