Jesus is the Only Way to God

This is week seven of our Simply Jesus Bible study, and we have a familiar verse in John this week. I think just as familiar as John 3 16. This is John 14 6.

This verse is a fantastic standalone verse, and what I mean by that is that it can stand all by itself. It's simple, it's concise, it makes sense, you can understand what it's talking about, but we're in Bible study, and so in Bible study we never let verses stand alone. We always want to know the context of the verse, what was happening, what is the thread of history, what are the verses before it, what are the verses after it, why did Jesus say this, who was he talking to, and so that's why we've studied it that way. And so what I, excuse me, what I want to do is I want to skim the previous I am statement was from John 11 25.

Now we're at John 14 6, about 124 verses in between. I want to skim what has happened between these two events to give us that thread of history. So we're just going to spend a little bit of time doing that. You remember that after the resurrection of Lazarus, after Jesus raised him from the dead, there was many Jews who believed and many religious leaders who just decided they were going to kill Jesus then. So we learned that the works that Jesus did to prove his words didn't always lead to belief. Proof doesn't equal belief. Some people can see the proof and still not believe, and so that was the climate when we left that topic. The next marker that we have, a time marker that we have, is in John chapter 12, and if you want to open to John chapter 12, we're just going to skim through 12 13 and get to 14. You don't have to, but the next time marker is in John 12 1, and we're at a dinner in Bethany. We're back in Bethany. Jesus had left to spend some time in a wilderness town called Ephraim, but now we're back in Bethany at the beginning of chapter 12. We're at a dinner. Matthew and Mark tell us that it was actually at the home of Simon the leper, and we know that Martha was there, and Mary was there, and Lazarus was there, and presumably Simon was there, and we must figure out that he must have been healed by Jesus, and I get the sense that this dinner is like kind of a thank you dinner. So many things are set right again at this sweet little evening meal that Jesus has with these people. For one thing, Martha is serving without complaining, so that's set right. We see that Simon and John didn't tell us about Simon, but the other two gospels do. Simon the leper, that's set right because if he had leprosy, he couldn't have connected. He couldn't have been in his home, certainly not hosting a meal for other people, and so that element is set right. Lazarus is there, and with his change in circumstances, you know, we like to be empathetic to people when things are going on in their lives. We like to say, I know just how you feel. No one could say that to Lazarus. No one could look at him that, and I'd say, I know just how you feel. It was a one-of-a-kind thing, and then Mary, instead of weeping with grief, this time at this meal, she has this expensive spikenard, and she's washing Jesus's feet with this perfume, which was filling up the room with its fragrance, so so many things are changed. Remember how we talked about Jesus's conversation with the ladies at the tomb of Lazarus was different. To Martha, he was exhorting her to extend her perspective past this life to eternal things, and to Mary, he was assuring her that he was extending his perspective into her suffering, and at this dinner party, I see the women operating in two kind of different ways. Martha is serving Jesus and his guests. Mary is worshiping, and it occurred to me that in the same way that it's a healthy perspective for us as Christians to extend our perspective into the next life, and to know that Jesus extends his perspective into our life, that is a healthy balance. It's also a healthy balance as Christians for us to have the balance that we see here with Mary and Martha. We said last week between the two of them, they make one good woman, you know, but as a Christian, that balance of serving others and worshiping Jesus, that is a dynamic balance for our Christian life, for a healthy Christian life. But back to Lazarus, when the crowd learned that he was there, not only Jesus was there, but Lazarus was there, they came from all around because he'd become quite a local celebrity, and when the chief priests learned that he was there, they added Lazarus to their hit list. Not only Jesus do they want