I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life

Good morning!  Today we are going to study another of Jesus’ “I AM” statements.  I want to say another “famous” statement, but that almost seems redundant.  All these I AM statements are famous in their own way.  Jesus’ statement, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” is recorded in John 14:6.  You know how he follows it up.  “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but (or except) through Me.”  In clear and simple words, Jesus makes it clear that there are no other ways to a reconciled relationship with God.

Because the statement makes our utter dependence on Jesus plain.  The statement excludes any other ways to God.  There is only One.   With that, it makes sense to memorize that verse, and many people do.  If you don’t have it memorized, I would say it is a good one to hold on, for sure.

In addition to making it clear that Jesus is the One Way, this verse is a strong encouragement to us, a promise.  No one comes to the Father apart from Jesus, everyone who comes to Jesus, believing in Him, will come to the Father and eternal life.

I’ve talked about Sam Allen who is a retired pastor.  Sam sends out verses of encouragement a few times a week by text.  He often adds a comment, but the comment is always short.  And, the goal is always the same.  Here are the comments from the last 3 weeks.

He has brought us into moment by moment contact with our Creator and Savior!!

It is impossible to love someone that you know nothing about.  Seek to know Jesus Christ!!

The Lord is with you, my friend!

“Everything is possible with God” (Mark 10:27) - the very God who we follow daily!!

It is not in your power to make yourself feel better, but the living God intervenes through His Son!!

“Pay close attention to what you hear” (Mark 4:24) – So many distractions!

Daily salvation and comfort come from Jesus Christ!!

Real life is to know and understand Jesus Christ every moment of every day!!

Stay focused on Jesus Christ every moment of every day.

Our God and Savior!! (Psalms 73:16, 21-26, God is the strength of my heart)

Our future and our hope!! (Acts 1:11, Jesus will return)

What does Sam point to?  Or, who does he point to again and again?  Jesus Christ!  

I love Sam’s laser focus on the Savior.  And that’s exactly what we see in today’s I AM statement from Jesus Himself.  He should be our focus because He is the way, the truth, and the life.  Let’s pray and continue to explore this wonderful testimony of who Jesus is.

Lord Jesus, we come to You.  Teach us we pray.  We need you more than anything.  Help us to heed Sam’s exhortations.  May we pay close attention to what we hear and follow You every day.  It is in Your Name we pray, Amen.

I want to pick up the story surrounding the moment when Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  Interestingly, we were discussing humility during the men’s time yesterday morning.  Our main passage was John 13:1-30.  The time is the Passover week or the Passion week.  Jesus knew it was time for Him to leave this world and go the Father.  Jesus and the twelve were together in the upper room for their last supper.

During the meal, Jesus got up and washed the disciples’ feet.  After setting this example of serving, Jesus proceeded to tell them that one of their number would betray Him.  Jesus did not broadcast who it was, but indicated that it was Judas by giving him a piece of bread he had dipped in the dish.  Judas took the bread, and at Jesus word, Judas departed to betray Jesus.

The remaining disciples were unaware what was really happening.  They thought that Jesus had sent Judas on one kind of errand or another.  Jesus, though, knew exactly what was taking place.  These were the last hours, moments really, that He would have with the disciples before He would be crucified.  John 13-17 are Jesus’ last words to the eleven before the cross.  These were the things Jesus wanted them to know and remember.

When [Judas] was gone, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will glorify the Son in Himself, and will glorify Him at once.” "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  – John 13:31-34

There is a scene in The Lord of the Rings where Frodo offers Galadriel the one ring.  Galadriel is a powerful queen, but with the one ring, she would become even more powerful, unstoppable among the inhabitants of Middle Earth.  She is tempted, but she doesn’t take the ring.  Then, she says, “I pass the test.  I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.”

What Jesus does for us is the ultimate lowering of oneself.  He tells the disciples and the Jewish leaders that they cannot follow where he is going.  What He is doing from the disciples perspective and has done from our perspective is more than dying.   He takes the wrath of God upon Himself.  Even if we can glimpse the significance of it, I don’t think we can understand the weight of this great sacrifice.  Jesus passed the test, a far greater one.  He is not diminished, but glorified.

The result isn’t that Jesus remains as He is.  Rather He is glorified.  Not only that, God the Father is glorified as well.  The rescue of us and the bringing of us over to Himself both now and forever is the beautiful exclamation point of all time.

