Lunchtime Service - I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.! In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I'm going.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.

Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

This is the word of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask for your help now.

Help us to understand these words of Jesus. Help us to truly recognize who he is. As he shows us, as he reveals to us his true identity.

Would we know that and more than that, Lord, would we believe in him? For in him is life and truth and he is the way. We ask this in his name.

Amen. This passage in John today is answering the important and the age-old question, how do I get to heaven?

It's the question people might ask you at the book table. It's the question Christians are asked by podcast hosts. It's the question you might have been asked by your friends or your colleagues.

Or maybe it's the question you are wondering for yourself right now. How do I get to heaven? And it is an incredibly important question to ask because the answer to this impacts our eternity.

It matters for what happens after we die. It matters for what happens in the age to come. It is a simple question, but it couldn't matter more.

How do I get to heaven? And as we continue in the I am statements in John's gospel, this next I am statement, it comes in response to that question.

Because getting to heaven, it's the topic of discussion between Jesus and his disciples in this passage. So do you see in verse 2, Jesus is telling his disciples that he's about to leave them and that he's going to his father's house to prepare a place for them.

He's speaking about heaven. He's speaking about the place where God's people go to when they die. It's that otherworldly realm that Jesus ascended to where he rules on his throne right now.

All in the glory and the presence of his father. It's why he calls it my father's house. And it's a house with many rooms and enough space for all of Jesus' disciples to join him.

Jesus is going to that heaven. And it is a far off and majestic and beyond this world place. And you can't get there by a rocket or a spaceship or anything else.

Yet Jesus says to his disciples, you actually know the way to get there. Verse 4. You know the way to where I am going.

But then Thomas, one of the disciples, hears this. And he asks that age old question, verse 5. Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way? How do I get to heaven? And to that, Jesus doesn't give him a to-do list. He doesn't give him directions.

No, Jesus reveals who he is. Verse 6. I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. The way to heaven and in fact the way to God, it is all found in who Jesus is.

And as Jesus reveals who he says he is, this is the first thing we need to realise. Jesus is the way to God. Jesus is the way to God.

But when we speak of the way to something, we're speaking of the access point, aren't we? So the way into this room is through those double doors at the back.

The way up north, it's on the M1. Well, Jesus is speaking here of the way to heaven. This is why Thomas already knows the way, because he already knows Jesus.

Jesus is the way to heaven. But actually, Jesus, he means more than that, actually. He's not merely saying, I am the way to get to another dimension.

No, Jesus is saying he is the way to the Father who dwells in heaven. God is the focus here. He's the destination.

Because heaven and the Father, salvation and God, they always go together. To go to heaven, life after death, is to be with God.

And to be with God, well, that is eternal life, salvation. And so how do we get to all of that? How do we get there? Jesus says, I am the way.

I am the one you come to to access God. You come to the Father through me. Which implies something significant here.

This means we can't come to God on our own. None of us here can make our own way to God.

And this has been the great problem ever since the Garden of Eden. Do you remember? God dwelled in that garden. It was his house.

And in fact, it was a mini picture of heaven. But ever since that fateful day, what happened to Adam and Eve? They were cast out of the garden.

And an angel with a flaming sword guarding the way. And they were shut out from God. No way in. And ever since then, we cannot come to God on our own.

Heaven is shut off to humanity. In our sin, no human can make their own way back to God. And so what Jesus is saying here, it's world changing.

You could never, ever make a way. But I am the way. The world is cut off.

Shut out in the darkness and in the misery. Very far from God. But in Christ, God has made a way back to himself. And there is a reason why he is the way.

It's because Jesus has the right to enter into heaven. We are disqualified from heaven. Sinners aren't worthy. The guilty are shut out.

But Jesus, he is worthy to enter heaven. Because of his righteousness, his perfection, he is fully qualified to come before the father and stand in heaven all on his own merit.

That's why he speaks with such certainty here. Look at verse 2 again. I am going to prepare a place. I will go there. I am seeing my father.

It's because he has earned the right. If you ever follow golf, one of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world, it's the Augusta National in the US, in Georgia.

And it's completely invite only. So you can't just walk in to that golf club. You can't even pay your way in. And it's all invite only.

And the membership is very, very limited. Very tiny. Basically, no one can enter that place. But there is a way. If you win the Masters tournament there, for every champion, you get one of those famous green jackets.

And then you become an honorary member for life. If you play the perfect game, you can walk through those doors. Well, Jesus, he's played the perfect game.

He's lived the perfect life. And the doors of heaven must open up to him. And so Jesus is the way to God because he is the only one who can even go to God.

And not only that, he's the only one who can bring sinners there with him. Because it is through his blood and his cross that sinners can be cleansed and enter heaven.

The guilty cannot enter the presence of God. The unforgiven cannot go to heaven. But Jesus stands there and says, there is a way.

I am the way. Through Jesus, through his death and his blood and his cross, that is the way sinners can now come to God.

And how you actually go that way, it's through faith in Jesus. Whatever you may have done, whatever guilt that burdens you, and maybe you do wonder, how do I get to heaven now?

And you see all the things in your life that just so clearly disqualifies you. Well, in a way, you're right to think that. We all are disqualified.

But the answer to how do I get to heaven, it is not doing certain things or making up for your wrongs or being good enough that gets you to heaven.

No, it is not about doing. It is about trusting. It is about having Jesus in your life because he is the way.

And he not only makes the way, but when you have him, you have the way. He is your way to God.

And so look how exclusive Jesus is being here. You cannot get to God without Christ. Look at verse six again. No one comes to the father except through me.

There is no other way. And so to get to God, you must realize Jesus is that only way.

Islam may teach that Jesus is a prophet, but Islam does not say Jesus is the way. It doesn't even say that he died.

And so Jesus is very clear here. Islam will not get you to God. Hinduism may admire Jesus, but unless he is your only way, well, no one comes to the father except through me.

Coming to God is not about finding our own way or discovering what works for us. No, Jesus is very clear. There is only one way, one way in the entire universe.

I am the way and the truth and the life. And that is a great assurance in our life.

Because if you have Jesus, it means there is an absolute guarantee for your future. It means Jesus has prepared a place in heaven for you.

You will be with the father in his house. You're already on the way because you already have the way. And he will never leave you.

He never abandons you. No, he simply takes you. You never need to think, maybe I'll get lost. Or maybe I won't make it.

Because you can never be lost if you always have the way. And so Satan may try to trip us up. Our sin may make us stumble, but it will never stop us.

Because it's not about us, it's about Jesus. His righteousness, his cross, he is the way. But there's another reason that he's the way to God.

Not only because of what he has done in his life and in his death. But simply because of who he is. Jesus is the way because he is truth and life.

And I just want to end with this thought. Jesus is the way because he is truth and life. Now when Jesus says these three things, I am the way and the truth and the life.

These three things, they're all complementary. They are all the reasons why we can only come to the Father through him. When Jesus says he's the truth, he's saying he's the truth about God.

He's saying he is the full revelation of God. Because he is the eternal word enfleshed.

He is God himself come down to us. And so he perfectly makes the Father known to us. Look at verse 9.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. He does the Father's work. He does the Father's will. He speaks the Father's word. He is the word of the Father.

And so who does Jesus say he is? He is the very truth of God and reality itself. The truth of God.

It's not this hidden mystery out there. No. If you want to know God, you know Jesus. If you want to find the real meaning of your life, the true purpose, the true meaning of right and wrong, and the true God who made you, you come to Jesus.

And to build your life on anything else, to pursue truth in this life without Christ, you will ultimately find it empty. Because he is the truth.

You can read all the books in the world, but without Christ, it amounts to nothing. And so with Christ, it means you will truly live.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. Because he's the way to God and the true revelation of God, that means he is where you come to to find true life.

He is the God of all life and he's the saviour filled with resurrection life, the one who has overcome the grave. And so to know this God, to trust in Christ, that is eternal life.

And so to find life any other way, it's no life at all. To think, I will truly live if I just have that relationship or my career goes the right way or my bank account reaches that amount or my family looks like this or I just have that nice, quiet life and then that's life sorted.

If we think that, we've got life all wrong. Because Christ is the life. And without him, we have no real life at all.

And there is so much life in him, even death cannot overcome it. Put your trust in Christ and he will never leave you. And even in death, there will be life.

Life in heaven, life in the Father's house. And Christ is there now and he has prepared a place for all his disciples, a place waiting for you.

And there are many rooms. And so if you haven't trusted in Christ yet, there is still room for you. But how do we get there? How do I get to heaven?

How do I get to God and get everything we could ever, ever hope for? Well, you already know the way. Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. Let's pray. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we praise you for your son, the Lord Jesus, who is the way and the truth and the life.

We thank you that there is a way that you have not left us in our sin, but you have given us this great gift of your son who is the way. He is everything that we could ever need or ever hope for.

And so we pray that we would not go anywhere else seeking any other way, but we would have great confidence knowing that in him is our way to the one true God.

He is the truth. He is the life. Lord, give us that hope today. Give us that assurance. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.