Our reading this morning is going to be John chapter 14. And we're going to read the whole chapter, John 14, from verse 1 to 31. It's on page 901, if you're using one of the church Bibles. And we're continuing our study in the I Am sayings of Jesus. And just so that you know, the plan for today really is, you know, sometimes we talk about how the indicatives of Scripture always come after, sorry, the indicatives of Scripture always come before. the imperatives of Scripture, that is, what God has done for us always comes before what he calls us to then do for him. And we're very much following that pattern today. This morning we're thinking about what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then this evening we're going to think very specifically about what we then do in response for Him as our praise and thankfulness for all that He's given to us. John 14, 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. 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, "'Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, 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. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father. And I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled. neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I am going away, and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you, before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, For the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Amen. May God bless His holy words to each one of us. A brief prayer, let's pray. Father, we thank you that your Word is truth. We thank you that you have revealed your truth, that we might know you that we might serve You and that we might live for Your honor and praise and glory in all that we do. And so we pray that You would bless Your Word to us even now to that great end. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Of all the things that we might come to learn and grasp hold of during the course of our lives, there is surely nothing, nothing more important than our understanding of the way to the kingdom of God. the way to everlasting life with the one true and living God in His kingdom. That we who are sinners, that we who will one day be dead in the ground, that we would come before that day to understand the road that must be taken, the path that must be chosen, if we're to go on beyond the grave and to live with God in his heaven for all eternity. There is nothing more important than that understanding. And this was the great question or dilemma that Jesus was, in a sense, answering for us in this monumental statement of John 14, verse 6, what is the sixth of these great I Am sayings. The context was that the disciples had been with Jesus now for almost three years. It was the night before his crucifixion. the twelve were with him in the upper room for what would have been the last supper with their Lord. And because of this, Knowing that this would be his last night with his closest followers, Jesus was, in a sense, seeking to comfort his people, to comfort his disciples. He was wanting to reassure them of the fact that although he would be leaving this earth to be with his Father in heaven, though they would no longer be seeing him face to face, Yet the very reason that they would no longer be seeing him face to face was precisely because he was going on ahead of them to prepare a place for them with his Father in his kingdom so that one day he could come back and take them and take us with them to be with him in that place. But notice the one thing that Jesus was really emphasizing in all of this. It was not so much to give his disciples a lot of detail or information about the place where he was going, rather it was to focus their minds on the way to that place. And so in verse four he says, you know the way to where I am going. To which Thomas says, Lord, we don't know where you are going. And so, therefore, is the inference, how can we know the way? It's almost as if Thomas is a little bit like Martha was, remember, back in chapter 11, and how her focus was on the resurrection at the last day, the distant future, and how Jesus, in a sense, brought things right into the present by saying, I am the resurrection and the life. And so in the same way here, Thomas seems to want a little bit more detail about the destination itself, the place where Jesus was actually going. Lord, we don't know where you're going, he says, as if to say, if only we knew more about the place, then we would understand more about the way. But notice how Jesus responds, not by giving more information about the destination, but by effectively saying to Thomas, Thomas, here is the most pressing thing that you need to understand and keep hold of. I've already told you that in my father's house are many rooms. I've already told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. But here is the most urgent and pressing thing. Focus your mind on this. What is the way to that place? I am the way. and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me." See how Jesus always brings it all back to himself. not to focus away ahead too far in the future, but on who He is and the reality that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life. And friends, right here is what is often described as the offense, the offense of the gospel. in a world of post-modernity, of pluralism, of ecumenism, of multi-faith ambiguity. Jesus once again brushes all of that nonsense aside He cuts right through the middle of it all unashamedly, and he simply declares without any qualification, without condition, the exclusive truth that he is the only one who can bring any man or any woman to be with God in his heaven. No one, he says, comes to the Father except by me. Not I am a way to the kingdom of God, But I am the way and the truth and the life. It is clear, it is emphatic, it is bold, and it's the truth. It will either form the very foundation on which we build the rest of our lives, or it will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Now, if you're a Christian, then you already know this and you believe this to be true. This is one of the basic foundations of the Christian faith. But what is very helpful here about the particular words that Jesus used in this great statement is that in describing himself this way as the only one who can bring us into the kingdom of God, Jesus was at the same time pointing us to the very reason why that is the case. In other words, if someone was to say to you, perhaps at some family gathering, or in the workplace, or amongst friends, someone was to say to you, I understand what you believe. I understand that you believe that Jesus alone, he is the only one who can bring us to God in heaven. But then they were to say to you, but why is that the case? What rationale is there for this great claim? Well, one of the ways that you could answer that question, I believe, would be to bring them to John 14, verse 6, and to simply point them to these three words, way, truth, and life. Because in these words are basically three massive