JOHN 14: 1 – 6
THE WAY TO THE FATHER’S HOUSE
The disciples were completely bewildered and discouraged. Jesus had said He was going away (7:34; 8:21; 12:8, 35; 13:33), that He would die (12:32-33), that one of the Twelve was a traitor (13:21), that Peter would disown Him three times (13:38), that Satan was at work against all of them (Luke 22:31-32), and that all the disciples would fall away (Mt. 26:31). The cumulative weight of these revelations must have greatly depressed them. [The primary theme of chapter 14 is the departure and return of Jesus.]
This chapter is filled with promises addressed directly to the community of faith. If we take hold of these promises our anxious perspective will be changed and our faith will be increased. For here Jesus calls His disciples to look beyond the trouble life holds for them and assures them that He not only will take them to heaven, He Himself is the way to heaven.
I. BELIEVE IN JESUS, 1.
II. BEING WITH JESUS, 2-3.
III. BE CONVINCED ABOUT JESUS, 4-5
VI. BELONG TO JESUS, 6.
To comfort the disciples, Jesus gave them several exhortations and promises beginning in verse 1. “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
“Troubled” (Gk.tarassesthô, tarasso) is “stirred, agitated.” On three previous occasions this word was used to express Jesus’ deeply troubled feelings: when He faced Lazarus’ tomb (11:33), when He contemplated the cross (12:27), and when He reflected on the betrayal of Judas (13:21). Jesus’ confidence in the greater power and purposes of God made it possible for Him to confront each of these crises. Now the disciples must face the same feelings.
One’s heart is the center of his personality, his will and his intellect. Each believer is responsible for the condition of his heart (Prov. 3:1, 3, 5; 4:23; 20:9). They were to set their heart at ease through their faith in God and Jesus.
British preacher J. H. Jowett believed that inner peace does not come from tranquil circumstances but from an untroubled heart. He said: "If we were to hear 100 people repeating the sentence, ’Let not your heart be troubled,’ we should find that 99 of them put the emphasis upon the word troubled. . . . I feel led to believe that the purposed emphasis is on the word heart ... The heart is to be clothed in serenity even when hell is knocking and rioting at its very gates."
Jowett’s perceptive words causes us to wonder if we’re spending more energy trying to avoid difficulties than on letting them help us get to know Christ better. If so, we’re headed for frustration and failure.
When Jesus told His disciples "Let not your heart be troubled" He was preparing them for the dark day of His crucifixion. He knew they could weather the storm only by trusting Him in spite of the apparent triumph of evil. By a firm trust in God the Father and Jesus the Son, they could relieve their soul-sorrow and be sustained in their coming tests. [When Jesus said, Trust in God; trust also in Me, He was probably giving commands (see niv ).]
Today, we can focus on the trouble in the world and in our lives, or we can focus on the victory we have in Christ because His death was followed by His resurrection. This wonderful fact gives new meaning to His words, Believe in Me.
Many times along life’s way we fact uncertainties, opposition, and even doubt. When we do, it is helpful to recognize that those who lived with Christ when He was here on earth faced the same perplexities. His answers and assurances to them are meant for us as well. "Let not your heart be troubled," Jesus said (v. 1) "Believe in God, believe in Me also." We believe God can supply all the answers to our troubles. Christ is God! He is God’s solution to our troubles. Believe in Him.
II. BEING WITH JESUS, 2-3.
Jesus is not abandoning them. His departure is for a needful practical purpose. After His departure He will be working on their behalf, to prepare a place for them as verse 2 states. “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.
Jesus is preparing eternity for us and He is preparing us for eternity. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.
[The KJV “mansions” (for Gk. monai, “rooms”) was a seventeenth-century expression for modest dwellings; thus, we should not picture a heavenly palatial residences. This is not Jesus’ point. God’s “house” refers to the heavenly dwelling where He lives (Heb. 12:22; Rev. 21:9 – 22:5), and a mone is a place of family residence there with Him. This word is related to the common verb meno, to remain or abide. To “remain” with Jesus is the highest virtue (15:4 – 10), and He is promising that death will not interrupt intimacy enjoyed with Him]. [Burge, Gary; NIV Application Commentary, John, 391. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2000. ]
A TERRIBLE STORM was raging on the Great Lakes. A tug boat that was towing a heavy barge was swept again and again from stern to bow by the fierce breakers. It began taking water and for hours it seemed there was little hope for its crew. All through the night they were beaten by the fierce waves in constant danger of their lives, but they managed to keep afloat and in the morning the captain and his crew were rescued by a passing ship.
