Well, it’s the middle of summer, and the nation is immersed in what has been called its favorite pastime—baseball. And the big news is that Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter became the Yankee’s first player with 3,000 hits yesterday, and he did it with a bang, with a home run, and next Tuesday is the All-Star game—a game that probably tens of thousands of little boys who play little league baseball dream one day of playing in.
Now, let’s imagine, just for a moment, that there’s a little league baseball player who is preparing to play his very first little league game. And He’s a very creative little boy. As he awaits his first at bat, what he notices is that running the bases is a very dangerous occupation. He notices that even when other little boys hit the baseball, they get thrown out at first base, or they get tagged out on the base paths, and so even though they hit the ball, many times they do not make it around the bases and to home plate to score a point, or “a run” for their team. And then he watches as another little boy actually hits a home run—that is he hits the ball and runs all the way around the bases to home plate and thus scores. And he thinks to himself, all that trouble, all that scrambling around the bases to get back to where he started in the first place—home plate. And so he comes up with a plan for when he gets up to bat.
So the pitcher pitches the ball and he somehow gets his bat around to make contact with the ball, and he hits a little ground ball to the pitcher. But instead of running to first base, he jumps on home plate and yells at the umpire, “Home run! Home run!” Meanwhile the pitcher manages to field the ball and throw it to first base where the umpire calls the young man “Out!” But the creative youngster continues to hop on home plate insisting that he’s hit a home run.
What’s happened? This creative little leaguer has decided to change the rules for himself. He doesn’t like the way the rules read, and he wants an exception to be made on his behalf. He doesn’t want to have to run the base paths, because so many bad things can happen to someone on the base paths. So he’s decided to eliminate the “run” from the Homerun, to change the rules according to his own preferences so that every time he hits the ball, he automatically has a home run.
Now let me ask you a question: “How is that “I make my own rules” attitude going to work out for him? Even if he continues to hop on home plate and declare insistently that he’s hit a home run? Not too well, is it? Even if he throws a tantrum, the Umpire is not going to declare Him “Safe!” He’s not going to be credited with a home run. Instead, he may be declared permanently out of the game, and undoubtedly someone from his team, a coach, or an older member of the family is going to be called to remove him from the playing field.
Now if he were older, he might challenge the call. He might say, “Who says so?” And then, “What right does he have to tell me I’m out?” “And why does he, the ump. have the right to say so.” And ultimately, if someone took the time to explain things to him, he would learn that everyone is supposed to play by the rule book, and that by consensus, everyone has given the Ump the right to make those decisions, and ultimately the rules go way back to the person who created the game, Abner Doubleday, or whoever, and that’s just the way things are. If you play the game, you play the game by the rules.
Now that’s very much the way it is with life, isn’t it? There’s a way things are meant to be, there’s a way life is meant to be lived. And there’s a reason for it. And if anyone is going to challenge that idea, he’s going to do so by asking some of life’s biggest questions, like, Well, then what’s life all about? And why is that so? And who said so?
And what gives them, or him, the right to say so? Questions that get back to Ultimate Reality, and the Creator, and the Authority that He has by virtue of the fact that He’s is the Creator.
And it’s precisely those kinds of questions, and those kinds of answers that we come to this morning in John 14. In verses 4-11 of John 14 we find ourselves in the midst of the Last Supper, those last intimate moments between the relatively faithful 11 disciples and their Lord Jesus before his arrest and Crucifixion. And what we find now is that Jesus is summarizing all of His teachings for the last 3 ½ years of ministry in their presence. He’s connecting all the dots for them. And what all those dots when connected will say is that Jesus is the Ultimate Reality, God Almighty, the one they must believe and follow if they would find the way to God and life, for He is God and life.
And it becomes quickly apparent that this review, this summary of Who Jesus is and What difference it makes was badly needed. Though Jesus’ disciples had heard and believed everything He had said about Himself, thus far, and were, according to His promises and declarations within the upper room itself that night, saved, and assured of heaven, they would need to know precisely who Jesus was and what difference that made, because it would their job to proclaim that message clearly to a very needy world within a couple of months.
