Do You Know THE Way? (part 2) - [John 14:1-6]

I would invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 14 as we continue to move through the book of John.

Facebook is fascinating to me, I don't know why. But some things on Facebook are just kind of a

Rorschach test. You know what a Rorschach test is? You know, the shrink shows you the ink spots and you tell them what it looks like?

I put up a meme the other day of R .C. Sproul talking about the sovereignty of God and salvation. Everybody should love that.

It should be their favorite doctrine because it's God's favorite doctrine. Well, some unbelievers don't like it so much.

One of my Mormon relatives had questioned me about the fairness issue and how

God could possibly look at two equally guilty people and determine one should go free and the other one should be punished.

How could one person go to heaven and the other one go to hell? Well, that was a great gospel opportunity.

But another Facebook friend posted something that was completely extraneous. I mean, he just kind of jumped into the conversation and threw up something that made no sense.

So I said, I don't want to mention his name, but I said, the topic is the sovereignty of God and salvation.

So he said, and I want to quote him accurately here. He said, I don't think God grants sovereignty.

He has given us ways to earn it, talking about salvation, and it's up to us to make the right choices.

And I thought, this is pretty much what most unbelievers believe, right? So I did what any evangelist in his right mind would do.

I said, because here's the million -dollar question, and it's probably more like about a billion dollars right now.

You say, what is the source of your belief?

In other words, you say you believe that God has given us many ways to earn salvation, and it's up to us to make the right choices.

What's the source of your information? And he said that he believes in the

Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, books written by Moses.

And then he said, you know, I don't even remember, some Eastern mystical book, you know, just a dash of that thrown in for good luck.

Good luck. But as our conversation went back and forth, he pulled out one of everybody's favorite aces in the hole, the unbeliever's favorite ace in the hole.

He says, do you know the parable about the elephant and the three blind men?

Three blind men. You know, when they look and they can't, you know, they start describing it. And his point is going to be, you know, nobody can know.

We can only guess. Because I know the punchline, I'm not even going to let him go down that road.

So I said, firstly, I want to note that that parable is not biblical.

It's not found anywhere in Scripture. So it doesn't tell us anything about the possibility of multiple paths to God, which is what he wanted to say, right?

That every religion just has its own little sense of it because they can only get part of it and they can't really understand

God. And I said, secondly, I would note that God does not leave us in the dark as to his nature.

He's not passive like the elephant, right? He's not just standing there going, okay, when you guys figure it out, let me know.

He's given us Scripture so that we might know him. Thirdly, I said, I would note the parable fails to take into account the sins men commit, and the holiness of God.

In other words, it dodges the whole question. It's not, can we sort out who

God is by kind of feeling our way around. It's, wait a minute, who are we? We're sinners who stand condemned before a holy

God. That's the question. It's not a question whether, you know, different religions might have part of the truth or not.

And it really comes down to, we stand condemned. We're sinners. We need to be justified before a holy

God. Well, how does that take place? That is the question. And before that, he even parroted the idea that there are myriad ways to commune with God.

You know, there are many ways of reaching God. But the ultimate problem is our sin,

God's holiness, and God's revelation, as I said earlier. If we study the

Bible from beginning to end, it never says there are multiple paths. This is what it says. It says there is a God who exists, who created all things.

There is one God. And there is no other way to him other than through him.

It's never been the case that there are multiple paths, ever. That's not very popular.

But that's really where we're heading this morning in John 14. There is one way, one

God, and one means of knowing God, his word. Let's read

John 14, verses 1 to 6. The Lord Jesus says,

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 am 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. When the

Lord Jesus says that, it doesn't sound very arrogant. But if I say the same thing, people say you're arrogant.

Maybe I am, but I'm also just telling the truth. Now, to kind of review where we are, what seemed like a joyous time.

It should be a great time. This is one of the highlights of the Jewish year, the Passover. Jesus with his disciples on the eve of this, celebrating the

Passover dinner. This is going to be a wonderful time. But things sort of start getting a little off track almost right away, at least from the expectations that the disciples might have had.

