I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

I am the way, and the truth and the life.  These are the words of Jesus in John 14:6.

I believe this verse conveys a simple and straightforward truth: Jesus is the one and only way to God.  Jesus is the only means of intimate fellowship with the Father.

Turn with me to John 14.  Let me share with you the context.

The time has come for the Passover meal.  The 12 disciples join Jesus for the Passover meal, which Israel has celebrated for centuries in remembrance of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  At the meal, Jesus does the unthinkable.  He gets up from the meal and begins to wash the disciples’ feet one by one.  

Then Jesus says, “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.”

Simon Peter, asks, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

• Jesus is only going to be around a little longer.  
• Then He is going somewhere that the disciples cannot go yet, but will later.

That’s where we pick up in John 14:1

¹"Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me. ²In my Father's house are many rooms if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  ³And 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 said he would only be with them for a little while
• He said where he’s going they cannot come
• He said they cannot follow him there yet, but later would
• He says that He is going to His Father’s House to prepare a place for them since there are many rooms there
• He says he will then come back (2nd coming) and take them to be with Him where he is

⁴You know the way to the place where I am going."   ⁵Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

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

Jesus’ response is profound.  Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I believe the essence of what Jesus is saying is that he is going to the Father.  He is going to be with the Father.  The way to the Father is Jesus.  Jesus is the only way to God.  

Jesus is the only means of intimate fellowship with the Father.

"I am the WAY and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

VERSE 7 If you really knew me, you would know my father as well.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him.  (Jesus is reiterating a point he already made in John 8:58 & John 10:30 – I & the father are one.  Jesus is God in the flesh)

⁸Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

 ⁹Jesus 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. (again, Jesus is God) How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? ¹⁰Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

Jesus makes it clear that He and the Father are one.  If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Father.  Heb 1:3 The son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.  If you’ve seen Jesus you’ve seen the exact representation of God’s being.  Jesus is God.  Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God.  If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the image of the invisible God.  Jesus is God.

¹²I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  ¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.  ¹⁵"If you love me, you will obey what I command.  ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (He is going to send the Holy Spirit) ¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (He reiterates the promise of his return) ¹⁹Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  

²⁰On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  ²¹Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

 ²²Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"  ²³Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Now that sounds like a contradiction.  WHICH IS IT?  Is it Jesus taking man away from earth to be with Him and the Father somewhere else OR are Jesus and the Father coming to earth to be with man here?  Those statements sound contradictory.  I don’t believe they are contradictory.  I think they are 2 sides of the same coin.

Jesus is the way to have fellowship with the Father on earth while alive physically and in heaven after one dies a physical death.

Jesus is going to be with the Father, then at his coming Jesus and the Father will dwell together with man.  

THE POINT ISN’T THE PHYSICAL LOCATION.  The point is proximity.  The goal is getting God.  The focus is fellowship with the Father.  Want to know the way to be with the Father?  Jesus.  He is the WAY.  No one comes to the Father except through Him.

I believe that Jesus is communicating that he is going to go away.  He will die and be resurrected to the right hand of the Father.  Then he would return and at his 2nd coming, he would gather believers together, not in a physical geographic location, but into the spiritual kingdom to dwell with Him and His father in intimate fellowship.  I believe that is a reality for those alive on earth and I believe that is a reality for those who die a physical death.  Whether on the planet or in heaven, through Jesus, man has intimate fellowship with the Father.

I believe he uses language to describe the nature of his relationship to believers, in the church age: INTIMATE.  It’s all about relationship.  It’s all about man dwelling with God intimately.

I BELIEVE THAT JESUS’ LANGUAGE APPEALS TO 2 IMAGES.  

• Marriage (groom & bride) in which God dwells with His people INTIMATELY
• Temple (made up of living stones) in which God dwells with His people INTIMATELY

Recall what Jesus said at the beginning of John 14.  ¹"Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me. ²In my Father's house are many rooms if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  ³And 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.  

We have 2 images depicted here.  The first one is the image of a marriage.  Jesus is using language of a man betrothed to a woman.  When 2 people were betrothed to be married, the woman would spend time working on her dress while the man went to his father’s house to add on a room to that house for he and his new bride to DWELL IN TOGETHER after the wedding.  Jesus is using this language.   