You will perhaps remember from last week that Jesus has now announced His immediate departure and made it clear that where He’s going, in death, they could not come now to be with Him where He was. But then He assures their very troubled hearts that one day He would come back to take them to be with Him in His Father’s house in heaven.
And in John 14:4 He suggests to them, “And you know the way where I am going.” And the fact is they do know the way to where He is going, but they don’t know they know the way to where He is going. And it takes Thomas, doubting Thomas, acting entirely within His character to let Jesus know they don’t know that they know they way to where Jesus was going.
Verse 5: Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we
know the way.”
Now, at first glance, it appeared to me that Thomas was right. I read through all of John 13 and could not find a place where Jesus mentioned exactly where He was departing to. And I found myself somewhat agreeing with Thomas and His question, before I realized that in what Jesus had just said, in the immediately preceding promise of John 14:2 and 3, that Jesus had indeed revealed where He was going. He revealed it when He had said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places—and If I go there, I will come back and receive you to Myself so that where I am, there you may be also.” Obviously, Jesus was going to His Father, and His Father’s house, for that’s where He was going to come from and take His disciples back to be with Him when He comes back. Of course, He’s talking about Heaven, and God the Father’s very presence in Heaven—His Father’s presence and His Father’s house.
But Thomas is insisting that they do not know the way to the Father’s house. It’s as though he’s thinking very literally, that he and his fellow disciples would need exact directions like we might find on Mapquest today, turn right here, and go so many miles, and turn left there and go so many yards, etc. And it’s this question that prompts the single most profound and far-reaching and overwhelming statement that Jesus ever made—a statement which is the Big Picture, the summary of all He has taught and demonstrated, at least as we find it presented in the Gospel of John. He says, in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. As the great Greek Scholar ____________ Robertson once said, “Either of these statements is profound enough to stagger anyone.” And yet Christ makes three, even four statements about Himself and His identity that are simply overwhelming to any of us, and especially these 11 disciples at the moment they are confounded and grieving about Jesus’ imminent departure.
And so, it’s going to take us a moment to fully digest the meaning of these profound statements with respect to our lives.
First, notice that Jesus emphatically states that He is the way, the truth and the life. In all three of these claims, the definite article in the Greek is used in such a way as to identify Himself as the one and only, the only unique person among all men who can be identified in this way. He uses the definite article the like someone who says, “She’s the only girl for me.” or “Babe Ruth was the greatest player to ever play the game. In other words, whatever or whoever is being described, he or she is the one and only person in that class.
And so it was with regard to Jesus’ claim to be the way to the Father. Now in the context, of course, Jesus has just indicated that He would be coming from the Father and from the Father’s house in which there were many dwelling places in order to receive the disciples to Himself. So when Jesus here says He’s the way, He has already said He is the only way to the Father and the Father’s house—Heaven. He’s saying that Thomas and the other disciples don’t need directions, they don’t need a detailed map to get to heaven. All they need is Him, and if they’ve believed in Him, as He has just directed them to do in verse one, then they can trust Him as their way to Heaven, as the One who will take them there where they want to go, because He’s coming, as He just said, to take them personally to where they want to be. Now again, this is not new to the disciples. Jesus has repeatedly told them that He’s the way. They just, on the spur of the moment, haven’t put that all together. But what else did He mean when He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Or what did He mean in John 6:47 when He promised, Truly, Truly, He who believes (in Me) has eternal life.” Jesus clearly meant that He was the way to eternal life, to the Father, and to the Father’s house in all these promises, and so, in believing or trusting in Him, the disciples already had the way to eternal life.
And what does this indicate? It indicates that you don’t need someone, or anyone else to get you to heaven; you don’t need anyone else to complete what needs to happen for you to be saved. You don’t need Mary, you don’t need other saints to add their good works or merits to yours, you don’t need Krishna, or Buddha, or yourself to work your way there—Jesus has and will make the way for you, and so if you believe in Jesus, the Jesus of Nazareth, you have the way, and you need add nothing to what He has or will do for you. Got it? Got Jesus? You Got the Way. He is the Way—the one and only way. And as John 3:16 implies, to take some other way means you will perish.
