The Only Way

Introduction: C

Tension:

Question: What changes will be required of us to truly embrace Jesus as The Way, The Truth, And The Life?

Verse-by-Verse Exposition:

John 14:1–7 (ESV)

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Jesus is wanting them to have their hearts troubles relieved by believing and having faith in Him, not their circumstances. That is true faith. It’s foundation is on Jesus, not what’s going on around them!

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.

Jesus is talking about Heaven. Christian, be encouraged, Jesus has a place for you in Heaven. Poor college student, be encouraged, because Jesus won’t charge you monthly rent. He already paid it in full.

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?”

Thomas doesn’t hesitate to voice his objection “uh, Jesus, we aint gotta clue where you’re going man. I’m gonna be real, I’m beyond confused right now.

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the all-encompassing source of truth and life, so of course He is THE WAY. If the disciples had been tracking with Jesus, this is a no brainer!

The Gospel according to John (3. Jesus as the Way to the Father (14:5–14))

The meditation of Thomas à Kempis is often quoted: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.

7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

So many people say “man I just want to see God.” Jesus is telling His disciples “hey look at me…now you’ve seen God!” However, that doesn’t mean that the disciples had a full grasp that Jesus was God in flesh coming to die for the sins of all who would believe in Him!

So what are some conclusions that we can draw from this passage about Jesus:

Believing in Jesus eternally relieves our troubled hearts (14:1) - - What cure does Jesus point to relieve their troubled hearts? Faith in Him. Augustine said it well: “our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”It’s worth noting that Jesus is saying this is hours before his arrest and ensuing crucifixion, but he takes time to comfort the hearts of His disciples even in the dawn of his death. Listen to how D.A. Carson describes it… It is Jesus who is heading for the agony of the cross; it is Jesus who is deeply ‘troubled’ in heart (12:27) and spirit (13:21). Yet on this night of nights, when of all times it would have been appropriate for Jesus’ followers to lend him emotional and spiritual support, he is still the one who gives, comforts, instructs. For they, too, are troubled—not because they are rushing toward pain, shame, crucifixion, but because they are confused, uncertain of what Jesus means, and threatened by references to his imminent departure. However appropriate it may be to cite the words Do not let your hearts be troubled at Christian funerals, they were first addressed to disciples who under substantial emotional pressure were on the brink of catastrophic failure. -D.A. Carson

Metaphor: College is a great time to learn what the best comforts food are. Comfort food drive the Freshman 15, right? The problem is, that that comfort food turns into comfort meal, then comfort diets, bc we can never get enough, right! Believing in Jesus is the “comfort food” for the soul that satisfies with one serving. Psalm 34:8 is onto something when it says taste and see that the Lord is good!

Those who follow Jesus will have a place prepared by Him in Heaven. (14:2-3)

Metaphor: You know that friend you have where it doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, you just enjoy being with them? And it’s always a tough goodbye, even if it’s just until the next day. Well, it’s like that way with Jesus. And we don’t have to get too caught up in these rooms Jesus is talking about, because he says he’s preparing things so “that where I am you may be also.” The point is we’re going to get to be with Jesus forever. He’s made arrangements for an eternal, unchanging, perfect hangout where we never have to say goodbye!

You can know a lot about Jesus without truly knowing Him. (14:5)

Metaphor: I met Matt Chandler, but that doesn’t mean I KNOW him right? I shook his hand but I couldn’t tell you his favorite color. I’ve listened to over a hundred of his sermons but I don’t know what he needs prayer for. Because I don’t truly know him, know him. We can know facts about Jesus and say all the right things without knowing Him, which is where Thomas still was at this point in the narrative...

The only way to Heaven is through Jesus (14:6)

Metaphor: Fall Retreat. There is really only one road that you can turn on to get there. Some of you did what I did last year and went all the way into Capitan. As long of a drive it is, you can probably take some different routes, it all narrows down to that one county dirt road if you want to get there. You know, all of us come from different backgrounds, places, struggles, but the only way to forgiveness is the road to calvary straight to the foot of the cross, friends. the Road to salvation is a one-lane, one direction highway, and you won’t feel the need to leave once you arrive.

If you know Jesus, you know God. If you don’t know Jesus, you don’t know God. (14:7)

Metaphor: Jason Castro. I only knew his singing voice, but I didn’t know his appearance. If I would have known his appearance, I would have known it truly was him! When the disciples saw Jesus physically, they should have known ‘that is God in flesh.’ Once He was resurrected all of them had this “ah ha!” moment and said that voice and person we have been one is not just a man, He is God!

Transition: We have talked about Jesus’ making exclusive claims, and in tonight’s passage, Jesus without a doubt is saying “I’m the only way to Heaven, I am the author, source and objective truth of the world, and I am the only one who can provide for you the life you need, both now and in eternity. In other words, Jesus is the ultimate direction to go, the ultimate objective truth, and the ultimate source of Life.

And this claim looks at the worldview of our modern day reaches over and gives it a pill so big to swallow that it will choke to death if it tries. In other words, Jesus’ claims about how we should view Him and the claims of a modern secular society are not friends…they are enemies. And in this war, Jesus will win. There is no doubt about that.

