The Way, The Truth, The Life
Notes
Transcript
I AM the way, the truth, and the life
I AM the way, the truth, and the life
Bible Passage: Jn 14:1–14
Bible Passage: Jn 14:1–14
Good morning Church, grab your Bible and make your way to John 14.
Welcome to week 6 in our “I AM” Series where we have been walking through the I Am Statements of Christ.
And its in verse 6 Jesus is going to give probably his most famous “I AM” statement. Its one of the most famous verses in all of Scripture.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We can understand the statement, but do we know the context in which Jesus said this verse? Do we know who He said them to and why?
Imagine for a second you are sitting at a restaurant and you overhear two people behind you having a conversation:
and you overhear one of them saying:
“Yeah, his mom, brothers, and sisters were all killed and he was left disabled.
What’s even crazier is that a few years later, the boy gets kidnapped, and the dad actually tracked him down and got him back with with the help of a mentally disabled women.”
All of sudden you’re looking at the local news website to see if it was in Jacksonville.
You’re checking national news. You’re looking on Social Media.
You can’t find any information about this kid or this father.
So you turn around to the table and ask when and where did that happen?
They look confused.
You explain you overheard them and couldn’t find anything in the news about it but you just needed to know.
And they start laughing because they were talking about the movie “Finding Nemo.”
So, you turn back around embarrassed because you didn’t understand what was being talked about.
You understood what was being said, you just didn’t understand the context and that they were talking about a Children’s Movie.
That’s why its so important to know Scripture. We need to know the context and not just cherry pick verses out of context and try to apply them in our lives in a way that it was never meant to be applied.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
This is a graduate’s favorite verse.
We love to believe it’s all about us—that it means that God has plans to give us everything we could dream of and that the ultimate goal for our lives is happiness and prosperity.
But then what happens when we don’t get everything we want? What happens if harm does come to us and we aren’t prosperous?
Context is so important. If we were open up to Jeremiah 29, we’d find that this chapter is actually a letter.
And it’s not written to a college graduate, much to our disappointment.
In fact, it’s not written to any one person at all.
The “you” in this letter is plural and the people Jeremiah writes to are the exiled Jews.
It’s a response about a false prophet named Hananiah.
Ironically, Hananiah had been prophesying prosperity to the Jews and he prophesied that it would be fulfilled within two years.
In chapter 29, Jeremiah not only refutes this false prophecy, he also reveals that the Jews would not see freedom for more than seventy years. Not exactly the prosperous ideal we’d like to imagine!
We’re often tempted to believe this verse is about our personal well-being, but we’re missing the big picture. It’s not about us at all.
These plans God is referring to?
They are actually his plans for his people as a whole, and these plans ultimately point to Jesus. That promise for a future and a hope that we long for was fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection!
So to understand John 14:6, we really need to know the verses surrounding John 14 and to understand the verses surrounding John 14, we need to know about John 13 because 14 is a continuation of 13.
John 13 through John 17 are known as the upper room discourse.
The Upper Room Discourse is the title given to a block of Jesus’ teaching found only in the Gospel of John.
The discourse is what Jesus told His disciples on the night before the crucifixion while they were observing the Passover (the Last Supper) in the “upper room.”
John does not give the background about the upper room found in Mark and Luke, but John 13 picks up with the meal already in progress.
Chapter 13 starts with
1 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, we know that Jesus:
Its before Before the Feast of the Passover.
Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father
He is with His disciples and He loved them all.
In the rest of the chapter:
He is going to wash the disciples feet as an example of how they are to serve each other.
Give them a new commandment- to love one another, and Christ loved them.
He tells His disciples He is going away.
and tells Peter He will deny Him 3 times before the rooster crows.
Although these 5 chapters are known as the Upper Room Discourse only chapter 14 actually takes place in the upper room.
At the end of Chapter 14 Jesus and the Disciples begin their walk to the Garden of Gethsemane.
The Garden of Gethsemane was a place of great importance to Jesus, it is the place where Christ retreated into deep prayer and a time of agony before His arrest and crucifixion.
The word gethsemane is derived from two Hebrew words: gat, which means "a place for pressing oil (or wine)" and shemanim, which means "oils."
During Jesus' time, heavy stone slabs were lowered onto olives that had already been crushed in an olive crusher.
