John 14:1-6 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Last week we finished up John chapter 13. So that naturally brings us to John 14. I've been excited to get to John 14.

[0:17] John 14 is one of my four favorite chapters in all of scripture. I don't have a fifth because I couldn't decide on a fifth. John 14, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, and Galatians 3 are my four favorite chapters.

[0:35] So I've been excited to get to this chapter, needless to say. Last week, in recapping, last week really the past two or three Sundays in John 13, because all of this is all part of the same discourse, I believe I've told you all that some commentators and deologians refer to John 13 through 17 as the farewell discourse that Christ gives.

[1:05] And it is actually the longest continuous teaching of Jesus to his disciples in these chapters, John 13 through 17.

[1:17] Of course we know John 17 is the prayer that Jesus makes, but nevertheless it all takes, it's all in the same context. Now that being said, we need to consider really all of John 13, consider the context of that going into John 14, especially considering the first six words of John 14, which is, let not your heart be troubled.

[1:45] But we got to take into context what we covered last week and the week before, really like I said, all of John 13. What all happened in John 13? Well, it begins with John saying it was before the feast of the Passover, and the disciples and Jesus had gathered in the upper room, and they were eating, and Jesus washes the disciples' feet.

[2:11] Jesus tells them that there's going to be someone betray Him. All these things have happened in John 13, and the betrayer is actually unveiled, if you would like to phrase it like that.

[2:27] We know 2,000 years later who the betrayer was, but this would have been news to the disciples, and they still didn't understand it. Remember we read in John 13 that they thought that maybe Jesus had told Judas to go give something to the poor, or to go buy supplies that they might be needing for the feast that they were having at this time.

[2:48] So they still didn't understand exactly everything that Jesus was getting at. But Jesus, right towards the end, and we covered it last week, right towards the end of John 13, had told the disciples that he had to go away.

[3:02] And of course Peter jumps in, and Peter wants to know where he's going, and Jesus tells him where I'm going, you cannot follow.

[3:15] And I said we covered all this last week, but again, everything that we covered from the beginning of the feast, to the washing of the feet of the disciples, to the unveiling of Judas Iscariot as the one to betray Jesus Christ, to Jesus Christ sending Judas out, and then he begins, really truly that's where the farewell discourse begins, because Judas was not a true follower of Jesus Christ, so he didn't get the same farewell speech that the other 11 did.

[3:52] He didn't receive the same discourse that they did. But we've got the beginning of the betrayal of Jesus there. We've got Christ saying he's going away.

[4:05] We've got Peter saying, you know, Lord, I'll go with you all the way. I'll lay down my life for you. And then Jesus says, before the cock crow, before the cock crow, that shall deny me thrice.

[4:18] You'll deny me. You'll deny me this very night. You'll deny me. And that's the context that we're reading that we've got to go into John, John 14 with. So John 14 verse one begins, let not your heart be troubled.

[4:35] And considering everything that I just said, this is why Jesus would have said this at this time. Imagine the confusion for all these disciples.

[4:48] I said, I believe it was last week. I said that Christ had just said he was going away after he had told these disciples three years before, follow me, follow me, follow me.

[5:01] And then Peter said, Peter's wanting to follow him and Jesus tells him, you can't follow me where I'm going. So imagine all the confusion that not only Peter, but all of these disciples are having at this point.

[5:14] Judas has done left to sin. Peter's been told that he's going to deny Jesus, which, you know, it's not in scripture, but I would imagine in the rest of the disciples minds, knowing who Peter was, knowing that Peter was part of the inner circle of the disciples between Peter, James and John, knowing all these things, it makes me wonder if the disciples didn't think, I wonder if I'm next.

[5:40] I wonder if I'll be the next one to betray Jesus. So Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled. And he's saying this is comforting words to them at this time, but folks, this applies to us just as much right now in 2024 as it did to these disciples when Jesus spoke the words, whenever confusion sets in on our lives, whenever doubt sets in on our lives, whenever things just aren't working out to our benefit, or working out the way that we thought that they were, the way that we think that they should.

