How to Know the Father

It must have shocked Jesus to hear Thomas say, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5, NKJV).

This was a confession by Thomas. The disciples had been with Jesus for three years, but they missed the revelation of the Father. They did not know his love, care or tenderness. “Show us the Father,” Thomas asked, yet that is just what Jesus had been doing for the past three years. 

If we fully understand that we have a loving heavenly Father, why would we ever be downcast when the enemy comes against us? Why would we despair over a financial burden that seems overwhelming? Why would we wonder why we cannot seem to get victory over a besetting sin? 

Listen carefully to Jesus’s answer to Thomas. It has everything to do with us. “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; and from now on you know him and have seen him” (John 14:7).

Then Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8).

Jesus could not believe what he was hearing. You can almost hear the incredulity in his voice as he answers Philip, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” (John 14:9). 

In other words, “Thomas, Philip, my precious disciples, how can you ask this? You say you know me, yet how could you miss the revelation I have spent the past three years giving you? Don’t you yet see that all my mighty works were the Father in me revealing who he is, what he is like, and what he wants to be to you? All I taught you was from his heart, not mine.” 

Beloved, Jesus’s whole life was an illustrated sermon. Day by day, with every miracle he performed and every parable he taught, he was expressing God’s character to us. He sent his Holy Spirit so his followers could do even greater works and keep revealing the Father’s love to new generations.