Do You Know THE Way? - [John 14:1-6]

How many of you have unbelieving friends? I hope that's most of you.

If you don't have unbelieving friends, what are you doing? You know, you must live cloistered somewhere because I think most of us have unbelieving friends.

Either that or you're really blessed. But I got one, I got an e -mail and these are the kind of e -mails you just like wait for, right?

E -mail, a guy I've known for many, many years, good friend of mine. And he says, he wants to know why it is, he's not, he's not,

I don't know what he is. His life has been, there are articles written about him, you can read about his life if you want to know,

I'll tell you later where to find him. But he had a very difficult life and now he's, you know, he's older.

He's not religious at all. He writes me this e -mail and he says, you know, I've been reading Exodus a lot.

Exodus is one of my favorite books. He says, I've been reading Exodus and he, now this question has nothing to do with Exodus, which made me wonder, but he says, why is it that when

Adam and Eve sinned, God didn't forgive them right away? And he says, you know, why did

Jesus have to come? Why couldn't God just say, you know what, I forgive you. Why did we have to have original sin, all these kind of things?

Why do we, you know, why do you believe that Jesus had to come and die for sins and all these kind of things?

And I thought this, you know, is a great opportunity.

So, you know, from Adam and Eve to the description of the gospel in Genesis three and then on and on and on, you know, all these things about the gospel and just giving him the gospel.

But he lives in an area where it would be very difficult for him, I'll just say politically, because he's a political creature, be difficult for him politically to become a

Christian. He would not be very popular. Well, why is that?

Because we see a lot of antipathy, a lot of opposition to Christian ideas in our society.

This is a society that has a great deal of difficulty with truth. I mean,

I talk about it ad nauseum. I mean, just the basics. What is a man and what is a woman? It's confusing.

Nobody can know. So it is any wonder that they're confused by ideas of faith and about absolute truth claims that are in the

Bible. Sadly, even Christians, professing

Christians, that is, have difficulty grasping clear biblical concepts.

Now, first, I'm going to back up and say this isn't necessarily Christians first, the first category talking about Americans, Americans generally.

Sixty percent of all Americans believe that, listen to this, everyone eventually goes to heaven, 60 percent of Americans.

And yet, you know, you'll see surveys that say 80 percent, 85 percent or whatever of Americans are

Christians. And you just go, OK, 60 percent of them believe that. Now, listen, the good news is that 40 percent of Americans believe that failing to believe in Christ means you're going to hell.

So 60 percent believe everybody's going to heaven eventually. So that's 100 percent right there. Right. Sixty one percent believe that Jesus is divine.

But here's the here's the next part, 64, and I think I remember that, like, 75 percent think that he's a created being, even though he's divine, whatever, 64 percent say that God accepts worship from all religions, from all religions.

Here's a troubling statistic about Christians. This is about almost 10 years old now. But this survey of American Christians said that 65 percent believe that there are multiple paths to heaven, that Jesus is an exclusive.

Well, there's a real problem. And we're going to address that problem this morning because Jesus says there's only one way to heaven.

That wouldn't make him very popular today. Exclusive claims, exclusive truth claims don't make you very popular.

What do you hear right away? Well, what about the one point six billion Muslims? What about the one point one billion

Hindus? What about what about what about right? What about all the people who've never heard the gospel?

What about the people who did it? I mean, there are all kinds of what about the good people who are just not religious?

What about them? Do you really think that a loving

God? And here was my friend's point. He's like, how could a God who is loving and forgiving?

Send anyone to hell. How could he do that? Well, we're going to see in our text this morning that Jesus is loving.

He's very compassionate. He's very empathetic. There's a lot of empathy in our passage.

But he's also very clear and very exclusive. He doesn't waffle on the truth.

Let's read verses one to six of John 14. The Lord says, let not your hearts be trouble.

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.

Mere hours remain until the arrest, the trial, the mocking, the scourging, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

He knows what's ahead of him. His focus is on his disciples, getting them ready for what is surely their worst nightmare.

I mean, if they could imagine a scenario that would just be horrific, it would be

Jesus dead. Jesus dead on a cross. And Jesus dead on a cross in less than 24 hours.

This would be beyond them, and they're already getting concerned. Last week, we began a series of interactions that Jesus has with three disciples.

First, last week, we focused on Peter. Today, it'll be on Thomas. Somewhat. We won't finish today.

There's a hint. And then we'll look at Philip. And last week, if you recall,

Peter virtually ignored Jesus teaching on the new commandments that they love one another, even as he loved them.

