He Is The Way, Demonstrates The Truth, and Invites Us to Share The Life.

This morning I opened up my Bible to John 14, which is where I was looking up a verse yesterday.  Sometimes, as soon as I open the Bible it seems like it is exactly where and what the Lord would have me read, and that is how it felt this morning.  Here are the verses for today - John 14:1-12 NIV:

[1] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God ; believe also in me. [2] My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. [4] You know the way to the place where I am going.”

[5] Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

[6] Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [7] If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

[8] Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

[9] Jesus answered: “Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? [10] 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. [11] 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. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

This set of verses contains some of the most quoted verses in all Scripture.  As such, we can feel they are familiar and just pass on over without spending much time on them.  I try to stop myself from doing that whenever possible, for they are significant for a reason.

Summarizing the first exchange - Jesus is going away, and He will come back and bring us with Him to the Father. He wants us to share in the life that He has with the Father, that is why He plans on bringing us to where He is. We already know the way (Him), but He is essential in the journey, for it through Him, through relationship with Him that we can come to the Father. I know I have devoted many entries to the core of our faith being relationships, and here we have a perfect example of why I focus on this theme.

Thomas was thinking that Jesus meant some specific place, somewhere that our actions could take us.  Jesus corrected him and said quite simply that it was only through Him that we could come to the Father.  If that is not a picture of relationship, I don't know what is?  If I told you that I could introduce you to the Pope, or any other important person that you had no way of meeting on your own, it would be true that your relationship with me was your 'way' to meet this person.  For this reason we believe that the way to the Father is only through Jesus, through relationship with Him.  It is not through being a member of a church that worships Him, it is through relationship with Him, for He is not concerned with our membership in an organization, but rather is desirous of personal and interactive relationship.  The Name of Jesus is not a secret password that gains you access to Heaven or to the Father, it is through knowing Him, as Jesus clearly says in verse 7.

The second exchange is also very significant, for in it Philip is asking for the introduction to the Father that Jesus describes in verses 1-7, and again Jesus provides clarification.  Philip asks to see the Father, and Jesus clearly states that everything He does is exactly what the Father is doing.  If we have seen Him, we have seen the Father.  His words and His actions are from the Father.  This is what Jesus came to do, to reveal the Father to us.  When He is speaking or ministering, He is doing so at the direction of the Father.  In fact, He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (verse 11).

This is so significant, for Jesus was not some prophet speaking for God, nor was He some good and wise teacher speaking with better insight or more truth.  He was and is the Son of God the Father, speaking the very words of God the Father, living in unity with God the Father, doing exactly what God the Father would do and is doing. He is the truth!  We cannot just gloss over Jesus as being a nice man, who we might like or might think highly of, He was the exact representation of the Father (Heb 1:3) and He says so Himself right here.  That fact alone should cause us to stop and think about our relationship with Him.

Finally, the other really important theme is that Jesus didn't just say these words, but He proved the truth of these words!  It was through the healings, miracles,  signs and wonders that He proved He was who He said He was!  Not only that, but He will continue to prove that He is present with the Father, and continuing to be active in our lives through enabling us to do the very same things (healings, miracles, signs and wonders) that He did (verse 12). We are not meant to be just bearers of good words, or even the Good News, we are meant to be able to prove the truth of these words, through the same and greater things!  Wow!

Paul understood this truth, and when he ministered, he made sure he removed his towering intellect from the equation, and instead relied on the power of Holy Spirit to present evidence. He said in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 NIV: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."

This morning I am encouraged to press in further, into relationship with Jesus.  I am encouraged to pursue knowing Him, and in knowing Him, knowing the Father. I am encouraged to press into His life that He shares with the Father, for that is His invitation. Finally, I am encouraged to continue to believe that we are called to present the same proof that He did, proving that He is with the Father, and He is the way, the truth and the life that we all seek.

Amen!