Well, good evening again. It’s good to fellowship with some of you throughout the day, and I hope you’ve been relaxed and refreshed with each other. It’s a wonderful opportunity we have, brothers, to meet like this. Marvelous, marvelous.
I’ll ask you to open, if you would, to John 14, please.
As we come to the study of God’s Word together, there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable—a principle we dare not take for granted, one we cannot live without. If we go by that which is useful, then God will stop using that which is useful in our lives. There is only one thing indispensable, and that is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
Let’s bow once again as we prepare to look into His Word.
Our Father, we do thank You again so much for the Holy Spirit, who lives in our hearts to work in us that attitude of childlikeness, to turn our eyes unto the Lord Jesus, to take this written Word and show us Christ.
We would ask Thee this evening, Lord, again for that liberating discovery of our Savior—a fresh look at Him. Lord, we don’t want to pry into darkness; we desire to walk in the light. And we would ask You, by Your grace, as You promise to sow light for the righteous, we pray that You’d sow it among us this evening.
You know our needs and our capacities and our hungers. You know where we are. And we’d ask You to meet us by Your grace where we are, and take us to that place that You’d have us. Transform us with a view of Him.
We would ask You again, by Your grace, to protect us from all that’s not from Thee. And we pray that in the matchless and all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Very briefly, by way of review, we’re looking at these five marvelous chapters, John 13 through John 17, all spoken by and experienced by our Lord Jesus on His final day before He accomplished salvation for us on the cross of Calvary.
It was almost as if, this one final time, He said, “Before I go and finish the work, I want you to look one more time at the heart of God. The reason I have come—I have come to unveil the Father. I have come to show you God. I want you to see these precious things.”
Now, we’ve been dividing them up. Of course, it depends on how you look at the chapters; you can divide them up into many principles or few. And we’ve begun to look at four precious revelations that Jesus calls attention to here.
The first one is illustrated in John 13:1–17 by the foot washing. The truth is that God is the Servant, that He wears the slave apron, that He ministers unto us. He washes our feet; He refreshes us in order that we might minister to others.
Marvelous principle. We’re not saved to serve; we’re saved to be served by Him in order that we might minister to others.
This morning, we looked at another principle illustrated by the Lord’s dealings with two of His disciples: one with Judas and the other with Peter. The great truth that we were discussing is that God is for us, that God’s on our side.
It is illustrated as He stretched out His heart for Judas. It’s never hopeless. He’s always reaching and longing and yearning and dipping into our lives, and He does pursue us right to the end.
Then it is illustrated in His conversation with Peter. Peter, of course, was trying to avoid the process. “I’m ready now.” Jesus said, “Later you will follow Me.” And he said, “No, I’m ready.”
You remember what the Lord Jesus said: “Peter, you need the process. I’ll prove that. You won’t make it through the night. You can’t make it till tomorrow. You need the process. You’re going to deny Me, but let not your heart be troubled. I’ve already seen the worst in you, and I’m not troubled. Let not your heart be troubled.”
All right, that brings us then to our new material: a third principle that, I believe, was very big on the heart of the Lord Jesus. This principle is illustrated in this conversation with Philip.
Let’s read the text. I’d like to read John 14:5–14.
Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
If ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also: from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.
Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father?
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I say unto you I speak not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works.
Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask anything in My name, that will I do.
We’ll stop there. I love this translation. I do not like red letter; I can’t see it. That’s one of my big quarrels with red letter—it all blends together. Anyway, the Lord gracing us, I’d like to share this next principle.
In this text, Philip asks the Lord Jesus for a revelation of God—the Father. Now, to get the full benefit from John 14, I really believe that it would help us to trace out what Philip had seen of the Lord so far, as far as the record goes. In other words, what did he already know before he asked for this revelation?
At this point, I’d like to ask your patience. I need to do a little donkey work with you. I’d like to go back and look up a few Scriptures and ask you to follow along, because the Holy Spirit deliberately, selectively, on purpose, has put the spotlight on Philip.
He shows us three events in Philip’s life where he received revelation of the Lord. If we’re going to get the full benefit of John 14, it helps us to see where he was. What had he already seen?
Three times the spotlight drops on Philip, and in each case his eyes are opened wider and wider and wider in amazement as he beholds the Lord.
