Tag: Trinity

Sent By The Father

This morning as I was reading and studying my bible I was reminded that it is the Father, God, LORD, who sends me out. I know what we may be thinking, and frankly when you read, it was Jesus who sent the disciples and by extension, us out to spread the gospel. And where that is true, I have to remember that Jesus is LORD and God and Father.

“21Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’” – John 20:21 (ESV)

Here in this passage it was indeed Jesus. But look closely at the above verse and see how, when we know that Jesus is the Father, it is stated, “As the Father…I am sending you.” Oh how my conscious view changes.

Even in the secular and societal world, when someone is given a directive from an authority to send or have someone do something, they are doing so as if the authority itself sent and has them do. Now I am not comparing the secular and societal world to God the Father and His direction, but I am showing the parallel that can be drawn.

I am sent by God the Father to do His will. I was given the directive from Jesus, who is the Father as part of the trinity with the Holy Spirit as well. In fact, as you look into the next verse in the passage, Jesus directly extends the Holy Spirit to the disciples as He does for each of us as well.

“22And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” – John 20:22 (ESV)

I see this verse and recall that our Father would send the helper, the Holy Spirit, to be with us. Jesus is in the Father and the Holy Spirit is in Jesus whom He shares with the disciples, you, and me.

Jesus said the words sending me and breathed the Holy Spirit onto me, not as an act of a messenger, but as the Father. The Father is sending me out to do His will and spread the Good News.

Who is sending you? Are you caught up in the words and who they are delivered by? What if you accepted that the words were given by Jesus, but as the Father, He is sending you?

Jesus and The Father

“30I and the Father are one.” – John 10:30 (ESV)

The words of Jesus that I believe.

We might dismiss the unity of Jesus and the Father. Jesus was man in this world walking with us and experiencing all that we experience. God is the almighty being that was larger than man. How could they be unified, much less the same?

I will admit to thinking the same things as I go through this world. And then I read passages in God’s Word that remind me of their unity and sameness. Jesus makes it clear that His followers know Him at the sound of His voice. We know God by the sound of His voice. I am a follower of Jesus and therefore am a follower of God and know the sound of His voice, which is the same.

I know, that seems a bit of a rounder that may not make sense to some. Let me try something else. Ever notice how a child just knows the sound of their parents voice. When mom or dad cries out for them, they know and will come running. Well, God is our Father and when He calls out, we know and come running. When Jesus calls out, we hear the same voice, we know and come running.

When God did miraculous things in the world, the world understood them to be from God and would worship and glorify Him as a result. Yet, when Jesus did the miraculous, he was looked upon as somehow appropriating the works of God. But, if Jesus was doing the same miraculous works that God was doing, how is it that He was appropriating, wouldn’t He be acting as God in those situations?

“37If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” – John 10:37-38 (ESV)

Jesus points out that even if He is not believed to be the Son of God, we still must believe the works that He is performing as those coming from God. As they are coming from God, then He must be of God and therefor He and God are unified and as we know it, they are one.

I have to remember that Jesus is the human form of God. He was here in this world to experience it and demonstrate to us that all that is known can be acted on, even those things that are hard. Jesus did not have it easy in this world, he experienced loss, persecution, He was doubted, He got by being content with what was available. And yet, with all that seemed to be against Him, He continued doing the work of the Father here in this world for all of us to witness and behold. He and the Father are one.

What is your view of Jesus in this world? Are you looking to Him as some figure of the church or a figment of the stories? What if you did see the work He did as that of and from God and saw that He indeed was only doing as a result of being one with God?