And this morning we think – Jesus came to reveal the Father.  Now if nothing in this morning's worship has done anything to get your heart beating faster, if nothing has moved your Spirit to praise God, if nothing has lifted your soul to sing to God a song of adoration, that statement alone should do it for you.  Jesus came to reveal the Father, to show us what God is like.  He came to give us a clear image of God.

Now that’s good news because we want to see God.  There is a desire that runs through you and through me – and virtually every human being to know God.  And isn’t it true? 

So many unbelievers say that if only they could see God then they would believe.  If only they could experience God then they would give their life to him. 

And many Christians long to see God.  There are times when faith is hard when our spiritual wells are dry and we saying “O God, show yourself to me. Assure me of your love.”  Or when we are facing difficult times, hard times, times when it feels like our prayers are simply hitting the gates of heaven and being reflected back and our cry becomes, “O God show yourself, do not remain hidden.” 

And the good news of Christmas is that God can be seen.  God can be known.  God has shown himself plainly and universally so that every eye can see.   God has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. 

This is the truth we learn in a conversation Jesus has with His disciples.  He is telling them of His imminent death. He is telling them He will soon leave them.  And the disciples are upset.

We pick up the conversation in John 14:1-14:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 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’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 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 miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.  (John 14:1-14)

Jesus says do not be troubled.  He assures them of His ongoing work for them and how He has a place reserved for them.

Thomas asks for some clarity and asks, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going so how can we know the way?"  Jesus answers, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

And Philip who, along with the other disciples is listening in on the conversation hears the word, “seen”.  “From now on you do know him and have SEEN him.”  And Philip says, “that’s it Lord that’s what we need, to be able to see God! Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

And wouldn’t it be for us all?  Just show us God and that will be enough for our weak faith.  Show us God and that will be enough for our doubts and fears and questions.  Just show us God.

And Jesus says, “Philip you’re looking at him.”

Let us consider this morning the vehicle of this revelation, the validity of this revelation and the value of this revelation.

Consider the vehicle of the revelation of God – It is Jesus Christ. 

Jesus is a little dumbfounded and I think disappointed by the question and says, “How can you say, 'Show us the Father?'  After all this time I have been revealing the Father to you.  If you have known me then you have known the Father."

I can identify with Philip a little bit.  I often look for God in the spectacular.  I look for the burst of light, the miraculous instantaneous change in a person’s life, the powerful vision.  That extraordinary presentation before I am satisfied. 

That’s a mistake; we sometimes look in the wrong places for God. When we are looking for God in the spectacular when he is often there in the ordinary. 

This is part of the testimony of an Old Testament Prophet of God by the name of Elijah.

"Tell us Elijah how did you experience God? How did he make himself known to you?"

(Oh, I’ve got to tell you – remember Elijah was an A type personality, after all he did outrun a chariot!)  "I’ve got to tell you that I looked for God in the great wind?"

"A great wind?"

"Yes, it was so great that it split mountains and split rocks in pieces but the Lord was not in the spectacular wind."

"Well, you must have discovered him in something just as fantastic?"

"Well there followed a great earthquake, but.."

"But?"

"But the Lord was not in the earthquake, and then there was a great fire but.."

"But?"

"But the Lord was not in the fire."

"Well, how did you discover God?"

"In this …"

"In what?"

"In this ……"

"All there is is silence."

"That’s where I discovered God – in ordinary silence he spoke to me."

God is found in the ordinary.  

During our fall series we looked at the kingdom of God and in our study did you notice that Jesus never said that the kingdom of God is like the spectacular fireworks of life.  No, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.  The common, small mustard seed, yet it grows into a great tree.  The Kingdom of God is like a shepherd who loses his whole herd of 100 sheep?  No!  The Kingdom of God is like a shepherd who loses one ordinary little sheep and goes out to look for it.

We sometimes look for God in the extraordinary and to be sure we have a God who is able to do more than we ask or imagine.  But often God is revealed to us in the ordinary.

Are you waiting for God to do the extraordinary to reveal Himself?  You need to consider how God is making Himself known to you in the ordinary.  His creative power – is made known in the ordinary life of a baby.  His love for you may be revealed to you in the care of a friend, a spouse or a sibling.  His grace toward you may be known in the forgiveness of one whom you have harmed or hurt.   God is often found in the ordinary.  

And of course we must finish this sentence -  God is found in the ordinary life of Jesus.  And it may be wrong of me to call Jesus’ life ordinary, but by the world’s standards He is ordinary.

Do you know that poem that is often quoted at Christmas time, entitled One Solitary Life?  It is a testimony to the ordinary life of Jesus.

“He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant.  He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30.  Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.

"He never wrote a book. He never held an office.  He never had a family or owned a home.  He didn’t go to college.  He never lived in a big city.  He never traveled 200 miles from the place where He was born.  He did none of things that usually accompany greatness.  He had no credentials but Himself.

