[Slide 1] Vision Statement: Gospel-Centered I. Introduction and Passage [Slide 2] We are in the middle of the series on the Gospel of John entitled, Knowing I AM. We are looking at the last week of Jesus life. [Slide 3] Today s sermon is entitled, A Way vs. The Way. We are in the last discourse of Jesus with his disciples at the last supper, the night of his arrest. [Slide 4] : 1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going. 5 Thomas said to him, Lord, we don t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? [Slide 5] 6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. 8 Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. 9 Jesus answered: Don t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? [Slide 6] 10 Don t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the 1
Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. I think this is one of the most compelling claims Jesus made about himself. But, I want to put this in context. So, we will talk about (1) The problem set the context of our life and culture, (2) and how Jesus answered that problem. II. [Slide 7] The Problem: We are all looking for the way, the truth, and the life, but not finding it. When everything works out in our lives, we often don t take the time to ask real questions of life. We just go with the flow, and sometimes years pass. Sometimes, it is a blessing to get fired or break up or move. When we are in an unfamiliar place, we often start asking some first order questions of life. It s beyond what kind of job should I get or where I should live or who I should date. We start asking questions of life: Who am I? Why do I exist? Does life have any meaning? What is the purpose of my life? There are big questions of life. Leo Tolstoy, a Russian novelist, author of War and Peace, wrote a book called Confession in 1879 in which he tells the story of his search for meaning and purpose in life. He rejected Christianity as a child. After college, he sought to get as much pleasure out of life as he could. He entered the social world of St. Petersburg and Moscow, drank heavily, slept around, gambled heavily, and led a wild life. But he did not find meaning in him. Then he became ambitious for money. He inherited a large estate and made a lot of money from his books. Yet, he did not find meaning in him. He sought success, fame, and importance. He achieved these. He wrote what the Encyclopedia Britannica describes as one of the two or three greatest novels in world literature. Yet, he asked, so what? to which he had no answers. 2
Then he became ambitious for his family. He married in 1862 and had a kind, loving wife and 13 children (which, he said, distracted him from any search for the overall meaning of life). He had achieved all his ambitions and was surrounded by what everyone would say is complete happiness. Yet, one question drove him to the verge of suicide: What meaning is there in my life which the inevitability of death does not destroy? He searched for answers from science and philosophy. The best answer he got to the question of why I live was that in the infinity of space and the infinity of time infinite small particles mutate with infinite complexity. He didn t find this very satisfying. So, he decided to look around at his contemporaries. He saw that they were not facing up to the first order questions of life. They were just avoiding the issue. They weren t thinking about them. Eventually he found that the peasant people of Russia had been able to answer these questions through their Christian faith, and he realized that only in Jesus do we find the answer. A hundred years later, nothing has changed. Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the rock group Queen, who died in 1991, wrote in one of his songs on the Miracle album Does anybody know what we are living for? Even though he was extremely wealthy and had thousands if not millions of fans, he admitted in an interview right before he died that he was desperately lonely. He said: You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man, and that is the most bitter type of loneliness. Success has brought me world idolization and millions of pounds, but it s prevented me from having the one thing we all need a loving, ongoing relationship. We are all looking for something. But, here is how most of us deal with this need for meaning. We all want to live for something. Some of us take up a cause, maybe to 3
liberate an oppressed group of people, or seek social justice in a general way. Some of us become more altruistic, more giving. Or, decide to become more moral. Live a pure life or a spiritual or meditative life. Or, maybe you are an artist, and you have an inner muse, and you ve got talent, and so, in a way, you live to listen to your inner muse and share the most beautiful art you can create so that you can enlighten people around you. That is the meaning, the truth that you are living for. Everyone has to have a truth. It is what you live your life for, whether you know it or not. You have a truth that you are living for. But, there s the problem. Whatever truth you choose, it can t love you. It can t hug you. It can t forgive you. It can only demand. It can tyrannize you, and you will eventually be destroyed, because any