[6:20] These words of Jesus Christ apply just as much to us as it did to the disciples here. We've got the big picture of scripture. We've got every bit of it.

[6:34] These disciples were learning this at this time. Jesus had been telling them for three years that he was going to have to go away. Jesus had been telling them for three years that he must be handed over into the hands of sinful men.

[6:47] He'd been telling them for three years he was going to be crucified and it was still news to them. Why was that? Because things were not working out how they had it in their head that they should work out.

[7:01] They expected a Messiah. All these disciples were Jewish men very familiar with the scriptures where they had read them themselves, where they had heard them at synagogue, where they had heard it passed down from their parents or whatever the case was.

[7:15] They would have been familiar that there was a Messiah promise in the Old Testament and that Messiah would deliver the Jewish people from oppression. They were expecting because Jerusalem and really all of Judaism was under the foot of Roman oppression at this time.

[7:36] That's what they were expecting. They weren't expecting a crucified savior. They weren't expecting the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

[7:48] They weren't expecting any of these things. They were expecting deliverance, immediate deliverance and they were expecting physical deliverance from Roman rule. They were not picturing the spiritual side of things.

[8:03] Folks, we get caught up in that exact same thing where we get so caught up in the temporal things of this world. We get caught up in the here and the now and not what the future holds for us.

[8:16] That's what Christ gets at here when He says, Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. Let not your heart be troubled, then He gives them two commandments here.

[8:32] Let not your heart be troubled, it wasn't a suggestion, it wasn't a recommendation. It was a commandment from Jesus Christ, let not your heart be troubled. Then He says, You believe in God, He tells them what they do, what they're currently do.

[8:47] You believe in God, then He tells them what to do. Believe also in me, you believe in God. The Greek word used here is pistuo, but it's got two different references here.

[9:02] It's the same word, both times Christ says believe, but the first time is indicative. You believe in God indicating, being indicative, that you're doing what you're supposed to do.

[9:14] But the second time it's used, the mood that it's used in is imperative. You believe in God, this is what you're doing, you're doing correctly. But the imperative form of pistuo is believe also in me.

[9:32] This is what you need to do. You need to believe in me, and to believe in Christ is to believe in God. You cannot believe in Christ and not believe in God, and you cannot believe in God and not believe in Christ and expect to go to heaven.

[9:48] There's people that say that, there's people that say they believe in Christ, but not in God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, but they believe in God the Son. And there's people that say, well, I believe in God, but I don't believe in the three persons of God, God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son.

[10:10] Folks, you must believe in it all. You must believe in God, and you must believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ says it here himself. You believe in God, you're doing correctly, you're doing right.

[10:23] You believe in the God of your fathers. You believe in the God of the Old Testament. Believe also in me, and this on the flip side of that coin is also Christ making claim to his deity and saying that you believe in God, believe also in me.

[10:40] You could put in parentheses there, for I am God. You could do that. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Verse two, in my father's house are many mansions.

[10:55] If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. Now I said verse one at the very beginning, the context that all this is in is Christ saying he's got to go away.

[11:07] Peter saying that he'll go with him. Christ saying you can't go with me. And Christ telling him, Peter, you'll deny me after Peter says he'll lay down his life for you. So these disciples here, Peter included, Peter especially really are all confused or they got all this doubt.

[11:26] He says, and he says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. He's taken their mind off of the present that he's presently got to leave them.

[11:44] And he's putting it on the future. He's taken it off of the worldly things, off of the earthly things that is in their mind right now. And he's putting it on the heavenly things.

[11:56] This is exactly what Christ is doing with this statement. But he says in my father's house are many mansions. And we're probably all aware that other English translations have this as rooms.

[12:09] And that's fine. That's a fine translation for this. Again, going back to the Greek, the Greek word for this is mayday. And this can mean abode. It can mean dwelling place and it can mean resting place.

[12:24] Folks, it doesn't matter if I've got a mansion all to myself or if I've got a room inside of the father's mansion. It does not matter. This is a secondary issue. You could actually put that in a tertiary list as a tertiary issue for this.

