Day 32 - April 1st 2022
READ John 14:5-14
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will 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 I do not speak on my own authority. 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 works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The famous words: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” We know the way to the Father because we know Jesus. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. The more we get to know Jesus, the more confident we will be of our eternal destiny, for it is through Jesus—and Jesus alone—that we can come to the Father.
Philip still does not understand, and he asks instead to be shown the Father (14:8). Jesus then replies, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9). This is a great principle worthy of underlining. To know Jesus is to know God. Those who claim to worship God but reject Jesus cannot then truly be worshiping God.
But what is more astonishing, those who believe in Jesus will do “greater works” than the works Jesus did (14:12). This cannot mean that disciples of Jesus will do something greater than being raised from the dead. It is not greater without context, but greater in the context of this chapter. The greater works in this chapter are the extraordinary works of coming to the Father through the Son. What greater works are the ones that the apostles did? Taking the gospel of Jesus throughout the Roman world. What greater works are the ones that disciples of Jesus today do? Taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. In the power of Jesus’ Spirit, we are equipped to take the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. The works are greater by global extension, not by infinite comparison.