And then the incredibly profound statement, “I am the truth.” Jesus didn’t just say, “I speak the truth.” He said “I am the truth.”
We would do well at this point to ask the question that Pontius Pilate would soon ask in the presence of Jesus: “What is truth.”
The answer is that truth is simply that which corresponds with reality. Truth is what corresponds to reality. It is what is real, what is actual, rather than what is contrary to the fact or reality or actuality. And what Jesus is indicating is that He Himself is truth, not just a truth, but the one and only truth about existence and life. In other words, He is saying that He is the ultimate reality, He is the core of all being and existence. When you take everything and everybody back to where they came from—they came from Jesus—from Jesus-God—from the God-Man Jesus Christ. He is the Ultimate Reality in that there would be no reality without Him. There would be nothing without Him.
He had said as much whenever He claimed to be God, which He surely did numerous times in the Gospel of John—Whenever he referred to Himself as I Am, and particularly in John 8:58 when He said, Before Abraham was I am, and John 10:30 when He said, “I and the Father are one.”
And so whatever deep question you want to ask about the way things are, or the way things are meant to be, which ever of the great philosophical questions you might pose, the answer has to do with Jesus-God. What is life all about? It’s about Jesus-God and rightly relating and honoring and loving Him. Why am I here? Because Jesus-God put you here, He created you to fulfill His purposes for you. Who am I? You are a moral, potentially loving creature placed here, created by Jesus God, for His purposes and His glory. Where am I going? It depends on how you relate to Jesus-God. And Why? In the game of life, it’s because Jesus-God has the say, because Jesus-God is the Creator, and therefore the Ultimate Authority in the Universe. He therefore as Creator is the Ultimate Umpire who calls people safe and out.
And then another magnificent statement: “I am the life.” And as possessors of life who, normally and almost always desire more life, we might ask the question, and we do ask the question, “Where does life come from.” And given our mortal condition and destiny, We ask that question desperately. Life is in short supply. Nobody has enough! Almost everyone wants more, and they want it to be not only quantitatively but qualitatively. And Jesus here says He’s not only the Source of Life, but life itself. So if you want life, if you want it abundantly, and you want it in quality—come to Jesus, He’s the only one who can provide it with quality and the quantity you want. And of course, He had already said as much, and proven it when he raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11 and said so in verses 25 and 26: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even though He dies and will never die.”
You want ultimate reality? You want to understand why things are the way they are? You want life—quantitatively and qualitatively? God has wrapped that all up very simply and neatly for us. Life, reality, truth is all wrapped up in one person—Jesus Christ, the Jesus of Christ of the Bible, Jesus of Nazareth. Life is not an it, but a who, and what a great Who He is—who is the source of every blessing you could want.
We’re all dropped into life and without a clue about these things at the outset. Life could be expressed as coming to terms with Reality. All the great questions of life, what it’s all about it, where we come from, where we’re going, they’re all answered in One Person—Jesus Christ, the God-Man of the Bible. You don’t have to head to some remote place in the Himalayas to find a holy man; you don’t have to pray on a mountain top for truth. The truth as been abundantly revealed and proven in One Man, Jesus Christ. Whatever you lack, whatever wisdom you need or desire, whatever life you want, it’s all wrapped and found in one magnificent package, Jesus Christ, and His revelation is found in this book! Wow!
So, believe Jesus is ultimate reality, both the way to God, & life and God & life Himself.
Now in the midst of the most profound statement ever uttered by Jesus’ lips, is one which many people regard as the most difficult, the rest of verse 6: “No one comes to the Father but through me.”
Why? Because of it’s absolutely dogmatic, and completely exclusive nature. Jesus clearly says there is only one way to the Father and to the Father’s house. Jesus says there is only one way to Heaven, and He is it. Of course, He has already implied as much by saying He is the Way, but just in case there is any question whatsoever in anybody, Jesus makes it absolutely crystal clear—He is the only, exclusive way to God and to heaven. Our second point this morning: Believe in Jesus, because He is the exclusive way to the Father & His Heavenly Home. Believe in Jesus because He is the exclusive way to the Father and His Heavenly Home.
