How The Father And Son Work Together

I want to continue to focus on some of the things that we mentioned last week. All of you know we got a good amount of information just regarding our teaching about the nature of God, which of course is something we've understood for a long time. It's not something that's changing at all. It's something that we do benefit from continuing to think about. And all of us know that John 6, verse 44, we know what that says. We should know what John 6, verse 44 says, because this is, obviously, Christ talking about Himself and about who He was, being the bread from heaven, being the bread of life, being the living bread. And we often go over this during Passover time, the beginning of the days of unleavened bread. But here in John 6, verse 44, he says, no one can come to Me. No one can come to Me unless drawn by the Father who sent Me. And then I will raise them up on the last day. See, being drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ is an understanding that the Church of God has enjoyed for at least decades and perhaps for centuries. Comprehending, as the Bible clearly shows, that God has to draw. He has to bring us. Verse 65, He said, this is the reason I told you that no one can come to Me and let this grant Him by the Father. See, He reinforces that. And that clearly is something that all of us always want to be mindful of and be grateful, that the involvement of God in our lives, and I recall 50 years ago thinking about that, not understanding it at all, not understanding what God was doing, that He was actually working in my mind, in my thinking, in my questions, bringing me to an awareness of I need God. I need help. I need everything that God offers, and that's going to come through Jesus Christ. And so He drew us. He drew me, He drew my wife, drew all of us at different times in our lives to Jesus Christ. Here in John 17, it mentions in verse 2, Jesus again is talking to His Father. Verse 1, He says, Father, the hours come, glorify Your Son. Verse 2, since You have given Him authority over all people to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. So clearly the Father draws us to Jesus Christ. In verse 9, He says, I'm asking on their behalf. I'm not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom You gave Me, because they are Yours. That's an incredibly special invitation. A remarkable, amazing blessing and privilege for all of us to realize that God has drawn us to Jesus Christ to let us be in the Church of God today, to let us have a good time. And Mr. Barnett mentioned this in the sermonette. To have the opportunity to struggle, to have the opportunity to war against the flesh with the help of God and succeed, which is what we're doing. And as he also mentioned, very nicely covered. You know, how it is that Satan counterfeits that in the lives of other people and clearly in other religious views. You know, there's lots of similarities, and yet it's very dissimilar. Very dissimilar because it has nothing to do with the Father and the Son, and how He is causing a divine family to grow in an extraordinarily wonderful way.

What I want to look at today is talked about here in Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, verse 21. You see, verse 21, Jesus rejoicing. Jesus rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things. He was talking about what it was that needed to be understood about the kingdom of God. That's what He was here to proclaim. He says, I'm here to proclaim the rule of God that everybody needs personally and individually, and everybody needs on a collective scale around the world. But He says, I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these things from the wise and proven and have revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, that was Your will, or that was pleasing in Your sight. So God's involvement in our lives is an incredible blessing.

He says in verse 22, all things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

But of course, He says in verse 23, blessed are Your eyes, because You see that. And, brethren, it's a privilege. It's a privilege to come to see You each week. It's a privilege to know that God has entered our lives, our minds, in an extraordinary way. And yet, the focus that I want to look at is in verse 23. Jesus says, all things have been handed over to me by the Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father. And so the Father has to draw us to the Son. And no one knows who the Father is except through the Son. And anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. See, now the question is, what does Jesus as the Son of God, which He clearly is, what does Jesus reveal about the Father? What is He revealing to you and me? See, this is clearly written in the pages of the New Testament, mostly we'll be talking about today. But what is it that Jesus reveals about the Father and about the Father and the Son that is so incredibly moving in our lives? Because He's done that. The Father who draws us to Jesus, Jesus reveals an understanding of the Father. He reveals an understanding of how the Father and Son work together, what we might call the nature of God. But He reveals that in His Word. In John 14, John 14, he says in verse 6, Thomas asked Him, he was talking to the disciples, Thomas asked Him, what is the way? And Jesus says, I am. Muhammad is not the way. Muhammad is a counterfeit. He is someone that many on earth look up to, but certainly has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But Jesus says, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. Again, He reinforces the fact that the Father and the Son who have eternally existed together, how that they are causing a family to grow and He has entered the minds and hearts, the lives and thinking, the actions, the words of some that He has chosen to work with.

