As we continue our study of the Gospel of John, we pick up at verse 10 of chapter 14. The disciples had asked Jesus to show them Father God. His response to them was this:
“Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather it is the Father, living in Me who is doing His work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in My name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask Me for anything in My name and I will do it.” ( John 14:10-14.)
Time on earth was growing short for the Lord. He would very soon be on a Cross, dying for our sins and for every need we have as children of the flesh, but He could see the disciples still did not get it when He told them He and the Father were One. He had told them this before- that He and the Father were One. That He was in the Father, and the Father was in Him, (John 10:30), but they still asked Him to show them the Father. This fact was still a new development for the disciples. God Almighty Himself, being in someone’s body, was something they had never been taught before the coming of Jesus, and they found it very difficult to grasp.. Jesus understood, and pointed them to the works He had done, and told them this was the Father in Him doing those miracles.
This is what Jesus was bringing to light when He told them that whoever believes in Him would be able to do things He had done, because of the presence and power of God within. This had been a very limited experience with selected Prophets, and People before. When He told them they would do greater things than He had done, one of the things He no doubt spoke of was the spreading of the Good News, to the world. He was geographically limited – they would not be. When He spoke of going to the Father, He was saying the Father is on the Throne in Heaven, and also in each Believer. Something the children of God as a whole had never experienced or understood before. In our next study, we will see how the Lord begins to explain more of the Holy Spirit, and His Presence and Power.
Jesus tells them “I am going to the Father.” The Word tells us He sits at the right hand of the Father on the Throne of Grace today. He was telling them what was to come. He said, “Ask in my name, and I will do whatever you ask.so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” All power has been given unto Him, and He was letting them know. He said, “You may ask Me anything in My name and I will do it.” When we ask in Jesus name, we are aligning with Who He is, What He is, What He would do, and His Will. The Word says: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us. And if we know He hears us -whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14) The timing, and the way He does what we ask is in His Sovereign Hands. Let us never hesitate to ask, and let us never doubt His Word.?