Gradually, the slabs weight squeezed the olive oil out of the pulp, and the oil ran into a pit. There the oil was collected in clay jars.
The image of the Gethsemane on the slope of the Mount of Olives where Jesus went the night before his crucifixion provides a vivid picture of Jesus' suffering.
The weight of the sins of the world pressed down upon him like a heavy slab of rock pressed down on olives in their baskets.
His sweat, "like drops of blood falling from to the ground" (Luke 22:44), flowed from him like olive oil as it was squeezed out and flowed into the pit of an olive press.
But before Christ gets to the garden, He is in the Upper Room with the 12.
The night before Jesus’s crucifixion has been set aside for him to prepare them for life after the cross.
He tells them he’s leaving, and they cannot follow where he’s going.
They are confused. Simon Peter in chapter 13 and Thomas and Philip in this chapter pepper him with questions, trying to understand what is happening.
His departure is also met with resistance. Peter proclaims his undying allegiance to Jesus, in effect saying Jesus is wrong and they will follow him wherever he goes.
The overwhelming response is not confusion or resistance.
It’s anxiety. These men have left everything behind to follow Jesus.
Jesus begins chapter 14 by acknowledging the disciples’ feelings.
He understands his announcement is causing their hearts to be “troubled” (v. 1).
Earlier in the Gospel of John, this same word troubled is used to describe what happened to a pool of water; it’s translated “stirred up” (5:7).
The disciples’ hearts are stirred up.
Like ingredients in a mixing bowl, doubt, confusion, uncertainty, and fear are being stirred around inside their hearts.
This potent mixture of emotions is motivated by Jesus’s departure.
How can he leave them?
Why can’t they follow him?
You take those questions and add them to the fact that one disciple will betray him and another will deny him, and you have a recipe for anxiety strong enough to paralyze the most mature disciple.
In this emotionally trying moment, Jesus comforts the disciples. It’s remarkable he can even think of them at this time. Here he is about to take upon himself the sin of the world. He’s on the verge of experiencing the wrath of God for our sin. Yet he compassionately reaches out to comfort his disciples.
As we read these verses, try to imagine being in the Upper Room. Imagine these Words being play out in front of your very eyes.
John 14:1–14 (ESV)
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
2 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?
3 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.
4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
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.
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 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’?
10 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.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “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.
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Pray
Let not your hearts be troubled.
What a statement. Coming right after telling Peter he is going to deny Him before the rooster crows.
Let not your hearts be troubled.
Why? Because Jesus said “ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
In our remaining time together- I want us to dive into why we should not be troubled, but we should only trust in the Lord for who He is.
Jesus tells the disciples what they should and should not do: the disciples are not to be troubled but are to trust God and him (14:1; cf. 13:21; 14:27).
Anxiety’s antidote is active trust.
Where do you look in difficult times?
We try to find someone who has gone through a similar experience and look to his or her success as grounds for our hope.
We seek some type of calming or soothing emotion: “Things are too up and down, I just need to get away from it all for a little while.”
In this time when the disciples’ hearts were stirred up, Jesus reminds them to look to him.
He gives his disciples two commands: “Believe in God; believe also in me” (v. 1).
The focus of these commands is that they need to continue to do that which they’ve already done.
Jesus is not telling them, “For the first time, you need to believe in me.”
He’s saying, “You have believed in me; now keep believing, keep trusting, and keep relying on me.”
The antidote for the virus of anxiety is trust in Jesus.
Not emotions, experiences, or others, but Jesus.
In the same breath he commands them to trust in him, he tells them to trust in God.
He links these two commands together.
It would have been natural for them as devout Jews to receive encouragement to trust in God.
From a young age they would have been challenged with their need to believe in God.
When called on to do so, they would say, “Of course I’ll trust in God.”
Jesus links their belief in God with their belief in him to remind them that to trust in him is to trust in God, and the reverse is also true: trusting in God means placing their faith in Jesus.
In times of anxiety and stress, we tend to doubt whether God can be trusted.
We begin to wonder if he really cares or if he knows what’s best.
Our hearts, like ships at sea, are battered by winds of uncertainty and taking on the waters of doubt.
In those moments we need to be reminded that God controls the seas.
Belief in Jesus will be their anchor in the coming turbulent days.
