I AM

John 14:1-6

Scripture Readings

Pslam 33
I Peter 2:2-10 (EHV)

Hymns

53, WS 758, 355, 465

Hymns from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) (TLH) unless otherwise noted

Sermon Audio: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail

Prayer of the Day: O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will. Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed on heaven where true joys are found. We pray this in Jesus’ name, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. 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. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

You’ve probably heard it said before, I know I have: “It doesn’t really matter what religion you are, we all worship the same God.” Or, “All roads lead to heaven.” That might sound good. That might sound like a nice thought, but is it true? Never mind what I think, or you think, or what the rest of the world thinks or says. If we want to find out if our personal religious views and philosophies are true, we turn to the One who said, “I AM…the Truth.”

In our text, specifically in v. 6, Jesus very clearly tells us that He is the only way to God the Father, the only way to heaven itself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John’s Gospel records a number of Jesus’ “I AM” statements, this one being His greatest. These statements are significant because He, no doubt, intended for them to call to mind the personal name of God Himself. “I AM” in Hebrew is the meaning of the name God gave to Himself: “Jehovah,” or “Yaweh.” With these words, Jesus is also essentially claiming that He too is “Jehovah,” the Great “I AM.”

When Jesus claimed to be true God and the only “way” to heaven, He didn’t do so to “pick a fight” with all the other world religions, or to stir up controversy, but rather to comfort His disciples and all who believe in Him. The problem is most people can’t see past the controversy of Jesus’ claim to being the one true God, and the only way to heaven, and they completely miss the comfort that these words give to our hearts. Listen again to Jesus’ words from our sermon text: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. 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. And where I go you know, and the way you know…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:1-4, 6).

These words are part of what Luther called “the best and most comforting sermon given by Christ, our Lord, on earth” (Ylvisaker, The Gospels, p. 673). These words are the words of everlasting hope; they are the very words of life! And yet, if we take Jesus out of the picture, or simply make Him just one of the many roads that lead to the Father and our heavenly home, or even if we do what many religions do and make Jesus only a great prophet or teacher, but not the Redeemer, then these words—as well as our faith—mean nothing!

Ever since the fall into sin mankind has been searching for the “way” to God. By nature we human beings would like to believe the ideas our own hearts come up with to find that “way.” One such example is that if we work hard enough to please God, we will one day see God. Another, that I mentioned earlier, is that “all ways eventually lead to God.” The prophet Isaiah reminds us, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).

Left to ourselves, our life is like a maze that has no solution. Our own ways do not lead to God, or to heaven. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us of this truth, “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Jesus tells us where the many “ways” of man lead us. He says in Matthew, “For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matthew 7:13).

That is why He also encourages us to “Enter by the narrow gate…which leads to life” (Matthew 7:13a, 14). Jesus is that “gate.” He is the way—the only way—to “know God” and the only “way” to heaven. Jesus tells us very plainly in our text, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (v. 6).

He is the “Way” because by His sacrifice on the cross He bridged the unbridgeable gap of sin between man and God and by the forgiveness He earned for all of us paved the “way” to heaven for all mankind.
In a world where it is so hard to determine what is or isn’t actually true, or who is or isn’t telling the truth, Jesus reminds us that He is the “Truth”—not just because as the sinless Son of God He only speaks the “truth”—He is “truth”! He is the very embodiment of “truth” itself! He is, as John puts it, “the Word [made] flesh … full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He is the “truth” of God’s Word in human flesh.
Jesus is the “Life” because He is the originator of all life, as John tells us in the first chapter of his gospel, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3-4). Through Him true “life” is given, as Jesus Himself said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus’ death on Calvary’s cross gave us “life” eternal, and His resurrection promises us unending “life” even after death. We read again Jesus’ familiar words from John, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

Jesus has entrusted each one of us with this knowledge and the faith to believe that Jesus is who He said He is: That He is “I AM.” He is Jehovah, the one true God. He has given us His “truth” in His Word that we might have “life” everlasting and know the “way” to heaven’s mansions. He also wants us to share that “way,” that “truth,” and that “life” with others that they might share heaven with us. If you’re in a conversation with someone and they tell you, “All roads lead to God and to heaven,” share with them Jesus’ very own words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (v. 6). Who can you share Jesus with this week?

May the fact that you and I, by His grace, know the great “I AM,” Jesus Christ, strengthen, encourage, and comfort us! And may the “I AM” statement that Jesus makes (of a slightly different kind) in our text comfort us in this life, even as we look forward to seeing Him in the next: “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” (v. 2-3). Yes, come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.

—Pastor Luke Bernthal

Messiah Lutheran Church
Hales Corners, WI

Ministry by Mail is a weekly publication of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Subscription and staff information may be found online at www.clclutheran.org/ministrybymail.