Text: John 14:1-9
I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH,
AND THE LIFE
V - Who is Jesus?
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. 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, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place 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 know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" There are some weeks when I ask myself, just before I stand in the pulpit, "What do I have to offer the people this week? Is there something in my sermon that will encourage someone along life's walk? Is there a timely story that will make people sit up and take notice? Is there a joke or a story that will bring a smile to someone who is down? What is there in this sermon that will make it worth listening to for 20 or so minutes?" And as I think of my sermon this morning I ask, "What do I have to offer?" And I think that all I have to offer to you today is Christ. He may not seem to be much to some people; when judged by the world his life was not what you would call a raging success. You know how that piece of prose entitled One Solitary life begins: He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was 30. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Jesus Christ may not seem to be much to some people. And they say, "Is that all you have to offer, preacher? Why don't you offer Christ and something or someone else." In their minds, Christ is not enough; they need something or someone more. So, if I present Christ to you this morning, on this platform, they suggest that I also present the other faiths, the other roads to God. So they say, welcome those leaders too. "Welcome, Mohammed, I see you brought with you your copy of the Koran." "Welcome, Buddha. I'm glad you are here." "Welcome, Brahm, although you are but a force in Hinduism I'm glad you are here." While I'm at it, I should welcome Confucius, and Socrates. But let's not forget the leaders of the Jehovah Witnesses, the Moonies, and the Mormons. There now, that's quite a gathering. "Now, pastor," some would say, "you have something to offer." But why is it that I am uneasy? As I look at the crowd that we now have gathered there on the stage - why is it that my heart and my attention is always drawn toward Jesus Christ? Why is it that I know in my heart of hearts that as long as I have breath I will never have anything better to offer, never have anything so complete, so fulfilling, to offer as Christ? Why is it that when I say I have nothing to offer to you this morning but Christ that I know in my spirit that I am offering to you everything there is to offer? It can never be Christ and this [person]; it can never be Christ and this religion. It is always, simply, Christ. And that is enough. Why is that? I look at our Scripture today and I discover why. It is because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. These are his amazing words; you cannot read them without having your breath taken away. Jesus says in our passage, "If you really knew me you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have SEEN him." And again, in verse 9, "Anyone who has seen me has SEEN the Father." This is the most astounding fact - that you and I have had a full revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. He never wrote a book; he never attended a college or a university, but he is God. So, if we wish to know God, we need only to get to know Christ. If we wish to see God, we need only to look to Christ. No further revelation is needed. No other revelation matches the revelation that Christ gave us. So the Holy Spirit tells us in Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." (NIV) And again in Hebrews (1:3) we read that the Son "is the exact representation of God's being." (NIV) This is the amazing fact, that the word has become flesh and dwelt among us. When I say I have Jesus Christ to offer you this morning - this is no hum-drum thing - this is not routine; this is God. No other leader of any other religious faith claimed such a thing. Mohammed taught that he was only a prophet of Allah; his God is so far removed from our situation that he would never walk on earth in the flesh. Buddha never claimed to be deity. In fact, he didn't believe in God. Hindus believe that God is a force, and not a person, so not one of his followers could be God in the flesh. But Jesus Christ says, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." This is the amazing fact; this is the humbling fact, that you and I have had God REVEALED to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Moses asked to see God and all he got to see was a fleeting glimpse of God's back. But we have seen God in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom all the fullness of God dwells. (Colossians 1:19) This is humbling that we should be able to see God so completely, all of his grace, all of his love, all of his glory, all of his authority, in the person of Jesus Christ. All the prophets, and all the servants of God of the Old Testament, longed to see what we see, and they caught only a passing glimpse, but we have a full revelation and can gaze upon all the beauty of God in Christ until we cannot take in any more. All I have to offer to you today is Christ. But could I offer to you anything better? No. For he is God himself. And it is because of this fact, it is because of this truth, that he is able to come to us today and give us two assurances in our text. He first assures us that Heaven is sure. In verses 1 through 3, Jesus assures us that heaven is a sure place; he wouldn't tell us that if it weren't true; he has gone on ahead of us and prepared a place for us. We can be sure of heaven because he came from there. He resides there; it is his house; he knows all about it and assures that there is a place there for you and me. When the scientist Michael Faraday lay dying he was asked if he had any speculations about the future, to which Faraday replied: "Speculations? Speculations? I rest my soul on certainties, not speculations. I rest my soul on the certainty of a Crucified Saviour and a risen Lord who goes to prepare a place for me." The assurance of heaven. Again, no other faith that we have invited onto our platform is able to give such assurance. In Islam, heaven is a paradise of wine, women and song, and is achieved by living a life abstaining from these very things. In addition to this they must follow the five pillars of Islam, repeating the creed, making a pilgrimage to Mecca, giving alms to the poor, praying five times daily, and keeping the fast of the month of Ramadan. But there is never any assurance - they, like the other faiths, are never able to say, "I rest my soul on certainties," because their salvation depends on their own merit. All these other faiths say you must do; Christianity alone says it is done in the person of Christ. So, with Paul, we are able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Timothy 1:12b) (NIV) The assurance of a place in heaven. But there is also this assurance that Jesus gives to us. The assurance that we know the way. Thomas is a little unclear about the way to heaven and asks Jesus, "Lord we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" And Jesus