Jesus washes their feet, teaching them, you know, humility.

Jesus then identifies Judas Iscariot as the one who would betray him. And he sends

Judas on his way to fulfill his destiny. Then we get to the section wherein

Jesus addresses the concerns of three of the disciples. We're going to see questions from, we already saw the question from Peter.

And now we're looking at the question from Thomas. And next week we'll look at the question from Philip. If you recall,

Peter was concerned with Jesus' statement that he was leaving to a place that the disciples could not go.

Peter boasted, as we look through the Synoptics and John, he boasted of his faithfulness, his steadfastness, how he would not waver, he would not fall.

If everybody else deserts you, I won't. And then in,

I think, what would just be bone -chilling, and just kind of silencing the room, Jesus tells

Peter that he's going to deny him three times before the rooster crows. And for one of the few times throughout the

Gospels that Peter's challenged, he doesn't respond. He doesn't say anything, he doesn't do anything.

In fact, even though the text doesn't tell us this, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole group was quiet for a few moments, and that Peter goes silent and these other men are unable to speak,

I think says something about what Peter's doing. I think he's just kind of trying to pull himself together. And last week we studied all the way through Thomas' question in verse 5.

And we had these, I said there were going to be six exclusive ifs, and then I have a true confession, because it seems like I should have six points and now

I have seven. It's kind of like Proverbs, you know, six things, yay, even seven.

So I had six exclusive ifs, and now

I've got six exclusive ifs and a bonus point. We'll get to that in a minute.

But anyway, verse 3. If you know the way, you'll be comforted now.

If you know the way, you'll be comforted now. In fact, just looking at the text, verse 1,

Jesus says, let not your heart, what, be troubled. Let your hearts be troubled. They were troubled.

They were, dare I say, stressed. They were concerned. Jesus has told them he's going to be leaving.

Judas has just been identified. Their good friend has been identified as the traitor and sent out. Peter has asked a question and then been told that he's going to deny the

Lord three times. So they are troubled, and he says, don't be.

Trust in God. Trust in me. That's the essence of believe in me. Then he starts talking to them about heaven, and then we come to the third or the second exclusive, the second unconditional if.

If you know the way, since you know the way, you'll have confidence for the future.

So not only will you be comforted now, you'll have confidence for the future. And if you recall,

Jesus says, I will come again. He's going to prepare a place, and I will come again, and will take you to myself.

And that, in and of itself, not just that he's going to prepare a place for them, but then when he returns, he's going to take them to himself, and also us to himself.

That is a great comfort when we just think we get to spend eternity in the presence of Christ Jesus. And then the third unconditional if.

If you know the way, since you know the way, you can still ask dopey questions or have doubts.

And Thomas asked, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? That's where we left off last week.

So this morning, I realized as I was finalizing things that I'd spent all this time on the fourth unconditional if.

Well, really part of it wasn't an unconditional if, so I had to sort of separate that away. So actually, point number four, the bonus point, the secret point, the

Gnostic point. You must know the way, right? All these other things presume that you know the way, but you must know the way.

Let's look again at verse five. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way?

Thomas's question was one of confusion. If you recall, he wasn't sure what

Jesus was talking about. He took it literally. He didn't know where Jesus was going, so he says, how can

I know the way? How can I know the path if I don't know the location? It's not really surprising when the disciples couldn't even imagine that within far less than 24 hours,

Jesus was going to be crucified. Is it so hard to understand that Thomas would be confused about what he meant when he said, you know,

I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I am, you know, you know the way.

But Jesus' answer, Jesus' answer, is one of the seven

I am statements in the Gospel of John. And he says at the beginning of verse six, Jesus said to him,

I am the way. Let me try it this way. I'm going to paraphrase here.

Thomas, I am going to heaven, and I am the way to heaven. I'm going to heaven to prepare a place for you, and I am the way to heaven.

He was speaking in metaphors. He's not a literal road or way, which is what that word means.

He's not saying, I am a road. He's saying, I am the way to heaven. Heaven is only available through him.

