Bella Vista Church of Christ

03/08/2020 P.M.

THE I AM SAYINGS OF JESUS

I Am The Way – The Truth – The Life

John 14.1-11

We continue our series on… THE I AM SAYINGS OF JESUS.

We’ve established this fact in our study… That every time Jesus said… I AM… the Jews in His audience understood Him to say… I AM… GOD… JEHOVAH… YAHWEH.

They heard Him CLAIM DEITY by returning to Mount Sinai where God told Moses… I AM THAT I AM.

Tonight… We come to John chapter fourteen… A chapter filled with I AM statements.

Access a Worship Handout… And let’s see what we can learn…

John chapter fourteen continues a very intimate conversation between Jesus and His closest FRIENDS… His most intimate disciples.

We’re listening in on...

• What we know as the Upper-Room Discourse…

• His Farewell Address.

This discourse had its beginning in the early verses of chapter thirteen… When Jesus girded a towel about His waist… And washed feet… Not because they needed washing… But as an object lesson in Humility and Service to others.

Go with me to this Upper-Room… Let’s become one of the participants in this discourse… Let us open our Ears and Hearts to what Jesus is saying.

First… He says we cannot become His disciple unless...

• we’re willing to wash feet…

• Unless we are willing to humble ourselves in service to others…

Are we listening?... Do we hear Jesus with our hearts?... REALLY?

Are we too good to wash feet?... Are we?... Sometimes our behavior is evidence that we think we are.

OK... Are you there… John chapter fourteen… Reading the first eleven verses… Beginning with the verse numbered one…

1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God... Trust in God... Trust also in me.

2 In my Father’s house are many rooms... If that were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

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.

4 You know the way to the place where I am going.

5 Thomas said... Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?

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

Let your eyes fall to verse eleven...

11 Believe 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.

John fourteen is about...

• comfort when life tumbles in…

• Whereto go... What to think... When things become really difficult?

I mean… These men have given their life to Jesus…

• Left Fathers and Mothers…

• Lands and Houses…

• Jobs and Careers…

To follow HIM.

But in a few hours… They’re gonna see their hopes in this King Messiah… Hang on a cross as a common criminal… They’re going to see Him… The one who claimed to be Jehovah God... die… Not just die…But die by Roman Crucifixion. Those he was supposed to have conquered... Have crucified Him.

So… Jesus tries to prepare them…

He tries to prepare us… For when life tumbles in.

Listen to the I AM’s… Stated or Implied…

When life tumbles in… Remember I AM the one to believe in… Let not your heart be troubled… You believe in God… Believe also in Me.

Church…Gotta ask tonight…

• Who is our faith really in?

• What is our faith in?

• Who or what have we really placed our trust in?

Don’t tell me it’s God!!!... Unless it really is! Unless it really is!!

Have we focused our attention upon Him and His Kingdom Righteousness… Or are we like those in Athens… Still searching for someone or something to believe in?

Jesus points us to the Fatherhood of God… In My Father’s House.

Jesus says… I and the Father are One… I live in Him… He Lives in Me… I AM God in the Flesh.

He spends the last half of this chapter and most of chapter sixteen talking about how He and the Father can live in us… Through the Holy Spirit He gave us.

Let me ask you church… Do you believe in the fatherhood of God… REALLY?

Jesus said… If your earthly fathers know how to give good gifts… How much more do you suppose… Your Heavenly Father knows what you need?

Listen church… Isn’t it time… Isn’t it time… We lived as if Jehovah God is our Father?... And that He’s treating us as sons and daughters.

When life tumbles in… Do we sense that God is using this event to… Remold…Remake… Reshape… Us into His image… So that we look like Jesus… His only begotten?

Then... Jesus assures us of Heaven… In My Father’s House are MANY… Abodes… Mansions… Rooms… Places… Dwellings.

Jesus says… When life becomes more than we can bear… Remember that Heaven awaits… Nothing helps any more than knowing that one day this life will end… And we’ll enjoy a place in the Father’s House where there’s no more... Pain… SADNESS… Tears… No more death.

Jesus says… When life becomes difficult… Remember that I AM the One who has prepared a way for you to experience the Joys of Heaven… The Joys of the Father’s House.

Then… You can count on Me to come get you... So that where I AM… There you may be also.

Did you know that one out of every twenty-six verses in the New Testament concerns Jesus’ second coming.

At this point in the discourse… Thomas interrupts saying… Lord… Explain what you mean… We don’t know where You are going… Much less the Way?

And Jesus gives us our I AM Statement for the evening… I AM THE WAY… I AM THE TRUTH… I AM THE LIFE… THERE IS NO ACCESS TO THE FATHER AND HIS HOUSE EXCEPT THROUGH ME… BY ME.

Come… Let’s see what we can learn…

First… Jesus says… I AM THE WAY

Hodos (HA-DAS) in the Greek… Speaking of a... Road… A PATH… A WAY… A ROUTE. Ha-das appears 102 times in the Greek New Testament… And most often occurs as a road... As in Matthew 2.12… Speaking of the wise men and the road they traveled… Having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country BY ANOTHER ROUTE… Another way.

But then... Our word is sometimes used speaking of a way of life.

Matthew 7.13 reads… Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the… WAY… ROAD…ROUTE… That leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

It’s interesting to note that… THE WAY OF JESUS… THE ROAD GOD WOULD HAVE US TRAVEL… CHRISTIANITY… Is spoken of as THE WAY.

Mark begins his Gospel by quoting Isaiah’s prophecy concerning John the Baptist…

2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet... I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare YOUR WAY...

