My check.
Right, let’s read a couple of portions of Scripture, and then we’ll go into prayer.
Let’s read Isaiah 35. In fact, we would love to read the whole chapter, but I think we’ll just read a few portions, starting from verse 7. Isaiah 35, verse 7 onwards, until the end of the chapter.
Isaiah 35, reading from verse 7 onwards:
And the parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In the habitation of jackals, where they lay,
Shall be grass with reeds and rushes.And a highway shall be there, and a way,
And it shall be called The way of holiness;
The unclean shall not pass over it;
But it shall be for those:
The wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein.No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon;
It shall not be found there;
But the redeemed shall walk there:And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads:
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
That verse 7 in Darby’s translation reads, “The mirage shall become a pool.”
Then let’s read John’s Gospel, chapter 14. In fact, let’s read from John 13:37 to John 14:1. So, I’m reading from John 13, verse 37 onwards:
Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake.
Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied Me thrice.
Then we continue to read:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
Let us look to the Lord in prayer.
Loving, gracious, heavenly Father, everlasting and covenant-keeping God, we return to Your presence once again with much expectation. We dare to, O Lord, come because of Your Son, what He has done for us, and the promises, O Lord, that You have made to us.
Lord, even this morning, as You granted us open heaven, O Lord, to worship around the Lord’s table, we pray now that You would speak to each one of us. Lord, we pray that You would touch us and revive us.
Lord, there is a sense of expectation in our hearts. Lord, we pray that You would do something new for us—not just now, not just today, but, Lord, from henceforth.
Lord, we pray that what Your desire is, Lord, concerning this place, concerning us as individuals, as family, as assembly, Lord, and even Richmond as such—Lord, we pray that You would touch us, Lord. Lord, we pray that You would descend once again. Lord, do what You did for our fathers, only even better. O Lord, we pray.
Lord, unworthy, unfit as I am, Lord, I pray that You would hide me behind the cross. Use me as seemeth good in Your sight. Lord, touch my lips with Your coal. Burn over everything that does not belong to You, and all that which is from You, put Your unction and grant utterance for it.
Binding all the seen and unseen works of the enemy, bringing ourselves under the blood of the Lord Jesus, we ask this in the most precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
All right, dear brothers and sisters, I’m, as usual, nervous. I told this to one of our dear brothers this morning—that I’m nervous—and he said, “Well, that’s good.” I think that is good.
One of the sisters reminded us, “Never ready, ever ready.” Yeah. So here we are.
Last time when we had an opportunity to meet—or rather, I had an opportunity to share—it was from John’s Gospel, chapter 13. The crux, or the bulk of the focus, was towards the fact that the Lord is trying to remove this element of worldliness in us.
And worldliness, not in the sense of just being indulgent and being caught up with things which are, quote unquote, worldly, but the very sense of the world itself—its ways, and so on and so forth—represented in Judas.
Judas was the keeper of the money bag. We thought about how money speaks about the most artificial thing man has ever invented. You see that, right? Artificial in the sense that there is nothing natural about it, but it seems to really control everything else.
Speaking of the world, it is needed right from when you are born in this world to the time you go to the grave, but it does not come any beyond that.
So, once Judas had left, Jesus was able to speak His heart out. He started by saying, “Now is the Son of Man glorified; and if the Son of Man is glorified, God is glorified in Him.”
We thought about why He was making that connection. How can He see glory all the way through? And just because Judas left? Because once Judas leaves, once the element of the world leaves, and once it has made its mind to put Christ to the cross—or Christ is going to the cross—Christ can see all the way through glory, and so on.
Therefore, chapter 13 essentially spoke about man’s condition and how we must come to the Lord’s table—not just in practice as we come, but with that sense of examining ourselves before the Lord, and at the same time receiving from Him His life.
As we do that, the Lord takes us further. We move on from chapter 13 to chapter 14. But there is a very strange transition, if you notice, towards the end.
There are things that are unspoken, things that man does not articulate, but God knows them. In John 14, He says, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”
We wonder, what is He talking about—the hearts being troubled? Because just moments ago, Christ has come to the uttermost, the lowest that He could descend. He became a servant. He washed His disciples’ feet.
As He did that, two things come out of it. There is one disciple who is going to betray Him, and there is another disciple who is going to deny Him thrice. It speaks about how utterly impossible our human nature is of any improvement whatsoever.
Of course, there are lessons there, but I am dwelling on the fact that despite the Lord Jesus Christ washing their feet, you have these two situations still there.
Combined with the fact that the Lord is now speaking about His departure, their hearts are filled with trouble. They are grieved. They are not sure what is happening or how to deal with this whole thing.