And he focused instead on Jesus' statement at the end of verse 33 in chapter 13 that Jesus was going somewhere.

Peter wanted to know where it was. Where are you going? We said there were three truisms out of our text last week.

Truism number one, some questions are best not asked. Truism number two, sometimes the tongue writes checks you cannot cash.

And truism number three, sometimes the truth cuts you down to size. And of course, the last truism, that the truth cuts you down to size, resulted in Peter being told that, despite his boasting, he would deny

Jesus three times before the rooster crowed. If you recall, as we looked at the other gospels, he said that he would never fall, no matter what happens, no matter what the other disciples do.

They'll crumble, they'll stumble, they'll fumble, but not me. I'm with you right to the end.

He bragged about how he would go with Jesus even to the death. You know,

I think I mentioned the idea of the Alamo. It's not really far out of what he was saying. You know, he just wanted to really brag about his faithfulness.

The truth cut him down to size. This morning, we're going to look at the first three of six unconditional ifs.

You know, normally you think about if, well, if is a condition, right? But what about unconditional ifs?

Well, these are just statements that are true. So sometimes we'll see them in scripture. It'll say if, and it doesn't really, it's not a matter of maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't, it's since.

And so I could have phrased it that way. I just didn't because if is shorter and I'm lazy when it comes to typing.

So six ifs, and we're going to look at three this week, six next week.

And these underscore the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, which is the focal point of this whole passage here.

Our exclusive if number one, if you know the way, if you know the way you'll be comforted now, if you know the way you'll be comforted now, verse one, let not your hearts be troubled.

Now I hear this verse ripped out of context all the time and applied to political issues.

That is really, it's not the point at all. I think if people are looking for comfort in political situations, they should have their hearts troubled and afflicted quite often.

But as I said before, this time in the upper room is, it's very emotional. Jesus is emotional.

In fact, it says in chapter 13, verse 21, that he was troubled in his spirit.

And it's the same verb that's in verse one here. Troubled means to be stirred up, to be,

I guess you could say sick to your stomach, to be filled with just concern.

You know how when you just are focused on one thing, your mind just churns and churns and churns, and that leads to your stomach churning and churning and churning.

That's the idea here. And this is a command from Jesus for the disciples to stop being troubled.

He knows that they're troubled. He can see that. And if we think about the situation, we understand why they're troubled.

They've just heard in the last few minutes what? That Judas Iscariot, their beloved friend, the guy that they've trusted to run the treasury, that they've,

I don't want to say just palled around, but they've palled around with him. They've ministered with him. They've lived with him for more than three years, and they find out he's a traitor.

They're also troubled because Jesus has just announced he's leaving. And now in the previous context, what did they just hear?

Peter, the leader. In spite of the fact that he does a lot of foolish things, says a lot of foolish things, he's the leader of the disciples.

And what happens? Jesus says, you, Peter, you're going to deny me three times.

You're going to deny you even know me three times before the rooster crows. So in light of that, are they troubled?

Yes, they're troubled. Judas, Jesus, Peter, things are falling apart.

They're confused. The men they had grown to trust and rely upon were either falling apart, betraying them, or leaving.

Not only were their stomachs churning, their heads were spinning. Their world was falling apart, and yet Jesus is commanding them to stop.

Stop being troubled. And here's his prescription for ending worry, and it's something that you can apply.

Something we can apply. Something we can carry around with us and focus on.

Look at verse one again. Believe in God, believe also in me. You say, well, how does that help me?

We'll get to that. Now again, think about the context.

Judas the traitor. Maybe you were relying on him. He left, but God didn't leave.

Believe in God. Trust in God. I, Jesus, may be physically leaving you, but God has not forsaken you.

Trust in God. Peter is about to falter. God will not falter.

God is ever faithful. Trust in God. And that's the nuance of the word there.

Trust, or what I'm saying is trust, can mean believe in many contexts, and that's rightly translated to have faith, to believe.

But the nuance here that's really important to think about is trust. If you believe in God, it's not just like I believe God exists.

I believe in who he is. I trust in God. Why? Because I know who he is.

I know what he said. He's trustworthy. Jesus is saying, get your minds off the momentary concerns that you have.

Forget about the failings of people, the difficult circumstances that you're in right now, and even what's coming up in the next couple of hours.

Don't be anxious for anything, as Scripture would tell us. You ever need that kind of reminder?

Well, these men did. It says, trust in God, believe in God, trust in me,

Jesus, also. And by the way, this is a not -so -subtle reminder of Jesus' deity, that he's

God. He's saying that he's God here. He's not saying, believe in God and believe in me.