Jesus is communicating that He was betrothed to the church, that He would prepare a place in His Father’s house, he would return and marry the church, consummate the marriage and bring the church to dwell intimately with Him and the Father.

Jesus is the means of intimate fellowship with the Father.  He is painting a picture of this intimacy by using the imagery of marriage.

THROUGHOUT THE SCRIPTURES we see this image of Jesus as the groom and the CHURCH AS THE BRIDE.  

John 3:25-29  ²⁵ An argument developed between some of John’s (JTB) disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. ²⁶ They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

 ²⁷ To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. (JTB wasn’t receiving the bride from heaven – Jesus was)  ²⁸ You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

You see that?  People were concerned that John’s disciples were going to Jesus.  John the Baptist said that the bride belongs to the bridegroom.  The church belongs to Jesus.  I’m the friend who attends the bridegroom.  I’m just the best man.  It’s not about me.  It’s about Him.  I want the bride to go to Him because he is the groom.  

Throughout the Scriptures we have this imagery of Christ being the groom and the church as the bride; this shows the intimacy of God dwelling with man in the new covenant.

All throughout the Scriptures we have reference to this wedding of the Son and His people.  We see it in Ephesians 5.  Matt 22 & Matt 25.  The Scriptures teach that Jesus is the groom and the church was His bride.

We see it in Rev 21:1-3  ¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 

Jesus is saying that in the New Covenant age, the nature of the relationship between God and his people is that of a husband and wife.  They will be united as one in intimate fellowship.

THIS IS ABOUT A RESTORED RELATIONSHIP with God in a NC age where sin has been removed & remembered no more and there is a subsequent intimacy between God & His people.  It is the intimacy of a groom and his bride as the church is the bride of Christ.  

He goes away, adds on to His Father’s house, then comes to marry His bride and dwell with her in His Father’s House.  Dwell with her, be with her, intimately, in fellowship.  The point is proximity.  God is the goal.  The focus is fellowship with the Father.

AGAIN, JESUS’ LANGUAGE IS 2 – FOLD (2 images: marriage & temple).  We just looked at one image as Jesus used the language of a groom preparing a place for his bride and wee see in that the intimate fellowship of Christ and the church as they then dwell together.

THE 2ND IMAGE THAT JESUS ALLUDES TO IS THAT OF THE TEMPLE.  Remember, Jesus says, in my Father’s house are many rooms.  “My Father’s house” is a phrase that Jesus uses to refer to the temple.  He made it clear that God was his father.  The Jews saw the temple as the house of God.  Thus, when Jesus says “my father’s house” that conveys the idea of the temple.

In Luke 2 we read of Jesus’ family in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.  They left afterwards thinking he was with them.  Then they realized he wasn’t and went back to search for him.  

Luke 2:46-49   ⁴⁶ After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”  "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"  But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Jesus was in the temple – He called it His Father’s house.  After all, that’s where God was – in the temple, right?

In John 2 we read of another incident in the temple courts when Jesus found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.  So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  John 2:16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here!  How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”  Jesus, in the temple courts says how dare you turn MY FATHER’S HOUSE into a market.  Jesus is the son of God, his father is God.  He is referring to the temple as God’s house – his father’s house.

The Jews anticipated a Messianic Temple that would accompany the age of the Messiah.  The Temple is where God’s presence dwelt.  Jesus’ language conveys the idea of BUILDING THE MESSIANIC TEMPLE IN THE MIDST OF THE PEOPLE.  

Jesus is speaking of making the dwelling of God to be with men and making men able to dwell with God.  

Remember Jesus’ words in John 14:23  Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The rest of the NT attests to the fact that the Messianic Temple was indeed under construction in the first century.

Eph 2:19-22 ¹⁹Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²²And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

1 Pet 2:4- 7 ⁴As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For in Scripture it says: 
   "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." ⁷Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," 

2Cor 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Remember, Jesus’ contemporaries were THINKING PHYSICAL.  In 70 AD the physical temple (the Mosaic temple – if you will) was destroyed.  The Messianic temple is not a physical temple, but is a spiritual temple.  We, believers, make up the temple.  We are stones, joined together to make up a temple for God’s presence to dwell in.  HE DWELLS IN AND AMONGST HIS PEOPLE IN INTIMATE FELLOWSHIP.  

