Jesus: Only Way to the Father (14:1-7)

Bible Passage: John 14:1-7

This passage is part of the long block of teaching given by Jesus to his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. The context is that events have started to move in an unsettling way for the disciples. Jesus has already predicted his betrayal by Judas and Peter’s denial, and he has started to teach very explicitly that he will be going away. It is understandable that the disciples may be troubled, and so Jesus reassures them by telling them how he has prepared them places in his Father’s house. He then follows up with the sixth of the ‘I Am’ statements in verse 6, giving three more claims about who he is. This sermon focusses on those three claims.

Jesus Is The Way – Jesus teaches here that he is preparing a place for us in the Father’s house and that he is the ‘way’. If we want to be saved then it can only be through Christ. No good deeds or religious system can atone for our sin, only the cross can do that. Jesus is very clear that nobody can come to the Father except through him. One of the biggest applications of this point is to the question of religious pluralism. It is sometimes suggested that different religions all know the same God but in different ways. In these verses, Jesus explains that this is not so.

Jesus Is the Truth – Whilst there is a limited amount of basic information about God that can be gleaned from creation (see Rom. 1:20), if we want to know what God is truly like then Jesus is the only one who can show us. John 1:18 says that “no one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son… who has made him known.”There is no way to truly know God through our own wisdom or speculation, so we must look to how God has chosen to reveal himself if we are to know him at all, and God has chosen to reveal himself through his Son. As the Son, Jesus is the exact image of the Father and so he can show God in a way that no man-made religion or philosophy ever could.

Jesus Is the Life – The wages of sin are death (Rom 6:23), and because sin has entered the world we all die. Jesus calls himself the life because through his death, he has conquered death and through his resurrection he gives eternal life. It is only through relationship with Jesus that we can be part of the resurrection life that is to come. Jesus as the life also speaks of the quality of life he offers in the here and now. John 17:3 describes eternal life as knowing the true God and Jesus who he has sent. We are welcomed into that relationship now and so can experience true life in this world as well as looking forward to enjoying everlasting life with him in the new creation.

Potential Applications:

• There is a clear explanation here that Jesus is the way to the Father. You could invite people to put their trust in Jesus and come to know the Father through him.
• The passage challenges us to be bold in speaking about Jesus at the only way. Our culture can be resistant to such absolute claims, and yet that is what Scripture reveals and it is neither kind nor loving to hold this truth back from people.
• The passage emphasises the absolute centrality of Jesus. It leads brilliantly into a time of Christ exalting worship where you praise him as the way, the truth and the life.