John 14:4-7

Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us.

Appreciate your time today.

On this Tuesday,

as we continue through the gospel of John, we're in the 14th chapter.

Picking up around the sixth verse.

And, if you didn't get a chance to be with us yesterday,

a really important beginning to this chapter, some densely packed

in important verses that continues today.

Just to, quick recap.

Jesus has told the disciples he's going ahead of them to prepare a place.

And we now follow up on some of that conversation picking up in,

in verse, what here for and,

you know, the way to the place that I am going.

And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me.

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

From now on.

You do know him and have seen him.

So this is an important moment in the Gospel of John.

We have the sixth of the I am statements, this one in some ways

probably the best known

and maybe also the most important from a theological perspective.

But Jesus here has made this point, you know where I'm going, you know,

the way.

And and Thomas, who here is not yet the voice of doubt

but pushes back on Jesus.

We don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

And Jesus says, I am the way, which we can unpack in a moment.

But in in this instance, what Jesus is saying is

a affectively simple I think if you follow

me, you will go the right direction.

You don't need to worry about the destination.

If you're on the path that I walk

and that I show you and you follow me faithfully.

And so,

remember consistently in this gospel, we've seen

John use misunderstanding and misdirection.

When Jesus says something people misinterpret it.

And that certainly is the case here.

We don't even know where you're going.

How could we know the way?

And then this very powerful statement, I am the way

and the truth and the life.

You know the words.

I'm the path, Thomas. I'm you. Follow me.

That's all you need to know.

We can unpack some of this in a minute, because there is some other things

to say about this.

But I think, Michael, that,

in this case,

the slight misunderstanding here

really leads John to this declaration.

Some of the I, I might argue, I don't know if I'd argue this.

Anyway, some of the most important words

that Jesus has yet said about himself.

So I just want to point out, and I know that this was covered yesterday

in probably greater detail, but it's important, foundational work.

We need to make sure that we're all on the same page

that that yes, we're coming to a climactic teaching moment in this text,

but we get there on the road, we get there with a flow and with an argument.

John is getting us from point A to point B, and one of the points we've been at,

and this is so important that we see

it, is Peter's question, why can I follow you now?

I can't, I will lay down my life for you.

Write this statement of faith.

Then we skip ahead to where we're at today.

Well, Thomas, Lord, we do not know where you're going.

How can we know the way this this way, this path.

Language is absolutely essential for us to understand

what John intends for us to hear in Jesus's teaching here.

Because this this text goes lots of different ways.

And before we're done today, we'll certainly talk a little bit about

some of the exclusivity kind of language that we have in this idea,

of no one coming to the father except through me.

But that, I think, is colored and shaped and formed and honestly built

upon the foundation of this question of how do we get to where we're going?

Well, why can't I follow you? Jesus?

How can we get there if we don't know where we're going?

And, Clint, you're exactly right in your point that in Jesus's declaration,

I'm the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus is claiming that the only thing

that matters in the Christian life is the path upon which we travel.

We fixate upon the destination.

We get really, really interested and sometimes even obsessed with trying

to figure out what's the final destination going to look like.

Yeah.

How many steps is it going to take to get there

once I get there, you know, what is it a left or right?

A ultimately, when Jesus is teaching the disciples about the path of discipleship,

what he wants them to know is it it looks like Jesus.

It looks like building and following the way of Jesus and the path of Jesus.

That Jesus is the truth.

He's the sure path in the Christian life.

And on one hand, Clint, I think that that

sounds to people like,

very difficult kind of words.

Right? Like, what does that mean?

Let's get really practical. Where's the rubber meets the road?

But the fact of the matter is, in John, Jesus

claims a kind of divine authority and power.

And in these I am statements that we've now seen over and over again,

where Jesus is claiming another aspect of God's divine name.

Jesus is showing through each one of these statements

that he occupies a special privilege place

as the revealer of what God wants.

For those who will seek God's plan, seek God's kingdom, seek to be part of

what God's doing in the world and and so when we see Jesus for who he is, therefore

we are called to go in the way that Jesus lived.

And there's a really explicit kind of both, teaching moment in that.

But there's also a kind of descriptor of what it will look like.

If you're going to be a follower of Jesus, then you're going to be on the way.

You will be with the truth.

Then you will know the life.

It's built into Jesus's words here.

Yeah, I think it's important to pause and reflect on what Jesus says about himself.

Here I am, right.

I mean that this is Jesus claiming something of himself.

I'm the way, the truth, and the life and

that for John.

And I think, you know, by by default for us

as well, points us to this idea that Jesus

is the guiding star of the Christian path.

