June 22, 2003
John 14:1-7
“The Way, the Truth, and the Life”
Intro
I’ve got some good news and some bad news this morning. Let’s start with the good news! In The Gallup Guide: Reality Check for 21st Century Churches, author D. Michael Lindsay concludes, “Surveys record an unprecedented desire for religious and spiritual growth among people of all walks of life and in every region of the nation.” I like the sound of that! After 9/11, the Barna Research Group, a Christian agency, found in their polling that 65% of today’s young people want a close relationship with God, and about half say, “I want to make a difference in the world.” Four out of five teens say that their religious beliefs are very important in their lives. The vast majority of teens believe that the universe was created by God; 84% say that God is personally involved in people’s lives! 87% of our kids believe that Jesus was a real person who came to earth, and the vast majority of them believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. The proliferation of “WWJD” bracelets and necklaces and stuff of the last few years has certainly died down some, but still, many of our young people—and not a few older ones (I noted Dick Learned wearing a WWJD bracelet!)—are more willing to be identified with Jesus. If you take this as a good thing—and I am not certain that I automatically do, frankly—the sales of contemporary Christian music are way up; Christian bookstores dot the landscape, Christian radio and TV, for better, but often for much worse, proliferate. Good news!
There’s some bad news as well, I am afraid. Though better than four out of five of our young people believe that God is personally involved in people’s lives, 63% also believe that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, etc. all pray to the same god. Nearly half say that Jesus committed sins while on earth, and a little over half don’t believe that Jesus actually rose from the grave. 48 percent of today’s teenagers say that they believe that it makes no difference what religious faith you associate with because they all believe the same thing, and 58% believe that all faiths teach equally valid truth. When the statement was made, “you can tell if something is morally/ethically right by whether or not it works in your life”, over 70% of teens agreed. There is no absolute truth in the minds of 70% of our teens; truth is merely “what works for you”, and is to be found subjectively; objective truth isn’t acceptable to talk about anymore. Sadly, even in many churches, we perpetuate this type of approach. The Bible study leader will read a verse and then ask little Sally, “what does this verse mean to you?”, and then Sally will give her version, to be followed by Johnny’s version and Mike’s version and…you get the idea. Sorry, folks, when we approach the Bible, it doesn’t matter what you think it means; what matters is what it actually does mean! But I digress…and so we come today to another of Jesus’ “I am” statements, wherein He says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father but by Me!”
Message
Stand with me, if you would, as we read together John 14:1-7.
Every now and again, I like to suggest a book for your consumption. I believe that it is one of the great tragedies of American Christianity today that we do not read any more than we do, coupled with the fact that, when we Christians often do read, we read the equivalent of spiritual cotton candy. If you think you know what I’m talking about in making that statement, well, you probably do! I’ll leave it at that. I’m right now reading a book that is one of the most insightful I have ever read, and I am learning a great deal from the reading. It is not per se a Christian book, though it is certainly sympathetic to our beliefs. The book is available in our library, or will be shortly, and it is entitled Slouching Towards Gomorrah, by Robert Bork. If you recognize that name, you’ll remember that Bork was the victim of one of the great crimes of the twentieth century, publicly lynched as he was by many members of the U.S. Senate, most of which could fill neither his moral nor intellectual shoes. Had the lies of the liars not prevailed, and had Judge Bork been confirmed to the Supreme Court, it is likely that so much of the nonsense that continues to be handed down by the Court would never see the light of day. The subtitle of Bork’s book, “Modern Liberalism and American Decline”, gives the reader a foretaste of his subject matter, and he does not disappoint. He paints a bleak picture of
The State of the Union in these United States. I find his words to be true, his analysis to be dead-on, and his predictions of the future to be downright scary. We live today in a world
I. Lacking Direction
Not that there aren’t plenty of folks out there who will offer that direction—usually for a price, of course! There’s the Psychic Friends Network, and the New Age Movement, and Transcendental Meditation, and Dr. Phil, and Scientology, and Deepak Chopra, and you name it. All of them promising to make life much better if you’ll only sign up or follow their direction or program or religious experience. And they only exist because people are searching for direction, for certainty, for purpose and meaning and hope…they are looking for direction in all the wrong places, we might say!
II. Under Deception
Who can you trust anymore? Turn on the TV, and watch the news. Do we trust the newscasters to tell us the truth, complete and unvarnished? Not if we are smart! Our national leaders, politicians, members of Congress? Not me! Do you trust corporations to do anything other than look out for their bottom line? Not if you know names like Enron and Worldcom! Flip the channel to “Christian TV”—or, on second thought, don’t! Scandals in the evangelical world in the late 80’s have now been surpassed by scandals among the Catholic priesthood and hierarchy. Who’s telling the truth? Who can we trust? The Bible helps us to understand that those who would deceive will continue to grow in number, in intensity, in depth of deception. We live in a world under deception.
