I AM THE WAY PART II
John 14:1-6
INTRODUCTION:
1. Last week we began our study of John 14:1-6, "Do not let your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, ’Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ’I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the father but by me.’"
2. We saw how Jesus is the:
a. The way of suffering
b. The way of submission
c. The way of sanctification
d. The way of sure love
3. Tonight we want to see how Jesus is:
e. The way of serenity
f. The way of service
g. The way of success
4. What we hope to get from this lesson is finding the way to the father and learning how to operate within that way.
TRANSITION: We all want peace in our lives.
I. Jesus is the way of peace.
A. The disciples’ lives were in utter turmoil.
1. They are beginning to realize that Jesus will not be with them very much longer.
2. They know that he is going to be killed.
3. They know that they are known widely as his disciples.
4. They wonder, "What is going to happen to us after he is killed?"
5. They are uncertain about their future
6. He is trying to give them peace and help them rest their concerns.
B. He is our prince of peace.
1. John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, not let it be fearful."
a. Jesus leaves true peace with us.
b. He left them with "My peace", not some half measure, but full unending peace.
2. Interestingly enough, this was the time when peace seemed farthest from him.
a. In John 12:27 he just said, "Now my soul is troubled, what shall I say, ’Father save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour."
b. He is about to go to Gethsemane where he, "began to be distressed and troubled." Mark 14:33
c. And he said, "My soul is deeply troubled to the point of death; remain here and keep watch."
d. His soul was far from the peace that he was giving to those disciples.
e. Yet he gave it.
3. Paul says, "For he himself is our peace, who made both groups and broke down the dividing wall."
a. Jesus is the source of peace
b. He brings peace to all who will obey him.
C. We can have peace with God.
1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)
2. When we are in the way of peace, peace is ours.
D. Furthermore, peace is preached through him.
1. Acts 10:36, "The word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)."
2. The story here is Peter preaching the gospel to Cornelius and his household.
3. Peace is preached through the gospel to all man.
4. Peace on earth in that all man can come to the truth and accept one another
5. Peace in spirit in knowing that all is well with the soul.
E. Because man can be free of guilt in Jesus Christ’s way.
1. Romans 6:1-6, we are buried with Christ in baptism
2. The man of sin dies and we are no longer held captive by our trespasses.
3. We are free of the guilt of sins
4. Peter tells us that those sins are washed away (I Peter 3:21).
F. "We shall never be at peace with ourselves until we yield with glad supremacy to our higher faculties" –Joseph Cook
1. That is giving in to Jesus
2. Let his rule and peace is yours.
TRANSITION: Peace in our life requires faithfulness. Faithfulness is service.
II. The way of service.
A. When one is faithful, he will serve that to which he is faithful.
B. Jesus was faithful.
1. Hebrews 3:1-2, "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession; he was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in his entire house."
a. Jesus was faithful to the one who sent him.
b. Who was it that sent him?
c. The father in heaven, the one to whom Jesus is the way
2. Jesus did not waver from the calling that the father gave him.
C. We also must be faithful.
1. Hebrews 3:6, "But Christ was faithful as a son over his house-whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."
2. We remain faithful to his house as he is to us, his house.
a. That sounds like circular logic
b. We are faithful to ourselves.
c. That is not the idea per se.
d. We remain faithful to his church.
i. This carried with it come pretty important considerations:
ii. We must be in his church in order to be faithful to it
iii. We must know what his church is to be
iv. We must be committed to keeping his church pure
v. We must be faithful to the head of that church, which is the Christ
3. Faithfulness to his house means more than being faithful to me, it is putting myself aside and being faithful to the body of Christ and loving it over self.
4. Just as he did when he loved the body over himself and gave himself on the cross for it
D. We must abide in him.
1. John 15:4-7 we are to abide in him if we are to bear fruit
2. We are commanded to be fruitful people who bear fruit for the Lord
3. That can only happen if we stay in Christ Jesus
4. Jesus prayed for this unity in John 17:26, "So that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them."
5. There is but one body, Ephesians 4 tells us, and we are to fit within that body.
a. That body has only one head
b. That head is Jesus the Christ
c. We must be in his body if we hope to see that father
d. We must abide in him
E. That faithful service must endure to the end.
1. Revelation 2:10, "Be faithful to death and I will give you the crown of life.
2. You want the crown of life; your faithful service must last until the end.
3. The end of your life must mark the end of your service to God
F. "You cannot be too active as regards your own efforts; you cannot be too dependent as regards to divine grace. Do everything as if God did nothing; depend upon God as if he did everything." -John Angel James
TRANSITION: All of these qualities if adopted will lead to ultimate success.
III. Jesus is our way of success
A. John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, so that n me you may have peace. In this world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.
1. Jesus overcame the world.
2. John 19:30, "It is finished" is a victorious cry.
3. He is not lamenting or bemoaning, he is shouting out that he has accomplished everything he set out to do.
4. His cry is that he has done it.
5. He has done it perfectly.
B. Our victory is in him.
1. I Corinthians 15:57, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
2. Any real victory we have came from Jesus.
3. It was given to us through his blood and our acceptance of his will in our lives.
4. We are victorious only when that victory is given to us by God
a. We should thank him for the victory
b. We should strive for more victories
c. Not that we can give those to ourselves
d. But as we strive to be more Christ-like we receive more victories
e. Jesus is the victor
C. Our faith is the victory.
1. He is the source of hope for all.
2. Colossians 1:27 Christ in you is the hope of glory
3. Peter calls us to be ready to give a defense for the hope that lives within us (I Peter 3:15)
4. That hope must be seen by others if we expect to have the opportunity to give a defense of it.
a. They have to see hope in us
b. That hope is possible only if we are in the body of Christ.
c. When we are washed in his blood we have that hope
d. When we have that hope others need to see that hope
e. When they ask us about that hope we need to give them an answer for it.
f. That answer should lead others to that same hope.
D. See, he is our hope because our victory comes through faith in him
1. I John 5:4, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world-our faith."
2. Faith in him brings the victory.
3. The one that overcomes the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God.
4. Remember that James says that faith requires action.
5. The victorious one is the one whose mental faith in God moves him to act on God’s behalf in every aspect of his life.
6. We become victors when we do that.
CONCLUSION:
1. We have seen how Jesus is the way in:
a. Suffering
b. Submission
c. Sanctification
d. And sure love
2. Tonight we saw that he is also the way in:
a. Serenity, peace is found only in him
b. Service showing our faithfulness to him as he was faithful to God and is also to us
c. And he is our way of success. We only find true victory in him. Without him all is lost
3. Jesus is the way. He set the example and paved the way for us through his life and his death he showed us the way to the father.
4. Unless we travel that way in him we will never see the father.
5. Are you in the way of Christ?
