From Christopher Wright, The Mission of God, pg. 125:

God makes visible God's own self through the incarnation of God the Son. So, then, to know Jesus is to know the Father (Jn 8:19; 10:38, 12:45). But this knowing God through knowing Jesus is not to be confined to those who saw him in the flesh. On the contrary, that privilege was accorded to them for the purpose of making him known to the world, "to let the world know that you sent me" (Jn 17:23). So, in truly priestly fashion, Jesus dispenses the knowledge of God, first to his immediate disciples and then through them to the world.