III. Bent on Death
From Hollywood to video games, from Kevorkian to Oregon’s “assisted suicide” law, from abortion to “death with dignity”, from Columbine, the tragedy perpetrated by two death-obsessed teenagers, to “death education”, first introduced to American public schools at…Columbine High School, we live in a culture bent on death. Death is seen in a number of ways: to some, it is the ultimate “out”; to others, it is sport; to still others, entertainment.
Despite all of this, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. To a world lacking direction, Jesus, the Way, says, “follow me!” To a world under deception, Jesus, the Truth, says, “believe in me!” To a world bent on death, Jesus, the Life, says, “I have come that you might have life more abundantly!” And Jesus, in introducing Himself in this manner, as Way, Truth, and Life, begins by urging upon His followers the same truth that I believe He would urge upon us today: “don’t let your heart be troubled.”
Now, as a pastor and as a parent, these are words I need to hear, especially as I read Judge Bork’s compelling critique of American society. And they were words that Jesus’ followers needed to hear then as well—looking back at chapter 13 shows why. He had told them of His impending betrayal, that one of their number would sell Him out. Then, He told them that He’d only be with them a little while longer. He said He was going away; they had no clue where He was going. He told Peter that Peter would betray Him, and despite Peter’s protestations, Jesus would not relent. He had previously spoken of His death. They had every reason for their hearts to be troubled; in fact, how could their hearts not be? And yet, He said to them, as He says to us, “don’t let your hearts be troubled.” Notice in that one extremely important principle: we are responsible for the conditions of our hearts! And related to that, we are able to control the responses of our hearts, for what Jesus commands, the Holy Spirit empowers us to perform. In this society of victimhood in which we live, it is refreshing anytime we acknowledge that we are responsible moral agents. I cannot control my circumstances, but I can control my attitude and my response. I can cultivate, in the quiet times of my life, the kind of steel in my soul that will prepare me for the times of turbulence—and further, I can view those times of difficulty as the instrument for the perfection of that steel.
Jesus commands me not to allow my heart to be troubled, and then He gives me the key to the accomplishment of this seemingly-impossible task: “believe in God; believe also in Me!” We touched on this last week, and to reiterate a theme, without the presence of God in my life, I am adrift on a sea of relativism, cut loose from any mooring or foundation. I don’t need Jesus as a crutch, per se, but I sure need Him as the foundation of my life!
In verses 2 and 3, Jesus allays a couple of their fears. He tells them that there is a purpose to His going—He will prepare a place for them—and that His stay there will not be indefinite, but rather temporary: He promises to return to them that they will be together eternally. It was a common Jewish belief of the time that all people in glory would occupy separate abodes on the basis of their rank. For instance, Billy Graham might occupy a mansion of epic dimensions, while Van Slyke would get a grass hut with an outhouse. Our KJV translation is unhelpful in this regard, for it renders the Greek word in verse two as “mansions”; a better rendering is “rooms”. And Jesus says, “I’m going away, but when I come back, we’ll all go to live in different rooms in the Father’s house.”
By this time Thomas, who was an honest sort of speak-his-mind guy, had just about had all he could take, and so, exasperated, he blurts out, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going; how in the world are we going to know how to get there?” One commentator said, “Thomas was utterly honest, pessimistic, and uninhibited. He did not suppress his feelings, but voiced his despair. He had already declared his willingness to follow Jesus and to die with Him if necessary. Thomas despaired of ever learning the way and was not ready to accept a state of permanent bewilderment. His question revealed a man who was confused by life and felt its riddles were insolvable.” Confused? Troubled? Perplexed? Puzzled?
Jesus: Our Certainty in an Uncertain World!
I. The Certainty of Reconciliation
The word “way”, in the original Greek, has 2 uses, literal and metaphorical. That word is used to speak of a literal road—such as Route 19—and of a method—that’s the metaphorical sense of the word. In February we were in Key West; my only other time to go there was as a teenager. One thing I remember about Key West: there is only one road that leads there. If you are driving, and you don’t take U.S. 1, you don’t get to Key West! Similarly, Jesus makes the claim that He stands as the only means of reconciliation between man and God. He is the only road, the only path that will lead to God. Interestingly, He doesn’t say, “I know the way”; He says, instead, “I am the Way!” Surely this rules out the idea that He was merely a good teacher! He didn’t come to give us pithy principles or bright ideas or “7 keys to success”; His mission wasn’t to teach us traditional family values or “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. He came to bridge the gulf between man and God with a cross that would signify the ugliness of sin and the grace of God in one fell swoop, and when He cried out from that cross, “It is finished”, it was! The price had been paid, and the way had been made, and Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, in the book of Acts says, “there’s no salvation to be found in anyone else, for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved!” He’s the only road!