"He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him.  His friends ran away.  One of them denied Him.  He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.  He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.  While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth.  When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave, through the pity of a friend.

"Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned – put together – have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life."  (attributed to James Allen Francis)       

No man has affected life on earth as much as this one solitary, ordinary life.  If we would but have eyes to see.  There in Christ is God.  He states this plainly in our passage and in John 10:30 he says, “I and the Father are one.”

Now think of the validity of Jesus’ statement. He and the Father are one.

Jesus is God in the flesh, and if you doubt then, Jesus says, Look at my miracles, or the works (verse 11) it says in the NRSV.  Think of them.  His power over nature (Mark 4:39).  He calms the storm with a word.  Or His power over physical disease (Mark 3:10) The lame are able to walk. The blind are given their sight, the leprous are healed.  Who but God can do such a thing?  Or consider His power over the spirit world (Luke 4:35).  Or His power over death (John 11:43-44).  Lazarus is raised from the dead.  Who can give life but God?  Jesus Christ is God in the flesh - His miracles attest to that fact.

Or think of His words.  Jesus says in our text, in verse 10, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but he Father who dwells in me does his works.” 

I can think of no greater word that attests to Jesus’ divinity than these – your sins are forgiven.  The Old Testament teaches us that this authority belongs to God.  “It is God who will redeem Israel from all their sins," we read in Psalm 130:8.  And you may know the story – a man who was paralyzed was brought to Jesus by four friends.  He was lowered through a roof because the crowd around Jesus was so great.  And Jesus says to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven”  (Mark 2:1-12).  And you can feel the shock waves ripple through the Jewish crowd so that the Pharisees ask, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 

That’s precisely the point!  Jesus was laying claim to that which God alone does because He was God in the flesh.    

Are you looking for God?  Are you wanting God to show Himself to you?  Are you wondering what God is like?  Then look for God in the ordinary life of Jesus, for here is God in the flesh.  When you encounter Jesus Christ, you are coming face to face with God.  Jesus words prove it to be so, and His miracles prove it to be so.

But there is this too – our prayers prove Jesus is God.  Jesus says,

“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

My friends, we have seen some amazing answers to prayer in our life together.  We have seen God at work in our lives.  And I know that there are yet some prayers to be answered and we continue on in faith, but we have seen some amazing things happen in response to our prayers.  And we are not praying in the name of Buddha, we are not praying in the name of Mohammed, we pray in the name of Jesus and lives are being changed, people are being encouraged, doors of opportunity are opening, diseases are being healed, peace has filled lives.

Can you imagine God receiving our prayers and it’s signed in the name of Tom Cullen?  And I can see God in heaven saying, “Who is that?”  But we pray in the name of Jesus.  And when God in heaven receives that prayer – He says, “Now there’s a name I recognize!” And God sets to work.  

I know we can use that phrase “in Jesus name” tritely.  I know that sometimes we can let it trickle off our lips as nothing more than a rote expression. 

But listen when we pray in Jesus' name, when we come to God in prayer in the name of Jesus we are coming to Him in the authority of Himself.  We are entering the throne room of God under His authority.

I go to Cullen Gardens and I simply walk through that front gate. The person at the till stops me and says, “Hey wait a minute you can’t just walk in here.”  And I say, “Yes I can.”   They say, “No you can’t, who do you think you are?” 

“I’m Len Cullen’s son.” 

“Oh well, yes you can – you go right ahead.”

I have authority to go in, because of the strength of my name, because of my relationship to the father.

You and I have authority to come before the Father in heaven in prayer because we come in authority of His name, in the name by which He has revealed Himself to us.  And we have answered prayer.

How do we know Jesus Christ is God?  Look at His word, look at His works, look at the fact that our prayers are answered.

Finally this, What is the value of the fact that Jesus came to reveal the Father?  There is great value in this – first in knowing that our God is not remote.  That He is not unfamiliar with every temptation that we have faced, (Hebrews 4:15).  That He is not unfamiliar with life’s difficulties and hardships. He knows what it means to have His heart broken; He knows what it means to experience sorrow.  He knows what it means to experience joy and laughter; he knows all about life – right down to the fact that He knows how good fresh-baked bread tastes. 

So when we pray to Him, He is not one who is remote or unfamiliar with what we are going through.

But even more, the fact that Jesus Christ is God – is of great value because when there are times we are hard up against it, and we are finding it difficult and we cry out, “O God show me Yourself.”  We need only to open our Scriptures and as we discover the person of Jesus Christ, all grace, love, compassion, authority, we discover God and we have that vision that we long for.  There He is – God in the flesh.  And we are able to carry on because we have seen God in the person of Jesus.