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Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
Let’s pray as we go to hear from God’s word.
God in heaven, your word explains special blessing for those who tremble at your word.
Because this Bible, the words in it, they are not mere words. They are not somebody’s religious rememberings.
This is your breath.
You speaking to us. God, I pray that you would help us to give your word the attention that it deserves. Help me to be able to speak it.
And as our brother Khalif prayed earlier today, God, help us to hear it, to apply it for your glory. Amen.
To prepare us for our new passage today, imagine with me the following scenario.
Think of someone very close to you, someone you dearly love, someone that you look to for help and guidance.
Maybe it’s your spouse, maybe it’s your parent if you’re younger, maybe it’s just a trusted friend or teacher.
And now imagine that this dear trusted one suddenly says to you that he shortly must go away.
Doesn’t tell you specifically where he’s going or for how long, but he does tell you that you cannot come with him and that once he leaves, you will not be able to talk with him anymore.
How would you feel at such an announcement from your specially trusted one?
Would you not feel shocked, confused, sorrowful, scared, maybe even a little betrayed?
What kind of questions would you want to ask your person after such an announcement?
Would it not be some of the following?
Where are you going?
Why can’t I come with you?
Why do you have to leave?
Don’t you love me?
Will I see you again? How long until I see you again?
And what am I supposed to do once you’re gone?
If you’re engaging in this exercise of imagination with me, you probably feel the weightiness of such a situation. But whatever you imagine, dial it up by 10 and you have something like what the disciples were feeling after Jesus told them in John 13 that he shortly was going away.
Jesus was their teacher, their leader, their friend, their Lord, their Messiah.
How could he suddenly just leave?
They had lived with him and loved him and pinned all their hopes on him. What were they going to do without him?
What about the prophesied kingdom that Jesus was supposed to bring?
Could the disciples even go on without Jesus?
What would be the point if Jesus had essentially abandoned them?
Well, Jesus knew that his disciples would struggle mightily with his necessary departure to the cross and to glory.
So out of love he spoke to them final words of comfort and instruction. And these words comprise John 13-17 and are called the farewell discourse.
We embark upon the next piece of that discourse today. John 14:1-6.
Now this new section has one of the most famous Bible verses in it. A verse that some say is the central verse of the Gospel of John. The key verse. John 14:6 reads, “Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.” This is a profound verse.
Christians often wield this verse to lay the smackdown on postmodern or universalist beliefs.
You think that everyone is just fine with his or her own truth?
You think that just as there are many paths up a mountain, so there are many ways to get to God as long as you are religious and sincere and moral, God will accept you, whatever you believe.
Well, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me.” Boom.
And you know what? That is a fine application of John 14:6.
John 3:18, John 14:6, Acts 4:12. They are all verses of the Bible that clearly show that only faith in Jesus saves. If you don’t believe in Jesus, you will not be saved. No matter how sincere or how moral you think you are in your own religion.
But I want to show you this morning that John 14:6 and the five verses that precede it, they were not originally spoken as a apologetic word.
or as a word of warning, but as a word of comfort to shaken up disciples.
And we need this same word of comfort today. Because when we face great troubles, when we face hatred and rejection for Jesus’ sake, when we see brethren depart from our midst to go into false religion, when we simply suffer the trials of life, Jesus says to us too from these verses, “Take comfort.
Remember the place I prepared for you.
Remember that I’m coming again for you.
And remember, you already know the way to the father’s house because you know me.
If you haven’t already, please take your Bibles and turn to John 14. My sermon title is You know the way. You know the way. John 14 1-6 page 178 if you’re using the Bibles that we’ve provided.
You know, before we read our passage, allow me to tell you just a little bit more about the farewell discourse as a whole. I said that it’s the unit of John 13:17.
There’s much debate on the exact structure of this discourse or this conversation between Jesus and his disciples. And the reason there’s so much debate is because the different sections of thought within this discourse have very fluid transitions.