Reasons that people object to Jesus being the only way?

they don’t think there is a “way” at all. They have a godless worldview (atheist)

They don’t know if we can be for sure there is a way or not (agnostic)(they don’t think absolute truth exists and do you know what you ask someone when they say “there is no such thing as absolute truth?” You ask them “are you absolutely sure about that?” So if someone denies a way to know truth, it’s gonna be troublesome for them to accept Jesus’ claims saying I AM The Truth.)

They don’t care if there is a way or not. “Does it matter bc we’re all just gonna die anyway” they say (nihilist or lazy person ha)

They make their judgment about Jesus based on so-called followers, not Jesus Himself (rejecting people calling themselves xians or a church who don’t act like Jesus. You’re not rejecting Jesus, you’re rejecting fake followers. (examples are ppl hurt by xians, ppl hearing false doctrine, ppl not knowing the differences between Catholicism and protestantism and lump all of us into the same group, or maybe have a weird encounter with a cult disguising itself as xianity, like Mormonism, Jehovah’s witness and some others…

They don’t think it’s fair that there is only one way when there are so many other religions out there (how arrogant and absurd to claim that you out of the millions of other ways have the ONLY WAY, they say.

Regardless of where you stand...

Show me a way of life that you have chosen without God and I’ll show you a better way with God.

Show me a life without ultimate truth and entirely confusing and without direction and I’ll show you a life with Jesus as the ultimate truth full of clarity and purpose.

Show me a reason for not believing in Jesus because of bad experiences you’ve had under the banner of his name, and I’ll show you His nailed scarred hands and tell you “His death can overcome even the power of other’s sins that have kept you from Him if you’ll allow!”

You tell me it’s not fair for Jesus to claim He is the only way, and I’ll say to you “ok, you ask your god if he’ll get crucified for your sins…wait where did he go? oh, he didn’t stick around did he? Jesus has earned the right to claim He is the only way...

show me another man that claims to be the way, and I’ll show you a God Man that paved the way to Heaven for us with his body, blood, sweat, and tears. The Road that Jesus paved to calvary came at a high cost: his own life.

Common misunderstanding of Christians about what this means for their life:

1. Jesus is just one of the ways, one of the truths and one little part of my life.

When Jesus is a small little god in your life, you will never experience the life transforming power He has for you, and honestly, I would hesitate to say that you are a Christian, because the Bible says to believe in Jesus to be saved, but if your Jesus is a small little Jesus that doesn’t have the power and authority to tell you He is the only way, the ultimate truth, and the source of eternal life, then you are not worshiping Jesus at all, but just a figment of your imagination.

2. You act as if you yourself are the way, the truth, and the life

Let me show you where this breaks down. I’m gonna go straight for the jugular of your typical life experience…let’s talk about the general struggle with anxiety in your age, not clinical, but general. I’m talking about an anxiety that is ultimately under your control, not diagnosed by someone saying “unless you take this, you will remain anxious.”

Millenials and Gen-Z are so anxious all the time, and Christians are no an exeption... Why?

Because how we function day-to-day is like this.. we may not say it, but with how we live our lives we say about ourselves “I am God. I am the way, the truth and the life.” You worship of the idol of yourself...

And so when we put ourselves as the Way, what that means as we have rested our entire life’s purpose and meaning upon what we can do and accomplish within ourselves. Whatever we do, or wherever we go is driving us. So when things go wrong, even the littlest of things, we get anxious, because our God, aka, ourself, is not functioning properly.

And let’s talk about truth. Instead of looking at God’s Word and treating like God speaking to us authoritative truth, we say ‘no what I feel is truth. And I feel right now that everyone hates me and no one likes me and that’s why it takes all my friends at least 2 minutes to reply to my texts...” And so when we govern what is truth in our life, we say I’m God, and guess what, we are wrong and untruthful quite a bit, so we worship a God, ourselves, that is not actually truthful, and of course that causes some angst!

Lastly, we look in the mirror and say “I am the life.” I decide what is life-giving, all that I do and all that I will become will be the pinnacle and essence of living. For many of us, your world revolves around you. You act as if you are the source of life. It’s one thing to love yourself, but we have a lot of self worshipers..and guess what, when we worship ourselves and say “in me and all that I am is life,” we are worshiping someone, ourselves, that can only yield death, not life. The only one that can yield life is Jesus, but we have said, naw, I’ll take myself. And when life doesn’t go as we had hoped and we don’t prove to be as life-giving as we thought, of course that makes us anxious and maybe a little bit depressed

Resolve: Friends, for some reason we try to worship a little bitty Jesus, but that Jesus doesn’t even exist. That’s not the Jesus who created the world with His words, that’s not the Jesus who parted the red sea, that’s not the Jesus who provided bread for five thousand people with just a few loaves, that’s not the Jesus who turned water into wine, that’s not the Jesus who rose Lazarus from the dead, who caused the blind to see, who made the lame walk, and the deaf to hear…now that Jesus is the Jesus who has all power and authority to say “I AM THE WAY, THe TRUTH, ANd THE LIfe,” and only by believing in me and following me will you be saved from your sins and find true life.