John 1, beginning at verse 43. This is where it all started.
On the morrow He was minded to go forth into Galilee, and He findeth Philip: and Jesus saith unto him, Follow Me.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
We’ll stop reading right there. Now, evidently from the context, it looks like Philip was one of those shy guys, a loner. He was by himself—the kind that sort of stands in the shadows. He’ll talk to you fine if you go up to him and strike up the conversation.
Philip seemed to be that kind of person, and the Lord sought him out. The Lord went up to him and called him. In that moment, according to the record here, Philip had an eye-opener. I’m sure it was the Holy Spirit who showed him that.
He runs straight to Nathanael, and in John 1:45 he says, “We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote.”
What was the revelation that he saw? What was clear to Philip? I think, for the first time—remember, they didn’t have the New Testament. All they had was what he mentioned—and he said, “I found Him.”
Who is the theme of the Bible? “I found the One that Moses wrote about. I found the One that Jeremiah wrote about. I found the One that Isaiah wrote about. I see that Christ is the theme of this Book.”
That’s a tremendous thing to come to. That’s how he started. Is that a great way to start? Just to believe this whole Book is to show you Christ. So he had that first revelation.
Now, hold on a moment and look at the next revelation. It’s in John 6, in the story of the feeding of the five thousand.
Sometimes we just sort of read these things, la, la, la, and skip over some of the details. Very often, the details are the key to understanding the whole thing.
Now, all of the disciples are standing around. Philip’s not by himself; he’s with all the disciples. Yet the Lord comes up to Philip. On this occasion, evidently He saw something in Philip’s heart that needed to be stimulated.
The Lord Jesus began to dig and reach inside of Philip. In John 6:6, it says:
And this He said to prove him: for He Himself knew what He would do.
What did He say? John 6:5:
Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude cometh unto Him, saith unto Philip, Whence are we to buy bread, that these may eat?
Why did He pick out Philip? Why not Peter, or James, or John? But He goes up to Philip and says, “Where are we going to buy bread?” Then John lets us in behind the scenes: “This He said to test him.”
He’s working with Philip. He’s ministering unto Philip. Now Philip’s puzzled. “Where are we going to buy?” He looks at the crowd—five thousand people. He takes out his calculator and begins to count the money and count the people.
He says, “Lord, two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for these, for everyone to receive a little.” Don’t think that he looked in the money bag and said, “Well, we’ve got two hundred denarii; that’s not enough.” Two hundred denarii was more than half a year’s wages. They didn’t have that in the bag.
What he was saying was, “Lord, look at that group. Half a year’s wages aren’t enough to feed them, and You’re asking me where we’re going to get the money.”
The Lord Jesus, in front of Philip, did that marvelous miracle. We won’t go into the details of that. Philip’s eyes were opened again.
He saw One who was a provider, a marvelous Provider, One who was a source and a reservoir. Philip began to learn Christ. He saw not only that Christ was the theme of the old Bible, but that Christ was the source of everything.
Christ was the Provider. When you have nothing, you have no need. He is the Provider. So he begins to see the Lord: He is the theme of this Book; He is the Provider, the source of everything.
John 12 is the third reference to Philip. Verse 20.
Let me give this little background. As far as this record goes, this was the final act of the Lord Jesus in His public ministry. After this, He turned to His own. This was the last thing He did.
Now, let me read it with you—John 12:20:
Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast:
these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: Andrew cometh, and Philip, and they tell Jesus.
And Jesus answereth them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will the Father honor.
Jump down, if you will, to verse 31:
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.
As I said, as far as the record goes, this is the transition from His ministry to the world. Obviously, He had more ministry to the world when He died; He ministered to the world. But as far as His formal ministry to the world—healing the sick and the blind and the lame, and so on—He turns at this point unto His own.
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” His public ministry did not end with the healing of a leper. His public ministry did not end with the raising of a crippled man, or another raising of Lazarus from the dead, or the casting out of a demon, or the calming of a storm.
His public ministry comes to an end with this request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” That’s quite a way to end a public ministry—with that request.
Now, it’s not necessary for our purposes to speculate on the heart attitudes of the Greeks. Were they sincere in their request and all of that kind of thing? We’re interested tonight in what Philip discovered about Christ through answering that particular question.