It’s hard to figure out where one topic ends and another begins. Also many ideas in the discourse get repeated.
So what is the structure?
There’s a lot of debate. But nevertheless, we can say broadly speaking that this discourse, Jesus conversation is interested in answering the types of questions that we brainstormed at the beginning of the sermon about Jesus leaving. Going to provide you my own outline of the discourse on the screen. I reserve the right to modify this as we go along through the book of John.
How I see it is that John 13 is the prologue of this longer discussion which Jesus fundamentally calls his disciples to follow his example. And then in John 14:1-17, Jesus answers where he is going.
Ultimately, he’s going to the father in heaven. Then in John 14:18 to John 16:15, Jesus answers what his disciples should do until Jesus returns from heaven. And it’s several things. Be faithful in obedience. John 14:18-31.
Be fruitful in love. John 15:1-17.
Be firm against persecution. John 15:18-16:4.
And be guided by the Holy Spirit. John 16:4-15.
Then in John 16 16-33, Jesus answers when his disciples will see him again very soon. And this is because Jesus is not just coming back at the end of the age, but first right after his resurrection. The disciples sorrow will then turn to joy and then Jesus will explain everything plainly to them.
Finally, John 17 is the epilogue in which Jesus prays for all of his disciples.
Now, hopefully that gives you an idea of where Jesus is going in this discourse and how our new passage fits in. So, we’re now going to read our new passage, John 14:1-6, which is part of Jesus answer regarding where he is going. So, follow along with me as I read.
Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.
In my father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also, and you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.” Notice immediately here in this passage how Jesus states the purpose of his words to his disciples. Right in verse one, he says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” The word troubled here is a notable one and one we’ve already encountered a few times in John.
or we’ve already encountered a few times in John. This is the same word that Jesus used or rather that was used of Jesus in John 11:33 when Jesus became troubled at seeing Mary and the other Jews weeping intensely over Lazarus.
It’s the same word used in John 12:27 where Jesus describes how his own soul has become troubled in anticipation of Jesus’ hour of suffering. And then the word appears one more time in John 13:21 to describe how Jesus’ spirit became troubled before Jesus testified that one of his closest disciples, one of the 12, was about to betray him.
And remember that this word for troubled, which we’ve seen previously, it does not refer to a mild discomfort or sadness, but rather inward turmoil.
It can also be translated disturbed or stirred up or shaken together.
When Jesus says,”Do not let your hearts be troubled,” it’s because he knows what his dear disciples are going through, their hearts are shaken up at Jesus announcement of leaving them.
They’re in turmoil. And so Jesus wants to provide them comfort. He’s going to do that with these words. He wants to give such good instruction to them that their hearts are no longer stirred up.
And let’s appreciate the poignency of Jesus doing this because in one sense Jesus is the one who needs and deserves the most comfort in this situation as the perfect holy one and the beloved son of God. Jesus is facing hell on behalf of his people. That’s what the cross represents for him. It’s the bearing of all their sins. It’s the forsaking of the son by his heavenly father. It’s hell upon hell in his own spirit.
The burden of all this will be so overwhelming to Jesus that within the next few hours, Jesus will cry out in agonized prayer in the garden, the garden of Gethsemane, while sweating drops of blood. He could use some comfort right now.
But rather than requesting comfort for himself or resenting the lack of encouragement from his disciples, Jesus is only concerned with comforting and encouraging them.
He treats their troubled hearts as more important than his own.
And do you know what that is, my brothers and sisters? That is divine love in action.
And as we saw last time, we ought to love one another in the same way.
Now Jesus in verse one not only expresses his desire that his disciples not be troubled, but Jesus also provides the fundamental remedy to their turmoil.
And that’s what we see at the end of verse one. Believe in God. Believe also in me.
Now your Bible translation may read slightly differently here. And this is because these two clauses, believe in God, believe also in me. They could be translated either as statements or as commands. The form is the same in Greek.
Thus, the NIV and the KJV, they have here you believe in God statement.
