I AM: The Way and the Truth and the Life

Intro.

When we think of the Last Supper, we get this image in our heads of a sterilized version of the painting by Leonardo DaVinci.

A quiet intimate repast with Jesus expressing his love for the disciples and encouraging them.

A pensive passover meal with introspective new concepts about the bread and the wine.

It was anything but. The Last Supper was a roller coaster of emotions for the disciples.

Jesus begins by telling the disciples who will be preparing Passover how they are going to make it happen.

“Go into the city. When you enter, you will see a man carrying a pitcher.”

“Follow him home.” (that’s not creepy)

“Walk into his house” (that’s even creepier)

“Then say, “What’s up? The teacher wants to know where’s the room for us to have Passover”

If this isn’t Jesus working a miracle, then Peter and John are coming back with black eyes.

Of course it played out exactly as Jesus said it would, and Passover was set.

Later, Jesus and the disciples gather for the Passover meal.

Even as they are entering the room for one of their holiest events of the year, the disciples are bickering among themselves about who is 2nd in line to Jesus.

Jesus gets them all around the table, and then he goes off script.

He sees an opportunity to teach a lesson, and gets up, ties a towel around his waist, and pours water into a basin. {Explain meaning}

The disciples (especially Peter) put up a fuss about Jesus washing their feet.

Jesus insists that He is the only one who can wash them of their pride.

Have you ever been a part of a foot-washing service? It’s incredibly humbling. Someone else washing your stinky feet. It creates very intense emotion.

I’m not sure I can imagine what it must have felt like having JESUS wash your feet.

The one who is most PROPERLY on the throne… the one who is high and lifted up... getting on the floor, and wiping the dust from the road off your feet.

All of them... Judas was still in the room. Jesus washed the feet of His betrayer.

“This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!” “It’s supposed to follow the tradition.” “This is different.” “This is un-settling.” “This doesn’t feel right.”

But, Jesus... is just getting started.

Jesus prays the opening blessing. (yes, there are several prayers during Passover)

They begin the 1st course, and Passover starts to look normal again.

Then Jesus drops next bombshell.

John 13:21 ESV

...“Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

The disciples would have been blindsided. “Hey, pass the butter, oh and by the way , one of you is gonna’ sell me out to the priests.’

The disciples plunge into shame, each afraid that they are the traitor.

They clamber over each other questioning Jesus, “Is it I?”

Luke’s account of the last supper tells us that the disciples then began to ask each other, “who would do this.” And that devolves back into the “who is greatest” argument.

Those closest to Jesus get the answer... it’s Judas.

Jesus tells Judas to get it over with, and Judas leaves.

They return to their Passover meal and once again a tinge of normalcy creeps back into the event.

Then... Jesus takes the bread.

Matthew 26:26 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

“That’s not how the blessing goes. Wait, What? Ew, Jesus that’s gross!”

Jesus continues the conversation that He’s been having with the disciples.

“I’m going away.” “I have to die.”

His students don’t know what to do with that information.

They have already told Jesus that they wouldn’t know where else to go without him.

They left their lives to follow Him. They put ALL their eggs into ONE basket... THIS basket.

I can picture some of them shaking in fear. and some of them nauseous with anxiety.

Have you ever been shaken like that? I certainly have.

This environment... the disciples at the last supper feeling like the floor has given way underneath them...

This is the atmosphere that we find as we enter the 6th of our “I AM” messages

I AM: The Way and the Truth and the Life

Jesus has effectively shredded the disciples emotional state.

And now he has to put them back together.

John 14:1 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

He continues:

John 14:2–4 ESV

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 interrupts his master, “I need to stop you right there, Jesus. We don’t even know WHERE you’re going. How could we POSSIBLY know the way.”

Jesus answered Thomas by directing him to the reality that Jesus had been guiding them into for the past 3 years.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

When we hear this verse we immediately think of salvation.

The dead believers in Jesus rising from their graves

The living Christians meeting Jesus in the air

A place in Heaven

Eternal life

Yes Jesus is the admittance to Heaven. We must accept his free gift of salvation, purchased with the blood that He shed on the cross

And we are undeniably right in that assessment.

But that is only 1/2 the story.

“I AM the way and the truth and the life”... is not just for the by-and-by... it’s for the here and now.

Jesus is not only addressing the concept of their eternal home... He is SPEAKING INTO the anxiety that is in the room.

Remember He introduced this statement with:

John 14:1 (ESV)

“Let not your hearts be troubled...”

Jesus doesn’t want you to be lost because He is the Way.

Jesus doesn’t want you to be misguided because He is the Truth

Jesus doesn’t want you to feel dead inside because He is the Life

This morning we’re going to take a look at these 3 identities of Jesus.

Just as He spoke into the lives of his disciples at the Last Supper, let Him speak into your life this morning.

