I AM THE WAY, TRUTH, AND THE LIFE

A few months ago, I was driving and trying to find a friend’s house. I have never been there before. If you know me then you know that I have no sense of direction when it comes to driving. So, on this evening I get out my GPS and I put the address in. Usually it’s pretty trustworthy but, not that night!

That evening it took me to a whole different town then where my friend lived. It even told me to go straight ahead when all I seen a head of me was a cliff. On top of that my gas tank was almost on E and my phone was about to die. I started to get agitated and confused. Eventually I found some signs that pointed me in the right direction and I was able to find my way home.

Have you been there? Where you were lost and didn’t know which way to go. I think we all have at one point or another. Maybe it wasn’t you driving somewhere but, it was a turning point in your life.

• Such as a struggle in a relationship or marriage

• Such as a health scare or financial burden

• Such as what to do when you are approaching retirement

• Such as anything else that threatens the normality of life

There is good news though, we aren’t alone in this. Even the early disciples of Christ struggled with this. They struggled with knowing which way to go and where to turn too. That’s until Jesus gives them some divine direction. Let’s read John 14:1-7 as Jesus gives another, I AM Statement found in the gospel of John. He proclaims I AM: The Way, truth, and the life.

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. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” - John 14:1–7 (ESV)

Let your hearts not be troubled

Jesus begins our text by telling the Disciples “Let not your hearts be troubled”. It wasn’t that long ago though that Jesus confessed that his heart was troubled. In John 12:27 he says that his “heart is troubled” because of the agony and pain that was waiting for him ahead on the journey to the cross.

Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) says....

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Jesus has feelings like we do. Jesus wept. Jesus became angry, Jesus showed happiness. Jesus expressed emotions. So, when we experience pain and sorrow, he understands what we are going through because He felt the same thing. Now the disciples had good reasons for their Holy unrest. Jesus prophetically tells them that one of them will betray Him and another would deny Him three times. On top of all that he then tells them that He is going away. Everything seems to be falling apart. Jesus and his disciples spent so much time together for the past three years. They have developed friendships with one another. Some have left their jobs and even their families to follow Christ.

A troubled heart can be found in anyone, even a Christ-follower. There are several reasons that your heart can be troubled. Such as a loss of a loved one, a struggling marriage, suffering from a sickness or disease and so on...The remedy to a troubled heart is to look to Jesus. Only those who know sorrow are able to give comfort. Isaiah 53:3 refers to Jesus as "a Man of sorrows." Thus, acquainted with sorrow Himself, He can soothe the hearts of His disciples when they become sorrowful and troubled.

Believe in God, Believe also in me

Jesus goes on and tells his disciples to “Believe in God, believe also in me” Now Most people believe in God or a god or more than one god but, not many believe in Jesus Christ. If you talk to someone and ask them “Do you believe in God”? I’d say about 9 out of 10 people will say “yes I believe in God”. But if you go up to the same people and ask “Do you believe in Jesus”? You will get a totally different response because, now you are getting specific. To believe means that we put our trust, confidence, and faith in something or someone.

It’s a lot like times when we get lost and don’t have a GPS or map so we have to stop and ask for directions at a gas station. We trust what they say is true and put our confidence in them that they know what they are talking about and will lead us in the right direction. Sometimes we can have doubts though. Like does this person even know what they are talking about?!

It can be like that in our spiritual life too. The late Billy Graham said: “In August of 1949, I was so filled with doubts about everything that when I stood to preach and made a statement, I would say to myself: I wonder if that is the truth. I wonder if I can really say that sincerely. My ministry had gone. I then took the Bible up into the high Sierra Nevada mountains in California. I opened it and got on my knees. I pled, ‘Father I cannot understand many things in this Book. I cannot come intellectually all the way, but I accept it by faith to be authoritative, the inspired Word of the living God!”

Even the great Billy Graham had doubts. I don’t think you can have faith without doubt and doubt without faith. Because the Holy Spirit will lead us to the truth and it will set us free.

In the Old Testament we have Abraham who was asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar and was told by God to leave his country to a land that He would show him and God would make him into a great nation. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness. Abraham was considered a friend of God so we as God’s children can talk to Him like friends do. We can be honest and real with Him about how we feel. Such as “God, I don’t think anyone respects or appreciates me.”