Believe also in me command.
But the translation I’m preaching from, the NASBY 95, the New American Standard, is probably better here, treating them both as commands because this gospel has repeatedly clarified that there is no true believing in God without also believing in God’s son, Jesus.
And if you’re wondering why there is a distinction between God and Jesus here, I thought Jesus was God. Is this telling us that Jesus is not God?
No. This gospel has repeatedly shown us that Jesus is God. Rather, the reason is the New Testament often uses the title God simply as a reference to God the Father.
Indeed, in calling for belief in himself as well as in the Father at the end of verse one, Jesus is only emphasizing his equality to the Father. If you must believe in Jesus as well as believe in God, it can only be because Jesus is God.
So then Jesus is saying in verse one, don’t be in turmoil, but believe in the father and believe in me the son.
And that right there is fundamental helpful instruction really to all believers because is not faith or trust or belief the basic answer to our hearts troubles when we say to ourselves, “Father, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.” God says to us from his word, “Trust me, you’ll be okay.” Jesus, where are you? I’m suffering. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t keep going. And Jesus says to us from the scriptures, “Trust me. I will take care of you.” Both in the scriptures and in the providence of our lives, the father and son, the whole trinity have shown themselves to be completely trustworthy.
Every promise of God, every promise of Jesus proves true even if fulfilled in the last minute.
So that even in the dark portions of life like the ones the disciples are in, believers can walk by faith and not by sight. If your heart is troubled, believe in God.
Believe in Jesus.
But Jesus doesn’t just exhort his disciples to generally believe in God and find comfort. Instead, Jesus provides three specific truths for his disciples to believe. Yes, trust God generally, but let me point you to three specific truths, Jesus says. And that’s what we see in the rest of our passage.
And that’s what will comprise the sermon outline today. In John 14:1-6, Jesus provides three heavenly comforts for the troubled heart to embrace by faith.
Three heavenly comforts for the troubled heart to embrace by faith. And the first is in verse two, number one of the sermon outline.
Jesus prepared a home for us. This is our first heavenly comfort to embrace by faith. Jesus prepared a home for us. So now we go to verse two.
In my father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you.
Now here again your Bible translation might read slightly differently as the second half of the verse could be translated either as a statement or a question. The ESV and the NIV they read in verse two some version of the following. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Question.
This alternate translation does fit well with the original text, but suffers from the problem that Jesus has not in fact told his disciples previously that he goes to prepare a place for them or at least it has not been recorded in John.
Though the overall meaning is not greatly affected whether it’s a statement or a question, I think the New American Standard 95 translation is better here and that’s what I’m going to go with.
But now look at verse two and notice that Jesus implicitly answers here pre Peter’s previous question in John 13:36 as to where Jesus is going.
Jesus is going to the father or more specifically to the father’s house.
But where exactly is the father’s house?
Well, we’re not talking about the father’s house or God’s house on earth, the temple. Rather, God’s house in heaven where Jesus disciples will we hear now have a lasting abode.
For notice Jesus says next, I go to prepare a place for you, a place in my father’s heavenly home.
Now, these words in verse two are pretty famous.
And if you haven’t thought about it carefully, you might be inclined to understand these words in a slightly romanticized way.
When you hear about Jesus preparing a dwelling place for each of his disciples, even for you, you might imagine Jesus adding on a new spacious addition to God’s heavenly city home. Even a beautiful mansion, all your own. That is the way the King James version translates the word dwelling place, a mansion.
You might imagine Jesus building your new place with his own two hands, with a hammer and saw. You might imagine him filling your new dwelling with all your favorite things, situating the furniture just so, taking his time because he wants to have the dwelling place or your mansion just perfect for you.
And if Jesus is this meticulous for the rest of his disciples as he is for you, well, it’s going to take him a good amount of time before the father’s house is fully decked out and Jesus is ready to return.
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought like that. I confess I have when I heard that Jesus was preparing a place.
