The Way (John 13:31-14:6)

John 13, 31 through 4.6, which might say, like, why didn't you just stop at the end of chapter 13?

Well, the verses and the chapter markers in the Bible were not there originally.

Those are not inspired.

Those are put there later so that we could say, turn to John chapter 13, and we could all end up in the same place on our own Bibles.

John 13 · chapter mention

And so sometimes when we're doing sermons, it just makes more sense to take on a couple more verses and cross over a chapter, even though it makes the slides look a little different and makes us a little uncomfortable sometimes when we uh when we do that.

But that's the the reason that we're doing it.

And before we jump in, we're continuing on in this narrative story of what's going on here.

Jesus with his disciples in this upper room, they're around this U-shaped table, they're reclining, they're eating this last supper, this last uh meal together.

Jesus has already washed their feet.

If you remember, we went through that about two weeks ago.

And it was something that only the lowest of servants would do, is what Jesus did by washing his disciples' feet.

Then he tells them that there's a traitor among them.

You know, Judas realizes he's the traitor.

Judas realizes that Jesus knows what he's up to now, and Jesus just tells him, What you do, do quickly.

And then we see Judas takes off, and now Jesus is there.

He has his 11 disciples, soon to be apostles, soon to be sent ones that he's gonna send out to continue his ministry.

And now, from where we are now through chapter 17, it's the same setting.

And Jesus is just gonna be talking to his disciples around this table.

He's gonna be preparing them for the crucifixion and his arrest and all of these things that are gonna be taking place that night and the next day before his crucifixion.

And he's preparing them for their ministry ahead.

But not only that, he's preparing them for what's gonna happen in the next 24 hours, what's gonna happen in the next four days, really, of his death, his burial, and his resurrection.

And he just spending this time with his disciples, teaching them and just letting them know, preparing them for what's ahead.

And they still don't get it.

But he's trying to, he's planting those seeds for his disciples.

And that's where we pick up today, right here in chapter 13.

So would you please stand if you're able for the reading of God's word?

Chapter 13, starting in verse 31.

It says, When he, so speaking of Judas, when he had left, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will glorify him at once.

Little children, I am with you a little while longer.

You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so now I tell you, where I am going, you cannot come.

I give you a new command.

Love one another, just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

By this every one will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Lord, Simon Peter said to him, Where are you going?

Jesus answered, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me later.

Lord, Peter asked, Why can't I follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.

Jesus replied, Will you lay down your life for me?

Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.

Don't let your heart 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 am going to prepare a place for you?

If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

You know the way to where I am going.

Lord Thomas said, We don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you know me, you will also know my Father.

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

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

We thank you that we get to look in on these last words that you had for your disciples, these last instructions for them.

And I pray, God, as your disciples today, as your followers today here, that we would listen in just as intently as they did.

Lord, trying to understand your words and take a hold of them and grasp them and take these instructions, Lord, for our own as well.

We are your disciples now.

So I pray that you would help us to glean everything that you want from this.

That you would shape us and mold us to be more like Jesus, to become one with Jesus, and that you would convict us and that you would encourage us in all the ways that you desire to do that this morning, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

So, one of the biggest themes that we see in the Gospel of John as a whole, as we look at the whole book, is that Jesus and God the Father are one.

And if you've been with us through this, John through this, we've talked about this a lot.

And yes, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they are all one, but Jesus is still trying to convince them and to show them that he and the Father are one.

He's gonna talk a lot about the Holy Spirit coming up in chapter 14.

But today is really about him and the Father.

But in our passage today, John is really going to hone in on this theme of Jesus and the Father being one through, by using Jesus' own words.

You know, he's gonna say things like, If you know me, you know the Father.

And if I'm glorified, the Father's glorified.

And if the Father's glorified, I'm glorified.

You know, you you can't have one without the other, is really the theme that Jesus is teaching them.

And ultimately, Jesus is going to tell his disciples in these chapters that we're looking at around this table, that he desires that same relationship with his disciples as he has with the Father.

He desires the oneness that he has with the Father.

He desires that oneness with us just the same.

So we're going to be talking a lot about that today.

You know, what I hope that we gain from this text here this morning is that this needs to be our goal as present-day disciples.

That oneness with Jesus.

