I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life
Download MP3If y'all would, open your Bibles to John, chapter 14. For those of you who are new, we've been working through John now for a year. And as luck would have it, we're going to look at John 14:6. John chapter 14, but I'm going to begin reading with what we looked at last week in verse 1. Let not your hearts be troubled.
Joel Brooks: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 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. And you know the way to where I am going.
Joel Brooks:Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.
Joel Brooks:And from now on you do know Him, and have seen Him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. 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?' Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me?
Joel Brooks:These words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father dwells in me, does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, speaking. Pray that you would open up dull minds, hardened hearts to receive these life giving words. This Bible has been in my family for at least 5 generations. I mean, you can have your little iPhone Bible, but when you show up for a meeting with this, you put that down, I mean, people know you mean business.
Joel Brooks:But the reason I got this out was I wanted to just kind of see if you just let it fall and whatever it will fall, where's it going to open? Like where's it going to open to? And John 14 is the chapter that most Bibles naturally fall to. I got my my dad's old Bible and I I kind of did the same thing, and you can tell that, you know, there might be some sections in Leviticus or 2nd Chronicles where you have to peel through the little pages a bit. But when it comes to John 14, you could tell the pages are worn, it's underlined, it's highlighted, John 14:6.
Joel Brooks:Most Bibles are that way. John 14:6 has been one of the seminal verses in all of Christianity. It is a key to understanding our faith. It's not a complex verse. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Joel Brooks:No one comes to the Father but through me. It's not really hard to understand. Christians and non Christians alike can read these words and for the most part understand them. So it's not necessarily an understanding them, it's them getting to our heart and transforming us. That's the hard part.
Joel Brooks:We looked at the first part of chapter 14 last week that leads up to this, and in 14, we heard Jesus telling his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them, preparing a home for them. We all have this sense of home, this longing for home and Jesus was going to prepare a home. Home is kind of an understatement for what he is providing. After the message last week, I had some people come up to me and feel like, how, you know, how logistically, how can we all fit in this one house? You've got millions and millions of Christians, possibly, you know, billions by the time Christ returns, and so how's this going to work?
Joel Brooks:Let me just tell you, we will fit, okay? We're going to fit. The Apostle John, he later, he has he has a vision of this. You can read about it in Revelation 21, in which this house, you realize, is really, really a city. These homes are really rooms that fit within this great city.
Joel Brooks:And when John has this vision, it measures this city 13 80 miles wide. 1380 miles long and 1380 miles high is this city. It's staggering, the dimensions of the New Jerusalem as it comes down to Earth. You will fit. If that's a concern for you this morning, know that you will fit in this home.
Joel Brooks:And when Jesus says he's going to prepare this place, this this beautiful place for his disciples, he's not saying, alright, now I'm gonna put my carpentry skills to use. You know, I'm gonna get out get out the old hammer, get out the old nails, and I'm gonna start adding on these rooms. That's not the preparation that Jesus is talking about. No. Here as we read this, we have to understand that our home is already finished.
Joel Brooks:What Jesus is doing is preparing the way for us to get there. The home is finished, it's beautiful, but there's something blocking the path. And it's the obstacles of sin and death are keeping us from going to that home. Sin and death have to be dealt with for us to finally have that that home that we've always been longing for. That home in which our home now, as happy as it is, that home just is a mere shadow.
Joel Brooks:Sin and death must be obliterated. And so the preparation Jesus is talking about here is the cross and the resurrection. The preparation is the battle with sin and death that happens at the cross and the victory that is won in the open tomb. And so this this morning, we celebrate the fact that the preparation is completed and our home awaits. It's finished.
Joel Brooks:-After Jesus says these comforting words. We have Thomas who raises a question. I told you, you know, a couple weeks ago that every Easter we have to pull out Thomas. We get to hear from him normally in another section of scripture, but here we get to hear from Thomas and he asked, Lord, you say you're going away, but how are we gonna know where You are? How can we find the way?
