May 3 God with Skin

John 14:7-11 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 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 miracles themselves.”  
 
JESUS tells Philip, the disciples, all Jews and us today that he is God in the flesh. “In the Father”, defines Jesus’ essence. He is God and is from God. This is one of John’s main topic statements to begin his gospel: John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Then the gospel writer records John the Baptist’s testimony to deepen this truth: John 1:15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”
   Jesus is the eternal Son. He ministered on earth in the Father’s permission and power. Everything he said and did on earth is a true extension of the Father to purely show the Creator to his world.
   You can see Philip as a typical Jew of John’s day, some 60 years after Jesus’ ascension. Most Jews still demanded of the early church, “Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” As the Pharisees did not believe Jesus, too many Jews continued to deny the evidence of such apostles and evangelists as recorded in Acts. Some Jews became Christians. But many rejected Jesus was God’s divine Messiah. Defining and defending, “Jesus is God.” was the church’s task then, and it is our task now.
   In about 53 days from this recorded conversation the risen Jesus would ascend to heaven. Philip’s and the disciples’ minds would truly know, “Jesus is in the Father, and the Father is in him.” Fully faithful, they would enter an unbelieving world to confidently preach such words Paul wrote in Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!  
   Consider this: “How faithful and effective is the church that fully believes Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him?”
 
Prayer: Jesus, I pray your church would faithfully proclaim you to all people of the world who need to know their creator who so loved the world he sent his only Son that whoever believes in him will be saved (John 3:16). Amen.