Pastor Scott
Jonas
2/25/18
John 14
I am the
Way, The Truth and the Life
You may have
noticed that we’ve skipped a couple of chapters in John. John 12 is Palm Sunday. John 13 is Maundy Thursday. Today we settle on John 14 where Jesus says,
“I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”
A big
question people ask is “Don’t all paths lead to God?” Often times, people will picture a mountain
with God at the top. All of the world’s
religions and philosophies start at different points at the base of the
mountain. But the paths keep going up
and eventually converge with the other religions at the pinnacle. And there is God welcoming everyone. Don’t all paths lead to God?
Jesus seems
to shed light on this question, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in
God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many resting 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, 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.”
What if
there is not one mountain but two totally different mountains? One Mountain is called Mount General and the other Mountain is called Mount
Special. Both mountains are real but at
the top is a different reward. At the
top of Mount General is How the universe works.
At the top of Mount special is who the universe came from. Mount General can be climbed by anyone with a
thirst for knowledge. Mount special can
only be climbed with special equipment, training and a veteran guide. Two wondrous mountains leading to amazing
discoveries. At the top of one is the
knowledge of creation. At the top of the
other is the creator himself.
In John
Chapter 14, Jesus is talking about Mount Special. If you want to know the creator you need more
than a map. You need a guide. He is the only one who has seen the Father. He is the only one who knows the way. Follow him and he will take you to the top. There is a map we call scripture, but Jesus
is the author of the map. When you read
the map, Jesus says, “Come and see.” The
disciples spent years following Jesus.
They traced his footsteps to a wedding, to a dark alley, to a deserted
well. The path led to a healing pool, a natural
amphitheater, a festival of Tabernacles, the temple at sunrise, and a tomb that
didn’t smell. This path is unpredictable
and impossible to follow unless Jesus is your guide. Jesus came to earth to guide us humans to the
Father. In John 14, Jesus is on an expedition
to take his first recruits to see the creator.
This imagery
of two mountains, Mount General and Mount Special comes from a doctrine called
General revelation and Special revelation.
They are the two ways God speaks to us.
General revelation applies to everyone.
Every person who has ever lived has heard from God. God speaks to everyone through their
conscience and through the creation, the two Cs. Conscience is that moral voice inside of
us. You can live in the remotest of
Jungles but you can’t escape God’s general revelation. He put a voice inside of you which says,
“Don’t steal your neighbor’s stuff when no one’s around.” The voice influences people from every tribe
and every nation. That is why there are
some universal laws with which we all can agree. Do not murder. You don’t have the right to take someone’s
life for your benefit. Do not force
yourself on another person. The voice
says that you can’t have anyone you want.
Don’t lie. God has spoken to all
humans through the general revelation of the conscience. So it makes sense that religions have been
organized that listen to the conscience.
“Treat others the way you want to be treated” is a doctrine in most
philosophies. Even most atheists believe
the golden rule.
General
revelation begins with the conscience and it moves outward to all of the
knowledge in creation. Most everything
God created is able to be studied. If
you study our physical bodies you will learn through the disciplines of
anatomy, biology, neuroscience, physiology and a thousand others. You can study human behavior through
psychology, sociology, anthropology, history and all the rest. People study animals, plants, weather, the
solar system, urban legends, sports, food, dance, traffic, and many many more. If you took all of the general revelation
that is inside our brains in this room it would be a lot. Yet it would only scratch the surface of knowledge. No one can learn it all, but general
revelation is knowable. God made it and
we can learn about. That is general
revelation.
A
psychologist can climb the top of Mount General and declare, “I’ve studied under
Freud, Skinner, and Piaget. Life is a
coping mechanism.” A Professor can climb
up the same mountain and declare, “I’ve studied under Shakespeare, Dickens and
Hemingway. Life is tragedy and
comedy.” A scientist can climb to the
top and say, “I’ve studied under Einstein, Newton and Galileo. Life is incredibly complex.” A World Religion teacher can climb to the top
of Mount General and shout, “I’ve studied Buddhism, Islam, and Mormonism. Life is about sacrificing yourself for the
good of others.” Those generalities are
the prize at the peak of that climb.
We can learn
a lot from people who have journeyed up the mysteries of this world. Science and other philosophies have much to
teach us. But they can’t show us the
Father. God knew that he needed to do
something special to connect us to the Father.
General revelation was never enough.
God had to actually come to earth in human form in order to get the
message across. The father sent the son
to specifically answer the questions, “How do we reach God? Who is He? How does he want us to live?” We needed to know the way, the truth, and
the life. That is why Jesus showed up.
We don’t
have to tear down our neighbor’s mountain.
We don’t have to denigrate the knowledge they have uncovered. We can dialogue with them about their
discoveries and stories. We should
listen to their teachings and testimonies.
We can ask questions and clarify understanding. But then we bring them over to a new
place. The woman at the well asked,
“Which mountain should we worship on?”
This is the mountain you bring them to.
Show them Jesus. He is your guide
and he know the way up to the Father.
Jesus really
is more than a guide. He is the
way. It’s as if the old testament is God
giving directions to find the creator.
He says “Step One. Love the Lord
with all your heart and all you soul and all your mind.” “Step Two.
Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Step three.
Wait a minute I can’t do step one.”
The Father knew we couldn’t follow the directions. We couldn’t accomplish the steps. So he sent his son. Jesus came and said “Follow me.” Then he took them by the hand and spent three
years with them. He said “I am the way
the truth and the Life. “ He led them to the cross where he died in order to
take us to the Father. Then he came back
and said “Death can’t stop you from following me.”
The World is
on a different mountain. It’s beautiful
and full of miracles. But wait til the
get a load of the mountain we get to explore for all eternity.