No body of believers since the Reformation has majored the Father fact, and yet it is one of the most outstanding features of Jesus’s teaching. It was always a sort of undercurrent of desire on the part of Jesus to go back and be with His Father.
John 16:28 illustrates this: “I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father.”
Here are four striking facts:
JESUS HAD A PRE-EXISTENCE
That is, He remembered who He was before He became a man.
In John 17:4–5, Jesus said, “I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
You can see that He remembered what the glory had been before the world was ever made; and He wanted to go back to His Father.
John 1:18: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Or, as Rotherham translates it: “He hath introduced him.”
JESUS INTRODUCED GOD AS HIS FATHER
Jesus introduced the God of the Jews, Elohim, as His Father; and He called Him His Father so often that the Jews considered it blasphemy.
John 5:17–18: “Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
John 19:7 shows us that Jesus was crucified because He had called God His Father. Then, the unveiling of the Father to the world cost Jesus His life. “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
John 5:19–20 shows the intimacy of the Father and Jesus:
The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show him, that ye may marvel.
Here He is, the intimate companion and assistant and fellow worker with the Father. We might carry it a step further and take the next three verses, “For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (verses 21–23). Here is not only the deity of Jesus confessed, but a divine oneness between Jesus and the Father.
Perhaps it will be clearer to us in John 14:8–9: “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?”
You can see that the entire ministry of Jesus is interwoven with this Father fact. He came to introduce the Father. He came to do his Father’s will. Perhaps that would help us to grasp the significance of His position as a Son.
John 5:30: “I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” Whose will is it that He is to do? Verses 36–37 show us,
But the witness which I have is greater than that of John [the Baptist]; for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father that sent me, he hath borne witness of me.”
JESUS CAME DOING HIS FATHER’S WILL
He came not doing His own will. He came doing His Father’s will.
Perhaps John 6:37–38 makes it a bit clearer: “All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”
Here is a clear declaration that He came down from heaven, that He came down from the Father, and He came into the world with but one purpose: to do His Father’s will.
Perhaps the strongest verse that we have thought of is John 6:57: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father.” Notice, “I live because of the Father.”
But then, in John 7:29, Jesus said, “I know him; because I am from him, and he sent me.” That has always been so precious to my heart. Jesus says, in essence, “I know my Father because I am from Him. I came out from heaven. I have lived with Him through the ages. He sent me, and I am doing His will here on earth.”
One of my students once asked, “What is the outstanding feature of Jesus’s life?” It was His continual confession of what He was to the Father and what the Father was to Him. There are many other striking things about Jesus, but there is nothing like this.
John 8:26–29 is like the lifting of a curtain on a stage that is already set. He had just told them, “I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world” (verse 23). That forced His listeners to find out who He was. He said,
He that sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these speak I unto the world. They perceived not that he spake to them of the Father. Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things. (verses 26–28)
Then He said one of the most beautiful things that ever fell from His lips: “He that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to him” (verse 29).
Notice: “I do nothing of myself,” from verse 28. I teach nothing of myself. I teach what the Father taught me. The Father is with me. He hath not left me alone. Why? Because He was the Father-pleaser. Do you know that every one of us can be that? What change it would make in life, wouldn’t it? Almost all of us are hindered and imprisoned in the things we want that He is not pleased with. We are struggling with things that shut us away from the sweetest fellowship with Him.
“For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38).
Now you can understand the power and the authority of that Man. The singleness of purpose is one of the keys that unlocks the miracle power of the Man. He had nothing to seek for.
Hear this confession in John 8:42: “If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I came forth and am come from God; for neither have I come of myself, but he sent me.”
And, in John 8:54, we read, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father that glorifieth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God.”
Do you notice the difference? The Jews called Him God, and Jesus called Him Father. The church today calls Him God. How few ever intelligently call Him Father. How lonesome He must be. He is a Father God with a Father heart, and His people call Him God—just “Mr. God,” like they should speak of a neighbor. Let us learn the secret of His Father heart.
John 10:25–29 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Then, the great sentence: “I and the Father are one” (verse 30).
Now we can see the Man in His majesty and greatness. You see, He has been magnifying the Father. He has been lifting the Father up before our hearts; and now He pushes aside the curtain and lets us look at Him as He really is: “I and [my] Father are one.”
John 10:37: “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.”