Afterward the captain, in telling about that long night of fear and danger, said that there was one thing that strengthened them to carry on and keep hope alive in their hearts, and that was shining through the gloom they could occasionally see THE LIGHTS OF HOME. Without those beckoning lights they might have given up and been lost.
Often the Christian, sailing the storm-tossed sea of life, while searching the Bible for something to strengthen him to meet the tests, comes across such promises as these: “I go to prepare a place for you.” Then you see, shining bright and clear, the lights of Home, beckoning and calling, lending hope and encouragement to press on until morning shall come. [The Messenger]
Death should not be a terror to us because Jesus is preparing a place for us in heaven, in the Father’s house. A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed: “Oh, daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be like!” God spent six days making the present heavens and earth. Jesus has been working on the new heavens and earth for over 2,000 years. O what glory it will be and we will be prepared to enjoy Him and Heaven for all eternity!
Not only does Jesus want us to trust that what He is presently doing is for us, in verse 3 He wants us to be confident of being there with Him. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, in order that where I am, there you may be also.
You is emphatic. Jesus is coming back for us. I will come back here refers, not to the Resurrection [or to a believer’s death], but to the Rapture of the church when Christ will return for His sheep (1 Thes. 4:13-18). The greatest blessing of heaven, what makes heaven heaven, is that we will be with Jesus (John 17:24). Jesus said nothing about the nature of the place where He was going. It is sufficient that believers will be with the Father and Jesus (2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; 1 Thes. 4:17). It is a great promise.
The 1989 ARMENIAN EARTHQUAKE needed only four minutes to flatten the nation and kill 30,000 people. Moments after the deadly tremor ceased, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived he saw that the building had been leveled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.” Driven by his own promise, he located the area closest to his son’s room and began to pull back the rocks. Other parents arrived and began sobbing for their children. “It’s too late” they told the man. “You know they are all dead. You can’t help.” Even the police officer encouraged him to give up.
But the father refused. For 8 hours, then 16, then 32, 36 hours he dug. His hands were raw and his energy depleted, but he refused to quit. Finally, after 38 wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard is his son’s voice. He called his boy’s name, "Arman! Arman! And a voice answered him, "Dad, it’s me.!" Then the words:, "I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and that when you saved me, they’d be saved too. Because you promised, “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.” [Chicken Soup for the Soul, Canfield & Hansen, Health Communications, 1993]
Jesus’ return is as certain as His departure. Jesus has made the promise, that He will come back for us. He assures us. And no matter how the rocks fall or the ground beneath us shakes, He will keep His promise and take us home to be with Him forever and ever.
III. BE CONVINCED ABOUT JESUS, 4-5.
In verse 4 Jesus reveals to His disciples that they already knew how to get to heaven. “And you know the way where I am going.”
From the glorious day when He will return and receive His own to Himself, Jesus turns to the present situation of the followers He is leaving behind. He has told them that He is going to heaven and what His departure means for them. He now adds another word of assurance. Jesus asserts to His disciples that they know how to follow Him to their destination. He has been showing them the way by His life and the complete body of His teachings. Jesus has been teaching them and leading them in this way ever since they joined Him. His sheep will follow Him and find heaven at the end of their earthly journey. The disciples already should know the way they must take to reach the destination of Heaven.
Throughout His ministry, Jesus had been showing them the way, but as Thomas indicates in verse 5, they did not fully understand. Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
Though Jesus affirmed that they know where He is going, Thomas speaks up and presses for more clarification. Peter had already asked about Jesus’ destination (13:36) but the question had been left unanswered. Thomas now claims that they know neither the destination of Jesus nor the way He will take to get there. He would follow Jesus all the way, even if it meant death (11:16), He just didn’t know where Jesus was going.
