The Way, The Truth, The Life
The Way, The Truth, The Life
John 14:1-31
There are days we wish never happened. There are minutes and moments that have changed your life forever. “It’s cancer.” “I’m sorry she didn’t make it.” “We are going to have to let you go.” “Your dad is leaving us.” “Why would you hurt me like that?” “I’m dying and only have a few weeks left.” Every person has moments that change their life forever. What are yours? Take a moment and meditate on that memory; fixate on it.That level of intensity is what we should feel as we enter into this discourse of Jesus Christ.
The disciples had walked with Jesus for three years. They had sat around campfires together and shared stories of their lives. They had met each other’s families and shared some of the most wonderful and painful experiences of their lives. They had watched Jesus perform miracles and watched as people rejected him. And they did all these together. It was Jesus and the twelve together. And now, one of their dear brothers and friends, walked away from Jesus and from them. Judas betrayed Jesus, but he also betrayed all the disciples. And after Judas leaves, Jesus turns to all his beloved friends and says, “It’s time. I have to go, and you can’t come.” Jesus then challenges them to love one another. During the intensity and persecution that is coming, Jesus looked at his disciples, and said, “You all are going to need each other now more than ever. And your love for one another is not only going to get your through what’s coming, but it is going to show the world that you belong to me.”
Confusion. Fear. Worry. What was going to happen? And to make matters even worse, Peter, the leader of the disciples, is told that he will betray Jesus and deny him not once, but three times. This was a terrible day and one that will shape the future of these disciples and all disciples who come after them. Jesus is headed to the cross. Jesus is going to die. Death comes to all. I have stood before countless men and women in the midst of intense grief after the death of aloved one and read these words, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Jesus is going to give us some of the most comforting words in the history of the world, but we will never realize their power until we first realize who they are spoken to: troubled hearts.
Think back to those moments in your life, those painful memories, and you will experience a troubled heart. As we look to Jesus, our balm for a troubled soul, let us ask four questions that help lead us to peace in the darkness.
Do you know the Way of God?
John 14 begins Jesus’ final discourse before his trial and death on the cross. It follows right after Jesus had the last Passover with his disciples and washed their feet pleading for them to live lives of mercy and love. Jesus then told them that it was time for his death and his departure. In the first half of John’s gospel the key question is, “Where did Jesus come from?” and the second half of John’s gospel it is, “Where is Jesus going?” John 14:1-5,
[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?”
Jesus assumes that his disciples would have understood by now that he is from the Father and is going back to the Father. He and the Father are one. Read the first thirteen chapters and make a note on how many times Jesus tells the crowds and the Pharisees, and by extension the disciples who were there for it all, that he was “one with the Father.” The disciples still didn’t understand this which is why Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Thomas was thinking, like the Pharisees, in merely earthly terms. He was thinking more of, “What town is Jesus going to?” rather than, “What realm is Jesus going to?” Jesus is going to heaven. And then he tells his disciples, and us, how to get there. John 14:6-7,
[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.”
Jesus makes it explicit. From now on, you do know the Father and have seen him because you have seen me. I and the Father are one. This is the sixth “I AM” statement in John’s gospel, and every one of these statements is communicating this same truth: Jesus is God.
Two things Jesus says to comfort the troubled heart. Believe in a Person and a Place. These are essential for all who are facing death. First, believe, or have faith and trust, in a Person. We must believe in Jesus. We must believe that he is the way to the Father. Thomas Kempis in his classic work, Imitation of Christ, writes,
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. I am the inviolable way; the infallible truth, the never-ending life. I am the straightest way; the sovereign truth; life true, life blessed, life uncreated.[1]
Jesus invites you to the Father through himself. You cannot know God unless you come to God through Jesus Christ. And to come to Jesus Christ is to believe in who he is and what he has done. He is from the Father and he is the Sovereign Creator and Author of life. He is Beloved Son, the long-awaited Savior, the Messiah, the final and perfect High Priest, crucified and risen Son of God, Lord Most High. And his identity is connected to what he did. He died in the place of men and women to pay for their sins by turning God’s wrath from them against himself.
When we believe in the person of Christ, we believe, secondly, in the place he has prepared for us. John 14:2, “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?” 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.” The King James Version translation goes like this, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” ‘Mansions’ in old English was not referring to our modern use of a giant house with a sprawling land like the Biltmore House, but a room in Jesus’ house. We often make this section about what we get for what Jesus has done, but we often miss the main thing we get: Jesus. Do not miss what Jesus is saying, “Do not let your hearts be troubled for I go to prepare a place for you and I will take you to myself.” The person and the place are together. When we go to the person of God, we end up in the presence of God.