reasons. as to why he is the only one who can bring sinners to God in his kingdom. The first thing that we're being directed to and reminded of here is that Jesus Christ is the priest of God's people who has opened up the way to the Father in heaven. You think about the context here. Jesus had told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them, that he was going to prepare a place for them in his Father's house. But what was the first thing that he had to do if they were to one day actually be able to go to that place and be in everlasting communion with holy God in heaven? The first thing that he had to do—the very next day, in fact—was that he had to make the one true and final high priestly sacrifice that was necessary to atone for the sins of all his people and that would thereby open up the way so that we could then draw near to God and so that we could commune with him everlastingly. If you think back to the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, probably the most important duty of the high priest was, in a sense, to keep open the way of communion between God and his people. And how did he do this? He did this by making continual animal sacrifices, particularly on the Day of Atonement once a year. But again, none of that actually atoned for the sins of God's people. An animal sacrifice in and of itself could never have effectually cleansed the people of their sins. And so that entire priestly order, the whole sacrificial system that we read about, the whole Levitical code, was only ever intended as a symbol, as a signpost which pointed all the way forward to the real thing, to the true high priest who was to come, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who in his own flesh would make the real and the final sacrifice that would atone for human sin. And why did he do so? Yes, of course, to atone for human sin, but to what end? To what end did Christ do this, become that final high priestly sacrifice, so that the way, the way to everlasting communion with Almighty God would be made open and kept open for all who believe in his name. You think about it, what is the main problem What is the foundational, fundamental problem of all humanity today and in every generation? The problem of humanity is the problem of human sin. It is sin which separates man from God. It is sin which keeps man out from God's holy presence. So how can that separation between man and God become reconciliation? How can that giant no entry sign all of a sudden become an open door? only on the basis that one would be willing to finally deal with our sin, to suffer its consequences, to pay its high price. And this is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, isn't it? In his body, on the cross. He has opened up the way to this reconciled relationship with the living God, to everlasting life in his kingdom through the precious blood of his own substitutionary death. It's these words of Hebrews 6, verse 19, where it says we have this sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. You think again of that imagery of the temple and the presence of God in the most holy place where only the high priest could enter and only then once a year behind the veil as it were. And yet what does it then say? A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Jesus said, I am the way because he has opened up the way by his high priestly, costly, sacrificial death on the cross for all who believe. The second thing he points us to in these words is that he is the true and final prophet who fulfills the revelation of God's truth concerning salvation. Jesus said, I am the truth. Now, clearly, there are many things that this could bring to mind. We could think about the fact that Jesus only ever spoke the truth. He only ever said the words that were given to him by his Father in heaven. We could think about the fact that he is the one who lived in perfect obedience to the truth all the way through his life on this earth. And, of course, those things are very important. But in this context, What he's most likely to be saying as he declares himself to be the only means by which we can enter into God's kingdom is he is the truth in the sense that he is the sum total. He is the absolute fulfillment of all the truth that was ever prophesied concerning God's will for the salvation of his people. Hebrews chapter 1 says, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. That is, God revealed his truth concerning salvation through men like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah and all the other prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us. That is, in these last days, he has now revealed his final truth and the sum total of all that was ever promised concerning this salvation by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. All of those prophets of old, each and every one of them, they were sent to do what? To proclaim, to describe for the benefit of God's people the glorious truth of God's amazing and mysterious plan for the redemption of his saints, the truth that he would one day send forth into the world, his anointed Redeemer. And those men did so faithfully as they were carried along by the direction and the enabling of God the Holy Spirit. But now, Jesus is saying, but now in this very life that stands before you, I am that truth. I am the one who has come to fulfill and to accomplish all that God ever revealed throughout the days of your forefathers. And of course, one of the greatest examples of this comes to us in that moment in Luke chapter 24, after Jesus' death and after his resurrection. There he was walking along the road to Emmaus with those two men. Two men who were trying to piece it all together in their minds. Just think about the situation. Walking along the road. with the Lord Jesus Christ himself, not quite managing yet to grasp the truth of all that he really was. And do you remember what he said? Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe, to believe what? All that the prophets have spoken. As if to say, if you had really believed the words of the prophets, then you would be in absolutely no doubt that I am the fulfillment of that truth. And then it says, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. What a sermon that must have been. So first, he is the priest who has opened up the way to the Father's house by his sacrifice. Second, he is the prophet who fulfills God's revealed truth concerning that same salvation. And finally, he is the king who delivers his people from death to life in God's kingdom. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth. and the life, the life. Now, I mentioned earlier in this series, we know from Scripture, don't we, that Jesus is the source of all life. He is the source, the origin of all life in the natural sense of what that means. We see that back in the first chapter of John's Gospel in verse 4. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life. But where he says, I am the life in John chapter 14, clearly he's speaking about life in the context of a conversation which is all about salvation and the way to everlasting life in the kingdom of God. And so here he is speaking specifically about the redeemed life. the life which is regenerated or born again, the life which is with God in union with Christ and will be resurrected on the last day. Now, as you think about that life, that redeemed life, think about this. How can it be possible that this soul which we all have, this soul which was dead in sin, dead in sin, how can it be possible that this soul which was dead in sin can not only be forgiven and cleansed of that sin, but actually in the process made alive and then preserved in that new life, preserved and protected and kept in that new life for the purpose of the glorified life in the kingdom of glory. It is possible And it happens and it has happened because the king of that kingdom has come down from heaven to earth and he has gone into battle and he has defeated and he has destroyed the enemies of God's people. He has defeated and destroyed Satan, sin, and death itself. And having done all of this by his life and his death and his resurrection, this same King is the one who has then subdued our individual lives by the power and the work of the Holy Spirit so that we were able to come into union with his person. And having done all of this, having brought us into union with himself, this same king, this king who is the king of all kings, is the one who now keeps us in that new life such that we will persevere to the end. and we will experience a final deliverance in a glorified body on the last day. He is the King who has done all of this for his elect. 1 John 3 verse 8 says, For this reason the Son of God was revealed, so that he might destroy the works of the devil. What are the works of the devil? Death and damnation, eternal separation from the goodness of this holy, everlasting God. Jesus Christ, the King, has stepped down and destroyed his works. for all who believe. And friends, it is on this basis that Christ is the death-conquering, Satan-defeating King of God's people that he can say, I am the life. That just as a king in the ancient world would have the power and the authority over the life and the death of his subjects, So in the same way, Christ has the power and the authority to deliver his people from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his own marvelous light. He is the one who can say, as we were thinking about last time, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. How can he say such a thing? Because he is the King who has done this mighty deed in space and in time. Friends, do you see that when Jesus said these words, In that moment, in the upper room, before going to the cross itself, do you see that when he proclaimed himself as the only one who can take us, that we might be with God in heaven? Do you see that this was not just a kind of isolated claim with no real relationship or grounding in any other related truth? But instead, the reason that he could say this in such an emphatic way, the reason that we can likewise testify to this with our neighbors, and we must, is on the basis of who he is and all that he has done. He is the great high priest who came to be our substitute on the cross, thereby opening up the way for sinners to come near to holy God. He is the great prophet, the one who fulfilled the revelation of God's truth concerning salvation. And finally, he is the great king of God's people, the one who has defeated the evil one. The one who has dealt with our sin and destroyed our death such that all who believe can live in the security of the Father's house for all eternity. 1 Timothy 2.15, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Acts 4 verse 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. Why? Because he alone is the way. and the truth and the life, the priest who opens up the way, the prophet who fulfills God's truth, the king who delivers all who are his from death to everlasting life. Dear friends, may this Christ be at the forefront of your minds with every waking hour. in the year that is to come. May this Christ be your supreme delight and joy and satisfaction in all the days which God has planned for the rest of your lives. Let us pray together. our Father in heaven, we thank you for the way in which you are pleased to set forth before us the blessed works, the glorious works of your blessed Redeemer, of your blessed Son, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the love which caused you to send him into this world for sinners such as us. We recognize, O Lord, that if you were to mark our transgressions, there is not one who could stand before you. For we are sinners who have turned to our own way, who like sheep have gone astray. And yet Jesus Christ has come, this one who is the great high priest of the people of God, the one who not only made a sacrifice, but laid down his own life to be that sacrifice, that he would be the substitute for our sins, that he would make that one true and final offering unto God that would take on and fulfill all of the justice, all of the condemnation that was due to us for our sins, thus opening up the way to the paradise and the glory of your kingdom. We thank you that he has done so as the fulfillment of all that was ever spoken in the days of the Old Testament and through your servants of old. Thank you that each and every one of them was pointing forward to one man, the man Christ Jesus who was to come. And we thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, that you have not only done all of this, but you have done so as that great king, as the great champion, the One before whom all things are under your feet, the One who has destroyed the works of the devil, the One who has brought us to Himself by the ministry of the Spirit proceeding from Father and Son, the One who now keeps us in that blessed union such that we will persevere to the end, all by your grace. We thank you, O Lord Jesus, for that glorious promise that there is coming a day when we will be raised with glorified bodies, a day when we will never again have to fear death or sin or evil or the effects of sin which are known to all men in this world. We marvel at your goodness. We pray that you would continue to apply your truth to each of our lives. We pray our Father at this time, especially for those who are unwell. We think of those who are recovering from operations. those who are suffering with illness, with weakness of the body and of the mind. We pray that you would draw near to them, that you would be pleased to restore them according to your goodwill and timing and purposes. We pray, O Lord, that you would watch over our families and that you would bless us with an ever-growing faith in the days which are to come. that we would know the presence and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in our midst with every waking hour, that we would set Him before us in all that we do, and that we would live for the praise of your glorious grace. Father, bless this Sabbath day to us, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen.