I Am The Way, The Truth, And The Life (John 14:1-6) Series

Good morning! Please open your Bibles to John 14. We are seven weeks into our series on Jesus’ I AM statements in the gospel of John. Week one we talked about how God revealed Himself to Moses at the Burning Bush as “I AM.” That’s God’s personal name.. Jehovah, or Yahweh as it’s often translated. But it’s I AM that I AM. Or I will be what I will be.

Then we talked about when Jesus said

• I AM the bread of Life.

• I AM the light of the world.

• I AM the door for the sheep.

• I AM the good shepherd.

So today, we come to our fifth I Am statement, “I am the way the truth and the life.” If you are studying them in the order they appear in John, this one is actually the 6th of the seven I am statements. But we are going to skip the one in John 11--“I am the resurrection and the life” and circle back to it for next week’s Palm Sunday service.

Introduction

Trish and I bought our house in 2015. At that time, our neighborhood had one entrance and one exit. And that was a big selling point. Statistically, there is less crime in neighborhoods with one entrance and one exit. Now that has changed in the last nine years. Now there are three ways in or out of our neighborhood, and there is about to be a fourth.

But it is true that people favor limited access neighborhoods. And even within neighborhoods, the most desirable streets are cul de sacs. The Holy Grail for a lot of people would be a gated community (although not everybody. Lots of people’s comments on my facebook poll said they wouldn’t. There were some like Jeff Williams who said they didn’t want a gate. Then there were some like Ryan Denham who said they didn’t want a community. Just give me a hundred acres

What’s the appeal of a gated community, or neighborhoods that have only one way in and one way out? Because there is security in knowing that people aren’t using your neighborhood like a shortcut on their way to somewhere else. You feel safer letting your kids play outside, knowing that someone isn’t speeding through your neighborhood as a shortcut.

So why does it bother us so much that Christianity claims it is the only way to heaven?

John 14 is where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me.” And this is one of the most controversial, if not THE most controversial of all the I AM statements. It may not seem that way to you, because you’ve grown up in church. You come from a Christian family. There’s a good chance that if you have any of the I AM statements memorized, it is John 14:6. You don’t even blink an eye at Jesus’ statement that no one comes to the Father except through Him.

But think about this claim to exclusivism as someone from outside the church hears it:

• “How arrogant do you have to be to claim that your way is the only way? Are you saying that people from other religions are morally bankrupt and can’t be good people?”

• How fair would it be to claim that God is just going to hurl people into hell simply because they’ve never heard the name of Jesus?

• Doesn’t the Bible contradict itself with this? If no one gets to heaven except through Jesus, then what about all those people in the Old Testament? Are you saying that Abraham, David, Elijah, Elisha, Moses, Noah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Joseph, Joshua—are you saying they missed heaven because they were born before Jesus ever came to erarth?

• What about children who die before learning about Jesus. Are you seriously saying they don’t get to go to heaven?

These are all good questions. And hear me say: You OWE it to the non Christians in your life to take their questions seriously. Listen: the worst thing you can do is say to your unbelieving friend “Well, that’s a good question. Let me ask my pastor about that one, and I’ll get back to you.” Phooey. That tells your unbelieving friend that you haven’t struggled with this yourself, and that you haven’t examined what you say you believe.

So this morning, I want us to look at Jesus’ claim to exclusivity, and examine some of these tough, fair, valid questions. Let’s look at the first eleven verses of John 14:

[READ JOHN 14:1-11]

This is God’s Word. Let’s thank him for it. Pray with me… [PRAY]

Before talk about Jesus’ statement here, or Christianity’s claim to be the only way, let’s look at the context. John 13:1 tells us it was just before the Passover festival. Specifically, this is the Thursday night of Holy week. That gives us the chronos time—the Greek word used for chronological time. But it also tells us Jesus knew “that the hour had come for Him to leave the world and go to the Father.” So at this point, Jesus has less than 24 hours to live. In a couple of hours, Jesus will go with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he will be betrayed, arrested, and led away.