But on closer examination of the text, a further review of its words, this sweet sounding sentiment, it misunderstands what Jesus is saying and Jesus power.
First of all, the King James version’s translation of mansions in my father’s house are many mansions is misleading to modern readers because the meaning of mansion has changed in English. Previously, a mansion could refer to any type of dwelling, even a temporary lodging. But now, the term only refers to large stately buildings.
The Greek term used in the passage is literally a staying place. So, we’re not really talking about mansions here.
We’re talking about a dwelling, a dwelling place or a room.
Second, Jesus doesn’t need a long time to prepare perfectly every person’s heavenly dwelling place because Jesus is the eternal word. He is the omnisient and omnipotent creator.
All he would have to do is speak and everything would be prepared in heaven instantly. Doesn’t need time to prepare your room.
But third, whatever material work might be needed to prepare believers dwellings in heaven is already done. For notice that Jesus says in verse two, in my father’s house are many dwelling places, not will be many dwelling places.
In other words, Jesus is not saying to his disciples that he goes to make rooms in heaven for them, but that there already are rooms. There are many dwelling places, enough for all of his disciples.
And Jesus emphasizes the believability of this wonderful reality by saying, “If it were not so, I would have told you. I wouldn’t get your hopes up for heaven just to tell you later, sorry, there’s no room for you.” Rather, Jesus explains his departure as securing his disciples place in the rooms of heaven.
I go to prepare a place for you or I go to make ready a place for you.
This of course raises a certain question.
If all the rooms of God’s people are already ready, in what sense does Jesus need to go and prepare anything for his disciples?
The answer is Jesus must secure his disciples right to have those rooms.
That is to say, Jesus must go to the cross. He must pay once and for all for all of his disciples sins. He must transfer his own righteousness to his disciples accounts and then as it were present the completed transaction to the father in heaven and say those reserved dwelling places may now be justly given to my disciples.
See, Jesus doesn’t prepare your home in heaven by divine carpetry, but by divine sacrifice.
He had to go away to do that. And aren’t you glad he did?
In this passage, what Jesus promises is in the future perspective. He tells the disciples what he will accomplish for them. But for us today, this has already been accomplished.
We by faith, therefore, can take comfort in whatever our troubles. And I’m sure everybody’s going through some kind of trouble right now. We can take comfort in the unshakable fact Jesus has prepared a dwelling place in the father’s house for us.
And I do emphasize the word us.
We should think about it in terms of us and not just me because the word you as Jesus uses it in verse two is plural for you all.
This is a communal reality to believe and rejoice in and to encourage one another in. Jesus has prepared a heavenly home for us.
But now there’s a second heavenly comfort for the troubled heart to embrace in verse three.
Number two, the sermon outline.
Jesus is coming again for us. Jesus prepared a home for us, but Jesus is also coming again for us. Verse three, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be. Also, notice how verse three builds off of the previous declaration.
Jesus will not secure a place in heaven for his own and then somehow fail to have his own arrive and experience it.
No, Jesus is so committed to your dwelling in the father’s house that Jesus will come and get you.
Interestingly, the original language here is emphatic about Jesus desire to be with his people.
The phrase I will come again is actually present tense in the original Greek. So more literally I am coming again as if the mechanism for reunion is already in motion.
The phrase and will receive you to myself could be more literally translated and I will take you for myself to myself.
This is because the Greek verb for take or receive, it’s in the middle voice, which is a a type of verb quality meaning that Jesus does it in his own interest.
And then the last phrase that where I am that you may be also, it is more literally so that where I myself am, you all yourselves will be.
The I and the the you and the you the you all. it receives extra emphasis in the way the Greek is written.
What these details of verse three show us is that Jesus departure from his people is not due to lack of love or some kind of pious indifference.
Look, I know you guys love me and all. I am pretty great, but I’ve got a job to do for my father. So, you’ll just have to deal until I’m done.