truth, anything worth living for we are going to fail. And when we fail, it can t lift us up; it can t wipe our tears. It s a thing. It s an abstraction. Do you know what we do? Just like Leo Tolstoy, we get rid of the idea of truth and cause and we try to find love. We turn to people, friends, and romance we start out at match.com and go on to eharmony.com. Then, we say, now I really found that someone, and he is the reason to live. But, eventually, they disappoint us. Their love is limited just like our love for them is limited. They re messed up, just like we are messed up. They lie to you or are not there for you. Do you see why our culture has moved more and more away from the truth and meaning? We want life, and we want to desperately believe in something meaningful in the truth, but we don t know the way. So, we get cynical. We stop thinking about it. We joke about people ask these questions. It is in this context, that Jesus comes and makes this claim: III. [Slide 8] Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life What does he mean by this? He is saying that he is the truth. He is not just pointing to the truth. He IS the truth. This is an absolutely amazing claim. No other religion would ever say that. Buddha does not say that. Moses does not say that. Muhammad does not say that. They all point to something and say, that s the truth. But, Jesus said, I AM THE TRUTH. In Jesus, the truth has become a person. God has become a person. That s why Jesus kept 4
on saying, if you have seen me, you have seen the father. The absolute has become flesh and blood. The truth has become someone who can love you, hug you, forgive you, and guide you. This is the meaning of life. This is what we were built for. You were not designed for any other truth. All other truths will disappoint you. But, he will never fail you. He will always love you no matter what. He died for you so that you can be with him. He is saying that he is the life! We were dead in sin, but he has brought us to life. He wants us to experience the fullness of life, and life abundantly. This does not mean that he will be a means to what we believe will bring us life. He is not a means to life. He is not pointing to life. He is not telling us that if we live in this or that way, we will have life. He said, he IS the life! His primary purpose is not to give us a blueprint for life; his primary purpose is to give us himself. He is the object of our search for life. If we have him, we have life. But, a lot of us don t get this. Some of us decide that we want God in our lives; so, we come to church, and start reading the Bible, and say, I am going to live like Jesus. I am going to obey his laws. I am going to follow his examples. And we get really serious about it. If we do that, we are actually doing what every religion tells us to do. If you follow these instructions, you will have life. Don t you see, Jesus is not pointing to a way of life; he says he IS the life. He didn t come to tell us to turn a new leaf, and straighten up; he didn t come to tell you how to climb your next mountain. He came to live the life that we should have lived and died the death that we should have died. He said I am the way. Come to me. Come rest in me. Christianity is Christ. The gospel is not instruction. It s an announcement. It s good news. The gospel doesn t say do. It says it s been done. That means the relationship with Jesus is the end goal of our lives. He is the end goal of our relationship with him. Finding Jesus means finding life. Jesus is not a means to getting blessed so that we can have life. He IS the life. Jesus is not the way to life he didn t say that. He said, he is the life. When we have Jesus, we have everything! We 5
have life, now and forever more. This life does not end with physical life. It goes on, not only in length but in quality and in delight. Then, Jesus said, he is THE way. I want us to ask this basic question before we go on to issue of his exclusivity claim: the way to where? Where does he say he is the way to? Do you get this question? We often overlook this when we read this passage. He said he is the way to the father. To the father. I think it is worth mentioning that he didn t say that he is the way to God; rather, he said the father. Of course, the father is God. But, the fact that he mentioned the father says something about what he meant. He is saying, I m the only way to know the Father. If you want to know what the father looks like, Jesus is saying, look at me, I am the ONLY way to know the father. That s why he said, if you have seen me you have seen the father. We often view God like a galactic police force. He knows everything we have done wrong. He is the superboss with superpowers that has video cameras everywhere, and actually has the ability to know our every single move. That s pretty scary. Isn t this how some of us view God? God is going to punish us for every sinful thing we have done. And Jesus is saying, I am the only way to change God from a boss into a father. I am the only way the only way to turn your relationship with God, if you have one at all, from fear and uncertainty into absolute confidence, warmth, and love. I m the only way. I am a pretty mediocre parent. Grace is a much better parent than I am. But, I love my kids. And sometimes, I think about how far I would be willing to go to rescue my kids if they were in trouble. It s kind of scary just thinking about it. I would jump into a raging river for my children, and I don t even swim well. If I, a mediocre father, am willing to do that, how much more is our heavenly father who loves us absolutely willing to go for you? How much is he willing to suffer for us? Can you dwell on this absolute, warm, delightful love of the father for you? Can you see the father waiting for you to come back? Or do you just see a picture of God that is just tapping his foot impatiently at your sins and ready to push you into oblivion to face the consequences of your sins? 6
