JESUS, THE WAY
* Key Verse 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.””
1. Read verse 1. Why were the disciples troubled in heart? (1a, 13:33) How did Jesus help them? (1b) What does it mean to trust in God? What is the significance of trusting also in Jesus?
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
* John 13:33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told
the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
There was much to trouble them and they were filled with grief. (John 16:6, 16:22)
They were about to part with their shepherd and teacher.
They were to be left alone to meet persecutions and trials.
They were without wealth, without honor, without friends.
Jesus’ death would demolish all their plans and dreams.
The way in which Jesus phrases this implies that they should "stop being troubled"
Jesus urged the disciples to maintain both trust in God and himself. By a firm trust in God the Father and Jesus the Son, they could overcome their grief and fear and their true comfort was to be found in absolute trust in God and Him. The double imperative form (“Trust in God; Trust also in me”) teaches us Jesus is giving an absolute command.
The essence of trust is not the intellectual process of assent to a proposition, but the intensely personal act of yielding up will and heart to a living person. ‘To trust in God’ means entire commitment of yourself to Him in all your relations and for all you need, and absolute confidence in Him as all-sufficient for everything that you can require.
‘Also’ indicates that Christ points to Himself as the object of precisely the same trust which is to be given to God. There is an indissoluble union between him and the Father. Faith in Christ and faith in God are not two, but one. Faith in God which is not faith in Christ is imperfect and incomplete. In Him faith in God gains present reality and becomes complete.
2. Read verses 2-4. What promise did he give to his disciples? (2, 3) What does Jesus mean by “my Father’s house” and “a place for you”? (2) Why is it important to believe this promise? Why did Jesus say, “You know the way to the place where I am going”? (4)
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus promised to his disciples.
“I am going there to prepare a place for you”
“I will come back”
“I will take you to be with me that you also may be where I am”
My Father’s house
Heaven, the peculiar dwelling-place. The Home of God and his people.
It may include universe as the abode of the abode of the omnipresent God
The temple at Jerusalem had been called the Father’s house because it was there that the symbol of his presence dwells, because it was there He was worshipped.
There is only one other occasion our Lord used this expression. It occurs in John 2:16, where he cleansed the temple. Here ‘My Father’s house’ is the reality of which the earthly temple was intended to be the shadow. John 14 describes it as the final dwelling place for the saints.
Another similar occasion is found in Luke 15, where it is presented as the place of joy and gladness. “When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing”.
Prepare a place for you
The Lord Jesus has procured the right—by His death on the Cross—for every believing sinner to enter Heaven.
He has "prepared" for us a place there by entering Heaven as our Representative and taking possession of it on behalf of His people.
He secured a welcome and a permanent place in Heaven for His people.
The fact that Christ has promised to "prepare a place" for us—which repudiates the vague and visionary ideas about heaven.
You know the way to the place where I am going
Jesus was going to His Father; to His House of many mansions; to the place where the disciples would be also later.
Here the way was the process by which they would arrive there. It was not simply the goal, but the path to it.
Jesus’ consolations for the disciples
Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
The assurance that the Father’s house will be our eternal home.
The realization that Jesus has done everything necessary to secure us a welcome there and Home for our reception.
Hope that he is coming in person to receive us unto Himself.
3. Read verses 5-7. How did Thomas respond to Jesus’ promise? (5) What does Jesus teach about the way to the Father? (6) How can Jesus be the way, the truth, and the life? Why can no one come to the Father except through Jesus? (6b, 7)
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?
“My Father’s house, Prepare a place for you, His promise to come back, and Take his people to be with him” was dim and unreal to Thomas.
Thomas’s three conversations in John’s gospel
John 11:46 “Let us also go, that we may die with him”
John 14:6 “so how can we know the way?”
John 20:25b “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it”
In all three conversations, he appears as mainly under the dominion of sense, as slow to apprehend anything beyond his limits. His mind was set on earthly things and dimmed.
Jesus’ answer is more comprehensive than the question of Thomas.
“I am”: The pronoun is emphatic. Jesus turns the thoughts of the disciples from a method to a Person.
He separates Himself from all men by that representation that He is not merely the communicator or the teacher or the guide, but that He Himself is, in His own personal Being, Way, Truth, Life.
Adam’s privilege in relation to God: He was in communion with his Maker; he knew Him, and he possessed spiritual life. But because of his disobedience, this three-fold relationship was severed. So man has a three-fold need (reconciliation, illumination, regeneration). This need is perfectly met in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Way, The Truth, and The Life
The Way
(i) By which two worlds are united, so that man may pass from one to the other. Christ spans the distance between God and the sinner.
(ii) What faith needs to lay hold of is the glorious truth that Christ has come all the way down to sinners.