killed, but now Lazarus they want to destroy as well, which that doesn't make any sense to me. I don't see the strategy in that. He died once, Jesus raised him from the dead, that's what put Jesus into this big orbit, you know, and now they're wanting to kill Lazarus again. It's like, aren't you worried that that might happen again? But that was their deal, so they wanted to kill Lazarus too. The next time marker we have as we're going through is John 12, 12. It is the triumphal entry in verse 13. It tells us that the people took branches of palm leaves and they went out to meet him crying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And John shows us a strong link that with what's going on in this raising of Lazarus. Drop down to verse 17. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went out to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. I think that the link with Lazarus throughout this had kind of escaped me before, but I see that this work that Jesus had done to raise Lazarus from the dead, this was an attention getter. I mean certainly it was, but even John said that the people were just, they were stirred up with hope because of this, stirred up in a good way. So now we get to chapter 13 and it starts telling us about what we call the last supper. It is the Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples and it starts off, now before the feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And we're not going to read through the entire event, you studied that a little bit, but the next five chapters in John are what we call the upper room discourse, where Jesus is talking to his disciples. Our purpose for keeping this thread is because we're headed to I am the way, the truth, and the life. So we want to know who was there, why was he saying this, what were the circumstances, what was the setting, and they were in the upper room together. The setting was a meal followed by a foot washing, okay. Interesting isn't it that we had just had in Bethany a meal with a foot washing. It was Mary that was attending to Jesus's feet. Now we have a meal with the disciples and a foot washing and it is Jesus attending to his disciples feet. Did I say Mary and disciples? Mary and Jesus. You know what I'm saying. Sometimes I hear an echo of myself, it's like did I say that wrong or right? So I have to trust you a lot to know what I meant to say. And of course we know at this meal that Judas was there. Judas, who we know is the betrayer, they didn't know yet in that moment, but we read about Jesus offering him that morsel of bread and then he left to betray Jesus. And so we wrap that up in verse 30. It says he immediately went out and it was night. Talked about that in the study guide. I love that John adds that because you know John is all about the light and the dark in his gospel and also we studied for second and third John. He seems to be tuned in to light and dark. So I like it that he said it was night because what he is saying is he's commenting on what Jesus had said before. Back in right before he healed the blind man, light of the world, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. Jesus is saying his hour had come. The door is closing. He knows that his time has come. And so I love that John said and it was night. Things were set in motion. It would only be a short time until Jesus would be betrayed and they didn't kill him. He gave up his life. Remember? So. Okay, since his hour had come, Jesus now begins to share things he wants to share with his disciples. If someone gave me a piece of paper with three lines on it and said, read these chapters, read the Upper Room Discourse, and choose only three things that you think are the most important things that Jesus wanted to pass along to his disciples, without overthinking it or being a theologian, I would just say heaven, the Holy Spirit, and the work that's left to do once he goes. That would be my summary of what Jesus is saying to them. Heaven, where he's going now, the disciples are soon going to follow, the Holy Spirit, who is going to come and take his place with them, and the work that God wants to continue on the earth after Jesus is gone. Jesus said an awful lot about the work that I do, and he wants them to know that that should continue. I want to start reading together in John 13, and we see such a tone change now. Judas is gone, it's the eleven disciples, it is a soft, and a gentle, and an instructive, and it's just a sweet way that Jesus talks to those people, and it goes like this.

