“I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE” - PRESENTATION IN THE “I AM SERIES OF JOHN’S GOSPEL” PART 2
We will continue with this message that is all one delivery in a Seminar. I split it into two because it is posted on SermonCentral. This is one message in the Series, “THE I AMs OF JOHN’S GOSPEL”. Here we continue with PART 2. This takes up with verse 6.
A FUNDAMENTAL VERSE IN ALL SCRIPTURE:
{{John 14 v 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”}}
Now we come to our marvellous “I AM” for this message. Then you get this amazing verse from the Lord that is one of the anchors of John’s Gospel – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”. I like it this way - “I am the WAY, and the TRUTH, and the LIFE.” Preachers tackle this verse by various methods, and none of those ways is wrong, for there is a real depth in the verse. I will deal with it in two ways.
The first way, I think, is the more correct one, for it connects with what we have just been saying. Thomas wanted to know the way, and the Lord answered with “I AM the way.” To know the way is to follow Him, as He first called His disciples. The Lord added as well – “the truth, and the life.” That brings us to the second way of dealing with the verse – “I am THE Way, and THE Truth, and THE Life.” This really gives us great insight, because these three “I AMs” are fundamental. We will now look at them in turn.
(1). THE WAY – THE way must exclude all others – all other ways, and because the emphasis is on the “I”, then it excludes all other men, all persons of intellect or entitlement, all heads of ALL religious callings; and it excludes all the “isms” of the world. It excludes the Pope, the Buddha, gurus, all men’s ways of belief and practice; and even your church minister or pastor. There is only ONE WAY, called THE WAY, and it is Christ's way, because He is THE WAY. (emphasis on the capital letters).
Did you know that in the early church ALL Christians were known as the “people of the WAY” because it was recognised that they followed the way of Jesus Christ. The community gave that term to them. We will look at these references – (a). {{Acts 9 v 1 “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, Acts 9:2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”}}
(b). {{Acts 19 v 8 “He entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God, Acts 19:9 but when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. . . . Acts 19:23 About that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the Way.”}}
(c). {{Acts 24:22 “Felix, having a more exact knowledge about “the Way”, put them off saying, “When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case,”}}
(2). THE TRUTH – Have you ever thought that the next two claims have to follow on from the first one? Jesus Christ is The Way for that is the foundation, so then, there can be only one TRUTH built upon that one way, and only one life proceeding from it. Because He is the way to the Father, and to heaven, and the only WAY of life, then He must be THE TRUTH, the only Truth, and the only life to follow on from that.
For us, it means a great deal. The Lord is the Truth, so His word must be true. Everything He spoke was truth. We have not believed in vain. Therefore we must hold fast, His truth. We must rise up against false teaching in our churches if, and when it occurs. We must maintain the purity of the truth. My dear Christian people, above all else, we must live surrendered lives for the One who is The Truth. We must seek His truth from His word; seek HIM, the TRUTH, from His word. Of course, the Lord’s words here in John 14, were to His band of disciples, only to them, and not to the nation, for the rulers had shut the doors of unbelief and had rejected the Truth, who was their Messiah, and raged with hatred against Him. There were times to have spoken the truth to them, but not this time, so now, on this last night before the cross, Jesus is tenderly instructing His disciples in matters of great significance.
(3). THE LIFE – Do you want to know where to go? He the WAY. Do you want to know what is right? He is the TRUTH. Do you want eternal life and have that abundant life? He is the LIFE. I think by “life” here, it means more, eternal life, that is, salvation. Jesus is the Way to God; the Truth of God; and the Life of God. Those three aspects are eternal, and eternal life is a great theme in John’s Gospel. I counted 17 verses dealing with eternal life in the Gospel. See if you can find them.
