I Am The Way, The Truth, & The Life

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Introduction

John 14:1–14 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

This passage is powerful for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is that this passage is part of what is called the Upper Room discourse. This is the last words of Jesus to his disciples the night that he was betrayed.

Now, Jesus wasn’t caught off guard in his betrayal, as you may remember he pointed Judas out as the betrayer, John13:27. But even before that, the Bible says that Jesus knew that his hour had come, meaning the hour of his betrayal, persecution and impending death on a cross.

John 13:1 ESV

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

So Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that his time was short and so these words found in John 14-17 are some of the most important words he had to share with his disciples before he left this earth. Which is why he starts this passage with “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Jesus cared deeply for his disciples and he knew what was coming and he understood that it was going to be a time of great stress on his disciples. So these words are what he wanted them to remember before his death.

This is helpful to understand because Jesus in this discourse will give two of his “I Am” statements. In John 15, we will hear him declare, “I am the true vine.” And in today’s passage he declares, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” So let’s take apart this three-sided statement.

I Am The Way

These are identity statements for Jesus. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus and Jesus declares without equivocation that he is the way. This passage starts with Jesus describing heaven. Heaven is simply where God dwells. It’s not what we imagine in cartoons, as up in the clouds with angels playing harps and wearing togas.

Heaven is the spiritual realm and God is making room for lots of people there. Jesus tells his disciples, I’m leaving to prepare a place for you in heaven. And his concern is that if he leaves, they will think he isn’t coming back. They will long for him to return and if it takes too long, they may grow weary in waiting. So he says, I will come again and will take you where I am going.

Now this is a beautiful promise. No matter how bad life gets here on earth, the disciples for instance were getting ready to experience one of the worst nights of their lives, but no matter how bad it gets in this world, we are only passing through. Heaven is our home.

In Heaven, we’ll be at home with the God we love and who loves us wholeheartedly. Lovers don’t bore each other. People who love God could never be bored in his presence.164

Randy Alcorn, Heaven

Randy Alcorn

In other words, heaven is a wonderful place, I daresay to great for words, and eternity there will not be boring. It will be wonderful. Jesus has spent the past 2000 years roughly preparing it for us. He desires for us to be with him there. And in this passage, he tells us how to get there.

He says that he is the way. Thomas questions him because Jesus tells his disciples in verse 4, you know the way to where I am going. Now Thomas is struggling, because he is a lot like me, a little slow sometimes, and even though Jesus has taught on this before, he still doesn’t quite get it. How can we know the way, when we aren’t sure where you are going? Jesus in this passage doesn’t reassure him with confirmation of his destination first, but reassures him with the path.

What he is saying to Thomas and to us is this, you know the way Thomas, because I am the way. If you want to get to the Father, if you want to get to heaven, the way to him is through a person and that person is me. Jesus is the way to the Father.

I’ve said this many times before, but it bares repeating. There is no other way. Jesus didn’t say, I am the way among many ways, or I am one of the ways, he says quite simply, I am THE way. If you want to get to the Father, there is only one way and one way only and that’s through Jesus.

Now most of us only focus on this part - that Jesus is the way to heaven. But in Scripture, there is a much deeper truth there. If you are only concerned about getting to heaven in the afterlife, then praise God, I’m glad you are at least concerned with that, but God’s invitation as The Way, is more of a journey than a destination. In other words, he wants you on the path with God today.

This idea is found throughout Scripture in many places. John the Baptist was to prepare the way of the Lord. Isaiah declares that his ways are not our ways in describing how distant the two paths can be. Jesus says he is the way to the Father. Here’s a lesser known way of the Lord.

Nahum 1:3 (ESV)

“...His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”

Now, this may sound confusing, but I felt like I needed to point this out, what the prophet Nahum is saying is this, God’s path includes whirlwinds and storms, not that it might include those things, but that it does. In other words, if you find yourself in a storm cloud today, maybe life isn’t what you wanted today, you are a dealing with death or depression, or you may have lost a job - whatever it is, God is in it. He is there. He is with you.

He is in the whirlwind as well. Now this isn’t talking about self caused busyness. You are doing that to yourself. This is more about chaos hitting you over and over again. Things you have no control over and the hits just keep on coming. God is there. He’s trying to teach you something. Are you open to receiving that lesson?