And the Lord, Who knows the hearts of men, speaks up. People are trying to cover it up, and they are probably trying to make it look good, but Jesus is trying to say, “Peter, you are talking about following Me and all that, but you know what? Your heart is troubled.”
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
Now, what I am sharing is just my own meditation. There is nothing preachy about it. For several weeks our brothers have been sharing. If I could recollect, going all the way back, Lenny shared about the exchange life. Soon after that, I think Brother Daniel shared about the exchange life.
Then, when Mac shared, he spoke about the vertical and the horizontal—the work of the Lord in terms of recovery and rebuilding. And then Jerry shared about how the time to build the house is now. He spoke about how time is given so that God can accomplish His purpose, and so on.
I have been meditating on these things, and so this is my own meditation. This has comforted my heart, and I pray and hope that it would bring some comfort and some light to you as well.
Now, as I look at Peter, as I look at the disciples, as I look at Judas, as I look at the disciples whose feet the Lord has washed, it is a perfect picture of how helpless we are.
There is nothing good that is going to come out of them. There is nothing good that is going to come out of them. Objectively, Jesus doing these things for them is still not going to fix the problem. There is still a Judas. There is still a Peter who is going to deny Him thrice. Nothing is going to change.
Then what has to change? And what can bring the change?
We read Isaiah. It does look like, well, am I ever going to be just this way? Am I ever going to talk about these wonderful things the Lord did in the past? Is it ever going to be just that—make-believe, just claim it, or fake it till you make it?
You just continue to push yourself and make yourself feel that, “Yeah, you know what? This is how it is.” You just keep going on, and maybe one day it will just click into its rails. Is it just that?
Is the mirage just a mirage? Is it just an illusion at a distance? It looks like water, but maybe it is not water. Am I just traveling that way? Is it all true? Is it real?
Those are some of the big questions, I think—the unspoken questions, at least in my heart.
We always think that somehow we must tell Jesus what we are feeling, but I think Jesus understands what is in our heart—what is really burdening us down, what is really pulling us down. He knows our heart.
He knows how practical our questions are, our problems are, our confusions are, our anxieties are. Therefore, He picks up the whole matter of life in chapter 14.
He has washed their feet. Now He is going to give them something in chapter 14 which is about an essential union with Him: the exchange life, the union life, the life of God in the soul of man. Just amazing. Sounds amazing.
But ask anyone, brother or sister, “How much are you in the experience of that?” I think maybe most of us—who knows, all of us; at least I for sure—are going to say, “Yeah, I long for it. I want to know it more.”
Perhaps it is something that we must know more and more, right? There is no doubt about it.
I remember, if I may quote Jerry—I do not know if he is going to excuse me for that—I think last time, on Jerry’s birthday, I asked Jerry, “What is one thing that, if you could start over again, you would do differently? What is it that you really—what would you do?”
He said, “I would want to know the exchange life more.” And true it is.
Perhaps if you go to the youngest in the fellowship and ask, “Hey, what is it that you really want from the Lord?” it is that big question: the exchange life. Is it just at a distance? Is it just a mirage? Is it just there, a pool? Is it just a shadow at a distance? Is it some kind of phantom out there?
Do we just talk about these things—make-believe? Do we pump ourselves up emotionally to think, “Well, these things are true”? What is going on?
The Lord knows these things, and therefore the Lord says, “Let not your heart be troubled.” We have got to remember, He is saying that to Peter. He knows what kind of storms are brewing and coming up, what kind of waves are pouring on Peter’s heart and mind, and on the rest of the disciples.
He knows them. He says, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”
Before we really go into the chapter, I just wanted to point out how much trouble is brewing up in Peter’s heart and mind. They have seen three and a half years of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have seen, touched, and heard things that perhaps no man had seen so far.
They have seen things from up close—yeah, close, right? But here they are at the end of three and a half years, at the end of all the words that Jesus would speak, at the end of all the ministry the Lord did, at the end of all the doctrine, at the end of all the teaching.
Peter hears, “You are going to deny Me thrice.” You are going to deny Me thrice, Peter. There is no hope in you. You think that you will lay down your life for Me? You are going to deny Me thrice.
The utter impossibility of this Christian life must have encountered Peter. He is like, “Well, I have kind of just ruined it.” Of course, if Jesus is saying this, it must be true. Just think about it.
By the way, from that point forward in the rest of the Last Supper episode and that whole scene, you do not see Peter speak anymore. He is dumbfounded. He is just listening. He is just absorbing.