That's not the Greek construction. It would make no sense in the context. By the way, guys, trust in God, and whatever leftover trust you have, trust in me.

He's saying, trust in God, the Father. Trust in God, the

Son. Trust in me. Listen to what I'm saying. Trust me. Any idea of there being a lesser trust, or a lesser sense in which you would trust the

Son, is contradicted, is belied by this context. So the sense would be just as you trust in the

Father, trust in the Son. As I said, they're in great difficulty, the disciples.

They're kind of, well, let's put it this way. If it was a boxing match, they'd be dazed, wobbly.

They'd be looking in the corner. Please, somebody, throw in the towel. Stop this fight. We've had enough. These 11 men believed, but their faith was being pushed to the limit.

They loved Jesus. They had pledged their lives to him. I mean, think about it. What had they done? They'd walked away from everything and everyone they'd ever known.

Gave up their houses, their jobs, everything, and said, we're following Jesus. We're fully and totally committed to him.

And now he says he's leaving. One of the guys he picks is a traitor.

One of the other guys is going to deny him. What could be more comforting, more assuring for the disciples and for you this morning than take a step back from all the things that concern you.

And I think to yourself, God is in control of these circumstances. God has decreed this from the very beginning.

And here's the thing. Why should you trust God? Because God set his affections upon you from before time began, and he's not removing them.

He's working all things for good, even if you can't see that good right now.

It's not about what you see, right? That's not what faith is. Faith is what you can't see.

Faith is trusting in God. Faith is believing in what he said. Faith is trusting in his person, in his character.

Jesus was their savior. He was their leader, but he was their savior too. And he remained their savior, even though they could not fully grasp the idea of him dying.

They hadn't grasped it yet. But isn't it great, as we look at this text, that their salvation didn't hinge on them being faithful?

It didn't hinge on them responding perfectly. It didn't hinge on them not sinning because they were in sin.

They were worried. Their salvation was fully predicated on the faithfulness of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a message in that for us. If we sin, if we stumble, and we will, it's an if, since we sin, since we stumble, our confidence is not in us like Peter.

That's the lesson he learned. His confidence shouldn't be in himself, in his own strength, but on the Lord Jesus Christ, on what he did.

Jesus doesn't give them a lecture on their need to pray more, to do more, to serve more, to love more, but to believe, to trust, to lean entirely on him.

So that's our exclusive if, number one. Number two, if you know the way, if you know the way, you will have confidence for the future.

Not just in the here and now. We should be confident now, right? Because our confidence isn't in us, and it's not in our circumstances.

It's in God. But we should have confidence in the future. Look at verse two.

In my Father's house are many rooms. Some translations say mansions.

Now, the Father's house is an Old Testament allusion to heaven, what the

Old Testament might call a beautiful habitation or a palace, mansion.

If we think that this is some kind of big house divided up into little youth hostels, little, you know, nasty rooms that we're going to have, that's not the right idea.

He's comforting them, not saying, don't worry about it, you're going to have a place to hang your head, a place to lay down.

He's assuring them of what God will provide for them in the future. Current circumstances can seem overwhelming, but we have to keep our eyes on Christ and his promises.

Again, thinking about how shell -shocked Peter was at this moment, listen to 1 Peter 1, verses 3 to 6, and tell me if Peter learned his lesson or not.

Writing to people that he knew were going to be persecuted. This is what he says, 1

Peter 1, verses 3 to 6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.

It has helped me so much to understand 1 Peter by studying

John, because I just think this is like lifted from this passage, everything that he's experiencing here.

He's encouraging people that are going to be tried to look forward to what God has promised them, and how he's keeping it imperishable, undefiled, unfading.

He talks about how by God's power, do you think Peter didn't recognize after going through this, who by God's power are being guarded through faith.

It wasn't dependent on him, it was dependent on the power of God. And look at verse 6, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, you have been grieved by various trials.

Oh, I don't know, like Judas betraying, like Jesus being crucified, like me denying that I even know

Jesus. Those kind of trials, those sort of refinements. Back to John, these rooms that he talks about, that Jesus is preparing for them, are not little windowless, horrible places.

In fact, the King James translates the word mansions, and the idea is to convey a big living space, big enough for a family to live, not that we're going to live there in families, but the idea is that it's going to be nice, and think about it, if Jesus is going to prepare that place, it's going to be well done, and that's the point.