Jesus is the only way to the father! He is only way to know the love of the father. I know when I say something like this, some of you might be thinking, how about people of other faiths? Well, actually, there is no other religion that even says that God has come down to earth, taken hell into his soul so that he wouldn t lose us, be punished on the cross for our sins, to pay our debts, to suffer for us. There is not a single religion out there that says that God suffered for us. There is no other system of thought or religion that proves to you by his suffering that God is our father that absolutely loves you much more than you love yourself, more than you can imagine. None. And so, Jesus says, I am the way to the father. IV. [Slide 9] Jesus also says that he is the only way to the father. No one comes to the father except through me. He is making an exclusive claim of how we get to the father. It s not just this passage. The Bible is clear that Jesus is the only way to the father. Acts 4:12 says: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. I want to discuss this issue in some depth today. I know a lot of people feel uncomfortable with this these days. The uncritical perspective of a lot of people is the view that there is no one way. They say, all religions lead to the same road. I think one of the most commonly heard illustrations is the elephant and the blind men. (I want to let you know that I do not agree with this illustration; I once had someone walk out on me in the middle of this illustration) There are several blind men and they all come upon an elephant. One grabs hold of the truck, and he says the elephant is round and flexible. Another grabs the leg: and he says it is like a tree. Another holds the body, and says it is flat and tough. The illustration goes on to say that everyone is right and wrong. No one can see the whole picture. They are all partly right and partly wrong. And they say, so is religion. Each religion has a part of the spiritual truth but none can see the whole truth. But, this illustration has a major flaw. Leslie Newbiggin, a British missionary to India, wrote a book called Gospel in the Pluralistic Society, that points out that the only way you can know that none of the blind 7
man had the whole story is if you see the whole elephant. The only way you could know is if you assume that you have the whole truth. The only way you would know that all religions have a part of the truth is if you assume that you have the absolute knowledge. That is an arrogant position. Newbiggin: There is an appearance of humility in the protestation that the truth is much greater than any one of us can grasp, but if this is used to invalidate all claims to discern the truth it is in fact an arrogant claim to a kind of knowledge which is superior to [all others] we have to ask the person: what is the [absolute] vantage point from which you claim to be able to relativize all the claims that different scriptures and religions make. If you say that people only know in part and don t see the whole picture, it sounds good, but what you are doing is making an absolutely exclusive claim that you see the truth and it looks like an elephant. Here is the point: everyone makes an absolute truth claim. Even the people who claim to be more open minded make an absolute truth claim that their open point of view is the correct one. So, Christianity makes an exclusive claim of the truth. But, it makes the most inclusive exclusivity claim. Two reasons: (1) It is the most inclusive exclusive claim because it allows the weakest, the poorest, the most broken, and even the bad people to be included. It doesn t say the good make it and the bad doesn t. God is inclusive of even the bad. Some people say, I don t like the gospel because you can be a serial killer but if you confess your sins and put your faith in Jesus on your deathbed, you can be saved. They are essentially saying, good people should get in but bad people should be kept out. The gospel is much more inclusive than that. It is the most inclusive exclusivity claim. (2) The second reason the gospel is the most inclusive exclusivity claim is because it is the only claim that says that we are more broken than we know, but God loves us more than we can ever imagine. This makes us humble because we know that we got in based on his grace, not on our merits, and it calls us to love even the bad, even our enemies. It makes us inclusive people. 8
