Born to Die

John 14:5-6 ESV

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

As we all know, Christmas is just a few short days away. And what I’m sure we all also know is that what makes Christmas so special and what we are supposed to celebrate on Christmas is the birth of Jesus.

These things I’m sure we all know, but as we approach Christmas, we need to ask ourselves why Jesus ever came to the world in the first place? What did Jesus come here to do? And what did He accomplish when He did what He came here to do?

Well, in those couple of verses that I just read a few minutes ago, we discover the answers to all of those questions.

Jesus lived in this world for 33 years, He was only 33 when He died and for the first 30 years of His life, He lived quietly as a carpenter in His hometown of Nazareth. But for the last three years of His life, Jesus’ life was the farthest thing from quiet and peaceful.

It was at this time that Jesus began His public ministry, proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom of God and calling sinners to repent, and to come to Him to be saved.

But it wasn’t just He Who proclaimed this Gospel, for Jesus called twelve men to follow Him, these men the Bible calls the Twelve Disciples and later it calls them, the Twelve Apostles.

And the time period from those couple of verses that I read, John 14:5-6, comes at the end of Jesus’ public ministry on earth. At this point, Jesus is fully aware of the fact that within hours, He was going to be arrested, and crucified, hung on a cross. And knowing this, Jesus meets with His disciples here to kind of give them some departing instructions for after He leaves them.

Jesus had told His disciples that He was going to leave them. And at this point He had told them that where it was that He was going, He was going to prepare a place for them. And He said that after He had prepared this place for them, He was going to return and bring them to this place that they may always be with Him. And then last of all, He stated that His disciples knew the way to where He was going.

At this point, Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples looked at Him and in verse 5 emphatically declared, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

At hearing this question, Jesus replied in verse 6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus responds to Thomas’ bewildered question by saying, “Where I am going is where God the Father is, and I am the way to the Father, for I am the epitome of truth, and in I alone is there true, spiritual, eternal life. There is no other truth, there is no other way there, and in none other is there eternal life. It is through I alone!”

And so, in this single statement that Jesus gave, we see that the reason why Jesus came into the world and what He came to do was die the sacrificial death in place of those whom God had chosen to save. And what Jesus accomplished through this sacrificial death was the full salvation from sin for anyone and everyone whom God calls to Himself.

And today, we live in a world that asks where are we going when we leave this world? And how do I get there? And the answer to those questions today is the same answer that Jesus gave to Thomas. How do we get to the Father in heaven? Through Jesus! He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him and what He has done for you.

Lead in a prayer of salvation…