The Way

All right, well we're going to get into the Word together this morning. You ready? Good, good. All right, got some enthusiasm this morning. All right, that's good. Keep it up. Well, if you haven't figured this out by now, one of the very central things, actually the most central thing about who we are here at Overflow is that we intend to, to the best of our ability, keep Jesus at the middle of everything. He is the center of it all. And there's a theological term for this, but I'm not going to bore you with all of that. But we want things to be Christocentric. We want Jesus to remain at the center of it all. And what that means is that we don't deviate from Jesus. You know, you can go get like self-help somewhere else. Right? You can go have somebody teach you, you know, behave your modification, try to change your habits, change your life, you know, your best life now kind of thing. You can go do that in a podcast somewhere. But we gather here, together here, around the person of Jesus Christ. And we want to exalt him and lift him up and learn about him and focus on who he is and what he has to say to each of us about who we are because we are in him. We are in Christ. And so we spend our time hopefully focusing on Jesus. And that's exactly what we're going to do here in this message this morning. So I'm in John chapter 14 and I'm going to briefly take you through this next few scriptures here. But I wanted to kind of set this up by just jumping into the middle of it, the heart of it and read you one verse. Okay. So it's John chapter 14 and verse six. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. I am the way, the truth, and the life." What I'm going to intend to do is over the next few weeks is to break this down and let's talk about the context for this. But then also to break it down and talk about what does it mean that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He's not saying the same thing three times. He's saying three distinct things. And like I told you last week, Jesus is very intentional about his words. He's intentional about what he's presenting, what he's saying. And so we need to lean into that and say, "Jesus, what does it mean that you are the way? What does it mean that you are the way?" And some of that will come from the context of this verse here when we get into it in just a minute. But the way part of this verse is important and we're going to start there. How is Jesus the way? I don't want to just give you Christian vernacular like, "Jesus is the way." You know, hit Pip-Huray. Like, that's exciting. Jesus is the way to what? You know, if you asked most Christians, they would say, "Primarily Jesus is the way to heaven." And there's nothing wrong with that answer. That's actually pretty true. I mean, Jesus is the only way to get to heaven. And we'll even talk about that a little bit this morning. But beyond that, Jesus is not just the way to heaven. Jesus wants to be the way in every part of our lives. Like we said, keeping Jesus at the center of it all means that we're staying in the way. This was such an important term to the early church. The first century church was known and you can read this all through the book of Acts as the people of the way. There was something about this way and it so marked the believers of the early church that even non-Christians, other people would call them the people of the way. So Jesus marked his people in such a way that they were called the people of the way. So when we talk about the way, I wanted to break this down and this is three different areas that Jesus is the way. First is he is the way to be reconciled with the Father. That is the centerpiece of the gospel. Is that Jesus Christ is the way to be reconciled with the Father. And what does that mean? Second Corinthians 5, 17, I've quoted this scripture a lot lately, but I just can't get past it. This says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." Praise the Lord. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ Jesus and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing or counting their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. I don't want you to miss this part. It's my favorite part of this verse that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And I just can't get past this picture because this is the picture of Jesus on the cross and where was God the Father at that moment. He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And why that's such an important part of that verse to me is because I was taught something different growing up. And it was no really no fault of anybody else. It's just a misunderstanding of the nature of God. And when you misunderstand the nature of God, sometimes you can communicate His heart in a way that's not true about who He really is. And I was told that the Father had to turn His back on His Son in that moment when Jesus was hanging there on the cross that Jesus took on the sin of the world. And at that moment the Father turned His face away. We even sang songs about it. One of the most beautiful old hymns that we used to sing is how deep the Father's love for us. We did, in fact, Miss Micah sang it during our Easter service or maybe it was a good Friday service. This is a powerful song. But there's one line in that song that says in