He says in verse 7, if you know me, and of course you read that all through the Gospels, what Jesus did, what He said, what He saw, He had a great deal of compassion, a great deal of love, a great deal of concern for other people. He was incredibly interested in the crowds. He was very comfortable in groups of sinners and tax collectors. I would think he was probably a little less comfortable around the religious people because they were always picking at him and always trying to trip him up and always trying to provide confusion, trying to minimize the authority. He had all authority at that time. Yes, he was a human. Yes, he had been of the Godkind and now he was taking on the human form, and yet he would interact with others and he would have compassion, he would heal them when they're sick, he would get rid of their mental and demon problems because many were afflicted, and he would even weep with Mary and Martha and Lazarus having died. He knew what he was going to do, but he could feel for others. And he even said that he had compassion on the city of Jerusalem, who just, you know, God, he understood the fact that he and the Father had designated Jerusalem as a very special place, and yet it didn't seem too special too often because of the people. And certainly today it looks like it's under great duress, and yet ultimately it's going to be a center focus on this earth of the kingdom of God. So he had a lot of compassion and care and love, mercy, forgiveness, tolerance, and of course you could go through, as we should already know, the fruit of the Spirit of God. He exemplified all of those. And he says in verse 7, if you know me, which I mentioned to you last time in John 17, knowing the Father and knowing the Son is eternal life. We know that. We have a stability and assurance and insurance in the form of a guarantee that He will allow us to rise from the dead and live forever. Everlasting life is what the Father and Son are offering us, but He says, if you know me, then you will know my Father also. And from now on, you do know Him and you have seen Him. So here He said that you've seen God. You've seen God. I'm right here with you. He was in human form at that point. He says, if you've seen me, then you've seen the Father. You've seen what the Father looks like, acts like, is like, what His nature is. See, and again, the question, what is it that Jesus reveals about the Father? Well, He says, if you've seen me, then you've seen the Father. In verse 8, Philip says, Lord, show us the Father. I mean, they were having a hard time understanding this. And if we read it and we have a hard time understanding it, then we just need to ask God to help us understand it. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and that'll be good enough. We'll be satisfied. Jesus said, Philip, I've been with you all this time, and still you don't know me. Are you not realizing that when I read the Word of God, I am drinking in, when you read the Word of God, you are drinking into the mind of God. You are drinking in of what Jesus said, what many others said. We are drinking in of what the Father is like, is about. He said, if I've been with you all this time and you don't really know me, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I'm the Father and the Father's in me? The words that I say to you, I don't speak of my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

See, what Jesus was revealing to his disciples was the Father. Now, he said, I want you to accept me as the Son of God. I want you to fully comprehend that, you know, I have a mission and a role that is in to most people's minds incomprehensible. They just do not accept who I am, but I am God. I am revealing the Father. You've seen me, you've talked to me, you've heard me, and so I'm revealing the Father to you. Here in chapter 16. Chapter 16, verse 25, he said, I've said these things to you in a figure of speech, but the hour is coming when I'll no longer speak to you in figures, but I'll tell you plainly of the Father. And on that day, you will ask in my name. So he directs us to pray to the Father, our Heavenly Father, and to pray in His name by His authenticity, by His directive, by His authority.

He says, you'll ask in my name, and I don't say that I will ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father Himself, verse 27, the Father Himself loves you because you have loved me, the Son of God, and you have believed that I came from God, and I did come from the Father, and I have come into the world, and again, I am leaving the world, and I'm going to go to the Father. See, Jesus' explicit explanation of existing prior to coming to the earth, how it is He and the Father work together in such unison and cooperation and harmony and love, He reveals that in everything He says. But here He's saying it real directly to His disciples, because the Father loves you, because you love me, and you believe that I came from the Father, and I came from the Father, and have come into the world, and I'm going to go to the Father. And in verse 29, the disciples said, well, now you're talking plainly. See, they were starting to learn more about what it was that needed to be understood about the Son of God, His mission, His purpose, who He was, and who He revealed. See, He was to reveal the Father.

Now, in our fundamentals of belief, you know, one of the first one that we had recorded, you know, it talks about God the Father and Jesus the Son of God, and it talks about the Holy Spirit. That's the title of it. There are a couple of paragraphs that I want to read because they are so clear and they are so important.

See, actually, needing to study the nature of God is an incredibly wonderful blessing, not because of some concern, but because of how incredible it is to understand what God is doing with us. One of the paragraphs here about midway in discussing God the Father says, Scripture further reveals God as two distinct divine beings.

I think we fully understand that, God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son. And, he says, both the Old and the New Testament contain references to more than one divine personage. It gives several verses that we won't try to go through right now. The New Testament identifies them as God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Son is also called God. See, we often think of God. We often think of the one that we realize was the author and creator of everything.