3 A voice of one calling in the desert... PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD, MAKE STRAIGHT PATHS FOR HIM.

In our text… It was Jesus who said… I AM THE WAY.

Then… The Way is mentioned several times in the Book of Acts…

Acts 9.2… Saul asked for papers to persecute those of the Way…

Acts 19.9... In Ephesus... Paul encounters those speaking evil of the way.

Acts 24.22... Felix knew about the Way.

In fact… Six times in the Book of Acts… Luke refers to THE EARLY JESUS MOVEMENT… To the CHRISTIANITY we practice… AS THE WAY.

Any early Christian would recognize the phrase those of the Way as a specific reference TO THE MOVEMENT THEY HAD JUST JOINED.

In Hebrews 10.19 & 20... The Writer says that... Jesus’ broken body is the NEW AND LIVING WAY for us to enter the Most Holy Place.

First Corinthians 12.31... Has Paul saying… I will show you the most excellent way… Then he launches into the More Excellent Way of Love in chapter thirteen.

In Second Peter 2.2... Peter refers to Christianity as the way of truth.

Indeed… Jesus is... The Way… The Road…The Path… The Route… To God.

I AM the Truth.

Pilate asked the question… What is truth?

Truth in the Greek is ALETHEIA... (A–LATH–E’–IA)...Which literally means UNCONCEALED and indicates... SINCERITY…CERTAINTY… FACTUALITY… REALITY.

Truth is reality… It’s the way things really are.

In the Old Testament… Truth was embodied within God'S COVENANT law with His People… Adam… Noah… Abraham… Isaac… Jacob.

Then within His covenant with Moses and Israel.

But in the New Testament… God’s truth is within the personage of Jesus Christ… His life… His teaching.

• Jesus is God’s living truth...

• Jesus comes as the Word of Truth…

• Truth that was with God…

• Truth that was God…

• Truth that cannot lie…

• Truth that became flesh…

Full of Both Grace and TrutH.

Indeed... Jesus is the Word… The personified Word…He is the truth that saves… The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

OK… Let’s take a quick look at what this Personified Truth does for us...

Knowing this truth… Having a walking… talking…handholding… relationship with this Living Truth will set us free from sin…

John 8.31-32... To those who believed him, Jesus said... If you hold to my teaching... You are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth... And the truth will set you free.

A relationship with Jesus… The Living Word… Will sanctify us…

John 17.17... Sanctify them by the truth… Your word is truth.

Church… What we must get our mind around is this… That the Living Word… And the Written Word are the same… They are both truth… Because Jesus is God… His Living and Written Word do not disagree or contradict.

Romans 10.17... Truth… The Word… Instills faith… Faith comes by hearing the Word.

James 1.18... We are born again by the Living Word… He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth

Ephesians 5.26 says... Truth… The Living Word… Jesus... Makes the church Holy… Cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word.

1 John 1.7-9... The truth continues to cleanse us from all our sins… MOMENT-BY-MOMENT… If we… Confess… Acknowledge… Our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness…. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, continues to purify us… Cleanse us… From all sin.

So... The questions becomes tonight… Do we have an ongoing relationship with the Living and Written Word?

Then Jesus said… I am the Life.

There are three basic Greek words for LIFE in the New Testament…

Here... The word is Zoe… (ZO-A)…

It speaks of Eternal Life… It speaks of the Eternal nature of God… Jesus… The Spirit.

Zoe is the result of our being made in His image… God in us… That which causes us to live forever.

This eternal life… Our eternal nature… Was what Jesus came to redeem…Making sure we not only live forever… But that we live With Him forever… ZO-A in the Father’s House... I have come that they may have life… ZO-A… And have it to the fullest.

When Jesus said... I am the way... The truth... The LIFE... He was making the point that… Our life agenda… Our goal and focus…Must not be about this life only... But on eternal life.

John 3.36 reminds us that… Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life... But whoever rejects the Son will not see such life... Because God’s wrath remains on him.

Then in verse 19 of our chapter… Jesus promises… BECAUSE I LIVE, YOU ALSO WILL LIVE.

Well… We must stop… But I need to say something about the last phrase in verse six… There is no access to the Father except by Me… Through Me.

Church… The definite article tells us that Jesus is declaring Himself to be the only... Path…Road… Way… The only Route to Heaven…

Jesus is the only salvational truth in our world…

He’s the only one who can give eternal life…

• A place…

• An abode...

• In the Father’s House.

Listen to these other verses affirming the exclusivity of Jesus...

Acts 4.12... Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

1 Timothy 2.5... For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.

John 10.9-10... I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and find pasture… I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Here it is church… ONLY... ONLY... When these men understood the truths of Jesus’ I am sayings.… Did they become changed men.

We stand in their shoes tonight… IF JESUS IS NOT FIRST AND FOREMOST LORD AND KING OVER EVERY ARENA IN MY LIFE AND YOURS… It’s because we have yet to understand these truths from the lips of Jesus.

And until we do... Until We do…

• Not only will our eternal life be in jeopardy…

• We will struggle with those times when life tumbles in… When things go wrong!!

So Audience... What will we do with Jesus?...

What will we do with the One who said... I am the way... the Truth... And the Life?

Will we...

Believe in Him?... Trust Him?... Enough to obey Him?...

Repenting of our sins?... Being born again in Genuine New Testament Baptism?

Will we affirm Jesus is our only means of Salvation... By conforming to His image... Having His... Heart... Disposition... and Behavior

Let not your heart be troubled...

As we stand and sing together.