Sunday Sermons
I Am The Way
I am the Way
How's your heart, fellow Believer? Are you today enjoying the "peace that passes understanding" despite the dark chaotic whirlwind of politics and current events swirling about you?
John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled"
From the last verse of John chapter 14 when Jesus says, “Arise, let us go from here” 14:31, we learn that the conversation in this chapter occurred at what might be considered a very unlikely time – one in which there were many reasons to be troubled. Jesus was with the eleven in the upper room, where they had eaten the Passover and where He had instituted the Lord’s Supper. The words “Let not your heart be troubled" should be taken in close connection with what Jesus said in the previous chapter. Peter had been told that he would deny Jesus, not once, but three times (13:38). Jesus had also stunned His disciples by saying that one of them was going to betray Him (13:21), and that He was leaving them (13:36). Jesus knows they are disturbed and He also knew that what would take place later that night would shake His disciples to their core. This is context in which He speaks these comforting words to His disciples, despite the fact that in a few hours He Himself would be suffering greatly. Still, His mind is also upon them. Jesus demonstrates to us here that encouraging others is a natural way of strengthening oneself – and what blessings we reap when we practice compassion in our own lives, when we ourselves are most in need of compassion. Instead of letting troubles remove us from being productive, may we instead consider what others will need when we are going through a hardship and determine to be useful to God as a good example of how a Christian handles adversity – and value the opportunity to shine in this way as much or more than even temporary comforts.
"Believe in God, believe also in Me”
The opposite of anxiety is not just faith, but faith in the true God. At this point many people would say, "I believe in God", but their usage of the term "God" is so elastic as to include all sorts of false, anti-biblical ideas about God. Certainly Jesus did not use the term "God" as our current culture does: an umbrella to include all the concepts about God that exist in the world. When Jesus spoke of God He spoke of a very specific God (Matthew 22:31-32). Believing in Jesus is far more specific. Don't miss what Jesus did not say: "Believe I am a good man", rather He expected them to believe that He was who He claimed to be: God in the flesh (John 8:24). Why is believing in Jesus not popular? Because it demands that you and I dismiss every other religious founder as having any spiritual legitimacy whatsoever. The verse also infers that faith in Jesus must be of the same quality as trust in God (the Father). This is a clear statement that infers Jesus’ equality with God, for He is deserving of equal trust. “The words must have shocked them, since He bracketed Himself with God and asked that they believe Him equally with God. He required also by these words that they believe Him against all odds” (Gospel of John, Merrill, C. Tenney, p. 213). Both verbs are imperative with the force of continuous presents. Thus, in English, the tense would read, 'Go on believing in God and go on believing in Me’. God expects us to believe in Him, even when circumstances may seem to suggest to our very finite senses that He is non-existent, apathetic or powerless to intervene. The disciples were to continue to trust Jesus, even when He was hanging upon the cross. Faith that is dictated by circumstances is not a faith that saves.
John 14:2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you”
“In My Father’s house”: From what Jesus had already taught, I find that heaven is a place that has been prepared since the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). Thus I don't believe that Jesus is saying that He needs to leave because the place for the faith in heaven isn't somehow "finished" yet. He is the Way, but without His sacrifice for sins, no one would be allowed on the way (John 3:16; Romans 4:25). In addition, by dying on the cross, Jesus will not only remove the Old Covenant and establish the New (Hebrews 10:9), He will also bring into existence the church, that is, the body of the saved (Acts 20:28; Matthew 16:18) – also spoken of as God's household (1 Timothy 3:15). Robert Harkrider put it this way: “Not that He was going in order to ‘build’ heaven, but Jesus was going in order to prepare the way so that believers on Him could enter heaven (Hebrews 9:24-28)”. "If it were not so, I would have told you" is Jesus' reminder that He is telling them the truth; they are not being mislead. “For I go to prepare a place for you”: The disciples were capable of pleasing God with their lives because it would have been pointless to prepare a place that is impossible for anyone to reach. There is room enough in the Church and Heaven for all who want to serve God, yet the death of Jesus was still absolutely necessary. Jesus is trying to comfort His followers. His departure is a good thing, for without it the way to eternal life cannot be obtained. In other words, without His death on the cross they could not follow Him to eternal life.