The Peter who, as the brothers say, has a foot-shaped mouth is not going to speak any further, because he understands his reality now. He has spoken. He thought he was something. He was the great mover and shaker. He was going to do something. It all comes down to nothing. He just stands there dumbfounded.
I want to place two examples before you before we go in: the impossibility of the house, the impossible design of the house itself, and the impossible nature of its ministers.
I want to read a portion to you in Ezekiel 41. There is much there, and I am conscious that there are people here who have read more and know more than I would ever in a lifetime. So I will be very cautious and very simple as I put this.
There is much in that chapter, but I will give you the gist of it, and then I think we will read one verse.
The temple of Ezekiel is an impossible structure. Somehow, it just looks like this: it stands on a mountain, on a mountaintop, and then it increases as it goes up.
There are pillars—pillars which bear no weight at all. There are windows, but the windows are all inside, not outside. We have windows and can see outside, but everything has a window. Even the smallest thing inside the temple has a window, but the windows are all inside. It makes no human sense.
There are gates, but unlike our gates, they are gate complexes. It is very strange.
A lot of times, in fact, as I was reading it, I thought, “Let me get a nice chart of the temple, and then let me try to follow all these things.” Well, in fact, the cubit, the measuring reed, and the measuring rod are an entirely different measurement altogether. It is not the human cubit at all.
What is all this? I heard an older brother say, “You think God gave all that measurement so that you could go and build it?” No.
Then why is He giving it? Well, He is trying to give it so that you would know that you cannot build it. You cannot build it.
I will build My church.
The Lord alone can build it. None of us can build it. Well then, what does it mean? Should we just lie back and think, “Oh well, Jesus will do it”?
Let’s read the verse. Ezekiel 41:7. I think the King James is a little different, so please try and follow your version.
And there was an enlargement of the side chambers as they went up higher and higher: for the winding about of the house went up higher and higher round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house continued upward; and so one went up from the lowest chamber to the highest by the middle chamber.
I am not reading the other incredible things that are there—not strange in the sense of what we mean by strange, but the incredible things.
The house is impossible for us to build. Think about it: our own life is difficult to build; our own testimony, our own life, our own homes, our own families—let alone God’s assembly, let alone the universal body of Christ.
I am pretty sure there is a lot of truth in what that brother said: the measurements are given not so that you would go and attempt to build it, but rather to discourage you from trying to build it.
That is the impossibility of the house.
Then let’s talk about the impossibility of its members. Please follow me in Leviticus.
In Leviticus 8, you have the setting apart and consecration of the priests. Leviticus 8:1–2:
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin-offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;
And gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tent of meeting.
And so on. Verse 6 says, “And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.” Verses 7 through 9 speak about how they were clothed—the high priest was clothed. Verses 10 through 12 speak about how the high priest was anointed. Again, verse 13 onwards speaks about how his sons were clothed. Verses 14 through 21 speak about the offerings they brought, and so on.
We encounter the priests.
In the book of Numbers, there is another category of people. Numbers 3 describes how the tribe of Levi was chosen by the Lord.
Essentially, the Lord wants all of His people to be priests—a nation of priests. In Exodus 19, He says that they would be a kingdom of priests. But when they fell from that position, from that opportunity, the Lord took the Levites as representatives of the rest of the assembly.
The way He does that is by using the principle of the firstborn. Imagine there is a family. The first one represents the rest of the family line behind him, right?
What the Lord would say is, “Pick up the firstborn of, let’s say, Ephraim—someone in the tribe of Ephraim, one of the firstborns.” He says, “Take one Levite and use that Levite as a redemption for that Ephraimite.”
So basically, that whole family behind that firstborn of that Ephraimite is represented by this one Levite. Are you with me? Okay. All right. I generally put people to sleep, so I was checking.
Likewise, the Lord went through the entire host of Israelites. He took the firstborn of every single family and used one Levite to redeem every single one of them. Of course, wherever the number exceeded, they had to be redeemed by a certain amount of silver, again given back to the priest.
But the principle is simple: the Levites represented the rest of the assembly. So when the Levites served in the courts of the Lord, in the temple complex or in the tabernacle, it would be as though the entire Israel was serving the Lord. That is the whole grand idea.
So we saw the priests. Now we see the Levites.
There is another category of people, and that is Numbers 6.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord.
Here is a third interesting category of people: the Nazarite. It does not require one to be a Levite to be a Nazarite. It could be anyone, and he could set himself apart for the Lord.
Why are we even talking about all these things? Because this is a picture—big animal pictures, as they say—trying to communicate a very important truth.
There is diversity of gifts. There are many administrations. We cannot have one without the other. We cannot have one that is disproportionate to the other.
