Jesus: The Bread of Life

John 6:25-58

Jesus worked lots of miracles. John records just a few of them. In John chapter 4, John tells how Jesus healed a royal official’s son from a distance. And then in John chapter 5, John tells how Jesus healed a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. This last one, the man who had been an invalid for 38 years, Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Because they considered healing on the Sabbath to be breaking the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Jesus. Jesus answered:

“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (John 5:17 NIV)

The Jews, understanding that Jesus was saying He was equal with God, became zealous to kill Jesus.

All this attention because of His work and His teaching caused huge crowds to follow Jesus.

In our day, Jesus gets even more attention. His name is known around the whole world. Places do exist where the name of Jesus has not been heard, but they are few. In the English-speaking world, His name is used as a swear word. All over the world, information about Jesus has been twisted, lied about and changed. For example, Muhammad changed many of the facts about Jesus’ life in the Quran so that the person represented in that book and in the minds of his followers is not the Jesus of history. While the Jews of Jesus’ day persecuted Jesus by trying to kill Him, His persecutors today try to kill Jesus by teaching lies, discounting His claims and/or denying His existence and deity. Because of the huge crowds Jesus draws and the attention He attracts, many are offended by Jesus.

The fame of Jesus’ name makes it inevitable that large numbers of people gather to see what it is that Jesus has to say. 

John 6:2 says:

...and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. (John 6:2 NIV)

People were drawn to Jesus because they saw the signs he performed. Today, it is no different. Jesus is doing great things in our world and it draws attention. For this reason, it is important for us to consider what Jesus had to say to the crowd that was attracted by His miracles.

John 6 tells the story of how a very large crowd was fed by Jesus with just 2 fish and 5 loaves. They had 12 baskets of leftovers from what had started out as a boy’s lunch.

After the meal, Jesus withdrew to a quiet place to pray, and the disciples got in a boat to cross the lake. The crowd saw that Jesus did not get in the boat with His disciples, but during the night Jesus walked on the water out to the boat where His disciples were fighting a storm.

The next day the crowd searched for Jesus and finally found Him with His disciples on the other side of the lake. They started asking Jesus, “How did you get here?” John tells us:

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (John 6:26-27 NIV)

In these words, Jesus points out a problem in the reason that many people have for seeking Jesus. This problem was present in the people of His day and it is present in us today. 

Jesus says, “...you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”

With these words, Jesus shows that He knows and understands the human heart. These people were seeking Jesus not because they saw and understood that He was God, but they were seeking Him for what they could get for themselves. James talks about this same attitude existing in the Church when he says:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3 NIV)

Jesus was trying to warn the Jews of His day, and us as well, of this human tendency. 

Jesus pointed out the problem in their hearts and urged them to work for the food that endures to eternal life. He was addressing people who had sought Him out. These were the ones who came to hear what He had to say. And yet they were seeking Him with wrong motives.

They took the bread that Jesus had given them to be a sign that Jesus was going to be like Moses, and establish the nation. They were looking for a Messiah who would restore the fortunes of Israel; they wanted a Savior to make Israel great.

The Messiah will rule on the throne of David, and Jerusalem will be the capital city of the world, but not yet. What they did not and still do not understand is that the prophecies concerning the suffering servant and that the Messiah would give His life as a ransom for many had to be fulfilled first. Because they did not and still do not understand or believe all that the prophets said about Jesus, they were looking and are still looking for the Messiah they want.

They wanted a Messiah who would provide them with a nation, with prosperity and with the things of this world. This is still what the Jews of today are looking for, and it is the kind of Messiah that many invent for their own convenience in our world today.

But Jesus will not be put in our boxes. He has not come to fulfill our dreams. John 6:15 tells us that those in the crowd that had eaten His bread planned on making Him king by force. They wanted a Jesus they could control.

Jesus was trying to change their focus and wake them up when He said:

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.” (John 6:27 NIV)

Jesus is pointing to the kingdom of God. He taught much on this, telling us to store up treasures in Heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and telling us to seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. When the crowd heard Jesus telling them not to work for food that spoils, they asked:

“What must we do to do the works God requires?” (John 6:28 NIV)

Jesus responded:

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29 NIV)

This is a simple statement and yet the crowd challenged it. They understood that Jesus was talking about Himself so they said:

“What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” (John 6:30-31 NIV)

With this statement, they show that their hearts are fixed on this world. They were drawn to Jesus because of the miracles He had performed. The day before they had seen Him feed a large crowd with a boy’s lunch. They had been planning on making Him king, and now they were saying, “What sign will you give?”

