John 14:1-7. Only One Way
During an exclusive golf outing for top business and entertainment executives on October 9, 2006 Tiger Woods was put on the spot by another guest of Nike.
That day, 30 people gathered at the Trump golf course in Los Angeles for the 2006 “Tee It Up with Tiger Woods” event, which included a private golf session and lunch with the living legend. During the lunch, there was a question-and-answer session with Tiger. Most people asked about their swings or golf questions. However, one guest of Nike stood up and asked two questions:
“Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? And if not, prayerfully, would you?”
A source present at the lunch said later:
“You could have heard a pin drop. People were mortified. But Tiger was as unflappable as he is on the golf course.”
Tiger said,
“My father was a Christian—of course Christianity was part of my life. But my mother is Asian, and Buddhism was also part of my childhood. So I practice both faiths respectfully.”
In this passage Jesus has much to say about this very common view.
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 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. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:1-7
The context was clear. The disciples were perplexed, in spite of three years training by Jesus. They had just been informed that one of their number would betray Jesus, that Peter would deny Jesus and, worst of all, that Jesus was shortly going to be killed. It is no wonder that the disciples were troubled. This section has much to say to all of us as we face problems of bereavement, or with families, money and jobs. Jesus says to us all, as he said to his disciples,
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” John 14:1
Although life will inevitably throw many awful situations at us, to some extent how these affect us will be in our hands. Jesus tells his disciples that they should remain in control and not allow circumstances to swamp them,
“Do not let . . .”
Jesus wants his followers to trust his words as what he says is utterly reliable – his words are the words of God. Jesus continues,
“Trust in God, trust also in me.” John 14:1
He continues to reassure them with a glorious picture of what heaven will be like,
“In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2
Whatever fears we may have now, there is a glorious certainty ahead for those who belong to Jesus. He has promised a certain, secure future for us and he wants all Christians to be certain of this.
Jesus clearly wants his disciples in all times to have a real experience of his love for us. We are not just to teach cold doctrine and moral behaviour. The Christian faith is about a living daily relationship with a very real person who loves us and who has prepared a safe future for us. How glorious this thought is.
This passage teaches us all three very unexpected truths.
1. Faith has an unexpected focus
Although the passage does tell us something about heaven and the fact that it is possible to be certain that that we will be going there, the real emphasis of what Jesus says is on himself. He is so egocentric which is extraordinary in someone so humble. Nowhere does Jesus come across as a teacher of morality, he has much more to say than just to tell people how to live better lives. He was constantly pointing people to himself. In the first four verses he uses the words ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘my’ nine times.
a. Jesus puts himself in the centre of life
His emphasis to all of us is,
“Trust in God, trust also in me.” John 14:1
Jesus puts himself alongside God!
A secretary was taken to church by her boss to hear a clear gospel message. As they left she wanted to reassure her boss,
“I do believe in God, you know! It is just that I am not sure where Jesus fits in.”
Jesus is saying that people don’t really believe in the true God if they do not believe in him. Jesus had repeatedly explained,
“I and the Father are one.” John 10:30
Jesus’ central theme is not that there is a real after-life but that he and he alone is the only way to get there.
b. Jesus will be the centre of the next life
When Jesus talks about the home in heaven that awaits his people, the striking feature is who the focus will be in heaven. It will be himself!
“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.” John 14:3
The use of the phrase ‘I am’ is yet another instance where Jesus uses the name of God and applies it to himself.
c. Jesus is the only way
Thomas, in his usual blunt way does not understand what Jesus says about the next world,
“You know the place where I am going.” John 14:4
He seems to think that Jesus is talking about going somewhere in this world and responds,
“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way.” John 14:5
Thomas is so like many today, who do not understand that this world and our short existence on it is just a preparation for eternity. As Jesus has been repeatedly saying to everybody, the only way into the real world, into God’s kingdom, is through following him. Jesus replies,
“I am the way, and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
In the early church, Christianity was sometimes referred to as ‘The Way’ (Acts 9:2, 19:9,23). They knew that there was no other route back to God. In today’s world where people think it is possible to have their own personal thoughts that they call ‘truths’ Jesus reminds us that there is only one ultimate truth, that is God himself. All ideas that are true must be compatible with him. When Jesus claims to be ‘the truth’ he is again saying to the thinkers and philosophers of this world, ‘I am God’. The only way to experience eternal life as well as ‘life to the full’ is in living closely with him.