Why does He do it?  Is it for His glory?  No, the reason He does it is because He loves us.  The measure of His love is great.  Beyond any love that we could ever love on our own.  And yet, that is what Jesus calls His disciples to do.  Love one another as He has loved us.  We can only love like Christ when we abide in Christ.

The disciples heard this message, but at that moment, it wasn’t the thing that stood out to them.  Jesus had said, “Where I am going, you cannot come,” so Peter asks, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus tells Peter that he cannot follow Him now, but he will follow later.  Peter asks why not, saying that he would even lay down his life for Jesus.  Jesus answers that Peter would disown or deny him that same night, three times.

With Peter’s question addressed, Jesus returns to what He was saying to them all.  We will pick up with Jesus’ words at the beginning of John 14.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." – John 14:1-4

The disciples are wrestling with two things:  that they cannot follow Jesus where He is going now and that Peter will deny Jesus.  And that on top of Judas’ mysterious departure.  They are confused, definitely, worried, and maybe even more than a little afraid.

Here is an admonition for all of us.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  A troubled heart is something that we all face, usually triggered by a difficult or uncertain circumstance.

I’m certain that I don’t handle it as well as Jesus, but this is something that I think I have had to work through with all our children to some degree or another.  We get the chance to choose how we react to our circumstances.  Sometimes we choose poorly, sure.  But the choice is ours.

Jesus tells His disciples, “do not let your hearts be troubled.”  Then, he reinforces the admonition with truth.  You believe in God.  Believe in Me.  There is a place for all of you in My Father’s house.  I am going to prepare your place there.  “I will come back and take you to be with me.”  The disciples could not follow Jesus where He was going then, but they and we are not abandoned.  Jesus will come and take us to be with Him, in His Father’s house, forever.

I think when I have read that last sentence, “You know the way to the place where I am going,” Jesus is talking about some other time when the disciples learned the way.  But really, His answer is right there.  “Believe also in Me.”  “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”  So what, or Who, is the way?  Jesus.

So, you could read that last sentence instead as.  “There, you know the way to the place where I am going.  I have just told you plainly.”  But, we know the disciples are troubled and sometimes not the brightest.  So …

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:5-6

We can credit Thomas with honesty.  He says, “We don’t know where You are going.”  Therefore, “How can we know the way?”  Not only is Thomas honest, he is also humble.  He is willing to openly show his ignorance.  He doesn’t understand, and he doesn’t act like he does.  He doesn’t wait for someone else to ask.  Spurgeon said the disciples talk to Jesus like a child would talk to their father, a good father.  The child is so in awe of the wisdom and perceived, and in Jesus’ case true, infallibility of the father.  A loving father answers their children’s questions without shaming them.  The child feels safe to ask anything.

Again, Jesus answers both questions.  “I am going to the Father,” and “I am the way.”  And, He says more than that.  Jesus is not just the way.  He’s not a taxi driver or a shuttle pilot.  He is the way and the truth and the life.

I think of the message Fred gave a few weeks ago.  Jesus said I am the door.  I am the sheep gate.  He takes us to the Father through Himself.  He makes the way, and that way is Himself and what He has done.

Exploring Jesus’ words here in this short statement is pretty exciting.  We don’t need to try and unpack the Greek because the translation into English is exact and word for word.  Jesus says what we read.  I - am - the - way - and - the - truth - and - the - life.  The definite article is present for each object.  The way.  The truth.  The life.  That lends emphasis to His following statement, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  There is no other way.  Jesus is the way.

I have to travel to Germany this week.  Most of the trip will be to places I’ve never been before.  Our smartphones have become the easiest way to find directions.  My phone happens to be provided by my workplace.  It has always had data when I have been traveling internationally.  But, it’s been about a year since I was in Europe.  Sometime in the last months, I got a notification that there were changes in our phone plan.  Since I wasn’t traveling at that time, I didn’t investigate what the status of my international plan was.  But, what do you think?  Now that I have to go to Germany, did I make sure I could have access to reliable directions?  You better believe it.  It’s one thing to be lost when you can ask directions.  It’s another thing entirely when you don’t speak the language or understand the culture well enough to get where you need to go.