We have got to have the priestly life. We have got to have the Levitical life. We have got to have the Nazarite life as well.
If you think that is too much of a connection being made, notice that after Numbers 6, after the Nazarite has been explained, you have the threefold blessing which the Lord gives for blessing His people.
That is in Numbers 6:22–27:
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel: ye shall say unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee,
And be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee,
And give thee peace.
This is the threefold blessing, because all three different aspects of a believer’s life are now coming into right alignment with God’s will.
The priest speaks about the inward life: the closet life, prayer, worship, adoration, intercession—the priestly life.
Is there anyone who would disagree that a Christian is to be a priest? The Christian is a priest. Peter says that we are a royal priesthood.
But is the Christian entirely a priest? Is that all? Does he live in a closet? No. He is called to be a Levite as well. He is called to be a Levite as well.
Well, I would love to remain priestly, just enjoy the worship. I always tell the brothers that this open time of worship is the best time of my week, right? You do not want to trade that for anything, not even for this preaching.
If it were that we could get the entire time only for worship, that would be amazing. But that is not God’s order. The Lord wants us to be a Levite as well.
What does a Levite do? I am not going to bore you with the details, but at least there are three families among the Levites. I would request you to pursue the whole thing further.
Numbers 4 describes these three families of the Levites: the Gershonite family, the Kohathite family, and the Merarite family. It is there in the Bible for a reason, saints.
The Gershonites are responsible for the coverings: the goats’ hair covering, the rams’ skins covering, the badgers’ skins covering, the linen, and all of that. They are responsible for the curtains and everything. That is what they bear in their hands.
It speaks about all that outward testimony which is seen in the world. We, as the Levites, as God’s people, are going to bear that. We have got to show that. But is that all that we show? No.
Then there is the Merarite family. What are they responsible for? Those perhaps are all the blue-collar workers, maybe. They have the boards, the bars, the sockets—all these things that hold the structure together. They basically carry those.
But what is the first family, or the first ministry, that the Levites must do? It is the Kohathites. You know what the Kohathites are supposed to do? The Kohathites are supposed to take the most holy things and bear them on their shoulders.
How would you understand that in the light of the New Testament? I think it is rather straightforward. The Kohathites speak about essentially raising up and lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ.
In terms of proclamation of truth, in terms of asserting the truth, in terms of living that truth, in terms of lifting up the Person and the perfection of Jesus Christ—essentially Him as the Person, the sum and centrality of everything—lifting up Jesus Christ.
That is the number one ministry the Levite has to perform. And the Kohathite has to perform it on his shoulders.
Then comes the Gershonite. The Gershonite comes with all that testimony that goes outward. People speak, and people see what is happening: the rams’ skin, the goats’ skin. Each of them has wonderful meanings, and I am sure you know. All of that is to be lifted up.
At the very end comes the Merarite. These are the brothers; these are not different people. I think I would be mistaken if I said this is a different set of people. I think this is the same set of people, right?
They pull people together—the boards and the bars and the sockets and the pins and all these things that hold things together. That is the ministry, all three.
Preaching and proclaiming the Word of God, exalting Jesus Christ, proclaiming His gospel, stands at the head of all things.
Showing forth that transformed life—the transformation, the sanctification, the testimony that goes out in the Gershonite ministry—and then building the body together, pulling people together, holding them together, as difficult as we are.
I am a very difficult person. Holding us together, that is the Merarite ministry.
By the way, I just moved to a new home, and in these last two days I have seen all three ministries. The brothers did the Kohathite, the Gershonite, and the Merarite ministry for us. Really blessed.
All these things are impossible, humanly speaking. Where do you draw the lines? How do you do that exactly? “Am I a Kohathite? Am I a Gershonite? Am I a Merarite? Am I putting on the Kohathite hat? Am I putting on the Merarite hat?” And so on and so forth.
Someone explained to me that the tree, in the morning, does not wake up and think, “Let’s get the photosynthesis chapter out. Let’s see how photosynthesis is done. The first thing is that the photon is supposed to hit the chlorophyll molecule, and then the photolytic decomposition happens,” and so on and so forth.
It just wakes up, smells the coffee, smiles at the Lord, thanks Him, and just lives.
I think, in my small mind, that my problem—I would not say everyone’s problem—is that I am trying to analyze, overanalyze, and paralyze it, saying, “How exactly is this done? What are the plethora of different ways, and what exactly is going on?” And so on and so forth.
I think that is our problem. Perhaps that is the problem brewing in Peter’s heart and mind: an impossible house that is impossible to build; an impossible ministry that we cannot do; diversity of gifts, administrations, and so on. How do you really piece that together? How do you pull all of that together?