Joel Brooks:And you can throw Thomas under the bus all you want. If he did not ask this question, we would not have this statement. This goes down in one of the greatest statements in the history of mankind. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me, Thomas.
Joel Brooks:Jesus does not say here that he is a way, a truth, and a life. He says he is the definitive. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to heaven. He is the truth about who God is.
Joel Brooks:And He is the source of all life. To be in His presence is to be alive. And although Jesus says it, probably the most clear he's ever stated it right here, this is something that Jesus has been saying all along. As we have seen as we've gone through the gospel of John this last year. And so we would see it when we come into chapter 2 and Jesus would be talking to Nathaniel.
Joel Brooks:And he'd say, Nathaniel, you are gonna see angels ascending and descending on me. I'm the bridge. I'm the staircase that unites heaven to earth. You can't get to heaven unless you go on me. He told Nicodemus in chapter 3, whoever believes in me has eternal life.
Joel Brooks:He told the woman at the well in chapter 4 that he could give her water that would bubble up to eternal life. In chapter 5, he told the people who were trying to kill him, he said, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes or whoever hears my words and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life. Truly, truly, I say to you And they will come to life. And they will come to life. Chapter 6, he says, I am the living bread.
Joel Brooks:To me and drink and out of his heart is going to flow living water. In chapter 8, Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. Chapter 9, Jesus says the same thing.
Joel Brooks:I am the light of the world. In chapter 10, he says, I am the good shepherd. He also says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. Who was grieving the loss of her brother.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus looks at her and says, I tell you, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever believes in me, though he dies, he will never or though he dies, he will live. In chapter 12, Jesus said, I came into this world as light so that whoever believes in Me will not remain in darkness. We see it over and over, so it's no surprise when we get to chapter 13, chapter 14, when Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples and we have this final discourse, and Jesus wants to summarize his entire life and ministry, and who he is, and what our response to him needs to be.
Joel Brooks:He says these words, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one, no one comes to the father except through me. He says, I am the way. This is as exclusive as a claim as you can make. I am the way.
Joel Brooks:If there was another way, do you think Jesus would have come here to suffer and to die the way he did? Do you think Jesus would have gone to the cross if there had been any other way? If all Jesus was going to do is add one more road going up the same mountain, all going up to the top, joining the many other roads leading to the same place, do you think Jesus would have done this? There was no other way. Even in the garden, Jesus is pouring out His heart to his father.
Joel Brooks:He says, father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass. But there was no other way because Jesus is the way. He is the way. Every other way hits the same roadblock. No matter which way you try to get to heaven, it all hits the same roadblock and it's the roadblock of sin and death.
Joel Brooks:And you can't go past them. Sin and death block the path of every philosophy, every religion. Jesus alone is the way because Jesus alone has created or opened up for us a way by dealing with sin and death. Jesus has removed these obstacles, he has taken away our sin, he has obliterated death when he rose from it. Jesus is the truth about who God is.
Joel Brooks:Don't have to wonder who God is anymore. You just have to look at Jesus. Jesus didn't come to us some kind of abstract philosophy or as some kind of argument or logic. The Father came to us through His Son, Jesus, a person. That's the truth.
Joel Brooks:Philip, he asked Jesus in verse 8, says, Lord, show us the Father and that's enough. And I bet when Philip said that, Jesus's heart just broke. Just broke. I mean, Philip, have I been with you for so long, and you still don't know who I am? That is one of the most heartbreaking verses we have in the Bible.
Joel Brooks:It's a scary statement because here we see somebody can literally follow Jesus for 3 years, be part of his inner circle, eat with him, hear him teach, see him do all of his amazing miracles, and yet not know him. If that can happen to Philip, it can happen to any person here sitting in this room. You could grow up in church. You can know all of the verses. You can have your bible with your name on it.
