"I Am The Way, The Truth And The Life"

The Way, the Truth and the Life…

Pastor Glenn Newton August 9, 2009

Text: John 14:6-14

“Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

JN 14:8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

JN 14:9 Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” NIV (italics added)

Right before our passage, Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples asked a question, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” v.5

Thomas is fearful of being left behind, fearful of being lost and not knowing how to find his way in this old world. We live in a world of people looking for the truth, looking for the right way to turn, looking for the “thing” that will give them that peace of mind, that knowledge that they have found the truth to this crazy life.

How many of you know that there are people who are looking in some crazy places for the answer? Sometimes I scratch me head and think, “how can anybody who is operating with a full load of intelligence be looking for truth there?”

The truth is, when your lost…your pretty desperate, and like a man starving for food, you might be willing to try just about anything to survive….

Lost Illustration:

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am." The woman below replied, "You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude." "You must be an engineer," said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip." The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect someone else to help you keep it.” (Sermon Central)

Do you remember what it feels like to “feel” really lost? Do you remember the first day on a new job?

I remember my first couple of days at Baldor….what a nightmare…about a week before I started at Baldor, my wife and I were at some restaurant….and I have no idea how, but somehow I had reached back to get some salt or something from the table behind us, and I tore this trap muscle….it was hurting the next day, I knew I was about to start work at baldor and I needed to be able to use my left arm, so I went to the chiropractor for treatment…he thought it was a pulled muscle so he treated with heat for two days….which actually aggravated the injury even worse…by the time Monday rolled around, my first day at work I literally couldn’t pick up my left arm to my shoulder.

The last thing you want to do is show up to work on the first day complaining about how you can’t work, that doesn’t tend to impress anyone. After showing me around, they took me to the machine I was going to work on for the first day….a drill that would drill holes in the ends of a metal bar, ranging from 6 inches to 18 inches, ranging from 1lb to 5lbs… so the whole first day I was to pick up the bar, place it in the machine, pull the handle, take the piece out and stack it and do that over and over again. Obviously, to do it as quick as they wanted two arms would be required….trying to learn how to operate the machine, change the drill bits, set the machine up to drill the right length, and trying to do a two handed job with one….brother I felt as lost as lost can feel….I prayed a lot that day, prayed for the pain to go away, and prayed for that clock to speed up.