[12:39] It does not matter. It does not matter. What matters is that I will be in heaven one of these days. In the future I will be in heaven and I will be with Christ and I will be in the father's house.

[12:51] And I said last week if I get to heaven and Christ isn't there, it will not be heaven. It can't be heaven. It all boils down to the fact I will be in the father's house.

[13:04] I will be with the father. I will be with Christ. I'm a redeemer. I don't care if I've got a small room and I don't care if I've got a mansion. What I care about is I will be with Christ.

[13:17] And that's what Christ is trying to get across to his disciples in saying this. Again, they were thinking about temporal things here. They were thinking about what was immediately in front of them.

[13:30] Christ is leaving. Christ is leaving. He's going somewhere and said that not even Peter could follow him where he was going. And then he told Peter he was going to deny him. But Christ gives them comfort here and gives them assurance.

[13:44] He says in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. Now this is a funny little verse here because Jesus says in my father's house are, that's present tense, are many mansions.

[14:06] He says I go to prepare, that's future tense. So in my father's house are, there's already many mansions. There's already many rooms. There's already enough room for the saints of God.

[14:19] He says I go to prepare a place for you. That's future tense. He is encouraging the disciples here to do exactly what he said in verse one, to let not your heart be troubled.

[14:33] He believe in God, believe also in me, for I'm the one that's going to prepare this place for you. But the mansions, the rooms, the abiding places, the resting places, they're already there.

[14:50] They're already there. In my father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. He says if it were not so, I would have told you in the middle of all that.

[15:03] In other words, Jesus is saying I'm not lying to you about this. Why would Jesus lie? Jesus can't lie for one. But he's saying I'm not lying. This is true.

[15:15] This is fact. It's fact right now in my father's house are many mansions. He says if it were not true, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Verse three.

[15:27] And 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. If he's going to prepare a place for the disciples, as he said in verse two, if he's going to do that, this gives the assurance, this gives a blessed assurance to the disciples that if he's going to prepare a place for them, he will come again and receive them unto himself again.

[15:54] They were confused at this point. Why is Christ going away? And Christ is saying I'm going away, but I'm coming again and again. This could be put on a list of secondary issues.

[16:08] When is Christ coming again? What coming again would Christ be talking about here? Is Christ coming this way or that way? Is Christ going to be riding a white horse sometime in the future?

[16:21] Is this going to happen? Is that going to happen? That does not have one thing to do with salvation. Not one thing does it have to do with someone believing the gospel of Jesus Christ and repenting of their sins.

[16:39] There's people out there that believe the rapture is going to happen. There's people out there that don't believe a rapture is going to happen. And neither one of those beliefs will get anyone saved. But there's preachers out there, one in particularly I can think of off top of my head.

[16:54] It's all he wants to preach is that there's no rapture of the church. Well, that's one of three things that will preach. We won't get into the other two things. None of those three things are the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wants people to believe his agenda, what he believes about the scripture.

[17:11] But none of it has to do with repentance and none of it has to do with believing the gospel. Folks, it doesn't matter. Personally, I believe in a rapture. If you don't, I'm going to fall out with you about it.

[17:23] That doesn't mean that you're not saved. It doesn't mean that I'm not saved. If you believe one way and I believe another. But what we must believe on is we must believe in God.

[17:35] We must believe in Christ. As it says here in verse one, you believe in God. Believe also in me, we must believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must believe that we are sinners and that God is a saver.

[17:49] We must believe on these imperative things about the scripture. But again, in verse three, if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself again.

[18:03] What assurance this would have given these disciples? He will come again. Christ says, I will come again. And folks, that's the hope that we have. That's the hope that Paul wrote to Titus as a blessed hope that we have.

[18:19] It's the hope that we are Christ and he is ours. And that he will come again to receive us exactly when that is. I don't know.

[18:32] And neither does anyone else. I don't know exactly how that will be. The scripture gives us some ideas, but we don't know the exacts of it. But folks, I know that he's coming. I know that I'm his and I know that I will be with him forever.