In response to this, Jesus gives a lecture. As lectures go, it is short. You will notice that from John 6:35 through John 6:58 they do not ask Jesus any more questions. They grumble about Him and argue among themselves, but they do not address Jesus directly.

In this lecture, Jesus teaches that He is the bread of life. He is the true bread given by God for the life of the world. Jesus teaches several facts about this bread.

The first fact that He teaches is found in John 6:35:

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35 NIV)

The fact is that Jesus is the true bread of life.

Jesus is not talking about physical bread or drink as we can see by the verbs He uses. He says, “Whoever comes” and “whoever believes.” In these words, we learn how we are to “eat” this bread. We are to come and we are to believe.

Jesus points out something about this fact. He points out that even though the crowd had seen Him, they did not believe.

In verses 38 and 39, Jesus makes it clear that He will never turn anyone away who comes to Him. He also makes it clear that it is the Father’s will that none of those who come will be lost. However, even though the crowd had followed Him because of His miracles, even though they had heard His teaching, they still did not believe.

The truth of the matter is that, left to themselves, no one will ever believe. Jesus has demonstrated that even living in the very presence of the Son of God was not enough for people to believe. He also says in verse 37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me,” and then in verse 44, He says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

In the Bible, in the book of Lamentations, it says:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. (Lamentations 3:22 NIV)

God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:17) This is why Jesus also taught.

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32 NIV)

Jesus is the bread of life, and it is only by lifting Him up, showing Him to people, that people are saved. No other miracle, presentation or argument has the power to save. As the hymn writer said:

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

Many have come claiming to teach in God’s name and claiming to have been sent by God, but anyone who does not lift up Jesus and teaches others to discount or change the truth that is revealed about Jesus in the Bible, the only historically verifiable record we have, is not from God.

In John chapter 6, especially in verse 45, Jesus teaches that a person knows Jesus by listening to God and being taught by Him. And then in verse 46, He teaches that the only way to know the Father is through Jesus. 

Jesus is the bread of life because He is our only connection to God. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is our high priest. He is the only mediator between God and man. Without Him, there is no life.

Physically without food we die, and spiritually there is no life apart from Jesus. Jesus states this a number of times in John chapter 6. To look at this fact, I want to focus on John 6:53.

“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53 NIV)

Because of this statement, many of the people who had been drawn to Jesus stopped following Him. They questioned how Jesus could give His flesh for people to eat. And they said they could not accept it (John 6:60).

In answering their objections, Jesus made this statement:

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63 ESV)

They were viewing eating and drinking as a physical act. Jesus had shown earlier that He was not speaking of physical bread when He had said that what is required is that one comes and believes. 

People still make the mistake of thinking that we must physically eat and drink. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper to teach us our absolute dependence on Him for spiritual life. He said, “This bread is my body broken for you,” and “This cup is my blood shed for you.” Some teach that if one does not eat and drink the communion, they cannot be saved. They attach saving value to receiving or taking communion. However, look again at John 6:63.

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63 ESV)

We eat of the bread of life by believing in Jesus. We drink His blood by faith. Physically there is nothing we can do for our salvation. Our spiritual life comes only by coming to Jesus and believing in Him. Jesus described Himself as the bread of life to help us to understand that there is no spiritual life, there is no connection to the Father, there is no knowledge of God apart from Jesus.

I want to close by reminding us of the words of Jesus:

"This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." (John 6:29 ESV)

The Vine

John 15:1-17

We are in troubled times! This Coronavirus shut down is unprecedented. There has never been anything like it in history. For one, we have never been able to communicate like we are now. We communicate instantly via the internet. 

