The Way
CCCAG August 21st, 2018
Scripture- John 14:5-7
Intro:
How many people here had the pleasure of driving in downtown Chicago?
Prior to moving up here to God’s Country, about once a month I would have to take a patient down to a hospital located somewhere in the downtown area of Chicago. Once you get off the Interstate you are usually faced with heavy traffic and a series of one-way streets.
Because Chicago streets are always under construction, you are often forced down detours. Many of these detours are on one-way streets. Many of these streets can go on for a long time in the wrong direction and have no turn lanes so you are stuck going for up to a mile in the wrong direction. A mile in Chicago can mean 30 minutes of your time.
Is anybody gotten stuck on a street like that?
How about being stuck at a large event like a football or baseball game or a concert with a whole lot of people and they’re all moving in one direction which is not the direction you want to go? Maybe at the end of the event in your car is to the left, but everybody’s going to the right and there’s no way to go against the sea of people moving in the wrong direction.
It’s very frustrating to be going in the wrong direction, and feel helpless to do anything about it?
Many people Feel like this about life.
Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve taken a wrong turn and got stuck on the wrong road. Maybe at some point in your life, you looked up at the one-way sign that God had for you and decided to go another direction.
Now you’re sitting here in this morning. Not quite understanding where you are now you got here or why you decided to take this road.
If that’s you this morning I have some great news for you. Jesus knows the way home.
This morning we are continuing our study in the Gospel of John and specifically the Upper Room Discourse in which Jesus Is summarizing the Gospel.
I do want to warn you this morning. Jesus is going to make some very declarative statements that have zero wiggle room in interpretation. If you are sitting on the fence about Jesus this will poke you in some very sensitive areas.
In Verses 1 through 4 of John, 14, Jesus is saying that he is getting ready to go away, and go to the cross to die for our sins. His disciples are Jewish men Who Cannot imagine a Messiah who do anything other than bring a earthly Kingdom to this Earth. That is why there so confused with him talking about going away and dying.
So if that in mind, let’s read John, 14 versus 5 through 7.
John 14:5-7
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 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 know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Prayer
Every time I read these verses, I’m amazed at how Jesus is so politically incorrect.
If Jesus were to have had come today and say something like this publicly, He would be screamed down by people saying how can you make such a declarative statement about truth? How dare you call into question somebody else is truth?
Who do you think you are to say that all the world religions are not just as legitimate As Christianity?
Let’s look at just a couple of them and what they say about truth.
James pop that slide up. I saw this on Facebook this week.
Number One. Islam. Islam teaches that Allah will make an arbitrary decision regarding who gets to come to Heaven and who doesn’t. The only meaning of life is to simply obey Mohammed’s words As found in. Quran. No real truth there- just obey or else but since your obedience has no bearing on your eternal life it makes no difference in the end.
Number 2. Buddha tells us that there is no absolute truth, but we should always seek it anyway.
Number 3. Confucius. If you don’t know who Confucius says he was a philosopher in China. He would be considered the Plato, or Socrates or Aristotle of the Chinese world. Toward the end of his life, he said, don’t look at me for the truth.
Number 4 and most important for our discussion this morning- Jesus the Christ. He said, I am the way the truth and the life. And as this slide notes, Jesus is the only one who rose from the dead. The other 3 are still in their grave.
So let’s break it down and study Jesus’ statement. Jesus uses very precise language in his declarations.
We will start out with the first 2 words.
I. I AM
Jesus is very deliberate and using this phrase. To you and me simply saying I am is simply saying you are identifying with someone. It means the same thing In the Hebrew or Greek language.
However, In First Century Israel it has the added weight of being one of the ways that God revealed Himself to His chosen people.
You remember in Exodus Chapter 3. Moses being a former Prince in Egypt has been now banished to the backside of the desert for murdering Egyptian overseer. 40 years have gone by since that incident that led him to serve as a Shepherd in Jethro’s house. One day he’s out tending to the flocks and he sees a Bush on fire. That’s not an unusual thing in the desert as these creosote bush would dry up and burst into flame under the Blistering heat of the sun.
What was unusual about this Bush is that it wasn’t immediately consumed. It just kept burning and burning and burning.
Now imagine your Moses, a Shepherd with 40 years of experience. You have seen this happen dozens and dozens of times. Usually a brief flair 30 seconds worth of fire, and the Bush is gone. But not in this case.
He walks over to take a look and God speaks to him out of this bush.
God tells Moses said he has chosen him to be the deliverer of his people, Israel. Moses is speaking to this bush and saying “Well who are you? Are you the Great Fiery Bush God?”
I’m not being silly or irreverent here. Remember Moses grew up in Egypt, where they worshipped everything- The Nile River. They worshipped flies and worship frogs and cattle. Egyptians had all kinds of objects of worship.
So Moses asking this bush who are you- It’s a legitimate question right? After all, Moses is never heard God speak to him. The last person involved with the God of the Hebrews was Joseph and 10 generations have been born and died since that time.
In fact, for the last 400 years there is no record of God speaking to anyone.
Suddenly, a bush is telling Moses to go and confront the most powerful ruler of the most powerful nation on earth and tell him to let his most valuable asset walk away.
So, Moses asking several questions here is not a lack of faith. It is him trying to find out information. We pick up the narrative in verse 13 of Exodus Chapter 3.
Exo 3:13-14 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
I AM. This is one of the most sacred names of God to the Hebrews because it was directly tide to their deliverance from Egypt.
It is so sacred to them that the Pharisees were ready to kill Jesus on the spot, in church, for using it to reference himself.