I AM The Way

I’ve shared this analogy before, but it makes the point so well.

In the story of “The Polar Express” an older boy (who remains nameless) is doubting the existence of Santa Claus.

Late Christmas Eve a magical train pulls up to his front door, and he is invited to ride to the North Pole, ostensibly to meet Santa, and settle his doubts once and for all.

He warily declines the conductors offer, and the train begins to pull off.

The train is picking up speed when the boy rethinks his decision. He takes off running. In bedroom slippers... In the snow... and catches… A TRAIN!

He travels, and makes friends, has adventures, and learns life lessons, and .... meets Santa Claus and is honored with the “1st gift of Christmas.”

The return trip is much more benign, with a sleepy dream sequence.

As the boy disembarks, the conductor offers him one last piece of advice:

“One thing about trains: It doesn't matter where they're goin'. What matters is deciding to get on.” - The Concuctor, “The Polar Express”

No! Wrong! It ABSOLUTELY matters where they’re going.

What matters is reaching your destination. You can’t board a train to California and end up in Vermont.

You have to be heading in the right direction.

Jesus isn’t just the destination. He is the route.

{Bring up someone and put on a blindfold}

Thomas said:

John 14:5 (ESV)

...“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

“Jesus, I can’t see the way to God.”

Jesus responds, “Reach out your hand.” “You’re there.”

Picture yourself walking with someone in a deep fog. They know where they are going. You’ve never been this way before. If your guide gets more that a foot from you, you won’t know where to go. How do you follow?

You latch onto them, and you pay attention to every move they make and you follow in their footsteps.

The destination to God is being ever present with Jesus. If you stick to Jesus side you won’t miss your stop.

{Illustration of Dax. -He sticks to my side because he doesn’t want to be left behind.}

We must learn to live like Dax. So attached to our God, that we are passionate about never leaving His side.

If you have Jesus… you’re home.

I AM The Truth

Less than 12 hours after telling the disciples that He is truth, Jesus is standing in front of Pontius Pilate... on trial for being… Himself.

Pilate ponders:

John 18:38 (ESV)

...“What is truth?” ...

Whether Pilate was waxing philosophical or really seeking an answer to his life we can’t tell for sure.

But the irony is... Truth... was standing before him.

If he had just taken a moment to wait for the answer......

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.” -Winston Churchill.

When you ask God for truth and Jesus stands before you... don’t wait for more. Embrace Him.

Consider these passages:

John 8:32 ESV

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Makes more sense now. Jesus… sets you free. you can know that that Bible says “by His stripes you have been healed.” And you can believe them to be true...

But until He sets those words on fire inside you, your still sick.

Ephesians 6:14 (ESV)

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth...

The belt holds all the armor in place. If you want the Armor of God to be kept intact... fasten Jesus around you.

James 1:18 ESV

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

You have been born into new life IN Christ... BY Christ.

And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 5:20 MSG

It took THE Truth to recognize the depth of our sin for salvation. It takes THE Truth to live and grow and mature in God.

Truth… THE Truth will change your life

I AM The Life

Jesus and company would sail back and forth across the see of Galilee.

On one of these trips a storm was brewing.

Jesus goes, “Oooo I love sleeping with the sound of rain.

He curls up in the back of the boat for a nap.

The storm becomes intense... for fishermen... who knew the storms of the Galilee.

They were afraid for their lives.

But Jesus is… asleep. PEACEFULLY… asleep.

There is a… disconnect between Jesus’ life and their own.

He is at peace. They are in turmoil.

If they are walking with Jesus as The Way, and listening to Jesus as The Truth,

then His LIFE should be spilling over into theirs.

Their behavior should be reflections of His own.

John 1:4 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Yet on the night of the Last Supper they still hadn’t learned this lesson.

Remember:

John 14:1 (ESV)

“Let not your hearts be troubled.”

The parsing of this phrase is: present, passive, imperative.

Long story short: Jesus is commanding the disciples to let HIM calm the anxiety in their hearts.

Jesus active role is: giving them peace. Our active role is receiving it.

Conclusion:

If you are thinking to yourself:

I’m wandering about; I don’t know where I’m going. Jesus is the way.

I’m confused; I don’t know what to think. Jesus is the truth.

I’m dead inside and don’t know if I can go on. Jesus is the life.

John 14:6 (ESV)

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

Concerning this statement, David Guzik wrote:

“In light of soon events, this declaration was a paradox. Jesus’ way would be the cross; He would be convicted by blatant liars; His body would soon lie lifeless in a tomb.

Because He took that way, He is the way to God; because He did not contest the lies we can believe He is the truth; because He was willing to die He becomes the channel of resurrection – the life to us.” -David Guzik

It’s time we stopped making “the way, the truth, and the life” be only about our salvation day and our resurrection and start letting it include every day in between.