Sermon: I Am The Way The Truth The Life

I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life | Rev. Kevin Johnson | North Raleigh UMC

What did Jesus mean when He declared, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6)?

In this message from John 14, Rev. Kevin Johnson explores one of Jesus' most familiar and profound "I Am" statements. Spoken during the Last Supper, these words are more than directions to heaven. They reveal Jesus as the One who brings us into relationship with the Father, fills us with the Spirit of Truth, and invites us to live a new kind of life shaped by the Kingdom of God.

Drawing on John's Gospel and the rich tradition of Wesleyan and United Methodist theology, Kevin unpacks what he calls "the geometry of the Trinity," showing how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit invite us into God's own life through Christ. As followers of Jesus, we are not only shown the way to God. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live the way of Jesus every day.

In a world searching for purpose, struggling to discern truth, and weighed down by suffering, this sermon reminds us that God's presence is not distant. Through Christ and the Holy Spirit, God dwells with us and within us, equipping us to bear witness through lives marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Whether you're exploring Christianity, seeking a deeper understanding of John's Gospel, or looking for hope in uncertain times, this message offers biblical teaching rooted in grace, truth, and the transforming presence of God.

Scripture: John 14:1-17

At North Raleigh United Methodist Church, our purpose is to be a church where you can Belong just as you are, Become more like Jesus, and Be Love for God's World.