The invitation of Jesus will always include storms and whirlwinds. His path is narrow and there are few that find it. It’s much easier to take the broad path, but the path of intimacy includes storms. Don’t run from them, embrace them.

You see Thomas’ problem in this passage as that he was focused on the destination rather than the path to get there. Jesus is much more concerned about the path as evidenced by how he answered him. Thomas says we don’t know where you are going, Jesus says I am the path. He didn’t say I am the destination, even though he is. Or Thomas, we are going to heaven you bozo. He says I am the way.

So Jesus declares himself to be The Way, then he proceeds with the next part, which is equally important. He says...

I Am The Truth

Jesus declares something here that is easy to miss in our culture, where we have fake news, disinformation campaigns, propaganda and subjective truth. Jesus declares himself as the truth. In other words, in a world filled with lies, truth can only be found in Jesus.

This is a comforting statement to some. We can hear this and be relieved. I don’t have to sort what is truth and what is not. I can simply come to Jesus. Truth is a person.

John: Verse by Verse Thomas: A Person, Not a Place (14:5–7)

He is truth because he is the Living Revealer, the very voice and revelation of God. He is the incarnate Shekinah glory of God, the “grace and truth” (1:14)

Most of us probably don’t think about Jesus as the Living Revealer. We think truth is evident. But in actuality, with the great deceptions and schemes of the enemy, truth has to be revealed. It has to be made known. This explains why God’s people are called to be heralds. We are to herald the good news or the gospel. We are to proclaim it. We introduce people to The Truth.

Lies are all around us. People are clearly deceived. Unfortunately “Christians” are deceived as well and we are supposed to be the ones to proclaim the truth. Christians have devolved into this arena of no one agreeing on which truth is actually The Truth.

I think this is mainly because we don’t see the truth as a person, but an idea. We like the idea of truth, but we don’t like that its a person. If two people get into an argument over end times theology and I tell them, why don’t you just go ask Jesus about this, people will roll their eyes. Why? Because we don’t really believe that truth is a person. We are still in the garden, eating from the wrong tree, trying to determine good and evil ourselves. Rather than going to God and trusting him, eating of his tree, we are determined to figure this out on our own.

This is why I believe we have so many different denominations. Rather than finding unity in Christ, we would much rather divide and join in with the enemy, who is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). Let me make this as plain as possible. If you find yourself on the side of accusing other Christians, you are on the wrong side. That’s literally Satan’s name and identity.

But what if they are wrong, you might say?! Then we pray for them. We don’t put them on blast. If we truly believe Truth is a person, He is wise enough to be able to address them. We can let Jesus handle that. He is the good shepherd after all. Don’t we have a mandate to expose the lies? Yes. We expose the lies that people believe, but we don’t have to throw them under the bus to do it. In fact, I believe that if we preach the truth loud enough and often enough, people will be able to tell when someone lies to them because they will be so familiar with the Truth, Jesus.

Can I tell you about one of the ways that Jesus introduced himself as Truth to me? For many years I followed these “discernment” ministries online. I was addicted to it. I have one of those personalities that loves to find fault. And I got good at finding it everywhere. I justified it. I found fault in almost everyone’s theology. It was easy to do. I could pull up any bible verse and use it as a hammer to beat people over the head with it. And here’s what happened. I started dividing away from people I disagreed with. I pulled my family out of a loving church, that cared for us because I had some disagreements with the pastor. Slowly but surely, Jesus started to reveal to me how bitter and divisive I had gotten.

It all came to a head when I first moved to Clayton, we had trouble finding a church because I was so “right” in my theology and everyone else was wrong. So there we were, alone. God had to intervene in my life and introduce himself as the Truth. And Truth says to love one another. Truth says that the works of the flesh are things like divisions, strife, rivalries, enmity. And that’s the fruit I was seeing from being so “discerning.”

Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t be discerning at all. But I’ll be honest, I don’t think much of what passes as “discernment” ministries today are actually that. Paul describes discernment in 1 Cor 12:10 as distinguishing between spirits, yet most of the people in these ministries don’t even believe in the gifts of the Spirit. John goes on to describe Truth as a spirit later in our chapter.

