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Book: John
 Print ( PC Only )
John 14:4-6
I. "And whither I go you know, and the way you know."
A. Jesus has said to His disciples, "Where I am going, you cannot
come now."
1. Simon asked Him, "Where are you going?"
2. Jesus repeated that where I am going you cannot come
now, but you shall come later.
3. Peter asked, "Why cannot I follow you now? I will lay
down my life for you."
B. Jesus then answered the question as to where He was going,
"In My Father's house are many abiding places, and I go to
prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I
am, there you may be also. And where I am going you know, and
the way you know."
C. At this point Thomas burst in with the declaration, "Lord, we
do not know where you are going, and how can we know the
way?"
1. Thomas has been known as doubting Thomas.
a. Doubt is not always a bad thing, there is a
doubt that is good, the kind of doubt that is
honestly looking for answers.
b. There is a kind of doubt that is bad, that is
the doubt that does not really want an answer.
c. Thomas may not believe that Jesus is risen
from the dead, but he is willing to by shown.
"If I can see"
2. There is a beauty about Thomas that is attractive, he
is open he is blunt, he is honest.
a. A lot of times when people are talking to us
they assume that we know what they are talking
about when many times we really do not know.
But we will go on letting them talk as though
we understood just what they were telling us
about.
b. Not Thomas, he is not about to pretend that he
knows something that he really does not know.
c. "Lord, we do not know where you are going."
d. If we do not even know where you are going,
how can we know the way?
D. This is the second question asked by the disciples in this
discourse of Jesus, and Jesus gives to Thomas the answer.
II. "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father
but by Me."
A. Here we find four more radical claims by Jesus.
1. "I am the Way."
2. "I am the Truth."
3. "I am the Life."
4. "No man can come to the Father, but by Me."
B. Jesus once again uses that name of God, the I Am, as He has
done before.
1. 5:43 "I Am come in My Father's name."
2. 6:35 "I Am the bread of life.
3. 6:41 "I Am the bread that came down from heaven."
4. 6:48 "I Am that bread of life."
5. 6:51 "I Am the living bread that came down from
heaven."
6. 8:12 "I Am the light of the world."
7. 8:24 "If you do not believe that I Am, you will die in
your sins."
8. 8:28 "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will
know that I Am."
9. 8:58 "Before Abraham was, I Am."
10. 9:5 "I Am the light of the world."
11. 10:7 "I Am the door of the sheep."
12. 10:9 "I Am the door."
13. 10:11 "I Am the good Shepherd."
14. 11:25 "I Am the resurrection and the life."
15. 13:19 "And now I have told you before it is come to
pass, so that when it comes to pass you might
believe that I Am He."
16. 15:1 "I Am the true vine."
17. When the soldiers came to arrest Him in the Garden
He asked them whom they were seeking and when they
answered "Jesus of Nazareth." He responded, "I Am
He." When He said those words, I Am, they fell
backwards on the ground.
C. "I Am the way."
1. The way to where? To where He was going. Where was He
going? Back to the Father who had sent Him.
2. You have heard that all roads lead to God. That simply
is not true, there is only one road that leads to the
true and living God, Jesus is the Way.
3. He had said in the context of warning them of false
prophets who would be as wolves in sheeps clothing,
that straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that
leads to life, and few there be that find it.
4. He had said, that He was the Way, and that He was the
Door.
5. Solomon warned that there was a way that seemed right
unto man, but the ways thereof were the ways of death.
6. You say, that is too narrow, I don't like that,
I believe that there are many ways to God. There are
many ways to gods, but only one way to the true and
living God.
D. "I Am the truth."
1. When in chapter 18 Pilate asked Him, "Are you a King?"
Jesus answered, "You said it, I am a King, to this
end was I born, and for this cause I came into the
world that I might bear witness of the truth."
Pilate then asked, "What is truth?"
a. This is the question that man has been asking
through the ages.
b. This is the question that the philosophers have
argued over through the centuries.
c. When men have rejected the truth, it is
interesting that they still search for the
truth, even though now they confess that the
truth does not exist.
d. Because they in their worldly wisdom have not
found the truth, it is wrong to conclude that
the truth does not exist. It is better to just
announce their ignorance of the truth. But the
word philosophy comes from the two Greek words
which mean love of wisdom. Thus their pride
will not allow them to confess their ignorance.
e. Paul puts it so well in ICor.1:21 "For after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God."
f. Zophar the friend of Job asked, "Who by
searching can find out God to perfection?"
2. When man by intellect seeks to discover God he always
comes up with the confession of ignorance. Agnostic.
God reveals himself, and a little child is a better
guide to the truth and understanding of God than some
of these Ph Ds who have only sought to find him with
their intellect. For the natural man cannot understand
the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them for
they are spiritually discerned.
3. Man through his intellect has searched for truth, and
has not discovered it. Jesus said, "I Am the truth."
E. "I Am the life"
1. When the Bible speaks of life, it so often is referring
to spiritual life, as it so often is referring to
spiritual death, when it speaks of death.
2. A person can be physically alive, but spiritually dead.
3. Jesus is here speaking of spiritual life.
4. This is what the rich young ruler recognized in Jesus
when he fell at the feet of Jesus and asked Him how he
could have this eternal life.
5. Jesus speaks of those who have heard His word, and
believed on Him who sent Him as having passed from
death to life.
6. John said, "He that believeth on the Son hath life,
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him."
F. "No man comes to the Father but by Me."
1. This exclusive claim of Jesus has upset a lot of
people.
a. Again there are a lot of people who would like
to believe that all roads lead to God.
b. The cross tells us that there is only one way
to God.
2. There is one God and one mediator between God and man,
the Man Christ Jesus.
3. You may claim that you discovered God through
meditation, you may be discovering a god, but you are
not discovering the Father.
G. Again with the radical claims of Jesus, you either believe
them or not. To believe is to have life eternal. To not believe
is to abide in death.
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