John 14:5-14
Jesus the Way to the Father
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.
John 16:31-33
Slow to Believe
31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Jeremiah 33:1-26
Promise of Restoration
1 While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: 2 “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: 3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ 4 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege ramps and the sword 5 in the fight with the Babylonians: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.
6 “‘Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. 7 I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. 8 I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. 9 Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.’
10 “This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying,
“Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,
for the Lord is good;
his love endures forever.”
For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before, ’ says the Lord.
12 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In this place, desolate and without people or animals —in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. 13 In the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them,’ says the Lord.
14 “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.
15 “‘In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.
16 In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’
17 For this is what the Lord says: ‘David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, 18 nor will the Levitical priests ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices. ’”
19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 20 “This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, 21 then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne. 22 I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’”
23 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 24 “Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms he chose’? So they despise my people and no longer regard them as a nation. 25 This is what the Lord says: ‘If I have not made my covenant with day and night and established the laws of heaven and earth, 26 then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.’”
When you run across a verse or verses in the Bible, that you do not understand -pray to God that He will help you understand those hard verses, but also take heart...Two of Jesus Disciples who had been with Him for three years, still have a hard time understanding Him, after all the teaching He has given them and all the time He has personally spent with them...The night before Jesus' arrest, Thomas and Philip have questions for and about Him...Thomas does not understand or know the Way...Jesus then asks Philip, "Don't you know Me?"...
Jesus tells Thomas and His Disciples I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life...Jesus tells Philip that the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father...These are tough teachings, if you just think that Jesus is just a Man...But if you think Jesus is Divine and from Another World (from Heaven) -then He is easier to understand...
What is interesting about the above statements is that Jesus is not addressing a new crowd, or new group of followers...He is not speaking to people He does not know...He is speaking to His Disciples, His students, His friends, who have been with Him for close to three years now...Yet, they still do not quite understand Him, and that He is their and our only guide to His Father...They do not understand (or so it seems) that He is Divine...That He speaks for God, He acts for God, because He is IN the Father and the Father is IN Him...He is the Messiah, and the Messiah is to do just what Jesus is doing...The Prophet Jeremiah gives prophecy that a Messiah would come and not be from this earth -and He would save Judah and Israel...The Messiah would be called LORD of Righteousness...He would come from the lineage of King David...Jesus is the Messiah that Jeremiah had written about...We should expect to have some trouble in understanding the Messiah...
If the closest ones around Him, did not understand Him and what He represented and who He was and who He spoke for, then we can take some heart when we don't understand a piece of Scripture or what He meant by it...These Twelve men were right there listening for three years to His teachings, watching Him do miracle after miracle...They were eyewitnesses to Him...They sometimes see that He is the Messiah, and not from this world, but at times it seems He seems a mystery to the closest ones to Him...Yet, He asks His Disciples just hours before His arrest, "Do you now believe?"...He being Divine has much to do with it (I think) and our trouble of understanding Divinity, in our earthly minds...
God is so complex, and so infinite, that even with His Son explaining these things for three years to His own Disciples, they have not quite gotten it yet...Oh, yes -they know He is special and they have seen great miracles, but it still has not sunk in after three years of teachings of who He is...Our minds and our imaginations can take us wherever we want to go, but when it comes to things about heaven and the Divine One, our minds seem to shift to low gear...And maybe it is just because Jesus is from heaven and been with His Father from the beginning, that we have a hard time getting our arms and minds around Him and His Father...We have a hard time fathoming our LORD and heaven...Isaiah says who can we as man compare God to (Isaiah 40:18)...Then Isaiah says, we are like grasshoppers compared to God (Isaiah 40:22)... I think this is probably a close analogy, in that our understanding is like a grasshopper, when we try to compare our understanding of things with His...That is why, some of the verses, I struggle with...I am but a grasshopper, reading about One who has created the heavens and earth...I am right there with Thomas and Philip asking questions -like where are You going, how would I know the Way...And (like Philip) show us the Father and then I can believe and understand better what you are talking about -if I see Him maybe then I can believe these things...Him explaining the Way and showing me His Father, so my eyes could see Him would and should make it easier for my grasshopper mind (maybe)...But God wants us to have faith and it seems He does not mind this mystery around Him...
My grasshopper type-mind in reading the gospels may not grasp all of what He teaches, and who He is...Maybe (if I was much-much smarter), and (better yet) if I was just like Him, then I would understand Him and His Father...Then the mystery would lift, and I would easily know the Way and could see the Father, and my faith would become and see the Truth...