That is not Jesus attitude. That idea is far from reality.
But the reality is mind-blowing.
The truth is that Jesus genuinely, abundantly, and unceasingly loves his own to the point that he not only wants to be with them, but anticipates the enjoyment of doing so.
You know, last Tuesday, the men of Iron Man were talking about this same astounding truth from Ephesians 1.
We learn in Ephesians 1 that God and his heaven are not merely our inheritance as saints, which is what Ephesians 1:14 says, but that we saints are God’s inheritance according to Ephesians 1:18.
And other scriptures say the same. 1 Peter 2:9 First Peter 2:9 quoted in the Old Testament says that believers are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.
Ephesians 5:27 and Revelation 21:2, they describe God’s people as a bride beautified and then presented to her divine husband ostensibly to be enjoyed.
And then Zephaniah 3:17, Zephaniah 3:17 famously says of future redeemed believing Israel, “The Lord or that is Yahweh, Yahweh your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
So, are you hearing all of that together, brethren?
Jesus loves and rejoices over you according to the scriptures.
And in a sense, he cannot wait to bring you to the father’s house to enjoy you and to be enjoyed by you forever.
And now to this someone will say but what do I have to offer God that he should desire to be with me or to find joy in me?
I can give God nothing that he doesn’t already have.
All that naturally dwells in me is sin.
Whatever good I have, even my faith in him or love for him, it comes from him in the first place.
And you know what?
That’s all true.
Yet the words of the Bible still stand.
You have nothing to give God on your own. Yet he does love you and rejoice over you if you are in Christ.
Now we probably will never be able to fully understand this.
Why should God choose to love us? Why should he even rejoice over us?
Surely part of the answer is God is enjoying his own imparted nature in us.
Part of the answer is God is enjoying his own outpouring of generosity to us.
But even then, I don’t know if I fully understand it.
Probably now the best explanation that anyone can give is you’ve probably heard this before. He loved us because he loved us.
Can’t really penetrate further than that.
But back to John 14:3, Jesus tells his disciples, his troubled disciples, and he tells us that Jesus desires our being with him so much that he will come and take us himself to heaven.
But to what exactly does this coming and taking or this coming and receiving refer?
How will Jesus do this?
Many Bible interpreters have given different answers. But a key detail for us in answering is again the plural use of the word you in verse three.
In other words, Jesus is not promising here to come and get individuals say when they die rather to get everyone all his disciples at once and then keep them in his presence forever.
Well, when would that be?
The best answer is that Jesus is speaking here of his second coming, even the rapture or the snatching up of his remaining saints. Jesus coming for his people. As Pastor Bobby has been preaching from Revelation, Jesus has no desire that his beloved disciples should suffer through the cleansing wrath of the last days of the earth, but rather be with him.
Consider the parallel and what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 to18.
You’ll notice some parallels to John 14:3. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with a trumpet of God. and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we shall always be with the Lord.
Verse 18 says, “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” So just like in our passage in John 14:3, Paul says, “The prospect of Christ’s soon return to gather his people is meant to be a huge comfort.
Comfort one another with this truth.” Jesus is doing the same for his disciples.
He directs them to believe that he will come and get them again so that their hearts are not troubled. And we also can find comfort by faith when our hearts are troubled in this truth. Jesus is coming again for us. Yes, to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord. I’m not saying if you die before he comes that somehow you won’t be with him. No. But understand that Jesus wants all of us to be with him. And for any who are alive still when he comes, we’re always going to be together with the Lord.
Now, Jesus explains the third and final heavenly comfort in verses 4 to six of our passage. And this last comfort is the one that I’ve alluded to in my sermon title and introduction number three of the sermon outline. What’s our third heavenly comfort? When our hearts are troubled, we already know God’s only way. We already know God’s only way.
Look at verses four and five first.
Jesus continues, “And you know the way where I’m going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?” At first glance, verses four and five seem to suggest that Jesus overestimates his disciples understanding.
