The Way, Truth, and Life
John 13:36-14:6,
36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 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. 4 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?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In this sermon, God willing, I’m going to tell you two truths about us, one truth about Jesus, and then I’m gonna try to answer a big question.
First, two truths about us.
Two Truths About us
Here at the start of Chapter 14, it’s still Thursday night — the longest Thursday night ever. And Jesus said he was leaving.
Earlier in the Gospel of John, two different times, Jesus had told unbelieving crowds that he was “going” somewhere, but at the end of Chapter 13 he tells his disciples he’s going somewhere — and we could imagine the worry this might have caused. It makes sense if the disciples of Jesus have troubled hearts.
A troubled heart is what you would call a heart that’s filled with worry and fear and confusion. The disciples are about to step into a world they did not expect, and it’s gonna come through the most gruesome event imaginable. And from one vantage, it’s only gonna get worse for them over the next four chapters.
So if you take it altogether, they are in a “troubled-heart situation.”
That’s what this is: it’s an unprecedented place; it’s high-stress; it’s a “THS” — troubled-heart situation.
And troubled-heart situations bring things out of people.
Peter: Stubborn Resolve
Take Peter for example. In Chapter 13, verse 36, Jesus told Peter that where he’s going, Peter cannot come — not at first anyway because Jesus must go to the cross alone. But Peter is just not having it.
He’s not even sure what Jesus is talking about, but he’s like: No matter what, Jesus, I’m with you all the way!
In verse 37 Peter says, I’ll even lay down my life for you!
See, what this troubled-heart situation brings out of Peter is what I’m calling stubborn resolve. And the resolve part is good, but the problem is that Peter is looking to his own strength to carry him. He thinks he can handle this. He’s saying, I got this!
You can imagine he’s probably got his headphones on, playing some hype music ...
But the deal with Peter is that he’s overconfident that he will do the right thing at all costs. That’s one way to respond to troubled-heart situations.
Thomas: Paralyzing Uncertainty
But then there’s another kind of response in the same scene. This one is Thomas in verse 5. Jesus, in verses 1–4, has just assured his disciples that although he’s leaving, it’s for their sake, so he says Don’t let your hearts be troubled!
Jesus says he’s gonna come back for them!
His end goal is for his disciples to be with him. And he says Y’all know this.
Jesus is speaking encouragement here.
He’s saying: I’m for you in this. You’re gonna be with me.
But then Thomas replies, verse 5:
“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Basically, Thomas hears the encouragement Jesus gives, but he can’t receive it. Instead he says: Jesus, we’re completely helpless here! We don’t stand a chance!
Thomas assumes Jesus must be missing something. Jesus doesn’t get it. Thomas is looking around at the other disciples and he’s like, Jesus, look at us! (He probably sees Peter over here doing some pushups).
Thomas is like: There’s no way we’ll get this right!
Thomas is saying No way do I got this!
That’s what this troubled-heart situation brings out of him. I’m calling it paralyzing uncertainty.
And I want you to see these two responses together, Peter and Thomas — stubborn resolve and paralyzing uncertainty. If Peter is overconfident that he will always get it right; Thomas is under-confident that he will ever get it right. Peter is I GOT THIS and Thomas is NO WAY I GOT THIS. And both are forms of unbelief.
That’s Peter and Thomas, and listen: both responses are in us. Each of us, as individuals, we have Peter and Thomas instincts. And then our church corporately, we have Peter and Thomas instincts. Two truths about us is that we are Peter and Thomas!
And troubled-heart situations bring that out — have we had any troubled-heart situations lately? …
Well if it hasn’t yet, in the days and weeks ahead, what happened to our church on January 18th is gonna bring out these instincts in us: stubborn resolve and paralyzing uncertainty.
And I believe that I have a word from God for our church this morning.
Can I tell you? Actually, let me show you.
Everybody find Chapter 14, verse 6:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
That is God’s word for us, Cities Church!
I’ve told you two truths about us — we are Peter and Thomas, we need help — now I want to tell you one truth about Jesus.
One Truth About Jesus
One truth about Jesus is that he’s the way, and the truth, and the life.
And you’re probably thinking, “Wait a second! That’s three truths!” But no, it’s one. It’s one truth with three facets because you can’t ever have one of these without the other. Jesus is always at every moment way, truth, and life.
And in fact, since the early church it’s been taught that in order for people like us to become fully-formed followers of Jesus, we need to understand each facet.
So back in the fifth century, the church father Augustine was asked to write a little discipleship manual for the ‘everyday Christian.’ Basically, the question was: Can you write a handbook for us on what it means to follow Jesus?
Augustine did, and he organized the handbook in three parts: faith, hope, and love — Christian virtues — but they correspond to John 14:6, truth, life, and way.
Augustine would say that the virtues of faith, hope, and love flow from Jesus himself as truth, life, and way. So John 14:6 is not only about who Christ is, it’s the source for how Christians are made.
That’s what I want to show you now. This simple verse, John 14:6 — this one truth about Jesus — becomes a guide for what it means to be a Christian.
I’m going to follow Augustine’s outline and start with truth.
Jesus said I am the truth.
