More Certainty in Life | I Am More | Pastor Joe Coffey

John 14:6–7

John 14:6–7

Jesus said to him, "I am the way,

and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my father also.

From now on, you do know him

and have seen him."

Hey, everybody.

Good morning and welcome to Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Joe.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And I'm just really glad that you come.

All right.

This is Palm Sunday, and we call it Palm Sunday,

because this is the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

And people cut off palm branches and laid them

in the road and cried out, Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!

Hey, just so you know, in our kids area right now,

we have two miniature donkeys walking the halls and,

the kids are out with their little palm fronds and putting them down

in front of the donkey so that they're reenacting Palm Sunday.

I love what our kids,

I would love to be a kid in this church.

You know, when I was a kid, we were lucky if our Sunday school teacher

had a cutout of a donkey that they put on the flannel board.

You know, we have real donkeys.

Anyway, we are in a series. We're calling

I Am More. If you're new,

just once

you know, it's not about us.

We're not saying that we're more.

We're saying that Jesus is more.

We've been looking at what Jesus says about himself.

And those statements are called I am statements

where Jesus says stuff like, I am the good Shepherd.

I am the light of the world.

In this case, he says, I am the way,

the truth, and the life.

Let me kind of set the stage of he actually says this

statement to his disciples right before he goes to the cross.

I mean, this happens late Thursday night

or in the wee hours of Friday morning.

By Friday at 9:00 in the morning, he is hanging on a cross,

and then he kind of just paint the picture for either.

The disciples at this point are really pretty rattled and understandably so.

I mean, tensions are at an all time high.

They just finished the Passover meal with Jesus.

It would later be called the last Supper.

Of course, they didn't know it was the Last Supper at the time,

but it was still super unsettling

because during that time, with Jesus,

Jesus told them that one of them was going to betray him.

He talked about his body being broken,

his blood being poured out.

He told Peter that Peter before the the sun would rise.

Peter would deny even knowing Jesus three times,

and then he just broke the news to them that he was leaving them.

And so into that, Jesus gives them the statement,

let me go ahead and read the whole passage to you.

This is beginning at verse one of chapter 14.

Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God. Believe also in me.

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.

And you know the way to where I'm going.

And Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

And Jesus said to him, I am the way,

and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me.

Out of

all the statements that Jesus makes about himself,

this is probably the most polarizing because this is where he claims

exclusivity and people hate that about Christianity.

Jesus says no one comes to the father but through me.

Super offensive to people.

What's interesting is that Jesus said it to comfort

the disciples, not to offend them, to comfort them.

He was saying, listen, it's all going to be okay

because I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the father but through me.

How can the same statement be so offensive

and yet so comforting?

Paul the Apostle says something

very similar in Second Corinthians.

He says this for we are the aroma of Christ to God

among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing,

to one a fragrance from death to death,

and to the other a fragrance from life to life.

The same fragrance smells like death.

To some smells like life to others.

Jesus makes this statement.

It offends some people,

and for other people, it's the best news they've ever heard.

And of course, the question is why? Why?

I hear my three points.

I'm just going to take the three things Jesus says about himself.

The first point is Jesus the way.

Second point is Jesus the truth.

And the third point is Jesus the life.

First, Jesus the way.

Right after my son graduated from college, we took a family

vacation out west to go to the national parks.

Out there.

And while we were out there, Jeremy and I decided to go bouldering.

We were outside of Las Vegas and a place called Red Rock Canyon.

If you've never heard of bouldering, it's kind of what it sounds like.

There are these big rocks.

It's kind of like a a big hill, steep hill,

or a small mountain, and we had never done it before.

But it was a blast.

So you kind of you running kind of jump on the rock

and you climb up on all fours and it's really steep.

There are places where you have to jump across little chasms.

And, we made it up to the top.

Beautiful view. All of that.

But I was thinking when we got to the top, I was thinking, you know, going up

was okay, but going down at that steepness might be kind of dangerous.

So I said, Jeremy, let's try to find a different way down to a smoother way down.

So we did.

We went

and started to go down a little path that seemed like it was going to work out.

And then about 20 minutes later, we came, to a place where it was a sheer

drop of about 40 or 50ft, and we had no way to get down there.

So we ended up having to reverse course, go back to where we started,

and try again.

I should tell you right now

that, you know, we had never done it before where we were way out of our depth.

We knew enough about climbing that

when we got into crevices, we'd spread out like, you know, like a spider.

And use the force of our legs and hands against,

you know, the two walls and go up and down.

And at one point we're in one of those crevices,

and my son Jeremy said, hey, dad, are these rappelling hooks?

And a rappelling hook is what, a rock climber will pound into the rocks

to put the ropes in because it's so dangerous to do without ropes, right?

We didn't have ropes.

I had a backpack with two water bottles that left my phone in the car.

All right, so we're outside Las Vegas, middle of the summer.

It's literally 113 degrees.

We are way out of our depth, right?

