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Sermon Text: John 14:1-11
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And 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. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9Jesus 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’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe 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 works themselves.
How Can We Know the Way?
1. When our hearts are troubled.
2. When our minds are confused.
3. When our eyes fail to recognize what they see.
In the name of Jesus, the only name under heaven by which we must be saved.
Try telling a toddler, “I’ll be back in a little while! I’m just leaving for a little bit and then I’ll be back…” and see if they believe you, especially if your name is “Mom.” And if you happen to be the one who will be staying with that toddler during that predicted absence, you may be in for some uncontrollable hysteria, hyperventilation, tears raining down like cats and dogs, and not a lot you can do about it.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he tried a similar thing in the upper room with his grown-men disciples, and experienced a similar hysteria. “My children, I will be with you only a little longer… Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” (John 13:33,36). The news caused quite the panic and a flurry of questions, “Where are you going? Why can’t we come with you?” How can we know the way?
We have as our text today Jesus’ answers to those questions as he tries to wade through the emotion and hysteria to comfort his disciples and teach them what to believe. It’s the question spoken by Thomas that we’ll use as our theme question today, “How can we know the way?”
First, 1. How can we know the way when our hearts are troubled? Jesus’ announcement about this being his “going away” party once again sent shockwaves through the room. He had already predicted his “going away,” his impending death, and also his resurrection a handful of times. But each time it seemed they became more troubled and distraught in their hearts about the death part that they didn’t hear anything about the life part.
No doubt, these were troubling circumstances from a human perspective. The Greek word there for “be troubled” has the idea of stirred-up, choppy waters that are tossing about. We can admit that far less troubling things have sent us into a restless night of tossing and turning or giving us a churning stomach. In those times, it feels like the stormy waves are crashing in on us, ready to take us under. Of all the disciples, Peter knew best what it felt like to stand on top of stormy water trusting a word from Jesus, and then the next moment, focus on the choppy waters, doubt the promise, and sink like a rock. Unfortunately, Jesus knew it was soon to happen again.
After Jesus made this troubling announcement, he tries to give a consoling command, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” [Don’t be churned up like the sea.] “You believe in God. Believe also in me.” He’s trying to remind them that he and his Father are one, they’re on the same page, operating the same plan. So he revealed the end of the master plan, the final destination that this “going away” would lead to for him and for them.
“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” Now sometimes we may have gotten the impression from the King James Translation, “My Father’s house has many mansions,” that we’ll each have our own big rich mansion in heaven, as if the luxurious housing is what will make it heaven. No, the point is that there will be room for you to live with the Father, and Jesus was about to make the preparations for that to happen.
Maybe this picture of the ruins of an ancient house from Capernaum gives you a little more contextual picture. You can see how many rooms are built adjacent to each other. What would happen is when a father had a son who was getting married, the son would build a new room onto the father’s house as the family kept expanding, so they could all be together. So Jesus the Son was going to prepare a place for him and his Bride, in his Father’s house.
“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.” Quite literally the Greek says, “I will take you to myself.” That verse helps us realize, the destination isn’t really the house or mansion, the destination is the person of Jesus, and the presence of God our Father and his Holy Spirit, to dwell with them in the house of the Lord forever.
All these years later, and removed from the situation, it’s much easier for us to look back in hindsight to hear the comfort of that verse and think, “Come on guys, just relax and trust the promise Jesus gave!” But we also know what a wreck of troubled mush we become when we find ourselves in stormy seas, or a loved one is soon to go away, or Jesus is coming back to bring our time here to a close. It’s then, when our hearts are troubled, that Jesus’ words call on us to trust all the same. “You believe in God, believe in me.” Trusting in Jesus’ words and God’s promises, which are one and the same, is how we can know the way to our destination even when our hearts are troubled. Did you hear what Jesus told them? “You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:4)
Sometimes when our hearts are troubled, we still like to argue with Jesus about what we do and don’t know, “We don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus had just gotten done explaining that he was going to his Father to prepare a place for us, but the panic and the fear of losing Jesus was doing something very natural to their brains. 2. When our hearts are in a tizzy, then our brains get dizzy—confused, slow to understand. Our ears don’t work, our mouths work twice as fast, and we just can’t think clearly. So Thomas claimed to not know what Jesus just said he knew.
Then Jesus boils it down to unmistakable clarity. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” There is only one way to the Father’s presence, no other way will do, but it’s a good thing you know me, Thomas. I am the way!
Remember those preparations that Jesus was leaving to make to the Father’s house? What did those preparations look like? Was Jesus headed up to heaven for a God’s House, Our Home renovation project? To bake some bricks and saw some 2 x 4’s so he could make an addition onto the house. No, those preparations would be made here on earth by walking the way to the cross and finishing his Father’s blueprint for salvation.
Here it helps to picture the architecture of a different building, either the Tabernacle or the Temple, both set up the same way. These buildings were set up by God’s command to have three main rooms—the outer court where the covenant people could go, then the Holy Place, where only the priests could go, and then the Holy of Holies, separated by a heavy curtain where God’s presence dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant, and only the high priest could go in there once per year when he had made the required sacrifices on the great day of Atonement.
What was the architecture of those buildings meant to communicate to the people? There is a separation between you and God; you don’t have access to him, and you don’t dare step foot into his presence unless it’s by the terms he sets. That is, until Jesus, our Great High Priest, on the very next day, would prepare a way to the Father by offering himself as the great sacrifice of Atonement. As his blood was poured out on the cross, and all the preparations he needed to make were finished, he gave up his spirit, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Separation gone! He had opened a new and living way to the Father so that you can approach him with freedom and confidence and dwell in his presence.
After making the way by his death, three days later Jesus would rebuild the temple of his body when he rose from the dead. So he could quite literally say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Just as the destination was not a place on a map, so the way to get there isn’t by following instructions on a map either, which is a good thing for 2. when our minds are confused. The Way is the person who brings us there—Jesus is the way. And if you know him, you know his Father as well. Jesus said to them, “From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:7)
Still one more time, the hearts and minds of the disciples were reeling in their grief and confusion, and so now their eyes weren’t working either. This time, Philip pipes up looking for more proof. “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” (John 14:8)
At this point, Jesus seems to be growing a little bit more disappointed with the continued questions. “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’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?” (John 14:10).
Here Philip stands looking at the one who had fed the five thousand, healed the sick, even raised the dead, and was begging for another sign. Jesus had already given unmistakable proof, visual evidence, that he was the Messiah sent from the Father. So one more time, Jesus calls his disciples to believe. “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 works themselves.”
3. When your eyes fail to recognize what is right in front of you, Jesus calls you too to believe his word. He calls you to trust in him, and to see by the eyes of faith. And you who have neither seen Jesus in the flesh, nor beheld the Father’s face, have seen that the Father’s written plan was accomplished by the Son’s tangible work, leaving really only one more promise to be fulfilled—that he’ll come back to take us to himself, to be where he is.
Every now and again, the devil will sneak up on me and slip a little thought into my brain. Do you think he’s really still coming back? After all this time, 2000 years, you think all that’s going to still come true. The timer is up. He’s not coming back.
Here’s what we need to ask ourselves. Did the Father promise to send his Son? Yes, the first promise was made way more than 2000 years before Jesus was born. Did Jesus live and suffer and die and rise just like the Bible said he would? Yes, he did every one of those things, just as he also said he would. Will the Son come back to take you to be with him in his Father’s house? Yes, he will, or he would not have told you so! Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God who does not break his promises. Trust also in Jesus, the Way and the Truth and the Life. Amen!