Teaching Text

JOHN 14:1-14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 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? 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. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus 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’? Don'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. 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. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Sermon Recap

This week, Pastor Tim Brown continued our "Come to Me" series by exploring one of Jesus' most profound "I Am" statements: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Set against the backdrop of Jesus' final hours with his disciples, this passage invites us to ask ourselves not just what we believe about Jesus, but whether we truly know him.

The Christian life as described by Jesus in Scripture is about relationship, not religion. Pastor Tim described the traditional concept of religion as transactional or an attempt to earn God's approval through performance, or a set of instructions on how to live. We can know a lot about God, as Jesus describes in Matthew 7, but what he really cares about is whether or not we know him personally. The beautiful thing about Christianity is that salvation is not based on a bunch of practices, but on knowing the person of Jesus himself. And this is the way - trusting him with childlike faith. Which begs the question, do you KNOW Jesus? Do you have an actual relationship with him, with intimate knowledge and friendship, and at a level that moves beyond our knowledge and understanding and into our hearts? Ultimately, Jesus is the way to happiness of earth, and to heaven. And there is no barrier to get to know Jesus; all we have to do is trust him.

Pastor Tim also challenged us to examine where we get our picture of God. If we want to know what God is truly like, we can look at Jesus: weeping at a tomb, washing a betrayer's feet, eating with the outcast, forgiving the condemned.

Finally, Pastor Tim turned to what Jesus means by "life" — not merely existence, but the full and overflowing life that belongs to God and was always meant to be shared with us. Using the image of Mary's alabaster jar, he asked us to consider the question: what are we protecting that might actually be keeping life from flowing through us?

The invitation to us is simple: call on Jesus. Whether we're meeting him for the first time or realizing we're known a lot about Him without truly knowing him, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.