Weekly Bible Study

Jesus' disciples must have asked Jesus the same kind of questions that we so often have ...
... How can I show others who God really is?
... How can I show others what the Father does and does not do?
Jesus ... what is the Father really like?

Jesus' answer to His disciples was ...

Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long,
and yet you have not known Me, Philip?
He who has seen Me has seen the Father ;
so how can you say, 'Show us the Father '?
--- John 14:9

He who has seen Me has seen the Father!

But what did Jesus actually mean when He said that to His disciples?

He was not telling them that He looks like the Father!
Neither was He just telling them that He and the Father are one!

But what He was saying, is that ...
... what you see in Me,
... what you see in my actions,
and
... what you hear and see me do,
is an expression of who the Father is and what He does!

If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also;
and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.
--- John 14:7

God's plan with mankind, us, has not changed, and is not about to change,
... because God does not change,

For I am the LORD, I do not change;
--- Mal. 3:6

Why did God, when He made mankind, create man in His image and likeness?
... with His character, position and dominion?
... with His spirit life in us?

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him;
--- Gen. 1:27
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living being.
--- Gen. 2:7

To be and to express exactly what Jesus did when He walked on the earth ...
... the Father!
That is and remains God's intention for each and every one of us!

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to be] conformed to the image of His Son.
--- Rom. 8:29

Not just to be like Him, a picture of who or what God is,
... but to express who and what He is ... in us!
... to show others who and what He is ... in our lives
and through our lives!

Or, as Jesus put it ...

"Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
"I am the vine, you [are] the branches.
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing.
"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered;
and they gather them and throw [them] into the fire, and they are burned.
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,
you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
--- John 15:4-7

Living and expressing what is inside of us!
... bearing on the outside, what is on the inside!

We are unique creations, unlike the rest of creation ...

"that they all may be one,
as You, Father , [are] in Me, and I in You;
that they also may be one in Us,
that the world may believe that You sent Me..
--- John 17:21

One in Him … being and expressing all that He is ...
… in us!
That we can be the very physical manifestation of who God is,
... so that He can express all that He is
... through us, to others!

Not Jesus, but doing the works He did … and greater works ...

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me,
the works that I do he will do also;
and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
--- John 14:12

Not God, but the very expression of who He is!

"For this [is] the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD:
I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts;
and I will be their God , and they shall be My people.
--- Heb. 8:10

Are you?

Are you that unique being God created you to be ...
... the very expression of Him, His character, His love?

Are you bearing the fruit of being in Him ...
... so others can see, experience and taste Him?

Are you that vessel of honour in the Master's hands?

And can you say, as Jesus did ...

If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also;
and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.
--- John 14:7

The very expression of the Father!

... Can You?