If you are lost or if you are wandering without direction or if you don’t know where you are going, turn to Jesus.  He is the way.  Acts 4 and Hebrews 7 give us insights into how Jesus is the way.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. – Acts 4:12 

Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them. – Hebrews 7:25

Because Jesus lives forever, He is the way.  His light never goes out.  He is an eternal lighthouse and an eternal rescuer.  There is no other way.

We live in confusing times.  We live in a time of information overload.  I remember hearing back in the 90’s that the average big city Sunday newspaper had more information in it than most people would have access to in their entire lifetime just two or three hundred years earlier.

Well today, we don’t even have Sunday papers.  We have the internet.  We have multiple channels of 24-hour news programming.  Now we have podcasts.  It seems like anyone and everyone is publishing content on every conceivable subject all the time.

It’s impossible to keep up with all this information, but that’s not even the biggest challenge.  I’m reminded of the proverb (18:17), “The one who pleads his cause first seems right, until another comes and questions him.”  It’s not just the “trying to keep up,” how do you know that what you’re listening to or reading is true.

There is one place you can come to get the truth.

If you don’t understand (like Thomas) or if you are confused or if you can’t figure things out, then come to Jesus for answers.  He is the truth.

When Pontius Pilate was questioning Jesus before He was condemned to die, Jesus told Pilate the reason He (Jesus) was born and came into the world. (John 18:37) That reason was to testify to the truth.  Jesus went on to say that everyone on the side of truth listens to Him.

Jesus’ testimony is not to tell us about some information.  He isn’t just giving us facts.  He Himself is the truth.  II Corinthians 1:20 tells us,

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. – II Corinthians 1:20

Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises of God.  That is one way in which He is the truth.  And, as that truth, we can collectively say Amen.  Jesus is our Amen.  In the world, there is no end to the making of books (Ecclesiastes 12:12) or programming.  In Christ, there is an Amen.  Revelation 3:14 tells it is not an Amen is “the Amen” and the Amen is the person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the answer.  He is the truth.

A couple of weeks back, we talked about how Jesus is the good shepherd.  Jesus told the disciples and many others, “I am the good shepherd.”  Just before he said, “I am the good shepherd,” the first time, Jesus says, “I have come that they [the sheep], may have life, and have it to the full [or have it abundantly.]” (John 10:9)

If you feel dead inside or if you don’t feel like you can’t put one foot in front of the other or if you don’t seem to have strength or energy to face your challenges, then abide in (stay connected to) Jesus.  He gives life because He is the life.

We’re not going to continue further in John 14 today, but if we just skip down to verse 19, Jesus says there, “Because I live, you also will live.”  It’s because of His life that we have life.  His life is indestructible, so He can give eternal life, and that is exactly what He says.

I give them [my sheep] eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. – John 10:28 

And last week, we looked at Jesus’ statement, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  In John 11 Jesus tells Martha that, 

The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. – John 11:25-26

Writing these messages, it is not infrequent that ideas or even scriptures don’t find their way into the final version.  I have two more verses about the life of Jesus that I just couldn’t pass up sharing.  Both of them come from I John.  The first verse is a testimony from John.  The second is a promise.

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. – I John 1:2

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. – I John 5:12

The first verse clearly testifies to Jesus as the life.  That is the message which the disciples proclaim, the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to them.  This is Jesus, the Son of God.  Having the Son or being connected to the Son, abiding in Him, is synonymous with life.  If you have the Son, you have life.

I mentioned the men’s time earlier.  Our topic was humility.  Fred mentioned Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, how He had removed Lydia’s and her family's shame.  He took it upon himself to work the situation out for them.

It’s been a long time since I read or watched Pride and Prejudice, but when Fred brought up that example, a short sentence from the book came filtering back to mind.

Lizzy’s aunt wrote to explain the circumstances by which Lydia had been saved.  Speaking of Darcy, Mrs. Gardiner wrote, “Nothing was to be done that he did not do himself.”

That sentiment isn’t exactly right when thinking about who Jesus is and what He has done.  I would phrase it slightly differently.  Of Jesus, we can say, “Nothing could be done for us, for our situation, except that which He has done for us.”

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one else could be those three things.  We rejoice in knowing Him.  Follow Him, seek to Him (more), abide in Him.  “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” (I Peter 2:6) Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, keep us on track following You.  Help us listen to You.  Show us how to abide in You.  Glorify Your Name, we pray, Jesus, Amen.