His discovery of Christ is tied into a very strange response of our Lord Jesus. He tells Philip and Andrew that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. He gives them a sermon on the grain of wheat.
The grain of wheat has to die and fall into the ground, or else it abides by itself alone. He tells them about loving life and losing life and saving life in all of these paradoxes. He says, “If I be lifted up, I’ll draw all men to Me.”
If Philip understood all of that, I’m sure the Greeks didn’t. They’re standing outside: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” They’re sort of waiting. He never got back to them. They’re still there.
He just seems to ignore them. He doesn’t send back an answer. He doesn’t send a messenger. He doesn’t go out to meet with them. He didn’t rebuke them. He didn’t congratulate them. It looks like He doesn’t even know they’re there.
“Sir, there’s a whole group of people out here who want to see You.” “Except a grain of wheat die, it abides by itself alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.” Great. What do I tell the Greeks outside?
Is He so occupied with His own passion that He is not concerned about them and their request? Obviously, that’s not the heart of Christ.
Here is how He responds, John 12:36: “So He departed and hid Himself from them.” That’s a fine answer. What’s going on?
Why doesn’t the Lord Jesus answer them, or at least show what would be considered common courtesy and acknowledge that they’re there? Say, “I’m sorry, I’m busy and I can’t,” or whatever.
Jesus’ public ministry ends with this request: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” That request represents the very purpose that He came for.
There’s depth in that if you really meditate on that: “We would see Jesus. We would know God. We want to know the Lord.” There’s this passion.
The Lord Jesus did not treat it as an insincere request. You read some of these commentators and they just destroy the Greeks because, “Oh, Jesus ignored them because they didn’t really mean it anyway,” and all that. Jesus did not ignore this question.
“There are some Greeks who want to see You. We want to see Jesus.” The Lord Jesus, in effect, is answering as He always does—spiritually.
“Do they want to see Me? Do they want to see My body, the color of My eyes? Do they want to see My beard? Or is the question deeper? Do they want to know God? Do they want to see Me?”
“If they want to see My body, I’ll go stand there; they can look at Me. But if they want to know God, I better answer them right away and go off to the cross. Except a grain of wheat die.”
He wasn’t ignoring them. He was answering their request. Their heart was saying, “We would see Jesus,” and the Lord Jesus is saying, “Then, if there’s a group here that wants to see Me, the only way they’ll ever see Me really and know Me really is because I must go off to that cross.”
“If I be lifted up, I’ll draw all men”—not only the Greeks, but the Greeks and the Jews in every tribe and every nation and every kindred under heaven. He didn’t ignore the Greeks at all. He answered their question, and He answered it in the fullest way possible—not by words, but by actions.
He made His way to the cross. If they really want to know God, oh, that’s glorious. What a way to end My ministry: with this heart cry, “We want to know God.” Then I must go. Then I must hurry. I must go to the cross in order to answer their prayers.
I thank the Lord Jesus involved Philip in that in order that Philip might see another revelation of Christ. Not someone who snubs some prayer request, but Philip began to understand: here is the hope of the whole world. “If He is lifted up, He’ll draw all men to Himself.”
Once again, the Lord Jesus, as He often does, is doing the best for us when it looks like He is doing the least for us. That’s what He was doing for these Greeks.
Philip says, “Boy, I’m really starting to know Jesus. He is the theme of this Book. He’s everything. He is the source of all provision. He is the hope of all mankind.” Did he see the Lord or not?
So we had this wonderful view, and now we come to John 14. He wants to increase that vision. It is not enough to see that Jesus is the theme of the Book. It is not enough to know that Christ is the source of everything. It is not enough to know that Christ is the hope of all mankind.
Now he says, “Show us the Father. We want a revelation of God.” You talk about a large view of God, and now he is seeking for a larger view.
“All I desire, all I long for,” says Philip, “all I want is this revelation of God. Show me the Father. That’s enough. That satisfies. That suffices.”
Let me paraphrase the response of the Lord Jesus when Philip made this request. See, this part is not in the Bible, but this is how it happened.
When he made that request, the Lord Jesus took Philip and brought a chair over. He stood him on the chair and said, “All right, you eleven, you stand up. I want to show you something.”