John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also”
Jesus’ departure thus becomes the assurance of His return. Following His death, Jesus would return forty days and be with the disciples physically, then leave, and then be with them in a relationship known as “in Christ” (Ephesians 2:6). Finally, Jesus will in due course come again and take all believers home, at the Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
John 14:4 “And you know the way where I am going.”
In fact, Peter had acknowledged the way, “You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68). “Jesus is asserting that they know how to follow Him. He has been showing them the way in the whole body of His teaching. If they follow that way they will come where He is” (John, Morris, p. 640). Jesus had often revealed Himself as the way to eternal life (Matthew 11:28-29; John 8:31-32; 8:12; 10:7 “I am the door”; 12:26).
John 14:5 “Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’”
Thomas wants the position to be clear. In effect he says, "time out, we don't know the way". He honestly admits his confusion and lack of understanding. It must have been frustrating for Jesus to spend around three years teaching these men the clear path to eternal life, only to hear Thomas say, "We don't know the way." In like manner today we can claim that we would believe in God or have more faith in Him if only He had given more evidence of His existence. Yet He has given us overwhelming evidence (Romans 1:20).
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me’”
“I am the way”: This is much more than saying, “I know the way, or I know about the way”. It is even more than saying something like, "I am one of many possible ways". Jesus Himself is THE way, for through His sacrifice alone, God could forgive the person who places their obedient trust in Him (Romans 3:26). Most people wouldn't have a problem with Jesus if He had just said, "I am a way". Yet there is only one way (Acts 4:12), and Jesus is the only Savior, and the only way to the Father. This is a hard pill for many to swallow, who in their pride are use to following their own way (Isaiah 53:6).
“And the truth”: On various subjects men can tell us some truth, but Jesus is the source of all essential truth. Jesus solves the dilemma we are all faced with, in view of our own finite nature: Who do we trust concerning those things which we can’t know for certain by our own efforts? Where do we set our sights; where do we place our energy? Do we place our souls in the hands of higher education? Shall we place all hope and trust in the findings of the scientific community?” Shall we place our bets that the vast middle section of mankind believes and promotes the truth? Shall we opt out and say that the truth cannot be known or that truth in the absolute sense does not exist?
This is also difficult, because many of us want to treat truth the way we build a salad at Sweet Tomatoes. We want to reserve the right to pick and choose what our own personal truth will include, then exclude the rest. It is tempting to say, "Jesus, what you taught is interesting, but it really doesn't work in the real, present world. We think we have better ways of handling situations." All truth is God's truth. How could any clear thinker expect an omniscient and omnipresent God would ask for the advice or input concerning what the truth should or should not include and exclude from beings as finite as ourselves?
“And the life”: Jesus alone is the way to abundant life (John 10:10). Barclay notes, “In the last analysis what man is always seeking for is life. His search is not for knowledge for its own sake. What men want is that which will make life worth living” (p. 184). Seeing that there is only one Savior and way to the Father, there must also be only one body of the saved and only one consistent body of truth (Ephesians 4:4-6). Obviously all systems of belief cannot lead to the Father, if only one Savior exists. Following Jesus does not stifle “life”, rather one doesn’t have life, in the fullest sense of the word, until one becomes a Christian.
“No one comes to the Father, but through Me”: “No one”, including Jews and Gentiles, the rich and the poor, the famous and the ordinary, the talented, the gifted, and the very smart. Again, a hard statement to accept if we are overly impressed with our own wisdom. But God, in His wisdom, has given us the perfect Way to Him. May we be eternally grateful for the way He has chosen for us to be forgiven of our sins and to way He has selected to save us from the eternal wrath to come (Mark 16:16; Acts 4:12; John 3:16; Acts 17:30).
Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net
