The Most Offensive Thing Jesus Ever Said (EP 213)

What's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bricecropper podcast. I'm Bryson. Today we are going to be talking about the most offensive statement Jesus ever spoke. The statement is so powerful yet it gives us so much security to understand so much about Jesus. So if you got your Bible, we're going to be flipping to John chapter 14. Baby, that's what we're going to be. I love the gospel of John. Now, do I also love the gospel of Matthew? Yes, you also love the rest of the Bible also. Yes, because the Bible is awesome, but I love me some gospel of John. Now, there was like a meme. I saw a meme like a while ago. Someone made a meme saying, I quote from Matthew chapters 5 through 7 all the time, which is probably true because I love Matthew chapters 5 through 7. Anyways, we're going to be in John chapter 14. Today, Jesus in this passage for some context is talking to the disciples. Okay. He's talking to the disciples. He's giving them some instruction and here's what he says in verse 1. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me and my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, what 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. That where I am, you may also be. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? And I'm going to stop right here before we get to this next part. This imagery we'll talk about in a moment is similar to a Galilean wedding. And we'll get to that in a moment. We'll kind of close out the episode with that. But here's the most offensive thing Jesus ever said. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Let me stop right there. The most offensive words that came out of Jesus' mouth were him definite claiming I'm the only way. I'm the only truth. And I'm the only real life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. Why is this so important? Because we try to find the way, the truth and life in so many different things. That's why we turn to sin. We try to find life in sin. It's like, okay, I'm feeling a hole in my heart. Let me go get drunk. Let me go do some drugs. Let me go have sex. Let me go do this. Let me go shove my face to a bunch of food. We try to find life. Or what's the way? We have so many self-help books and we have so many different medicines and we have so many different religions. I mean, how can we know which one's the way? Or what's the truth? Well, maybe your truth and my truth because I don't want to offend you. So, you know, you believe whatever you want as long as it's good for you and you're a good moral person. That's okay. And for me, don't question me because I have my own truth. And if you question me, then you're being hateful. No. Jesus says, I'm the only way. I'm the only truth and I'm the only life. What does he say earlier in John chapter 8 and you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. He is the truth. Just six chapters later, he goes, yeah, that truth that will set you free. That's me. I'm the truth. Here I am in your face. I will set you free because so often people look at Jesus in Christianity as if it's this cage that's going to bind them down, make them boring, make them lose their personality. In fact, it's the total opposite. Jesus gives you your personality back. He gives you satisfaction. He gives you security. He shows you the actual truth. He opens your eyes. See, this is why like I have been obsessed lately with the Matrix movie. I am like actually obsessed with it. It is so insane. The biblical imagery that is in the Matrix movie. It's awesome. It's like you get two options, either take the red pill, red pill, know the truth and see how far the rabbit hole goes or take the blue pill and just go live how you want to live. It's like those are the options. It's either you want to live your own way or you know the truth. And when you know the truth, you're awake. You're alive. You have true life. There is beauty and understanding. We can call these the most offensive words that Jesus ever spoke, but these are the most freeing words that Jesus ever spoke. You know why? Number one, we don't have analysis paralysis. When Jesus says, yeah, I'm the only way. Oh my gosh, thank the Lord that He said that because if He didn't say that with the amount of religions out there and the amount of self-help books out there, we'd be a lost cause. In fact, if you see and look at society right now without Jesus in the picture, we're headless chickens running around. Of course, we need Jesus to make this claim. In fact, this goes to show you Jesus ain't doing mental gymnastics with people. He's not trying to trick people or bait and switch people. He is telling it like it is. I'm the way. Follow me. I'll make you fish or min. I came to seek and save the lost. For God to love the world. He gave his only son. He's not doing mental gymnastics with us. He's laying it plain and simple. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm a life. No one comes to the father except through me and I love this imagery. Hey, real quick, before we keep going, I have an announcement I've been really excited to make. I'm officially announcing our ministry's biggest live event ever, open heaven. It's happening Sunday, November 8, 2026 at 7.30 pm at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas. This is going to be a night centered around worship, faith and genuine community. All of us together in one room encountering God in person. There's going to be live worship and really special moments throughout the night. Tickets are on sale right now. Head to Brycecroffer.org/tour or click the link in the description below to grab yours. And please only buy through my official site or that link to not buy from random resellers online. A lot of them are scams. I genuinely believe this is going to be a night people carry with them for a long time. I would love to see you there. All right, back to the episode. Because, a couple of things. Number one, let's talk about