Have You Been With Me So Long, Philip?
Introducing Philip to the Savior He Has Not Yet Fully Known
John 14:9 · Colossians 3:4 · Matthew 16:13–17
I. The Question That Still Echoes
Philip, the Shaliach — the apostle from Beit-Tzaidah — had walked with the Master for three years. He had watched water become wine at Cana. He had helped distribute the broken loaves to five thousand hungry mouths on the hillside of the Galil. He had heard the voice from the cloud at the Transfiguration. He had stood at the edge of Lazarus's tomb and smelled death become life.
And yet, at the last supper, as the shadows gathered and the hour of the Pesach sacrifice drew near, Philip opened his mouth and said: "Master, show us the Av, and it is enough for us" (Yochanan 14:8, OJB).
The Savior's answer is not sharp. It is not unkind. But it is shot through with a grief deeper than rebuke. He turns to His talmid and says:
John 14:9 (OJB)"Have I been such a long time with you, and you have not come to know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen HaAv. How do you say, Show us HaAv?"
Philip. Have you been with Me so long, and you still don't know Me?
Every Philip in your congregation carries that same question as a wound. The question is not a verdict — it is an invitation. The Savior is not closing a door; He is opening one. And this sermon is that door. It is an introduction — a formal, biblical, eschatological introduction — of Philip to the One who has been standing beside him all along.
II. The Greek Word for Full Knowledge — Epignosis
When Shimon Kefa — the Rock of the Kehillah — writes his epistles, he distinguishes between ordinary acquaintance and transforming knowledge. The word he reaches for is not gnosis alone, but epignosis.
The prefix epi- intensifies the root gnosis. This is not the knowledge of a man who has read about the ocean. This is the knowledge of a man who has swum in it, whose lungs have filled with salt water, who has felt the cold undertow and been pulled up gasping by a hand stronger than his own.
Kefa opens both of his letters — and closes his second — with this word as the ground of grace and shalom:
2 Peter 1:2"Grace and shalom be multiplied to you in the epignosis of God and of Yeshua our Adon."
2 Peter 1:3"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the epignosis of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence."
2 Peter 1:8"For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the epignosis of our Adon Yeshua HaMashiach."
2 Peter 3:18"But grow in the grace and epignosis of our Adon and Savior Yeshua HaMashiach."
Philip standing in the upper room is a man with gnosis — head knowledge, proximity knowledge, witnessed-miracle knowledge. The Savior is calling him toward epignosis. The Savior is calling him to know Him as He is known, to be seized by the full weight of Who is present in the room.
Note too Kefa's diagnostic: those who lack the qualities of his curriculum are "so nearsighted that they are blind, having forgotten that they were cleansed from their former sins" (2 Pet 1:9). Philip's failure of recognition is a failure of memory — he has forgotten the weight of what was done for him. When you forget the cross, you lose clarity about the One who was crucified.
What this sermon aims to do, Philip, is build that epignosis — title by title, type by type, unveiling by unveiling — until you cannot say you have never been properly introduced.
III. The Incognito — The Bar Enosh in Disguise
The Savior came incognito. This is not a metaphor. The Bar Enosh — the Son of Man of Daniel 7, before Whom every kingdom of earth must bow, to Whom the Ancient of Days gives dominion, glory, and a kingdom that shall not pass away — this One arrived in Galil dressed as a peasant carpenter from Natzeret.
He spoke with a Galilean accent. His hands were calloused. He grew up in a village so insignificant that Natan'el himself asked: "Can anything good come out of Natzeret?" (Yochanan 1:46). He paid His taxes. He got thirsty. He wept at a tomb. He slept in a boat while a storm tried to swallow His talmidim.
The incognito was total. And it was purposeful. The veil of ordinary humanity covered an extraordinary identity: Immanuel, God with us. The Almighty wrapped in swaddling cloths. The Lord of the Sabbath who made the Sabbath, plucking grain on the Sabbath because He was hungry. The One who said "Before Avraham was, I AM" — eating bread and fish on the beach with fishermen.
Philip, the One you have been walking with for three years — do you know Who He is?
IV. Great Moments of Divine Unveiling in the Bible
Scripture is full of moments when a veiled identity is suddenly, shatteringly revealed. These are not coincidences. They are the Bible's recurring grammar of salvation — the pattern by which God introduces Himself, and by which a human being is forever changed by that introduction.