Then there is a marvelous closing. Write out John 10:38:
YOU ARE IN THE FATHER, AND THE FATHER IS IN YOU
This is the very relationship of the church to the Father now. This is your relationship as a child of God. You are in the Father, and the Father is in you. That is, He has imparted His life to you. His very nature has been given to you. You are as much His child as Jesus was.
When you heart can take this in, He will become more to you, and you will realize someone of what we are to Him.
John 12:45–50 has some real nuggets that you ought to study carefully. “He that beholdeth me beholdeth him that sent me” (verse 45).
We ought to be able to say, “You that see me are looking upon a branch of the Vine. I am the part of Jesus that is bearing fruit. Jesus and I are one.” Jesus and the Father are one, so you see what your relationship is to Him.
“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me may not abide in the darkness” (John 12:46). We ought to say, “I have been born again that I might be a light in the world.”
Philippians 2:15: “Ye are seen as lights in the world.” John 12:47: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”
I wish that the Christian workers would learn to say, “I came not to judge. I am not to criticize you because you walk in sin and do not know the Father. I am here to bring you the glad message that God so loved that He gave His Son to die for you.”
Why, Jesus said, in essence, “I came not to condemn the world, but that the world through me might be saved.” He that believes on Him is not judged.
Notice the forty-eighth verse of John 12: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
Why is the Word so vital? “For I spake not from myself; but the Father that sent me, he hath given me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” (John 12:49). Here you see the vital issue before the heart: Is it the Word of God? What is my attitude toward the living Word?
In John 14:10–11, Jesus says, “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.”
I believe that our ministry would be much stronger and more effective if we knew in our hearts, “The words that I speak are not mine. They are my Father’s words. I am an ambassador. I have received instructions from my government. This is what my King says to me, and I am repeating His words.”
Did you notice that He gave us a legal right to the use of His name in the thirteenth and fourteenth verses? Why? “That the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).
You see the sons are going to use the name of the Son to bless, heal, convert, and deliver men from the bondage of the enemy. It is through the name of that first-begotten One, and it is going to bring glory to the Father. It is going to be a great joy to the Father to hear us cast out demons and heal the sick through His Son’s name.
How proud I am to see my children do meritorious things. How much more does my heavenly Father glory in my doing things through Jesus’s name.
Read very carefully chapters 14–17 of John. We haven’t time to go into them as we would like. We can just call your attention to a few things.
John 14:20: “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” Here is a holy union, a God-created union, between your heart and the Father’s and Jesus’s hearts.
In the twenty-first verse: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him.”
I look upon this as one of the great privileges that belongs to us as sons of God—to have Jesus manifest Himself to us individually.
The twenty-third verse has a sweet fragrance all its own: “If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
Then I want to know Him. I want to please Him. I want to make His heart glad as that first Son did. What a beautiful life it is. It is not struggling to be righteous. It is just struggling to make His heart glad.
The sixteenth chapter is very beautiful. Begin reading from the eighth verse down to the sixteenth, and notice how the Father is going to send the Comforter; and that Comforter is going to be a Convicter of the world.
A comforter is a gentle person, a tender person. And it is going to be a gentle, tender person who is going to convict the world of their sin, of righteousness, and of judgment that is going to come upon them.
You see, the judgment is because they are in the family of Satan, and the judgment is upon the head of that family. Satan is judged. The Spirit is going to convict this unsaved world that a righteousness awaits every one of them, that every human being has a right to stand in His presence free from guilt and condemnation: that righteousness is the reason for redemption.
He wanted children. And He wanted children who could stand in His presence without the sense of guilt or inferiority. Then He says that the Spirit is going to convict the world of sin.
There is just one sin that is important. That is the fact that they have not accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. That is all. All the other sins are just the by-products of their spiritual condition. But here is one thing they can do: they can confess Jesus as Savior and Lord and receive eternal life.
HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?
- Give four facts and Scriptures showing Jesus’s teaching about God as His Father.
- What two Scriptures show us Jesus came to do the Father’s will?
- a. What was Jesus’s continual confession?
b. Did Jesus acknowledge that He did anything of Himself? - What would happen in our lives if we pleased the Father?
- Tell what you can about the difference in Jesus calling God “Father,” and the Jews calling Him “God.”
- John 10:38 shows that Jesus is in the Father. How does this compare with the relationship existing between the church and God?
- a. Are we to judge those who sin?
b. What did Jesus say He came to do? - Explain John 14:10.
- Having a legal right to the use of His name, what are we to do?
- a. What is the important sin?
b. How can they accept Jesus?