And yet, we do understand that Godhead, if we want to think of it that way, is made up of the Father and of the Son, the one who would later be the Father and the Son, because that was clarified whenever the Son came and was born as a little baby.

It came to the earth, having existed with the Father prior to that for all eternity in the past. The other kind of brief paragraph I wanted to read to you again. You know, there's all kinds of information that we can read, and the Bible is just replete with information examples about God and about how we come to worship God in spirit and in truth, and how we understand God and how we explain what He's doing with us.

But I want us to keep in mind, the Son says He revealed the Father, and He did that because He was so close to the Father that even in a human form, a form that He had willingly taken on, He was able to reflect the Father. Another one of the paragraphs, and this is something that I always want to keep in mind.

God, the word God, as used in the Bible, can be a reference to either the Father, and then there are numerous scriptures. It can be a reference to Jesus Christ the Son, or both, depending on the context of the verses. See, that's something that in some ways can make it a deeper study, but in other ways, it also achieves what Jesus told His disciples, because they ask Him, well, how are you going to reveal this stuff to us and not to the world?

Well, I'm going to do that through the help of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to do that by your mind, being able to yield to the guidance and the lead of the Holy Spirit. And so, it's important when we're studying the Bible, and I think for the most part, all of us, over our many years of even studying the Bible, we have a pretty clear understanding of the Father and the Son and how they work together in peace and harmony.

So, I wrote down four things, and again, this obviously wouldn't be everything that you could think about, and clearly it's just the things that come to my mind as I thought about them. But the first thing you see that Jesus reveals about the Father is that He's the Creator of everything, but He created everything through the Word. That's what it says. We can look at John 1. How does Jesus reveal or declare the Father? John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And so, the Word obviously referring, as we see in verse 14, to the One who became flesh, Jesus Christ. Verse 2, He, the Word, was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What is coming to being, Him was life, and life was the light of all people.

And that light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not overcoming. That again is an incredibly wonderful thing to comprehend, to comprehend that the source of life and light is Jesus Christ and God the Father. See, we have been given physical life, but we are offered everlasting life. We've been offered eternal life. That's going to come through the light and the offer of light. Let's also jump back to Hebrews chapter 1. We think about God bringing everything into existence.

Hebrews 1 verse 1, Long ago God spoke to our ancestors, many in various ways by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom He also created the world. And so again He says God created the worlds. The Father and the Son together created everything. And then talking about this Son, verse 3, He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being. He sustains all things by His powerful Word. And when He had made purification for sin, He sat down at the right hand of majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Again, Paul is going to be writing in the book of Hebrews how focusing on angels is not going to solve your problems. Focusing on Jesus Christ will. Focusing on the One who is the high priest, the Son of God, the Intercessor, the One who reveals the Father. So obviously Jesus continues to reveal the Father as the Creator, but He's the One who spoke. He's the One it was through Him that the creation came into existence. Not only the physical world and creation that we know of today, but even the spirit realm, because that was created even prior to the time of the physical. The second thing that I'll point out is, and I think we read one verse that verified this, but in John chapter 8, you see a discussion between Jesus and a number of the Pharisees. Of course, they thought they were prominent. They thought they were impressive. They at least had the genealogy. They had the ancestry. They could look back to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, knowing that they were descendants. But you see that Jesus, in talking with them and in trying to explain to them, I'm from the Father. I represent the Father. I am such an image of the Father that when you see me, you see the Father. The disciples kind of figured that out, because at least they plainly told them that. The Pharisees couldn't comprehend that at all. They couldn't, and yet what I want to focus on is what he did tell them.

Here in verse 21, he said, I'm going away and you'll search for me, but you'll die in your sins where I'm going. You simply can't come. The Jews said, what is he going to do? Kill himself? What does he mean? I'm going away, and you can't come. And he said, verse 23, you're from below. But I'm from above.

