WWUTT 941 The Way, the Truth, and the Life?

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the

Father but by me. This is an exclusive claim by Jesus that is highly offensive to our culture when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Well, we come back to our study of the Gospel of John, chapter 14, and I'll start off here by reading verses 1 through 14.

The Apostle John wrote that Jesus said to his disciples, 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 take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.

And you know the way 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, 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,

I have been with you for 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.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the

Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the

Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name,

I will do it. And once again, as I had mentioned last week, it's right here in chapter 14 that we see very many popular passages that we have become familiar with from Jesus' Upper Room Discourse with his disciples, and not just passages that strike our ears that we go, hey,

I've heard that before, or I've even mentioned that or quoted that many times, but we also hear passages that get twisted and taken out of context and used to mean other things, and we'll talk about those as we come to them.

But where we left off last week is right here in verse 6, where Jesus said to Thomas, I am the way,

I am the truth, and I am 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.

This is that claim of exclusivity that Jesus has made, that no one gets to God except through him.

There are not many paths to God. There is only one way, and that is

Jesus Christ. But it is a very popular worldly philosophy. In fact, it is the religion of even our secular age to believe that there are many paths to God.

Now, you say, well, it's secular. Secular is supposed to be irreligious. Well, it doesn't matter. You have people who are irreligious saying that there are many paths to God.

So it is the way of our anti -Christian culture that would say that we can get to a God other than through Jesus Christ.

To say that would be anti -Christian. It is anti -Christ to say there is another way to the

Father except through Jesus. But it's this very claim that the

Jews have made that caused Jesus to rebuff them by saying you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

They claim there was another way to the Father except through Christ. And the claim that they made is because of their heritage, because of whom they were descended from,

Abraham. Because we are children of Abraham, we already have fellowship with God.

And Jesus had to say to them, no, I tell you, you're not of your father, Abraham. If you were of your father,

Abraham, you would have been doing the works that Abraham did. Abraham didn't try to kill God, which is what they wanted to do.

They wanted to pick up rocks and stone him. So then Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires, for he was a murderer from the beginning.

Anyone who tries to claim that there is another way to heaven, to God, to eternal life except through Jesus is an anti -Christ and a false teacher, a false prophet.

Jesus himself said there is no other way to God but through him.

Oprah Winfrey, who is kind of one of the prophetesses of our age, has said that there are millions of ways to God.

And this has become even kind of a niche question for her. She uses this as a qualifier. Whenever she will talk to a religious person, she will ask them something like, do you think that Jesus is the only way to God or to have a relationship with God?

Listen to this interview here. This is Oprah Winfrey talking with Carl Lentz, who is the lead pastor of Hillsong Church in New York City.

Yeah, that same Hillsong from Australia who is popular for such songs as Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Mighty to Save Oceans.

Those are Hillsong tunes. And Carl Lentz is a pastor of one of their churches. Here is what he said when

Oprah asked him about Jesus being the only way. Do you believe that only

Christians can be in relationship with God? No, I believe that when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life in the way

I read that, Jesus said he is the he's the road marker. He's the map.

So I think God loves people so much that whether they accept or reject him, he's still gracious and he's still moving and he's still giving you massive red blinking lights for chances to take a right turn where maybe you would take a left.

But I believe God loves people. And that's what this whole gospel is based on. It's love. You take the love out of it.

We've got a moral book. Now, I wanted to include more of the clip than that, but where they go next is so random.

It's so out there. They really leave the initial question that Oprah asked. So you wouldn't be able to make much sense of it from here on.

What he said from the start was off base. Anyway, you heard the question as Oprah presented it.

Do you believe that only Christians can be in a relationship with God? Carl Lentz said no.

And his basis for his no answer was John 14 six. He said,

I believe that when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the truth and the life the way I read that.

That was what he said. So not what Jesus actually meant, according to the context of the passage.

No, Carl is going to know the way that I read it. The way that I understand that is Jesus is the road marker.