A. Yosef Reveals Himself to His Brothers (Bereshit 45:1–3)
Yosef had been sold into slavery by his own brothers. He was presumed dead. He had lived for years in Egypt — powerful, elevated, unrecognizable. His brothers stood before him hungry and afraid, requesting grain. They bowed before him. The very dream he had dreamed as a boy was being fulfilled — and they did not know it.
Then came the moment. Yosef could no longer contain himself. He cleared the room of Egyptians and said, through tears that could not be stopped:
Genesis 45:3"I am Yosef! Is my father still alive?"
The veil of foreignness — of Egyptian dress, of power, of years — fell away in a single sentence. And the brothers were speechless with terror and wonder. They had been talking to Yosef for weeks without knowing it.
Philip, this is your story. You have been talking with the Savior without knowing the full weight of Who He is. He has provided for you, protected you, wept with you — and one day the veil will fall, and you will say: "Is it possible? Have I been with Him all this time?"
B. The Three Visitors to Avraham at Mamre (Bereshit 18)
Avraham sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. Three men appeared — dusty travelers, wanderers of the desert. Nothing in their appearance marked them as exceptional. Avraham ran to them — not because he recognized them, but because hospitality was the sacred duty of the desert.
He washed their feet. He brought butter and milk and a calf, tender and good. He stood under a tree while they ate. And then one of them — the One, the Malach HASHEM who carries the divine Name — said: "I will certainly return to you about this time next year, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son" (18:10).
It was not until the conversation deepened — until Avraham found himself interceding for Sodom with extraordinary boldness — that the identity of the Visitor became unmistakable. Avraham had been entertaining the Almighty Himself at his table, face to face, and the revelation came gradually, through the meal, through the word, through the promise.
Kefa echoes this: "Be hospitable without grumbling" (1 Pet 4:9). And the writer of Hebrews adds the reason: "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some have entertained angels without knowing it" (Heb 13:2). The Stranger at your table may carry more glory than He appears to bear.
C. Yaakov Wrestles the Unknown Man at Peniel (Bereshit 32:24–30)
At the ford of Yabbok, Yaakov wrestled through the night with a Man he could not overcome and who would not overcome him. As dawn broke, the Man touched the socket of Yaakov's hip and dislocated it — and still Yaakov would not let go.
"I will not let you go unless you bless me."
The Man asked: "What is your name?" And the Man blessed him. And Yaakov named the place Peniel — "Face of God" — saying: "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered."
He limped away blessed and wounded, never the same. The epignosis of that night — that bodily, wrestling, refusing-to-let-go knowledge — changed his name, changed his walk, changed his destiny.
Philip, the knowledge of the Savior that this sermon calls you to is not merely intellectual. It is Peniel knowledge — the kind that leaves a mark on your body, a limp in your walk, because you have actually met Him in the dark.
D. Moshe at the Burning Bush (Shemot 3)
Moshe had lived in Midian for forty years — a fugitive shepherd, once a prince of Egypt. He turned aside to look at a bush that burned but was not consumed. And from within the fire, the Voice:
Exodus 3:6"I am the God of your father, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzchak, and the God of Yaakov." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
The bush was ordinary. The hillside was ordinary. The work of shepherding was ordinary. But the Presence hidden within it was the I AM — the Self-Existing One, the God of the Avot, the Redeemer about to shake the mightiest empire on earth.
Philip, the Savior came to you in ordinary form — a Galilean rabbi, a man of sorrows. But you have been standing before a burning bush. And the fire has not gone out.
E. Kefa's Revelation at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13–17)
The Savior and His talmidim came to the region of Caesarea Philippi — a city named for Caesar, built at the foot of a cliff where a great spring poured forth, surrounded by pagan shrines to the god Pan. Against that backdrop of imperial pride and pagan religion, the Savior asked the question that cut beneath all the noise:
Matthew 16:13"Who do people say the Ben Adam is?"
The disciples offered the popular answers: Yochanan the Immerser, Eliyahu, Yirmeyahu, one of the neviim. Then: "But who do you say that I am?" And Shimon Kefa — not by his own wisdom, not by the flesh's perception, not by any program of religious study — opened his mouth and received the words that Elokim HaAv placed there:
Matthew 16:16–17"You are the Mashiach, the Ben Elohim Chayyim." And Yeshua answered him: "Blessed are you, Shimon bar Yonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Av who is in Shamayim."
Flesh and blood cannot give this knowledge. No seminary can manufacture it. No religious upbringing can substitute for it. The epignosis of who the Savior is — the Mashiach, the Son of the Living God — is a revelation. It comes from the Father. It is given, not achieved.