We have to make sure though, that when we tell him how we feel that we allow Him to navigate us by faith and not by our feelings. No matter what you are going through know that you can conquer it by the one who lives in you.

In my Father’s house are many rooms

Jesus gives his disciple comforts and encourages them to have belief in Him as he shifts there focus from an earthly kingdom to a spiritual kingdom. Jesus tells them “In my Father’s house are many rooms”. Hunter has a very perceptive comment on this, thus:

The day before, Jesus had sent two of his disciples to secure a "large room upstairs" for the Last Supper (Mark 14:12f). They did not know the way but had to follow the owner. Arriving, they found everything "prepared." It looks as if Jesus here made the disciples' journey of the day before a parable of eternity, in which the upper room foreshadows the home of God with its many habitations. Many have read this in the New King James translation which reads “In my Father’s house are many mansions” but this isn’t a house made by human hands.

It’s a place with a variety of compartments with angels, principalities and powers. There will be angels and archangels who have never fallen from their heavenly position. Jesus now goes to prepare a place for the fallen but redeemed of mankind. Revelation 7:4 speaks of 144,000 that are sealed from the tribes of Israel. The Jehovah Witnesses have taken this number mistakenly as a literal number of people who will be in heaven and spend eternity with God.

Jesus tells us in our text that there will be plenty of room for us in heaven when he comes to take us home. The most accurate description of the father’s house is that it’s a dwelling place where the presence of God is. Not mansion as the King James Translation calls it. Because when we hear mansion today, we think of “grand and elegant house” as this is what it means for us today. In the New International version, it is translated as a “dwelling rooms within the fathers house”. This focuses on the fellowship that we have with the father within the house and not on the glimmer and glamor of what is on the house. Our hope is not on the real estate of the house but, our hope is with a relationship with the father.

I go to prepare a place for you

Here in John, Jesus tells them that he is going to prepare a place for them and that he will return again to take them to himself. Jesus is going to go prepare a room for them. A divine dwelling places. Yet, Jesus is not prepared for them. He is not prepared for them.

He’s not unprepared in the way that he still has drywall to put up

He’s not unprepared in the way that he still needs to install some cabinets

He not unprepared in the way that he still needs to to paint a room

How does he prepare such a place? He prepares by being one who can intercede with His blood. He goes to the cross and dies for them so that they no longer have to fear death NO MORE. Jesus himself must become a dwelling where death resides no more. Jesus goes and becomes that or else HE couldn’t be a place, a room, a dwelling for us. Later the Apostle Paul speaks to us in the book of Romans about how we are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit dwells in you.

Jesus is the Way to a relationship with the father

After Jesus says that he is going to prepare a room for them and that they know the way in which he is going, Thomas, doubting Thomas responds “No we have no idea where you are going so how can we know the way? "How can we know the way?" Men and women over time have tried many ways to find “the way” to a satisfying life but, they soon discovered them lacking truth, and fulfillment in life and relationship for example:

Greece said …. Be wise, know yourself

Rome said……. Be strong, discipline yourself

Psychology says …. Be confident, fulfill yourself

Materialism says…. Be acquisitive, please yourself

Pride says…. Be superior, promote yourself

None of these ways brought peace and fulfillment. They just left people empty and dry. They didn’t lead to a relationship that was good, pure, and Holy. Only Jesus can truly satisfy us because He is the only way. He is the mediator between God and man. He is the bridge to salvation. Only He would give up so much for you and do so out of the goodness, and purity of who He is. He doesn’t force you or twist your arm into relation and fellowship with Him. He simply says come. Yes, come in all your baggage and brokenness for my burden is light and I will make you whole again. I will show you the way. He will lead the way and show you the path that you should walk in.

He will give you very specific directions

• After all, the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and many find it.

• But the gate that is narrow, and the way that is hard leads to life and very few find it

Jesus is the truth of the gospel

Jesus is also truth. He does not lie. He cannot lie because it’s not in his character. It’s not who He is. Pontius Pilate asked the famous question “What is truth”? Many people today are asking the same question.

Our world today has twisted what the truth is. They believe in relative truth which is truth that is for everyone. That what would be truth to me isn’t truth to you. In other words, our world today says everyone can make their own path to heaven. Which is a lie straight from the pits of hell.