In John chapter 15, Jesus was talking to His disciples at a time of trouble. In John chapter 14, He was calming them down. Having told them in John chapter 13 that He was going away, in John chapter 14 He was telling them, “Let not your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me.” So, Jesus, in John chapter 14 is saying, “Trust me.” Chapter 15 is a continuation of what He was telling them in 14, but His teaching shifts to from what was about to happen to what their continuing relationship to Him would be. This teaching was given to comfort and strengthen His disciples in troubled times.

Where are we to go to for help? Where are we to go to for encouragement?

 Jesus points us to Himself.

He says, “I am the TRUE vine.” 

There are many different vines out there - many different things that promise to give us life, and we go flocking to them. 

The events of the last couple of months have overturned many of these “vines” that we have looked to for help, comfort and strength.  We have been shown that we don’t have control. 

We thought that we had control of our destiny and medicine would help us. But medicine does not have the answers.

We thought that we had control of our economics. And now we are in an economic free-fall as businesses are shutting down to combat the spread of the coronavirus. We are going into a recession. It’s not permanent, but many are overcome by fear as they see the loss of control. The future is uncertain.

Medicine and economics are examples of “vines” that we hold onto for our lives and for our hope. I am speaking of us as a nation, as a people and as a world, but this should not be true of us as believers.

In this current crisis, we are looking to our governments to rescue and protect us. As believers, we know that a time is coming, and it is going to be soon, when people will look to the government for solutions and a man will rise up who seems to be able to provide what the world is looking for. He will set himself up as ruler; there will be a one-world government established. This person is the one we call the Antichrist. The world is ready for this one to appear. They are hungry for the true vine.

What they do not know is that Jesus is the true vine. He is the true source of life. In times of trouble, we need to remain attached to the vine if we are to have life.

Putting all other hopes aside, we must realize this first: Jesus is our true hope.  

From this thought, Jesus leads into how His Father is involved in this. He says, “My Father is the gardener (or the husbandman or the vinedresser).” He says of His Father, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

It is important that we understand that Jesus is not talking about salvation here. He is talking about fruitfulness. By saying “Every branch,” He establishes that those He is talking about are branches. They are attached to the vine and thus members of His body, but every branch that does not bear fruit He cuts off.

This cutting off is not immediate. According to His will, He gives time for unfruitful branches to recover or to start bearing fruit, but eventually they will be cut off. 

In verse 3, He again points out that He is talking to those who have believed when He says, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” The word He has spoken to us has made us clean. In other words, He is telling them they are already saved because they have trusted in Him and in His word. However, they must not stop there. He encourages them, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

This is key. If we are not fruitful, we have the very real possibility of being cut off. This is not a threat, rather we should take it as an encouragement to pay attention to where we are remaining. Where we are abiding is the word that was used before. Where are we living? 

If we are living with our head in this world, and the things of this world, the economics or the pursuits of health, wealth and happiness, then we are not remaining in Jesus. 

He, in another place, says you cannot serve both God and money. You cannot serve two masters.

For these reasons, if our lives are not fruitful, we should take warning, “Hey, I’m not bearing fruit. What is the cause of that?” 

The cause is made clear right here; it is that we are not abiding in Jesus.

He goes on to say, starting in verse 5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” The promise is, if we remain in Him we will bear much fruit. 

Jesus takes it a step further and makes it clear how important it is that we remain in Him when He says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” When we try to operate in the flesh and think that we have the answers for ourselves, it reveals our pride. Pride moves us to try to operate independent of Jesus. At least I have found this to be true in my life.

Jesus moves forward in His discourse when He says in verse 6, “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” 

In this case, as before, He is not talking about salvation. He is talking about fruitfulness. Jesus teaches very clearly if we don’t remain in Him, we will wither, and if we continue in that condition too long, we are in danger of being cut off. In Corinthians, we have the example of those who dishonored God by taking the communion in an unworthy manner. There were some who were sick and others who died. They did not lose their salvation. They lost their earthly life. God took His rebellious children home. This is talking about fruitfulness. Even if we remain on in the body, we wither. We become a lifeless branch - still a branch but a fruitless, lifeless branch - no joy, no peace. 

For this reason, He says, in verse 7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” 

As He moves to the next point in His discourse, He teaches us how the world will know that we are His disciples. The world will know by the fruit we bear. We also will be strongly supported by the hand of God who will answer all our prayers. In this statement He also gives us a hint of a very important point He is about to make. 