When Jesus disciples or when Jesus tells his disciples that they already know the way that he takes to the father, Thomas pipes up to say that the disciples know neither the way nor the where.
To which we might say, “Come on, Tom.
You didn’t at least get that Jesus is going to the father in heaven. Have you been asleep through the last three verses?” Let’s not be too hard on Thomas. His mind is probably struggling due to the turmoil of his heart. And Jesus will admit later on in the farewell discourse, John 16:25, that much of what Jesus says to his disciples is in more figurative rather than in plain language.
We would have a hard time keeping keeping up with Jesus here, too. If not for the fact that after the resurrection, things are a lot clearer.
The disciples would eventually see that they would understand Jesus words much better.
Yet, is Jesus wrong? In verse four, Jesus says, “The disciples know to the way of the father.” But Thomas says, “No, we don’t.” No, Jesus is not wrong. Because you see, Thomas and the other disciples don’t know that they already know the way.
Because the way ultimately is not a method or a message. It’s a person, a person that they know quite well as Jesus reveals in verse six. The sixth I am statement of this gospel verse six again Jesus said to him I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.
You know one of the great fears of many Christians is believing that they are saved when they really aren’t.
They are afraid of this. Maybe you have had this fear.
What if when I die and I expect to go to heaven, I actually end up in hell? There will be no second chance.
Jesus says that the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life.
Maybe I missed it.
Maybe that would explain some of the troubles of my life. Why I’m beset with so many trials and temptations. Why my ministry to the Lord seems to yield such little visible fruit. Why I receive so much opposition and rejection from seemingly otherwise moral and religious people. Maybe I myself don’t know the way to God and only think I do.
Sure, the disciples were facing a version of these questions in themselves after hearing Jesus is going away.
Guys, Jesus ministry is not working out at all like we expected. So maybe we were wrong. Maybe we don’t know the way to God at all. Maybe after Jesus leaves, we’ll all simply die in our sins and never reach the father’s house.
Such thoughts would indeed cause great turmoil of soul.
So Jesus again in love, he reassures his 11 disciples and us today when he says, “I am the way.
With these words, it’s like Jesus is saying, “You didn’t miss the only way to God. No matter how things look in the world or how other people react to you, how can you know this for certain?
Because you know me. You have a love relationship with me. You’ve seen my glory. And rather than run from the light, you ran to the light.
You along with all your brethren, you know me.
And if you know me, you know that I will bring you all to the father.
Why? Because that’s who I am.
I am the way to the father. There is no other way besides me.
Now here someone might ask wait if Jesus is the way then how going back to verse four can Jesus take himself as the way to the father isn’t that a paradox I mean Jesus cannot be the way and take the way at the same time right actually he can and we’ve already seen a similar truth expressed earlier in John remember John 10, how in John 10, Jesus proclaimed himself to be both the door to God’s sheep and the good shepherd who leads his sheep through the door.
If you remember my explanation, John 10 is not an instance of Jesus using a mixed metaphor, but instead a presentation of a profound truth that all legitimate ministry to God’s people, including Jesus own, must be through God’s only ordained door.
which is also Jesus.
We are seeing a similarly profound truth in John 14:6.
Because Jesus is God’s only ordained way for any human being to get to the father.
Then how could Jesus himself go to the father except through the only ordained way? Himself.
That is through who Jesus is and through what Jesus accomplishes by his life, his death and his resurrection.
Now notice in verse six that Jesus doesn’t just describe himself as the way but also as the truth and the life.
In the immediate context, Thomas question was only about Jesus being or only about the way Jesus is going. So why does Jesus then add these other two descriptions of himself, the truth and the life?
Well, certainly we can affirm that these are valid titles for Jesus, even based on what we’ve already seen in the book of John. Jesus is the truth. Right from John 1, we heard that Jesus is the very word and revelation of God. And God, God is truth. This means on on one level that everything Jesus says is true and reliable. And on a deeper level that Jesus is truth in his very being. You cannot meet someone truer than Jesus because Jesus is the truth.