He says, I don't want you to worry about that, I'm taking care of it. Notice also that there was a benefit to Jesus leaving,

Jesus dying, again in verse 2, if it were not so, would

I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? In other words, if I weren't doing this, would

I tell you that I was going to do it? If there wasn't a place like that, would I tell you that I was going to prepare a place for you? Jesus has intimate knowledge of heaven, and he would not have withheld this news, if heaven was not something to look forward to, he wouldn't have withheld that from them.

He wants them to anticipate heaven, to look forward to it, and more than that, just telling them that this place is going to be great, he is securing that by virtue of his humiliation, his suffering, his death.

His disciples are going to heaven, they're going to this place that he's preparing for them, by his suffering, by his death.

Without that death, they would not be redeemed, they would have no means of having their sins propitiated, and they would have no hope of forgiveness from God.

But when Jesus left, what did he do? He sent the Holy Spirit, so that his disciples would be sanctified, conformed to his image, and fitted for heaven.

Jesus had to leave, and he went, that they might go to heaven as well.

Look at verse 3. And if I go, again, this is not an if, this is when

I go, and since I'm going, I will come again, and will take you to myself, that, and I hope

I can get through this, because this is just like, as I've said in this, I literally broke down in tears at the beauty of this, and I hope you can get some portion of that.

Will take you to myself, that where I am going, you may be also. He's leaving to prepare a place for believers, but he says he's returning.

This is an illusion, or a reference to the second coming. But it's interesting, because he's just talked about how he's going to prepare a room for them in the father's mansion, in this wonderful place we call heaven.

And he's going to make sure that they're accommodated there, and they should look forward to that. So we might think that he says, listen, when

I come back at my second coming, I'm going to take you where? To that place, and I'm going to show you where you're going to live, and it's going to be wonderful, and you're going to love it.

I will come again, and we'll take you, not to your room, to myself, to myself.

Hendrickson says, so wonderful is Christ's love for his own, that he is not satisfied with the idea of merely bringing them to heaven.

He must needs take them into his own embrace. These men are wobbling, they're waffling, and Jesus says,

I'm going to prepare a place for you. You're going to die, and when

I come back, I'm going to take you to myself. I'm going to give you a man hug, as it were.

The hours in front of the Lord were going to be horribly painful, and humiliating, but when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring,

Psalm 53, and when he comes back, he will greet them. He will greet them.

I think he knew what they were going through. I think he knew what they were going to go through. I think he saw that they were suffering.

I think he was going to miss them too, and I think he was looking forward to that day when he would be reunited with them, and I don't think he's any less looking forward to the day that he will be with us.

They will be with him, and they will remain with him. Look again at verse 3, that where I am, you may be also.

Never again, never again will believers be separated from the

Lord they love. When he comes back and takes us, no more separation. John wrote of it in Revelation 21, he said,

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and he will be with them as their

God. And listen again, talk about the tenderness. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have all passed away.

All the things that concern us most in life, all the difficulties of life, all gone.

Back to John chapter 14, out of context. Verse 4 seems like a statement about a roadmap, if I just read it.

I'll just read it, and you just listen to it out of context. And you know the way to where I am going. If somebody just said that to you, you know the way and where I'm going, you know where I'm going, you know the way.

Well, it only helps if you actually know the way, right? Or if you know the location. But in context,

Jesus is going where? To the Father's house, and you know the way to heaven.

This is not a place in a roadmap. This isn't Boston or Jerusalem or any other place. It's eternity with him.

And when he says, you know the way, he's not talking about a road.

He's not talking about a path. He's not talking about the number of steps you need to complete in order to get to heaven.

He's not talking about sacraments or anything else. He's talking about himself. Some of you will know that the church, they call themselves the way.

Why? Because of this passage. If you know the way, you know

Christ. And if you know Christ, you're going to heaven. He's about to make this plain in verse 6, but I don't want to skip ahead.

And there's a clear implication to the disciples and to all who name the name of Christ that they have a responsibility to follow the way, to follow

Jesus. When he talks about following him, man is responsible.

When he talks about following him, he makes it very plain that that is the responsibility of every believer.

Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave on the third day, but you must believe.

Jesus has now prepared the way, but you must follow. So, exclusive if number one, if you know the way, you'll be comforted now.

Number two, if you know the way, you can still ask dopey questions or to be nice about it, you can still have doubts.

All right, let's be nice to Thomas. Looking at the text,

Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going.

How can we know the way? In Thomas's case,

I want to be nice to him. It was only mildly dopey, right? Normally, who would have asked the questions?

