The Exclusive/Inclusive Way

The ONLY Way to God

Text: John 13:31-14:11

Introduction: (What?)

On Thursday night, before what came to be known as “Good Friday”, the day that Christ was crucified, Jesus had to double-down on what He had been trying to communicate to His inner circle. It seems they had “ears to hear” but didn’t really get what He had been telling them over the past three years. With only hours left before He would be crucified, Jesus boiled His message down to “sound-bites” that perhaps would resonate with the disciples. Even then they just didn’t quite get it. We are no different. Although we have the whole canon of the Bible, we tend to pick and choose what we will believe and apply to our lives. We all have in our brains what is called a “reticular activating System” which filters out some things and lets other things through to our conscious mind. That’s what happened with the disciples.

In the latter verses of John 13 and all of John 14 we find enough Christology and Theology to build our lives on.

Examination: (Why?)

Listening but not hearing.

John 13:31–38 “When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so now I tell you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” “Lord,” Simon Peter said to him, “where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.” “Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.”

It seems as if Peter zoned out after hearing the phrase “Where I am going your cannot come.” His response in v 36 makes you wonder if he even heard Jesus’ “new command” about loving one another. He was totally focused on the previous statement. When he questioned Jesus about where He was going in vv36-37, Jesus responded by telling Peter that he was not nearly as brave as he thought he was. We’ll see a little later in chapter 14 that Peter was not alone in missing the message of Jesus as both Thomas and Philip reveal that they had not been paying attention to Jesus’ teaching.

While we are quick to think that Peter was too impetuous for his own good, we are just as guilty as he. We have our favorite scripture stories that stick in our minds while we completely block out other scriptures. We love to think about the concept of “once saved, always saved” while ignoring the scripture in Matthew 7:22–23 “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’”

Several years ago I stopped using the phrase “accepting Jesus” and replaced it with “surrendering to Jesus”. The reason I did this was I realized that accepting Jesus was a commitment that I controlled while surrendering to Him took everything out of my hands.

2. Believing is Seeing.

John 14:1–6 ““Don’t let your heart (Jesus is still talking to Peter, but the rest were listening in) 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 am going to prepare a place for you? 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. You know the way to where I am going.” “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Notice that Jesus said “Don’t let your heart (singular) be troubled.” He was still addressing Peter’s question, but the rest of the disciples tuned in. At this point it seems that He turned to the whole group and urged them to “believe” in God and in Him. Some translations say “You believe in God, believe also in Me”.

The reason believing also in Jesus as Messiah is so important is what He had told them before and repeats now about heaven and eternity. He assured them that there was plenty of room in God’s house for all of them, and that He was going to do the finish work on their eternal home, and then come back for them.

The Jesus wedding tradition is a picture of this. After the groom proposes (to the father of the bride) the “betrothal” takes place. This is legally binding and can only be broken by divorce. Then the groom goes back to his father’s house, and builds an addition onto the home place. When his father tells him it is finished, he returns for his bride. The wedding feast, lasting up to 7 days, happens, and then he takes his bride to “his father’s house” where he has prepared a place for them.

Jesus said to His guys, “If there was not enough room for you would I have promised to come back and get you? You know the way to where I am going.”

At this point Thomas joins the conversation and refutes Jesus. He said “We don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” You can almost see Jesus sigh and shrug His shoulders as he turns to Thomas. What He said was not only to Thomas, but also to the rest of the 11, and to us.

“I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

This is the exclusive statement that causes many in the world to discount Christianity. Many people think that there are multiple ways to God. Jesus said...only one way.

However, while this is an EXclusive statement, it is also INclusive as Paul points out in Romans 10:9–10 “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.”

Also Paul wrote in Romans 10:13 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And he also wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:1–4 “First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

So, although there is only one way to the Father, EVERYONE who surrenders to Christ is quaranteed a home in heaven.

3. The Father Revealed.

John 14:8–11 ““Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.”

Not only were the disciples confused regarding what was about to go down, they also were confused about who God is. It seems, from Philip’s request, that they had forgotten all the Messianic prophesies (350+) in their scriptures. In HIs reply to Philip, Jesus explained the first two persons of the Trinity. While the Father and the Son are two, they are also ONE.

Back in the 70’s there was a “God is Dead” movement. Within the last 15 years there were a series of movies that came out dealing with this movement. While everyone thought it was new, it stemmed from a German philosopher years ago. Their “mantra” was, “God is dead, but Jesus was a good moral teacher.”

The reality that you and I must embrace is that to know Jesus is to know God, and to get to God, we must go THROUGH Jesus. There is no other way.

RESPONSE: What does God want you to do today?

Have you surrendered to Jesus as “the way, truth and life”?

Can you recall the experience of being accepted by Jesus and knowing that you have an eternal home in heaven?

Are you depending on good works, or anything else to get you to heaven?