There's only one path to heaven, and its name is Jesus. And you know what's interesting is when you proclaim the sovereignty of God and salvation, or you proclaim the exclusive truth of Jesus Christ, what happens?

At least if you're saying that to unbelievers. If you're saying it to believers, they say, amen, hallelujah, I can't wait to be with the

Lord. If you say it to unbelievers, what do they say? I mean, if they're polite, they'll say, well, good for you.

But the other response is, how dare you say that you have that kind of inside information.

Do you have some special pipeline from God? What's the answer to that, of course?

Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I have his word. He told me that he's the way.

He said, I am the way. That's what it means. But if we're arrogant for proclaiming scripture literally, for believing it, then you might reasonably wonder what unbelievers might think about Jesus, right?

He's the one who said it. I'm quoting Jesus. So what do they do with Jesus?

What do unbelievers today do with Jesus? Out of their ignorance, they create,

I don't know, paper mache Jesus, a Jesus made of clay, but certainly not a

Jesus who ever existed, nothing informed by scripture. They'll say things like, well, you know,

Jesus never said a word about homosexual marriage. He never condemned homosexuality. You know,

Jesus, I'll bet he would go to a homosexual wedding. Jesus hung out with sinners.

He never judged fornicators. Jesus would be ashamed of churches that are so unloving as to practice church discipline.

Now I could go through each of those and unpack them and prove them wrong, but you already know these things. In 2008, you know, the best thing about Pew polls is that it gives me numbers to throw around, but a majority of American Christians, 52%, said that at least some non -Christian faiths can lead to eternal life.

Do you think things have gotten better or worse since 2008? That's a rhetorical question. You already know the answer.

They've gotten worse. Among Christians who believe many religions can lead to eternal life, 80 % of them, so we're talking about if 80 % of 52, that's got to be what, like 40%, 40 % or so, named at least one non -Christian faith that could do so.

So what does that tell you? We have professing Christians who don't understand the words of Jesus or don't believe them.

How many times have you heard something like, all religions have some truth in them? Is that true?

Well, sure. Because if Jesus, or, sorry, forgive me. If we're going to have fraudulent religions, what is

Satan going to do? He's not going to just say, here's something just totally made up out of a whole cloth. Well, he'll do that sometimes.

Scientology comes to mind. But most religions contain a bit of truth.

Why? So they can deceive those who want to be deceived. And if you say something is absolutely dogmatically, unconditionally, without a doubt, 100 % certain, what have you done?

You've just crossed over the river of goodness and entered into the land of judgments.

You are judging people. In fact, that goes so far as to say that the hatred of these words of Jesus runs so deep that some would probably like to take up stones to kill those who proclaim them.

Jesus said it. They wanted to kill him. And I think sometimes people get so mad that they like to do that to those who speak the truth now.

The most popular buzzword in society today, I think, we heard it about 100 ,000 times yesterday.

Diversity. This week, Google, the writing, everything, diversity, more diverse.

What's the most diverse religion there is? How can you get any more diverse than this religion?

You can't. They're the Unitarian Universalists. So I went to their webpage so that you don't have to.

But you can if you want to. And I read all about diversity and inclusion.

Here are just a couple snippets from their website. We have a legacy of deeds, not creeds.

I'll tell you what, I like creeds because I like to know what you believe, but I also like deeds, so deeds are fine.

But deeds, not creeds, says, you know what, it's only what you do that matters, not what you believe.

What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that is we cannot do enough to get to heaven.

Jesus said what? I am the way. They go on to say our work for a better world calls us to unexpected places as we harness love's power to stop oppression.

From grassroots community organizing to interfaith state, national, and corporate advocacy in protests, march, prayer vigils.

Who do they pray to, by the way? And press conferences in homeless shelters and in prisons,

Unitarian Universalists put our faith, whatever it is, into action. Our justice efforts are grounded in our congregationally driven social justice statements and our call to break down divisions, heal isolation, and honor the interconnectedness of all life and all justice issues.

We model these commitments by creating just, welcoming, and inclusive congregations.