So we try another way down,

come to the same type of impasse.

We did it three times.

After the third time, we went back up.

And my son has a really good sense of direction.

And I turned him and said, Jeremy, you have to find the way.

We came up because I don't have another mistake in me.

I was praying, I mean, it's just going, God,

I know, I know, I'm an idiot, but don't make him suffer right.

Save him.

Maybe I'll go with him.

But. So, Jeremy,

he searched his way down, and I just watch him,

and I stay right with him.

Thomas says to Jesus, we don't know where you're going.

How do how can we know the way

he thinks that Jesus is going to give him a set of directions

like a map?

Every other religion gives you a map

on how to get to God, like you want to get to God.

Obey these rules, climb this ladder, walk this path,

but not Jesus.

Jesus comes and says, you.

You want to find the way to God.

It's not a map,

it's a person.

It's me.

And this is the thing.

If you think that you have another way that you can get to God

or that there are multiple ways, and when Jesus says, I'm the only way,

then that'll be offensive to you.

But if you're like,

I was, Will, you've tried a couple of ways to make yourself

feel right with God, and you don't have another mistake in you.

Then when Jesus says, I am the way, it's the best news you've ever heard.

Because Jesus is saying, listen, it's not a map.

It's not based on your performance, it's based on mine.

So you just stick with me.

That's the first thing Jesus says.

I am the way.

The second thing is Jesus. The truth.

There is a law for logic.

It is the most basic law of logic.

It provides for all reasoning, but also meaningful communication.

It's called the law of non contradiction.

And it's simply this that two opposing statements

cannot be true at the same time in the same way.

That's it.

That's the law of non contradiction.

Like if I say there's a table here and you say there's not a table here,

one of us is right and one of us is wrong, we can't both be right.

If there's a religion that says there are multiple gods

and one and a religion that says there's one god,

they could both be wrong, but they can't both be right.

That's the law of non contradiction.

Truth in its purest

form is always exclusive.

Jesus says, I am the truth.

What's he talking about?

I think he's talking about at least three things.

The first is Jesus is saying I am the truth about God.

You want to know what God is like?

Look at me.

Other religious leaders would say, you want to know what God is like.

I can tell you what God is like.

Jesus goes one step further.

He said, I will not only tell you what God is like, I'll show you.

Just watch me.

That's what he says in verse seven.

He says, if you had known me, you would have known my father also.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him and his disciples.

Philip doesn't quite understand.

And Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father, and it's enough for us.

And 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?

Jesus is

saying, you want to know what God is like?

Look at me. I'm the truth.

The second thing is, he says, you want to know what you are really like.

You need to look at me.

Years ago, I took a golf lesson at, a country club near here.

From the golf pro at that country club.

And I was just talking to him, and I said, hey, how did you become a golf pro

at this club? You know, a club?

Because I didn't know how anybody became a club pro.

He said, oh, well, this is the way I was playing golf for Ohio State.

I was the best player on the team.

My plan was to play in the Big Ten

Conference championship, win that,

then go into the PGA,

earn my card, become rich and famous as a professional golfer.

And I said,

what happened?

And he said, well, I played in the Big Ten Championship.

There was another player for a University of Illinois.

His name was Steve Stricker.

Now, if you are a golfer and you know who Steve Stricker

is, he, had a very, very good PGA career.

I don't know if he's going to make the Hall of Fame or not, but he's really good.

And this club pro said.

So I was playing in the Big Ten Championship.

Steve Stricker was playing Steve Stricker beat me by 18 strokes.

He said, I had no idea.

I had no idea how good I would have to be

to make the PGA tour.

So now I'm a club pro.

Jesus says, you, you want to know

how good you are to.

An awful lot of people will say to themselves and said, other people,

I'm a pretty good person now.

That's why I can find my own way to God,

because I'm a I'm better than most the way you think.

That is because you compare yourself to the people that you are friends

with or around you, right?

If you want to know if you're good enough for the PGA,

you can't just play with the foursome.

You usually play with.

You got to play with somebody who's good enough to be on the PGA.

Jesus says, you want to know

how you stack up against the standard that God has?

Look at me,

look at me.

There's a place in the Gospels where Jesus says,

you need to be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.

Then Jesus lived a perfect life.

Peter

and his letter Peter was one of the disciples.

He said, there is no sin.

Jesus committed no sin.

There was no deceit found in his mouth.

What he was saying is, I lived with him 24 seven for three years,

and he was perfect.

Jesus says, you want to know what you really like?

You know.

You want to know how you stack up with the standard that God has.

Don't look at other people. Look at me.

I'll show you the truth about yourself.

The final thing is he shows us the truth about our need.

About my need?

You know, whenever somebody asked me

why I believe in Christianity, I will give him one of two answers.

The first answer I give them is that I believe that the resurrection happened.

I mean, if the resurrection happened, then Christianity is true.

Like full stop.

If the resurrection of Jesus did not happen, then Christianity is not true.

Full stop.