Now these disciples have no problem believing this, but there sure are many people today who have a problem with this. Because what Jesus is saying is that if you worship any other God, that if you are part of any other religion, you’re not going to make it. You’re not going to get to heaven! And it doesn’t seem fair to them. Why only Christians? Why only believers in Jesus? What about those who don’t know anything else? What about those who grew up as Moslems, or Buddhists, or Hindus or who knows what and were never taught anything different? This isn’t fair to them, is it?
What we don’t realize is that from God’s perspective, and from the perspective of Biblical history, these people, or more properly their ancestors, are the rule changers, These people, or their ancestors, are the creative little ball-players, who at one time knew of the true and living God, but didn’t like reality, and didn’t want to live by the rules, and so they made alterations, they made their own gods, their idols, who would approve of what they preferred to do, the way they wished things were, and the way they, therefore they decided things would be, so that eventually the truth about the real God was so completely oppressed by their evil designs that very little of it remained at all. And because they refused to live according to the rules, because they refused to live according to Reality, they and now their ancestors were in grave danger of being called “out” instead of “safe.” Reality has consequences for those who refuse to live by it, doesn’t it?
And when you really think about it, Reality, or Truth, is dogmatic. It is exclusive by its very nature. We see that in the world of math, as I have often noted. 2 + 2 is 4. There is only one right answer to any mathematical problem, only one right answer to any mathematical equation, and a zillion, literally an infinite number of wrong answers. Now I could wish that there were a million dollars in my bank account. But if I lived as though that wish were reality, and it wasn’t reality, I would get in big trouble, because I would not be able to pay for the things I took, which ultimately is theft or robbery, or fraud, and I would lose everything I had to pay for things I couldn’t pay for, and I might end up “out” or in prison for awhile.
But someone might say, but doesn’t God care about these people? You bet He does, just like He cares about people who have become Christians. They’re exactly who Jesus, the Ultimate Reality, came to seek and to save. They’re who He died for! That’s how much He cares. And that’s the reason these 11 disciples are sitting here with Jesus right now. For they are the 11 He was training to take the Good News of the Truth—that Christ died for our sins into the world of Rule-changers to save them from their sins. And by the way, that’s in large part why we’re sitting here this morning, that we might also learn and be encouraged to take the Good News of Jesus Christ into our lost world so that God might save them. That’s why there is the Great Commission, “Make Disciples of All Nations” and we, as a church, are involved in supporting people who go into all the world to make disciples of all nations. And that is why it is so very urgent to take the Gospel into all Creation and that is why you need to be involved in it, beginning with your next door neighbor.
All because Jesus is clearly the only way to God, He’s the only truth, He is the only life.
But Jesus goes further. Though the disciples are thoroughly overwhelmed, in over their heads, it would eventually become clear to them. Another thing Jesus had clearly demonstrated to them was that He was and is the visible expression of the invisible God—He was and is yet the God-Man—100% God and yet 100% man. Yes, incredibly, God showed up as a man to reveal Himself fully to us in a way we could understand. And the disciples are still foggy about this, though Jesus has made this claim as recently as a couple days earlier, in John 12:45, when He said, “And he who beholds Me beholds the one who sent Me.”
And so Jesus says in verse 7: “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
And I can just imagine the disciples saying to themselves. Wait a minute. Am I hearing what I think I’m hearin? And this is in site of the fact He’s said it before a number of times.
And so Philip says in verse 8, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
And what comes out is another explicitly profound statement that Jesus is Himself God, and perfectly represented the Father during His life on earth. Verse 9: “Have I been so long with you, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, “Show us the Father.’” That’s exactly what Jesus had been doing all along. In other words, Philip, in other words, disciples, you now know, by experience, what Jesus is like; and so you now know what the invisible God is like. You know what He likes and what He doesn’t like, you begin to know what God will do in any given situation, just like you come to know any other person, and if you trust Him and obey Him, you do get to know Him, and He blesses, and you become not only His servant, but His friend. Wow!