Belief in Jesus will calm the troubled waters that rock their hearts.
Verse 1- Let not your hearts be troubled- everything that Jesus said after that is support for that encouragement.
Why should they—and why should we—not be troubled?
Why should we trust you in a situation like this? Or in our unique situation?
1. Do not be troubled, there are many rooms.
John 14:2–3 (ESV)
2 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?
3 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.
Pause there and let the first reason for faith sink in.
Jesus tells his disciples they can have confidence because he is leaving to prepare a place for them.
You may not immediately pick up on it, but Jesus is using overtly marital language when talking about adding rooms.
Let me tell you a few things about Jewish marriages you may not know:
First, we often (wrongly) assume that all marriages back then were arranged--as in, the parents just decided who you were going to marry and that was that. But that really wasn't the case.
Here’s how it usually went down: A boy and girl notice each other; she caught his eye; he likes how she smashed grapes or whatever; and he feels like she is sending groovy vibes back his way.
They exchange a few flirty glances and have some good conversations, so he talks to his dad, and if his dad approves, his dad approaches the girl’s dad and if he also agrees it’s a good pairing, then the girl’s dad throws a big party inviting the groom’s family and a bunch of friends.
At this party, the groom-to-be offers the bride to-be a cup of wine.
At this point, she has a legitimate choice.
If she takes the cup of wine and drinks it, that means ‘yes,’ and the party really begins.
But if she declines, the party gets awkward, the band starts to play:
J Geils Band- Love Stinks
Poisons’s Every Rose has it Thorns
and Elvis’ Heart Break Hotel
Now, here’s the important part: If she said yes, then after the party was over, the young man returned to his family home (called an “insulah)” and began construction on a new wing, or a new set of rooms, to the family house that he and his future bride will live in.
In those days, you see, families lived on these big compounds, family property was their most valuable asset, handed down from generation to generation, and each new generation would just add on a new room onto the family insulah so they all lived in the complex together.
Some of you are thinking, “That sounds awesome!” Others of you are thinking, “That sounds like a nightmare!” I’m sure they had both emotions back then, too
Well, when the groom-to-be was finished with construction of his “rooms,” he would return to pick up his bride.
But here was the thing: only the groom’s father could determine when the rooms were sufficiently completed.
I mean, young men back then were not that much different than they are today, and if it were up to them, they’d probably just slap a few boards together, put a movie poster up on the wall, stack a couple of of box crates up for tables, have a tv and there xbox and call that home, they’re just so excited to consummate the marriage.
So, the father-of-the-groom determined when the room was ready--since ultimately this was his house, too--and he and he alone gave permission for the young man to go back and get his bride.
BTW, How many men here ever served as father of the groom? Back then, the father-of-the-groom was the single most important person in the wedding ceremony, outside of the bride and groom themselves.
Today, in American weddings, he literally does nothing.
He pays for the rehearsal dinner, but after that he basically just shows up to the ceremony like any other guest, gets a seat on the 2nd row, smiles and waves. But in those days, he controlled everything.
So every day, this young man worked on the new rooms, and every night, the bride would wait.
She didn’t know when he was coming. He couldn’t post pics of the project on Facebook.
And so, as a symbol of her anticipation, she kept a candle lit in her windowsill, hoping that this might be the night he returned for her.
She didn’t know when he’d come; in fact, he didn’t even know when he’d come; again, only the father-of-the-groom determined that.
Jesus tells his disciples they can have confidence because he is leaving to prepare a place for them.
Jesus is heading to his Father’s house.
Jesus is preparing for them a new, different, and better home.
Heaven is a real place. It’s not a location from a science fiction novel, no more real than Santa’s workshop.
Look at how Jesus describes it. It’s a “house” with “rooms,” and twice he refers to it as a “place.”
Heaven is not a figment of the imagination or a state of mind. Heaven is a real place created by God for his people to dwell with him forever.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians from Pentecost of 33 AD until the present day will be resurrected to heaven as immortal spirit beings to spend eternity with God and Christ.
They base that belief on the book of Revelation when it speaks on the 144,000 in Revelation 14. But if they would read Revelation 7, they would know that the 144,000 all come from the 12 tribes of Israel.
Revelation 7:4–5 (ESV)
4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
Revelation 7:9 (ESV)
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
A great multitude that no one could number…you know why?
