Sermon Notes for October 19, 2008

Who Is Jesus? Sermon Series

“Jesus Is The Way To God”

John 13:31-14:6

Video

Introduction

We Begin A New Sermon Series Today Entitled, “Who Is Jesus?”
Is theDivinci Coderight when it asserts that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child?
In the television documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” it is asserted that archeologists have found the bones of Jesus in a tomb near Jerusalem.
So . . . is Jesus merely one of many well-meaning prophets who have lived on this earth?
Our goal in this sermon series is to see how the Word of God truly reveals Jesus. During this sermon series, we will look at descriptions of Jesus such as:
Jesus is God
Jesus is Lord
Jesus is our Atonement
Jesus is the Returning King
English writer C.S. Lewis once said that we can have only three views of Jesus:
Jesus was either a liar –

Mark 8:31-32 - He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.”

Jesus was either a lunatic

1. John 14:9 - Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even
after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who
has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us
the Father'?

2. John 17:5 (Jesus’ High Priestly prayer before His death) “And
now Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had
with You before the world began.”

or Jesus was Lord

1. the question is this: Did Jesus Himself ever state that He was
indeed God?

2. John 10:29-30 – “My Father, who has given them to me, is
greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's
hand. I and the Father are one."

3. God’s Word CLEARLY teaches that Jesus was and is God and
Jesus Himself said the same!

Today, We Will Look At The Exclusive Claim That Jesus HIMSELF Made That He Was THE ONLY Way To God.
Make no mistake about it:
Jesus FULLY claimed to be the ONLY way to God
in fact, He stated Himself that THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY FOR MAN TO BE SAVED – THAN THROUGH HIM

John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”

1. “I am”

a. the Greek word ego

b. only used for emphasis

c. Jesus wanted to make this point about Himself
STRONGLY!

2. “the way, the truth, and the life”

3. “no one”

a. Greek oudeis

b. no man, nothing, no one

c. no one can come ANY OTHER WAY than through
Jesus

So, let us look at exactly what Jesus said about Himself.

I. The Trouble In Our Hearts.

The Disciples’ Cause To Worry.

John 13:33 – “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now; where I am going, you cannot come.”

For the previous 6 months, Jesus had been telling His disciples:
that He would be “going away”
that He would be killed, and then raised from the dead

Matthew 20:17-19 - Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took
the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to
Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and
the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn
him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On
the third day he will be raised to life!"

2. To the disciples, it may have seemed as if Jesus were speaking “cryptically.”

B. The Disciples’ Confusion In Their Worry.

The disciples did not know “where” Jesus was going.

John 13:36 – “Simon Peter asked Him, Lord, where are you going?”

a. despite the fact that Jesus had told His disciples that He would come
back from the dead

b. they had no real idea where Jesus was going

c. in a sense, their entire world was “caving in” before their very eyes

1. the typical Jew believed that the Messiah would be a political
leader

2. and, the disciples had gotten their hopes up when:

a. they saw Jesus perform miracles

b. they saw Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to the
praise of all of the people

3. during the Passover meal with Jesus in the Upper Room, the
disciples were already deciding where they would be seated
when Jesus officially became King of the Jews

After hearing that Jesus was “leaving” them, the disciples asked if they could follow Jesus to the place where He was going.

II. The Trust In Our Savior.

A. Trusting In His Providence.

In response to their fears about His leaving, Jesus told the disciples that they had been trusting in God.

Vs. 1 – “Do not let your hearts be troubled, (you) trust in God.”

a. notice how Jesus attempted to deal with the disciples’ worry

b. the KJV says: “Ye believe in God.”

c. as Jews, the disciples were taught to trust in Jehovah God, which they
had been doing all of their lives

Jesus was telling the disciples to trust in Him as well.

Vs. 1a – “Trust in God, trust also in me.”

notice how the verse reads in the KJV – “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”
what Jesus was saying to His disciples was this:

1. all of your lives you have believed in Jehovah God

a. the God of creation

b. the God who delivered the Jews from Egypt

c. the God who takes care of you

2. well . . . BELIEVE ALSO IN ME!

a. Why believe in me? BECAUSE I AM GOD ALSO!

b. if you have believed in Jehovah God – THEN
BELIEVE IN ME, FOR I AM THE SAME AS
JEHOVAH GOD!

Perhaps Jesus “felt” that He needed to tell His disciples to believe in Him . . . for, in a few days:

1. He would be arrested

2. He would be beaten

3. He would be crucified

a. no matter how “bad” it looked . . .

b. no matter what they “did” to me . . .

c. so far you have believed in God . . . believe in Me as
well – EVEN WHEN IT LOOKS BLEAK

Trusting In His Preparation.
The promise of heaven.
the presence of heaven

Vs. 2 – “In my Father’s house are many rooms.”