{{John 14 v 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”}}
Is this saying Christianity is an exclusive religion? Yes, it is. It is both inclusive and exclusive. It includes all who want to come, all those God calls, but it excludes all other ways than through the One who said, “I am the way – no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
I want to mention another slant on the word “life”. We just looked at Jesus being the only way to eternal life, but He is also the only way to sustaining or fulfilling life. By that I mean the life, the heavenly life that sustains us each day. Eternal life is fine but is lacking if we can’t have the abundant life right now. God graciously provides that day-by-day life in the Holy Spirit for us. The abundant life is the focus of this verse – {{John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”}}
The second part of verse 6 reinforces what we have already been obtaining from this verse. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Two years back, I spoke on liberalism in one of the messages here, and looked at the issue of acceptance and interfaith dialogue. Regarding acceptance, liberalism claims that God is embracing, and all good people, and all people who live a good life, will be taken to heaven. This error overlooks the truth of {{“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”}} (more correctly, {{“All have sinned and keep falling short of the glory of God”.}}) (Romans 3 v 23). It also overlooks that {{“All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.”}} (Romans 3:12). Liberalism wants to overlook Jesus Christ as THE only WAY and propose that good works can bring one to the Father.
Then, in interfaith dialogue, liberals claim “common ground”, saying that any good and faithful Buddhist, or Moslem, etc. is accepted by God, all on equal ground. They claim there are several paths to God through faith (as they use the word “faith”). I am sorry to burst their hot air balloon, but there is no other way to the Father, to heaven, or to eternal life, except through Jesus Christ. This must not be understood as being anti-Buddhist or anti-Moslem (anti people). [[H. A. Ironside was occasionally interrupted during his sermons with the objection that there were hundreds of religions,” and that no one could determine which was the right way. Ironside would answer by indicating that he knew of only two religions. “One,” he would say, “covers all who expect salvation by doing; the other, all who have been saved by what Someone had done for them. The whole question is very simple. Can you save yourself, or must you be saved by another?”]] Earlier this year I heard David Jeremiah say that in a survey of all those who are named Christians in churches, 30% of them believe Jesus is just one way to God.
John 14 v 6 gives us God’s perspective; what He initiated, as the only way to the Father. The disciples understood that very well after the Resurrection, and maybe only 2 or 3 months later on, we see Peter saying this – {{Acts 4 v 12 “and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”}} Here he gives God’s perspective, which must be our response. Paul was divinely inspired to write {{1Timothy 2 v 3-6 “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. There is one God, and one mediator also, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time.”}}
We are also faced with “easy believism” in the mega churches that denies the truth of conviction and repentance which leads to salvation. Jesus is THE ONLY WAY and to come to Him we need His TRUTH and can not sidestep that. The TRUTH is utterly trashed in churches that sign up to “gay acceptance and inclusion”. Churches that have homosexual ministers have utterly abandoned the truth. Churches that are following the socialist agenda (such as gender assignment and WOKE) have utterly abandoned the truth.
To close, what does this all mean for us –
1. The Father’s house contains many rooms.
2. Through the cross, the Lord prepared our places.
3. The Lord gave the beautiful promise of His personal return for us.
4. We will always be where He is, always in His presence.
5. He is the (ONLY) Way, the Truth, the Life.
6. No other way of acceptance or redemption exists.
CONCLUSION: [[A woman was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. As she was getting her things in order, she contacted her pastor and asked him to come to her house to discuss some of her final wishes.
She told him which songs she wanted sung at her funeral service, what Scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in. She requested to be buried with her favourite Bible.
As the pastor prepared to leave, the woman suddenly remembered something else. "There's one more thing," she said excitedly.
"What's that?" said the pastor.
"This is important," the woman said. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."
The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to say.
The woman explained. "In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, 'Keep your fork.' It was my favourite part of the meal, because I knew something better was coming - like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie.
"So, when people know I am in that casket with a fork in my hand and they ask, 'What's with the fork?' I want you to tell them: 'Keep your fork. The best is yet to come!' "
What I have said has merely scratched the surface of what Heaven is like. It will be far more wonderful that you or can could ever imagine. That is why you need to keep your fork, the best is truly coming in the future!!]]
The Lord returns for His own. He is my way, my truth and my life. “My Lord knows the way through the wilderness because He is THE WAY”. All I have to do is follow. A poem stanza will close our time today. God bless you all.
“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life for all.”
The Way to God for those His Name will call.
God’s Truth surrounds Him as a faithful shawl.
The life in which the righteous ones enthral.”
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