[18:48] One of these days, that's the assurance that I have. Exactly how it's going to happen, exactly when it's going to happen. Quite frankly, I don't care. All I know is Christ has promised a place for me with him throughout all of eternity.

[19:05] And that's what matters. That's what matters. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Not just receive you. I'm not going to receive you and put you on some planet somewhere else.

[19:19] Or put you in a whole other galaxy or a whole other universe from where I am. He says, I will receive you unto myself, unto myself.

[19:31] Folks, that's what it is to be the bride of Christ. We belong to Christ. We will be married to Christ forever and forever and forever.

[19:43] And forever, He will receive us unto Himself that where I am. He tells us why. That where I am, there you may be also. Again, this is all being said to relieve the confusion that the disciples had at this point in this discourse.

[20:06] Again, everything that happened leading up to this, Christ is telling them these things to give them comfort and to give them assurance. And to let them in on just a glimpse of the plan of God, folks.

[20:22] We have, I mean, as great as the Bible is and as much information as we have in the Bible, we know very little of God's plan. We know very little of heaven. We know very little details of it.

[20:40] But we have enough, we have enough to know that man is a sinner, that God is a savior, God is made away in Jesus Christ, that man can be redeemed and reconciled back unto Him.

[20:52] And if we repent and we believe the words of this book, we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be saved. And that's the imperative information that we need to know.

[21:04] He says he'll go, he'll prepare a place for them, for the disciples and for us. And he says he will come again and he's doing all this to receive us unto himself that where he is, we may be there with him.

[21:22] We might be with him. Verse four, And whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?

[21:39] So Christ here tells them, and whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know. Well, how would they know? Had he told them?

[21:50] Again, folks, he'd been telling them for three years. He had been teaching them for three years. They had heard his preaching for three years. They had heard the parables that he had spoken for three years.

[22:07] They knew the way. They knew the way to heaven. Christ says, and whither I go, ye know, and the way, you know, he says, you know where I'm going and you know the way to get there.

[22:23] This is another reason why this discourse, why I believe this discourse did not begin till Judas Iscariot left the same. Because if Christ had been speaking these words and Judas Iscariot was present, then ye would have included him.

[22:45] Judas didn't know the way. Judas didn't know these things. He didn't know Christ. He knew who Christ was.

[22:57] He knew him in the physical sense, knew him well. He'd been hanging out with Jesus Christ for three years at this point. But he did not know him like the other eleven did.

[23:09] He did not know him intimately, nor would he know him intimately. And whither I go, ye know, and the way, ye know, Thomas saith unto him, Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?

[23:24] The way, you know, Thomas, there's not a whole lot about Thomas in the Gospel accounts. But what little bit there is of Thomas speaking, Thomas was, I can gather that Thomas was somewhat of a sarcastic individual.

[23:38] However, the same could be said about Jesus Christ. If you read some of the things that Jesus said at certain times in the Gospel, Jesus could be sarcastic as well. Thomas normally was, I am of the mind, that Thomas was being pretty sincere right here though, not being sarcastic in what he asked.

[23:57] He said, Thomas saith unto him, Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? He says, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Christ had said just before this in verse four, and whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know.

[24:14] And this was setting the stage for verse six, because Christ being God would have known what Thomas was about to say in front of all the rest of the disciples.

[24:27] When Thomas says, Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? You know they would have known if they had been listening to Christ, and they had somewhat for three years though.

[24:47] Christ had been teaching them this very thing, that he was the way. They had heard Jesus Christ preach, that he was the bread. They had heard Jesus Christ preach, that he was the lot of the world.

[24:59] They had heard Jesus Christ preach, that he was the resurrection. They had heard Christ say all these things. They had heard every parable that Jesus Christ had spoken saying, the kingdom of God is like unto this, or like unto that.

[25:15] These disciples would have heard every bit of that. They knew the way, and they knew who Christ was. They knew where he was going. They just didn't comprehend it.

[25:27] So when Thomas says, Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

[25:41] No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. And this is the verse that we have heard quoted over and over. I have quoted it over and over and over. Why?

[25:52] Because this verse contains so much truth, so much truth, that Christ is the way, and he is the truth, and he is the life.