God’s house is large. It has many rooms.
He won’t run out of space.
And, there is a place for you. “I go to prepare a place for (point) you.”
The house Jesus goes to prepare is the new temple, the new Jerusalem, the new heaven and new earth.
Jesus assures his disciples that there is room enough for them in the new temple, for there are many rooms in the Father’s house (v. 2).
2. Do not be trouble because Jesus opened the way and is the way.
John 14:2–3 (ESV)
2 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?
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you....
So two times Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you.”
What does that mean?
What is not yet ready—not yet prepared—is the way to get your room in God’s presence.
Everyone who’s religious realizes something needs to happen for him or her to get to God, to make it to heaven.
Whether their answer is good works, giving to charity, penance, last rites, karma, reincarnation, or martyrdom, all religious people acknowledge what the Bible teaches throughout: the way to God is blocked.
Something hinders us from being with God, and it must be overcome. In the Old Testament God taught Israel this truth through an object lesson.
Hanging in the tabernacle and then in the temple was a thick, heavy curtain called “the veil.”
The purpose of the veil was to separate mankind from the earthly dwelling of God.
The veil itself didn’t separate man from God. It was just a symbol. What really separates man from God is sin.
The abundance of organized religions reveals that most people feel they need to do something to get to God, something to get through the veil of sin.
Because of our sin, we need a mediator. We need someone who can bring us into God’s presence.
For the Jews, this person was the priest. Once a year he would pass through the veil and enter the presence of God to confess the sins of the nation.
When Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom.
Just as the veil symbolized the separation of God and man, the tearing of the veil symbolized there is now a way to enter the presence of God. Jesus is the mediator.
Being both man and God, he alone can bridge the chasm that separates a sinful person from a holy God.
Jesus uses the imagery of a way, a path, a road to teach them he is able to take them from one point—their sinful, wicked state—to a different point—reconciliation with God.
Thats what Jesus is about to do. He is going to prepare the way because...
The wrath of God, the condemnation, the curse of God, is still unsatisfied, and Jesus is about to become a curse for us (Galatians 3:13) and bear our condemnation (Romans 8:3) and endure the bruising of the Father (Isaiah 53:10).
Death is yet to be defeated and Jesus is about to give his life and take it back again from the jaws of death (John 10:18).
Every obstacle between us and our room in the Father’s house is about to be removed in the next three days.
I’m preparing it not in the sense that’s it’s defective but that the way there is not prepared.
I think Jesus confirms that he is thinking this way in verses John 14:4-6
John 14:4–6 (ESV)
4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
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.
Jesus had earlier likened his glorification to a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying in order to bear much fruit (12:23–24).
Jesus will be glorified at the cross (13:31–32), and part of the fruit his death will bear is the place he will prepare for his disciples by means of his death.
This includes both a temporary place and an eternal place.
The temporary place is the church: the death of Jesus on the cross serves as our propitiation- our payment that satisfies God’s Wrath against sin, sanctifying the living stones that will be built into God’s new temple, the church.
After his death, Jesus will ascend to the Father’s right hand of the Father, where he will reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (cf. Psalm 110; 1 Cor. 15:20–28).
This prepares the eternal place: the new temple of the new Jerusalem in the new heavens and new earth.
To understand the sense in which Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6), we must bear in mind that his going to the Father includes his death as a substitute for his people (cf. 10:15, 17).
Jesus tells the disciples in 14:4 that they know the way to where he is going because he has told them that the Son of Man will be lifted up (12:23, 32) so that the grain of wheat might fall to the ground and die (12:24). The way to the Father goes through the cross.
As so often in John, the words of Jesus are misunderstood and taken literally.
Jesus speaks symbolically of his death as the spiritual route to the Father.
Thomas thinks Jesus has spoken of a literal place, and Thomas asserts that he and his fellow disciples do not know where Jesus is going and don’t know the way.
The disciples don’t need to concern themselves with a location or a destination.
They don’t need to obsess over a place. They need to focus all of their attention on a person.
Just as heaven is about living with Jesus, salvation is about walking with Jesus.
Jesus does not say he will point them in the right direction. He says he is the driver and the destination.