That's what the Bible says, and I'm okay with that.

But I am convinced the resurrection happened,

and we're going to talk about that next week.

And I can't tell you really what we can, but, you know, that's

there's going to be live preaching in both venues

here and over in the gym, which we're going to transform.

And so Zach and I will be preaching and we're both going to do the same thing.

We've never done it before. It's going to be very cool.

Can't tell you about it. Yeah. Gotta come right.

Just I'll let you know.

But it's going to be great.

All right.

But that's what I tell him first.

The second reason I'll tell them that I believe in

Christianity is because it just makes sense to me

because and I,

when I, when I say that, what I mean is I'm a dad,

and I feel like I understand something about justice and love.

Like I love my kids.

If if one of my kids

got into financial trouble and they were going to lose their home,

become homeless, I would do everything I could

to gather the money to pay off their debt.

And that makes sense to me that if they had a debt,

they could not pay out of love.

I could step in and pay that debt.

Makes sense

now if they happen to get into debt with the mafia, with the mob.

And it was something that neither of us could pay, and the mob sent

word to say, listen, somebody's going to have to pay with their life.

Somebody's got to die.

And I stepped forward and said, okay, take me.

I will stand in as the substitute.

That makes sense to me, to

it makes sense to Hollywood.

And they make movies about it all the time.

There's a movie called Man on Fire with Denzel Washington,

plays a guy, there's a crime boss, and you don't have to know much about the movie.

I give it to.

There's a crime, boss.

He's kidnaped a little girl he calls Denzel Washington, and he says this.

Your life for her life.

Your life

for her life.

And nobody's watching the movie goes.

Doesn't make any sense.

It makes perfect sense.

And it's based on a true story. And sure enough, that's what happens.

Denzel Washington trades himself for the little girl.

She goes free.

Listen.

You know, if if I

have a debt to God that is so great, I cannot pay it myself.

I need somebody who will say, I will pay that debt for you.

And if that debt is so great, that don't cost me my life.

I need somebody to step in and say,

my life, for your life,

my life for you.

That's the gospel.

Listen, if if you want to know the truth

about God, about what God is like, look at Jesus.

If you want to know the truth about yourself, where you are

with the standard that God has set, look at Jesus.

If you want to know what it takes to be forgiven,

what can happen to set you free?

Then look at Jesus.

Jesus says,

I am the truth.

I am the truth.

That's the second thing.

The third point is he says, I am life.

I am the life.

Here's a question

what do you think you need to be really happy?

What do you need to have a full life like full to the brim

from now until you die your whole life?

Like if I said to you, you can write out a list, like a Christmas list.

And I will give you everything on that list.

If you write out that list, how

how certain are you

that if everything on that list is met, that you will you will have life

and have it abundantly?

I don't think you ought to be very confident of that list,

you know,

and I say that because I, I was thinking about my own life

and how my list has changed all the time, the things that I thought

would make me happy, like when I was ten, I wanted to I wanted to be gone.

I was like the kid from,

you know, the Christmas Carol, just like, let me put my eye out.

And so I wanted to be gone from my dad.

I asked him for that for Christmas.

He gave it to me. It's a great Christmas.

It filled me to the brim for about a month.

And you think, oh, you were a child.

Yeah, that's true.

When I was 19, in college,

I was on a basketball scholarship, but I was able to fill myself up

with everything that was supposed to make a college kid happy.

And that lasted about eight months.

Oscar Wilde was he famously said this

when the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers.

When the gods want to punish us,

they answer our prayers.

What's he saying?

He said, we don't even know what to put

on the list.

When Jesus says, I am the life,

he's talking about something else.

There's a story in John chapter

four where Jesus is outside of a little town called Sychar,

and a woman comes out to draw water, and she has had five husbands.

The man she's living with is not her husband.

She has a conversation with Jesus and Jesus says, basically,

you've been making a list your whole life and it's never worked for you

if you would ask me.

And then he says this, I would become inside of you offspring,

welling up to eternal life.

Spring.

But Jesus says to his disciples, is this

you don't need a list.

Don't keep thinking.

You need a list to fill your life up.

All you need is me.

Iron is me.

Augustine said,

our hearts are restless

until we find our rest in thee, O Lord.

Listen.

The disciples were unsettled.

They were rattled,

and Jesus came to them.

And he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me.

It's going to be okay.

So this is the message I have for you.

No matter what you're going through,

no matter what's going on in your life,

this is what I say.

Let not your heart be troubled

the way the truth

and the life has come for you.

And his name is Jesus.

Did you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, we come to you.

And I, all of your statements, I love

when you tell us who you really are.

This one is the one that divides people

where it offends people because they can't believe that you would be so exclusive.

But for those of us

who have found you, who are don't have another mistake in us.

This is the best news in the world.

I pray for every one of us here.

I pray that for all of us you would become

the way, the truth and the life.

Fill us up.

Thanks for being such a wonderful Savior.

We pray this in your name. Amen.