Where people can't tell where we begin and where he ends, where we act like Jesus, where we talk like Jesus, where we even start to look like Jesus.

So oneness with him to that extent should be the goal of his present-day disciples as well.

So let's jump in here to verse 31.

It says, When he, speaking of Judas, had left Jesus, uh, had left, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

If you highlight an underland, take a look at how many times it says glory or glorified or glorify, just in those two verses alone.

But Judas leaving was the beginning of this domino effect.

The dominoes start to fall that would lead to his arrest and his crucifixion and his burial and his resurrection.

So we shouldn't look at this passage as, you know, Judas leaving was the reason Jesus couldn't be glorified prior to that.

He wasn't holding back Jesus in any way.

It's that Judas leaving to portray Jesus set in motion the glorification of Jesus.

Set in motion the glorification that he would have on that cross and through his resurrection as well.

And what Jesus is doing in these verses is he's continuing to prepare them for what's going to happen next.

Because think about what happens next.

It would appear to anybody to be the opposite of glorification, wouldn't it?

His arrest and all that that would lead to would lead to humiliation from the world's perspective.

But Jesus calls all of what he's about to do glorification.

So Jesus continues to teach them to help them see, you know, things from his perspective, how he's looking at what is about to happen before all of this goes down.

But they aren't getting it.

And they're not gonna get it for a while.

We have the benefit of looking back on these things.

Their heads are just spinning with what's about to happen.

But he still plants the seed in their mind.

And it's going to make sense to them later, you know, like it makes sense to John, our author, who's actually writing these words in the Gospel of John.

He's writing after this happened.

He's able to look back and say, Oh, that's what Jesus meant.

Oh, when he said that, that's what he was talking about.

And verse 31 through 32 also reiterates the oneness that we've already talked about.

If Jesus is glorified, the Father is glorified, and vice versa.

Now look at verse 33.

Jesus goes on to reassure his disciples a little bit more.

He says, Little children, I am with you a little while longer.

You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so now I tell you where I am going, you cannot come.

Jesus is referring back to what we saw in chapter 8, verse 21, where he's talking to the Jews about this.

But there's a fun little fact here.

Little children is how John, the author of this gospel, will refer to and address his audience in his first epistle, in 1 John.

And I think we see here where he learned it.

You know, the only time in the four Gospels that we see this that I could that I could find was right here, where Jesus is talking to his disciples and refers to them as his little children.

And that's how he's addressing them.

And then we see John doing the same thing in his first epistle.

And this isn't condescending.

Jesus isn't being condescending to his disciples here.

This is a term of endearment, like a loving father speaking to his children.

You know, Jesus is speaking very affectionately to them.

He's speaking with care and with intimacy to them.

Right before he drops the bomb and says, I'm not going to be with you much longer, and where I'm going, you cannot come.

You know, after being with him for three years, this would be really upsetting news to these disciples.

You know, something that's really going to shake them.

Their life as they know it is never going to be the same from this point forward.

And for those disciples that may still be expecting Jesus to establish an earthly kingdom in which they were already jockeying for position, if you remember, you know, to hear Jesus say, I'm going away and you can't come.

I'm going away and you can't follow me to where I'm going, that would rock them.

I mean, put yourself in their shoes.

Their rock, their anchor, their compass for the last three years is telling them that he is leaving.

But look how he continues to prepare them.

Look at verse 34.

He says, I give you a new command.

Love one another just as I have loved you.

You are also to love one another.

Think about this group of guys that he's talking to that has been so concerned, as we've seen, with their position.

You know, they're they even argued about their position in Jesus' kingdom at this very meal that they're still at here at this last supper.

You know, these guys who were so mad at James and John's mother when she asked Jesus if her two sons could have the greatest places in Jesus' kingdom.

You know, this group that Jesus just taught to serve one another and to assume the position of the lowest person, he gives them a new command to love one another.

You know, and I don't think there's a harder command in all of the Bible, is there?

Than to love someone as Jesus has loved them.

You know, he already told them in Mark chapter 12, uh, 30 through 31.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

He says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other command greater than this.

In Matthew 7, 12, Jesus said, Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them.

For this is the law and the prophets.

This is the summation of the law.

But here's a new command.

Here's a fresh command for them.

Love one another as I have loved you.

That means to love each other perfectly.

