"If You Have Seen Me, You Have Seen the Father"

 Chapter 5: Number 4: "If You Have Seen Me, You Have Seen the Father" -The Heart of God Revealed in Christ 

 Number four, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, the heart of God revealed in Christ. 

 Philip asked Jesus a question that many of us silently carry in our hearts. 

 Lord, show us the Father. 

It was not doubt, it was longing, a desire to understand God, to see Him clearly, to  know his heart without confusion or distance. 

 And Jesus answered with one of the most profound statements in all of scripture. 

 If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. 

Jesus was not just saying I represent God. 

 Jesus was not just saying I speak for God. 

 Jesus was revealing a truth so deep that it changes the way you see every story in the Gospels. 

Jesus is the heart of God on display. 

 Do you want to know how the Father feels about you? 

 Look at Jesus touching the lepers no one else would approach. 

 Look at him lifting the heads of the broken and the ashamed. 

 Look at him forgiving sinners that religion condemned. 

Look at him calming storms for terrified disciples. 

 Look at him feeding crowds that had nothing left. 

 Look at him carrying the cross without resisting. 

 Look at him praying for those who nailed him there. 

Every act of Jesus is the Father saying, 

 "This is how I love you. 

This is who I truly am. 

 This is my heart toward you." 

So many people live with distorted images of God, angry, distant, unpredictable. 

But Jesus shattered every false picture. 

 He showed that the father is compassionate, gentle, patient, strong, protective, and deeply invested in his children. 

 When Jesus sat with the broken, God sat with the broken. 

When Jesus embraced the outcast, God embraced the outcast. 

 When Jesus wept, God wept. 

When Jesus forgave, God forgave. 

 When Jesus healed, comforted, taught, and restored, God himself was reaching into human pain. 

 Jesus did not come to change God's heart toward you. 

He came to reveal it.

You do not have to fear approaching God. You don't have to wonder if he cares. 

 You do not have to question his intentions for your life. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. 

If Jesus wouldn't reject you, God won't reject you. 

If Jesus wouldn't shame you, God won't shame you. 

If Jesus would open his arms to you, God's arms are already open. 

 This truth should settle something deep inside you. 

You are fully loved, fully known, fully seen, fully welcomed because the Father's heart has always been the heart of Jesus.

Jesus the Way to the Father

John 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[b] 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.

Chapter 6: Number 5: "Ask in My Name" — Jesus Gives You the Authority of Heaven (continue here)