And in fact, if you look around at their website, they fight for economic justice, environmental justice, immigrant justice,

LGBTQ justice, racial justice, and reproductive justice, which ironically means that they want to make sure everybody can have an abortion, every woman.

They have small groups in which everyone respectfully exchanges viewpoints.

Here's what they want to. Sight and authority. Higher than themselves.

It always comes back to this. How do you know what you know? For Unitarian Universalists and for any unbeliever, the highest source of information there is, is their own opinion.

They stand in judgment of God. Excuse me.

Now to some, the fact that they won't declare that there is one truth, that there is one authority, that there is something greater than them, is the most modest thing they can do.

But the truth is, it's the most arrogant position one can have. To assume that we understand life, the universe, creation, better than the creator.

Jesus, eternally God, creator and sustainer of life, says, I am the way. These people say, well, you know what, there are many ways.

Who do you believe? Jesus? What does this imply when he says,

I am the way? Well, it's pretty clear. The implication is that every other way is what?

It's a lie. It excludes all other ways. So whether it's Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, the

Watchtower, Judaism, Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, Unitarian Universalism, they're all lies.

As MacArthur said on many occasions, there are two religions in the world. There is the religion of human achievement.

Do, do, do. We are about deeds, not creeds. And then there's the religion of divine accomplishment.

Jesus Christ is the way. He has done it all. Ours is but to believe in him.

Now, back to our context. Jesus is trying to comfort his disciples. They're troubled. This is an emotional time, and the eleven who remain don't fully understand what's coming.

Well, here's comfort for you. There is one way to heaven. That way has a name,

Jesus. Jesus has proclaimed his divinity on several occasions.

The disciples and every human being is estranged from God from the womb, and he says,

I am the way back. Now, when you think about it, only God, only

God in the flesh could be the way. Why? Because only

God could reconcile us to himself. We are estranged. We are separated from God by sin.

Only God can reconcile us to himself. And only a perfect man willing to sacrifice himself for others could reconcile his fellow men to God.

And only the death of the God -man, fully God, fully man, could fully pay the price of sin for all who would ever believe.

Jesus has to be the way. And you must know the way for all these unconditional ifs to be true of you.

So, unconditional if number five. If you know the way, if you know the way.

Actually, this is unconditional if number four, sorry. Unconditional if number four. If you know the way, you have eternal life.

You have eternal life. Look at the text again. Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth.

And the truth. Jesus is the way. Actually, if you know the way, you have the truth. I'm sorry. Jesus is the way because he is the truth.

And the way is not false in any way.

It is the way. It is the true way. It is the way of truth. There can be no separation between the way to God and the truth.

It has to be true. And if we look at the summary of John's description of Jesus, I mean, there are probably about 20 more scriptures

I could have included. But just a few here. John 114. Don't turn there. I'll just read them. John 114 familiar.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth.

John 117 for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 831 to 36. So Jesus said to the

Jews who had believed him. If you abide in my word. You are truly my disciples and you will know the truth.

Listen, and the truth will set you free. They answered him. We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them. Truly, truly.

I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever.

The son remains forever. Listen to verse 36. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

So what is it that sets men free from sin? Jesus says it's the truth.

Then he says the son. What's he saying? The son is the truth.

This is just the summary of that statement. John 1717.

Sanctify them in truth. Talking about the disciples. Your word is truth.

What's he talking about? He's talking about scripture, right? True. What does scripture speak of?

It speaks of Jesus. John 145. Philip found Nathanael and said to him,

We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

In other words, we found the one predicted in Moses. And predicted in the prophets.

Luke 24, 27. Jesus, in beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted

Jesus, interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. To know

Jesus is to know the truth, to be on the way, to be a follower of Jesus is to be a follower of truth.

How do you know the difference between a true church and a cult? A true church and a cult.

Well, a cult will always present to you a lesser Jesus. He will be less man or he will be less

God. He'll never be holy man and holy God. He'll be a little bit less of either one.

He will be less important to your salvation than he actually is. He may be a prophet, but he won't be the prophet.

He might be an angel, but he won't be the king of heaven. He will be a

God, small g, but not the God. He will be enlightened, but he will not be the light.