Then, Jesus began to speak to His disciples of the VERY PLACE “where He was going.
SO, WHERE WAS JESUS GOING? HE WAS GOING TO HEAVEN!

a. Jesus was CLEARLY teaching His
disciples that there was a LITERAL
PLACE called heaven

b. to Jesus, THIS PLACE, CALLED HEAVEN, WAS
A REALITY

Matthew 5:19-20 – “Anyone who breaks one of the
least of these commandments and teaches others to do
the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven,
but whoever practices and teaches these commands will
be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell
you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly
not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

the particulars of heaven

1. so, there is a heaven

Rev. 21:15-17 - The angel who talked with me had a measuring
rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city
was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured
the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length,
and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and
it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the
angel was using.”

a. the size of the city

1. it is 12,000 stadia long, wide and high

a. one stadia equals 607 feet

b. thus, 12,000 stadia would be 1,380 miles

2. heaven is therefore 1,380miles long, 1,380 miles
wide and 1,380 miles high

b. the size of the wall

1. the wall of heaven is 144 cubits thick

a. a cubit is 18-21 inches wide

b. 144 cubits equals 240 feet

2. thus, the wall of heaven is 240 feet thick or 24
cars “lengthwise”

2. AND, there is ahouse in heaven

Vs. 2 – “In my Father’s house are many rooms.”

a. in this city of heaven is the “house” of My Heavenly
Father

b. one has calculated, based on these dimensions of
Revelation, that:

1. if heaven is 1,380 miles long, wide and high;
heaven would be “big enough” to handle some 2
billion people

2. if there were 2 billion people in heaven, then
each person would have a 27,000 square foot
house

the preparation of heaven

Vs. 2b – “I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

1. and, not only was Jesus going to heaven, SO WERE THE
DISCIPLES!

2. notice EXACTLY WHAT JESUS SAID TO THE
DISCIPLES

a. “I”

1. Jesus HIMSELF was going to heaven to prepare
a specific, particular place for the disciples

2. their place in heaven would not be prepared by
His angels, nor the saints that were already there

b. “to prepare”

1. to make ready

2. to make the necessary preparation

3. the early meaning of the word was from the
King’s servants going ahead of the King to fill in
and level the road for the King’s coming

4. you almost get the sense that Jesus Himself was
going to get the rooms ready for the eventual
arrival of the disciples

c. “a place”

1. the disciples’ PARTICULAR ROOM,
WAS A LITERAL PLACE

2. to Jesus, heaven WAS NOT just a “spiritual
idea”

d. “for you”

1. “for you” is a personal pronoun

2. meaning that Jesus was preparing a “literal
place for a literal you!”

a. yes, there would certainly be “places” for
Moses, David and the Apostle Paul

b. but Jesus Christ was saying that HE
WAS PREPARING A LITERAL
PLACE FOR THEM!

The promise of a promise of heaven.

Vs. 2b – “if it were not so, I would have told you”

first, Jesus told His disciples that there was a heaven and that there were many rooms in heaven for them, each of them – that should have been enough for them to fully believe
BUT NOTICE that Jesus “QUALIFIED” HIS STATEMENT ABOUT TELLING HIS DISCIPLES THAT THERE WERE ROOMS FOR THEM IN HEAVEN

1. He said to His disciples . . . “If it were not so, I would have
told you.”

a. in other words, would Jesus mislead His disciples?

b. why would Jesus have told them of these rooms if it
were not so?

2. after all, JESUS HAD COME FROM HEAVEN AND
KNEW THAT THE ROOMS WERE ACTUALLY
THERE!

a. He had “seen” the rooms

b. perhaps He had even “gone into” the rooms

c. WHY WOULD HE LIE TO THE DISCIPLES?

Trusting In His Perseverance.

Vs. 3 – “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be
with me that you also may be where I am.”

Jesus would return to take them to heaven!
to “top it all off,” Jesus said to His disciples that He, Himself, would return for the disciples

1. He would not send a messenger

2. He would come Himself

and He would personally take His disciples TO THE PLACE WHERE HE WOULD BE

1. in other words, Jesus would return to take the disciples to
heaven

2. and they would be where He, Jesus was, IN HEAVEN!

HOWEVER, in the midst of all of these words of promise from Jesus –
notice how one disciple, Thomas (can you believe it?), responded –

Vs. 5 - Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are
going, so how can we know the way?"

in other words Thomas said that he didn’t know the way to the place Jesus was going to . . . so, HOW would he get there?

III. The Truth Of Our Savior.

The Struggle Of The Disciples.
Imagine the internal struggle of the disciples.
they had left all that they had to follow Jesus
they had spent three years with Him, believing that He was the Messiah who had come to establish His Kingdom
and now, here He was telling the disciples that He was going away!

1. WHERE WAS JESUS GOING?

2. and HOW would the disciples get there?

THEY ACTUALLY HAD NO IDEA WHAT JESUS WAS TALKING ABOUT.