Relative truth is like someone giving their opinion and perspective but, it doesn’t mean that it is truth. That it is fact. A good example of this is something that exploded on the internet not too long ago. There was this audio file which spoke a name. Some people heard one thing and others heard another. Some heard the name Laurel and others heard the name Yanny. On a recent twitter poll 47% heard Yanny and 53% of people heard Laurel.

So, what do you hear? This is a great example of what relative truth is. Some people believe they hear the name Laurel (and this is the truth to them but, not to others) Because other people hear the name “Yanny” and that is the truth to them. Truth is concrete. Truth is absolute. Truth is the same for everyone. No matter what your circumstances are. It is truth that is the same in all places at all times. It is a fact that cannot be changed. For example, there are no round squares. There are also no square circles. Truth is spelled J-E-S-U-S. Why? Because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. Jesus is who He is whether you believe it or not. He loves you whether you like it or not.

Our culture today doesn’t like truth that is black and white or right and wrong. That is part why this Laurel/Yanny debate became so popular so fast because people in our culture love to create their own truth. We love to do what is right in our own eyes. That’s why Jesus is so hard for people to accept. He tells the truth. He tells it like it is. He doesn’t sugarcoat it.

He told his disciples and those who wanted to follow him things like

• Let the dead bury their own dead

• leave your family and follow me

• you must be perfect

• you want to follow me, go sell all that you have

Jesus is real and authentic. He won’t beat around the bushes.

The great preacher D.L Moody said this... “God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”

Jesus is the life

Also, he tells his disciples days before his impending suffering, death, and resurrection that He. is. life. By dying and raising again Jesus pays for our sin and defeats death so he can offer us life. Life isn’t something such as the kind of house we live in, where we work or what we do but, life is found in a person and that person is Jesus Christ. God in the flesh. When Jesus says “I AM: THE LIFE” he is referring to that there is a kind of life that we experience that is only a shadow of what he wants us to experience. That without Him we can only see a shadow of the abundant life he wants for us. We are here one day and then can be gone the next. Our lives are gone in the blink of an eye. Jesus is here saying I don’t want you to experience that kind of life. Jesus says He is life. That the very life of God is in you.

You hear many people say “I only have one life to live, so I’m going to live it my way”. That is the wrong way to look at it. If you live like that then it will be a very short one compared to a lived eternally. Life isn’t about being free to sin. It’s about being free from sin. If the son sets you free, you will be free indeed (Jn 8:36) To experience life is to enjoy the freedom from sin that God gives. To not be shackled by our guilt and failures but to receive His forgiveness in grace.

Phillip says “show us the father and it is enough for us”

Then all of a sudden in verse 8 Phillip says to Jesus “Can you show us the father? It will be enough for us! Phillip apparently wanted to physically see the father. He didn’t want to wait for the second coming. He’s like “can you show us the father now!” Then it will be enough for us. I will believe what you say, I will believe who you are. We can pack up our bags and close up shop.

Phillip then said that seeing the father would be enough for him. This word “enough” is the same word in 2 Corinthians 12:9 where God tells Paul that His grace is sufficient, it is sufficient for him. It is enough and it satisfies him. Now is it enough for you?

How does Jesus respond to Phillip?

• Have you not known me, I have been with you all this time

• don’t you know I am in the father and the father is in me

So, is this it? Jesus leaves them to fend for themselves

No… Jesus tells the disciples after v. 15 that...

• I will send you a helper

• He will be the spirit of truth

• He will not leave you as orphans

• I will make my residence within you

So, let not your hearts be troubled trust in God, trust also in me…

Let your hearts not be troubled because in my father’s house there are many rooms

Let your hearts not be troubled because I go to prepare a place for you

Let your hearts not be troubled because I am the way, truth and the life

Let your hearts not be troubled because I am enough for you and I will never leave you. I am right beside. I am there when you sit down. I am there when you stand

Let your hearts not be troubled for I am in you. I go before you. I chase after you.

How different our lives would look like if we trusted him and believed him at His word. If we could get past our doubts and know today the one who holds our tomorrow. You might have heard the saying “Home is where your heart is” but I say “Home isn’t where your heart is, it’s with whom holds your heart”. So, make your home and identity with God! We find out who we are when we find out whose we are.