“Here’s a man with hunger. Here’s a man with thirst. Here’s a man with desire. This man knows that I’m the theme of the whole Bible. This man knows that I’m the source of all provision. This man knows that I’m the hope of all mankind, and he’s still not satisfied. He wants another revelation of God on top of all that.”
“There’s a man! What hunger! Look, fellows, what desire!” Right? Right?
You know I’m pulling your leg. You better know it. Scratch out all those notes.
John 14:8: “Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”
The whole message, this next principle, revolves around that statement. Whatever it was that Philip intended by that comment, whatever he was asking for in his heart, greatly disappointed our Lord Jesus.
He did not stand him on a chair. He did not put him on display. “Show us the Father, and it’s enough.” That statement revealed something about Philip to the Lord Jesus.
If we can home in on this, we’re very close to our third principle: the unveiling of the heart of God.
Rather than putting Philip on a chair and congratulating him and applauding him, He said in John 14:9, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me?”
Isn’t that amazing? With the record, if he’d sat down and taken a Bible quiz, he would have passed it with an A-plus. “Haven’t come to know You? Watch this. You are the theme of the Bible. I know You. You are the source of all provision. You are the hope of all mankind, and that hope flows out of a finished work. You are the grain of wheat that must die. I understand it.”
And He says, “Yes, you know I’m the theme of the Bible. Yes, you know I’m the provision. Yes, you know I’m the hope of all mankind. But you don’t know Me.”
That’s a tremendous thing. Possible then, brothers, for us to be very dogmatic and cardinal, and you come along and say, “Boy, I know this: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” Sounds so good.
“He’s the Provider. He gives everything. It’s just the Lord; let Him do it. God’s the One that does it. Everybody—that’s the only answer for all humanity.” Christ could still have a broken heart and say, “I’ve been with you so long, and you still don’t know Me.”
What gave it away? What showed the Lord Jesus his heart? What clued Him into the fact that Philip, with all of this, still didn’t know Him?
It’s verse 8: “Show us the Father, and it’s enough. It suffices. It satisfies.”
See what the Lord saw in Philip was this: “I know He’s the theme of the Scriptures. I know He’s the source of everything, the Provider. I know He’s the hope of all mankind. But He’s not enough. He doesn’t satisfy. I need something in addition to Jesus. I need something more besides this.”
This brings us to the principle that the Lord was communicating: Christ is all. Christ is everything.
In God’s revelation of Himself to man, He has made Christ central in the Godhead. Let me say that again: in God’s revelation of Himself to man, He has made Christ central in the Godhead.
They did not need a program, or a method, or a formula, or a blueprint, or a set of rules. He said, “I am the way.” You don’t need a program.
They did not need a theology, a creed, a dogma, a set of teachings, a philosophy, principles. They didn’t need that. He said, “I am the way and the truth.”
Philip is the great illustration that they did not need some kind of subjective experience, even a theophany from heaven. That’s what he was praying for: “Show us a theophany. Show us a revelation of God the Father, and then we’ll be satisfied. That’ll be enough.”
And He says, “No, you don’t need that, because I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. I am everything.”
You see, that’s what wounded the heart of the Lord. Philip was not satisfied in Jesus. It wasn’t enough.
Let me state that principle again and then try to illustrate it as we move on here. In John 14:9, the Lord Jesus is not claiming to be the Father.
There’s an awful lot of mystery in the Godhead and the Trinity, and I’m certainly not going to iron any of that out. I can’t. But I know the Lord Jesus never confused the persons of the Godhead. There was always the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and He never got them mixed up. He always kept them separate. He wasn’t claiming to be the Father.
But having said that, let me say this: He was claiming to be God by that statement. He’s claiming to be one hundred percent God, because when He says beholding Him is exactly the same thing as beholding the Father, by claiming that perfection of God, He’s claiming to be the image of God, having the same natural attributes and essence and glory, and so on.
But even that’s not His point. He’s not saying, “Now I’ll give you a proof text on the deity of Jesus Christ.” That wasn’t His point.
His point is—and this is what He longed that they see—this is the heart of God: if God is ever going to deal with you, it’s through Jesus. If you’re ever going to deal with God, it’s through Jesus.