He's the map, which he doesn't explain what that even means. He's just saying something fluffy to appease

Oprah and what her fan base, what Carl knows her fan base would be. Later on, when Michael Brown contacted

Carl Lentz and asked for clarification on that answer, he gave a different answer to Michael Brown. And then

Michael Brown comes out and goes, see, Carl Lentz is fine. He's a pragmatist. He's going to say whatever he needs to say to whatever his audience is to appease that audience.

And Michael Brown got suckered by it after that. But anyway, so Lentz goes on to say, even if a person doesn't know

God or they reject him, he's still going to be loving and he's going to be gracious. There's a certain degree to which that's true.

As long as a person is still alive, God's kindness and patience toward them is that they get to wake up tomorrow and have another opportunity to hear the gospel and repent of their sin and believe in the

Lord Christ. That's what Paul details with the Romans Romans chapter two when he when he says, do you presume on his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

The reason why you're not dead yet is so you have a chance to repent. So there's a certain degree to which

Carl Lentz was right about that. But he has to reject Jesus exclusive claim to make the answer work that he wants to give that will make

Oprah happy. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

And when Carl says, even if a person doesn't know God, even if they've rejected God, he still loves them.

You know where that comes from? That's Roman Catholicism in the Catholic catechism.

Catechism number 846. This is kind of hilarious. The way that this appears in the catechism 846 and 847 and 846.

It says basing itself on scripture and tradition. The council teaches that the church, a pilgrim now on Earth is necessary for salvation.

So if you actually want to be saved, you have to go to church and it has to be the Catholic church, according to their own catechism.

But then you look at at catechism number 847. And here's what it says.

This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ in his church.

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel of Christ, but who nevertheless seek

God with a sincere heart and moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience.

Those two may achieve eternal salvation. So catechism 846 says the church is necessary for salvation.

And then catechism 847 goes. But not really. You just have to love people with a sincere heart.

And that's your way to God. That's according to the Catholic church's own teaching.

And that's according to what Carl Lentz believes as well. A person doesn't have to know

Christ in order to be in relationship with God. But even if they reject

Christ, God still loves them. But then he left that answer and started talking about morality. And that's kind of where him and Oprah go next.

So he didn't even really detail how one truly has a relationship with God. It is only through Christ.

As Paul said in first Timothy chapter two, verse five, there is one mediator between God and men.

And that is the man Christ Jesus. And this is right after Paul said that we need to pray for all people for God desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

How is it that they come to a knowledge of the truth through the one mediator between God and man?

And that is Jesus Christ. No one can pray unto the Lord and have their prayers heard by God.

Unless they are praying through the son, God will indeed hear their prayers.

You know, in the sense that he is omniscient, he is all knowing. He certainly knows what it is that even pagans will pray, but he does not receive their prayers nor look favorably upon them.

If they do not know his son, Jesus is the only way to the father.

The only way to communicate with the father. The only way that we have relationship with the father. The only way that we can know that when we stand before God in judgment on that great day, that we will not perish under his wrath, but be received in his love because that love has been given to us through and only through his son,

Jesus. When it comes to telling his disciples the way to where he is going, he says to them,

I am the way he's saying that he's leaving them for a time because he's going to prepare a place for them.

But he's coming back again, and you know the way to where I am going, he said.

Thomas didn't understand what that meant. Verse five. So he said, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?

And that's when Jesus said, I am the way. Remember what Jesus said back in John 10, that he's the gate, the gate that the enter that the sheep enter into, and he gives them pasture.

He leads them in and out and they find pasture. He says, I am the way, Thomas. I am the truth.

Everything that you can know that is true, that is true for every single person, whether they accept it as truth or not.

We know that truth only in Christ. Everything else that anyone tries to do, establishing a truth or a morality apart from God, they preach and believe lies.

They don't actually know the truth for the only truth is in Christ. Now, even if a pagan person or an atheist or an agnostic comes into something that is true, let's just start with a very basic moral example.

Murder is wrong. OK, so even an atheist can believe that murder is wrong and they didn't listen to Jesus.

Tell them that in order to know that killing people is bad. Right. So how is it that they came into that morality if they do not know that Jesus is the truth?

Well, it's because of the conscience that they have been given by God. It's because they've been made in the image of God.

