“I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE”

John 14:1-6

The “I AM” messages of John’s Gospel
• I Am The Bread of Life (Jn 6:35)
• I Am The Light of The World (Jn 8:12)
• I Am The Door (Jn 10:7)
• I Am The Good Shepherd (Jn 10:14)
• I Am The Resurrection and the Life (Jn 11:17-37)

We have seen that these statements are profound declarations of God’s identity. To us “I AM” is a verb. But to the Hebrew readers of both Old and New Testaments, it was the actual name of God, declaring His ID. That is why we call Him “Jehovah.” He is the “I AM.” Not the “I WAS,” or even the “I WILL BE.” Of course we cannot grasp the concept of Jesus as the “I AM,” which is why He reduced it to easy-to-understand word pictures – like bread, light, shepherds, doors, and vines.

Today’s “I AM” verse contains two of the Lord’s most remarkable and controversial statements. It has been called, “God’s Dogmatic Doctrine.” It says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” They cut right across the popular premise that all religious roads eventually lead to God, and have been condemned as extreme, dogmatic, bigoted, and intolerant.

The background is the Upper Room ministry of the Lord Jesus to His disciples. Tough times lay ahead, and He knew that only the truths of these verses could strengthen their faith and give them hope for the future.

The passage divides itself into discussions re information about where the Lord was going (14:1-3), and He then instructions about how to get there (14:4-6).

1. WHERE WE’RE GOING (14:1-3)
The Lord first carefully explained where He, and eventually the disciples.

a) Heavy Hearts (14:1)
The Lord Jesus had just warned of a list of troubling things that were going to happen. Any one was a good reason for a heavy heart. These verses present God’s treatment for trouble, and His people have often turned to them for comfort and hope. The Lord knew He was bracing them for what they would soon face in the future.

(i) Heart Trouble. “Let not your heart be troubled.” S. Africa has a name for heart trouble of a physical kind – hence its cardiac surgeons, from Chris Barnard onwards, are amongst the best in the world. 200 people die per day because of CVD in S. Africa. About 33 people die per day because of a heart attack. For every woman that dies of a heart attack, two men die. Some of the risk factors include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise.

But the Lord was thinking of heart trouble of a different kind. He knew the uncertain and anxious disciples were “troubled,” or “agitated.” They had been listening to the Lord, hoping to hear reassuring news. Instead they heard He was going to leave them, that He would die, that one of them would betray Him, that Peter would deny Him, and that all the disciples would fall away. Every prop was to be swept away. Jesus Himself would lie cold and silent in His tomb, His personality gone. They were about to face the darkest hours on the planet – without Him! Heart trouble, indeed!

(ii) Heart Trust. “Believe in God, believe also in me.” The thought here is not so much “believing” as “trusting.” Trust is a warm word. We trust people because we know them. If you believe your car will take you home, how do you get home? Not by believing it, but by committing yourself to your car. So when we believe in Christ, we trust ourselves to Him.

b) Heavenly Home (14:2-3)
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (14:2).

How do you describe heaven? Where is it? What is it like? We know so little about it, but we do know it is:

(i) A Prepared Place. “I go to prepare a place for you.” God always prepares the place to which He will lead us. The KJV “mansions” (lit. “rooms”) is not meant to convey the idea of palatial houses. It refers to the heavenly place where He lives, and a “mansion” or “room” is a place of family residence there with Him.

(ii) A Permanent Place. “Eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1).

(iii) A Perfect Place. The best definition is, “My Father’s house.” This is home where there is love, security, resources for every need, and guidance for life’s problems.

The Carnival cruise ship Triumph set out from Galveston, Texas, for a trip round the Gulf of Mexico. Three days later an engine room fire left the ship stranded 150 miles from land without power. It had to be towed back to port, leaving the passengers coping with food shortages, overflowing toilets and the foulest of odours. One woman said, “I just can’t wait to be home!” The ship was not built to be “home” for anyone – just for temporary trips. It is the same with our world. Fires in the engine room of our bodies can make it uncomfortable, but the time comes when we eventually get to our real home. God has prepared something much better – “eternal in the heavens.”

c) Happy Hope (14:3)
“I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (14:3). Three things are certain:

(i) He Will Come. “I will come again.” That is His promise, and He must keep it. No wonder Paul calls it the “blessed hope” of the church: Jesus is coming again.