He prefaced this statement with, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you.” This is a key point that we must understand. How do we remain in Jesus? How do we live in Jesus? How do we abide in Jesus? Another question is “How do we know Jesus?” 

The answer is told to us in verses 9 through 14. He says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” Okay, so we are to remain in His love. He is still talking about abiding.  So, He continues in verse 10, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love.” This is the key to remaining in Jesus - obedience. It is believing His word, taking it seriously and letting it change how we live. 

James talks about looking into the perfect law that acts as a mirror and letting it affect who we are. If we go away from reading the Bible and say, “Oh, that was nice. It was nice to read that,” but don’t let it soak in and change our lives, then it has no meaning as far as we are concerned and we become that fruitless branch. But if we let it soak in, let it change us and do what it says, then we will be fruitful.

Jesus sums up our obedience with a very simple command. In verse 12, He says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

This is a very simple command, but it is a very difficult command. It is very, very demanding, because, what does He say? “As I have loved you.” How has He loved us? We find how He has loved us when He says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus laid down His life for you and me. Jesus gave Himself up for us. And that is what He is asking us to do for each other.

Philippians 2 talks about this when it says, “If there is any comfort in Christ, be of the same mind as Christ.” “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the very form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant.” “Let this mind be in you.” It even says to consider others as more important than ourselves.

This is a good reminder in the days of the coronavirus. We might be healthy, but have you read the news reports of nursing homes that have been infected with the virus? How it spreads like wildfire through that place? We need to consider the health of others as we consider what we do, not just ourselves. It is not just about toilet paper and eggs. It’s about “How can I help others to get through this?” And, in some cases, that might mean not going to visit them. But doing something creative. I saw a picture of a young man who was visiting his father who was in a nursing home. The young man was sitting outside the nursing home, outside the window in a lawn chair, and his father was sitting in an easy chair on the other side of the window, and they are talking on their phones. They are thinking creatively. How can I visit my father but not give him any chance of catching this virus?

This is considering others as more important than ourselves.

Next, Jesus gives us more reason to do what He says. He says, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” 

Some people claim to be friends of Jesus, but don’t do what He says. Paul deals with that in Corinthians and says, “Don’t have anything to do with a person like that.” Why? Because they cause the name of Christ to be blasphemed among unbelievers.

I hear so much about how religion is the source of all wars. First of all, that is utterly ridiculous. Man is the source of all wars. We wage war because of our lusts that wage war within us because we want things but can’t get them so we fight and kill each other. When we claim the name of Jesus but operate under those lusts and those desires that drive us, then we are detached from the vine, we are not showing the love of Christ, and we are causing the name of Christ to be blasphemed. No wonder God takes such people out of the world. 

We are His friends if we do what He says. And the first thing He says is “This is my command that you love one another.”

Our first step of obedience should be to share the love of Christ with the world. The first thing that we need to realize is that love requires of us that we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who don’t know Him. Without Him, they are lost. They have no hope. They do not realize that their lives are in danger. They hold desperately onto this physical, worldly life because they do not realize that there is eternal life available in Jesus Christ. And so, the first thing that love requires of us is that we tell others the good news that there is life in Jesus Christ.

Next, he says something very interesting again. He goes to a place that is loved by those with a Calvinistic approach. He says in verse 16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last.”  This is so important for us to understand. He has chosen us. He has called us His friends and He has chosen us. Why did He choose us? He says right here why He chose us. He says right here, “I chose you to go bear fruit.” Not only did He choose us, but He also said He appointed us. This word “appointed” is the very word from which we get the word “ordained.”

Along with the command to love one another, Jesus left us with marching orders when He said in Matthew 28:18 and 20, “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

This is our fruitfulness - disciples. 

Some of us have been ordained to public ministry and the teaching and preaching of the word. Others have the gift of service and have been ordained and appointed to serve and be the hands and feet of Christ to their neighbors, to the Church, and to others. Still others have the gift of giving and are able to make a profit so that they can provide for others. The ones with the gift of service will be taking meals and picking up medicines for those who really should not be getting out during this coronavirus time. Those with the gift of giving may be able to capitalize on this crisis to advance the kingdom of God financially. 

