I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life

How long does it take to say “good bye”? If you are on an airplane, “buh-bye” may be all you get. If you have an Italian grandmother, you’re not gone until she empties her refrigerator of all the leftovers plus makes some sandwiches for the ride.

One author has written that here in the Midwest there are at least 9 stages to a proper goodbye. Watch this and see if you agree…

Play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VXz5W9hDbU

I mention good-byes because today’s text falls in the middle of Jesus’ good-bye to His Disciples. The passage from John 13-17 is commonly called the Upper Room Discourse because it is the dialogue Jesus had in the Upper Room during the last Passover before His crucifixion. During this dialogue Jesus seems to have 2 goals: 1) Prepare them for what is about to happen, and 2) Calm their anxiety.

I believe Jesus wants to calm our anxiety today so that we can live wisely in the challenges that we face.

Listen to Jesus’ reassuring words

John 14:1–6 ESV:2016

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.

Some people hear these words and their mind separates into then and now. Others hear these words and think here and there. I read these words and my mind considers this physical realm, and the spiritual realm. I believe Jesus is saying “Because I am the way to the very real (or true) spiritual realm, I offer you the truly abundant life.”

Transition: What are the connections between our realm of isolation, virus, unemployment, contagion, and economics; and the spiritual realm of truth and life?”

The Realm of Troubled Hearts (John 14:1a)

Diagnosis - Circumstances

1. they were anxious because their Master was going to leave and they didn’t feel adequate for the work that lay ahead.

2. Jesus had announced that a traitor sat at their table, and they wondered who he was.

3. But they were all shocked when Jesus said Peter would deny Him three times! They saw Peter as their leader, and if a bold and important man like Peter failed his Lord, what might the rest of them do?

4. Today we wrestle with the same anxieties. How are we going to get by in the future? We are suspicious of those around us that we used to trust. We are seeing the fallibility of those who we thought were our leaders.

Those who are most anxious are those who give most attention to press releases, statistical reports, and conjecture. I’m not asking you to ignore the world around us, but “stay at home” orders seem to be increasing the amount of time we are watching television, youtube and Facebook, which is increasing anxiety in many of our neighbors. Our desire to be informed is actually working against our peace of mind.

Antidote – the Father’s House, Heart & Help

1. When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, the Lord replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

2. This helps us better understand the familiar statement in John 14:6.

a. Jesus is the way and takes believers to the Father’s house.

b. Jesus is the truth and reveals the Father’s heart.

c. Jesus is the life and brings the Father to us so we can have His help.

3. We begin the pilgrimage to the Father’s house by trusting Jesus because He is the way. We continue on our journey by learning more truth about Jesus and the Father (2 Peter 3:18). We enjoy both the way and the truth because we share the life of Jesus and obey His will.

4. Jesus is the way—the only way—to our final home, the Father’s house. And that is enough to encourage us to keep going.

During these last 5 weeks, if you have been viewing the services, you have heard me say how important it is for spiritual health that we all spend time in God’s Word daily. It is because spending time in God’s Word reminds us of God’s heart. It is in the pages of Scripture that we are told of what is important to God and should be important to us.

5. While He is rarely identified as “Father” in the Hebrew Scriptures, both testaments reveal to us the heart of our Father. Through History, Prophecy and Poetry we see God’s loving protection and providence in spite of stubbornness of those He loves.

6. Jesus is the way to the Father’s house and the truth about the Father’s heart; but He is also the one who brings us the Father’s help as we abide in Him and share His life. The will of God never leads us where the grace and power of God cannot help us and see us through.

7. God didn’t give us His Word so we could explain it to others but that we might experience it ourselves and live it out for others to see the Lord. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).

8. The key truth is “Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). God’s Son, God’s Word, God’s grace, and God’s Spirit don’t simply encourage us; they enable us!

Transition: The enablement we possess moves us to another realm, the realm of fruitfulness.

· You may have seen, as I have, that during physical distancing the church has not been cancelled, She has been deployed!

My heart overflowed last weekend as I read of how your Easter celebrations were so communal. Thanking one another for gifts for children, recipes, baskets left on porches, sharing of pictures and décor were all joyful connecting points with one another and our community!

The Realm of Fruitful Hearts (John 15:5)

I’ll give you a hint about next Sunday’s sermon—Jesus is the source of a life that bears fruit, more fruit, and much fruit!

