Jesus -The Only Way to the Father

John 13:33 -John 14:11 Jesus -The Only Way to the Father Introduction: Jesus brings us to a question that people of all times cultures, beliefs have considered… What is beyond this life and how do we get there? Again it is interesting that before Jesus is going to spell out all that he has for the Apostles world wide mission he wants them to be assured of who he is, to have faith in him and him alone, to know that they have a personal connection with God the Father and an anchor in the Eternal Life through him… it is only from this place of confidence that they can launch out on their world wide mission…..Only from the confidence that they will at long last arrive safely at home… 1. A Place in the Father’s House 1. Jesus seems to be introducing a whole new subject here. After exhorting them to love one another in the same way that he has loved them and to love one another out of that love, he turns now to give them words of encouragement. 2. “Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God; believe also in me.” 1. Jesus knows that at this point the disciples are feeling discouraged. Jesus has told them that he is going away and that they cannot follow him now. Peter objects to this (again) insisting that though all others may leave he will never let Jesus go. Jesus tells Peter that he will actually deny him three times before morning. 1. We need to understand how discouraging this news would be. Remember first off that the disciples believed this to be the moment when Jesus was going to set up the Kingdom of David. He was going to finally put the Jewish leaders in their place, and overthrow the Roman tyranny. But now on the eve of this revolution Jesus says that he’s leaving.. Where is he going, and for how long? Why can’t they come? What about Israel? What about all that he taught them?? Not only that but the leader of the Apostles (Peter) is going to defect before the break of day. If Peter is not going to last through the night how will the rest of them? 2. Jesus tells them not to be troubled by all this but instead, believe in God and believe in him.. 1. Let’s make it clear, that when Jesus says to believe in God and to believe in him he is not giving them some ethereal, meaningless mantra like - ‘don’t worry, things will work themselves out’, ‘just trust’; or ‘Just believe in yourself’…. The Bible knows nothing of this kind of “belief”. Jesus is telling them to bolster all that is troubling them with what they know about the Father and what they have seen of Jesus. -Trust me because I’ve proven that I am good and that I love you….(there is a lesson here for us also) 2. Now Jesus list out 2 reasons why their hearts should not be troubled… 1. “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 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.” 1. Jesus is going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for the disciples that they might be with him. 2. There are many things we could ask about this statement and many things we could talk about but I think the main focus is this: Jesus is going to secure our place with the Father. The Father’s house (the only other time this phrase is used is in reference to the temple, the dwelling place of God, the meeting place of heaven and earth) The Father’s house is where the Father dwells which as the Bible teaches is eventually in a new heaven and a new earth with his people. Jesus is going to secure our way to Eternal Life, life in the age to come and will return to usher us into it. 3. Jesus is going to the Father, to get ready the Father’s house, and there is room for everyone! 2. “And you know the way to where I am going.” 1. Jesus assures the disciples that though he is going away it is for their ultimate good. Though they can’t follow him now, they will later for they know where he is going and they know the way to get there. 2. I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life 1. “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’” Sometimes we mock the disciples for their seeming ignorance but we must remember they did not have the Holy Spirit and were trying to understand all of this pre-resurrection. 2. “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.” 1. This is the continual claim of the Gospel of John -Eternal Life, life with the Father, only through, Jesus, the unique Son. He is the way to God, the truth of God and the Life of God. He is the way to follow, the truth to Guide us and the life to empower us…. 1. Jesus insist that he who has seen him has seen the Father…. We are told elsewhere that Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” “He is the image of the invisible God”… “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Luther said, ”forget all speculation about God; hold onto the man Jesus Christ - He is the only God we’ve got.” 3. But how can there be only one way? 1. The World has scoffed at this claim for centuries. -Isn’t this the height of arrogance, to imagine that Jesus or anyone else was the only way? Don’t Christians know that this kind of claim has caused so much damage around the world, with Jesus followers insisting that people give up their own ways of life and follow Jesus instead? Because of these types of objections even “Christians" now deny or back peddle with the idea of Jesus’ own uniqueness. 2. The Trouble with this is that it doesn’t work. If you dethrone Jesus, you enthrone something, or someone, else instead. 3. The belief that ‘all religions are the same’ sounds nice and democratic - though a study of religions quickly shows that it isn’t true. What you are really saying is that none of them are more than distant echoes, distorted images of reality - claiming that reality, God, the divine is finally remote and unknowable…. 4. The idea of vague general truth, to which all religions bear some kind of oblique witness, is foreign to Christianity. 1. The whole New Testament - the whole of early Christianity insists that the one true and living God, the Creator, is the God of Israel; and that the God of Israel has acted decisively, within history, to bring Israel’s story to it’s proper goal, and through that to address and rescue, the world. And that God has done this through his only unique Son, God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. 2. If, in, Jesus God has come among us in person to reconcile his rebellious lost world, it necessarily follows, that through him and him alone, is the Way to God…. 3. "Follow thou me. I am the way, the truth, 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; the authentic life, life blessed, life uncreated.” -Thomas A Kempis 4. Jesus is the only way, for all people. If you want God, if you want Life, if you want Hope in this life and on into the next, you must come to him….You must follow him, you must stick close to him, there is no other way… 1. “Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion."I am dying of thirst," said Jill. "Then drink," said the Lion. "May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill. The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. "Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill. "I make no promise," said the Lion. Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer. "Do you eat girls?" she said. "I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it. "I daren't come and drink," said Jill. "Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion. "Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.” "There is no other stream," said the Lion.”― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair Conclusion: The real answer is that, though it is true, many Christians and churches have been arrogant in the way they have presented the Gospel - but the whole setting of this passage shows that such arrogance is a denial of the very truth it’s claiming to present. The Truth, the Life, through which we know and find the way, is Jesus himself: the Jesus who washed the disciples feet and told them to copy his example, the Jesus that was on his way to give his life as the shepherd for the sheep. Was that arrogant? Was that self serving? Only when Christians recover the nerve to follow Jesus in his own mission and vocation, will it be able to recover it’s full ability to make the claim to Jesus as THE WAY. Stick with Jesus - though you might doubt, though you don’t fully understand, though others may scoff and mock, he alone has claimed and demonstrated this unique oneness with and to God the Father…..