John 14:16–17 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

So Jesus says that not only is he Truth, but Truth is also the Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit and the world rejects him, mainly because it cannot see him. Now this is interesting because many cessationists (those that believe the gifts of the Spirit ceased with the apostles) justify their beliefs because you don’t see the Spirit operating today. So they don’t receive the Spirit because they can’t see Him.

I see the Spirit of Truth all of the time now, mainly because I’m looking for Him. I saw Him move mightily two weeks ago at Souly. I saw the Spirit move on one man as God set him free from believing lies after 14 years being bound up in shame over the lies he believed. That was amazing.

I’ve seen Jesus, the Spirit of Truth, move mightily in my own heart bringing revelation to me that set me free from sin and shame. He is alive. He is moving. He is the living revealer. And He is here today. I hope you know Him. If you don’t, please get with me and let me introduce you to Him.

The last main point today is that Jesus declares...

I Am The Life

Jesus says that he is the way, meaning there is a journey to be had. Where does that journey take you? To life. God is the creator of life and the giver of life. He holds the whole world in the palm of his hands.

To be clear, I believe the world was created exactly as God describes it in Genesis 1 & 2. He breathed the breath of life in Adam’s nostrils and today, we live and breath because of Him. His breath, his life has been passed on to us. And just like Adam we are given a choice. There are two paths set before you. The way leads to life. The other path leads to death. That’s it. That’s the choice. Do you want life and life everlasting or do you want to walk the path of death. Which will you choose?

I want to give you a couple of points as to how all of this works out in full. This journey, this path, this way that we are walking that leads to life. What does this really look like?

It’s a spirit-filled life. Our lives are to be marked by being filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul encourages us to be filled with the Spirit. This isn’t a one-time deal. This is a continual pursuit. We are to pursue the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,” And this is our problem. Some of us are much more concerned about consuming wine than we are about consuming the Spirit. Pursue the Spirit. Don’t be afraid of Him. Chase after Him. We are to be people who chase after the Spirit. But....but…people on the internet will call me weird if I start talking like that. Stop bowing down to the fear of man. Allow God to fill you with the Holy Spirit.

It’s a spirit-led life. This is probably one of the biggest things the church today ignores. What is the Holy Spirit doing today? Where is He moving and how can I get on the path with Him? Jesus says He is the way. He is the path. He is the journey. Our main goal should be in allowing Jesus to lead us. Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” In other words, if you are filled with Him, if you are finding your life in Him, you should be looking to walk with him and be led by him. If Jesus himself had to be led by the Spirit (Luke 4:1) then how much more do we need to be led by the Spirit? In fact, go back to identity, if you want to be called a son of God, you must be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14). You might be saying, why are you doubling down on all of this Holy Spirit talk, I thought we are talking about Jesus and I Am statements. The context of this passage we studied today is the promise of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is leaving and his comforting words was this. I am sending the Helper, the Holy Spirit to be with you. I will not leave you as orphans, he says. Because I live, you also will live. You will have life, he says. These are promises from Jesus himself. That the Holy Spirit will come and he will be with us and he will lead us into all truth. John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Your life should be marked by being taught by and led by the Holy Spirit.

It’s a fruit-filled life. You can’t be filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit and not produce the fruits that the Spirit produces. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and so on. Our lives must be marked by that fruit. If we come to church and we don’t love one another, what type of fruit is that? If we backbite and devour one another, where is the patience and gentleness in that? Some people think fruit is how many people come to your church or have been impacted by your ministry or how big your following is on social media. Those are lies. The fruit God is looking for is this. Are you loving? Are you joyful? Are you gentle and kind? That’s what discernment looks like, by the way, look at someone’s life. If they aren’t exhibiting those qualities, you probably shouldn’t follow them. If they cause division, stay away from them. Our lives are to produce godly fruit like self-control and goodness and faithfulness, not bitterness, envy and strife.

Closing

I want to offer a time of prayer today. I want to invite you into this journey to be filled by the Spirit and led by the Spirit. I want to introduce you to the one who is The Truth. This is an invitation. You aren’t to be forced into this or manipulated into it. If you want this, come forward and receive prayer.