In God’s revelation of Himself to man, He has made Christ central in the Godhead. How do I know God? How do I know the Spirit of God? The answer is by His revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I went through a battle one time in my life where I got—you always go through these guilt-trip battles, you know, where you hear things—and I felt like I was neglecting God the Father because I wanted to try to keep my eyes on Jesus.
I felt like I was neglecting God the Father and neglecting God the Holy Spirit. So, in order to balance my Christian life, I began to do studies on God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
In that moment, I went off center. In that moment, I lost my view of the Lord. It wasn’t God’s will for me to study God the Father and God the Holy Spirit apart from the Lord Jesus.
I learned the great truth during that struggle—and that was a long struggle; I’m saying it in a short time. Here’s what I learned: I learned how to neglect God the Father, and I learned how to neglect God the Holy Spirit by trying not to neglect Them.
That’s how you’ll neglect Them. The only way not to neglect God the Father and God the Spirit is to see that the Lord Jesus Christ is everything.
“Show us the Father, and it suffices us.” That should have thrilled Him. He should have been happy with that, and yet He wasn’t, because God has made Christ central.
I read this about the Bible: “The Old Testament is God the Father, the Gospels are God the Son, the Epistles are God the Holy Spirit.” That’s clever, but it’s not the truth—not the truth of God.
Here’s the truth: the Old Testament is God the Son. The Gospels are God the Son. The Epistles are God the Son. Why is that true? It is true because, in God’s revelation of Himself to man, He has made Christ central in the Godhead.
Christ and Christ alone satisfies. We don’t need a program. We don’t need a new creed, or a teacher, or some experience.
Some of us might not say, “Show us the Father, and it suffices us.” He deliberately used Philip’s word because if Christ is disappointed with the highest—now, you can’t get higher than the Father.
Philip says, “Show me the Father and I’ll be satisfied,” and that disappointed Jesus. How do you think the Lord feels when we say, “Lord, show us our gifts, and it suffices us”?
“Lord, show us our ministry, and it suffices us. Lord, show me rest, and then I’ll be satisfied. Show me victory, and then I’ll be satisfied.”
“Lord, I have everything, and praise God for You, but now only power. Lord, show me power. Show me holiness. Show me growth. Show me maturity. Lord, I’ve got You—praise God for Jesus—just show me insight. Show me blessing, and then I’ll be satisfied.”
At every “show us, and it suffices,” the Lord just shakes His head and says, “Have I been so long with you, and you still don’t know Me?”
“Show me Jesus, and it suffices. Show me Christ, and it’s enough.” Because when you have the revelation of Christ, you have the revelation of God. In His revelation of Himself to man, He has made Christ central in the Godhead.
I’m quite sure that you can prove me wrong down the road on this. I’m only ninety-nine percent dogmatic on this. I’m quite sure that even in eternity, you’ll never see God the Father; you’ll never see God the Holy Spirit.
Your whole knowledge of God forever, as ages roll upon ages, will be the unfolding and the progressive unveiling—because He is infinite. There is always a progress. You can pursue the infinite, but you can’t overtake it.
Forever and ever, your eyes and your mouth will be increasingly opened wider and wider in amazement at the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ—forever and ever and ever. I think that’s always His revelation of Himself.
You see, in this context, that’s why the Lord Jesus was so excited about the coming of the Holy Spirit. John 16:7:
It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.
He knew that the Helper, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would give Him His place as central in the Godhead and that He would turn the light on Jesus. Every time you came to this Book, God would be showing you Christ.
John 15:26: “He will bear witness of Me.” John 16:14–15: “He will glorify Me. He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it unto you.”
I’m glad for that change in that little chorus we sang, because it calls attention to it. Sometimes I think the Holy Spirit gets a bad rap because He’s locked in with the word convict. That’s His ministry, you know?
Because He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and so on, we sometimes have a hard view of the Holy Spirit—that it’s His ministry to plow up the soil, break up the fallow ground, expose the filth, and show us what we are.
He will detect, and He will penetrate, and He will search us, and He will show us how terrible we are. He wounds us. He breaks us. Yes, He does that.