Jesus was going to prepare a place for believers through his death on the cross and his resurrection. When Jesus called out, “It is finished,” he was declaring that the preparation has been completed, the payment has been paid, the check has cleared. The aim of this passage is not to think of how luxurious each dwelling place (room or mansion) is but that there are many rooms for all who come to Christ. There is plenty of room for all who believe in the Son. Do not let your hearts be troubled, there is room at the inn for you. Jesus has made a way.
Think about the context again. Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied Jesus. We, like Judas and Peter, have done the same. We are sinners and deserve to be cast outside the Father’s house. We deserve to be with the father of this world in outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And yet, because Jesus went to the cross and died and rose again, he prepared a place for us in heaven with the Father. We are now allowed to enter into heaven to dwell with God. Jesus says to sinners, to those fearing their sins are too much for forgiveness, to those afraid to die, to those overcome with their failure, to those overcome with grief, Jesus says, “let not your hearts be troubled. I have made for you.”
Friends, in order for the weight of this reality to fall on us, we must first realize the trouble that should be in our hearts when we think of sin. Our sin is a treason against the King. We must realize the reality of sin against a holy, infinite, almighty, glorious God. We must rightly realize the just and awesome punishment rightly deserved against sin and sinners. It is only then that we can fully comprehend these words, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Or he could have said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. Everyone can come to the Father through me.” Everyone can have their sins forgiven. Everyone can be made clean. Everyone can dwell with God.
Satan says, “You are too dirty to be loved. You’ve fallen too far to be forgiven. You’re too weak to make it. You’re too broken to be useful.” And Jesus says, “I came to cleanse the dirty, forgive the fallen, strengthen the weak, and heal the broken. I am the way to cleansing. I am the way to forgiveness. I am your strength. By my wounds you are healed.[2]” Do you know the way to God? Jesus is the way.
Do you know the Works of God?
The disciples still did not get it. Jesus could not have been clearer about his identity. Jesus just said, “From now on you do know the Father and have seen him.” I and the Father are one. And then we read this interaction with Philip, John 14:8–11
[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.
Jesus reiterates the same truth. I and the Father are one. And then he validates his claim by pointing to his works. Believe in my words or believe in the works I have done.
For many of us, we are like Philip: we have heard the truth numerous times and seen his hand numerous times, and yet we just want a little more information. We want a little more confirmation that Jesus can be trusted. Friend, usually we do not need more information, but we just need to take a better look at the information we already have. Jesus has made it clear who he is; will you believe? Examine the evidence. And this is not just for those who are non-Christians who are struggling to decide whether to follow Jesus, it is for believers who are struggling to decide to continue to follow Jesus. Is he trustworthy? Will he be with me? Is following Jesus worth it? Is choosing this sin just this once really that bad?
We need to know God’s works that he did to prove his divinity on earth, but we also need to know God’s continued works that he does through his people. John 14:12–14,
[12] “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. [13] Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
This is astounding! Jesus says that whoever believes in him will do the works that he does and even greater works than these. What is he referring to?
The works in John’s gospel usually refer to miracles of Jesus like his healing the blind man or feeding the 5,000. However, in this context, the work of Jesus is revealing who the Father is and that he and the Father are one. The works that the church will continue in is revealing the Father and revealing that Jesus and the Father are one. And the reason that we will be part of these greater works is because Jesus is going to the Father. This means that Jesus is going to die and be raised so that the Spirit may come to reveal salvation to the world. Jesus is going to usher in a new age. Don Carson writes,
In short, the works that the disciples perform after the resurrection are greater than those done by Jesus before his death insofar as the former belong to an age of clarity and power introduced by Jesus’ sacrifice and exaltation. Both Jesus’ words and his deeds were somewhat veiled during the days of his flesh; even his closest followers, as the foregoing verses make clear, grasped only part of what he was saying. But Jesus is about to return to his Father, he is about to be glorified, and in the wake of his glorification his followers will know and make known all that Jesus is and does, and their every deed and word will belong to the new eschatological age that will then have dawned. The ‘signs’ and ‘works’ Jesus performed during his ministry could not fully accomplish their true end until after Jesus had risen from the dead and been exalted. Only at that point could they be seen for what they were. By contrast, the works believers are given to do through the power of the eschatological Spirit, after Jesus’ glorification, will be set in the framework of Jesus’ death and triumph, and will therefore more immediately and truly reveal the Son.[3]
We will be doing the work of revealing the Father to the world through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we preach Jesus Christ and him crucified and raised to new life, the Holy Spirit will reveal the way and the truth and the life in a fuller and clearer sense than even Jesus did while on earth. Jesus said we will do greater works because he is going to the Father. His going to the Father more clearly showed that he is one with the Father and now through the power of the Holy Spirit we will help reveal the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit.