This has always been what Christians have taught. Jesus is the great ‘I am’. A few months later, after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, Peter and John were on trial before the very court that had arranged for the execution of Jesus. There, at great risk to himself, Peter announced just what Jesus had taught them,
“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” Romans 4:12
Faith in Jesus is not an option, it is vital for our eternal salvation. He is the only way to God because he is God in the flesh – no other religious leader or prophet can or even dares to claim that! Jesus continued,
“If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:7
This centrality of Jesus is the test of orthodoxy in our churches. Abraham Colfe was vicar of Lewisham from 1610 to 1657. He founded Colfe's School and instituted an annual sermon to teach the pupils God’s word. This sermon was to last one hour! Recently the preacher spoke on,
“How to use your talents to get on in life.”
A person with no faith or holding to another faith could speak to that! In the gospels the parable of the talents has nothing to say about being a success in this world but urges everyone to use responsibly what we have been given now because the time will come when we will all have to give an account to God for how we have lived. A Christian sermon must always lead up to the importance of Jesus, the Christ, God’s chosen king.
There have always been people who have sought experiences of God using mystical techniques. Over the centuries, since introduced by the ancient Greeks, a wide variety of drugs have been used to enhance such pseudo-experiences. Philip, one of the two disciples with a Greek name, says to Jesus,
“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” John 14:8
Jesus’ reply is so clear,
“Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?” John 14:9-10
To demote Jesus to being a great prophet, as the Qur’an does, or to being a minor god, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons do, is to turn away from what Jesus clearly teaches about himself. Jesus is adamant that what he says about himself is God’s truth. He continues,
“The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather it is the Father, living in me who is doing his work.”
2. Faith must be rational
There are those around who say, perhaps rather condescendingly,
“It must be nice to have a faith like yours but for me there is just not enough evidence.”
Jesus is saying that all people should believe in him because of the evidence. Subjectively, what he teaches resonates with with what we know to be true about life and in our consciences. Honesty, love and integrity do matter and we all know that when God examines our lives we have all fallen woefully short of his standards. We really do need the forgiveness that only Jesus can give us. Objectively there is the evidence for the life, miracles and resurrection of Jesus. Furthermore there are all the prophecies about the coming Messiah given in the Old Testament. We are told where he will be born, his family line, many specific details about his life, how he will die and that he will die to carry the responsibility for the sins of many people. Their presence is miraculous. Jesus affirms that there are many convincing reasons for our believing, but his teaching is primary.
“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 miracles themselves.” John 14:11
The Greeks word that is translated here as ‘miracles’ usually has a wider meaning of ‘deeds’. We will spend some time next week looking at what these deeds are.
3. Faith must be productive
There is an awful doctrine going around that says that people are saved by being ‘Christian’, and by this they meant being formally accepted into the church through baptism and holding to the tenets of the Christian faith. The Bible teaches that this is not true. Faith must be productive, it must result in changed lives, lives that are now centred on living to please the Lord Jesus. The apostle James reminds us,
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22
“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:17
Jesus also stresses that faith in him will become life-changing. Jesus’ priorities will become ours. As he lived, so will we.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” John 14:12
This begs the question, what was it that Jesus was ‘doing’. He certainly cared for those with problems, the poor and the sick, but the main purpose of his life was to teach people the way to get right with God and how to experience God’s power in their lives. Early in his ministry when he was becoming inundated with requests for healing, he went off early one morning to pray, and then announced to his disciples,
“Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” Mark 1:38
Consequently this must also be the priority of Christ’s church.
The next phrase is remarkable although it has recently been misunderstood,
“He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12
Some have used this verse to suggest that the church will be able to do greater healing miracles than Jesus performed. This is patently untrue. No-one ever has or ever will match Jesus’ healings. The dead were raised, the paralysed walked, and the congenitally blind saw. What Jesus is surely talking about is the prime purpose of his coming and the prime purpose of his church, to share his gospel around the world. In this and in no other area has the church been more effective than Jesus. The purpose of the church is not just to heal the sick, dig wells, feed the hungry and satisfy social needs, but through all that we do and say, to give glory to God and teach people the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” John 14:13
The purpose of our lives should be to bring glory to the Father. God wants to be intimately involved with us, as we live for him. As we face the daunting task of explaining the importance of Jesus to those who, at least outwardly, don’t appear to be interested, we have the guarantee that God is also at work supporting and applying what we say and do. He will not answer any prayers, such as a request for a red Ferrari, but he is active in making himself known.