And as for life, Jesus in this gospel is not only said to have life, but to be life in himself. He proclaims himself to be the resurrection and the life. John 11:25.
We hear in John 5:26 that the very life of the father is in the son. Thus Jesus can give his life abundant eternal life to all of his people. John 10:10.
All right. So these titles are appropriate. This is all true. But again, why mention it in reply to Thomas question?
Certainly it emphasizes the specialness of Jesus, the completeness of what the disciples already have in Jesus. I think we can more specifically answer that this provides further reassurance to Jesus disciples that just as they have not missed out on God’s way, neither have they missed out at all on truth or life.
Because this is how we Christians are further tempted, isn’t it? Further pressured.
The people of the world and of false religions, they are always trying to tell us that we don’t have the full truth.
Yeah, your understanding of Jesus is good and all, but it needs completion. It needs correction. It needs supplementation.
You need man’s philosophy.
You need the findings of psychology.
You need the scriptures of Islam, the scriptures of Mormonism. You need the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.
or you need the oversight and extra teaching of the Watchtower Society for the Jehovah Witnesses.
But Jesus tells us right here in verse six, “No, you don’t.
You have the whole truth already.” How can you know that for certain because you know me and I am the truth?
Again, we can look at the rest of the scriptures to see how this idea is backed up. Peter says in second Peter 1:3, second Peter 1:3, that through the true knowledge of Christ, we have been granted everything we need pertaining to life and godliness.
No extra dose of truth or correction needed.
Paul says in Colossians 2 2:3 Colossians 2 2:3 that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge such that Colossians 2:8 we are to beware the empty deceptions of men and of their traditions.
He’s telling you they’re going to say you need this too. Beware that it’s empty. It’ll just trap you.
Jude says in Jude 1:3, Jude 1:3 that we have a faith or a body of truth that was handed down once for all to the saints.
And it is for this faith that we must contend, not fix and supplement.
As for life, we Christians are also continually assaulted with the notion that true life or at least the rest of the life that we need, it exists somewhere else outside of a simple relationship with Jesus Christ.
This is of course the lie of all sin.
Why hold yourself back from what is forbidden if it will make you happy?
This is also the lie of idolatry to all worldly treasures.
Just a little more and you’ll finally discover true fulfillment and security.
And this is even the lie of false religion.
That awesome experience, that unshakable shity, that perfectly holy life you’ve been looking for, it awaits you in just the next religion or the next cult over.
Again, Jesus tells us as he tells his original disciples, you don’t have to look for life somewhere out there.
You already have it in full.
How can you know that for certain?
Because you know me and I am the life.
The life.
Paul testifies in Philippians 3:8 that he counts everything in the world to be loss and garbage compared to the value of simply knowing Jesus Christ. Where’s life? Nothing out there. It’s all in knowing Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews says, and I love this verse. I think of it a lot. Hebrews 13:9-10. Hebrews 13:9-10 paraphrasing the first part of it. Believers are never missing out on what the world or false religion offers rather the reverse.
Verse 10, Hebrews 13:10. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. Those in false religion, those still stuck in Judaism and they won’t progress to knowing Jesus, they’re missing out.
You’re not missing out on what they have.
And Jesus himself will say later in John 17:3, John 17:3, “This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Brethren, isn’t all this wonderful comfort? Isn’t what is expressed here in verses 4 to six wonderful comfort?
When you find yourselves like the disciples, troubled in heart, not sure about what God is doing, when we together find ourselves facing persecution, discouragement, many trials, we don’t have to wonder if somehow we missed it. Did we miss the way? Are we missing some truth?
Did we not really encounter life and it’s somewhere out there? No, Jesus reassures us. We already know God’s only way. We already know God’s full truth or we already know the life, the one and only life who is Jesus Christ.
And how did we come to know Jesus this way?
