I Am: "The Way The Truth and The Life
Notes
Transcript
Greeting:
Greeting:
Good morning everyone
Welcome visitors
Come back and be with us tonight and Wednesday night
Lesson Text:
Lesson Text:
John 14:1-7
Opening:
Opening:
This morning we are continuing on with our series of lessons looking at the 7 “I am” statements made by Jesus.
We are hoping that throughout this study we are gaining insight as to who our Lord and Savior is.
As we have said each week, I think its so important we take Jesus’s words and truly understand what they mean for us.
He’s giving us valuable insight as to who he is with these statements…
So I hope we are learning who He is and what that means for us is truly life changing.
If we could all understand and get others to undertand the value and the importance of who Jesus was and his relationship with us the world would be so much better off...
This morning we come to the next to last statement. The 6th statement Jesus makes.
We come to John 14 and find some of maybe the most comforting words we could ever read.
We are studying a passage this morning thats pronanly one of if not my favorite passages in all of scripture.
A passage that I hope we all can take hope in, assurance in, and comfort in knowing today.
Lesson:
Lesson:
As we come to our text this morning its important that we understand again the setting and context of Jesus’s words…
If we back up to chapter 13 we can see the events that unfold to lead us to where we are this morning…
It’s the final night of Jesus’s life, by this time tomorrow Jesus will be executed on the cross.
In chapter 13 we see Judas identified as the betrayer…
Jesus is left with the remaining eleven apostles…
After speaking with them for a bit he tells them that he is going to go away and where he is going they cant come…
Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?”
Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.”
Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.”
We can see what Jesus tells them and Peter’s response even, him wanting to know why they can’t follow him…
Jesus again tells them where he is going they can’t come right now..
But soon they will. They will soon be able to follow him…
It’s right at this conversation we pick up there in John 14 with our next statement this morning…
I want us first this morning to imagine the context here of what is going on and the magnitude of it…
Imagine someone you’ve devoted your whole life to.
Someone you love, care about, someone you gave everything up for…
And they tell you they’re leaving, and not just on a trip or somewhere you can visit but are gone…
And that they can’t go there yet either?
Imagine how you would feel?
This is exactly how I am sure the apostles felt, hearing these words from Jesus.
Jesus knowing this and knowing their emotions offers some of the most beautiful words of encouragement for them and for any faithful Christian we can read…
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
As mentioned, I am sure the apostles hearts were troubled…
And Jesus knowing this gives the answer or solution for their troubled hearts…
This verse…
Let not your hearts be troubled…
Don’t be worried, don’t be upset, don’t fret…
Jesus tells them the answer for their troubled hearts is their belief and their faith in God and in Jesus…
Jesus not only through this statement again establishes who he is and his deity as God, but he begins to provide comfort to them through His words…
But also with these words came a challenge for the disciples and for us as well…
The challenge for them would be not to believe what their eyes would see in less than 24 hours…
Jesus will be arrested and killed, hung on a cross.
They aren’t to believe that he is truly dead…
But they were to turn to their faith and belief in Jesus that these words he is going to offer them are true…
This same challenge is there for us today too!
Do we trust in the Lord?
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
When our heart are troubled, when our hearts are groaning, we need to turn to and rely on our faith in Jesus and His word…
This means for us that we trust not in the world, or ourselves, or even what our eyes may see upon this earth, but we place our complete and whole trust in Jesus and His word…
Just as Jesus wanted them to believe back then we need to believe this same statement today…God is not dead, Jesus is not dead…
Both are very much still alive…
But we must believe this…
In a world full of darkness and sin we must believe there is still a light…
The light of Christ…
As we go back to our text we continue on to read the beautiful words of Jesus…
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
There is so much comfort to be found in these words of Jesus..
That’s why as I said this may be one of my favorite passages…
The amount of comfort and hope that’s found here is amazing!
Here we see Jesus continues to explain to them as to why He must leave…
Jesus has to go and leave so that He can prepare the home for all those who believe…
Him leaving is what’s going to give us everything we could hope and want for one day in heaven…
He is going to prepare this place, a place of perfection, for us…
He tells them there are many mansions there in this place he is preparing for us…
Don’t let that word trick our minds…
The original translation of this word simply means an abode or dwelling place…
Sometimes I think we have this idea that we are all gonna get our own giant house full or riches in heaven, but I don't think that’s what Jesus is trying to say…
What Jesus wants us to know from this is that there is plenty of room, there is a massive, eternal dwelling place for all those who believe…
There is a dwelling place for all of eternity in the presence of God…
What better place could we ever be?
Where else could we possibly find more comfort than a home in heaven with God…
So Jesus tells them that he is going to to prepare His place…
He is foretelling them of what must take place to have this place prepared…
He isn't saying he is going to clean the house, fold the laundry, prepare the house for company…
He is telling them again, that he is going to face death…
In order for us to have this hope of heaven He must die…
His death burial and resurrection must take place…
He then must ascend to haven to be back reunited with God so that one day he can come again to receive us…
Again as we study through this today I hope we fully see and appreciate this..
Jesus and all he did for us so that we can have this reward and this home…
This hope and comfort is all possible only because of what Jesus did for us by facing death…
How amazing is that to know that’s the Savior we have?