And as an image bearer of God, they desire. There is a certain sense in which they understand the need for morality, the difference between right and wrong.

And that's because it's been granted to them by God, not because it was given by nature as some sort of survival instinct.

Incidentally, whenever the naturalist makes an appeal to something that has inherently been given to a person or a creature or otherwise by nature, that's an appeal to an intelligent cause.

Natural selection implies an intelligent cause because to selectively grant something like granting an ability to one creature, but not granting that same ability to another creature implies intelligence.

Creation is not random. And even in their own language, they know that when they say natural selection, they're implying that an intelligent cause selected one thing for one species or creature, but did not select that same thing for another creature.

Anyway, that's a rabbit trail for another time. All of this to come back to even atheists and agnostics understand truth because they're image bearers of God.

And though that image has been corrupted by sin, nevertheless,

God's invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.

So that's every man is without excuse. According to what we read in Romans one 20, there is evidence of our having been made in the image of our creator within every single person.

We know inherently that there's a difference between man and animal. We are not the same. Though the naturalist or the

Darwinist might try to say that man is an evolved version of the ape or the or the beast, we have turned into somebody who has more cognition and more intelligence than we did when human beings were once ape like creatures.

However, long ago, they just merely suppress the truth with unrighteousness when they make up such fairy tales for which there is no evidence.

What is clearly apparent in every person is that people are different than animals because people were made in the image of God.

And as image bearers of God, there is some echo of understanding of truth, though that truth may be corrupted by sin.

It is Jesus Christ that shows us the way to the father, and no one gets to the father, but through him.

He is the author of truth. He is the only truth. He is the way he is the truth, and he is the life sin, the corruption of sin, everything that has been subjected to futility because of the sinfulness of man.

All of that will perish. All of that will will fall under judgment, and God will destroy it.

It will be consumed by fire. In the end, Jesus said his closing words toward the end of the

Bible. He is making all things new, and in so doing, everything that is evil and corrupt is passing away and will ultimately be consumed in the final judgment.

It's only in Christ that we could survive such a judgment. All who are in sin, we are perishing.

We are heading to our own destruction. But God, who is rich in mercy, stepped in, interfered with that path, turned us to his son,

Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave so that whoever believes in him will not perish in all that is perishing, but we will be delivered from it and have eternal life with God in his eternal kingdom in glory.

And in this way, Jesus grants us life. He delivers us from death and the wages of sin, which is death, and he gives us eternal life in his kingdom, a place to sit with him on his throne.

As Jesus said, even to the church at Laodicea in Revelation, Chapter three, we are no longer enemies of God, but we are his friends, all who are loved by God through his son,

Jesus Christ. No one comes to the father except through the son.

Jesus said again to Thomas, to his disciples, if you had known me, you would have known my father.

Also, from now on, you do know him and have seen him. And that's where Philip kind of cuts in and says,

Lord, show us the father. And it is enough for us. And 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.

And we'll come back to that particular passage and understand that a little bit more deeply when we return to John 14 tomorrow.

Let us conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you that you have considered our need in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us and you have shown your love for us in this way. So may we be lacking in nothing.

There is there's nothing in this world that we know that could satisfy us the way that God has satisfied us through his son.

We don't need to clamor after these empty philosophies that are going nowhere. But even the the fallen secular ideas of this age, even that knowledge, that corrupt understanding will be consumed by the fire of the judgment of God in the end.

So let us not desire their wisdom. Help us to know the wisdom of God through Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

As Paul exclaimed or explained and exclaimed to the Colossians, we are excited to know

Christ and know his truth according to what your word says. Jesus is our way to a relationship with the father.

He is our way to eternal life. He is the only way that we can be forgiven our sins and know that we have right standing with God, fellowship with you even in this moment as we pray.

So help us to be comforted as we go throughout our day that the love of the father is with us for all who love

Jesus Christ. If God is for us, what can man do to us? In Jesus name, amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of the book 40 of the most popular

Bible verses and what they really mean. Available in paperback or for your Kindle found at our website at www .tt

.com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.