"I Am The Way And The Truth And The Life” - Presentation In The "I Am Series Of John’s Gospel” Part 2 Series

“I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE” - PRESENTATION IN THE “I AM SERIES OF JOHN’S GOSPEL” PART 2

We will continue with this message that is all one delivery in a Seminar. I split it into two because it is posted on SermonCentral. This is one message in the Series, “THE I AMs OF JOHN’S GOSPEL”. Here we continue with PART 2. This takes up with verse 6.

A FUNDAMENTAL VERSE IN ALL SCRIPTURE:

{{John 14 v 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”}}

Now we come to our marvellous “I AM” for this message. Then you get this amazing verse from the Lord that is one of the anchors of John’s Gospel – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”. I like it this way - “I am the WAY, and the TRUTH, and the LIFE.” Preachers tackle this verse by various methods, and none of those ways is wrong, for there is a real depth in the verse. I will deal with it in two ways.

The first way, I think, is the more correct one, for it connects with what we have just been saying. Thomas wanted to know the way, and the Lord answered with “I AM the way.” To know the way is to follow Him, as He first called His disciples. The Lord added as well – “the truth, and the life.” That brings us to the second way of dealing with the verse – “I am THE Way, and THE Truth, and THE Life.” This really gives us great insight, because these three “I AMs” are fundamental. We will now look at them in turn.

(1). THE WAY – THE way must exclude all others – all other ways, and because the emphasis is on the “I”, then it excludes all other men, all persons of intellect or entitlement, all heads of ALL religious callings; and it excludes all the “isms” of the world. It excludes the Pope, the Buddha, gurus, all men’s ways of belief and practice; and even your church minister or pastor. There is only ONE WAY, called THE WAY, and it is Christ's way, because He is THE WAY. (emphasis on the capital letters).

Did you know that in the early church ALL Christians were known as the “people of the WAY” because it was recognised that they followed the way of Jesus Christ. The community gave that term to them. We will look at these references – (a). {{Acts 9 v 1 “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, Acts 9:2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”}}

(b). {{Acts 19 v 8 “He entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God, Acts 19:9 but when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. . . . Acts 19:23 About that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the Way.”}}

(c). {{Acts 24:22 “Felix, having a more exact knowledge about “the Way”, put them off saying, “When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case,”}}

(2). THE TRUTH – Have you ever thought that the next two claims have to follow on from the first one? Jesus Christ is The Way for that is the foundation, so then, there can be only one TRUTH built upon that one way, and only one life proceeding from it. Because He is the way to the Father, and to heaven, and the only WAY of life, then He must be THE TRUTH, the only Truth, and the only life to follow on from that.

For us, it means a great deal. The Lord is the Truth, so His word must be true. Everything He spoke was truth. We have not believed in vain. Therefore we must hold fast, His truth. We must rise up against false teaching in our churches if, and when it occurs. We must maintain the purity of the truth. My dear Christian people, above all else, we must live surrendered lives for the One who is The Truth. We must seek His truth from His word; seek HIM, the TRUTH, from His word. Of course, the Lord’s words here in John 14, were to His band of disciples, only to them, and not to the nation, for the rulers had shut the doors of unbelief and had rejected the Truth, who was their Messiah, and raged with hatred against Him. There were times to have spoken the truth to them, but not this time, so now, on this last night before the cross, Jesus is tenderly instructing His disciples in matters of great significance.