The Way The Truth and The Life
Why Seek Jesus? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today’s Reading from God’s Word:
Today’s Reading from God’s Word:
1 “Don’t let your heart 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 am going to prepare a place for you?
3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.
4 You know the way to where I am going.”
5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Introduction
Introduction
In Jesus’ earthly ministry, his teaching set him apart from every one else.
4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?
What are the implications from this statement?
Jesus is saying the world is lost — He wasn’t — and that he could seek and save it.
He places himself in a moral category in which he was alone.
You not only see it here, but you also see it in other passages:
John 8:12 - Everyone else is in darkness - He is the light of the world.
12 Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 6:35 - Everyone else was hungry - He is the bread of life.
35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.
John 7:37 - Everyone else is thirsty - He can quench their thirst.
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Luke 7:48-49 - Everyone else was sinful - He can forgive their sins.
48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”
And these are really breathtaking claims.
Jesus — the carpenter from Nazareth.
An obscure village deep in the Roman empire.
No one outside of Israel would have ever heard of Nazareth.
And yet, here is Jesus of Nazareth claiming to be the savior and judge of all mankind.
Now, let’s look at John 14.
On the night before His crucifixion, the disciples were very troubled about His departure.
1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
And troubled they were.
Their hearts were full of dismay and confusion.
Jesus intended to fill their hearts with confidence and trust.
4 You know the way to where I am going.”
To this Thomas replies:
5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”
And to this, Jesus says:
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This may have been Jesus’ most astounding claim.
We should not overlook the faith involved in both the utterance and in the acceptance of these words — spoken on the eve of the crucifixion.
I am the way — said the one who would shortly hang impotent on a cross.
I am the truth — when the lies of evil people were about to enjoy a spectacular triumph.
I am the life — when within a matter of hours his dead corpse would be placed in an empty tomb.
Today as we consider the next lesson in our series, we want to explore what Jesus was saying here.
What exactly does Jesus mean when He says:
I am the way.
I am the truth.
I am the life.
Jesus is the Way
Jesus is the Way
While the world claims many different ways to God… Jesus says:
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
There are significant implications here.
All people (including us) have gone our own ways.
Our stories are unique, but one thing we all share in common is that we each made a decision to reject God’s way and go our own path.
This is what sin is.
We have each willfully separated ourselves from God.
We have each rebelled against God and stand under judgment.
36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
Jesus is the only way to be saved from that wrath.
Every person who chooses not to believe on Him — remains under that wrath.
And so, John 14:6 is a huge statement.
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
HE is the way.
He has not come to show “a better way to God.”
It is not a better way — because there is no other way.
No wiggle room in the statement.
Jesus is the only port of entry, the only pass through the mountains, the only bridge over the river.
There simply is no other way.
Only Jesus
Only Jesus
Is the Savior
Is the Savior
42 And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.”
Is the Lamb of God
Is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
34 I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
Is the One Who Will Call the Dead to Life
Is the One Who Will Call the Dead to Life
28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice
29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.
Jesus mission is to bring us to the Father … and He is the way.
This really is a summation of all his teaching and work while on earth.
Jesus is The Truth
Jesus is The Truth
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Notice he doesn’t say, I have the truth … as if he is another prophet like Elijah …. but I am the truth.
He is the actual embodiment of truth…
The very reality of God’s grace toward us as sinners.
The law could be given by a human mediator like Moses —but grace and truth could not merely given — they actually came — through the living person Jesus Christ.
Moses could give manna, but the actual Bread of Life descended in Jesus.
Jesus is the truth … because he embodies the supreme revelation of God.
17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.
When He came, he said and did exclusively what the Father instructed him to say and do.
19 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.
29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”
He is God’s gracious self-disclosure, the word made flesh.
14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus alone reveals God — and the person who rejects his proclamation of truth can legitimately claim to know God.
23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
because Jesus is truth, we can completely rely on Jesus in all that He does and is.
Jesus is the Life
Jesus is the Life
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the one and only source of blessed existence and life for us.
In sin is death, i.e., separation from God.
Left to ourselves, we would have remained in this separation forever — dead beyond hope.
In the person of Jesus, God sent us “the life.”
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Jesus has life in Himself.
26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself.
He is the Resurrection and the Life
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
He is the true God and “eternal life.”
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Through Himself, Jesus abolished the separation and once more unites us with God.
15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
He is the Only Way
He is the Only Way
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Except through Me.
Christianity is not merely one more religion among many.
It is the only way to God.
Take away Jesus, and the way, the truth, and the life are all gone.
No way
No truth
No life are left.
12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.
36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
All hope of God and heaven outside of Jesus is vanity and worse.
Except through me is absolute and final.
It was once written:
The Gospel according to John 3. Jesus as the Way to the Father (14:5–14)
Follow thou me. I am the way and the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou must follow; the truth which thou must believe; the life for which thou must hope. I am the inviolable way; the infallible truth, the never-ending life. I am the straightest way; the sovereign truth; life true, life blessed, life uncreated.
As We Close…
As We Close…
What will you do with Jesus?
Will you believe His claims?
Today we’ve already read John 11:25-26. But it is important to consider it once more.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
There is no neutrality here.
Either we believe what Jesus said (and did) is true… or we believe it is a lie.
Each answer involves a step of faith.
Either you will place your trust in God or you’re going to go with yourself and reject God.
The issue is not how many “ways” there are … if there were 1000 ways we would want 1001. The issue is that we want to make our own way — and God has said, in his grace, I have made a way.”
And He has not left you alone in your existence.
He has come to you
He has died for you.
He has risen from the grave so that you might have life.
So, now will you receive His love?
And the most important question: will you call Him lord?