Remember- John Chapter 8. Jesus begins by forgiving a woman caught in adultery. And that starts a very long argument with the Pharisees. The chapter ends in verse 56 Where Jesus makes this statement.
Joh 8:56-59 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (57) So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (59) So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
There is absolutely no doubt that Jesus using this phrase, I am He is calling himself equal with God.
So we can then paraphrase these verses in John Chapter 14 to Jesus saying I am God and I am the way.
Let’s look at that phrase “the way”.
II. The Way
Followers of Jesus Christ, we’re not always called Christians. In fact, in the early church this new religion, was simply called “the way” And it was based off this phrase in John Chapter 14 verse 6. The early church wanted to distinguish itself from its Jewish roots. Within the Jewish mindset this is how Christianity was referred to and in fact when Paul was making his legal defenses before Roman officials, he referred to Christianity as The Way.
I say this to point out that Jesus did not leave the door open for any other way. He said, I am the way. Period.
Jesus didn’t say I’m one of many ways.
Jesus didn’t say I’m one of many options you can choose from.
Jesus did not place himself into a pantheon of multiple beliefs that you can follow.
Jesus said I am the way.
If you are trusting and anything other than Jesus this morning. You are wrong. This isn’t just my opinion.
You ever had a boss tell you if I wanted your opinion I’ll give it to you.
This is God, giving us his opinion. Since God is the creator of all things and knows everything there is to know- His opinion overrides our opinions, and Jesus saying “I AM the way” is God declaring this as the absolute truth.
The Bible doubles down on this.
Act 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
There is only one way. God is made it very simple for us. It’s only sin, stubbornness, and rebellion that keeps humanity from believing and accepting this truth.
Truth- that’s a loaded word in our day isn’t it?
You may say as Pontius Pilate did- What is truth?
Jesus has an answer for that, too. He said, I am the truth.
III. The Truth
Truth. We don’t even know what that means anymore do we? We are so inundated with lies and false news. Salacious stories meant to keep our emotions revved up into a high gear so it shuts off are higher reasoning.
It’s not just one side of the political aisle. It doesn’t matter where you get your information anymore. Fox News does it. CNN does it. ABC NBC, CBS-They all do it. The vast majority of print news does it. Social media is notorious for it. It could be a full-time job, correcting people’s Facebook and Twitter posts that are just total lies and fabrications.
And again it’s on both sides. Conservative or liberal. Christian and non Christian.
Small rabbit trail. I know not a lot of you are on social media. But for those who are or maybe you’re listening by podcast. If you claim to be a Christian and you post something to social media that you know is not 100% right- Please take Christian out of your online description.
Jesus said HE is the truth. Therefore, HIS followers should be very concerned about that which is true and not just that which wins us a political point or an online argument.
And just one little nugget of truth for you. No one’s opinion has ever been swayed nor will ever be swayed through an online discussion or argument. Especially a political argument. So, just don’t engage.
It’s not worth your time and it’s not worth losing relationships over.
And I say this through painful personal experience because I love to argue truth.
The only truth, we should ever argue is that about Jesus. The Bible commands us to be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. And our hope is in Jesus.
The great I AM Jesus is our Way, Jesus is our Truth, but he also said, I am the Light.
IV. The Light
If you have any spiritual discernment at all, you will notice that it seems to be getting spiritually darker and darker.
Throughout history, there have been spiritual ebbs and flows. There been times of great darkness And there been times of great light.
We’re moving into a time of great darkness. When I as a pastor say something like that it can make us feel discouraged and even fearful of the future.
Jesus gives an explanation of this.
Joh 3:19-20 The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. (20) People who do evil hate the light and won't come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done.
One of the consequences of humanity’s fallen nature is that they run from light. We love the dark. That’s one of the hesitations I have with wanting to celebrate a holiday like Halloween. Halloween is all about celebrating the dark. I know there was some hesitation about wanting to have a trick are treat outreach here because of that fact.
However, the Bible says That the Earth is the Lords and everything in it. Including October 31st. The Bible also tells us to redeem the time. Therefore, if I can use a dark holiday to introduce people to Jesus It’s doing what the Bible told us to do. Taking what the devil meant for evil and turning it to the good.
That’s why I’m asking for your help. Not only in donations but with your presence.
Jesus said that you are the Light of the world.
You are reflections of his goodness
you are reflections of his love
You Are reflections of his saving work for this world.
Therefore come and let your light shine on October 31st and love on some kids.
Jesus said I am the way.
Jesus said I am the truth.
Jesus said I am the light.
He makes one final declaration. And it’s the declaration That is the most important one For us to understand this morning.
Jesus said “No one comes to the father except through me.”
V. The Way to the Father
People can handle Jesus, saying I am the way. As long as he is one of many ways.
People can Handle Jesus, saying I am the truth as long as he is not the exclusive truth.
People can handle Jesus, saying I am the light as long as he is one of many lights.
But when Jesus said he is the only way to the Father. That’s what will cause the argument every single time.
We are going to finish up our time together this morning With a quote from the great CS Lewis and his book “Mere Christianity. It will address what Jesus is saying about HIMself.
CS Lewis writes (read slowly)
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. (Mere Christianity, 55-56)”
So I ask you a question this morning.
Is Jesus a liar?
Is Jesus a lunatic?
Or is Jesus Lord.
If you’re going to call Jesus Lord That means he is Lord of all.
That means he is the Lord of the heavens. That means he is the Lord of the Earth. It means he is Lord And Ruler of everything in the Earth.
And most importantly for you and me. It means he is the ruler. The King. The boss. El Jefe of everything in our life.
All rise
Salvation call.
Jesus’ Lordship