You are of this world, but I am not of this world. I created this world. He didn't directly say that right then, but the Father and I created God created this physical universe. And I told you in verse 24 that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins, unless you believe I am. Unless you come to believe who I am, or he's using a term there of I am, meaning a reference to being God, the Lord in the Old Testament. And they said to him, well, who are you? Why do you speak at all? Or Jesus said back to them, why do you speak? Or why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn, but the one who sent me, being the Father, is true. And I declare to the world what I heard from the Father. See, that's the second point I wanted to make. He spoke what the Father directed. See, we could only wish. We often pray, as we do at the beginning of our services, that God would inspire messages or he would inspire words. And clearly, all of us are pretty limited human beings. We are striving to allow God to live in us, but, see, Jesus did that perfectly. He completely represented the Father in everything he did and in everything he said, because, like he says, I declare to the world what I've heard from him. And, of course, it says in verse 27, they didn't understand what he was talking about regarding the Father. And so, Jesus... See, if that's a reference to the Pharisees, you know, they couldn't figure out too much about the nature of God. How much of a blessing is it to know what the nature of God is? To know how God represents himself, how he sent his son and became a father and a son, and yet had existed prior to that as the Eternal and the Word, both having always been. Inhabiting eternity is a description of Isaiah 57, verse 15. That, you know, it's hard to figure out from our human standpoint how can that be, but that is. And that's revealed over and over and over in the Bible. But it says in verse 27, they didn't understand what he was talking about regarding the Father. And he said, when you've lifted up the Son of Man, then you'll realize again that I am. You'll realize that I'm God. You'll realize what's actually happened.

And that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructs me.

And the one who sent me, he is with me, he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him. So that's an incredible revelation from the Son of God. He reveals about the Father that the Father was speaking through him. The Father is concerned about the world, but obviously, you know, the Pharisees didn't understand. The disciples came to understand because he was speaking plainly, and that they were receptive with the help of the Holy Spirit, beginning to help shape and guide them, and later to be in them and fill them. And we all start off that way. We have to grow, we have to develop, and God may grant more and more of his Spirit, the more open we are to being guided and led by that. So, the Word, the One who became Jesus, spoke what the Father directed. He not only revealed about how creation occurred with both of them together, but he said as a physical individual here on earth right now, I'm speaking the words of God. I am, I don't just say what I happen to want to say, I say what the Father directs me. The third thing is, we see here in John 8 as well, and you already see this in a couple of the verses that we've referenced, but if we jump on over to John chapter 8 toward the last part of the chapter, you see him discussing with them, you know, Abraham. They honored Abraham, they appreciated his contribution, they were aware of the Old Testament, they were aware of the history that connected them to Abraham. And here in the latter part of it is, they ask him in verse 53 because he's telling them I'm greater than Abraham. And they say that can't be. Nobody's greater than Abraham. Of course, they also extolled Moses as well. But he says in verse 53, you greater than our Father Abraham who died? And the prophets also died. Who do you claim to be? And Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing, it is the Father, my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say he is our God. He was telling them you don't really know God, you don't really know the Father and the Son. You're not accepting of his work in your life right now. Now, surely in the future they may totally wake up. They may totally be, you know, very repentant and very responsive. Right now they weren't because he goes ahead to say, you claim that he is our God, but in verse 55, though you do not know him. I wouldn't want to be told that by the Son of God. You don't know him. You don't know what you're talking about. You're full of the Lord. You're talking of stuff you don't know anything about. Of course, God told Job that too. You're talking stuff you don't know anything about. I'm the Creator. I'm the one you need to extol. You're the one who needs God, the Father and the Son.

So he says you don't know him, but I know him. And if I would say that I don't know him, then I'd be a liar like you, but I do know him, and I keep his words. I keep his word because he was speaking the Word of God. He was speaking the words of the Father. He says, I'm not just saying what I happen to think. I want to be so connected, even as a human, I want to be so connected to the Father that everything I say and everything that's in my head and everything that's in my heart is projecting the Father. So he was revealing the Father. He said in verse 56, your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day, and he saw it and was glad. And the Jews said, well, how could that be? You're not even 50 years old and you've seen Abraham? And of course, Jesus then declares, well, barely I tell you, before Abraham was, I am. I existed. I am represented as God in the Old Testament. Now, we're not reading all those verses, which again, we've got a lot of them written down. We have total support for everything, but this is a wonderful blessing to be able to study about how the Father and the Son are in such close communion that the Father draws us to the Son, and the Son reveals. He declares the Father to us. And he says, well, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am. And of course, did that set well? Was that easily accepted? Did they digest that? Yeah, they digested that. He just said, I'm God. He just said, I'm representing the Father. We're one. And of course, their response, verse 59, they picked up stones to throw at him because you know, they thought that was blasphemy. They thought, how could another human being be God? But in this case, clearly, that was what happened. 33 and a half years of God with us on earth. And so, not only did he reveal an understanding of God creating everything, both the Father and the Son involved in that creation, that he as a human being would speak the words of the Father, and that he declared he was the Lord of the Old Testament. He declared that he was the One who had existed prior to Abraham, and even that Abraham had given ties to in the form of Melchizedek. The last thing I want to point out here is simply, Jesus, as we read what is recorded in this divine Word, he reveals the nature and character of the Father. Not only did he personify that, he lived that, he showed that, but he reveals that. Here in John 16, verse 25, I've said these things to you in figures of speech, but the hour is coming when they'll no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. Verse 26, on that day you'll ask in my name, and I don't say that I will ask the Father on your behalf, but the Father Himself, and here he reveals the nature of God, the Father Himself loves you.