And so much more the reason to be in God’s Word every day. To be in fellowship with other believers who know Him frequently. For what a privilege it is to know He who is Ultimate Reality, the way to life, and life in Himself.
Our third point this morning; Jesus’ third point to us: Believe in Jesus, follow Jesus, because He is the visible expression of the invisible God—the God-Man.
But the question any thinking man has is this: How can we know this for sure? How can we be convinced? Jesus has an answer for this as well. Our final point. Be convinced by the unique & incredible words & works of Jesus.
Verse 11: :Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.”
Let me ask you a question: Who, in all of history, has ever, as a human being, spoken like this man spoke? So sure of Himself, so certain of all He said, never a hope so, or a guess so, or the need to quote some other expert other than Himself to support what He said by the Word of God Himself, which He knew and quoted perfectly every time. Who else has ever made these kinds of ultimate claims for himself, claims to be the one and only true God and Creator of Everything? And Who else could make such claims and be taken seriously, by anyone, unless He had incredible credentials, incredible credibility based on both the nature of the things He said, and the kind of works or miracles which He did.
His enemies had an answer for that question. The very officials his enemies sent to arrest Him came back empty handed in John 7:46 saying, “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks.”
No major religious founder ever claimed to be the Ultimate Reality. Not one of them ever claimed to be God, because none of them could ever back it up. None of them could ever do the works, the miracles, that only God could do. Only Jesus did as a matter of course, as a matter of his regular life-style, miracle after miracle, hundreds and thousands of healings and deliverances day after day, without ever failing, even to the point of raising the dead, and coming back from the dead Himself.
Who are you going to believe in? I’ll tell you what, I’ll take the man, the only man in all of history to make the claim to be God, and to be found credible by His contemporaries, because He repeatedly backed His claims up by doing what only God Himself could do. I will be convinced and am convinced by the unique and incredible, but amazingly credible words & works of Jesus Christ.
This is Reality. Reality is not an it, but a who. A person. Jesus Christ, our only God & Savior.
Many years ago our family went back to visit Jeanie’s family in Nebraska. And while there I decided to take some time to get to know one of Jeanie’s nephews. I went up to his second-story bedroom to play some games with Him, and Jeanie had forewarned that this 11 or 12-year-old had been over-indulged, or “spoiled” as some put it. And just how true her words were quickly became evident. His rooms was filled with just about every toy or game you could imagine. And I played about three games with him. And something very interesting took place every game we played. About five or 10 minutes into the game, when he was losing, He would suddenly and very creatively change the rules, drastically, in His favor. And in a matter of one or two minutes, he would achieve an overwhelming victory by virtue of his rule changes. We would conclude the game. And go on to another, and then another, and the result was always the same. He would be losing, there would be, on his part, a drastic change of the rules which would vastly favor Him, He would overwhelmingly win, and frankly, it was one of the more exasperating experiences I ever had.
And I emerged from his room that night wondering what kind of future such a rule-changing, reality-denying young man had in this world of realities and truth. And sure enough, within 10 years, by the time He was 21, He had gotten involved with a gang in Omaha, committed numerous crimes including two felonies, and was on trial for a third, and the new law, three strikes, three felonies, and you’re out—you’re considered an habitual criminal and you are sentenced to life in prison was in effect. And He was on trial for his life when he finally figured that you’ve got to live by the rules, you’ve got to live by reality in this life, or you’ll be called out, and out for good.
And you see, what Jesus said here, is the same goes for eternity, the same rules apply with respect to spiritual reality. You’ve got to accept Reality; you’ve got to embrace Reality for things to go well for you, and Reality, Ultimate Truth and Eternal Life is Jesus Christ. And you must believe and follow Him to experience all that life was intended to be, or you’ll be called “out” by the Ultimate Umpire of the Universe.
That’s how we come to terms with Reality: We believe in Him who is the Ultimate Reality—who is the Way, the Truth and the Life—Jesus Christ our only God and Savior.
Let’s pray.
