Phillip is saying to Him, "Lord, Show us the Father, and it is sufficing us." Jesus is saying to him, "So much time am I with you, and you do not know Me, Phillip! He who has seen Me has seen the Father, and how are you saying, 'show us the Father'?
Johns Account 14: 8-9, Concordant New Testament
The question came up this week during a discussion on yesterdays post. In "The heart of worship," I illustrated what Jesus described as true worship to God. This is worship free of the styles and traditions of the mainstream church. Too many times we're told that in order to be in "God's presence" that we need to be within the confines of the brick and mortar man-made church. Sorry, this is not true worship to the Father. For Jesus proclaims that the worship to God is to be "In spirit and truth" {Johns Account 4:23-24}. This brought a question to mind for me, since the Jews of Jesus' day were so very involved in their keeping of religious traditions, did they actually know God? Jesus provides us with the answer to this question when His disciples ask Him to "Show us the Father" {Johns Account 14:8-9}. Did the disciples feel that they didn't know God? It's entirely possible. Yet the response of Jesus to Phillips question speaks volumes. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" {Johns Account 14:9}. Now, there were more than a few of the Jewish faith who condemned Jesus for seemingly comparing Himself to God. Even more so as He again spoke the truth of the Father, claiming "I and the Father, We are one" {Johns Account 10:30}. How well do we know God? Do we know Him as the God spoken of by the traditions of the church, or do we know Him for who He is? For much of my life, my own view of God revolved around what I heard in church on Sunday morning. If the pastor proclaimed that God was watching everything I did with a wary eye, this is how I perceived Him to be. More often than not, I was taught that because of my sin, that I was unable to be in the presence of God. Since God was holy, and I was but a sinner, I could not have a personal relationship with the Father. The closest I could ever hope to get was to emulate Christ, to be like Jesus. This is the God that I knew. Well, it turns out that, like the Jews of Jesus' time, I didn't know God.
Religion has actually convinced people that there is a invisible man living in the sky watching everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever until the end of time! But he loves you. He loves you, and he needs money. He always needs money. He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing and all-wise, somehow he just can't handle money
~George Carlin~
I think that it is remarkable that I did not began to realize who God truly is until I removed myself from the traditions of the mainstream church. Wasn't church where I was supposed to go to learn who God is? Sadly, this isn't the case more often than not. For as much as the Jews of Jesus' day were immersed in the traditions of their religion, so it is that those in the mainstream church of today are of the same cloth. I would venture to say that they themselves know not the true of the Father. They might, as I once did, know OF Him, but they do not know Him as I do. The God that I now know is radically different from the Lord I was taught in the church. Far from being separated from God by my sin nature, the truth of the evangel is that my life in now IN Him as Christ has proclaimed {Johns Account 14:20}. But what about that sin which those in the church are so fond of pointing out? Well, the apostle Paul has spoken to the truth that Christ has died to sin "once for all time" {Paul to the Romans 6:10}. It is Jesus, the innocent One, who has given Himself willingly for us {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}. The question remains, if Jesus has been crucified as the penalty for us, why is it that those in the church continue to preach that sin is an issue to us? Simple, they do not know the truth of the Father. If they do know Him, they willingly have chosen to ignore the truth. This is the reality of the separation theology spoken by the mainstream church. Ironically, this was also the theology spoken by those in the synagogues of Jesus' day by those who knew not God.
~Scott~
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