(iii) The sinner could not come in to God, but God in the person of His Son has come out to sinners.
(iv) We can have access to God only by obeying the instructions, imitating the example, and depending on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Truth
(i) The source of truth, or he who originates and communicates truth for the salvation of men.
(ii) Truth is a representation of things as they are, by which is summed up all that is eternal and absolute in the changing phenomena of finite being.
(iii) Truth is not to be found in a system of philosophy, but in a Person-Christ. He reveals God and exposes man. In Him are hid "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3).
The Life
(i) He is not subject to death but made it subject to Him. He died to demonstrate the power and continuity of his life. (John 11:25)
(ii) The Bible teaches that the natural man is spiritually lifeless. He walks according to the course of this world. He is only alive to things of this world, but is dead to heavenly things. The one who believes in Christ has crossed over from death to life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
Because he is the way, the truth, and the life, he is the only means of reaching the Father (cf. 1:18). Christ is the only way to God. It is utterly impossible to win God’s favor by any efforts of our own.
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Heb 10:19-22 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
4. Read Verses 8-11. How did Philip respond? Why? How does the Father show himself? (9-10, John 1:14, 18) What does Jesus want his disciples to believe about himself? How can we believe? (10b, 11b)
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
* John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
* John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.
Philip here referred to some outward and visible manifestation of God. God had manifested himself in various ways to the prophets and saints of old, and Philip affirmed that if some such manifestation should be made to them they would be satisfied.
Philip was a realist, so he demanded that he and his associates might see the Father. Philip was also materialistic; abstractions meant little to him.
Nevertheless he had a deep desire to experience God for himself. If he and the other disciples could only apprehend God with at least one of their senses, they would be satisfied.
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.
The corporeal representation of God, such as Philip desired, was unnecessary because a far more glorious revelation of Deity was there right before him. The Word, made flesh, was making his dwelling among men, and his glory was the glory of the One and Only. .
Also God had been manifested in the works, and the teachings of Christ, so that they who had seen and heard him might be said to have had a real view of God.
These manifestations have been made so that we may learn his character, his will, and his plans.
The knowledge of the Son was itself, of course, the knowledge of the Father. There was such an intimate union in their nature and design that he who understood the one understood also the other.
There were two grounds on which the disciples might believe; one was his own testimony, the other was his works.
Jesus Christ in all His words and in all His works is the perfect instrument of the divine will, so that His words are God’s words, and His works are God’s works.
The true bond of union between men and Jesus Christ is faith. Jesus invites us to this faith on the ground of His union with God.
5. Read verses 12-14. What promise does Jesus make to anyone who has faith in him? (12, 13) On what basis does Jesus want us to ask? (13, 14)
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Will do what I have been doing; Will do even greater things than these
Jesus was expecting the apostles to continue his work and do even greater things than he had accomplished.
Such an expectation seems impossible in the light of his character and power; yet, through the power of the Spirit whom Jesus sent after his ascension.
The wider spiritual effects of their preaching which followed after Pentecost (Acts 2:41).
The influence of the early church covered the Roman world, whereas Jesus during his lifetime never traveled outside the boundaries of Palestine.
Jesus multiplied his ministry after his departure through his disciples.
We must grasp firmly the assurance that the living Christ is actually working by the present forth-putting of His power in the world today!
The elevation of Christ in His humanity to the right hand of God carries with it the pledge of the greater works promised. (Phil 4:13, Eph 4:8, John 16:7)
Two conditions on which the Lord Jesus works for and on his servants
Faith: The simple act of loving trust in Jesus Christ opens the door of our hearts for the entrance of all His Mightiness. The secret of Christian’s weakness is the weakness of their faith.
Prayer: Our power depends on our prayer.
God’s willingness and fullness does not depend on our prayer. But our capacity to receive that fullness and the possibility of its communication to us depend on our prayer.
There is exact conformity between the disciples' prayer and Christ’s will.
He promises Himself to do what they ask, and not only that they shall receive their petition.
God may be openly revealed in majesty as Father in the Son, for he who obtains his prayer through Christ, who claims to act in the Father’s name (John 5:43).
In my name
We pray in His person as fully identified with Him, asking by our very union with Himself.
We plead before God the merits of His Son. Though we are undeserving, yet he loves us on account of his Son, and because he sees in us his image. When we truly ask in the name of Christ, the Father looks past us, and sees the Son as the real suppliant.
We pray only for that which is according to His perfections and what will be for His glory. When we do anything in another’s name, it is for him we do it. Yet how constantly do we overlook this principle as an obvious condition of acceptable prayer! To pray in Christ’s name is to seek what He seeks, to promote what He has at heart!
No privilege is greater than that of approaching God in the name of his Son; no blessings of salvation can be granted on any who do not come in his name.
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