the. It's describing what's happening on the cross and it says in the Father turned His face away. And I can never sing that again because it's not what the Bible teaches. It's just not true. The Father never turned His back on His Son. So I say, "Well, didn't Jesus on the cross, didn't He say, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Didn't He say that?" Yes, He did say that. But why did Jesus say that? Does anybody know? He said it because He was quoting a song. It's Psalm 22. If you go to Psalm 22, you'll read. It's this ancient prediction of the Messiah. It's this prophecy of the Messiah being killed for the sins of the world. And it's amazing the detail of it's written like 700 years before the cross. And He's talking about my hands have been pierced and my feet have been pierced and it starts out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' I've taught this here before. Some of you will remember. And why would Jesus just quote that part? Well, for one, I think He was struggling to breathe. If you have heard anything about crucifixion, it's actually a death of expiation. You're actually struggling to breathe the entire time. And He wouldn't have been able to just, you know, sing the whole song. But if you read the rest of Psalm 22, what does it say? Starts out, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' But by the end of it, it's declaring that the Father never turned away from me. He never forsook me. He'll never leave me. He'll never forsake me because that's how good He is. No matter what, on my worst day, He didn't turn away. Come on, on my best day, He doesn't love me more than on my worst day. We've got to learn to believe the truth about the Father. So one of the great things that we have in Scripture is this description. I love the book of John. The Gospel of John is just my favorite. But John chapter 1 verse 1 says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God." That verse is so important because it tells us something about the nature of God. It says that for one, God's never been alone. Our triune God that we worship, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit have always been united together. There's never been a time when there was any separation. We can't say things like God is love without understanding that God is love because God has always existed in a relationship of love, not relationship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit has always been. But in John 1 where he says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God." That word with right there is "pros" in the Greek. It actually means face to face. In the beginning was the word, speaking of Jesus, and He's face to face with the Father. This is what I put this up here. He's describing the nature of this relationship. Their face to face and at no point in time did the Father ever turn away. They've always been face to face. In this scripture we just read in 2 Corinthians 5, 17 where he says that God was in Christ. He was reconciling the world to Himself. What was He doing? The world had turned away. The world had turned their back on God. Now did God ever turn away from the world? No. There's never been this type of relationship with us and God. In the beginning we were in Christ and we were just as He was face to face, but we turned away. Isaiah 54 talks about that each one of us is gone to His own way. But we're talking about Jesus the way here, the way to what? The way to be reconciled to a God that never turned his back on us. That's the way. See, because Jesus has always been like this. And when we were gathered into Him on that cross when He reconciled the world to Himself from across here. He was turning us back to Himself. He was reconciling us to Himself, but He's the thing. He says, "Now you be reconciled to God." In other words, you can still be in this posture because of the goodness of God and what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us, but you can still not be looking Him face to face, even though He's already turned you in that way. Come on, He's already redeemed all of mankind. Now it's our turn to look up into the eyes of our good, good Father. Amen. Amen. That's so good. Jesus is the way to be reconciled to the Father Romans 5.10. I got a bunch of verses. I'm just going to like rapid fire at you this morning. So if you got something jot them down, Romans 5.10, "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Colossians 1.21 says, "And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, and yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach." Where? Say it loud. Where's that? Face to face. Come on, He never. Listen, if you believe in a God that turns His back on His own son in the most difficult moment of His life, then that means you also believe in a God that will turn His back on you in the most difficult moments of your life. And I just don't. That God doesn't exist. Come on, my Father never turns away. Aren't you glad? I'm so glad. There was one verse, and I don't want to. Somebody would say, "Well, Pastor, I know there's a gotta be a verse in there somewhere that says that God can't look upon sin. He's too holy. I've heard that. God is too holy to look upon sin. And if that were true, it would be in the Bible. Well, it actually is in the Bible. Let me