To love each other sacrificially, never doing a single selfish act.

You know, Jesus loved in all of these ways.

He loved perfectly, placing himself in the lowest position as a servant when he washed their feet.

He loved them to the point of death for a crime that he didn't commit, but they did.

And you know, Jesus is going to repeat this command in chapter 15, but he's gonna add something.

He's gonna say, This is my command, love one another as I have loved you.

But then he adds, No one has greater love than this to lay down his life for his friends.

You know, if I were to sum up what Jesus has told his disciples just in this chapter, I think it would go something like this.

You guys need to stop fighting.

You need to stop jockeying for position, you need to serve one another, you need to wash each other's feet and love each other as I have loved you.

And look at the result.

The promise that Jesus gives them if they do that.

Look at verse 35.

By this, by loving one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

You know, Jesus so easily could have said, if you give to the poor, if you go out and you do street witnessing, street evangelism, you know, then they'll know you're my disciples.

If you go out and you plant a church, or if you go out and you're on the mission field, or if you're just super nice to people, then people will know, you know, that you're my disciple.

But no, by the love that we have for one another, people will know that we are Jesus' disciples.

By the love we have for the people that are sitting all around us right now, by how we love other Christians in our community, in our country, in our world, that's how the world is going to know that we are Jesus' disciples.

By how we love Christians on the internet.

You know, if you look at how Christians interacted with each other online during COVID or during this last election, there were times where I didn't want to be associated with them at all.

Even when I agreed with what they were saying because of the way that they were saying it.

And that was more for the people that were in first service this morning, not so much for you guys here.

But I guess since we don't have a first service, that makes it you guys.

This is first service, no.

I'm only joking.

There's nothing wrong with healthy dialogue, with debate among Christians, but sometimes what I saw was just pure hate for one another.

You know, so many times I would read things and pray, oh Lord, please don't let somebody that's not a Christian read this interaction between these Christians because what a poor example that is, and how it's the opposite of the command that Jesus gave his disciples.

Now, conversely, there's the other side of that as well, where I think we have, you know, some great things that happen that prove what Jesus is saying is true.

You know, we participated in that trunk or treat uh event down at the Sunken Gardens.

It was the Halloween alternative that a bunch of local churches put on together, and we were a part of that.

We went out and had a couple vehicles out there.

Um and in November, the woman that spearheaded that whole thing and put the whole thing on, she gave back some praise reports from that event of conversations she had with people or conversations that she had heard about that took place.

And I want to read you uh one of the things that she that she sent out, one of the praise reports of what it looks like when Christians are loving each other and working together.

She said, I have heard from at least a dozen different people that the conversations while people were in line were so uplifting and exciting.

People, and she puts in parentheses, non-church, so people that don't typically go to church, she said, people loved seeing churches being a light in the community and not sticking, quote, sticking to their building as one person thought us Christians did.

Someone said they heard often that they thought churches were competing for people, and they didn't understand why we would do something together, which led to cool conversations they were able to have and explain to the person that we are all serving the one same God and are on the same team.

You know, another pastor that I was talking to, a local pastor, they had a missionary family that was staying with them during that time, and it was a husband and a wife, and I think they had three kids or something like that.

So they invited them down to the sunken gardens, and they were off the mission field just for a short time and happened to be here during that time.

And so they brought their kids down, and that missionary husband told the pastor, he said in all of his travels and everywhere he's gone in the world as a missionary, that he has never seen churches working together like that and not competing against each other.

Which I think is just a great testimony, you know, of what Jesus is talking about here.

You know, people are blown away by churches working together for God's kingdom, by Christians getting along, really.

People are blown away.

It's by how we love each other that everyone will know we are his disciples.

And I think it's because it's the complete opposite of human nature, isn't it?

To put others first and to love unselfishly, to actually prefer one another and to live that out.

And it stands out.

People notice when that takes place.

You know, I think I mentioned before that when I went through my surgery last year and the church set up that amazing meal train for us, you know, people from our 4-H were almost upset that they were, that we were so well taken care of during that time and they couldn't participate.

So much so that after our meal train was done, they set up another one for us for two weeks because they just wanted to do something, but they saw how well taken care of we were by our church community and by our church body.

So good job with that.

And I'm not just saying that because the food was really good, but that's an example of how when we love each other, it stands out to the world around us.