Jesus says he will prepare a place for his disciples in His father’s house.  His father’s house is the temple.  I believe he was referring to the NC temple, the spiritual temple that would accompany the new age.  The physical temple was destroyed at the end of the old age and the new temple was dedicated and indwelt by the fullness of God as Jesus said, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  In this we see God dwelling intimately with His people.  God’s people with Him in fellowship.

So Jesus uses these 2 images in His language:

• Marriage (groom & bride) in which God dwells with His people
• Temple (made up of living stones) in which God dwells with His people

So in review, Jesus is going to the Father where He is.  He says that He is the way to the Father.  He speaks of returning to bring his disciples to be with Him and he speaks of he and His father coming to make their home with them.  

The idea conveyed here is that man will be WITH GOD and GOD WITH MAN.  The point is proximity.  The goal is getting God.  The focus is fellowship with the Father.  The WAY for man to be with God is Jesus.  

Jesus answered I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.

I AM THE WAY – the way to be with God.  I am the way, he says.  

THEN HE SAYS I AM THE TRUTH.  For them truth was contained in the Scriptures, the OT.  They had the Law and Psalms and Prophets.  They saw the Scriptures as truth (as do we).  Jesus says I am the Truth.  In other words, I am the one Moses and David and the Prophets wrote about.  I came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them.  I am the Truth, Jesus says.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

I am the way, the truth and the life.  

WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT JESUS IS THE LIFE?  We dealt with this to a great degree last week, and as we have indicated already to a degree, this is ALL ABOUT FELLOWSHIP.  In the Garden man began in right relationship with God – IN FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.  The first Adam broke fellowship with God through disobedience and the result was death – separation from God.  According to God’s decree in the garden (Gen 2:17) ON THE DAY he ate of the forbidden fruit he died.  He didn’t die a physical death for 930 years, but ON THE DAY he ate of it he died a death according to the words from God’s mouth.  The day he ate of it he was banished from the garden, banished from the presence of God, SEPARATED FROM GOD – spiritual death.   In Adam all die – not a physical death, but a spiritual death.  

All are separated from God.  The first Adam brought death.  The last Adam, (or the 2^nd Adam) CHRIST, BROUGHT LIFE; He brought RESTORATION TO GOD; HE RESTORED FELLOWSHIP with God and fixed what was broken through sin.

Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Sin separates man from God.  This is death.  Jesus unites man with God.  This is life.

Isaiah 59:2  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.  Sin separates man from God.  The wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life.  Jesus says in John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.  Eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ. 

The wages of sin is death – separation from God.  The gift of God is eternal life – being in fellowship with God and His son Jesus Christ.  He is the life.

So when Jesus says I am the way and the truth and the LIFE, he is identifying Himself as the WAY to be with the Father in fellowship, the TRUTH as foretold in the Law & Prophets, and the LIFE; the SOURCE OF RESTORED RELATIONSHIP with God.  No one comes to the Father except through Him.  He is the only way to the Father.  Because of the sin of Adam, all are born into sin, into a state of separation from God.  Christ is the only way to be right with the Father, RESTORED to the Father, in FELLOWSHIP with the Father.  

NEARNESS TO GOD IS THE GOAL.  

Being with Him in fellowship is our LIFE’S PURPOSE.  

Sin separates man from a holy God.  The only way to be near this Holy God, the ONLY WAY TO BE WITH THE FATHER IS THROUGH JESUS; Jesus’ blood makes atonement for our sin.  

Jesus is the way.  Jesus is the truth.  Jesus is the Life.  

No one comes to the Father except through Him.  The point is proximity.  The goal is getting God.  The focus is fellowship with the Father.  Jesus is the way to get to God.  Jesus is the way to have restored relationship with God.  Jesus is the way to have intimate fellowship with the Father.  No one comes to the Father, except through Him.