How do you bring all these difficult people together? One of the easiest things is to say, “Let’s not face the difficult things. Let’s just be nice to each other. Let’s stick to the priestly thing. We will worship, sing songs, and be relaxed about it, and it will be done.”
Well, that is very easy to do. But trust me, the only time the triune God is going to pour out and proclaim His threefold blessing upon us is when He sees all three: the priestly, the Levitical, and the Nazarite.
I think I did not mention the Nazarite. We all are called to be Nazarites. As we go out into our regular world, our communities, and so on and so forth, we are supposed to be Nazarites.
I found it very interesting: I was reading that the calling of the Nazarite is as difficult as the high priest. The high priest was not allowed to mourn for his own family.
His sons could do so. The rest of the Levites could do so. They could mourn for their immediate family, but the high priest could not be touched by any defilement of death.
Who else is not supposed to do that? The Nazarite. The Nazarite is not supposed to come near death of any sort.
You would find it interesting in the book of Numbers: if you really run the numbers, the number of men is upwards of 600,000. If you assume an equal number of sisters, it runs into 1,200,000. Think about it: in forty years, they all had to die so that the new generation would enter.
Guess what is the number of people dying every day? Eighty-two people dying every day. If you just count the brothers, it is roughly forty-two; if you count brothers and sisters, eighty-two of them dying every day.
Death all around. Defilement all around. Death, death, death working in the camp. Death all around.
And here God gives the call, saying, “You do not have to be a Levite at birth. You can be a Nazarite.”
How do we do this thing? This is difficult. This is difficult.
So let’s come to John’s Gospel, chapter 14. I think the Lord really tells us what He is doing in the exchange life.
The Lord begins by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”
I had always read that statement and just gone over it, because a lot of times, somewhere in the back of my mind, there is an unspoken assumption that Jesus just speaks flowery things: “You believe in God, believe also in Me.”
But what He is doing is claiming absolute deity. He is saying, “You believe in God.” Where does it all begin for your troubles to be quiet? Where your victory really begins is when you realize that Me as a Person—Jesus Christ as a Person—you believe in God; you must believe in Me.
Very specifically, He is saying, “Stop dealing with Me like some kind of empty little philosophy, a nice person at a distance, someone you are not sure about, some kind of phantom out there.”
He is saying, “You believe in God. Now believe in Me.” He is claiming the same exact allegiance in terms of faith and truth, just as the Father claims.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
He goes on to say—and I have never understood the transition—“In My Father’s house are many mansions.”
I am like, “Jesus, that guy is going to deny You three times. Would You please talk about it? Can You please address that? Because that is me. Peter is better. He just did it three times. I do not know how many times I have denied Him.”
I really want to know, do You have a solution to that, or are You just going to say, “Let not your heart be troubled”? Is that what You are saying?
Why should we be taught about the Father’s house?
You would find it interesting—I am sure it has crossed your mind—that the vision of the God of Bethel, El-Bethel, is not given to Isaac. It is Jacob, who is running from his house, who gets that vision—the one who is running away.
The one who has the difficulty is given the vision of the Father’s house. So, wait a minute. What is He talking about?
Is the Lord saying, “Peter, in order for you to recover from where you are, or to even begin overcoming it, or to really see how this trouble goes away, the first thing you need to know is the Father’s house”?
“Let Me tell you about the Father’s house,” He says. “In My Father’s house are many mansions”—many dwellings, a multiplicity of dwellings.
What is He even talking about? A lot of times I thought He was talking about paradise, about heaven. I think He is talking about heaven, but is He only talking about heaven?
The first time He talks about His Father’s house in John’s Gospel is when He is turning over the tables of the money changers. So what is He talking about? Is He talking about the Father’s house as the temple? Or is He talking about the Father’s house as the ultimate temple, where we would be with Him forever and evermore?
When He says, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again for you,” is He talking about Him ultimately coming to me one fine day on the clouds of glory?
I think there is more to it, because there had to be. Peter has a very clear existential problem here. Jesus was not just chopping off the topic and saying, “There are so many things to cover. Let Me talk about the next thing.” No, He is not talking about the next thing. He is dealing with Peter’s problem.
He is talking to people who betray Him. He is talking to people who deny Him. He is saying, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” He is talking about the Father’s house.
Apply it wherever it is. Cut that truth or slice that truth anywhere, and you still have the same beauty, the same pattern of the Father’s house—the dwelling with the Father, the abiding with the Father.
You talk about it in terms of your local assembly. You talk about it in terms of fellowship with the saints. You talk about it in terms of your home. You talk about it in terms of how there is indeed a place whose architect and builder is the Father Himself, and He is building it.