He is the light along the way.

He he is the truth.

And notice that he doesn't say I give truth.

John isn't talking about doctrines and proper decisions and ideas here.

When when Jesus says, I am the truth, what he means

is that what is true of God is true of him.

And and what he does is the true work of God,

as opposed to those religious leaders who bind people with burdens.

And so Jesus is not here giving a checklist of what is true.

He's saying, I am true

and the life, in other words,

the fullness of life, the the real life.

A genuine, authentic life is lived

and found in the way of Christ.

I think of the of the I am statements.

On one hand,

this is maybe the one that takes the least interpretation

because some of the other ones are, you know, I'm the vine and I'm the gate.

And in things that are a little bit more of a metaphor, but but in some ways

this is the deepest, maybe the richest.

Also maybe the, the broadest.

What does it mean that we say of Jesus what he said of himself,

that he is the way, the truth and the life?

We'll get to this next part because it it causes some issues.

But if we if we don't jump ahead,

jump ahead to that and we stay with this for a moment.

What what is being expressed here for Christians

that our path,

that what we understand of truth

and what we understand it means to live a real life,

are all found in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

That's a foundational kind of idea of Michael and I.

I think John has done the church a great service here in recording

these words of Jesus, which are found in other places. And,

it anchors

some of our understanding of who Jesus is and what it means that Jesus is Jesus.

I'm really trying not to repeat what you said,

but I do want to emphasize something that you said because it's essential.

Before we move on, I think we need to take very seriously

as Christians exactly what you said that Jesus claims

I am the way, I am the truth.

I am the life.

When Jesus says I am the truth, this is an essential claim

about truth taking on flesh.

We have seen the light.

We have seen the truth.

We so easily make truth propositional.

We make truth about statements.

Do you believe this?

Do you believe this? Do you believe this?

From the Johannine view, we know the truth.

When we know a person, we we are with the truth.

When we're in the room with the Savior,

well, we are exposed and sing the way of God.

Emphasis.

When we're with Jesus, the personal nature

of what Jesus is claiming here is often missed.

So let's not push beyond it.

Without stating very clearly Jesus is claiming

truth incarnate, truth in flesh, truth that he makes real.

And that's an essential part of what it means to be Christian.

And we have that because of John.

So just to emphasize what you were saying.

Yeah. And even

even maybe a step further, Michael, that

in the face of any other truth claims

we choose Jesus, right?

Not the Pharisees, not the Sadducees, not the religious leaders, not the Romans,

but that in in light of anything else that claims to be true

but isn't of Christ, we choose

Jesus as not not our truth as the truth.

Jesus is the most true thing

that humans can know, and in knowing him,

we also find the way and the life.

This, as you know, many have spent

countless hours trying to plumb the depths of these words

with books and sermons and articles and theological works.

But this this is a such a deep

well and such a wonderful the

this is among, I think, the highest things

said of Jesus in the Gospels.

And I mean, there are many others, but John here in this very succinct way,

has in the words of Jesus, given us such a gift.

You know, in trying to understand who Jesus is, it's just it's really powerful.

Which and like a race car just rolls into the next phrase,

which which I think is important that we also, you know, give attention to.

Yeah, yeah.

So he continues, then no one comes to the father except through me.

And in the context of let's talk first about what's in the text, right?

Jesus is saying, I'm going to my father's place.

There's a lot of rooms there.

I'm going to go prepare it for you.

I'm the only one who can take you.

There is essentially the message here.

No one comes to that place.

No one comes to the father.

No one occupies those rooms.

If they don't follow me, I'm the way to those places.

I'm the path.

I'm also the destination.

No one comes to the father except through me.

I think it at its simplest.

That's how these words function in the text.

However,

this is one of

those verses that has been instrumental

for Christians in trying to build

a theology of salvation. And,

clearly here Jesus is.

If not talking

directly about salvation, certainly overlapping it with a conversation

about the rooms and the the father's place.

We've said consistently, Michael,

that I think one always has to exercise caution

when they're using a scriptural phrase

to build something outside

of the specific text that they're in.

Now, this verse may well be very helpful in a broader picture

of what it means to, quote unquote, be saved,

and that only Jesus ultimately

can take us to the father.

But at times the church has has

built certainty around that idea

that I don't know.

On the surface is intended

in what John and Jesus are saying here.

It helps to remember that the very next phrase is,

if you know me, you will know my father from now on.

You do know him and have seen him so,

I think it I think it adds a little caution to say

Jesus is here talking to the disciples.

This is an interesting verse in the way

that it has been used in the church, I think.