this Galilean wedding really quick. In a Galilean wedding, what would happen is a man and woman, they would have this thing called a patrol. It was like verbal agreements and vows. It's like, you want to get married? I want to get married. You want to get married? Let's get married. So then they would have these verbal agreements. And then the groom would leave to go back to his father's house and he would build a room that would be an attachment to his father's house for him and his future bride. He is going to build a room and the woman would wait in her white dress, white representing purity because she didn't know the day or the hour that the groom would return to come get her. So she had to prepare herself and be ready. Isn't that imagery fascinating? I mean, there's way more, but I'm just going to stop right there. Jesus says, I'm going to leave to go make room for you in my father's house. I'm not banding you. This is the beginning of our journey, our union together. And then I love what he says. I am the way, the truth in the life. Jesus asks for utter devotion to him. He is a jealous God. He's not jealous of us. He's jealous for us. He's not jealous of what we have. He's jealous for our love. He's a jealous God. He wants utter devotion to him. Imagine this. Imagine being a groom standing at the end of the walkway, waiting for your bride for the church doors to open up and as they open up, she's got a butt light in her right hand and she's making out with another dude. And then she looks and goes, oh snap and shoves the guy out of the way and throws the bear out of the way and fixes her hair and holds the flowers and is ready to come down the aisle. You would look at her dead in the face and walk out of that church. You're not going to be married to her. She's like, you don't love me. You were ready for me. You just wanted the benefits of union without actually being committed to me and Jesus is saying, I am the way. I'm the only way. No one can serve two masters. There's not multiple paths to God. There's not multiple ways to get into heaven. It's not, oh, you could be a good moral person or it's like, oh, these religions are good and these ones are bad. It's no. Jesus is saying, I am the key. I am the payment. I am the reason that you were able to have union with me and these words are so freeing. Gosh, I said it earlier, but I got to say it again. I mean, in a day and age that we live in with so much information and abundance, we have an abundance of information right now about a lack of clarity. That's what's confusing us. We have access to AI, we have access to Google, we have access to all these search engines and resources and articles and all of these things. We have an abundance of information about a lack of clarity and Jesus is bringing the ultimate clarity with what some people will think is the most offensive words in scripture, but they're the most freeing. I am the only way. I am the only truth and I'm the only life. No one will come to the Father except through me. No one will gain eternal life unless they come through me. Jesus just answers one of the greatest questions of all time. How do we get to heaven? How do we have union with Jesus? How do we have it? And he's like, I'm the way. There's no other way. And that's challenging. That makes us all, we should sit and reflect on going, what are the ways that I've turned away from Jesus on this? Because at the end of the day, when Jesus is I am the way, he is knocking every other thing that you have put security in. How often do we put security in finances, in friendships, in romantic relationships, in jobs, in status, in things, And they go, they fail, they flop, they leave us, they leave us empty. You know, a great example is that when we were on tour on our live podcast tour, going around the country, which we're going to be in Dallas, Texas on November 8th, get your tickets at brushcarford.org, such tour, shameless plug. When we were on tour in winter, we were in the tour bus. Now my bed was directly over the axle of the bus, which means I could feel a few extra bumps and potholes. And I'm not going to lie. There were a couple of nights I woke up. I thought that bus was flipping over because I felt a lot more bumps. Obviously, that wasn't the case. We had the greatest bus driver of all time, but there were nights I was scared. I would wake up in the middle of the night and be terrified. But you know what, didn't give me security when I put my head on that pillow at night? It wasn't money in my bank account. It wasn't friendships. It wasn't good comments on Instagram. It was Jesus. Jesus gave me that security. You know why? Because a 401k ain't going to help you when you're buried 10 feet under, all right? It's our eternal satisfaction with Jesus that's going to help us. As much as friendships are great, they can't do anything when you're buried 10 feet under. But the decision you make to follow Jesus in this life can change the trajectory of your existence, not just in this life, but the next. And life begins the day we commit to Jesus. So I want to pray that we fully live wholeheartedly for the Lord, that this truth can be so freeing and compel us to invite other people into the same truth that Jesus is the way, the true and the life. Lord, we love you. We thank you. Thank you that you are the only way. Thank you that you have made the way. Thank you that you have built rooms for us at your father's house that we can come be with you. We want you. You are the prize. We want to be with you all the time. Lord, would you bless everyone watching and listening? God would you give them this supernatural understanding of these words and what they mean and how powerful they are and how applicable they are to our life. And Lord, with these words that you are the way the truth of the life compel us into positive action for the rest of our life in faith and trust in you. God, we love you. We thank you in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen.