I Am The Way, The Truth, And The Life

I AM - I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life

July 1, 2018

John 14:1-6 (p. 752)

Introduction:

I had a long distance truck driver named Roy who called me from out of the blue one day…He’d been passing through Louisville and he’d heard one of my Ministry Minutes on WJIE, the Christian radio station…I’d told this story about being on the wrong path while hiking the Appalachian Trail and when I discovered I was headed the wrong way I had to change paths…I ended the story with our info and phone number…and Roy decided to call.

Roy started our conversation with these word: “I’ve just started to live a life of repentance.” He talked about his past and then got to why he called…He said, “I’ve been dating this woman and she doesn’t want to make some of the life choices I do…she still wants to party and hang out at the bar and I don’t know what to do.”

I won’t go into all the things we talked about but after listening to him I said, “Roy, the Holy Spirit is God’s agent of change…He’s the one who convicted us of our past and He’s the one who points us in the direction God wants us to go…repentance is our response to those things happening in our lives…Repentance is the choice to acknowledge and confess our sin, but it’s also a decision to change paths…and take the one that leads us to God.

And I said, “Roy if God is pulling you away from your past…If He is asking you to choose a new path…not everyone will understand it. Not everyone will take it with you.

When God calls you to change - He might not be calling your girlfriend at the same time or with the same intensity. It’d be great if He did, but that often doesn’t happen. And Roy, you’ll have to choose which way is most important…because many times you can’t have both.

He said, “Man!!! That’s hard stuff!” And I said, “Yep.”

I ended the conversation by telling Roy I’d be praying for him and to remember that “God isn’t just calling you from your sin, He’s calling you to Himself!”

That in Acts 2:38 people felt that same conviction and calling as Peter preached about Jesus…Their hearts were cut…They knew they needed to do something with this calling and Peter said, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

God is all about getting us to heaven. His eternal purpose is to get us home with Him…and

I. JESUS IS THE WAY

When Jesus has one of His last conversations with His followers in John 14…He tells them “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God…believe also in me.”

He tells them about His Father’s house…Home. There’s plenty of room for everyone…and Jesus says, “I’m going there…I’m making a way for you to get there…I’ll come back for you…I promise…We’ll be together…You know the way to get there.”

And Thomas says, “Lord we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

And Jesus says, “I AM the way.”

Not one of the ways, or the quickest way, Jesus says, “I’m going to the Father’s house…and if you want to get there…I’m the only way home.

Jesus is sharing the most essential truth about a relationship with God…you don’t read His words in the Bible to fulfill a duty…You read them to fall deeper in love with Jesus so you can obey Him…You don’t pray so you can get the things you need. You pray because you want to share your heart with your best friend…You don’t go to church so you get brownie points towards heaven…You spend time with your family…His family so you can tell Him how much you love Him, learn to serve others like Him, and encourage those who are hurting…Church.

You can’t just use any key to get into the front door of your home…It requires the right key…and if you want to get to know God the Father…Jesus is the only key that lets that happen…“As Jesus clearly states…“No one comes to the Father, except through me.” As we looked at a few weeks ago, Jesus said, “I AM the Door!” The only way…I AM the key that lets you into Dad’s house.

The problem is that this isn’t a very popular truth for the masses.

Ramakrishna became the Beatles spiritual guide in the early 70’s. He taught with this philosophy: “One can ascend to the top of the house by means of a ladder, or a bamboo, or a staircase, or a rope. So diverse are the ways to approach God.”