And then Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus answered, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward. And Peter said, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Uh-oh, we learned two weeks ago, the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That's where Jesus is going, that's where he's heading, and Peter has it, he thinks he has the mojo to lay down his life for Jesus. And Jesus responds to him and says, oh, will you lay down your life for me? Truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. He's saying this is my work to do, I am laying down my life here. So he goes on, now in chapter 14, verse 1, sharing these insights that I talked about, and he says,

And now I love Thomas' question, because maybe you can remember that time in school when you're all sitting in your desks, and the teachers are writing equations on the board, and you are so lost, and you're looking around, and you're thinking, do you guys all get this? But I'm afraid to ask the question. And then that one kid raises his hand, said, I don't understand anything, and you're like, oh, thank you. That's I think what's going on here. Thomas is that one kid, raised his hand, and said, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? And then Jesus says to him,

Now we've gotten to the climax. This is what we want to study. The sixth I am, made up of three words, I think are meaningful for our existence. I put a lot in your study guide, and I don't want to just duplicate the verses that you already looked at and studied. So I want to kind of summarize and maybe compact this in a parallel, but maybe a little bit different way, to show that maybe these things are really important elements for human existence, like the way to know the future. Isn't that an important element? We all want to know what's going to happen, and the way, the path for the future. The truth, a quest for knowledge. We all have a quest for knowledge and to know the truth, and I think we all deep down yearn for a relationship with someone who knows more than we do, even though we maybe don't display it. We yearn to know the truth and to be connected with the one who knows the truth. And then the life. We all have a passion for living. We might not think that we do, but if we're in a situation, a life and death situation, we will fight, won't we? We will fight for our lives. So that's what I want to do, is go through those three. I said that heaven was a topic that evening, and so I want to talk about the way. Jesus mentioned going, and the disciples following later. So it was natural that Thomas said, well, we don't know the way. We need to know the way so that we can follow you. And as I was going through this this week, I've mentioned before to you that when I was a little girl at a men's quartet, that's how I got saved, was just this intrigue with heaven and making sure that I got there. I guess I could say I wanted to know the way. I needed to know the way. The song was talking about, sorry, I never knew you. Someone who didn't get in, it's like, nope, I have to know the way. And in that moment, I didn't care what I was going to be when I grew up. I didn't even care if I grew up. I needed to know the way to get to heaven. And I think that when God presses in on our life, we want to know the way. Fortunately, I was in a situation that they were explaining, Jesus is the way. And so that's a message that just settled my heart. And I didn't know all the ins and outs about salvation. I didn't know all the theology. All I needed to know in that moment as a little girl, Jesus is the way. You stay close to Jesus, you love him, you trust him, that's the way to get into heaven. Of course, we know that there's a greater understanding to it now. Thank the Lord I've lived long enough to know a little bit more about what the Bible teaches. But that is the way. The truth, the quest for truth would be satisfied by the second theme that Jesus talked about in the upper room, the theme of the Holy Spirit. That was going to satisfy their quest for truth and our quest for truth. If we drop down to verse 16 in John chapter 14, we'll see Jesus say,

So their quest for truth, their quest for knowledge will be satisfied by the spirit of truth. Who is the spirit of Jesus? Who is the Holy Spirit? We have a few names and Jesus is beginning to say he will come and be in you when I depart from this world. He will provide for you that truth. And he goes on later to say in chapter 16, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. And that doesn't mean that we turn into like walking encyclopedias or something like that, but we have the Holy Spirit. And so if we choose to yield to the spirit of truth, we can know, we can understand the truth of God, that understanding. And so that is a comfort to us. And then the last one, the life, we have a natural instinct for life to continue living. And we learn here that Jesus is the means for us to preserve our life, not this physical life that we're living. We all get it. We're all going to die. Everyone who's lived before us has died. This is what life is like in the shadow lands. But we have this yearning that there will be life, real life, life that's after. And Jesus is the way. Back at Lazarus's tomb, what did he say? He said, whoever believes in me, even though he die, like we all will, yet he shall live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. What was the key in that verse that we studied last week? The key is belief. That is the key. And, you know, that is the key to John's whole gospel, this whole gospel that we've been reading. John's focus is belief. He used the word belief 85 times. Now if we compare that to the other three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and put them all together, they only come up to about 32. So John's focus was on belief and that people would believe. We've gone over this many times. Now here's the question. For us Bible reading ladies, what word would you associate with belief? Like what companion word would you maybe put with it? If we're old enough to have King James running through our minds, we might say, whosoever believeth, right? Like whosoever, whoever. That's a word. word that we would commonly associate with believe, whoever believes. In fact, John wrote that 14 times in this gospel. Write together, whoever believes. And we talked last week about how Jesus followed that with every one of the I am statements. All of the I am statements have been followed by whoever. Let's review. I'm the bread of life, whoever comes to me. I'm the light of the world, whoever follows me. I am the door, if anyone enters. And then last week, I'm the resurrection and the life, everyone who lives and believes in me. There's this consistent thread that we've seen with the I am statements until this week. And then that thread just snaps. What does he say this week? No one. Did you see that? I am. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I love that. Because it's been like whoever, whoever, if anyone. And now it's clearly like, just so you know, this is a funnel. And it comes right to me. And no one comes to the Father except through me. That's important for us to remember. It's important for us to go over. Because we live in a culture, in a world, that wants to make it much broader than that. And the goofy little phrase, there are many ways to God. There are many ways to heaven. So that's OK if you want to think that there are. Remember, people have to prove their words with their actions. The one person who proved his words with his actions says, no one. So I need to go with that. Until somebody else that says there are many ways to God can raise somebody from the dead, then I'll pay attention. But right here, the one who proved his words says, no one comes to the Father. And then Peter used that again in his first sermon in Acts. Peter says, there's no other name under heaven given by men by which we must be saved. So I want to close in such a way as to set us up for next week, set us up for our final I Am. And to do that, I want to start off with a phrase coming up. We're just going to read John 14, 11 to 14. And that's going to be our closing summary. But I want to pull a phrase out of that and use it as a standalone verse first. And the phrase is this. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. What do you think about that as a standalone verse? Often, I say there's some verses in the Bible that stand alone just fine on their own. And our I Am verse is one of those. But look at this one. Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do. So if I go to Walmart and ask everybody what they think about that, I'm going to get lots and lots of different answers. So what I want to do is read the text of that and read the context. So John 14, 11 says,