Because you are learning to love me. See, one of the descriptions we could easily come up with, for the Father is love. It was not a cruel, harsh, as some people think. You know, the God of the Old Testament, the God who sent the flood, you know, a lot of things that people misunderstand, but He's really a God of love. And again, if you read 1 Corinthians 13, and just read verse 4 through 8, God is long suffering. He is kind. He is not jealous. He is not arrogant. He is not rude. See, there's too many things for me to even try to cover, but you can cover those in your head. You can cover when you read. This is what God is. He is love. If we back up to chapter 14, in verse 21, in revealing the nature and character of God, He says, They who have My commandments and who keep them, we reference this in the sermon at His wealth, they who have My commandments and keep them are those who love Me, and those who love Me will be loved by the Father, and I will love them and reveal Myself to them.

And then, Judas asks, Lord, how is it that you're going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world? I mentioned that earlier. How does God do that? He does that through the Holy Spirit working in our lives, and He says in verse 23, Those who love Me will keep My word, and My Father will love them, and we, the Father and the Son, will come to them, those who keep My word, those who love Me, those who keep My commands. We will come to them and make our home with them. And, of course, in contrast to that, whoever does not love Me does not keep My words, and yet the word that you're hearing from Me is not Mine, but it's from the Father who sent Me. How many times does He, you know, you can read this all through the writing of John and the writing of Paul. You can reveal the Father or Jesus reveals the Father through His description of how they get along, how they cooperate.

The last verses that I will read are back here in the little book of 1 John, because again, John was inspired to write so many incredibly amazing things here in 1 John 4, verse 16. 1 John 4, verse 16, we have known and believed the love that the Father has for us, because God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. See, now there's a lot more information there, but see, that's revealing the character of God. That's revealing the nature of God. That's revealing the way that God cooperates between the Father and Son and between their reaching out to us. And that is why, if you back up to chapter 1, that's why John can write in such incredible terms about what it was he was talking about. He would later write quite a bit about how God is love toward mankind, how we want to be focused on that nature, that character. But in 1 John chapter 1, in verse 1, he says, we declare to you, we declare what was from the beginning. This is very similar to what he said in John chapter 1, verse 1, talking about the Word, being with the Father in the beginning. But he says, we declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life. So he's kind of describing Jesus in a little different way, but he's still describing Him in an emphatic way that we know that we have been walking and following and watching and hearing from God. Concerning the Word of Life, and this life in verse 2 was revealed, we have seen it, we testify to it, we declare to you that that eternal life that was with the Father was revealed to us, and we declare to you that we have seen and heard, or what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. He says, as we study more about the union of God, the unity of God, the harmony, the way in which they brought things into creation, the way that Jesus represented the Father, the way He explained who He was in the Old Testament, and who He is as He reaches out to us as members of the Church of God today, He tells us that, you know, that eternal life that was with the Father is what we, this is what John was writing, we declare to you what we have seen and heard, so that we can have fellowship with them.

See, that union, brethren, is incredibly peaceful. It is incredibly satisfying.

It is incredibly peaceful. And certainly, you know, that's what He is wanting to create in our lives. We struggle with things. We struggle against our own nature.

We, I say we often, I'm usually saying me. I struggle with stuff that I wish I didn't struggle with, and I wish I did better a lot of times. But if I remember what the nature of the Father and the Son are, then I have peace. Peace with God, and fellowship with the Father and the Son. And He says, truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy, your joy, may be complete. If we want to be happy, we want to really just be deliriously happy and filled with the joy of God. Well, then we're going to grow in our understanding of the nature of what God has revealed to the Church of God for many, many, many years. What we have comprehended about the truth about God is so completely consuming and satisfying that we can have joy that comes from that fellowship. And so I will leave it at this point here because we're out of time and I'm going to have to get ready to leave.