He is saying, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” He is saying, “Peter, the safest place for you to be is to be in the Father’s house.”
“Well, what house, Lord? Are You talking about the one to come?” Perhaps Jesus is saying, “All of these.” As your capacity increases, as you get to know Me more, you see that in increasing circles.
But wherever you are at this point, if it is Richmond Fellowship at 4424, then it is what it is. “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” He is saying, “I am preparing it. And as I prepare it, I prepare you.”
You know what Jerry shared in Haggai. The people said that the time to build the Lord’s house had not yet come. What the Lord says is, “Look at your own house.”
I have felt that a lot of times I am broken because perhaps the Lord’s house is broken as well.
So, to fix Peter, the Lord is talking about building the house. To build Peter, the Lord is talking about building the house. He is saying, “I am building the house there.”
As difficult as humans are, we move further. Thomas, in John 14:5, asks, “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?”
Jesus gives that wonderful, profound saying:
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
As soon as He says that, Philip says something. Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”
In my little mind, I think that is the most profound prayer that man has ever made to God: “Show us the Father, and that will suffice.” We are people who are never satisfied. We are never satisfied as humans.
But there is indeed one thing that is going to absolutely satisfy us: to know the Father.
What is Philip even saying? I do not want to dwell too much on Philip, but in John 1 Philip first gets to know the Lord Jesus along with Nathanael. He is there when Jesus begins to speak to Nathanael.
Philip says, “We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Philip’s experience is, “This is that mystical figure that everyone spoke about. He is really that One everyone was talking about. I think He is here.”
Then Nathanael hears Jesus say, “I saw thee under the fig tree,” and the revelation comes through Nathanael: “Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.”
Philip begins to understand that something is wrong with his understanding. “I thought He was just this mystical, prophesied figure, but it looks like He is the Son of God. How does that even fit together? The King of Israel? How can He just be a normal carpenter?”
The next time we see Philip is in John 6, where the Lord is about to feed the multitude, and He says, “Philip, how do you think we are going to buy food for so many?” That was not because Jesus did not know. Jesus knew exactly what He was going to do.
In that whole episode, Jesus speaks about how He Himself is the bread of life, how He would raise those at the last day, and so on and so forth. Philip had an experience and understanding of Who Jesus was—that He was the bread of life, that His flesh is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed.
He understood something was different about Jesus. His capacity increased. But that is not where it ends for Philip.
Philip comes in John 12 again. There, Philip is approached by a group of Greeks who say, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”
Philip goes to his friend Nathanael, and Nathanael and Philip both go to Jesus, perhaps to say, “They want to talk to You.” Jesus goes on to talk about something else:
Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
And, “When I am lifted up, I shall draw all men unto Me.”
For the longest time, I read that and said, “Jesus, why do You not answer the question that is asked? Why do You talk about something else?” But He is actually answering.
He is saying, “To see Me is not just to come and visit Me and exchange pleasantries. That is not how you know Me and see Me. The only way to really know Me is through the experience of the cross.”
He is talking about the wheat dying. He is talking about Him being lifted up, and so on.
So Philip had really come to a lot of experience with Christ, and Jesus had been watching Philip and raising Philip through all these experiences.
Dear brothers and sisters, there are a lot of young folks. The things that you are struggling with—questions, anxieties, uncertainties—trust me, the Lord is working on you. No doubt about it.
Now you see Philip for the last time, and he makes this plea: “Show us the Father, and it would suffice.”
He has known everything about Jesus, but there is one thing that seems to be missing. Something is missing: the power, the eternal life of the Father.
He is saying, “Show us the Father, and it would suffice us.” We are never satisfied as humans, but there is one thing that will absolutely satisfy: to know the Father.
I think that is basically a paraphrase of, “Give us the exchange life, and that should be enough. Give us God’s life. Give us God Himself. Give us the Father Himself. Bring His very life, His presence, to us here, right now, and that should suffice.”
That is my take on it. I hope it is true.
I think Philip is saying, “Show us the Father.” When he says, “Show us the Father,” he is saying, “Give us that exchange life. Give us that Father. Give it.”
He is not talking about some kind of philosophy. He has read his Old Testament. He knows that if people see God, they are not going to perhaps be alive. He knows all that.
So he is not asking for just some kind of epiphany, some fantastical experience. He is saying, “Give us the Father. Show us the Father. Reveal.” That is the word there: reveal, expose the Father to us.
Here is the beautiful thing. John 14:9:
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
Then here is the argument. Follow on in verse 10:
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.
There are two words there: the words and the works. Verse 11 says:
Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.