But the Holy Spirit is also in love with you. He not only loves you; He’s in love with you. It is His welcome function and His glorious work to turn your eyes unto the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s His glorious ministry.
The only reason He breaks up the fallow ground and convicts and exposes is because it’s His way to show you how suitable Jesus is for that need and for that deficiency and for that hurt and for that hole in your life. He’s always pointing us to Christ.
The Lord Jesus described—and we’ll get ready to wrap this up—He was all excited about this idea. He said, “I long that you see this. Whenever you’re going to know God, you better know I am the revelation of God. If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen God. You see Me, you’ve seen the Father.”
“Don’t ask for anything besides a revelation of Me. That’s all you need. Even if you say, ‘Show me the Father,’ I’ll be disappointed. Nothing else—just Me, to see Christ.”
That was His burden. Then He begins to describe the Holy Spirit coming in and pointing to Christ, revealing Christ, unveiling Christ, manifesting Christ. You can almost read an excitement in this as the Lord Jesus begins to tell about that day.
“It’ll be a glorious day,” He says, “Philip. It’ll be a glorious day when you start seeing Christ as all, as enough, as sufficient.”
He begins to describe that day in these words. He says, “In that day,” and He tells you something. Then He says again, “In that day.” In the context, don’t put it off in the future somewhere and get into all this prophecy.
He’s talking about the day when the Holy Spirit turns your eyes to Jesus alone and He is sufficient. “In that day, this; in that day, this; in that day, this.”
Let me show you the three “in that day” passages: John 14:20, John 16:23, and John 16:26.
In the day when you finally look to Christ alone, in the day when He satisfies, when He is enough, when He is the revelation of God—John 14:20:
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
In the day when you finally get your head screwed on straight, you finally understand, “That’s right. I don’t have to run here and there and look. It’s just Him.” In that day, you will begin to enter into your union with God.
That’s when your eyes are opened to what it means to be one in Him, and you begin this experiential acquaintance with God. Not that you’re going to receive the union—you already have it. It’s a matter of having eyes to see it.
You’ll understand that the Christian life is not you living for God, but God living in you. You begin to see who you are in Him.
You’ll begin to see that you are in the unique place that He used to occupy by Himself in the presence of God, and now you’re there with Him. You’ll find out who you are, and you’ll be set free to be you in terms of all that He is.
Then John 16:23. This is an interesting one:
In that day ye shall ask Me no question.
I love that. What do You mean by that verse? “In that day you’ll ask Me no question.” Is He saying, “In that day you’ll know everything, zap, you’ll have immediate knowledge, and you’ll never have another question”? That’s not what He’s saying.
He’s saying, “In the day you finally put your eyes on Christ, you will have a satisfied heart. You will have a satisfied mind. You’ll have no questions in that day.”
You’ll see Christ, and you don’t need answers anymore because you found the Answer, and it’s a Person—the Lord Jesus Himself.
Brothers, there’s a difference. The difference is as wide as the east and the west between asking questions for a satisfied heart and asking questions from a satisfied heart.
He’s saying, “In the day when you finally see that Christ is enough, in that day you’ll have no more questions. You’ll be satisfied. Your questions will dissolve.”
We can’t judge hearts, but I think, as a rule of thumb, this is pretty much true: when a person starts seeing the Lord, his questions dissolve. It’s amazing to me.
I used to call it hunger. I’d say, “Boy, people in our area are sure hungry.” How can you tell? By their questions. I don’t know about that anymore.
When you’re all full of these kinds of questions—“What is rest? How do I enter in? What about sin? Is it possible to fall away? What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? How can I reckon myself dead? What is this alive in Christ? What is this in heavenly places? Could you help me, please?”
“How do you study the Bible? How do you know how to pray? I’d like to know how to find God’s will. I only have one question: I want to know how every moment of my life I can be in the center of the circle of the perfect will of God forever. That’s all. Just tell me that. I don’t want much.”
“What does it mean, hunger? What does it mean, thirst? How do you know if you’re abiding in Christ? What is pruning? What is surrender? What’s my part in the responsibility?” A million questions, until you start looking to Christ.
You know why Christian counseling and Christian psychiatry and Christian psychology and marriage counselors and all of these discipleship programs and all this emphasis on discussion and all the how-to books are flourishing today? People are not looking to Jesus Christ.