He is the only method as well, if you will. Listen to how Paul puts God’s one method of reconciling sinners to Himself; this is recorded in II Corinthians 5: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” By the way, though it’s not my point this morning, it goes on to say, immediately on the heels of that, “therefore, we are ambassadors of God…” Are you engaged in inviting others to consider Christ?
The Way is not a recipe, a religion, or rules; it is a found in a relationship. The Way is not a plan or a program or a perspective; it is a Person. Jesus provides for us the certainty of reconciliation because He Himself is the Way! And to a world lacking direction, Jesus is still the Way! Next, He is
II. The Certainty of Reliability
God is spoken of in Scripture as “the God of truth”. Ever hear someone say, “if God can do anything, …” Stop them in their tracks with this reply: there are some things God cannot do! Huh? Bible says so! In fact, there are plenty of things that you and I can do—and most of us have done some this morning—that God cannot do! Don’t get too cocky about that—what I’m referring to is sin. And when you screamed at the kids in anger or frustration this morning, you did something God cannot do—sin in anger! And the Bible is clear about this fact: God cannot lie. And Jesus clearly equates Himself with God; let’s read about that in verses 7-9. Jesus said, “I am the Truth”; that word means “that which is not hidden”. There was no subterfuge; there were no shenanigans, no shading of the truth. There was nothing deceitful about Jesus’ ministry on earth. The world says, “truth is relative”, or “truth is what works”. If Jesus works for you, great! But if Islam or TM or self-discovery work for me, that’s equally great! If it’s more fulfilling for you to live a life of monogamous marriage, super; if for me, promiscuity suits my fancy best, who’s to say I’m wrong? Because truth for one person isn’t truth for another person!
But Jesus makes this truth claim: I am the Truth! Everything that passes for truth in this world can be measured alongside Jesus, and whatever would pass for truth that does not equate with His life, His teaching, His truth, is no truth at all—and frankly, it doesn’t matter what the source might be. For those of you new around here, let me tell you what I’ve told these folks for over 10 years now: if you ever hear me say something that clearly contradicts Jesus, the Word of God, you ignore me and believe the Bible. I won’t do that on purpose, but you have not only the permission to do that, but you also have my strong counsel to do so. Because I am not the Truth; Jesus is! He is the Living Word; we have the written Word. It is true just as Jesus is true.
Time for the latest in my adventures with the atheists. One of them wrote this week skeptical of the actual historical existence of Jesus. I wrote back and told him that he probably had a lot better hand to play than that one, that the historical existence of Jesus wasn’t especially hard to prove. He wrote me this: “the way we see it, if we can deny the historical existence of Jesus, then the rest of Christianity would automatically fall apart.” What do you say to that? He is dead right! Of course he is! I wrote back to him and commended him upon that observation, because if the events of the Bible didn’t happen historically as the Bible says that they did, then everything does fall apart! The insidious liars who call themselves “liberal Christians” (and theologically, the words “liberal” and “liar” are synonymous) want to say, “it really doesn’t matter if Jesus actually rose from the grave. It really doesn’t matter if He was born of a virgin or not. Etc., ad nauseum.” I told my friend that the Bible says that if Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, I am wasting my time and my life, following fairy tales and teaching others to do the same. If the events that the Bible purports to be historical fact are not in fact historical fact, then we are a laughingstock; that’s what Paul says in I Corinthians 15. Of course I added, though, that if Jesus did rise from the grave, my atheist friends would one day have a whole lot of ‘splainin’ to do! “I am the Truth”, Jesus says to a world under deception. He is the Certainty of Reliability. Third, Jesus, the Life, is
III. The Certainty of Resurrection
One can exist physically for a lifetime and still be among the walking dead! John 1 says that “in Him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of men.” We can exist physically, and then die eternally, or we can live spiritually forever. And this life is found in Jesus, Whose resurrection life, with which we as His followers are so closely identified (read about that in Romans 6), His resurrection life points to the future resurrection of our bodies to life eternal. That is Jesus’ promise.
And on the basis of His claims, to be in Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life, He could say to His followers, “don’t let your hearts be troubled…believe in Me.” This was a bold call, not merely a call to follow the Mighty God of the Old Testament, Who demonstrated His power with His mighty works, but a call to follow One Who would soon be betrayed, denied, abandoned, and crucified. “I am the Way”, said One Who would soon hang impotent on a cross. “I am the Truth”, He said, when the evil lies of men were about to enjoy a spectacular, if only momentary, triumph. “I am the Life”, said One Whose corpse would soon be placed in a borrowed tomb. And yet the Bible boldly declares the astonishing fact that that body rose from the tomb three days after death—and if that’s true, how dare we doubt that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life?
No one comes to the Father but by Jesus…