In 1841 when Benjamin Disraeli was elected to Parliament he was quite an eccentric. At his first speech, he was mocked by his fellow M.Ps. and had to abandon his speech. But before he sat down he said, “I will sit down now, but you will hear from me again.” He later lead Britain to greatness. So the rejected Lord says, “I will sit down now, but you will hear from me again.” Judas betrayed him, Peter denied Him, the Romans crucified Him, the world has no use for Him, but He says, “I will come again.”

(ii) We Will Go. “…and receive you unto myself.”

(iii) We Will Be With Him. The big question about heaven is not where or what it is – but Who? That’s why we sing, “Where Jesus is, ‘tis heaven there.” What makes heaven heaven, is that we will be with Jesus (Jn 17:24).

A tug boat on the Great Lakes was battered by a storm. The crew battled to keep afloat until the morning when they were rescued by a passing ship. The captain said the one thing that kept hope alive was that through the gloom they could occasionally see the lights of home. Often the storm-tossed Christian reads such promises as, “I go to prepare a place for you.” These lights of Home encourage him to press on.

2. HOW TO GET THERE (14:4-6)
Thomas spoke up and asked a vital question: “Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way?” (14:5). We know him as “Doubting Thomas,” but it should be “Honest Thomas.”

a) “I am the way” – Jesus Saves
Jesus didn’t say “a way.” His is the way away from sin and guilt, and toward restoration of all I was created to be. Nor did He say it is a smooth, easy, attractive downhill way. He warned, “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life” (Mat 7:13-14).

Hampton Court in London is a palace built by Cardinal Wolsey in 1514. The garden has a maze of hedges in which it is easy to get lost. Most end up in the middle where there are seats where people, thoroughly lost, can sit down and rest. Eventually an attendant comes with a “Follow Me!” sign, and invites all those who know they are lost, to stop trying to get out on their own, and simply follow him.

No other religious leader ever made such a claim. Buddha called himself a guide. Mohammed a prophet and teacher of the truth. Many religions contain some truth. E.g. Koran, or The Book of Mormon. But none of these is The Way. At times we could sing with Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way,” but millions have followed his godless example.

b) “I am the Truth” – Jesus Secures
Think about truth! It is absolute, not negotiable, dogmatic, narrow-minded, and exclusive. 1+1=2 is truth! 2 can live as cheaply as 1 is untruth! Truth may be mathematical, medical, or religious. Take a mathematical truth. “2 x 2 = 4” That is a, dogmatic, intolerant statement, unable to accommodate an approximation, e.g. 2 x 2 = 3.

I can look for truth in different directions.

(i) Philosophy. I can chose a philosophy outside of the Bible, e.g. capitalism which will give me an economic understanding of human endeavor. There is truth in it, but if I sell my soul to it, I will be short changed. There is truth in communism. Not all Karl Marx’s teaching was wrong. But to follow it fully will lead me into horrendous errors.

(ii) Personal Opinion. People say, “Truth is what I make it!” Then we watch them self-destruct as they sacrifice wives and families on the altar of the claim that says, “I have a right to be me,” That’s what comes from accepting the lie that truth and morality are relative personal opinions.

(iii) Jesus is the Truth. He tells me where I came from, why I am here, where I am going, and how I can live the most creative life. He gives me His Handbook for living, to alert me to right and wrong, and the best ways of handling situations.

c) “I am the Life”– Jesus Satisfies
“Life” is a John word, used 56 times in its various forms. The Lord first used the word when speaking of the two gates, the two ways, and the two destinies: “Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto life” (Matt 7:14).

We love life and want to hold onto it. The thought of losing it terrifies us. The Lord Jesus determines three things about life:

(i) Life’s Origin. Because He is life, He is its source and giver. In Eden he gave Adam physical and spiritual life. He still does that. “You will not come to me, that ye might have life” (Jn 5:40.)

(ii) Life’s Meaning. The life the Lord gives is full-orbed, abundant, eternal, secure, and freely available, on the simplest of terms – “Whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus’ life puts purpose behind the inexplicable. We cannot understand how God can permit a child to be abducted, raped and murdered, or a beautiful mother being killed by a drunken driver, or malignant cells stripping life from the people I love. But Jesus sees the overall pattern. He didn’t create evil. He doesn’t like disease. But we can trust Him with our lives because He has made provision for us.

(iii) Life’s Destination. Jesus’ life equips us for eternity, and has prepared a place for us – to be with Himself. Life in heaven with Him is the perfect existence.