Jesus is the definitive revelation of God. Which means he is the highest, most absolute standard for what is real in this world and what is true about God. Jesus is the lens through which we interpret everything. He is light in our darkness. He is clarity amid confusion.
To learn Jesus is to learn everything because in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3), and in him the eternal purposes of God have been realized (Ephesians 3:11). So we should get to know him. We have to start here.
If we are to worship him, speak him, share him, we must know him.
And one of my favorite quotes about knowing Jesus is from the theologian Kevin Vanhoozer. He says,
To minister Christ, one needs to know Christ, and for this we need the testimony of the Old and New Testaments, and the tradition of the church’s sustained reflection on that testimony, and personal experience of Christ’s presence and activity.
Learning Christ with heart, soul, strength, and mind alike must be the beginning and end, the center and circumference, the energy and matter [of our discipleship].
Jesus is the truth. Know him. We start there.
But also …
Jesus said I am the life.
Jesus is the supplier of existence. Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power. This has been called “the continuing act of creation.” It means everything is because Jesus says so — and when he stops, it’s over.
In this Gospel we have learned right away that “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3).
In him is life itself. Jesus calls it eternal life; abundant life; the kind of life that every human being longs for. It’s the good life, and I know you want it!
The good life is only found in Jesus.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but Jesus is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Do you see it? — If you have all the stuff of this world, but you don’t have Jesus, ultimately you have nothing. Even if you have none of the stuff of this world, but you have Jesus, ultimately you have everything.
Jesus is the life. Have him. Get that life.
And …
Jesus said I am the way.
Jesus says this first in verse 6 and it is, of course, a metaphor.
The word “way” is another word for “path” or “road” — and we know that Jesus is not literally a path or a road, he’s a person. And so how can a person be like a path or a road?
What does it mean that Jesus is “the way”?
Well, this actually reminds me of when I was a kid, there was a path that ran beside my house. It’s still there. And I always knew two things about that path: first, I knew it was a dirt path; and then second, I knew it led to my great-grandparents house.
So, there was the kind of path it was, and there was where the path led. And both things are in view here when Jesus says he’s the way.
First, I want you to see the kind of way he is. And we’ve already been seeing this because Jesus said in Chapter 13, verse 15,
“I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
And verse 34,
“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
So the kind of path is love. What was Jesus’s way of being? … It was love! — except it’s even more than that, because it’s sacrificial love.
I said this a couple of weeks ago: the love of Jesus is not aimed at our transient ease, but at our eternal good in God — and a lot of people didn’t like that, but Jesus still paid the cost. So Jesus’s kind of way is love that is cruciform. It’s love that’s shaped like a cross.
Which means, listen: if we follow the way of Jesus, we have to be okay bearing a cross. We are going to shoulder shame. We are going to suffer ridicule.
1 Peter 1:21,
“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
So we follow him in the kind of way he is, but now where does this way lead? Where’s the destination? Where does the way of Jesus take us?
The answer is home. Heaven. Where God is.
As Pastor Marshall said last week, “Our home is always him.”
Where does the way of Jesus get us to? He gets us to himself.
He gets us to his fellowship — the fellowship that he has with the Father, together with the Holy Spirit. Jesus invites us into that — and over the next two chapters in this Gospel he’s gonna tell us all about it!
Jesus is the way — follow him. He is the way of the cross, and the way to God.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
The Big Question
Now, here’s the big question: what does this one truth about Jesus have to do with the two truths about us?
How does the way, truth, and life of Jesus transform our stubborn resolve and paralyzing uncertainty? …
It’s amazing that in this Gospel, we see Jesus redeem both Peter and Thomas.
He tells Peter, If you love me, feed my sheep.
He tells Thomas, Put your hand in my side and believe.
Jesus overcomes the weakness of both their instincts by his presence — or can I say, by his realness.
When we are in troubled-heart situations, Jesus knows that resolve is good and uncertainty is unavoidable — we just need to keep our eyes on him.
The last thing we need is for Peter and Thomas to be looking at each other. Both must look to Jesus. Jesus is our strength and our guide. This is not theoretical. The real person, Jesus Christ, helps us. He stands by us. He will not leave us.
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit,
Christ when I rise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
The sum of all our theology and worship and living is Jesus Christ. It’s always Jesus, only Jesus.
He says, verse 6,
“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Isn’t that the greatest news you’ve ever heard? Some people only hear this as restrictive — are you kidding me? This is the most amazing invitation ever spoken. The headline here is not “Restrictive Jesus Only Way to God” — the headline is “JESUS SAYS THERE’S A WAY!”
There’s a way! That there is a way at all is wonder upon wonder! And Jesus is that way.
If you’re here this morning and you’ve not put your faith in Jesus, I invite you to do that right now… Just tell him:
Jesus, I can’t save myself and I’m done trying.
You came to save me, and I trust you.
Believe in Jesus right now.
And if you do believe in Jesus, which is a lot of us, let’s just give thanks to Jesus in this moment. Let’s ask him for more of his Spirit, to remember more of his realness in all of life. That’s our prayer, church, and that’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
We come to this table to remember all that Jesus is for us, and thank him for what he has done. He died on the cross and was raised from the dead and ascended in victory for our salvation. And if that’s your hope, if you have put your faith in Jesus, we invite you to eat and drink with us.
