John 14, Morning Praise (3)
First B Jackson
2013-02-24

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

----
Today, you all know that we're in a study on John and of all the verses in John that are famous, there are tons of them. We've been through a whole lot of them. John three sixteen probably is the most famous, what most well known. But John fourteen six is not too far along behind that and that's it right there. The period of conference, it starts transitioning in.

Last week when Eric Basie was here and he was preaching, he was talking about this period of conference that he got and going. It's Jesus in the upper room with his disciples. Now, a couple weeks ago, we did the a story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus and that was kind of the crisis moment. It is the beginning of the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified, Jesus said. He said it several times but then, instead of being public ministry from then until the cross, what we see is Jesus's private ministry with his disciples, his friends, with Christians for the most part.

This is a picture of a barn. Looks like a barn, a church in Rio Bravo, Mexico. When I start reading, a lot of times I'll read in English, then I'll read in Spanish, then I'll read a little bit just to see if anything sheds a little different light on something. We used to take teams in, and this is the first thing that you get to coming into the town we lived in in Mexico. And when people we bring teams from Georgia and Alabama and Florida and all over everywhere Mid Midwest too.

But a lot of the Alabama teams especially would look at it and say, Jesus is an El Camino. Is the way. That's what it means. Who knows why Chevrolet decided to call El Camino the way? It's unless you wanted a Malibu and a pickup truck, couldn't decide between the two.

But Jesus es del Camino. For avoiding missteps, lies, and death in this life and the next, Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. And so that's what we're gonna go on. And I think this is a short sermon. Donnie said, don't ever tell him it's a short sermon just in case it doesn't turn out to be true.

I have a short sermon, then I have a short sermon on top of it to share with you that's from an older preacher who I think cast great light on this verse in particular. So it transitions from the period of crisis in chapter twelve thirty six. That's where it turns in Jesus. It's after the Greeks have been seeking Jesus and he does a long exposition about his death publicly. Apparently, with the Greeks listening and then they retire back to the upper room.

If you pay attention to the other gospels too, Jesus sent a couple of the disciples ahead, not Judas to set up the room where they would meet. He didn't send Judas and he didn't let Judas know where it was because at this time Judas had already made his deal with the authorities. And so he sends ahead a couple of disciples and they go find this room and it's a little bit covert because Jesus wanted for this meeting place to be a quiet, secret place that he could share with his friends. So when he let's go. The conference with his believing disciples begins about a chapter later.

That's after the foot washing. After he washed Judas' feet knowing that he would betray him as Eric was telling us last week. After he served him in that way, he dismissed him and, you know, go and what you must do, do quickly. He knew he had a limited time. Now, in John, it looks like, must not have been too limited.

It's three chapters long. It is three chapters of Jesus's conference with his disciples. What he was doing during this conference is preparing them who had been those who had been walking with him for three years. He was preparing them for what it was going to be like. What is life going to be like without me physically here with you?

We look and we've had the benefit of being able to read to the end of the story and see that what Peter do, what did the other disciples do when Jesus was gone? In between time, even though he had this period of conference, they went back to fishing. What else are they going do? That's what they did before they met Jesus. That's all they knew how to do.

So, that's what they did. They went back to fishing. Jesus was preparing them during this conference not to go back to the religiosity and religion that they had known. And so this is where this verse comes in. This is a continuous farewell address given by Jesus equipping.

A lot of times, the verse that we're going to go over in particular days, John fourteen:six, you'll see it used evangelistically and that's fine to do that. But in this context, Jesus was really assuring, reassuring, and equipping his disciples with a very exclusive message. That sounds harsh in today's pluralistic society. I'll come back around to it a couple of different times, but it's a farewell address. It's interrupted only by the disciples' questions.

We hear from Thomas. We hear from Philip. We hear from Peter while he's trying to tell them, okay, this is what it's gonna be like. This is the game plan. Woah.

Woah. Woah. A second. I have a question. You hear that a couple of different times.

I will go over the context again. Always good when you're studying scripture to figure out who it is, when, where, and why. Who is it? It's the believing disciples. This is after he dismissed Judas.

It's actually after he had told Peter that he would deny him three times. He'd already given Peter that heads up in the end of chapter 13. When was it? It was the night that he was betrayed. So, when he dismissed Judas, he knew that Judas would be coming back for him.

If you're looking at where, it starts in the upper room but around fourteen thirty one or somewhere, Jesus says, alright, let's get up from here and go. He knew that there had been enough time for Judas to get to this chief priest and come back And so he gets up and they go en route to the Mount Of Olives Garden Of Gethsemane. So they're walking from the upper room, maybe through the temple, maybe through the temple grounds, but they were on their way to the Mount Of Olives. And the why is equipping. Now the what is the actual content content of the discourse.