What is Jesus trying to do now? Jesus is trying to explain the exchange life. He is modeling Himself and the Father. Before He could talk about the believer and Jesus Himself, He is saying, “Look at Me and the Father. Look at Me and the Father.”
In order to point that out, He is saying, “What is the evidence of the exchange life? What is the evidence of the exchange life?”
He says, look at the words that came out. Then He says, well, the words can be misleading or could be wrong, but look “for the very works’ sake.”
He is saying, “Look at the fruit of My life. Look at what has come out of My life.”
Dear brothers and sisters, I think the evidence of the exchange life is not so much in anything else, but in what is really coming out of the life. What is really coming out of the life?
These are not works as a basis on which you stand before God. No, that is not it at all. That is law. We are not talking about that.
This is talking about God’s work, God’s life, God’s energy working through us to attain God’s purpose—God working through us.
God was working through Jesus. I do not have time to show you, but in Acts it says that God worked these things. God spoke through Jesus. God was working through Jesus.
If Jesus had left it at that, it would still have been confusing, but He comes back to Peter.
John 14:12 onwards—please follow along:
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.
We would say, “Lord, why are You changing the argument? You were dealing with Peter for a second, and suddenly You spoke about the Father’s house. Okay, I understood You. You are saying that to fix Peter, You have got to fix the house which is being built.”
Then we said, “Show us the Father,” but You said, “Look at Me.” You said, “Look at My works that came out, because that is the Father working through Me.”
But then You shifted the argument to say, “He who believes in Me shall do these things, and greater things than these.” Why are You talking about that?
Because at that point He is talking about the exchange life. He is saying, “Just as the evidence of My deity, the evidence of My being united with the Father at all times, is the works that are coming out of My life—the fruit that is coming out of My life—the evidence of Me being with you, united with you, in union with you, is going to be the works that are going to come out of you.”
He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.
If He had said that and left, we would have been busy just doing work, right? All of us going around and trying to do different things. But then this is what He says.
A lot of times, we think we understand words, but our language is broken. We are in a broken world. Our understanding of what God means is largely based on our own understanding of this broken world. Therefore, we somehow try to impose our understanding on Him.
John 14:13:
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.
The question becomes, just one verse above He said, “He who believes in Me shall do these things and shall do greater things than these.” But now He says, “Whatsoever you shall ask in My name, I will do.”
You are like, “Wait a second, dear Jesus. Who is doing here? Is it Peter who is going to do it, or is it You Who are going to do it?”
You see, that very question we ask—is it Jesus or is it me?—speaks about our own mind, how it is broken.
One brother said that the very reason we are trying to explain the Trinity speaks volumes about how broken we are. We want things to be separated. We want lines to be drawn. We want it put into its parts and dissected to our satisfaction before we can say that we know it.
But what God has put together, let no man put asunder.
Now, is it Peter who is going to do these things and greater things than these, or is it Jesus Who says, “I will do”? Twice He says, “I will do. I will do.” Before that, He says, “He will do. He will do,” speaking of the believer.
But how is it supposed to be accomplished? He says, “Ask.” Prayer.
I think this is the nuts and bolts of things. The first thing is the Father’s house. Get involved with the Father’s house. Abide in God’s assembly. Let us abide in God’s assembly.
Let us focus on what is happening with the Lord’s house. What is happening with the testimony? How are we going to go into the next generation, and so on and so forth?
The next thing is, He says, “Ask. Pray.”
There is something fantastic about this in verse 13. Look at this:
Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
When we pray—and I had not seen this for a long time—look at this. He is saying, “As you ask, I will do it.” Not just because you want it, but because that is an occasion for Me to show that I am really exalted and seated at the right hand of God.
Everything that the Father said about Me, everything that the Father planned in redemptive history, all of that is true. All of that is proven when your prayer is answered. So ask. He is saying, “Ask.”
I was listening to another brother, I think Brother Gibbs, an older Baptist minister on YouTube. He said, “How dare you ask God so little? How dare you ask Him so little?”
He said one of the safest prayers you can make is impossible prayers. If your prayer is not impossible, maybe God is not interested. I do not know how much truth there is in that, but I think there is some truth in that.
He is saying, “If you pray, I will answer, so that the Father may be glorified.” There are motives outside of us—that I need something, I have a problem, we have a problem—but there is another motive here.
Jesus is saying, “As I answer the prayer, the Father is going to be glorified in the Son. The Father would be vindicated. It would be proven beyond doubt that I am indeed seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high. Therefore, you ask, and I will do it.”
Then He goes on to talk about how He would send the Comforter, how He would send the Holy Spirit, and how He would give peace in our hearts.
Brothers and sisters, I think I would rather end here, but just point out a few examples.
When Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58:
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord.
I thought, “Paul, this is for someone like you, who is really out there for the Lord, who is really focused on the Lord, who has really sacrificed,” and so on and so forth.
But if you look backwards—verse 57, 56, 55, 54, going all the way to verse 51—it is all about resurrection.
After having spoken about resurrection, he says:
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord.
It looks like your labor, but then he spoke about the resurrection power of Jesus. Whose labor is this, anyway?
Every time we ask those questions, I think we ask from the point of that separated life, that life which is still trying to come out.
You move further, and all the way from verse 50 to verse 35, working back upwards, he is explaining in elaborate detail the power of resurrection, resurrection in general, and so on and so forth.
Now read verse 10. This is where he begins the argument about resurrection. I was blown away when I read this. I thought, “How did he segue? How did he transition from talking about the gospel in the first few verses to resurrection?”
This is how he transitions:
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Whether then it be I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
Then he segues into verse 12, saying, “Now if Christ be preached as risen from the dead,” and so on. What is he talking about? Whose labor is it? Is it Paul’s labor?
You cannot say no to that, because we have said no to that for long enough. We have eaten that humble pie, saying, “Oh no, no, it is not.”
Here is another interesting one from the Old Testament. Zechariah 4—very famous words. Zechariah 4:6:
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
If all that was there in the Bible, it would have been difficult. But if you read further, here is what it says. Verse 9:
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.
I am leaving out many other details, but that is what I wanted to point out. The Spirit is God’s, but the hands are our hands, dear brothers and sisters. It is our hands.
We were talking to Ed when Jim and I and Vineel were there. Ed made a fantastic point.
I think he was preaching through the book of Job, and it came about that we said, “There is this wonderful book by Brother Stephen Kaung on Job, The Splendor of His Ways.” He talks about how Job’s three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—are like the three aspects of a person’s soul: the mind, the will, and the emotion.
They are beating upon him as suffering comes in, as life happens, and so on. They go in cycles of discussion. The mind is throwing at him, the emotion is throwing at him, the will is throwing at him, but none of them are able to justify Job, neither are they able to justify Job’s God.
At the very end comes Elihu, who is, according to Brother Stephen, the new life—the regenerated spirit, a new life.
Elihu says, “I am the youngest, so I kept quiet. I waited for you all to finish.” Therefore, Elihu speaks.
Here is what Brother Ed corrected. I said, “After Elihu spoke, God Almighty speaks from the whirlwind.” He said, “Are you sure that is the case?” I said, “Well, that is how I read it.”
He said, “Well, that is our problem. That is how we read it.” He said, “What about if God was beginning to speak through Elihu?”
Up until that point, it was Elihu’s voice. It was our own regenerated spirit speaking to us with wisdom, with discernment, and so on and so forth. But there comes a point where God is now beginning to speak through that.
He had his reasons behind it, how he went back into showing it, and so on. The point is, brothers and sisters, every time we ask, “Is Jesus doing it, or do I do it?” the cleanest escape from all this is to say, “Jesus just does it, so let’s just be priests about it.”
Dear brothers and sisters, I think my Bible says it is the priestly life that the Lord is asking: the inner life, the closet life, the prayer life, the worship life, the adoration around the Lord’s table, lifting Him up.
Then there is this Levitical life, where there is active ministry: lifting up, proclaiming, preaching Christ the Son of God, showing forth that testimony, and also building the people together, putting them together.
Then there is continuing to be a Nazarite through and through, all the way through—separated unto God.
As we do this, the threefold blessing of the Lord comes upon us. In fact, I did not read it, but Numbers 7:89 says Moses heard the voice of Him speaking from between the cherubim.
The highest point of God’s purpose is reached, and God is now speaking from between His purpose. He is speaking to us.
Let us pray.
Gracious heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word, for it is sharper than any two-edged sword.
Thank You, Lord, for how You took Peter and the trouble that was brewing in his heart and mind, and for all of us, O Lord, how You said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”
Thank You, Lord, for pointing out that indeed it is the Father’s house as it is being built. As You build here, and as it is being built up there as well, O Lord, we ourselves would be built.
And the fact, O Lord, that it is ultimately You—Jesus, the Person, the Son of God, the Man—Who came down here for us. As we dwell in You, as we abide in You, Lord, You will do.
As You do, we will do, and all of this is connected with prayer. As we ask in Your name, because You are exalted, because You want the Father to be glorified, You will do it.
As You do it, fruit is going to show forth. The mirage shall indeed become a pool of water.
We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.