F. The Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–35)
Two disciples walked the road to Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, on the day of the resurrection. Their faces were downcast. A Stranger joined them and walked with them. They explained to the Stranger what had happened — the arrest, the crucifixion, the empty tomb, the report of the women. They did not know they were explaining the resurrection to the Risen One Himself.
"And beginning from Moshe and all the Neviim, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Lk 24:27).
They arrived at Emmaus. They urged the Stranger to stay: "Remain with us, for it is toward evening." At the table He took bread, blessed it, broke it — and at that moment their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. And He vanished.
They said to each other: "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures?"
Philip, your heart may have been burning for years and you did not know why. The warmth you felt in the reading of the Word — that was Him. The Scriptures burned because He was walking beside you, opening them.
G. Miryam Magdalene at the Empty Tomb (John 20:11–16)
Miryam of Magdala stood weeping outside the empty tomb. She turned and saw a man — and supposed Him to be the gardener. "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away."
He said: "Miryam."
One word. Her name. And the veil fell.
"Rabboni!" — my Teacher.
Philip, the Savior knows your name. Not just the name your parents gave you, but the name written in the Sefer HaChayyim, the Book of Life. When He speaks it, the veil falls. All the years of not-quite-knowing collapse into recognition. This is epignosis — personal, named, face-to-face.
V. Who Is He? The Names and Titles of the Savior
Let us now do what the Savior's question invites: introduce Philip to the Savior properly. These are not merely poetic titles. Each is a covenant name — a face of the One Who stands before you.
The Names From the Song of Songs and the Prophets
Song of Songs 2:1"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys."
He is the flower that blooms in the ordinary lowland — not in the palace garden, not in the high places of the powerful, but in the valley. He comes to where you are. He is beauty rising up in unexpected terrain. He is fragrant, delicate in appearance but rooted in eternity.
Revelation 22:16"I, Yeshua, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright Morning Star."
He appears at the moment the night is darkest, just before dawn. He does not arrive at noon when light is cheap. He is the one light when all other lights have gone out.
Malachi 4:2"But for you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings."
He rises. He brings healing with Him the way the sun brings warmth — not as a reward for effort, but as a natural outpouring of His nature.
Revelation 5:5"Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered."
He is not a Lamb in the sense of weakness. He is a Lamb who was slain and lives — and He is also a Lion. He conquers. He roars. Every knee bends before Him not because He forces it but because there is no alternative when you see Him as He is.
John 1:29"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
Yochanan the Immerser cried this when the Savior walked toward him at the Yarden. This is the Pesach Lamb, the Yom Kippur sacrifice, the daily korban tamid — all of them fulfilled in one Person walking on dusty sandals toward the water.
The Seven "I AM" Declarations
John 10:11"I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
He does not hire the work out. He does not flee when the wolf comes. He goes to the mountain at midnight to find the one lost sheep. Philip, He came for you.
John 10:9"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture."
Every other door is a wall in disguise. He is the only genuine opening in the universe — the way through which a human soul enters safety.
John 15:1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser."
Yisrael was called God's vine in the Psalms and Prophets, but she withered. He is the True Vine — the One in Whom the life of Yisrael is fulfilled and from Whom all fruit flows.
John 6:35"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst."
The manna in the midbar was a shadow. He is the Substance. He does not merely sustain biological life — He is the food of eternal life.
John 8:12"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
In the beginning, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and Elohim said: "Let there be light." He who spoke that word is the Word. He is the light He commanded.
John 11:25"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live."
He did not say "I will give you resurrection." He said "I AM the resurrection." It is not something He does — it is something He is. Where He is present, death cannot hold its prisoners.
John 14:6"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Philip asked to see the Father. The Savior answered: Philip, you are looking at the answer. The access route to HaAv is not a ritual or a staircase — it is a Person. He is the Way.
John 8:58"Before Avraham was, I AM."
This is the divine Name spoken from the burning bush to Moshe. The Savior speaks it of Himself in the Temple courts. The crowd took up stones — not because they misunderstood. They understood perfectly.
The Names From the Epistles and Psalms
Proverbs 18:24"There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
Your brothers may forsake you. Your family may scatter. He does not. He does not withdraw His friendship when you are at your worst. He went to the cross for you when you were His enemy (Romans 5:10). What will He withhold from you now that you are His?
Hebrews 9:15"He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance."
He stands between a holy God and a sinful humanity — not as a neutral broker, but as one Who is fully both. He is the peace He brings.
Hebrews 12:2"Looking to Yeshua, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame."