show you. I know that sounds like I'm going against my own preaching here, but a backook, the Old Testament says this in chapter 1 verse 13. Say eyes on this if you can. He says, "You are of pure. " Talking about God. He says, "You are of pure eyes then to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness." You see that? So this is the verse that's taken out of context. That's built this belief system that God cannot look upon sin. I'm so glad that that's not where this verse stops. Because it goes on to say, "Why? Do you look on those who deal treacherously?" So in other words, he's saying, "Your eyes are too holy to look upon sin, so why do you?" That's what this verse is saying. He's saying, "Listen, if God's refuge to look upon sin, then I'd still be a sinner. I'd still be lost because he chose to look upon me when I didn't deserve it." Come on. So why do you? Because he's good. Because he's good. Amen. We need to learn to clap. Amen's are good, but every once in a while a good clap would be nice. He's good, man. Not you not for me. This is about Jesus. This is about the way. Second thing, I'm going to share with you this morning that Jesus is the way to. He is the way to eternal life and heaven. I said eternal life and heaven because a lot of people think eternal life is heaven. You don't want to know. You're not quite there yet, but you're already in eternal life. And here's what Jesus actually said this in John 17, as he's praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's talking to his father and he's given us a little bit of good theology here in his prayer. And he says, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, Father, the one and only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is eternal life to know you. Look at me. This is eternal life to know you, to be in cross face to face, to know him." You know, it's not just about heaven, even though that is such a wonderful thing to think about and to look forward to and the people that we're going to be reunited with and the glory of what's on this other side, man. I'm excited about heaven, but what about eternal life now? It's to know him. It's to experience him in the life that only he can give. Now the context of John chapter 14 where Jesus says this, "I am the way the truth in the life." It's actually a pretty somber moment. You got to know the context here. So this is the night that he is arrested and before he has crucified the next day. And he has gathered together his closest friends, at least 11 of them. The 12th one had already decided what he would do that he would betray Jesus. So they're all gathered together. Jesus obviously anticipating what the next 24 hours or so was going to bring. And his heart was heavy, but he still loved on his friends. And you got to know his heart was heavy. But what did he do? He sat him down one by one. And he got a towel and a basin of water and he washed their feet. He just pours his love out, serving them and talking to him. And he starts telling them about how guys, he even identifies as somebody in this room. They're going to sell me out. They're going to betray me. I'm going to be taken away. And all the disciples are sitting there going, "What? Who? It's not me. Not me. It's you. Maybe it's you." They start looking with suspicion all around the room and John leans over. He's got his head laying on the chest of Jesus. And he says, "Lord, who is it?" And Jesus takes the bread and he dips it in the cup and he hands it to Judas. And Judas takes it and runs out of the room. You've got to feel the suspense at this moment. It's a powerful moment. Jesus knows exactly what's about to happen to him. And all of his disciples are sitting there going, "What? We thought we were coming to Jerusalem to take over. We thought you were going to be enthroned as the king. We thought all this was going to go different. And Jesus is talking about, "I'm about to go be killed. They're going to kill me." And they're all going, "No, no, no." And Peter even says, "Lord, I'll die for you. I'll die with you." And I'll kill anybody trying to kill you. He's making all of this bold-like stuff. And then Jesus looks at Peter and he says, "Peter." "For the rooster crow's in the morning and you will even deny that you know me." Three times. "To a little girl." You'll listen. You've got to feel the heaviness at this moment. But while all of that is going on and Jesus predicts what's about to happen, he says, "Guys, I'm about to go away." We pick up in John 14 verse 1, just before he says this, "I am the way the truth in the life." And he says this. "But let your heart be troubled." We quote this verse because we understand we can apply this to difficult things that we all go through. Dark seasons, heavy stuff, you know. But you've got to think, he's looking around the room at a bunch of scared disciples, his friends that are going, "What's about to happen here? This is crazy." And he says, "Let not your heart be troubled." You believe in God. Believe also in me. In other words, trust me. I know what I'm doing. It's going to be all right. Come on, maybe that's the only word you came to get this morning. Trust me. Can you hear that? I just heard the Lord say that to each one of us today. Trust me. He says in verse 2, "In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you