Whatever your gift is, that is what you have been appointed to. You can be sure that if you are abiding in Jesus and His word is abiding in you, that you will bear much fruit.

During these troubled times, we are being given a wonderful opportunity to be the branches, abide in the vine, and show the love of Christ to the world.

The Way

John 14:1-21

At the end of John 13, Jesus told His closest followers:

Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. (John 13:33 NLT)

Peter asked why. Why could he not go with Jesus? He was prepared to die for Jesus. This is when Jesus told Peter that, far from dying for Jesus, he would deny that he even knew Jesus.

These words troubled and perplexed the disciples. So, Jesus said to them:

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going. (John 14:1-4 NLT)

We live in a troubled and perplexed world. Many claim to have the truth. The Muslim claims to have the truth spoken through the Prophet Mohammad. The Mormon claims to have the truth revealed through the prophet Joseph Smith. The humanist claims to have the truth revealed through science.

With all these conflicting voices, how can we be sure of our faith? Is Jesus just one voice among the crowd? Is He just another prophet or teacher? Over the next few weeks, I am going to be considering Jesus. I will be using some of the things He said about Himself, like “I am the bread of life.” The purpose of this series is to get to know Jesus better. In getting to know Jesus better, we will increase our faith and draw closer to Him.

We all must realize that each of us is at a different place in our faith and work to strengthen each other. Jesus called His disciples children. 1 John 2:12-14 address us as “children,” “young men,” and “fathers.” We can interpret these as stages of growth - childhood, younger adult and older adult. If we are going to grow, we must know Jesus. This is an opportunity for each of us to grow.

To His perplexed disciples, Jesus talked about His Father’s house. So, the first thing I want us to consider is “Who was Jesus talking about when He said, “My Father?”

Jesus spoke of His Father often. In a discussion with the Jewish leaders about who He was, Jesus said:

“If I want glory for myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who will glorify me. You say, ‘He is our God,'but you don’t even know him. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But I do know him and obey him. Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” (John 8:54-56 NLT)

Jesus was talking to Jewish leaders and teachers. He said the one that they called their God is His Father. Therefore, when Jesus said, “My Father,” He was referring to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to “Yahweh” (Jehovah). 

When Jesus said to his perplexed disciples, “Trust in God, trust also in me,” He puts Himself on equal terms with God. Later on, in John 14, He states “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

We must realize the context of this statement. Jesus was with His disciples at night. Maybe there was a chill in the air and they had to put on extra clothes. Jesus was as human as any of them. He sweat when hot and shivered when chilled. He got hungry and tired, and yet He talked like this. 

Jesus’ claims to be God show up repeatedly in the Gospel accounts. This is the first truth one must confront when considering Jesus. Saying He was a great teacher without acknowledging He is God, is nonsense. A great teacher who was merely human would never make such an outlandish claim. To change what Jesus said about Himself in any way, is to deny Jesus. It is to try to remake Jesus into what we want Him to be. This is extremely important. We are not free to make Jesus who we want Him to be. Jesus is a real person with real feelings, opinions and thoughts. Whatever we experience, think, believe and speak about Jesus needs to be consistent with what is recorded about Him in the history we have. We cannot invent the Jesus we want. We must submit to Him as God and subject our thinking and our faith to what He has shown us to be true about Himself, and that starts with the Bible. 

The disciples lived with a very human Jesus who ate, walked, bathed and slept just like any of them. These disciples struggled to grasp the full meaning of what Jesus’ teachings meant. They often didn’t get it right and had to be corrected. We too must let ourselves be corrected by the Bible, the Word of God.

Jesus said, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.” He is speaking of the dwelling place of God and of things not of this present world. The minds of the disciples apparently were still on the idea that they could not go wherever it was He was going, and so, they didn’t get it. So, when Jesus said: “And you know the way to where I am going,” (John 14:4 NLT) it caused more than a little confusion. Thomas expressed what they were all thinking.

“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14:5 NLT)

When we don’t get it, I hope we are bold enough to ask the Lord, and then seek for the answer in our Bibles. 

Because he was bold enough to ask, Thomas got one of the most precious truths about Jesus that we could ever ask for:

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” (John 14:6-7 NLT)

Do not stop with “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” This whole statement is worth more than all the gold this world contains.

