The Way, The Truth and The Life (John 14:1-14) 25 th Sept 2016 1 Please have your Bibles handy at John chapter 14 starting at verse 1 going through to verse 14. There s an outline in the bulletin if you like to take notes. Let s ask God for His understanding of His Word. Let s Pray. Intro You may have heard of Sir Richard Branson He started off with a record company in London called Virgin Records Then moved on to start his own airlines: Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia and then branched into mobile phones and credit cards His latest exciting venture is Virgin Galactic [Powerpoint 1 Sir Richard] In theory - ordinary people like you and I can experience space travel without being trained astronauts. Virgin Galactic will take you out into space where you ll travel 3 ½ times the speed of sound and experience complete weightlessness before returning to earth And it will only cost you $250,000 for the trip! A bargain! (pause) Page 1 of 15
I have a ticket here in my hand not to outer space but a ticket to Heaven it 2 will admit one person it s a one-way ticket no return journey necessary How much is it, you ask? It will cost you nothing But it cost Jesus His life (pause) And that s what Jesus is talking about here to his disciples He s talking about Himself - taking a journey and leaving this Earth To make this journey Jesus will have to die a cruel death on a cross And bear the sin of the world and take the punishment for the sins of everyone on His shoulders And then 3 days later rise from the dead And then 6 weeks after that He will leave Earth WHERE JESUS IS GOING (vv1-5) [Powerpoint 2 Where Jesus is Going] And in our passage today - Jesus is preparing His disciples for His departure Page 2 of 15
3 And He says to them in v1 - believe in God and belive in HIM a hint that He and God the Father are ONE He says - the place He s going is His Father s House and there are many rooms in v2 room for all not like Virgin Galactic flights where there s only room for the rich Our earthly homes - are limited to how many people can live in them comfortably And Hotels sometimes get booked out But in the Father s House that Jesus is going to - there s plenty of room the doors are not shut But there are some terms and conditions to get in as we ll see in a moment Jesus says to the disciples in v4 that they should know the way to the place He s going to They should have known He was going to the Father He told them back in chapter 7 verse 33 where He says: I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. But who can blame the disciples for not fully understanding Page 3 of 15
We re in a far better position to understand than they were we have the whole 4 Bible in our hands One of the disciples, Thomas, confirms in v5 that he and the other disciples don t know the way to where Jesus is going This statement from a doubting Thomas allows Jesus to give one of His most amazing statements Jesus tells them clearly in v6 I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE THE WAY What does Jesus mean by saying - He is The Way? [Powerpoint 3 The Way] Firstly, it means Jesus is the way to live we learnt last week that Jesus gave His disciples and us a new command to love one another as He has loved us In saying that Jesus was summarizing all the commandments So the way to live is to love love God and love each other Page 4 of 15
Secondly, Jesus being the way, means He has given clear instructions on the 5 way to get to the place He is going and this place He is going to - is Heaven When someone asks for directions (which means a women asking for directions because men never do) they follow the directions given if they don t listen to the directions properly they might get lost We need to follow Jesus clear directions which say the way to the Father is by believing in Jesus the Son believing that He died for our sins to be forgiven and He rose for us to receive eternal life Thirdly, Jesus says He is the only way to the Father in Heaven no one comes to the Father except through Jesus (v6) In Acts 4:12: The apostle Peter says the same thing: Salvation [being forgiven of our sins and gaining life with God forever] is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. This means Hindus and all their gods they worship, won t get anyone to Heaven Following Buddha and his path of enlightenment, won t get anyone to Heaven Following Islam, Mohammed and Allah won t get anyone to Heaven Page 5 of 15
Because the only way to the Father in Heaven is through faith or belief in His 6 Son Jesus and His death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and His resurrection from the dead - That s the terms and conditions I was talking about The Ticket to Heaven is through Jesus only We can t earn our ticket to Heaven We can t work our way to Heaven Jesus has paid for our ticket to Heaven with His life! Fourthly, Jesus opened the way to the Father Before Jesus came along, the presence of God the Father, was in the temple in Jerusalem, behind a huge curtain, which covered the entry to the Most Holy Place where the presence of God was and where the High Priest only was allowed in - once a year to make a sacrifice for all the people But when Jesus died on the cross, that huge curtain was torn in two from top to bottom and opened up access to God the Father, for everyone The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in Heb 10:19-20: Page 6 of 15
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the 7 Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, Jesus gives us confidence that because of His blood poured out on the cross we have a way to God the Father - through Jesus And Jesus has become the great High Priest, replacing the high priests of Israel, because Jesus is fully God and perfect in every way His sacrifice on the cross didn t have to be repeated again Again the writer of Hebrews says in Heb 10:21-22 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. By virtue of His life on earth, His death on the cross, and now His service in heaven, Jesus is truly the only way to God! Jesus is not only the way to God, He is also ] THE TRUTH Page 7 of 15
The Truth! 8 [Powerpoint 4 The Truth] Because Jesus is God s Son and perfect in every way, we can be confident that everything He says is Truth Look at v2 if it were not so I would have told you And again in v2 I m going to prepare a place for you And v3 I will come back and take you to be with me - so you can be where I am How great is that! That truth - Jesus elaborates on in verses 7 to 11 when Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father Jesus replies in v9 - Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. To see Jesus is to see what God the Father is like like Father, like Son And Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Him they are ONE and the words Jesus speaks are God s words the words of absolute truth Later on in chapter 18 when Jesus faces the Roman governor Pontius Pilate when Pilate asks Jesus if He is a King Page 8 of 15