But, I know you have real questions about the exclusive claim of Christianity. And I struggled with this issue more than any other question in Christianity. How about people who have never heard? I believe that no matter what we think, we have to start from the Scriptures. That is our authority. No matter what our sense of justice and fairness says, we can t go against the Scriptures. Of course, the Scriptures are pretty clear that it is only though the redemptive work on the cross that we are saved. There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. There is only one way, and that s Jesus. It is only through the cross that we are saved, meaning that we come to a relationship with the father and find life. The question that is not clear, however, is how this is appropriated, meaning, how does the redemptive work of Jesus apply to us? It s only through Jesus, but how does it apply to us? We know that if we confess our sins, and put our faith in the work of Jesus on the cross, we are saved. That s for sure. But, what does that mean exactly? What if we said some words about maybe accepting Jesus because we felt guilty about something that day but completely forgot about it and lived as though we never did? Is that enough to appropriate the redemptive work of the cross? Do we have to say the name of Jesus? I know who say that we have to say the name of Jesus in Aramaic or Hebrew Yesua or we are not saved. What if we confessed our sins to God and accepted God, but never really knew much about Jesus? Is that redemptive? What if you were a child, and never really understood anything about Jesus, and never had the intellectual ability to confess your sins or accept Jesus as your savior and Lord and you died? Is that child saved? What if you grew up in a Muslim or Hindu country or maybe a broken and violent home where Jesus was never talked about? What if you lived in Korea or China or Africa long ago or even now in some parts of the world, and you never heard about Jesus? Or, what about people in the Old Testament before Christ, how are they saved? They knew nothing of Jesus. So, the question of how the redemptive work of Jesus gets appropriated is not an easy question. 9
The answer is clear on the positive side: if we confess our sins and put our faith in Jesus, we are saved. But, it is not clear on the negative side the fate of those who do not, particularly because they have not heard. The Scriptures are simply not that clear on the negative. I don t have time to go through every passage on this, but if you are interested in doing so, I have uploaded to our website a paper that I wrote on the fate of the unevangelized that goes through each passage and explains it. Just go to this sermon, and click on misc. note, and you ll get the paper that I wrote. But, I want to just say a couple of things: (1) The Scriptures tell us that many people in the Old Testament are saved even though he had no explicit knowledge of the historic Jesus. It is really clear in Hebrew 11, the honor roll of those in the Old Testament who lived by faith. Then in verse 39, the author of Hebrew concludes: These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. They were made perfect, meaning they were saved by the cross, with us. So, it is only through the cross that they were saved, but the way it got applied to them is a bit of mystery. If the people of the Old Testament were able to be saved somehow through the cross, we have to leave open the possibility that there might be hope for those who have not heard the gospel. The scope of salvation could not be narrower after the cross than before. (2) Here is a second reason why we can t be sure about the people who never heard. There are several passages in the Bible in support of Jesus descent into hell and his preaching of the gospel there. There are several passages in the NT that either indicate or allude that when Jesus died, He went down to hell, and that in one passage, led captives to freedom. In fact, in 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 4:6, it says that Jesus preached the gospel to the dead. Now, of course, this is a controversial passage, but it forces us to say, we don t really know for sure what happens to them. 10
Here is what I know: God is loving and just. We are not going to say to God at the end, when everything is revealed, that he was unfair. God is more just than we are and he is more loving that we can ever imagine. I continue to struggle with the exclusive claims of Jesus but I also know that I can trust him to do what is right. I am talking about this issue in more details than I have ever preached. I hope you don t misunderstand me. I think of something Jesus said to Peter at the end of Book of John that Peter would die a terrible death. Peter then asked him, what about John? Jesus responded and said, If I want him to remain alive until I come, what is that to you? You must follow me. He is saying don t focus on other people s issues. Focus on your issue. Your call is to follow him, the way, the truth and the life, and experience the fullness of a relationship with him. Don t let the uncertainties about the fate of others pull you away from your call to the way, the truth and the life. I pray that you will find the way. It s not just a way. It is the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the father. 11