Let’s review a little of what Jesus has said in this session with His disciples. He has said, “Trust in God, trust also in me.” He has referred to a dwelling place not of this world where He is going to prepare a place for His disciples. He said they knew the way to where He was going. Now, He is saying He is the way. 

The word He used for “way” is “ὁδός” (hodos). This is the word for a road or a path, a highway or even a journey. The road or path came to be referred to as the manner in which something was to be obtained. We still use the word way with this meaning. Such as, the “way” to roast a chicken, or the “way” to skin a duck. 

With this statement, Jesus makes it clear that He is the road to heaven.

Popular in this country is the idea that all roads lead to God, but Jesus makes it clear that He is the only road to God. He reinforces or reiterates this fact by giving three different words: the way, the truth, and the life. Then, to make sure He is not misunderstood He says, “No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Jesus affirms that life continues after the body dies, and tells us clearly how to get to where He is. 

Attached to this idea of being the way, the truth and the life is His statement:

If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him! (John 14:7 NLT)

Here is displayed some of the meaning behind truth and life. “From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” Jesus has shown us the Father. 

Questions like “Is there a God?” “What is God like?” and “Where do I find truth?” are all answered in the person of Jesus.

To see Jesus is to see the Father.

The disciples, who lived every day with a completely human Jesus, still did not grasp this fact even after three years. So, Philip said, “Show us the Father.” 

Jesus responded:

Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? (John 14:9 NLT)

It is important for us to understand that the way to know the Father and the way to eternal life is through knowing Jesus.

To a perplexed world with many conflicting voices, Jesus says very clearly, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

As Jesus explained this to His disciples He also said:

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. (John 14:10-11 NIV)

Jesus tells us to believe. He tells us to trust Him. However, He does not tell us to do this blindly. In these verses, He is telling us to believe based on the evidence. 

In today’s world, there are people who actually say that Jesus is a fictional character or myth. There are others who say we cannot trust the New Testament texts. I bring this up because it is important for us to know that our faith is built on solid evidence. Jesus told us to believe what He said and so we need to know that we have exactly what He said. 

If we can know anything with certainty from History, we can know that we have the most reliable historical document on the planet in the Bible. The attacks on the Bible and the facts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are only possible because of ignorance of the historical record. Although I don’t have the time today to go into any of this in-depth, I want to list how we can know Jesus through the texts that we have. I am going to list seven things.

1. We have very early sources. All the New Testament documents were written before 70 A.D., and we have copies of manuscripts of these documents from within decades of Jesus’ life.
2. We have the testimony of eyewitnesses. Eyewitness testimony is usually accepted as the best way to establish what actually happened.
3. We have testimony from multiple, independent eye witnesses. True independent witnesses tell the same basic story but with differing details and this is exactly what we have.
4. The eyewitnesses we have are trustworthy. Each one held to their story even though they were tortured and/or killed for their testimony.
5. We have corroborating evidence from archaeology and other writers from that time period. There are other historical records besides just the New Testament.
6. The enemies of Jesus and of the eyewitnesses admitted to or acknowledge facts, such as, Jesus’ death on the cross and the empty tomb.
7. The New Testament authors included details that were embarrassing to themselves. They included things like their own cowardice in the garden and their slowness to understand and believe.

Much more could be said about fulfilled prophecy and the antiquity of the Old Testament text, but that would take many volumes and much time. However, what is important is that we all understand what the Apostle said:

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16 ESV)

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and He backed up this statement by His words and His works and finally by His resurrection.

Many of you are like me and have walked with Jesus many years, know Him and have great certainty in your faith. However, some of you may have questions, some of you may be in schools where your beliefs are questioned and you need to know that we are not following cleverly devised myths.

As we begin this series about Jesus, we can approach it with confidence. We can know Jesus through the record we have, and through the Spirit He gives us.

John said this about His record:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— (1 John 1:1-2 ESV)

Do not be deceived. There is only one way to the Father - Jesus. If you would know Jesus, you must listen to those who knew Him best and recorded what they saw and heard. And you must do one more thing. I will let Jesus say it in His own words.

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. (John 14:21 NLT)