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” John 14:13-14
This verse is so often taken out of context. We will not be given whatever we ask for, but he is intimately involved in what is ‘asked in his name’, that is asked for him.
4. Faith is very attractive
Professor Budzisewski was an atheist academic who found there were arguments to debunk almost everything. He had had no experience of God and he certainly couldn’t prove his existence so that concept was rejected. He found no basis for moral values so they had to go too. He then realised that his nihilism had left him with nothing, but in his heart of hearts he knew that honesty, integrity, beauty and kindness were real The only way he could reconcile this dilemma was to put God back in the centre, with him everything made sense. He then realised that he fell far short of God’s standards and that he needed Jesus. He became a Christian. He has described this change in some of his YouTube lectures that are well worth listening to.
Jesus says to his disciples,
“I am going there to prepare a place for you . . .” John 14:2
Jesus says that he cares for us and all our problems and in the end everything will work out well for those who are his people. He deals with the big questions of life such as, ‘Where did I come from?’, ‘Where am I going?’, ‘What is the purpose of my life?’, ‘Is there a God?’. People want to know the answers to these questions and it is surely wrong to inhibit youngsters in our schools from asking them.
Jesus can give us real answers to such questions because he is ‘the truth’ (John 14:6). He answers such questions head on. Reading through John’s gospel will confirm that he doesn’t avoid them.
Some try to counter Jesus’ claims by saying that in practice he is a killjoy and that becoming his disciple will be the start of a boring routine life with no excitement. This is a lie from the devil of the worst kind. He makes sin seem attractive but its joys are very short term and always result in harming us. In one way or another Jesus countered it head on,
“The thief comes only to steal and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10
Satan’s temptations attract us because we covet what others seem to have. We imagine, then dream and finally put our dreams into reality. We steal others’ reputations and belongings, we chase illicit sexual relationships and think that worrying about ourselves is the way to keep ourselves safe. Yet all these temptations are destructive. In contrast, to live for the glory of our maker and redeemer, is a thrilling life now and will have its eternal rewards. If we listen to the thief, we will find that he has stolen what we most long for, he actually steals eternal life from us. His way is the road to disappointment and regret, yet we still listen to him again and again.
If we think as God thinks, that is evidence that we are on ‘the Way’, that we are truly Christians. We know the truth and are walking in it, we are no longer in the dark.
A candidate in Freemasonry is told to knock on the door, with his clothes in a funny state and say,
“I knock as a poor candidate in a state of darkness.”
No Christian can say these words. We are not in a state of darkness, the light has shone into our lives and this is the light we live by.
5. Faith brings unexpected unpopularity
There are some in our churches who love to preach an inclusive gospel, stressing that because God is a God of love he will not reject anybody. Such people love the idea,
“In my Father’s house there are many rooms . . .” John 14:2
A preacher on the radio gave a very moving talk based on the first part of verse 6,
“I am the way, the truth and the life . . .”
But he failed to mention the second half of the verse, probably because he knew that many will baulk at what Jesus goes on to say,
“No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6b
If we don’t accept the second part of the verse, we do not believe the first.
There are too many funerals of those who have rejected the rule of the Lord Jesus during their lives where the minister will try to comfort the relatives with words such as,
“He has now gone to a better place.”
Jesus warned us that there are only two destinations after we die. After we have faced God’s judgment, our fate is either heaven or hell. Heaven is reserved for those who love God’s Messiah and have followed him. Being religious is no substitute. Jesus forewarned us that religion saves nobody when he said,
“Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out many demons and perform many miracles?’ then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers.’” Matthew 7:21-23
Some will respond to this message by saying,
“That may be what you think but I have my own truths - I think differently.”
Jesus replies to such people with a warning,
“I am the truth.” John 14:6
Every area of life depends on objective truth. In medicine, it is known that we need to find the true diagnosis for symptoms in order to give the optimal treatment. In law, witnesses must swear to tell the truth as that is what the court is trying to discover. In science we are trying to unravel the truth about our material world. Existentialists claim that everything is relative and that truth is my truth. Try saying to a policeman who has stopped you for speeding at 50 miles an hour in a 30 mph limit,
“That’s just your interpretation of speed!” and see where it gets you.
Try repeating that to the judge and he will not be pleased. In God’s court, to try and plead ignorance or to reject the validity of what he says can only be treason.
Jesus claims to be the only way to enjoy the favour of God. He allows no compromise with non-Christian religions. He claims to be the unique Son of God and the only person who can save us for eternity. It is he who says, ‘Follow me.”
BVP