Now, Peter will have the boldness, surprise, surprise, to ask Jesus some questions here about what he's saying.

Look at verse 36 with me.

He says, Lord, Simon Peter said to him, Where are you going?

Jesus answered, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.

Notice how Peter kind of glazed over the whole love commandment that Jesus gave him, didn't he?

He goes back to what Jesus said right before that.

Of Jesus, you know, you're going away.

Where are you going?

He's still hung up on verse 33 of Jesus leaving here.

And, you know, in Peter's mind, and probably a lot of the disciples' minds, they're probably thinking, you know, Jesus is taking a trip to Spain, you know, or he's taking a trip to Asia or to Africa or something like that.

So Peter's convinced that he can go.

Look at verse 37.

He says, Lord, Peter asks, why can't I go?

Or why can't I follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.

This is a lot of confidence, isn't it?

For somebody that within a matter of hours.

Is gonna deny Jesus three times to a servant girl.

He's gonna say, I don't even know who he is.

You know, I think it's safe to say that his confidence at this point is in himself, isn't it?

You know, I don't remember where I heard it or who it was, but it was a while ago, and it was from somebody from the persecuted church, and he was saying that it's the ones that say they will lay down their life for Jesus that usually end up denying him when persecuted.

And it's the ones that say I could never do that, or the ones that say it's only through the power of the Holy Spirit that I could die or even be arrested for Jesus that will actually lay down their life in those times.

You know, whether that's true or not, I don't know.

That was one person's thoughts and opinions, but Peter's going to prove that the first half of that statement is true, isn't he?

As he says he will lay down his life for Jesus and then ends up denying him three times.

You know, what's interesting is that Peter will eventually lay down his life as a martyr for Jesus.

He'll be crucified upside down, history tells us.

But he won't be able to do that until his confidence is no longer in himself.

And he's not going to be able to do that until the Holy Spirit is inside of him, emboldening him and making him able to do those things.

But Peter's not there yet.

And God has a lot for Peter to learn and to do before he does lay down his life for Jesus.

Let's look at Peter's response here in verse 38.

I'm sorry, Jesus' response to Peter.

Jesus replied, Will you lay down your life for me?

Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.

Again, this is only hours before this is gonna take place.

Jesus is telling him this.

Before sunrise, you're gonna deny me three times.

But look at Jesus' reassuring voice to the man that he knows is gonna deny him, and to the rest of the disciples that he knows are gonna abandon him.

Look at chapter 14, verse 1.

Don't let your heart be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me.

Jesus just dropped these bombs on these disciples, all of these different things to these guys.

He's given them a lot to think about.

They seem very confused at this point.

But Jesus says, don't let your heart be troubled.

I want to take a quick rabbit trail right here.

We'll come back, I promise.

But just quickly, this word troubled here, it's the same word that we looked at last week when John said Jesus was troubled in verse 21 regarding Judas's betrayal.

So how could it be that Jesus can be troubled, but he tells us not to be?

I'd like to take a guess at that.

You know, Jesus took on, he shouldered all the trouble of this world so that we wouldn't have to.

In Matthew 11, verse 28 through 30, he says, Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28–30

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

And we're about to see in John 16, 33, Jesus say, I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.

You will have suffering in this world.

Be courageous.

I have conquered the world.

I think Jesus is telling us that we can have trouble without being troubled.

That we can have trouble without being troubled.

Because he already took it on.

And he already conquered all of our trouble so that we wouldn't have to.

And how does he tell us not to be troubled?

Well, look at the end of verse 1.

Believe in God, believe also in me.

It's through belief in Jesus.

It's not a formula, it's not a to-do list, not a certain state of consciousness that we need to achieve.

It's believe in God, believe also in me.

You know, we need to remember who he's telling this to.

Peter and all of the other disciples that are about to abandon him.

But before all of that even happens, Jesus says, don't let your heart be troubled.

Jesus chose these guys, knowing full well how they were going to sin against him.

Knowing their sin before they knew their sin.

And he still chose them.

Ready to forgive their sin before they even committed it.

You know, I think knowing that alone should help us to not be troubled, shouldn't it?

That he loves us and chose us already knowing the future sin that we would commit for our entire life.

And on top of that, says he conquered the world.