Topics: John 14, I Am the Way the Truth and the Life, Rev. Kevin Johnson, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan theology, Trinity, Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, discipleship, Christian living, Kingdom of God, Farewell Discourse, fruit of the Spirit, abundant life, grace, North Raleigh UMC.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, today we're going to continue in our series in John, in John's Gospel. We've been calling this series I am as we reflected each week on these I am statements of Jesus throughout the Gospel of John. I invite you to hear God's word with me through John's Gospel in the 14th chapter. Jesus says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house there are many dwelling 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, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we we don't 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 know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. But if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. Friends, this is the word of God for us, but the people of God. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. O Lord, that the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight. For you, O Lord, are our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Whenever he comes to visit us from Florida, he knows his way around Raleigh better than we do, and we've lived here 11 years. He can navigate somewhere he's only been once ten years ago, as if he was just there every day. He knows the way. I, on the other hand, do not know the way. And the scary thing is, neither does Pastor Laura. I am so grateful for GPS and for Google Maps every single day. And at the same time, I recognize that every day they make me directionally dumber. I was at a party four years ago, talking to a guy, making small talk, and we're, I don't know, we fight, we we got to fitness, and he starts talking to me about this trail run that he does out in the mountains every year. It's an extreme kind of trail race, 20 miles. And you have to follow coordinates, and you're not given the map till the night before on a bandana, right? It's an orienteering race. And I just pictured myself becoming bear food around mile three as I circle the same trees over and over and over, eventually just laying down and letting them eat me. I don't think the mountaineering race is in the cards for me. Today's I Am statement is one of the most famous ones. I am the way, the truth, and the life, but it's also one of the most challenging to understand because most other statements have been metaphors about tangible things. Bread, gate, good shepherd. Rather than simply breaking down the way, the truth, and the life, I'd like to reflect on the problem that Jesus is addressing by each of those three things. And then I'd like us to consider how we are invited to live into what I'm going to call the geometry of the Trinity. If your mind just went to some sophomore year high school class doing geometric proofs, don't worry. I don't understand them either. But in this scripture today, Jesus beckons us into the life of God, and I think we can better understand this through the way and the truth and the life. The first problem that Jesus addresses is one that is asked by Thomas in verse 5 when he says, Lord, we don't know where you are going. So how can we know the way? It's important for us to understand where we are in John's Gospel at this point. Jesus has just washed the disciples' feet on the night of the Last Supper. Judas has just betrayed him and left, and Jesus is preparing for his coming trial and crucifixion. But in John's Gospel, we get this uninterrupted teaching for three chapters where Jesus is talking about his death and resurrection and ascension. This is commonly called his farewell discourse. This is different than the other times Jesus teaches in John's Gospel. Most of the time, Jesus is teaching about something that has just occurred. He is teaching and reflecting on something he has just done. So when he says, I am the bread of life, he is teaching right after he has fed the 5,000 bread. But in this farewell discourse, Jesus is teaching about something that hasn't happened yet, and it's a big one: his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. Of course, the disciples are confused. Of course, they don't know where he is going. The disciples here are not dense. Jesus is teaching for us, who are on the other side of his death, resurrection, and ascension. The disciples don't know where Jesus is going because he hasn't named another town or location for them. Instead, Jesus is talking about going to his father's house. And now the disciples are even more confused. They don't know the location of Jesus' father's house. They know he's not talking about Joseph's house in Galilee. So how can they know the way? But Jesus is telling them, I'm going to the Father, and that's where you need to go to. You get there through me. This is what Jesus means when he says, I and the way. No one gets to the Father except through me. You see, the goal of Jesus' ministry is to bring his followers to the Father. Before Jesus, there was not a way to the Father, and now Jesus has opened the way. When Jesus talks about the house where he's preparing a room for us, he's really saying that the Father has this entire household and we are invited into the relationship. And Jesus is the way into this relationship. It's a relationship where you always belong. If you find yourself wandering around, not really sure of what life is all about, unable to really define what your purpose is, Jesus is welcoming you on the way. The geometrical principle that Jesus is introducing here is mutual indwelling. Huh? What did he say? I said mutual indwelling. Jesus says it better than me. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Where the Son is, there the Father is. Where the Father is, there the Son is. So Jesus can say, You've seen me, well then you've seen the Father. Jesus is the way to the Father, because where Jesus is, there the Father is. The problem that Jesus addresses by this one is this. How do we know that we can trust you? So many people are trying to lead us astray. I personally struggled with the concept of I am the truth the most this week. The collapse of truth feels like one of the biggest problems in our world today. I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm not sure what I can trust. News sources seem more slanted than ever. The internet has no editor. Anything can be disseminated by anyone and presented as credible. Institutions that were once long trusted seemed to be crumbling from a lack of trust. Universities held positions of high esteem and were generally trusted. Churches were considered places of honesty and integrity, and untrustworthy leadership has eroded centuries of trust. So when Jesus says, I am the truth, it sounds like such an impossible statement. The truth? There's one clear and viable truth. Jesus is saying that he makes the truth of God available to all the world. All throughout John's gospel, we've heard about this truth. It started back in chapter 1. We have seen his glory, glory of the Father's only one and only Son, full of grace and truth. A few chapters later, Jesus meets the woman at the well, and he tells her, true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Even