Who would have said the silly thing? It would have been Peter. The text doesn't tell us, but it's not really speculative to think, okay,

Jesus, whom you love, whom you've devoted your life to, just said you're going to deny me three times in the next few hours.

Peter might not be raising his hand too much right now. He might be over in the corner just going, what do

I do? He's certainly not stepping forward. So Thomas is just, he's reflecting the group, though.

He's not saying anything that nobody else is thinking. He's just voicing what they're all thinking.

Thomas is devoted to Jesus. I mean, he calls him Lord. Again, he's given his whole life to him.

He may not fully understand what Jesus is saying, but in the context, who would? And the answer is nobody.

The cross is yet to come, and none of these disciples could fully envision what it was going to be. Even though they had been told what was coming,

Jesus had told them that. I mean, we often think, you know, we know that certain things are going to happen.

We know that people are going to die. We know that different things are going to happen. But when it happens, does it still take your breath away? Yes, it absolutely does.

And since Thomas did not understand and we shouldn't be too hard on him for not understanding that the way wasn't a road map, it wasn't a path, it was a person.

If you don't know where you're going, if you don't know what the end point is, you don't know the way there. And so that's his problem.

Now let's get back to, I told you I was going to be shorter, let's get back to the question of how we get to heaven. Let's just consider this.

If there are multiple ways to heaven, if there are multiple paths, if you can be a good

Buddhist, if you can be a good Hindu, if you can be a good Muslim, if you can be a good Roman Catholic, if you can be a good whatever and get to heaven, good

Mormon and get to heaven, then here's what today's text and next week's text tells you.

Jesus was wrong. Jesus didn't know what he was talking about. You might even say

Jesus is a deceiver because he acquitted himself to the father.

He claimed deity and all the power that was in that. He said that he was going to heaven to prepare a place for the disciples.

He made exclusive claims all the time and he told the disciples that they knew the way, the way to heaven.

Well they did because they'd lived with him for three years. So if there are many ways to heaven, why did he call them?

Why not just say be good? Be a better Jew. Be more faithful.

Stop walking so far on the Sabbath. If Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and any other ism is as capable of getting us to heaven as the

Lord Jesus Christ himself, then Jesus has misrepresented himself. He's oversold himself.

He's made exclusive claims that are not true. But the truth is from the beginning of the

Bible to the end, God has made some basic truths crystal clear.

There is one God, not many gods. All of the other so -called gods are what?

Idols. They're false gods. Whatever their name, origin or age may be, you know you might hear well there are religions that precede

Judaism. There are religions that precede whatever. All those things are constructs presented by Satan, by demons to deceive those who are dead in their sins and trespasses who are looking for some way to convince themselves that they are good enough for the afterlife.

That if there is a God, certainly no God would send them to hell because they've been a good fill in the blank.

But the Bible says because God is creator, he alone sets the standard of what is good and right. Because God is judge, he alone sets the standard of holiness and righteousness.

There is one way of salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. Before the cross, and this was one of the questions my friend asked, before the cross, believers trusted that God would provide one who would bear their sins.

After the cross, after Jesus lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death and was raised on the third day, believers, we can look back and see the work of the cross and believe in it.

But there has always been only one way. Faith in God.

That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. Every other so -called way is the broad road that leads to destruction.

Do not be deceived. There is one true faith and every other faith is demonic in origin.

I would invite you, by the way, to just kind of drop that line at your next dinner party. There is one true faith and every other faith is demonic in origin.

Thank you. Can I have another champagne? Yeah. Don't drink champagne. All have sinned and every sin must be paid for.

God is simply too just, too holy to let sin slide.

No human being will get to heaven on their own efforts. It is only in Christ, Christ alone.

He alone is the way to heaven and all that are in Christ Jesus have all their sins forgiven and are granted his righteousness.

Now, if you're here this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ or you're not sure if you know him, please don't leave today without, you know what?

Talk to me. Ask me. Let's talk about it. I don't want anybody to leave here today not sure if it's so much as it depends on me or you.

Let's get things straight between you and the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we live in a world that is sure of one thing and that's that no one can know the truth.

No one can know what it means to know you. Father, we would pray for those who are so deceived, for those who have had their eyes closed and their ears shut to the gospel that you would open their ears and open their eyes and even for those here today who don't know you.

There is one way. There is only the way, the Lord Jesus Christ.

For any listening today who don't know you, I pray that by your spirit you would convict them, that you would draw them that today would be the day that you would cause them to be born again to a new hope, a hope fixed not on their own efforts but on the finished work of the