In other words, they're going to take just a little of his glory away. They're going to take a little of the truth away from Jesus and make him a little bit less because they want to elevate man.

Here at Bethlehem Bible Church, we labor week after week to present to you the Jesus who is the theme of Scripture, the spotless

Lamb of God, the one who actually is portrayed in the Bible. Jesus is the truth in that he brought clarity to what once was a mystery.

If we look at Ephesians 2, it makes clear how the truth of God would be brought to the

Gentiles, how the law would be the law which formerly created enmity between Jew and Gentile would be done away with only because it was fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

He is the embodiment of truth, the answer to every messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, every mystery of the

Old Testament. Why did Jesus leave heaven and come to earth?

Certainly to save his people from their sin, but also to reveal the truth about God fully to us.

He is the truth from God. Jesus is the way to God because he is the truth about God.

So you must know the way. Number four, if you know the way, you know the truth. Number five of our unconditional ifs, if you know the way, you have eternal life.

Look again at verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. Jesus is the way because he is the truth and because he is the source of eternal life.

There is no other way to have eternal life other than through Jesus Christ.

John 6 .33, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

John 10 .28, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 11 .25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

This is the whole point of eternal life, that we'll spend eternity with God. Spend eternity in the presence of Lord Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to have eternal life? Well, heaven obviously. But here is something that we don't often talk about or not as often.

When we are brought into eternal life, something else is granted to us.

And that is fellowship with God right now. We are going to spend eternity with Christ, but because of the work of Christ, because we are born again, we have fellowship with God right now.

Believers have been reconciled to him. His throne room has been opened to them. What was closed is now available.

All because of Jesus. We have fellowship with him. We also have fellowship with one another.

John 1 writes, if you love, if you're part of the family of God, you love other believers.

That's what you do. Henrickson writes, all three concepts, way, truth, and life are active and dynamic.

The way brings to God, the truth makes men free, and the life produces fellowship.

Fellowship. So that's number five. Number six, unconditional if, is if you know the way, you have exclusive access to the

Father. Exclusive access to the Father. No one comes to the Father except through me.

That's very exclusionary language. This is the sort of thing that just drives unbelievers crazy.

They don't want to hear this. To a believer, this is the very aroma of life.

This is that fresh bread smell on Sunday morning when I come downstairs and I smell it, and I'm like, that smells really good.

This is pleasant to us. We love this. Because we know

Christ. Because we know the way. So we have access to the Father. To a non -believer, these are noxious words.

One might hear them described as exclusivist or arrogant.

After all, to insist that there is only one way to be saved, that there's only one way to God, is to say that all other ways lead to damnation.

All other ways lead to hell. That's exactly what Jesus taught again and again.

Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. Enter by what? The narrow gates.

For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. There are two ways.

And there are only two ways. There is a narrow gate and a broad road.

But the unbeliever has objections. Well, what about those who have never heard the gospel?

I mean, we could cover that. I'm not going to, but it's Romans 1. They suppress the truth and unrighteousness and they are ultimately accountable to God, no matter what.

What about those who just can't bring themselves to believe, but they're really good people. They really do a lot of good things.

They believe in creeds or deeds, not creeds. Your good works can't get you to heaven.

The best of your works are chock full of sin. The only works that can get you to heaven are the works of the perfect God -man,

Jesus Christ. What about those who are sincere about their own religion?

They might be sincere, but there's only one way. Jesus said, I am the way.

You get all these what about, what about, what about. You know what that is? It's what about -ery.

It's just, they're distractions to just drag you off the truth and make you answer all these questions that have nothing to do with the subject at hand.

What's the subject at hand? The subject is always the soul of the person that you're speaking to and what they are going to do with the

Lord Jesus Christ. And the truth is, if we somehow soften the message, if we remove

Jesus, if we kind of try not to make him the exclusive answer, if we remove the truth from the situation, we also remove eternal life.

And without any one of those three things, there is no way to the Father. In Acts 4 .12,

and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Jesus said, I am the way. Peter says, there is no other name.