So that's our closing. What was the goal of Jesus's works when he did his works? His goal was that people would believe. That was the point of it, right? Remember last week, we studied those triplets. Lazarus died. I am glad. You may believe. God's goal is always to get to that final statement. You may believe. He wants people to believe. All right, now Jesus said, whoever believes in me, you're also going to do the works that I do. What do you think is the goal of those works that the disciples would carry on and we also would carry on? I guess the goal hasn't changed. The goal would be that people would believe, OK? But this is so sweet, because he says, you can ask. You can ask anything. You know that you're going to do the works. You know what the goal of those works is. So ask. He said, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. So we're not left on our own. We're not left to try and figure it out. We just ask God to do what he's going to do. But it also mildly convicted me this week, as I thought about. So if I summarized all the things that I asked for this week, how many of them were targeted that people would believe? So I think I have an adjustment to make this week going forward as I'm reading this text to line up what I think about and what God is after, and to make them come into agreement a little bit more. So it's changing my prayer life this week that I think about this, that people would believe. And I won't become a street corner evangelist, I promise you, unless God tells me to do that, I guess. But I wanted us to focus on us doing the work, because that is where we're headed next week. The work that God wants to continue in those who believe in him is also called fruit. And that's where we're headed with our next I Am statement. Fruit is born on the vine. We have to stay connected to the vine in order to bear that fruit. So that is how we're going to wrap up this week's session. And also, our whole entire series is talking about the work that God has called us to do, the fruit that he wants us to bear. Father, thank you so much for this passage, Lord. And it's probably not new information to anyone in this room that there is no other way to the Father but through Jesus Christ. But Lord, yet it's good for us to remind ourselves of these truths, and to remind ourselves of what you said, how you said it, why you said it. And Lord, we thank you for this message that you gave us about we know the way. And we can be at peace knowing our path to heaven because we know you, and we are connected to you. We have exchanged life for life. And Lord, we can be at peace because we know that you bring us truth. If we'll yield to you, we can know truth. And Lord, we can be at peace because we know that we have life that won't end, real life, spiritual life that won't end. Lord, we thank you for that. And I just pray that you would help us as we discuss these things. Help us this week, Lord, to come a little bit more in alignment with the things that we do being for the purpose of people believing that you are the Son of God. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.