Intro How strange. It’s the second Sunday of Easter and, yet, we find ourselves back in Lent. For it is Thursday night, the night of Jesus’ betrayal. This was the Thursday before Good Friday, the Thursday before the first Easter Sunday.
The Disciples had eaten the Passover meal. The Disciples, now turned Apostles, had taken part in the first Lord’s Supper. They were the first to experience the New Covenant of Christ, which superseded and replaced the old. Soon, the Disciples will go to Gethsemane. But now, Jesus takes a moment to warn--but also to encourage--His Disciples. He tells them that He will soon be separated from them. For the Disciples weren’t supposed to let this separation fill them with fear. This was all part of the Father’s working out of our salvation. Main Body Yet, the Disciples are still anxious. Anxiety stirs within them as they think, “What will happen when our Master is gone? Will He give us enough for what lies ahead?” So Jesus says to them, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life… If you know Me, you will also know my Father.” The Apostles heard a scolding in those words. So Philip speaks to break the tension, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Just do us this one little favor, says Philip, and then we’ll have enough, then we’ll be ready for what lies ahead. Philip was sincere, and he meant well. But then Philip, still in his fallen flesh, was subject to his fallen ways. Poor Phillip, he was no better than you or me. He was misguided and confused. “Show us the Father,” he said. “That’s what we need.” Philip was clueless. He had no idea what he was asking. For Philip, seeing the Son wasn’t enough. He considered what God had revealed to him as lacking. Jesus wasn’t enough. He wanted something more than Jesus, which was right where the devil wanted him. The problem wasn’t that Phillip lacked anything from Jesus. It was that Phillip suffered from a faith besieged by his fallen flesh. Weariness had seeped into his bones. Temptations had dogged him. Was it wrong to want the emotional high that he experienced from Jesus’ feeding the five thousand to go on without end? Was it wrong to want a Mount-Transfiguration experience like Peter, James, and John? But, instead, Philip will have to go to Gethsemane and face his doubt and fear. Philip has to wait until Easter evening with no proof the Resurrection will become reality. He must live by faith, trusting the writings of the Old Testament prophets and the spoken words of Jesus. We can understand Phillip’s frustration, for he thought God was holding out on him. And so Philip came up with a plan for what Jesus should do to make everything right: “Show us the Father.” Philip wanted more than Jesus gave him. He wanted more than Jesus. How Ironic. Philip was already seeing the Father! For Christ Jesus is also God. What Jesus says and does are the words and deeds of God. The words Jesus says to you are not just His own. No, it is the Father, living in Him, who is doing His work. When you see Jesus Christ, you see God. Faith believes that. That’s how it is: In that same faith, when you see and receive Jesus Christ, you see and receive God the Father. But Philip still wrestled with Jesus and God the Father being one. This puzzled him. Philip wasn’t even sure that what God was doing in Jesus Christ was enough. But it was enough. It was even enough for Phillip’s sins, for his doubts, worries, and concerns, and for all his faults and failures. Indeed, Jesus is enough! For only Jesus, God in human flesh, shows us the Father. As a human, Jesus can die; as God, He can be the Sacrifice that restores us to the Father. What Jesus did and does is enough to wash away your sins, to defeat the devil, and to open heaven. This Gospel is the faith-creating Word that trusts in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. The Church doesn’t have some secret path that will bring the sinner up to God. No, in the Holy Spirit, the Good News brings Jesus to the sinner. Yes, the only way to God is through Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who is one with the Father. Philip’s statement, “Show us the Father,” shows how difficult it is for us to send away our self-made ideas and notions. Philip’s statement shows how difficult is it to stop speculating about what God has chosen not to reveal. Even more, Philip’s statement shows us how difficult it is to rely on the Word of God, which is Jesus. Praise God that Jesus doesn’t expect us to know every mystery of the faith! Yet, neither does Jesus want us to be satisfied with some minimal understanding of the faith. You should never smugly say, “I know enough. I don’t need to learn more of God’s truths.” You see, once we stop learning the depths of our faith, our sinful imagination will fill the void. With such a void, we will look for something in ourselves to fill in the blanks. That’s what happened to Philip. His sinful imagination filled in the blanks, and he wanted to see the Father, imagining that Jesus was not enough. Through faith, whoever sees Jesus sees the Father. They are One, for God is One. In the Son, the Father reveals His whole heart and will. So don’t consult your own heart, mind, or emotions. In the ways of God, they are nothing but vanity. All you need, you have in Jesus. Jesus’ responded to Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still don’t know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” You see, to be connected to Jesus is to be connected to the Father. For when you have Jesus, you have the Father. Jesus said, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). It is as the Apostle Paul writes. “So then, you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:19). Each of us, even after God has planted faith into our hearts, has had a hard time understanding how Jesus and the Father can be one, yet still be separate persons of the Godhead. We can identify with Philip. We can even see that we deserve the same scolding as Philip. Jesus says, “Have I been with you all this time … and you still don’t know me?” In our fallen ways, we often fail to understand God’s eternal truths and realities. And so our prayer should be this prayer we find in the New Testament: “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). And God will help, just like He helped Philip in his life of confession and service. God helped Philip by sending the Spirit through the Word of grace, increasing and strengthening his faith. You see, to trust in Christ is to trust in God. Jesus is God come in the flesh. He brought and still brings all that we need for life everlasting. Looking for God anywhere else will only lead you astray. For us, now in this world, we can only find God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said these words to Nicodemus. “No one has ever gone into heaven except the One who came from heaven--the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:13-15). When the people of Israel cried out for rescue from the poisonous snakes, God did not strike them dead from heaven. Instead, He took the image of the snake and, through it, gave life. Conclusion So also to you--you, who desperately need to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil. God sent His Son, born of a woman, and had Him lifted up on a cross for you. God Himself came and lived in your place under the Law. God Himself died in your place on that cross. God has fully saved you. And you receive this salvation every week when the risen Jesus now comes to you through Word and Sacrament, where He brings you to the Father, in the Holy Spirit. Amen. -- Rich Futrell, Pastor Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Kimberling City, MO http://sothl.com Where we receive and confess the faith of the Church (in and with the Augsburg Confession): The faith once delivered to the saints, the faith of Christ Jesus, His Word of the Gospel, His full forgiveness of sins, His flesh and blood given and poured out for us, and His gracious gift of life for body, soul, and spirit. ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. 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