What he has done for each of us should never go unappreciated…
I challenge you anytime you feel like you’ve forgotten about what he did for us go back and read the account of the crucifixion, study what he went through for us…
But back to the text for a moment there in verse 3…
We can see not only is there comfort found here in the words of Jesus, but we also see something else…
We see a promise made by Him…
In verse 3…
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Jesus tells them that if He goes then He will come again and receive them to Himself…
He says where He is there will they also be…
Jesus gives them this conditional promise that if He goes to prepare this place which He did…
By going to the cross, facing death, dying, buried, resurrecting defeating death and ascending to the Father…
Then he will come again and bring his disciples with Him…
To be with them forever…
Can you fully imagine and comprehend what he is saying…
Faithful Christians will be in heaven for eternity with Jesus…
I think sometimes we forget about what heaven is…
Heaven isn't the mansion, streets of gold, or even the harps, or angels or anything else…
Now while some of that will be there maybe literally or figuratively that’s not the point…
The point is that heaven is being where Jesus is…
Worshipping Him…
This should be all our desire, all our hope, this is what heaven should mean to us…
Sometimes we throw that saying around…
“This is heaven on Earth…”
Maybe when we are in some surreal place, or some perfect event or hobby, whatever it is…
But that’s not what heaven is nor even close…
Heaven is being with Jesus forever, worshipping Him…
So I ask a serious question this morning with all the love in the world…
If we don’t enjoy being with Jesus right now more than anything else, if we don’t enjoy and prioritize worshipping Him now, what makes us think we are going to enjoy it for eternity?
If we don’t enjoy being here in the house of God worshipping him right now, if we don’t see more value in this than anything else in the world, what makes us think we will in heaven?
Heaven is all about worshipping and being with God forever…
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Thats what heaven is…
Worshipping God…
Back to the text, as we continue on to look at Jesus’s words…
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, 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; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
It’s here in these verses we find our next “I am” statement this morning…
But Jesus’s words up to this point have now sparked a question from them…
Thomas asks this question saying, “Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus responds with the sixth “I am” statement we have studied and gives him an answer…
He tells them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
We see Thomas in verse 5 ask, “how can we know the way?”
Jesus tells him He is the way…
He is the way and also the truth and the life and its through Him and by Him that we can access and have the truth and the life…
Jesus is first the way because he is the truth and he is life…
He is the only way unto which we can go to heaven and God…
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
It’s only by Him we can have salvation, through no other way…
No matter what the world says or anyone else says, Gods word tells us there is only one way…
And that way is Jesus…
He is the truth because he embodies the supreme revelation of God..
He embodies everything about God, and we know most certainly God cant lie…
We know that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are all one but separate, but all rooted on the basis of truth…
And we can connect that directly to Gods word…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.
And then ultimately he is the life…
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
Eternal life is only found in Christ…
Again, no one else…
Today in the world we live we see it offer us many things…
It offers many different ways, truths, and life’s…
The world offers many pleasures, many different paths we can go down through life..
Even religiously now there are many different ways offered out there for people to take…
However, all of these ways, truths, and life’s, any way apart from Jesus, all lead to destruction…
Only the way the truth and life that is rooted in Christ leads us to eternal life with Christ…
Verse 7 back in our text elaborates more on this way and how we can know…
If we know Jesus then we know the Father.
If we believe in Jesus, we believe in the Father..
If we have a relationship with Jesus then we have a relationship with the Father…
So this should tell us exactly what we need to do…
We need to know Jesus, we need to have a relationship with him, we need to believe in Him…
When we look throughout scripture we can see the plan God has laid out for us to become a child of God, to have that relationship, to be added to His church…
We see how one must hear believe repent confess and be baptized…
But also how one must live faithfully.
Live a faithful life, keeping that close relationship with Christ so that we can be found faithful on that last day…
If we do those things then this that we have read this morning should be some of the most encouraging words we could ever read and study…
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This morning as we get ready to wrap up I hope we can see the importance on Jesus’s words this morning…
Along with the hope and comfort he gives us…
He gives us the prescription to a troubled heart in these verses…
He gives us hope that if we are faithful that one day we are going to be reunited with Him in heaven…
Can you imagine how amazing its going to be to no longer have to worry about anything we do here on earth…
There is no more sickness no sin no sadness…
No hustle and bustle and all that life has to offer…
Nothing we worry about, stress about, all anxiety and fears, all of that will be no more..
Honestly I don't think we can fathom that but I sure hope we try…
I hope we try to envision of what a eternal home with Christ in heaven will be like…
I hope we use that to motivate us, encourage us, and comfort us so that we can know we have this place of rest waiting for us one day…
This morning if you aren't a Christian don't miss out..
Don’t miss out on the greatest place, blessing, and home you cold ever have…
Don’t miss out on heaven…
If you are a Christian this morning but maybe have lost sight of heaven or lost sight of Christ don't miss out either…
Don’t miss heaven…
Jesus wants us there with Him…
This morning if any of us have sin in our life, need to become a Chrisitan, need to prayers encouragement whatever it is, let us come this morning…