Separation from Sin (Ps 1:1-3)

1. In order to receive God’s blessing, we must be obedient people, the kind of people He can bless. We must be separated from the world—what John described as “the cravings of sinful people, the lust of their eyes and their boasting about what they have and do” (1 John 2:16)—and instead walk with the Lord and the Lord’s people. But if the people who mock the things of God are influencing our hearts and minds, then we are forfeiting the blessing of God. If we are walking in the shadows or the darkness and not in the light, and lying about it, the Lord cannot bless (1 Jn 2:5–10).

The rain and the warm temperatures a week ago had some wonderous impact upon my lawn. Yes, things started to turn a beautiful green that quickly gave way to yellow “flowers” and purple Henbit.

2. The beauty of a green lawn gets crowded out when the undesirable weeds go unchecked.

Several of us will be replanting vegetables after the overnight freezes of the last few days. The first step to a fruitful garden is to till the soil and make it fertile for the plants. When weeds begin to appear, and the WILL appear, they will compete with the vegetable plants for the water and the nutrients of the soil so a healthy garden is dependent upon removing the undesirable volunteer plants.

3. The fruitfulness of your life, the extent to which the Fruit of the Spirit will be noticed by others, is the extent to which you remove the temptations of the world that compete for your affection.

If you want a beautiful new lawn like Trenton Harshman, or an abundant flower garden like Elwanda McCabe, or a bountiful vegetable garden like Bruce Wells, you’ve got to deal with the weeds!

Transition: This leads to another essential for God’s blessing: delighting constantly in the Word of God.

Delight in God’s Word (Psalm 119)

1. Almost every verse in Psalm 119 mentions the Word of God.

2. Consider the images the writer used to tell us how much God’s truth meant to him.

a. He would rather have God’s Word than food (v. 103),

b. wealth (vv. 14, 72, 127, 162),

c. sleep (vv. 55, 62, 147–148, 164),

d. or even friends (vv. 51, 95, 115)!

3. Ask yourself, “Do I love the Word of God that much?”

Transition: The fruitful or prosperous life is the one that God blesses. In contrast, John’s Gospel also records what happens when the Way, Truth and Life are ignored.

The Realm of Rebellious Hearts

Rejecting the Way (John 6:60-66)

John 6:66 (ESV) — After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

· This occurs shortly after the feeding of the 5,000. Some people were attracted to Jesus as long as he was filling their bellies. But when obedience became difficult they abandoned the way.

Rejecting the Truth (John 12:37)

John 12:37 (ESV) — Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

1. The middle chapters of John are full of miracles where Jesus authenticates that He came from the Father by demonstrating power over death, disease and disasters.

2. Jesus warned them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you” (Jn 12:35),

3. but they refused to listen. Jesus is the truth and preached the truth, but they would not believe Him!

Rejecting the Life (John 19:14-16)

1. The third and final crisis is recorded in John 18—19. Though Jesus is the life, they crucified Him!

2. They chose death over life.

Transition: As I mentioned earlier, we learn the heart of God when we read the Scriptures. I’m so thankful that the heart of God is exposed in a passage like Luke 15.

The Realm of Repentant Hearts (Luke 15:11-32)

1. Our Lord’s parable of the Loving Father describes the spiritual condition of all who have turned their backs on God and are wasting their lives pleasing themselves.

2. Sinners are lost, but Jesus is the way to the Father’s house.

3. Sinners are uninformed, but Jesus is the truth about the Father.

4. Sinners are spiritually dead, but Jesus is the life and shares it with those who repent and trust Him.

5. The boy knew his life was in a mess and that it was all his fault, but that wasn’t what motivated him to return home.

6. It was not the badness of the sinner but the goodness of the father that drew him back home.

Conclusion:

Romans 2:4 (ESV) —… God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Romans 2:4 ESV:2016

4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Perhaps you’ve never consciously placed your trust in Christ. Today can be the day when you admit to God that you are a sinner. That your way is not going to get you where you want to be.

You can believe the truth that Jesus came from Heaven, lived a sinless life and died in your place.

If you repent of your sin and confess Jesus as your Lord you can receive His gift of eternal life!

On the other hand, you may have already placed your trust in Christ as some point, but you’ve wandered from the joy of the blessed life. Maybe you’ve let the weeds of anxiety and worldliness squeeze out the tender shoots of truth, your life is not marked by the fruit of God’s Spirit. If you’ve wandered from the place of blessing, today can be your opportunity to come back to the way, truth and life that God intends through obedience to Jesus and His Word.

Our final song this morning is a reminder that the Government is not our salvation. Our wits are not our salvation. Our jobs or our savings are not our salvation.

[i] Warren W. Wiersbe, Jesus in the Present Tense: The I Am Statements of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2011).