If this is the greater work we have been called to, do we know these works? It has been said that the typical Christian in America witnesses zero times a year. In a study by Lifeway in 2012, 80 % agree that they have a personal responsibility to share their faith while only 61% have shared how to become a Christian with someone in the last 6 months and less than 50% have even invited anyone to church in the last 6 months[4]. We typically are better at talking about evangelism than actually doing evangelism. And yet, Jesus has promised that we will be effective in our work in helping people believe that Jesus is from the Father. He says if we pray and ask him for help in this work, he will answer us. Are you praying for the work of revealing the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit? If you are one of the two-thirds of Christians who have not shared your faith in 6 months, will you pray that God will give you an opportunity? If you are the one of the 50% who has not invited anyone to church in the last 6 months, will you pray? Take God at his word. He has given us the work and promised we will do the greater work of the new age of the risen Christ. Trust him. Do you know the works of God? Are you participating in the works of God?
Our job is the invitation. God supplies the power. The gospel is the power of God for all who believe as the song the Power of the Cross so beautifully articulates,
Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face
Bearing the awesome weight of sin;
Every bitter thought,
Every evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.
Now the daylight flees,
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
‘Finished!’ the victory cry.
Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death,
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.
This, the power of the cross:
Son of God, slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Do you know the Words of God?
Faith without works is dead. Jesus makes it clear that if we say we believe, we must keep his words. It is not enough to know his words, we must obey them. John 14:15–24,
[15] “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, [17] even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. [18] “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. [19] Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. [20] In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. [21] Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” [22] Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” [23] Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. [24] Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
Do you love God? Do you rejoice in his forgiveness? Do you believe that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life? Do you obey his words?
I could write an entire sermon on these words, but we do not need many words here. We need repentance. Is there anything in your life that you need to turn away from? Do you have any secret sins you must confess? Are you harboring bitterness towards anyone? The promise of the gospel is that God will make his home with us. He will dwell with us by the power of the Holy Spirit. How can we bring the Holy Spirit with us in our sin?
If you love Jesus, you will keep his commandments. Whoever has and keeps Jesus’ word, it is he who loves him. And he who loves Jesus will be loved by the Father. But whoever does not love Jesus does not keep his words. Do you know and keep the word of Jesus? If not, repent today. Turn from your sins and trust Christ afresh.
He has given you help. Last question,
Do you know the Worker of God?
The only way we can know the Father is through the Son by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Jesus went to the Father for our advantage. John 14:25-27,
[25] “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. [26] But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. [27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
God has given us the Holy Spirit to teach us and to guide us. We are not alone. And we will never be alone. He will never leave us or forsake us. We will always have his presence.
There will be days when our hearts will be troubled. There will be days when we will doubt God’s love for us. Romans 5:5 says that our “hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” We have never been left alone.
One of the most tragic effects of the global pandemic is that many people are dying alone. Family is not allowed in and people are left alone. As I hear these stories of people dying alone, I am reminded of Don Carson talking about his father’s death when his heart was troubled, Carson writes,
When [dad] died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on the television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.
Tom Carson died with no person by his bedside, but Tom Carson was not alone. Carson had been given the Holy Spirit by the Way, the Truth and the Life and there was a room prepared for him in glory. So as Carson breathed his last on this side, his son reflects
One the other side, all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne-room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man –he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor---but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.”
The Lord Jesus looked at his servant and said, “Welcome home.”
Friends, do not let your hearts be troubled. There is one who is waiting for you. He is the way and the truth and the life and he longs to open his arms wide and with a joyful smile say, “Welcome home.”
[1] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 492). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
[2] Modified from Pastor Garrett Kell, Pastor of Del Ray Baptist Church.
[3] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 496). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
[4] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/study-most-churchgoers-never-share-the-gospel/