Jesus has declared the name of God to His disciples and He has done so fully and completely. In the past God had revealed various parts of His name (His character and nature) through various circumstances and prophets, but now Christ has revealed the fulfullness of Who the Father is to us through Himself, His words, and His deeds.

Jesus has made God known to His followers and He is going to further do that by Himself and by His Spirit (John 1:18, 17:6, 16:12,25; Acts 1:3, Matt 28:20, John 15:26, 16:13-15). But the greatest revelation He gave us of the Father and His love for us was through the cross (Rom 5:8), which was probably what He had in mind when He prayed this.

John 1:18  No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

John 17:6  “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

John 16:12  “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

John 16:25  “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.

Acts 1:3  After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

Matthew 28:20  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

John 15:26  “When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

John 16:13-15  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

Romans 5:8  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ has “continued” to make the name of the Father known throughout the centuries since His death on the cross, first by His resurrection and ascension, and since then through His Holy Spirit. In fact, the whole history of the church from Pentecost to now contains ongoing revelations from Jesus to His body. Maclaren says it this way: “The difference between the two volumes of revelation—that which includes the work of Christ upon earth, and that which includes His revelation from the heavens—is this, that the first volume contains all the facts, and the second volume contains His interpretation and application of the facts in the understandings and hearts of His people.” Christ has been continuously revealing the Father to us, bringing a greater understanding of the significance of what He did while on the earth, and changing our hearts to receive what He has for us.

There will be times of shaking and those times are when our ever-living Master and Teacher is bringing a new and much-needed lesson to His body. We call them “movements” but they are really revelations from Him. I believe the emphasis of personal relationship with God came through Martin Luther and others. God used John Welsey to bring a new revelation of holiness and the Azusa Street revivals to show us that the gifts of the Spirit are still alive today. The Restoration Movement with the Campbells was resposible for Baptism by immersion being re-emphasized. I wonder what God is doing today? (These are just my opinions. Please feel free to disagree, but let’s remain unified and love each other.) The point here is that God is still active on the earth and He will reveal things to us individually and corporately to bring us into a greater understanding of Him and His goals for us. Remember that His revelations will always line up with scripture (1 Thes 5:21, 2 Tim 3:16-17).

1 Thessalonians 5:21  Test everything. Hold on to the good.

2 Timothy 3:16-17  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Jesus does not reveal the Father to satisfy our desire for knowledge. He does it so that the love with which the Father loved His Son may be in our hearts (Rom 5:5). But there is a possible double meaning here. He may mean that the love the Father had for Him may be among us, uniting us together as one. He probably meant both.

Romans 5:5  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Another purpose Jesus had in revealing the Father was that He Himself might be “in” us. Christ in us is the hope of glory (Col 1:27). The love of God is associated with Jesus living within us. We can only know the fullness of God’s love if His Son lives in our hearts.

Colossians 1:27  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

This ends the Lord’s prayer in John. It is interesting to note the similarities between the last words of Jesus here and the last word of His discourses in (16:33). Westcott observes that “He is Himself the source of victory and life.” Amen.

John 16:33  “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.”

We can have and experience the love the Father has for Jesus in our own hearts, and that is exactly what Jesus wants for us. The Father loves His Son with a continuous, full, perfect love and Jesus has for eternity lived in the experience of that love except for one brief moment on the cross when He bore our sins (Matt 27:46). He wants us also to live in that continuous experience of God’s love and, since Christ dealt with our sin on the cross (Rom 8:1), there is nothing to keep that from happening, except we ourselves. If you sin, then confess it (1John 1:9) and be restored into a perfect relationship with God. Then all you need do is receive. Jesus always gets His prayers answered, so receive and feel the love God has for you — the same love He has for Jesus.

Matthew 27:46  About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Romans 8:1  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.