He doesn't want us to be troubled.

He doesn't want our hearts to be troubled.

He already conquered all of that.

And look at how he goes on, continuing to reassure these disciples.

Look at verse 2.

In my father's house are many rooms.

If it were not, so would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you.

Now it wouldn't make a lot of sense for him to prepare a place for his disciples if they weren't going to be coming, right?

That's what he's telling them here.

And you may be holding a Bible translation that says many mansions.

The idea here is many dwelling places.

A lot of them.

You know, and there's a connotation here of plenty, of no shortage of dwelling places in his father's house, in heaven.

So that whosoever believes, so everyone that believes in Jesus will be saved.

And have a place that's prepared for them by Jesus.

For all of his disciples, not just the eleven he's talking to, but all the disciples, all of us here today that are following Jesus.

And I think the amazing thing that we don't need to make sure that we don't gloss over here, he wants to be with us forever.

That's why he's preparing a place for us right now.

He desires us in that way.

Even though he knows all of our sin and all of our future sin that we haven't committed and might not even be in our heads at the moment, but he knows that and he still wants to forgive us and he still wants to dwell with us forever in all of eternity.

And we can tell that by verse 3.

Look at it.

It says, If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

What he's saying really is, Peter, you can't come with me now, but that's temporary.

It's just for a little while that you can't come with me.

You know, whether it's through a natural death or Jesus' second coming, Jesus will be reunited with his disciples face to face.

You see, the disciples knew about the Messiah coming to them, didn't they?

But this concept of them then going to the Messiah or being taken by Jesus is something new for them to wrap their head around.

They thought Jesus was going to establish his kingdom on earth and they were going to be able to be a part of that with him.

They weren't thinking about dwelling with him in heaven.

And Jesus anticipates the next question here from his disciples of how do we get to the place that you're going?

Look at verse 4.

You know the way to where I am going, he tells them.

You know, the disciples don't know that they know the way, but they do know the way.

Because they know Jesus.

They believe he is the Messiah and they follow after him, even though they're still confused on some things.

Even though their doctrine is not complete, their understanding of prophecy is not perfect at this moment.

Their understanding of Jesus' teaching is still not completely clear to them.

Even what's coming out of his mouth right now, they're still spinning a little bit.

But they have belief in Jesus.

Which Jesus will get to.

But first, look at verse 5 with me.

Lord Thomas says, so Thomas chimes in now.

We don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

So you get the sense.

It's not just Peter.

There's confusion amongst the disciples of where are you going?

Why can't we go with you?

You know, you say we'll be there too, but not yet.

Well, how do we get there later if we don't know where you're going or how to get there?

Like, Jesus, just give us a map.

Like, can you just draw it on a map?

Tell us where you're going.

So Thomas just boldly asks, how do we know the way?

Which leads to verse 6.

Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

You know, we've seen Jesus make these I am statements.

They're called, you know, throughout the book of John.

He even said to the Jews, before Abraham was I am, meaning he's existed for all time.

And I am is what God told Moses on Mount Sinai.

When Moses asks, Who shall I tell the Israelites?

Who shall I tell them has sent me?

God tells them, I am who I am.

And then he tells them, tell the Israelites, I am has sent you.

This is a title for God that people would be very familiar with.

And Jesus makes these I am statements throughout John.

So far we've seen him said, we've seen Jesus say, I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world.

I am the door for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

I am the resurrection and the life.

And here he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Now, Greek scholars will point out that the I am here is emphatic, which means I am reads in the Greek, I myself and only I am the way, the truth and the life.

Or I, in distinction from all others, am the way, the truth, and the life.

Not a way, not one of many truths, not a single human life.

The way.

The truth.

The life.

He is these things.

They are who he is.

So when Jesus tells his disciples, I am the way, he's telling them, I'm not just the roadmap of where I'm going.

I'm the path.

I'm the light to that path.

I'm the gate.

I'm the password.

I'm the bridge between you and the Father.

I am the way.

Everything that you need is found in Jesus.

You know, no wonder he's been telling them over and over in so many different ways that he and the Father are one.

He wants them to see that and to grasp them, that, and for them to know he is the way to the Father.

Then he says, I am the truth.

You know, some people struggle with these statements that there is only one truth.

That truth is Jesus.