Jesus says: You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and 9 came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. (John 18:37-38) So being on Jesus side is being on the side of truth Remember Jesus is described as the Word of God in flesh in 1:14 therefore He is like a walking, talking, living Bible And He says that His truth about who He is and why He came - can set us free from the hold that sin has on each one of us (John 8:32-36) And Jesus faithfully proclaimed His Father s Word, as being the absolute truth (John 17:14, 17) So by following Jesus teachings, we can know the truth and the freedom it offers! And that freedom from the bondage and slavery to our sin - becomes even more meaningful when we consider how Jesus is also THE LIFE The Life! Page 9 of 15
[Powerpoint 5 The Life] 10 So how is Jesus the Life? Well when He was about to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead after being dead for 4 days Jesus said this to Lazarus sister, Martha, in John 11:25-26 I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? So it s only by believing in Jesus that we can live beyond our death and we can live forever with God Not only does Jesus offer that wonderful hope of living with God forever He offers an abundant life now here on Earth He promises that He is the Good Shepherd who cares for His sheep (John 10) He offers a peace that this world cannot offer a peace that comes from God and means we can live knowing God is in control of all things (John 14:27; 16:33; and Phil 4:6-7) He gives us His love in our lives a love that the apostle Paul says surpasses all knowledge (Eph 3:19) Page 10 of 15
And because of His love for us shown on the cross the apostle Paul says we 11 also have an inexpressible and glorious joy; because we know we are His, and we re safe - and we ve got a ticket to Heaven Yet there is still another sense in which Jesus is life Because when we believe in Him we are born again born from above born of water and Spirit (John 3:3-5) And with the Holy Spirit living inside us as we believe in Jesus - we live a new life a changed and renewed life a better life a life pleasing to God - which we ll look deeper into next week APPLICATION So what shall we take home with us today? Well - because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life [Powerpoint 6a Application 1] Here s 4 things we can take home: 1. Jesus has purchased a ticket for us to Heaven and has gone to prepare a place for us and He ll come back to get us one day unless we die first in Page 11 of 15
which case we ll be with Him straight away. This place is not temporary 12 like Earth this place is permanent we have a permanent residency visa for Heaven because of this free ticket. But don t forget the terms and conditions on this ticket that you must believe in Jesus [Powerpoint 6b-App 2] 2. We have assurance if we believe in Jesus death and resurrection - of knowing where we are going not like space travel (where anything can go wrong) we have rock solid guarantee and assurance of destination Heaven. What comfort that assurance is when we are broken hearted or crushed in Spirit as King David said in our Psalm reading this morning! [Powerpoint 6c-App 3] 3. We have the promise in verse 12 that whoever believes in Jesus will do works that Jesus is doing, and will do even greater things, because He s going to the Father. What does that mean? Well because Jesus is going to the Father the Holy Spirit will be sent Page 12 of 15
The Holy Spirit enabled the Apostles and the early church to do some 13 amazing things miracles and healings and to some degree over the centuries amazing medical science has learnt to cure a lot of diseases But the greater things Jesus is referring to is this: Think about Jesus ministry He s barely been outside Israel/Palestine many have believed Him but many have rejected Him But because of the HS being sent At the Day of Pentecost (when the HS came to the apostles) 3000 people believed in Jesus that day Because of the HS the apostles and the early church spread the Gospel in Jesus name - throughout Europe into pagan lands who worshipped idols and many gods and many more people believed in Jesus in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth Christianity spread throughout the world because Jesus went to be the Father and sent the HS these are the greater things Jesus is referring to which as He says in verse 13 He will do if you ask in His name and they Page 13 of 15
will bring glory to the Father And of course they will! God is always 14 glorified whenever the Gospel is brought to anyone! [Powerpoint 6d-App 4] 4. And in v13 and 14 not that all our prayers will be answered but all our prayers in His name. This does not mean simply using Jesus name as some magic formula (to win Lotto), but our prayers must be in accordance with all that Jesus name stands for. It must be prayer that proceeds from faith in Jesus, prayer that gives expression to a unity with all that Jesus stands for, prayer that sets forward Jesus himself. And the purpose of it all is to bring glory to God. So when we pray, we should ask ourselves, can we honestly make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Is this what Jesus would pray and ask for? The prayer which can stand that test and ends with thy will be done, will always be answered. CONCLUSION [Powerpoint 7 Conclusion] Friends, Jesus is truly - the way, the truth, and the life Jesus is the way to knowing and experiencing God as our Heavenly Father Page 14 of 15
Jesus is the personification of truth that provides freedom from the guilt and 15 bondage of sin Jesus is the source of life that is blessed now - and lasts forever! So friends, has Jesus become your way to God, your truth, and your life? Has he come to be the way to a close and personal relationship with God? Has he delivered you from the guilt of sin through His blood on the cross? Has He given you an abundant life by your spiritual rebirth and the blessings that follow? Jesus may be the way, truth, and life, but He is of no value unless He becomes your way to eternal life with God. Have you responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ? If not today s the day. Let s Pray Page 15 of 15