and I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also." Now he says, "I'm going to this place." And he said, "My Father's house." I'm going to my Father's house. And there's many, this word was translated mansions, but this is actually just rooms. This is a space. This is opportunities to dwell there. Okay? In my Father's house are many mansions. He said, "I'm going to prepare a place for you because I want you to be where I am." Here's the good news. Jesus is the way to eternal life, to know God, to experience the life that God gives, but also He is the way to the Father's house. Man, I want to, at some point, we'll do a special series or something on heaven and we'll break it down and get into some of the details of it. But you know what the greatest thing, I say, I'm looking forward to it. Looking forward to seeing some that have already crossed over that way. But you know what really the prize is? As he says, "I want to be with you and I want you to be with me." The greatest part of what makes heaven heaven is Jesus. It is to see Him face to face. It is to know Him. in that way and that is the way that he has prepared for us. He says in Revelation 21 verse 4, "Says in God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There should be no more pain for the former things have passed away." Then he who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." I make all things new. That's heaven. It is the restoration of all things. What is it that he's in the process of doing even in us now is restoring us, making all things new? That's why the kingdom of heaven doesn't. It's not just a place that you go. Jesus said that there's a kingdom of heaven is within you because this process of living from heaven starts within you. It is the making of all things new from within you. What's glorious about this is that it's not just a place within you, but it's a place that you're in. It's kind of like when Jesus says in that day, he says, "You'll know that I'm in the Father, and the Father's in me, and I'm in you." I know that sounds just like, "Yeah, that doesn't make sense, but it does." Because we're already there, but we're here too. He's bringing us into that reality with every passing moment. It is also the way to have victory over death. I love how Revelation 21 just says, "There'll be no more death." It's the final enemy that's going to be destroyed. There'll be no more death. But we need to understand that Jesus being the way to victory over death is something that we should celebrate is something that we should be mindful of because this is the great enemy of humanity. Death is the great enemy of humanity. It has been since Adam and Eve took of that tree in the garden when death entered the human existence. Death has been our ultimate enemy. The 1 Corinthians 15, 22 says, "For as in Adam, all die." Because of being in Adam, because of being in this race of humans that are destined to die because of the actions of one man, and Adam all die. That's a part of the existence of being in Adam. But he says, "Even so." That means the same as. How many people understand that in Adam all die? That's just how it goes. But even so, the equal truth to the fact that in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. Come on. Even so, if it's true that all humanity dies, then it's even true that through Jesus all will be made alive. Death doesn't have the victory over us. He's the way. 1 Corinthians 15, 54 says, "So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." It's already been one. Death has already been defeated. Thank God that it's been done. 2 Timothy 110 says, "But I'm jumping into the middle of this verse. I didn't have time to give you the whole context of this. I know I don't like doing that, but you guys hang with me." But has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Jesus himself talking about this issue of death. He knowing that death had no power over him. Death had no authority over him. He said, "And even those that die shall live." There's something about that he had the authority to not just himself come out of that grave, but to bring all of us into himself so that his resurrection is our resurrection to the last thing I'll get into Jesus being the way. And I'm looking forward, by the way, to talking to you about Jesus the truth. In fact, I almost started with Jesus the truth. And I said, "No, no, no, no." He said it intentionally this way. So we're going to start with the way, the way, the truth, and the life. But the third thing I'm going to give you this morning and I'll wrap it up is that Jesus is the way to a fulfilled life on earth, a fulfilled life. You know, he said in John 10, he said, "The thief, John 10, says the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. But I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly or to the full." A lot of translations say, "To the full, to the fullest, to the complete form of God." You know, I spent a lot of time and I probably probably still do this. I know it's just being vulnerable. We probably all do this to an extent. But trying to figure out what fulfills me. You know, like some people it's a hobby or it's a job or it's it's you know relationships and or it's money. Some people it's it's it's how they spend their time and they say this