This reflects the disciples’ inability to comprehend that the cross will be the way Jesus will return to the Father. They would remain puzzled until His death and resurrection and until the advent of the Spirit. They had all the information but they could not put it together.
Yet we should be thankful for Thomas’ question despite his looking for a physical way instead of the way of faith. He asked an extremely important question; what is the way to heaven? What is the way to God? Jesus’ answer is one of the most important in all of Scripture. The following outstanding saying ranks with John 3:16 in expressing the Gospel. The gospel of salvation is based entirely on Jesus Christ.
In reality Thomas and the rest knew more than they thought they did, for they knew Jesus! Jesus reply in verse 6 is the ultimate answer and the foundation for life eternal. Jesus said to him, “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Jesus’ words, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, are the sixth of Jesus’ seven “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John (6:48; 8:12; 10:9, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1). Jesus is the “Way” because He is the “Truth” and the “Life.” The I is emphatic, meaning I and no other. He did not merely claim to know the way, the truth, and the life as a formula He could impart to the ignorant. He actually claimed to be the answer to man’s greatest problems.
Of the three terms, emphasis falls on the first, “the way.” Jesus does not merely show us the way. Jesus Himself is the way to the Father, to heaven, to eternal life. Access to the Father’s presence in heaven will only be by following Jesus and no other. He is the only one who can lead His followers to the Father, to the places He goes to prepare.
This is the case because Jesus is the truth, the authoritative representative and revealer of God. He hears what God says and obeys what God tells Him to do (5:19; 8:29). He discloses God exhaustively unlike anyone else can because He personally knows God (1:18).
This means far more that Jesus is truthful. He is the actual embodiment of truth. He is the truth in person. He is the final reality of all the shadows of truth that came before Him. This is far more that every thought and word of His being true, which they are. Words and thoughts not in agreement with His are not "truth," of that we can be sure.
Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. He is the Life because the sinless One was not subject to death, but made death subject to Him. He did not died to show the power of death, but He died to prove the power and continuity of His life. This life is opposed to death. The only life worthy of the name life is that which Jesus brings and that which you find in Him. Because Jesus has life within Himself, He is both the source of life and the giver of life to man. He is the light of life, the word of life, and He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Just as death means separation from God, life implies union and communion with Him. By uniting our lives with His we are united with God. Since Jesus is life we are united with life.
Those who follow Jesus, who come to the Father through His “way,” following His truth, will be the ones who gain eternal “life” (11:25, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life”). Thus, this verse places Jesus in the role of mediator, creating the only avenue to God. “All truth is God’s truth, as all life is God’s life; but God’s truth and God’s life are incarnate in Jesus.” [ F. F. Bruce]
Such an absolute statement of who Jesus is leads to His words, No one comes to the Father except through Me. Instead of simply defining His destination (the Father, heaven), He says that He alone is the way to get there. “Jesus stressed that salvation, contrary to what many people think, is not obtainable through many ways. Only one Way exists (Acts 4:12; 1 Tim. 2:5). Jesus is the only access to the Father because He is the only One from the Father (John 1:1-2, 51; 3:13).” [Walvoord & Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983 S. 322
CONCLUSION
Jan and Hendrikje Kasper sailed into United, States waters in January 1957. Their family of 12, along with other Dutch immigrants on board the Grote Beer, crowded on deck to catch their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
That initial view of Lady Liberty was exciting and emotional. They had just endured an arduous 11-day journey a cross the ocean on a no-frills voyage. They had left many friends and family members behind in Netherlands. They had experienced rough seas brought on by a hurricane and had dealt with seemingly endless seasickness. But now-finally-they had arrived. They were home!
Someday those of us who have trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior will leave this life and go to the place He has prepared for us. The journey there may be difficult or uncomfortable, but we certainly look forward to the final destination.
Composer Don Wyrtzen wrote the music for a wonderful song that pictures our earthly life as a "tempestuous sea." It ends with these words:
Just think of stepping on shore-and finding it heaven!
Of touching a hand -and finding it God’s!
Of breathing new air - and finding it celestial!
Of waking up in glory-and finding it home!
When we see Jesus face to face for the first time-we will finally be home. -Cindy Hess Kasper