He began your faith and He will complete it. You did not initiate the relationship — He did. And He will not abandon an unfinished work (Philippians 1:6).
Colossians 1:15"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."
Philip wanted to see the Father. The Savior is the only face the Father has ever shown. Whoever has seen Him has seen the Father — not metaphorically, but ontologically.
Isaiah 9:6"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
The baby in the manger at Beit-Lechem was the Mighty God in swaddling clothes. The veil of infancy covered an identity that the angels were covering their faces before.
Isaiah 53:1–3"Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? … He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."
The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is the fullest Old Covenant portrait of the Savior incognito — despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And yet He bears the sins of many.
Revelation 1:8"I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
He is the first letter and the last. He is the whole alphabet of God's self-disclosure — every word God has ever spoken is contained in Him.
Revelation 19:16"On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."
The incognito is temporary. The Galilean peasant rabbi who had no place to lay His head will come again — and when He comes, every king will bow. Philip walking beside a carpenter is walking beside the King of the Universe.
VI. The Eschatological Pairing — Colossians 3:4
Now we arrive at the great eschatological disclosure — the verse that changes everything Philip understands about his own future.
Colossians 3:4 (OJB)"When HaMashiach, who is our chayyim (life), is manifested (nigla), then also you will be manifested (niglu) with him in kavod (glory)."
This is the eschatological pairing. Philip is not merely being introduced to the Savior for Philip's own sake, though that would be gift enough. Philip is being introduced to the One with Whom Philip will be publicly unveiled to the universe.
The Greek word here is φανερωθῇ (phanerōthē) — from phaneroō, to make manifest, to reveal, to cause to be seen. The same word covers the Savior's appearing and the believer's appearing. They appear together. They are unveiled together. They are publicly recognized together.
Think of it in terms of the Yosef typology: when Yosef removed his veil before his brothers, he also revealed who they were — they were the brothers of the lord of Egypt. Their identity was transformed by the revelation of his identity. When you know who Yosef is, you know who you are.
Philip, this is your story:
- The Savior is presently hidden — the world does not recognize Him for Who He is.
- You are presently hidden — the world does not recognize you for who you are.
- When He is manifested in glory, you will be manifested with Him in glory.
- Your unveiling is inseparable from His unveiling.
The Apostle Yochanan confirms this:
1 John 3:2"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is."
The seeing and the transformation are simultaneous. When Philip sees the Savior as He is — in full epignosis, in unveiled glory — Philip will become like Him. And Sha'ul adds in Romans:
Romans 8:19"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."
The whole creation is groaning and waiting — not for the Savior's appearing alone, but for the paired appearing of the Savior and His own. The cosmos is holding its breath for Philip. For you. For the day when the Ben Elohim Chayyim walks into the room and says: "And this — this is my brother. This is my sister. This is one who has been with Me since before the foundations of the world."
VII. The Command of Kefa — Growing Into Full Knowledge
Kefa does not leave the matter of epignosis as a passive receiving. He commands growth — and makes it the last word of his entire second epistle:
2 Peter 3:18"But grow in the grace and epignosis of our Adon and Savior Yeshua HaMashiach. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."
He has written about false teachers, about the coming day of judgment, about the patience of God — and the closing word is: grow in the epignosis. Kefa gives the curriculum in 2 Peter 1:5–7:
2 Peter 1:5–7"Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge (gnosis), and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."
Note: gnosis is in the middle of the list, not the end. Mere knowledge without virtue is dangerous. Mere knowledge without love is Pharisaic. The full curriculum leads to love — and it is love that opens the eyes to epignosis, because the Savior Himself is love. You cannot know Him fully until you love as He loves.
VIII. The Closing Invitation
Philip, hear the question again — not as condemnation, but as the most tender invitation you have ever received:
"Have I been with you so long,
and you still do not know Me?"
He is the Lily of the Valley — beautiful in the lowlands of your ordinary life.
He is the Friend who sticks closer than a brother — He did not flee when the situation was worst.
He is the Bread of Life — and you have been hungry for something you could not name because you were hungry for Him.
He is the Resurrection and the Life — and the death you fear has already been swallowed by Him.
He is the I AM — before anything was, He was; after everything passes, He will be.
He is our Chayyim — our very life — so that when He is unveiled, you will be unveiled with Him.
This is the One Who has been walking beside you. This is the incognito Galilean rabbi who is the Bar Enosh, the Ancient of Days' Anointed, the Lion of Yehudah, the King of Kings.
Come, Philip.
Let me introduce you to the Savior.