And since I'm only gonna cover one verse really today, I'm gonna go through six verses, but the one that I'm really gonna concentrate on is fourteen six. Read that. It's so good. It's so so good especially if you'll read it thinking, this is Jesus to a beloved disciple. If you consider yourself a friend of God, if you consider yourself to be a Christian, then Jesus is speaking to you in these three chapters and it's really, really encouraging.

If you look at it with those lies, I mean, I mean, A lot of times when we read the scripture, we're like, I know I ought to read the Bible. So I'm gonna read it. And you get to a chapter and you're just reading through it going, yeah, don't know what that means at all. But I know I'm supposed to read the Bible. Sometimes the words are just jumping off the page.

Sometimes the key to unlocking it, making making the things jump off the page, getting that pray for illumination, and then ask God, Who is this speaking to? Is this speaking to me? This is speaking to us as Christians. It was motivated by love and concern for them and for us and for others. The evangelistic use of the scripture is not a misuse of it, but it tends to be what people say.

When I was a teenager in Shiloh, Georgia, Manchester, Georgia was the nearest town before we bought groceries, nearest town with a red light. And when we went there, they had like a youth Jackson Hole Youth Alliance. They had a youth alliance that we started and it was called the way and it was based on this verse and it was all about reaching the unreached kids for Christ in the community. Bring em in. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

I think that that's fine to use it that way but the way that he was using it, he was assuring them of the truth of it. So this is the verse. I am the way and the truth and the lie. I love the microphone being on my head so I can walk around like this. John fourteen one through six is what we read.

So John fourteen one. This is right after, immediately after, he was speaking to Peter about his denial. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. That first verse, do you believe in God, believe also in me?

Both of those are I'm a grammarian. Here it goes. Both of those are in the indicative tense, but because of the peculiarity of that verb, it can also be a command. Just like in English, we say, I believe or believe with your fingers. Believe.

So Jesus says, right before that, the let not your hearts be troubled. That's a direct command. He's saying it directly to the disciples. He's saying it directly to you. Whatever it is that's bothering you, don't let that bother you.

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. He's saying, you believe in God. That's indicative. It is just indicates the truth.

You believe in God. And he's speaking to his disciples. He's speaking to Christians before they were known as Christians and he said, you believe in me? Why in the world would your hearts be troubled? You believe in God.

You believe in me. You have within you the power of God living in your heart. You believe in God. You believe in me. Now, most modern English translations go, believe in God, believe in me and that's why we end up using this as an evangelistic passage but he's speaking directly to his beloved disciple.

So, you believe in God. He's assuring them. Believe in me. That's verse one. Verse two, in my father's house are many.

What does your version say? Mansions. Mansions, mansion used to be like motel or room and it snuck in through the Latin Vulgate into William Tyndale's translation in the fourteen hundreds. This is a long time back that we have it as mansions. It's really more like rooms, cells, not like in jail cells.

Like in a monastery cells. Places that are rooms. And if you look at this, in my father's house are many this is New King James, so it says many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

In Jewish custom, according to the times, a father would have a house and as a bridegroom would prepare for his bride, he would add on to dad's house. He'd go you know, the betrothal period is very official. He comes back out of dad's house and he starts building on a place for he and his bride to live out their days in his family. So when Jesus says to his disciples, I'm going to prepare a place for you. He's saying, this is like, you know, we we get it through Paul, the the bride of Christ and the the body of Christ and all of those different analogies.

We we get that. But this is very early on. It's before the cross. When when he's speaking to the disciples, he's given them something that they would have known. I'm going to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. There's no doubt about it. The tense of verbs there, the voice of verbs there. It is I myself am going and I myself am coming back. No doubt.

Bodily return of Christ. That where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know and then Thomas interrupts him. Thomas is always a realist. We call him doubting Thomas.

Thomas pays attention to what's going on. Thomas is looking for what's going on. When Jesus had warned them ahead of time, if anybody comes to you pretended to be the question, Thomas actually does. When he comes back after the resurrection, he said, nope, not till I put my hands in the wounds. We call him doubting Thomas but think of the faith that it took.

You remember a couple chapters back when they were down and Jesus said, okay, let us go up to Bethany. And Thomas says, alright. Even if they're gonna kill us, let's go with him. He was willing to follow him even unto death. So, Thomas, we give him a bad rap but he's he's pretty good especially it shows he's listening.

Listen to what he says. Thomas said to him, lord, we do not know where you're going. A little earlier, a couple chapters back, Jesus had foretold his death in the end of chapter 12 and he said, where I'm going, you can't go with me right now but I'll come back for you. Where I'm going, you can't go but I'll come back for you. And he says again, he said, lord, we don't know where you're going.