“In that day you’ll ask Me no questions.” Christians are not looking to Christ. They don’t have a satisfied mind. They don’t have a satisfied heart.
If people start looking to Christ, there’d be a lot of other people out of work.
We need to start looking to Him. You know, I used to get so excited. People come to me for a formula: “Could you please give me some kind of method for a quiet time?”
“Give me some of the chief ingredients on surrender. Make sure I got all the points right. Give me a priority list. Now, where does family fit into that? Could you give me some light on how family fits into that?”
I think it’s pretty sure that usually, when those kinds of questions come up, you’re not looking to the Lord. You’re not looking to Christ. You don’t have a satisfied mind. You’ve taken your eyes off the Lord. That’s the feeling.
One more. John 16:26:
In that day ye shall ask in My name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth you.
In that day, you’ll be one with the will of God. All these questions about prayer—my, how they’ll be answered in that day.
We hear so much testimony about answered prayer: “God answered my prayer, and He did a miracle. God provided this, and He delivered me, and He worked out this situation. He guided in that, and He enabled me to do that. I prayed this imprecatory prayer against my enemies, and it worked,” and all the rest.
It’s a wonderful testimony to hear that God has answered some prayer. But, you know, that’s not the real miracle. The miracle is that we can pray at all. The miracle is that we have a relationship with God, that we can pray at all.
“In that day,” He says, “you’re going to have this relationship in prayer. You’re going to be so one with the will of God.” I don’t even like the expression will of God because it’s been ruined.
The will of God is not a thing. The will of God is the heart of God. That’s all it is. It’s part of His character.
When I’m one with God, I’m one with His character. If you say, “What is God’s will for your life?” Ah, that sounds hard. “What is God’s heart for your life?” The same thing. It’s God’s desire for you. It is His character.
He says, “In that day, when you start looking to Christ, you’re going to be one with Me. Because your will is going to blend into My will, you’re going to know how to pray.”
Marvelous day. In God’s revelation of Himself to man, He has made Christ central in the Godhead. All there ever is to know is Him.
If your heart is crying out to be satisfied in any other way, if you seek the truth after you found Christ, you’re seeking a lie—not the truth anymore. There’s no truth outside of Christ. Just Him, the Lord Himself.
He longed that they would know that. In that day, they’d know their union. In that day, their hearts would be satisfied. In that day, they’d be one with the will of God.
I suggest that’s the principle that was big on His heart: that they would know that God never deals with them apart from Christ, and that they never deal with God apart from Christ.
You want to get to God? You better go through Christ. You want to pray? You better pray in His name. You want to come? You better come in His merits. You want to praise God? By Him, you better offer the sacrifice of praise unto God.
You want to honor God? By Him, in His name, you better do all to the glory of God. The only contact we have with God forever—He has never blessed one person on the earth apart from Christ, and He never will. He can’t. Always through Him.
Oh, Christ, Christ, Christ. Keep your eyes—don’t put them anywhere else. Not even on God the Father, or Christ will say, “And you do not know Me—not yet. Back to the drawing board.”
Isn’t it good that we have a faithful, patient Teacher? How often I go home and tell my wife, “You know, boy, I’ve learned now to look to Jesus.” Huh. Never learn it.
You start learning it and you forget it. The next day you say, “Well, I’m going to do it. I’ll keep my eyes on Jesus all the time. Trust in the Lord.” The next day you say, “Hey, hey, look—if people come to me, I’ve got an answer for your problem. You can come. I’ll tell you to look to Jesus,” unless I have the problem. Then I don’t know where to look.
What’s my solution? I’m amazed at the stupidity of Christians—of me. Oh, we need to look to Him again. We need to see Him.
Let’s trust God together to turn our eyes and to keep our eyes. We need not only to have light, but to hold on to the light. We’ve got such a feeble grip on the light. We just let everything slip through our fingers.
Except for God giving it to us, and then keeping us in it, and helping us to walk in it, and gracing us—oh, we need to see Him and to hang on to that revelation.
Well, I’m rambling. Let’s pray.
Father, thank You so much for this record—not what we think we know it means, but everything You know it means. Work that in our hearts, in our lives. We pray in Jesus’ name.