One commentator wrote,
[Jesus] does not only give advice and directions. He takes us by the hand and leads us; he strengthens us and guides us personally every day. He does not tell us about the way; he is the Way. (Barclay, John, 157)
3. Don’t be troubled because Jesus is the Truth.
Salvation is more than praying a prayer.
It’s putting your trust in a person.
We create doubt when we view salvation improperly.
We might worry about the words we said, or whether we were sincere, instead of trusting in Jesus.
Through Jesus alone we are brought into a right relationship with the Father.
The exclusivity of Jesus’s statement often angers people.
Why is it so offensive?
It’s offensive because it strikes a blow to our pride.
What Jesus says to you and to me is, “You cannot make it to heaven on your own.”
It feeds our proud nature to attempt to save ourselves.
To accept the true Jesus revealed in Scripture requires humility.
We want to do things our way. We want to live the lives we want to live.
I’m free to do whatever I want. And that’s true within reason. But you aren’t free from consequences.
Jesus doesn’t make this exclusive statement because he’s trying to win a popularity contest.
He says it because it’s true. and to deny that is to deny the Father.
What Jesus says can be trusted because he himself is the truth.
Jesus does not simply tell the truth; he embodies it.
He is the source of truth, and the reason truth is absolute.
Social commentators say we’ve been living in the age of postmodernism.
Listen to these words on postmodern thinking from John MacArthur:
[T]he one essential, non-negotiable demand postmodernism makes of everyone: We are not to think we know any objective truth. Postmodernists often suggest that every opinion should be shown equal respect. And therefore on the surface, postmodernism seems driven by a broad-minded concern for harmony and tolerance. It all sounds very charitable and altruistic. But what really underlies the postmodernist belief system is an utter intolerance for every worldview that makes any universal truth-claims—particularly biblical Christianity. (Why One Way?, 9)
I visited the website religioustolerance.org and read this in their statement of beliefs:
“We do believe: that systems of truth in the field of morals, ethics, and religious belief are not absolute. They vary by culture, religion, and over time.”
Jesus condemns that thinking when he states, “I am the truth” (v. 6).
When John has His divine revelation from the Lord- Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
This is a beautiful picture of Christ but not a lamb to the slaughter but as the lion of Judah, the conquering king.
Not that He has truth. He is true. Faithful and true.
If he is the true way to the Father, then only through him can we have life.
He has driven this point home throughout the Gospel. Only through Jesus can anyone find life.
According to V. Dion Haynes and Jim Mateja in the Chicago Tribune, some astonishing news came forth in the aftermath of the tragic auto accident that killed Princess Diana in 1997. The chauffeur of the car had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his bloodstream. Furthermore, police estimated the car had been going as fast as 120 miles per hour when the crash occurred in the Paris tunnel. Clearly the wrong man was at the wheel of the princess’s car.
But that is not unusual for celebrities, reported one security expert. Jerry Hoffman, president of a Cincinnati-based company that builds armored cars and trains drivers, said, “My experience is that a person will spend $150,000 to $200,000 on a limo and then spend no money on training the person to drive it. The driver is hired based on how friendly he is.”
No doubt after Diana’s death many celebrities began to pay more attention to whether their chauffeur could get them safely to their destination than whether he could carry on a charming conversation.
The same wisdom must be used when we choose the religious beliefs that steer our lives. The issue is not whether our religion makes us feel good. The only question is whether it is trustworthy and thus able to bring us to our hoped-for destination of eternal life with God.
AW Tozer said
Every man holds his future in his hand. Not the dominant world leader only, but the inarticulate man lost in anonymity is a “man of destiny.” He decides which way his soul shall go. He chooses, and destiny waits on the nod of his head. He decides, and hell enlarges herself, or heaven prepares another mansion. So much of Himself has God given to men.…
“If any man will …, let him follow me,” He says, and some will rise and go after Him, but others give no heed to His voice. So the gulf opens between man and man, between those who will and those who will not. Silently, terribly the work goes on, as each one decides whether he will hear or ignore the voice of invitation. Unknown to the world, perhaps unknown even to the individual, the work of separation takes place. Each hearer of the Voice must decide for himself, and he must decide on the basis of the evidence the message affords. There will be no thunder sound, no heavenly sign or light from heaven. The Man is His own proof. The marks in His hands and feet are the insignia of His rank and office. He will not put Himself again on trial; He will not argue, but the morning of the judgment will confirm what men in the twilight have decided.…
Christ will be Lord, or He will be Judge. Every man must decide whether he will take Him as Lord now or face Him as Judge then.