Joel Brooks:But do you know who Jesus is? Have I been with you for so long and yet you still do not know me, Philip? Don't you know that if you've seen Me, and he's not talking about seeing with your retinas here, it's a different word he's using for seeing. He's talking about, do you perceive, Do you understand? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
Joel Brooks:How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Jesus tells Philip, if you really wanna know who the Father is, you wanna know what he's like, what he cares about, the way he thinks, the way he acts, the way he loves, if you really wanna know all about God the father, all you have to do is look at me. I wonder what John thought as he was hearing these words. I love it.
Joel Brooks:Just, you know, just a few moments earlier, John is literally he's leaning against the breast of Jesus. He's that close. Now he's realizing he was leaning against the breast of Yahweh. That God is that intimate with us, that God cares about us that much. If you want to know the truth about who God is, you have to look to Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And then Jesus, he says He's also the life. He gives us a life that will never die because it is a life that has already survived the grave. It's already survived the grave. So Jesus is the way, he's the truth, and he's the life. But Jesus is not only the way to heaven, he's also showing us when he says, I am the way, he's showing the way in which we must go in order to be with him.
Joel Brooks:And what that means is, we all go the route, unless Jesus comes quickly, we all go the route of death then resurrection. My dad, when I got his Bible out just to see about John 146, you know, my dad had died a long time ago and had not brought his Bible out. And so I get this and there was one piece of paper in there that had notes on it. It was just an envelope that my dad had grabbed and so these were the last notes that he had written down. I don't know if this was days before, weeks before he died, but here's the first thing that's written on this envelope.
Joel Brooks:Mortality is 100% and life is at its best, brief. It doesn't matter if you live 80 to 100 years, it is but a moment compared to eternity. Can you name the 2nd pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty? You will be forgotten. And not only will you die, but your works will die with you.
Joel Brooks:Even if you were to build a great city, it is nothing but a sandcastle. Yet this life we have now is the seed time for eternity. I tell you, I couldn't really believe this when I found this notes, these notes that my dad had made. Yet I know this, my dad didn't fear death, cause he knew John 14:6, he knew Jesus. He knew that this is the way we must go.
Joel Brooks:We go through death and then we are raised. I tell you, I don't fear death. Can I say that as clearly and as loudly as I can? I don't fear death. The church, his church, should not fear death.
Joel Brooks:Because we have the one who has gone before us. He has paved the way, He is the way to heaven. We no longer fear death because now we get to walk through death with Jesus. It's like Jesus is holding our hand, just saying, I am the way, and He literally is the way as long as we hold onto Him. And if ever we get scared when death and darkness is approaching, Jesus just kinda squeezes our hands.
Joel Brooks:He says, It's alright, I'm here. If anyone objects to where we are going, if Satan throws up objections, if our past throws up our objections and says, hey, you can't go this way, you can't come in here, you know, all you have to say is, I'm with Him. That's it. I'm with Him. He's my way.
Joel Brooks:If all you can see is darkness, all you can feel is lostness, Here, Jesus saying, hey, I've been here before, and I know the way out. The grave cannot keep me. This is what we believe when we proclaim loud and clear that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. That when we put our hands in Jesus', when he reaches hold and he grabs hold of us, nothing can separate us from God. We're going to come to this table this morning as a celebration of this.
Joel Brooks:Yes, we're gonna remember his death. We're gonna remember his crucifixion, but we're also gonna remember that Jesus Christ conquered death. He conquered it. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. Said, this is my body broken for you.
Joel Brooks:In the same way He took the cup, said, this cup is my blood, it's poured out for the forgiveness of many. And I love what the Apostle Paul later says in 1 Corinthians. He tells the church, said, as often as you eat of this bread and you drink of this cup, you proclaim the death of Jesus until he comes again, in which he will come again. Jesus, right now we ask that we would indeed commune with you as we partake of these elements. We ask that you would bless them, bless us with your presence.
Joel Brooks:May this be a time where we truly worship you, our way, our truth, and our life. Amen.
