Understanding Christ and His Relationship with His Father (DCLC – July ’87, Part 4)

“Furthermore, as it is written in your law that the testimony of two is valid, I am one witnessing concerning myself, and even right now inside my internal parts, the Father who has sent me is witnessing concerning Me too.” What an enormous confidence He had in an indwelling Father. I hope the day comes when you have such enormous confidence in an indwelling Lord that will not come, my dear brother, by reading a book that will convince you of that, but will come by an enlargement of the experience that some of you are having in the morning.

“They said, therefore, to Him, ‘Where is your Father?’” and this is an ugly passage because obviously some rumors have spread about Him as to who His Father was. They make this abundantly clear in just a moment. Jesus answered, “Now the Lord said, I’ll tell you who my Father is.” He looked at them, knowing that there was no way He could answer that question.

You know, I speak for you as an example for myself. There is no one in this room, I think, other than my wife who knew my dad. I could not convince any of you. I could not fully convince you if you did not want to believe my words. I could not convince you who my dad was, and you never met him, and you’re not going to. No, in this life. You’re not going to meet my dad. You do not know my dad, and you’re not going to. And that’s what He said to them. Don’t ask who my Father is, I can’t prove it, but I’ll tell you this for sure. You’re never going to meet Him. You’re never going to meet Him. Does that make sense? He was talking eternally. I just gave an illustration in time.

By the way, am I correct? Has anybody in this room ever laid eyes on my dad other than my wife? And I was trying to remember. I regret that. I should have brought my dad to California when he was still alive and let you meet one of the oddest, most unusual, unique human beings that ever lived. Now, he wasn’t odd; he was unusual.

You do not know Me, and you do not know my Father. He said, “You don’t know Me. You do not experientially know Me. You have any idea who I am, and if you do not experientially know Me, you’re sure never going to know my Father.”

They were convinced they knew God the Father from reading scripture and studying about Him. He knew that they had never experienced Him, did not believe in the true Father, and never would, and there was nothing that could change that. “And if you did not believe in Me, you could never know or believe in Him. If you had known Me, if you had experientially believed in and known who I was, you would have known my Father also.” They are totally lost as to what He is talking about. They are trying to think, ‘Was that Joseph?’ Was that some Samaritan who had an affair with Mary? Who is He talking about? They cannot understand that they are speaking to an eternal being standing right in front of them. I’m going to say it again. Can you see how aware He was of His past? how much He recalled eternals and spirituals? Then I would say it would behoove us to fill our own beings with some of these remembrances of Him in eternity. Did you notice I did not say of your place in eternity but to discover some of His experience in the eternals that you could so speak of saying, “yes I know Him and I know His Father,” is that is not the message that’s coming across here I don’t know what is the message that’s coming across here; to know Him and to know His Father. Brothers and sisters, I hope you’re noticing that this week I’m not trying to introduce you to what you are or who you are or what any are. I’m sure not trying to get you involved in positional truth, as encouraging as that has been to some people, but we just shot right past eternal positional truth; if you don’t know what it is, I suppose it won’t matter a whole lot, but if you do, we shot right past it.

I am seeking to introduce you in living ways to your Lord and His Father, and they are simple things, and this seems to be what is on His mind. If that’s what’s on His mind, I would like for that to be what’s on my mind. He is speaking to these people out of experience. He’s not quoting theology here, brothers and sisters; He is talking about a relationship He has with His Father that they don’t have. This is where His mind is. This is the Christian mind. Are you following me? You are beholding the Christian mind. And that mind is centered on His Father.

These are words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke inside the treasury of the temple while teaching there. No one arrested Him because His hour had not yet come. I don’t know why John said that. I guess He was trying to say you’re wondering why He didn’t get arrested on the spot. And the reason is, there’s only one reason, because the Father decreed that that was His hour, and this wasn’t, and that wasn’t. And no power on earth or heaven or under the earth could break that.

Brothers and sisters, I see a lot of unseen realms going on here. Do you? Why did John write that? His hour had not yet come. Have you ever read the Lord Jesus saying to someone, “Go home. Your child is healed.” And we just read that. Do you have any idea what that means? That He’s not only the Lord of time, but He’s the Lord of space. How did He know that? Do you ever ask yourself how He knew that? He was Lord of space. He was not only Lord of time; He’s lord of space. What does that mean? It means He can be anywhere He wants to. His awareness is everywhere. He saw that the child was healed. How’d He do that, Gene? Don’t ask me. I’m not Lord of time and space. I’m stuck right here, right now. He’s not. And I’m going to stay stuck right here, but He’s not, so what I need to do is just figure out how to go where He is.

Alright, Jesus addressed them once more. “I’m going away and you will search for Me and in your sins, you will die for where I’m going you cannot come.” Call that heaven, call that the Father, or call that just going within Himself, and you won’t miss any of them very far, or they are basically, I’m not going to say they’re all the same, but they’re all in the same place. They are in other realms, and other realms are in Him because He has a spirit, and He goes there.

Therefore, said the Jews, “Maybe He’ll kill Himself since He said where I’m going you cannot come.” So, He said to them, I’m going to paraphrase this. “You’re stuck here. I’m not. You’re from here; I’m from out there.” It’s the same word as being born from above. I am from above. I am born above, live above, and above. You’re here. You’re stuck here. I come from another realm. You are talking to a spiritual being.” Can you follow this in your scripture? Is it fairly clear what I’m doing here? “You’re from below. I am from above. You’re from this cosmos, this world, this realm, this planet, if you choose. I am not of this world.” He could have just as easily said, “I’m not here. I’m in God.”

I want to get you to understand again where Jesus Christ, you remember His saying that “out of the mouth, the heart speaks.” You remember those words? Well, this is the heart speaking. This is out of His mouth. He’s speaking, and He’s speaking of a relationship. He’s speaking of a place. He is speaking of a Father, and we’re getting a peek into what goes on inside of Him and where His thoughts are. If you always wondered what He was thinking about, I don’t think He was thinking about so much as being what He was thinking about. Being there where He was thinking about, being in the above, being in the Father, being with the Father. Out of the mouth, the heart is speaking.