You know, he doesn't just tell the truth, he is the truth.

And if he is the truth, then that means that there is only one way to the Father.

You know, many roads do not lead to the Father, to heaven, to the Father's house.

The one way is the one truth.

And then he goes on and he says, I am the life.

Jesus is life.

You know, we can take, I think I've told you this many times when we've gone through John, we can take every single sermon that we've had here and take it back to John 1.1, the thesis statement of the book, where it says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.

The word is Jesus.

And the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

All things were created through him, and apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

Jesus is the author of physical life as we know it, the creator of all life that we know.

And now it will start to become clear to his disciples that he is the author of spiritual life as well, of eternal life with him and the father.

And not only the author, he is.

This is who he is.

He is life.

So he is the way, the one way to the Father.

He is the truth, is the truth.

He cannot lie.

He is life.

So not only the creator of physical and spiritual, he is life.

These are God statements here.

You can't read this and say, was Jesus really God or just a really good man?

You know, He these are God statements that He's making.

Therefore, look at the end of verse 6.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Hoping that our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds is not a way to the Father.

Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, all those works-based methods and religions are not the way or a way or an alternate way.

If they are, that makes Jesus a liar.

And if he's a liar, you shouldn't believe anything in the Bible then, because he is the Word of God.

And if you can't trust Him, you can't trust anything in the Bible.

You know, Matthew 7, verses 13 through 14 says, Enter through the narrow gate.

Matthew 7:13–14

For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction.

And there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

It's narrow because there is only one way.

You know, this may sound narrow-minded and exclusive, but I think sometimes it's good to be narrow-minded.

You know, you wouldn't want a surgeon right before your surgery to say, I don't want to use anesthesia on you.

You know, I want to keep an open mind.

So we're going to try melatonin instead.

Or, you know, usually we use this material to stitch you back up, but Michael's was having a sale.

And so I want to keep an open mind and try this new material, you know.

And there being one narrow path, Christianity is narrow-minded.

But as far as who is invited to follow Jesus and to walk on that path, Jesus said, Whosoever believes in me will not perish, but have everlasting life.

Whosoever means anyone and everyone, any and all, that believe in him will have everlasting life.

That's the lowest barrier to entrance of any religion that I know of.

You know, it's usually come and do this list of things, and then you can become one of us.

Jesus says, Whosoever believes in me, whoever's faith and trust is in me will be saved, and I will go and prepare a place for them in my Father's house.

Because if you accept me, you accept him, and he will accept you.

Because Jesus and the Father are one.

And Jesus desires that same oneness as we've talked about in his relationship with us that he has with the Father.

And he wants to start and continue that process of becoming one with us right now.

And if you haven't begun that process, what does he say?

Believe.

Place your faith, place your trust in him, and you will be saved.

You will be one of his disciples, and he will go and prepare a place for you for all of eternity.

It's an amazing thing that Jesus did.

That's why he came.

It was for that purpose, because he loves us that much and wants to be that close and that near to us.

And if you haven't made that decision, do it right now in your own seat.

Just come say, Jesus, I believe in you.

I believe that you came to this earth, that you died the death that I deserve for my sin on that cross and that you raised three days later.

That recognition that he had defeated sin and death at that moment for us.

And all we need to do is believe, is to come to that faith in him.

Do it right now.

And if you've already done that, the encouragement today is to continue that process of becoming one with him, of becoming more like him on a daily basis, by staying in the word, by praying, by spending time with him.

That's what his disciples did.

They became like him by spending time with him, watching everything that he did, and then becoming more like him as they did that.

And it's the same with us.

We just need to spend time with him and become more like him.

That's the encouragement for all of us today.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, we do not deserve you.

But you love us.

You loved us so much that you sent your one and only Son to die the death that we deserved on the cross in our place for a crime that we committed and you were innocent of.

We thank you so much for the gift of Jesus, Lord, in this season as we're celebrating the birth of Jesus and that he came in the first place.

Thank you so much.

I pray that we would always have hearts of the deepest gratitude for all that you've done for us and that you loved us first.

That you have called us, Lord, to believe in you, that you've provided a way, Lord, this low barrier to entrance of just believing in Jesus.

Lord, we thank you so much.

We do not deserve you, but we are so grateful for you.

We love you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.