is this is going to fulfill me. But if you think about what what that means, you know, last week when I was talking about the water in the wine and how Jesus told them the servants at the wedding, he said, "There's a six jars, a six big water pots." And he said, "I want you to fill them up." And it says they filled them up to the brim. And I love that picture because that's that's what fulfillment is, right? It's it's full and it's filled. But here's what I've found is that anything that I've ever chased after or pursued or thought I would find fulfillment in it may have in that moment been like water in those water pots just to the brim and and but then it's it's still just water and eventually it's empty again. In verse all testament that says my people are like broken sisters. They got cracks. We leak y'all. And it's like I can I can get the stuff I can have stuff I can I can have the hobby I can I can find some sort of sense of fulfillment from the world and the world's things and the world's people and the entertainment of the world and the stuff of the world I can and I can but it's it's just eventually just gone again. And I find myself going man I thought that was going to do it. I thought that was going to do it. And at and at some point in time like it's got to click with us that Jesus is the way to fulfilled life. He's the one that turns the water into wine. He's the one that you look those those water pots were full to the brim but it still didn't fix the problem. It still didn't fix the problem. The problem was they ran out of wine. The problem was the party's over. The problem was we were having a great time and then no it's done. That's the way life will leave you. And we can live on past regrets of things that we we thought was I mean if only this had happened or if only that had worked out or if only I hadn't made that bad decision or if only then I would be fulfilled then I would be satisfied then I would have some sort of sense of contentment on the inside of me but I'm broken because I'm broken I need a savior. I need someone that can fulfill me. I need to know this Jesus that is the only one that can bring me that fulfillment that I need that thief comes to steal to kill and destroy it's a guarantee. It's a guarantee. You may not have understood that that's what it was but any every single thing that's been stolen from you. There was a thief and every single thing that's been broken and there was a thief and he came to steal to kill and destroy but he said I've come because I want to give you a fulfilled life. I am the way to a fulfilled life. And so what is that what does that even mean? You just put a Jesus bumper sticker on your car and then you're going to have a fulfilled life? Do you just learn all the words to reckless love and then you're going to have a fulfilled life? Is that how this works? If I come to church three out of four Sundays a week or a month then then I'll have a fulfilled and it's none of that. It's none of that. It's none of the Christian things that we think we can perform our way to this because in that case I'm my own savior because it's based on my performance. It's based on how well I do. It's based on whether or not I you know, the bumper sticker on my car, it's based on the fish logo on my business card. And none of that is where the fulfillment is. It's only in putting my full trust and hope in him. It's when I say Jesus, just like the disciples in that moment, when he said, "Let not your heart be troubled." You believe in God. Believe also in me. Trust me. It's all gonna be okay. Trust me. I don't know. Maybe this was just a reminder this morning that we don't ever get past this stuff. Like you don't age out of rediscovering Jesus again is the way to life. So Father, we just wanna stop in this moment and say thank you for sending your son. Lord, I'm so thankful that you never turned away. I'm so thankful that you never turned your back on your son in the most difficult moment. 'Cause in doing so, you demonstrated your Father's heart for me, that Lord, when I needed you the most, He didn't turn away from me. When I was at my worst, He didn't turn away from me. You never forsaken me. (soft music) Father, thank you for sending your son that we have a living way. Not just an example. Not just a method or a strategy or some new religion that can somehow bring temporary fulfillment to my life. But you gave us a person. You gave us yourself. You gave us Jesus. The way, the truth, and the life. So this morning Jesus, we, even if our hearts are troubled and maybe there's some troubled hearts in this room. Lord Jesus, we put our trust in you. Oh, we hear your voice this morning. Lord, as you remind us, that you're for us and you're not against us, that you're with us and you never leave us, and that we've been reconciled to you. We've been brought back to face to face with you. And so Lord, we can put all of our needful fulfillment in your hands this morning. Lord, I pray that every single heart in this room does that. And that we can walk out of these doors, Lord, stepping into the brand new day. Lord, knowing that you've made a way for us. And eventually that way will lead us to you face to face. And we thank you for that. We celebrate that in this place this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.