And how can we know the way? He's a realist. He wants a map. He wants a map quest printout that has been proven. He's used it before.

No. And Jesus said to him, this is the context of this very famous verse. I am the way and the truth and the life. I'm saying that in Spanish now, in Greek. Spanish and Greek.

No one comes unto the father except through me. Now, this is where we just break this verse down, and it is straight up grammar. I am. Y'all remember this dog? This dog never would have been famous if he actually said that.

Quiero Taco Bell. He never would have been famous. You wouldn't know who he was right now. But what did he actually say? Yo, Quiero Taco Bell.

That's different. That's a totally different thing, and it transmits even into English. In Spanish, Quiero Taco Bell means I want Taco Bell. That's what it means. So does Yo Quiero Taco Bell.

That's exactly what it means. I want Taco Bell. But you can't even add exclamation points to this because it's like, yeah, I want Taco Bell. Might as well. They haven't left Jackson yet.

This this is years ago. You have to think back. But is in fact, it deserves an exclamation point because in the peculiarities of the Spanish language as well as the Greek, when you say, I want, you can just say it as. And in Greek, you can say, hey, me. That means I am.

Now, when you put the ego, like where we get our word ego from, when you put ego, ego, I, the I part. When you put ego in front of Amy, it means, I am. It screams it. So, when Jesus says, I am. He says, in all of these places, Ego and me.

For us, it's not that big a deal, big deal. I am. But for Jews, familiar with the Old Testament, to hear I am, start something off with the Ego in front of it. It calls back to the Old Testament's I am. Tell them I am sent you.

I am that I am, God almighty. So, the seven I am statements of Jesus in John. This is the sixth one. This is the sixth one that has a predicate nominative. This is the sixth one that has an object, the I am, and he tells what he is.

But when he starts off with I am, it's a very, very strong claim to deity. I am the bread of life. He is our sustenance. I am the light of the world. And then later on in Matthew, he says, we you are the light of the world.

He spreads the light to this world. I am the door. That's gonna come back later on. I am the good shepherd. I am, he says to Martha and Mary at the raising of Lazarus right before he proves it.

I am the resurrection and the life. And right here he says, I am the way, the truth, the life. We'll see next week, I am the true vine. But don't forget this one. This one does not have that predicate nominative.

This one doesn't have anything that says I am anything. This one, there's no doubt about whether this is claimed to be it or not because most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Ultimate being. No doubt about it. No past.

No future. He is outside of time completely. He is. Always. John eight fifty eight.

Now the way. It does not say I am a way or not. In today's society where we live, it is not politically correct to press down on or to claim that anyone's beliefs or religion are not true and valid. Whatever you believe is okay. That's what our government would tell us.

Whatever you believe is okay according to the government. Like, whatever you believe is fine according to our society. That's alright. But where will it get you? That's what Jesus is speaking to with the disciples.

Now, at this time, religiosity had been their past. Jewish religiosity having to do the right things at the right time in the right way in order to atone for sin which we find out that the blood of bulls and goats never did atone for. So they had to do the right thing the right way. Does that remind you of any other religions in the world today? Every other religion in the world today.

Jesus does not claim to be a way. All roads lead to the same place. I would agree with that statement if they would qualify just a little bit. All roads except one lead to the same place. The way.

Originally Christians were not called Christians. They're called Christians for the first time in Antioch. What they were called for a long long time and still today in some places they're called followers of the way, not a way, a certain way. That's a cult if it's just a following of a way, following the way. So anything outside of the way is a misstep.

It is by very definition off of the way, the path, El Camino. It is undoubtedly an error and it has grave consequences. Jesus speaks about the wide and the narrow road. Wide and the narrow path. There is a narrow path.

He is in. The way. Off of that is the wide road. Where does that lead? Destruction.

Destruction. Perdition on the way to destruction. It will not get you where you wanna go. It will it's not like Visa. It's everywhere you wanna be.

It it will it will not get you where you are. So the next thing is and a lot of people and all a lot of the commentaries and a lot of reading I've done on this, they say the way is the big thing and then truth points back to it and says he's the true way and then life means he's the way of life. No. They're separated. John separates them with an and in between each one.

This is a grammarian sticking point, but I'll admit to it. Have you all ever seen that comma that goes before the and? You know what that's called? That's called an Oxford comma. I am a big fan of the Oxford comma.

I like that little comma before the and because red comma, white and blue is different from red comma, white comma, and blue. No nobody in here cares except for Joe Sickle. There's somebody right there. Yes. I get a hand.

I also see that hand. Alright. It is a different thing to have the comma between white and blue because white and blue could be a mix of white and blue. Red, white, and blue. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.

