John 14: 8-14

In his autobiography, The Ragman’s Son, actor Kirk Douglas told how much pride he felt in been recognized on the street by strangers. On one occasion, he was walking down the street when a taxi pulled over to the curb. A pretty woman smiled and called to him, “Mr. Douglas!” Figuring she wanted his autograph, he thought to himself, “I can spare a minute of my time for her.” Her response? “Wow, Michael Douglas’ father!”

The wealthy old farmer was asked by the newspaper reporter to reveal the secret of his success. The farmer shared a story about one of his old roosters. “This rooster was the best at everything he did. He was better at fighting, flying, pecking, jumping than any of the other roosters. Unfortunately, he still lost fights to much weaker birds. The trouble was that just as he was winning a fight, he would stop to crow.”

A couple was traveling out West. They stopped at a sign that said, “Echo Point.” “Try it,” the wife suggested. “I think it’s silly,” her husband said. Finally he agreed to try it. He shouted at the top of his voice, “BALONEY!” After a moment, he said, “See, nothing happened.” “Try it again,” his wife said. This time he shouted, “I’M THE BEST LOOKING MAN IN THE WORLD!” Then the echo came back: “BALONEY!”

The gospel writer and apostle John recorded Philip requesting Jesus to show them the Father, God Almighty. Jesus responded with a question: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?” This is posed to the church as well. The question is posed to us today. This is an internal conversation. Can we identify the Father? Can we identify the Son? This is essential for the church. We must have a grounding in this answer before we can bear witness to the power, truth and love of our Lord Jesus Christ to the world. I don’t think we do that great a job of bearing witness of Christ to the world as it is. After posing the question, Jesus said one thing immediately. “Whoever has seen me as seen the Father.” He then asked another question, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

Believing in Jesus in the gospel of John is believing the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. This communicates that there is no marked difference between the Father and the Son. Philip’s inquiry of Jesus was to show them the Father. Jesus’ response was they had seen the Father in him. The Father dwells in the Son. Then Jesus poses the question to Philip: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” He continued, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (vss 10-11a). BELIEVE ME THAT I AM IN THE FATHER AND THE FATHER IS IN ME.

Historically, the church understood, confessed and declared Jesus was truly God and truly human. If the church, if those inside the church, believe that Jesus is more human than God than there would be a marked difference between the Son and the Father. There would be distinctive words and actions that Jesus said and did that would not please nor be shared by God the Father. There are those who are more comfortable with Jesus the human than Jesus the Son of God and consequently believe Jesus to be more human than the Son of God.  My proof? The church could not and has not done the works Jesus did and even greater works than these in any pronounced way. Again why? Because there are those who believe more in Jesus the human than Jesus the divine Son of God. Jesus asked, “You still do not know me?”

One of the bishops attending Vatican II (a church council that brought reformation within the Roman Catholic church in the 1960s) later shared with a few colleagues a note from his personal journal. He’d written: “Wisdom everywhere, courage nowhere. Dear Lord, we are dying of prudence (dying of being wise and cautious regarding practical matters). WISDOM EVERYWHERE, COURAGE NOWHERE. LORD, WE ARE DYING OF PRUDENCE. Philip, one of the disciples, believed the heavenly Father was still a mystery, though he’d been with Jesus for so long. Jesus communicated to his friend that what he did and what he said were from the Father because he was in the Father and the Father was in him.

Now, verse 12, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me (connecting with what he’d said earlier – BELIEVE ME THAT I AM IN THE FATHER AND THE FATHER IS IN ME), the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these because I am going to the Father.” He will go to the Father, and what will happen to the believers in him? What will happen in the church?

John 14, starting at verse 11: I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides WITH you, and he will be IN you.

The Spirit of truth, the other Advocate, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, will be in those who believe the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son, and those who love the Son AND keep his commands by loving one another. In loving and faith-filled relationship with the Son and the Father, the Holy Spirit will dwell in us and whatever we ask in his name he will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Ask for anything in his name and he will do it.

THIS IS A CHALLENGE FOR US TO BELIEVE ANY OF THIS. We may abound in wisdom, knowing our theology and scripture texts and historical background, but it takes courage to believe what he’s told us. “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these because I am going to the Father.” “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. . . And he will be in you.” Wisdom abounds in the church, but courage seldom does. And there’s plenty of caution, plenty of prudence.

In Communion, we are offered an opportunity for confession of sin and receiving pardon. In the sharing of the body and blood of Christ, we don’t merely recognize the martyred death of a prophet. We remember the Lord Jesus Christ offered his body and blood as a sufficient sacrifice for the sin of all the world. Through him, we are delivered from slavery to sin and death. A mere human being cannot do that. It is not a mere human being, a well-intentioned holy person, that invites us to this table to believe again in salvation found in Christ alone. He invites us to believe he is in the Father and Father is in him, and to believe with love in our hearts as it was in him we can do what he did because he’s gone to the Father and the Spirit of truth has come to dwell in us. IT IS A CHALLENGE FOR US TO BELIEVE ANY OF IT, but it in this we know him.

(Preached at St Mark UMC in Anniston, AL, May 7, 2023)