Over and over again, the New Testament says, there is one way.

There is one truth. There is one name and that is

Jesus. One man said it this way, he said, life is short.

As you get older, you appreciate that more. Death is sure. Sin the curse and Christ the cure.

Life is short, death is sure, sin the curse, Christ the cure. If we don't proclaim

Jesus Christ, we're not proclaiming the only way of salvation. And we have an incredible salvation.

God has granted us, turn to 2 Corinthians 4 for a moment. I was just pondering this. 2

Corinthians 4. Just this whole idea of arrogance and multiple ways and all these kind of things.

And I think Paul just really nails it here in 2 Corinthians 4 .5

-7. Am I arrogant? I might be, but not when

I'm talking about Jesus. 2

Corinthians 4 .5 -7. For what we proclaim is not ourselves. But Jesus Christ as Lord.

With ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness.

Has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. In the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure. What is that treasure? It's the truth about Jesus, it's the gospel.

In jars of clay in our bodies. To show that the surpassing power.

The power to save. To grant eternal life belongs to God. And not to us.

We have the words of life. It's not arrogance to proclaim them.

We are being faithful. We're being faithful to the

Lord who called us. God has granted us this truth.

We possess it. And to fail to proclaim it. Some say, well,

I don't have that gift. You don't need that gift. Paul said he was a jar of clay.

He was a broken pot. So are you. Just tell him what God did with you.

Let's go back to our text. Again, if we just think about this rightly. Jesus talking to them.

They've left the upper room. They're probably on the Mount of Olives right now. And as he says that.

He says. At the end of verse six. No one comes to the father except through me.

You think any of the disciples were thinking, you know, when I. That sounds kind of exclusivist. That sounds kind of arrogance.

I'm not really sure I like that. I think it was encouraging.

Maybe just a little bit confusing. I think in retrospect, it's very encouraging, though. Luther said this. He said, with Christ, it is impossible.

To miss God. Right. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. No one comes the father, but by him.

And if you are in him, you will come to the father. As Jesus looked there at Peter.

Over in the corner, probably still trying to. Figure out how it was possible that he was going to betray his master.

Maybe not betray, but certainly deny him. The brothers, James and John.

Andrew, Philip, Nathaniel, Thomas. Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus.

Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot. Men who had loved Jesus. Whom he had called.

Who had left everything behind to follow him. All he wants to do is give them a reason.

To stop letting their hearts be troubled by reminding them. Of who he is. So that when he departs.

They won't stop trusting him. They won't stop trusting God. They won't stop trusting everything that they've learned.

One theologian said this. He said that. To know the truth.

And to have life beyond the grave are the greatest aspirations of humankind. We read that again.

To know the truth and to have life beyond the grave are the greatest aspirations of humankind. Well, why is that? How do we know that?

Because that's what every religion tries to answer, right? What lies beyond the grave?

How can we know that we're right with God? And in this time of trouble.

How fitting for Jesus to encourage his disciples. These 11 men. In their darkest hour, at least yet.

I think things got harder on them when Jesus was arrested and crucified. But he's just summarizing his teachings to them by reminding them of who he is.

And there's a message in that for us. That message is this.

In your worst hour, in your worst time. Trust in Jesus.

Trust in God. Focus on who he is. This is a great comfort for us.

We have so much more than the disciples did. Although they had the living word with them, we have the written word with us.

So that we might know the living word. We know the one who is the way, the truth, and life.

And without whom we cannot get to the father. Again, it is not arrogance to proclaim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and life.

It is the mark of humility and obedience. There is only one way to the father.

It's by Jesus Christ. His perfect life. His death.

His crucifixion. And his resurrection on the third day. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these words of comfort.

These unconditional promises, as it were, that are ours in Christ Jesus.

How wonderful to think that there's nothing we can do to add.

There's nothing we can do to earn. There's nothing we can do to find you.

But all we need and all we could possibly want is found in Christ Jesus.

The way, the truth, and the life. And we know you because we know him.

And we praise you because we know him. We pray all these things in Jesus' name.