a few chapters later, in John 8, Jesus tells his disciples, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Jesus is saying that if we have relationship with him, then we receive the liberating truth of God. So Jesus not only demonstrates and embodies the truth, but he offers us this truth. How? Jesus says he will give to us the spirit of truth. In other words, we, as followers of Jesus, have the spirit of truth dwelling within us. Here's the geometrical principle at work in a new way. We humans experience mutual indwelling with God. And we are welcomed to be in God. Now, if that all sounds too spiritual or made your head hurt or sounds ethereal or is just too out there, friends, isn't this the aim ultimately of following Jesus? To be united to God and to God's way in the world. Paul will tell the Christians at Corinth, if anyone is in Christ, new creation. Later on, he'll tell the Romans, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through the spirit that dwells in you. Here's the geometry of the Trinity at work. The Spirit of Jesus dwells in us. And because it dwells in us, we are brought into Christ's resurrection life. This is the way that Jesus invites us to enter. It's big and vast. But Jesus promises the disciples about the Spirit, you know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. When we have the spirit of truth, we have God's presence within us. Here. Right now, present. This is what is the good news about the gospel, my friends. God is here. God is within you. That's the hope. That's why we keep coming. Friends, each and every week when we gather together, we have the opportunity to remind each other of this incredible hope that God dwells in you. In a world where we are not sure of what we can trust or what is truth, we have to tell each other time and time again about what truth is, and that that truth is that God is dwelling in you and is welcoming you into God's very life and presence. Friends, that's what we do. We sing songs over and over and say creeds and say prayers and hear the same words preached because we have to be reminded and we have to remind each other. That's what we're doing in this hour. I'm not using a scripture here that if you've been in church before, you've never heard. But instead, what we're doing is reminding one another once again that God dwells within you. And that's an incredible truth. And it's one that we so easily forget. The third problem that Jesus addresses sounds like this there is a lot of suffering going on in the world, and I'm scared to death. I hear versions of this every single day. Sometimes that sounds like one of you walking out after worship today and saying to me in the line, Well, with the world as it is. Another way is just this week, I learned that there's a scare of a certain type of parasite that lives on vegetables going on around the country. And why I am so scared of this and why I paid attention to it is because I fell victim to that parasite two years ago, before it was headline news. And let me tell you, you better wash those things good. All right? Let me t all right. I'm not gonna share with you my experience, but it was not fun. Okay. We often try to avoid thinking about death, but we feel the acuteness of suffering and the preciousness of life with every earthquake or war or freak diagnosis of someone that we know. And Jesus has an answer to this great sadness and conundrum. I am the life. Jesus is saying, through my death, resurrection, and ascension, you have life and a home with me forever. This theme of life has been a great theme throughout John's gospel as well. It began in the fourth verse of the book when it said, In him was life, and that life was the light for all people. Continued two chapters later, when Jesus talks to Nicodemus, and he said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him would not perish, but would have everlasting life. A few chapters later, Jesus will say, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it abundantly, or have life to the full. Just last week, when we talked about it, said, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus coming into the world alters the course of human history. We were bound for death, and now we are promised life. Jesus does not stay dead. This is the geometrical principle that's at work, and I am the life. We have life now and forever because of Jesus. And we live now out of the resources of a future age. In this passage, Jesus promises that we will do the works of the Father. In fact, that we will do works even greater than Jesus did. This is only possible through the life that Jesus offers. Jesus is offering us heavenly resources. These heavenly resources are the way in which we can do God's work in the world. You see, when Jesus says, I am the way, I don't think he's just telling us the way to heaven. It includes that for sure. But Jesus is also showing us the way of life. The way is a practice of life. I read a great example of this from another pastor this week who was reflecting on the mantra of the Star Wars Mandalorian series. Anyone know that mantra? What did they say? What does he say? This is the way, right? Over and there were a few, there's a few Star Wars geeks among us, right? And so every time when they have to do something difficult, something that seems impossible or insurmountable, something that will require a great deal of self-sacrifice, he says, this is the way, right? Through the empowering truth and life of Jesus, we are also able to walk in the way of his life. So this way is a practice. We live out the way of the kingdom of God. Those are the heavenly resources that we have access to. So, my friends, the community of Christians, the church, should act and live differently from the rest of the world. The early church was called followers of the way. They were known differently. I would argue that a lot, almost all of the failure of the church in our modern world is because the church did not live as followers of that way. Some of you may be giving church another shot in your life when you experienced hurt and pain because the church did not act as followers of the way. There's a lot of people who are not in our building today or in any church building because they have seen how Christians have acted less as followers of the way and more in a way that might resemble the ethics of Congress, right? Probably not exactly the same as followers of the way. What was this way? How were Christians known? Well, Paul talks about it when he says, faith, hope, and love. That's a good place to start. But later on he'll say that the followers of this way exhibit the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Friends, these descriptors of the Christian community are not optional. They're not like suggestions for if you want to pick a couple of those, that would be a nice way to live. No, it's saying that when the spirit of truth dwells in you and brings the presence of Jesus into your life and into your church's life, that you exhibit, you embody love and joy and peace, patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. These are the byproduct of living in the way of Jesus. This is the way. Let us walk in it, empowered by the Spirit of truth within us, who draws us, who welcomes us into the household of God. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.