He's not saying I'm the way that's true and it's the one that leads to life. No. I am the way and I am the truth and I am the Now, anything that's outside of the truth, by very definition, is a lie. He's speaking to guys who grew up a certain way and tradition is sticky. It sticks to us like crazy.

He's speaking to guys who he knew had done the right things in the right way as best they could. No matter how attractive that is to feel like you're doing something to atone for your sins. In Mexico, people used to climb to the top of mountains because every step along the way to that cross that's up at the top of the mountain, every step along the way dropped a sin behind them. It's just religiosity. It's not in the Bible.

Nothing like that in the Bible. But it's attractive to think I can do something to rid myself of sin. It's a lie. No matter how attractive, no matter how inspiring, it is just a lie. And as harsh as this sounds in our modern day and age, it applies to all other religions and all other philosophies.

It is bold and it is inherently exclusive. So this could sound really, really, really, really ugly if it's not motivated by love to dear friends, to Christians, to those followers of the way. What he's saying is this matters. There is an urgency to what you believe. Don't go back to what you knew before.

You can go back to fishing, but don't go back to what you knew before. And the life. The life. Each of these is the. It's a definite article, not an indefinite article.

It's not a life. It's one way to go. It's an alternative lifestyle. It is not. It is the life.

It is the way. It is the truth. The life, Jesus was the only one that lived a perfect life. His life was the only one that God can look at and say, he did it correctly. He did it right.

He had the right to eternal life. Since he held the right to eternal life and he voluntarily gave that up in death, he transferred to anyone who would believe, he said, over and over and over, he said, if you believe in me, if you put your trust in me, if you have faith in me, I will give to you my right to be called the son of God. Children of God is what he has given to us. So, anything outside of the life will just end in death. That's harsh.

It's both physical and spiritual. That's harsh too. But when we're singing, oh death, where is that sting? Oh death, where is that victory? This is what we're singing about because Jesus had the life and he chose to give up the life and the only perfect sacrificial death.

If life ends physically and spiritually, that is eternal separation. We have another thing that is not terribly popular. There are even Christians and a movement of Christians who are trying to say, no, that's not true. Everyone will eventually be saved. It will be purged away.

No. Anything outside of the life is death. And it is eternal separation from God and eternal suffering. And that is very very hard if it's not motivated by love. But knowing this, what did his disciples do with the way, the truth, and the life?

They were inspired to go out and change the world. Just before this, Jesus had told them that they would do greater things. This was before the cross. When he went to the cross, he's the only one that could do that but Paul says in Colossians that we as Christians can make up that which was lacking in the death of Christ. That which was lacking in the blood of Christ.

The only thing that's lacking in the blood of Christ is people knowing about it. He's given it to us to transfer the message to the world and these guys did. Every single one of the disciples was eventually murdered. None of them turned back. None of them went apostate.

Outside of Judas, I'm talking about the eleventh. Okay. Continuing with our grammar lesson. No one brings himself before them. The translations almost always say, no one comes before the father except through me.

The verb there, this is ridiculous, but the verb there is deponent. Meaning, it started in a middle voice of three people that care. Middle voice means, I myself or I have done something for myself. I do this. Now, somewhere in the history of the Greek language, they started, well, it's always something that you do for yourself.

When you come somewhere, you're always bringing yourself there. So, it became just a normal thing and they call it the opponent rather than middle. This one's truly middle. Jesus says, No one brings himself before the Father. You have no leg to stand on before the Father.

Except well, except through me. The other thing that's interesting here is it's not just the way, the truth, the life, it is the father. You remember earlier? I think it was chapter eight where he said, my father, oh my goodness. The Pharisees had a fit.

Oh, he says, my father, father, he makes himself equal with God. They would have all said, our father. He doesn't say our father and he doesn't say my father. He says, the father. The way, the truth, and the life said, the father.

There is but one God. Everything else is anointed. The father. No one brings himself before the father. You do not have a leg to stand on except through me.

But no one there is in fact, he didn't have to say it the way that he did, but he said, no one screamed it except through me. We're gonna sing this next, there's a video and it is of SM Lockridge and he's talking about Jesus and he's saying, that is my key and I can't do it any better than him. So, I'm going to let him do it. It's a YouTube video. Larry will swap this over here in a minute but if you would just listen to it, I don't just kind of scour Internet looking for sermons and and videos, but this one is fantastic.

So if you would appreciate it, six minutes and fourteen seconds long. Go ahead, Larry. It takes about five or six seconds before it really crank up. People don't talk that way about Allah. They really don't.

Jesus was a personal guy who was also almighty God. If you don't know him today, I think right now there's a room full of encouraged Christians for you to grab hold of. Grab one of them while we're singing this last song and say, wanna know that guy. That's my kid.