4. Don’t be troubled because Jesus is the Life.
Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples he is the source of life (cf. 1:3–4; 4:13–14; 5:21; 11:25).
Why is it so important on this night for him to reassure them he is life? Because they will see him die.
They will witness the life leave his physical body. He is going to raise up on his nail pierced feet, and say it is finished. And then He will give up His spirit.
They will watch as his lifeless flesh is taken down from the cross and carried to the tomb.
Even as they watch this tragedy unfold, they will hear these words of reassurance echo: “I am the life.”
These three descriptions—the way, the truth, and the life—lay the foundation for the exclusive statement Jesus makes at the end of verse 6: “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Christianity is exclusive.
But Christianity is not exclusive because of who it lets in. Jesus teaches, “Anyone may come”
John 7:37 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Revelation 22:17 (ESV)
17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
Christianity is exclusive because there’s only one way to get in. Jesus alone brings men to God. He is the way, not a way.
In a civilization like ours, I feel that everyone has to come to terms with the claims of Jesus Christ upon his life, or else be guilty of inattention or of evading the question.
C. S. Lewis
The reason the disciples eventually came to believe Jesus’s promise of a path to heaven is because Jesus is God.
Their assurance is rooted in the deity of Christ.
He has the right and authority to make these promises because he himself is God (John 14:7).
Everything Jesus says and does demonstrates he is one with the Father (vv. 9–11).
Jesus’s words reveal he is in the Father, and Jesus’s works reveal the Father is in him.
The disciples should have realized Jesus is one with the Father by this point. He asks in effect, “How can you not yet believe?”
There should be no way to miss it.
He made the claim over and over, and his claim is backed up by such definitive acts that those acts alone should be enough to make them believe.
Jesus can make the promise of heaven—both the reality of the place and the exclusivity of the path—for one simple reason: he is God.
5. Do Not be Troubled, Jesus answers the prayers of his disciples.
John 14:13–14 (ESV)
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Very Quickly- Some people take this verse out of context and right understanding.
Jesus promises to answer the prayers of his disciples.
But lest we run home and fall on our knees begging for a new boat, notice Jesus defines genuine prayer as prayer in his name and prayer that when answered will bring glory to God.
To pray in Jesus’s name is not to recite a magical incantation but to pray in line with his will.
Some people will pray- and after every single sentence they will say “in Jesus name”. Like that seals it. Or they will declare something will happen in Jesus name.
And I think we are are guilty of that. Sometimes we can treat Jesus’ like a McDonald's Drive Thru. Let me get a… and a… with a side of.... in Jesus’ Name.
or we we will order in McDonald’s Drive thru.
Can I get a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Large Fries, Large Coke, and an apple pie?
Then what do we do?
Lord, Use this food for nourishment of my mind and my body to your service. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
What nourishment?
The habit of prayer is good, but the spirit of prayer is better.
Charles Spurgeon
That’s not praying in how the Lord would have us pray.
It’s to pray with the understanding the request you bring is one Jesus would sign his name to.
It’s a request that, if answered, would show the world who God is and what he cares about.
(the Lord’s prayer)
Hudson Taylor, the faithful missionary to China, once said,
I used to ask God to help me. Then, I asked Him if I might help Him. Finally, I ended up asking Him to do his work in me and through me, if He would be so pleased.” (Quoted in Davey, When Heaven, 135)
That’s praying in Jesus’s name.
When we pray expecting him to answer, he will.
Confident prayer in the name of Jesus—according to his will—will be answered, and when that answer comes, God will be glorified.
John Piper writes,
Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy. (Desiring God, 160–61)
This passage is packed with wonderful promises Jesus made to his disciples: the promise of a place called heaven, the promise of a path to heaven, and the promise of answered prayer.
Like an engagement ring, these promises bring us hope and excitement for that day when we see Jesus face-to-face.
But all of these promises come after a single command: “Believe in me.”
These promises are only for people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ alone. Remember what Jesus promises:
• You do not need to rely on yourself, for he is the way.
• You do not need to live in uncertainty, for he is the truth.
• You do not need to fear death, for he is the life.
