Scripture: John 14:5-27
One of the troubling issues that is plaguing the church today isn’t all
that different from that in years past. We
hear all kinds of conflicting statements about who God is, and did He really
say all these strange things, and if He did, does He really expect us to do
them? And even beyond that, many believe
that scripture is so out of touch with what our societal norm is about that it
is about time that we updated the Bible to reflect what we want it to
mean!
And these are people who claim to be Christians! To my way of thinking, they have lost touch
with who God really is, and who He is for each of us. So this week, we begin a new series that will
carry us up to Lent, which I also pray will prepare us to fully appreciate and rejoice
in our LORD’s gift of personal sacrifice on our
behalf. Our series will be focusing on
who God is and what He is like by taking a look at a number of His qualities.
Our series will, for the most part, focus on two books by A. W. Tozer – “The
Attributes of God, Vol. 1 & 2”.
These compilations are from sermons and other writings that this pastor
developed over many years of service to the LORD. Today, we begin with 3 weeks that focus on,
first of all, Jesus, and the 6th of His 7 “I Am” statements – that He,
and He alone is “the way, the truth, and the life” for this world.
Read John 14:5-9
These words that Jesus has so lovingly offered to us occur at the Last
Supper. John’s gospel is the only one of
the four that gives such a detailed account of the teaching that was given
before the LORD began taking those long, arduous
steps toward Calvary. These words were
initially presented to His followers, but through the years since then, they
have been an inspiration and encouragement to countless millions of the
faithful, and a stumbling block to even more who struggle over, and try to deny,
the truth of God for their lives.
In the initial few verses of this chapter (John14:1-4), Jesus tells his disciples that very
soon, He will be leaving to “prepare a place for you”, and He finishes with the
thought that these faithful know the way to this new and glorious home. But they are confused. They are thinking in a worldly way, and interpret
Jesus’ words to mean a road, a path, the earthly version of what a “way” is,
and completely miss the point that a relationship with Him is the “Way’
that will lead us all to an eternal relationship in Almighty God.
This has always been a problem for people of the world – they want to force
God in general, and Jesus specifically, into a context that fits with their
understanding, instead of allowing themselves to be molded into God’s! What folks seem to be missing is that the LORD’s way is the right size for everyone, while our ways tend to only fit
ourselves, and to force-fit God into our vision will eliminate so much
of the Divine Being that only a twisted human version will remain.
Thomas, in his misconception of what the way of Jesus was all about,
wound up leaving faith dangling in the shadows.
And Phillip, in his failure to accept the fact that the Father and Jesus
were one, damaged his understanding of the relationship that not only God has
within His Trinitarian existence, but it also ignored the relationship that the
Father wanted to have with him.
It wasn’t that both of these men were new to Jesus and his way – they had
been with the LORD for several years already, and
they were about to inherit the ministry that Jesus had initiated! What was it going to take for them to realize
that Jesus had just spent 3 years introducing them to the Father? What would it take for them to begin to appreciate
the fact that faith in Jesus and all that he stood for would be the basis for their
walk in the Way of God?
Read John 14:10-14
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, we read over and over that Jesus, whenever he
preformed a miracle, or revealed some new truth to His disciples, He would tell
them to keep what they had just experienced to themselves. Now we discover that He is telling His
closest friends just who He truly is.
Jesus is the great “I Am”.
And his 7 sayings explained it all.
“Bread of Life” (John 6:32-40)– He is the nourishment and sustenance for all
who truly believe. “Light of the
World” (John 8:12-19)– He reveals the truth of God, as well as the lies of the world, if
only we will learn from His lesson. “The Gate” (John 10:7-10) – He is the door through which all must pass before they can
know God and His will for our lives. “Good
Shepherd” (John 10:11-18)– He cares for us, He leads us to God’s goodness, He keeps us
safe. “Resurrection and Life” (John 11:21-27)– without
Him, death is our only option when this life is concluded, but in Jesus,
physical death is not an end – it will be overcome through His resurrection,
and it will continue in the life of the LORD. And the final saying – “the True Vine” (John 15:1-8) – means that in Him, we will know the fruitfulness that brings glory to the
Father.
Israel had been waiting for Messiah for centuries – not that this one
would be God, but that he would reveal God, and bring God’s glory and
honor to the nation. He would be the “anointed
one” of God, while still being a man who would be in the lineage of David. And when he came, all things would be set right
for Israel, and no one would be able to stand against his strength.
Jesus didn’t quite fit this description, therefore his connection to the
Father was in doubt. So Jesus offers one
more thought for the people – in verse 11 He tells us “Believe me when I
say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the
evidence of the works themselves.” There
had been plenty of evidence of who Jesus was, and He wanted these men to all reflect
on what they had heard and seen during their time with the LORD. Of course, the ultimate evidence would be
coming in just a few more days, and they would then believe that Jesus is truly
who He is.
Believing without
evidence is difficult at best, and believing without surrender to the truth will
always be impossible. And they receive
a promise that when they believe in Jesus as LORD, nothing will ever be impossible
again.
Read John 14:21-24
And the age-old question is raised up by the other Judas – “why don’t you
show the fullness of Yourself to everyone, instead of just to us”? And the answer is as simple as it possibly
could be – the truth of Jesus is available to every single person on the
face of the earth, and it can be theirs if they just love Him and believe
Him. If we love Jesus, the Father will
love us in return.
This is what Israel had been searching for all their lives. And yet, the Messiah, the Savior, the “Way of
God”, didn’t look and act in a way that they thought He should! And because they, and people for the past two
millennia, couldn’t let go of their way and accept the Way of Jesus,
they would never be able to see Jesus for who He is. Interestingly, first there must be love for
Jesus simply for who He says He is, then faith must come for all that He is
without evidence, and it will only be then that the truth of Jesus will become
evident.
But Jesus interjects one more issue into the discussion – love for Jesus
will bring obedience to the completeness of His teaching. This is the evidence of our faith. And Jesus confirms the contrasting situation –
when we don’t love, and believe, and obey Jesus, love and relationship
with the Father will be absent from our lives.
And the LORD goes even one step further when
He confirms that this thought is not His, but is that of His Father, so if you
don’t believe the words He has spoken, then you aren’t believing the Father
either!
Read John 14:25-27
And here is what will be ours by faith in Jesus - in addition to finding
the Way to God, in addition to discovering the Way of redemption, in addition
to gaining access to the Way of salvation – we will come to know the power and
blessing and peace that comes to all through the love of Jesus Christ, which is
revealed by the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will be sent to reinforce and
remind and enable us in all that Jesus said and meant through the life He gave for
each one of us.
What an incredible gift from God!
But there is a caveat! It only comes
when we love the Way that Jesus is, and when we obey all that Jesus has
taught. And in Luke 12:8-10, we read that
anyone who denies Jesus can be forgiven, but if we blaspheme, or reject, the
Holy Spirit, there is no forgiveness. That
includes times when words are invented that supposedly have come from the
Spirit, or if there is denial that the Holy Spirit comes to only the faithful, or
when there is no love for the LORD within us and
we depend upon a spirit of our own making while claiming that it is of God.
This attitude that seems to be so prevalent in the lives of the world, is
the reason that Jesus’ Way will never be theirs. And their loss will be the greatest that we
will ever know.
But in Jesus, His Way will be higher than our greatest imagination, and beyond
our greatest hope. That’s how much our
Almighty God loves to bless those who love Him and His Way!
Live in His Way today!
Amen.