Not because we were smarter or holier than others.
is because God revealed himself to us by speaking to our hearts, by giving us the gospel, by causing us to believe.
No credit to ourselves.
These are indeed sweet heavenly comforts for God’s people.
But are they true of you personally?
I’ve been explaining this passage in the same mode as Jesus speaks to his disciples, assuming that his listeners do indeed believe that they are in Jesus Christ because these comforts are only for them.
And perhaps as you listen, you realize, I don’t think that’s me.
I don’t think I’ve actually come to know Jesus.
Yeah, I I go through troubles, but I haven’t been turning to God and Jesus in faith. Therefore, I’m not confident that Jesus has prepared a home for me. I’m not confident that Jesus is coming again for me.
I’m not sure that I already know God’s only way.
How can I appropriate these heavenly comforts for myself?
Well, the simple answer to that question from the scriptures is the gospel.
Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved and all these things will be true of you. All these comforts will belong to you.
When we say repent of your sin, you you see your sin as God does. that it is a heinous, inexcusable offense to a holy God, your creator, and that it justly deserves hell forever. That you can do nothing on your own to pay for that sin, to make up for that sin. Rather, that there is only one way, and it is what we learn from our passage. It is Jesus. He who is God came as a man, as a true man, and lived a perfectly holy life on the earth. He then died an innocent substitutionary death for his people on the cross, suffering all the sins of his people once for all, paying the hellish penalty once and for all, and then dying, rising again, and shortly thereafter ascending to heaven. What this means is as Jesus himself proclaimed that if anyone turns from his sin in his own way and embraces Jesus as the only way, as the only savior, as his only lord, their sins have been paid for by Jesus. And Jesus own righteousness, the perfect righteousness of his life is applied to them.
If you believe that, if you will believe that, if you will take Jesus as savior and lord, the promise from the scriptures is you will be saved.
All these things we talked about, they are now true for you. Jesus has prepared a home in heaven for you. Jesus is coming back for you with the rest of the saints. You’re part of that group, and you already know God’s only way.
that’s available to you now right there in your heart if you believe that all those heavenly comforts are available to you. So, do you believe? Will you believe?
If that’s something you’d like to ask more questions about or talk more about, well, please come talk with me after the service today. I’m going to come down right up front. You can talk with me about that or any other spiritual burden or issue you’ve got. I’d love to talk with you about it or pray with you.
And next time we’ll hear more about Jesus going to the father and why he’s able to do that, what he’s already accomplished in terms of revealing the father on the earth and some of the things that Jesus will provide for his disciples as he goes to the father’s house. Allow me to now end the sermon with a word of prayer.
Dear father, thank you for the truths of this passage. Thank you for Jesus Christ. He is the one way and God so graciously you have caused us to know him.
We who believe, we who are in Jesus Christ, we haven’t missed your way. We haven’t missed your truth in your life because you wouldn’t let us. You showed Jesus to us. You opened our eyes to his glory.
We saw his glory as of the only begotten from the father.
We saw his light and we couldn’t help but believe that was your grace, God. Because unless you did that, we would be like the rest of the world. Loving the darkness rather than the light. running from the light, hating the light because our deeds are evil.
God, if there are any today who have not yet had that happen for them, I pray that by your grace, you would cause that to happen. That whatever is holding them back, they would set it aside and they say, “I want what Jesus is talking about here.” And Lord, would you do that? And for those of us who do believe, God, I pray that we would feel the comforts that you’ve given through your son to us in this word.
Lord, you know, we’ve got troubles. It seems like the world becomes more and more filled with things that would push us to anxiety and to despair.
But you tell us we have no need to be troubled. You’ve got everything taken care of, including these most important things. Jesus, we do look forward to your return. We love, we are astounded by the truth that you want us to be with you. You want us to behold your glory and that you rejoice over us. Oh God, you are a great, loving, gracious God.
Thank you for being our God.
Lord, help us to worship you as we continue now in the celebration of the Lord’s supper. Amen.