The Solution Of Jesus.
Jesus said that HE was the WAY.

14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the WAY and the truth and the life. No one comes
to the Father except through me.”

IN ANSWERING Thomas’ questions as to how he would follow Jesus – notice what Jesus told Thomas
Jesus DECLARED – I AM THE WAY!

1. Jesus “knew” the way to heaven BECAUSE HE WAS THE
WAY!

a. Jesus did not say that He “knew the way”

b. Jesus did not say that He would “lead” the way

2. no, JESUS SAID HE WAS THE WAY.

a. now, let me ask the question . . . Why do we need a
“way” to heaven? Why aren’t there many ways to
heaven? And, how could Jesus say that He was the
way? Please let me explain.

1. in creation, God placed Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden and called them to obedience.

Gen. 2:17 – “but you must not eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, for when
you eat of it you will surely die."

2. when Adam and Eve disobeyed, God HAD TO
KEEP HIS PROMISE OF PUNISHMENT

a. so, either man had to be punished for
his sin

b. or “someone else” would be punished in
his place for his sin

3. right after the fall of man into sin, God
prophesied of the solution:

Genesis 3:15 – “And I will put enmity between
you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will
strike his heel."

a. God prophesied that this was what HAD
to happen – “the crushing of Satan’s
head”

b. God prophesied that this was what had to
happen – “the striking of the heel”
b. AND . . . NO ONE BUT JESUS CHRIST HAS
COME TO THIS EARTH TO DIE FOR THE SINS
OF MAN

1. He is the ONLY ONE sent from heaven

2. He is the ONLY ONE who became a man

3. He is the ONLY ONE who lived a sinless life
on this earth

4. He is the ONLY ONE who died on the cross
for our sins

5. He is the ONLY ONE who came back from
the dead

6. He is the ONLY ONE who went to heaven to
present Himself before a righteous God as the
full payment for our sin

7. He is the ONLY ONE to be currently
mediating for our behalf before a Holy God

c. this is why Jesus’ statement is so
exclusive

1. Jesus is not bragging, or being prideful

2. Jesus is simply stating a fact of WHO HE IS!

d. so, Jesus does not declare only that He “knows” the
way, He states that He “is” the way

A pioneer missionary in Africa tells how he was taking
the gospel to a new tribe, far to the north. With his
baggage bearers, he arrived at a village, a point beyond
which his porters refused to go. The missionary
appealed to the local chief. Was there someone in his
village who could act as his guide to the distant northern
tribe? The chief summoned a man, tall and battle
scarred, carrying a large axe. A bargain was made
and the next morning the missionary set off through the
bush, following his new guide. The way became
increasingly rough and the path had all but
disappeared. There was an occasional mark blazed on
a tree, occasionally a narrow path. Finally the
missionary called a halt. He asked the guide if he was
sure he knew the way. The man pulled himself up to
his full height. “White man,” he said, “you see this axe
in my hand? You see these scars on my body? With
this axe I blazed the trail to the tribal village to which
we go. I come from there. These scars I received
when I made the way. You ask me if I know the way?
Before I came, there was no way. I am the way.”

Jesus said that He was the truth.
to make sure that the disciples fully understood what Jesus was saying, He declared that HE WAS THE TRUTH ABOUT BEING THE WAY! IT IS AS IF JESUS “REPEATED” WHAT HE HAD JUST SAID.

1. Jesus did not say that He “knew” the truth

2. Jesus did not say that He “loved” the truth

3. Jesus said that HE WAS THE TRUTH

4. in a sense, when Jesus said that He was the way, then He
asserted that the statement He was making was
absolutely true

but declaring Himself to be truth meant more than being just being “true”

1. in and of Himself, Jesus is the “truth of all of life”

a. of all of the ways that people “attempt to get to God –
HE IS THE “TRUE WAY” TO GET TO GOD

b. thus, there is no other “true way” to get to God

c. EVERY OTHER WAY TO GOD IS WRONG

2. AND WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT BEING THE WAY
to God is ABSOLUTELY true!

a. John Phillips – “Truth is always exclusive, always
dogmatic, always intolerant of non-truth. Otherwise,
it would not be truth, eternal and absolute. It makes no
difference whether the truth is a mathematical truth, a
scientific truth, or, as here, a spiritual truth. Truth is
always in some sense narrow. It is error that is broad
and accommodating. Here, for instance, is a
mathematical truth: “Two multiplied by two equals
four.” That is a narrow, dogmatic, intolerant
statement. Error says, “Two multiplied by two is
three.” Truth cannot accept that kind of “tolerance.”
Since Jesus is the truth, he excludes all error, no matter
how popular, widespread, ancient, or convincing it may
be. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” he
says. That rules out all the world’s false religions; it
demands that all persons everywhere repent of their
wrong ideas and come to Him.”