[26:05] And another truth that goes right along with it, no man comes to the Father but by Christ, or as he says, but by me. Well I said, what Christ says in verse four, whither I go you know, and the way you go, that was saying in the stage four, verse six.

[26:25] Thomas, in his statement when he says, Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? This shows the lack of comprehension in Thomas, and by relation the lack of comprehension of the rest of the disciples.

[26:42] Because I don't read about any of them jumping in saying, oh no Thomas you got it all wrong. Thomas it's like this, and it's like that. Thomas was asking this question on behalf of the disciples.

[26:55] Jesus said unto him, I am the way, and he is the only way. This verse speaks so immensely of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.

[27:07] People will say that that's narrow minded. People will say that you've got tunnel vision and saying that that Jesus Christ is the only way. Folks I am narrow minded as far as that goes because the Bible is narrow minded as far as that goes.

[27:25] I'm very dogmatic that Jesus Christ is the only way. There's some things in Scripture that I'm not as dogmatic about as other things. There's some leeway in some things, but Jesus Christ is the only way unto God.

[27:40] It says it over and over throughout the Scriptures. It even brings it up in the Old Testament. It brings it up in the New Testament. It says there is but one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Jesus Christ.

[27:53] He's the only way to heaven. He's the only way to God. He's the only way to salvation. He's the only way to redemption. He's the only way to communion with God.

[28:06] We cannot commune with God the Father except that we go through God the Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only way. I'm very dogmatic about that because Scripture is dogmatic about that.

[28:22] Jesus says unto him, I am the way, the truth. The truth. How is Jesus the truth? Well, for one, I just said earlier, he can't lie, but that's not exactly what we're getting at here.

[28:38] Jesus Christ embodied the revelation of God to man. And that truth was being spoken of all throughout the Old Testament.

[28:53] The truth of God and who God was, his personality, his attributes. Everything about God was spoken of throughout the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ embodied that truth about God.

[29:07] And he is the truth. He is the truth. He's the truth of God. Then it goes on to say, and the life. How is Jesus Christ the life?

[29:18] And folks, these are just very short little snippets of the way, the truth, and the life. We could spend several, several Sundays on that and still barely scratch the surface on it.

[29:35] So I'm the way, the truth, and the life. How is Christ the life, folks? He is the only way, once again, going back to the way, to eternal life. He is life.

[29:48] And the only way that we can have life is to receive life from life itself. Christ is life. He grants life. God grants life. It says in the Old Testament, I believe in the book of Deuteronomy, God says himself, I kill and I make alive.

[30:08] It is up to God, but God grants life. Christ is life. And again, Christ is the embodiment of the truth and the revelation of God to man.

[30:20] And He is the way, He's the only way to God. Now, when we consider all these things, what Christ says here in verse six, Jesus says unto Him, I'm the way, the truth is the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

[30:34] We need to boomerang all the way back up to verse one, where Christ says, you believe in God. Believe also in me. And here Christ is saying, I'm the way to God.

[30:46] I'm the truth of God. And I'm the life that God grants to mankind. And really to all of earth, not just mankind, not just us humans. I mean, if it wasn't for God, we wouldn't have no trees.

[30:59] We wouldn't have no grass. We wouldn't have no flowers. We wouldn't have anything without God. All of this comes from God. And Christ says, I'm the way, the truth and the life. And then He reminds them of verse one.

[31:13] No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Verse one, you believe in God. You believe in this God. And that's good. You believe in the God of your fathers.

[31:26] That's wonderful. Believe also in me because I'm the way to that God and I'm the truth of that God. And I will grant the life to you that that God has promised for I am God.

[31:39] So we must go back to verse one and reading that. And folks, I'd really hope to get to verse 11, but it ain't going to happen today. So I think I'm going to stop right there at verse six.

[31:51] I ain't going to get on into the rest of this today. But anyway, we'll wrap it up right there for today. Anybody got any questions or any comments on any of that?

[32:03] No questions. It's a blessing. I appreciate you. God bless you all. I appreciate you. I appreciate you all's attention.

[32:14] God bless you.