So I don't think we're going to have time to really explore what comes later.

I just want to be clear with everybody here that that

what's going to happen when we continue this study is we're going to discover

that that literally, you see it in the black font here.

The next thing that's going to get said is a is

a statement of confusion in light of what Jesus just said.

And and I think that we need to recognize, as readers of this text

that John is built in to the story itself, that Jesus gives this teaching and the

and the 12 who have been with Jesus are going to struggle

to get their minds around what he's saying.

That in itself is a caution.

I also want to point out here, friends, that the way that this flows in

from this idea of following Jesus, why can't I follow you, Jesus? Why?

How am I going to know the way?

Well, ultimately, what Jesus is saying is that the destination, the father,

the only way you're going to get there is through me.

Yes, it is a claim of exclusivity and the church has read it

that way as especially when looking at, like other faiths and other ways

of thinking about how the the spiritual journeys that we take.

A lot has been written about this.

Some you might celebrate and some might make you very uncomfortable.

Regardless of that fact, I think for us who are not doing kind of a broader

theological task here, for those of us looking at John, trying to understand

what is this doing inside this text, I think it is deep but yet understandable.

I think Jesus here is making it clear that the path one

takes in a life of discipleship on the road

to the father at the end, will

by definition go through the one who is the son, the one who is the way,

who is the Shepherd, the one who is the vine.

Right?

All of these I am statements are we're seeing

in many ways, brought together and tied together by the fact

that if Jesus is who he claims to be

in the Gospel of John, the Son of God, a co-creator

of all things, that that the the sovereign, the one with all power.

If Jesus is all knowing, if Jesus is the kind of world upside down,

changing person that Jesus claims to be,

then there is no outcome or logical,

argument that follows that does not admit then,

that Jesus is ultimately the sole and, primary path

by which one can encounter the very truth that Jesus embodies.

So I just think that we, we as a church sometimes have looked at this as a,

as a text of exclusion, like, who's not in if they're not following Jesus,

that's a different conversation, I think, as it sits in the text, Clint,

I think it's very much rather pointing us to Jesus.

It's not playing us away from other things.

It Jesus is making a claim about

being the first and the primary and the goal, and that the father

is ultimately at the end of of where he will lead us.

So I think there's a different emphasis in the text if you read it that way.

Yeah. I don't disagree with that at all.

My clothing sometimes the church has been guilty of pointing

this part of the text at other people to say that they are out,

rather than focusing on what I think the actual messages

of what it means to follow the one who leads us to the father and,

clearly, I think as you read the passage, that's what this is about.

The disciples are asking questions.

We don't know how to get to God.

We don't know how to live the right life.

We don't understand what truth means.

We don't know the way.

And Jesus says, you do.

I am those things I, I

all you need to know is me,

because there's no path to the father that doesn't go through me.

Now that Jesus again, Jesus is not making

a theological statement about other religions

primarily, is that in there we could have that conversation.

But I, I would argue from my perspective

at least, that that's not the point of this text.

And I think we do it a disservice when we

don't ask the questions of the disciples.

How do we know where you're going?

And how can we know the way?

The point of John's text here is to deliver us

to Jesus, to take us to Jesus, to point at Jesus and not anything else.

And I think we we have at times

put an emphasis on other parts of that, that,

that maybe aren't intended.

Know me, hear me.

There are other parts of the Bible.

I think that you could read to make those cases,

and I think would be a better application if you were wanting to do that.

But I think, I think you run the risk

of missing something crucial here when you focus on the wrong part.

I think you lead us here to a good place.

At the end of the conversation, I really think that it would be wise

for any disciple to find ourself in Thomas's question,

because the truth is, none of us know where we're going really.

Not all of us have a sense of

of seeking and yearning and wanting and questioning.

Am I at the right place and am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?

We live what we understand that, and nobody wants to be there.

We want the certainty. We want the clarity.

Of course we do.

And Jesus is invitation in this text is declare

these here that I'm the clear, I am the truth.

And so if we can today redouble on Jesus,

redouble on am I in his path?

Because if I am, that's all I need for today.

Yeah, I might even go so far as to say, Michael,

that I think the text challenges us to say

if we are not following Christ, we are not on the way.

Right?

That it's not a matter of

is this path better if if the path is not Christ centered?

Right.

It's not leading us to truth and life.

It it it's the wrong path.

And so, yeah, I, I think John makes that case pretty clear.

Well, friends, obviously we could keep going and talk about this for a long time.

There's a lot here and hope that you'll continue to study yourself

if you find it invigorating.

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