lays out the map for him and for us. He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father but by me." And someone may say, "Do you mean to tell me, preacher, that Jesus Christ is saying that he is the only way to God? He is the only door to God? He is the only highway to God?" And I say, "That's exactly what he is saying." And when we think about it, this makes logical sense. If were to believe that all religions led to God, that all were equally valid, what kind of God would we have? I suggest that we would have a schizophrenic God, who reveals himself as identical with the universe over here in Buddhism, but who reveals himself as the creator of the universe in Christianity. A God who reveals himself as impersonal and beyond the reach of humankind in Islam, but who reveals himself as the one who became flesh in Christianity. What kind of God is this? Not the God who is revealed to us in Christ. Logically we would have to agree that it cannot be Christ plus this faith; it can only be Christ. To say that all faiths lead to God is as illogical as saying that all roads lead to Markham. They don't. Jesus says, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." In that one phrase, Jesus excuses every one off the platform today, but himself. Good bye, Mohammed; good bye Brahm; good bye Buddha. This is confirmed in the teachings of the disciples, as Peter proclaims in 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." (NIV) But, some continue saying, "This is so narrow, so intolerant. In the name of tolerance we must accept all world religions as true. This is what Jesus would want." This is exactly what Ted Turner said just last fall. The vice-chairman of AOL Time Warner Inc. was addressing a gathering of religious leaders convened by the United Nations. There he said, "Instead of all these different gods, maybe there's one God who manifests himself and reveals himself in different ways to different people. How about that? Basically the major religions which have survived today don't have blood sacrifice and they don't have hatred behind them. Those which have done the best are the ones that are built on love." Thus he concluded, "It's time to get rid of hatred. It's time to get rid of prejudice. It's time to have love and respect and tolerance for each other." This is a difficulty. For, as soon as we agree with Christ, that he is the way the truth and the life, and that no one comes to God but through him, we are labelled by society as intolerant, hate mongers, narrow minded and bigoted. And we may begin to question ourselves, maybe we are being narrow minded? O my friends, don't believe it for a moment. We must understand that truth, by its very nature, is intolerant of error. Let's pretend for a moment that there is a group of people who say that two plus two equals 26. But you and I know that two plus two equals four. Are we being intolerant of those 26ers when we say that two plus two equals four? No, we are not being intolerant; we are only stating the truth. As one commentator states, "The same principle applies in religious matters. One must be tolerant of other points of view and respect their right to be held and heard. We cannot, however, be forced in the name of tolerance to agree that all points of view, including those that are mutually contradictory, are equally valid.1." That's nonsense. So Jesus says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13,14) (NIV) All I have to offer to you today is Jesus Christ. It is an amazing fact that he is God, who has come to assure us of our place in heaven, to assure us that we know the way. It is not through a system, or through any other faith, but only through the person of Jesus Christ. But there is this left to say, that this is an amazing fact, but it is, as I said at the beginning, a humbling fact: that we have experienced the full revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. And this must be our attitude toward those who are of other faiths. A firm steadfast humility that says we have the truth, and we invite you to come and share this truth. It is not with hardness of heart, or with any sense of glee, that we dismiss other faiths; it is a heart full of mourning. For here is a group of people with whom we have much in common. We share a common hunger for God. We share a common desire to know God and see him fully. But the difference is that we have seen God in the person of Jesus Christ and they are still groping around in the dark, and O how our heart needs to break for each one, so much so that we be willing to share the truth with them. Richard Tanner is the rector of the Church of the Messiah Anglican Church, located right across the road from the Hare Krishna temple on Avenue Road, a building where A.W. Tozer used to preach. Charles Tempelton used to preach there, but the building was eventually sold to the Hare Krishna movement. And Richard Tanner tells of how members of his congregation had been gathering together for prayer in a room that overlooks the Hare Krishna temple across the road. They began to pray for the people in the temple across the road. Some of the prayers, as they began to focus intercession upon them, contained phrases such as, "Lord show them the error of their ways," or, "Lord confound their attempts at proselytizing," or, "Lord deliver them from Satan's hands." And all of this could be justified and there is truth to those prayers. But the motive from which they come is very unloving, a very judgmental motive. Early one Saturday morning, as they gathered together to pray again for the people across the road, the tone changed completely. One of the group began to pray, "Lord, thank you that you have caused our neighbours across the road to hunger and thirst after righteousness. They are so much like us. Thank you for putting that hunger in them, as you did in us before we came to know your son Jesus." "By our love for them," someone else prayed, "may Jesus be proclaimed. May they see, by the way we care for them, and the way we reach out, that Jesus is in their midst and that he loves them too." They then thanked God for the community that they shared together. Many of those people were disenchanted with the ways of the world. Many of them were seeking something deeper and more meaningful. The group thanked God for the community they experienced together. And so they prayed that, through God's love for them, and in the context of their coming together as a community, they might come to know the source of all life, Jesus. And Richard Tanner concluded, "So, it wasn't that we stopped praying or that we were praying in a different manner, it was that our motive was different. It was no longer, 'We had the truth and they didn't and they had better shape up. But now it was because the Holy Spirit was teaching us to love them.'" All I have to offer to you today Is Jesus Christ - who gives us the assurance of heaven and the assurance that we know the way. May we receive the truth with joy and with humility, seeking to share the same news - all we have to offer the world is Jesus Christ, but may we have confidence that he is enough.
Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - April 2001
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