Jesus the way (All-Age Talk)

[0:00] Jenny, thank you. So this morning, adults and children together, what I want to talk about is coming to the Father.

[0:11] ! Knowing God the Father personally, seeing and knowing God the Father forever.! In John 14, verse 5, Jesus speaks so clearly and wonderfully and says, verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

[0:35] They're such wonderful, clear words and so needed because Thomas, who is talking to Jesus, is so completely, utterly confused and lost and everything.

[0:47] This is what's going on. It is the night before Jesus is going to die and Jesus is talking to his followers. And he says to them, I'm going to go away. I'm going to go away and you can't come.

[1:02] But then he says, I'm going to go away and you can follow later. And they think, Jesus, what are you talking about? And Jesus says, don't be troubled. I'm going to my Father's place. I'm going to prepare a place for you.

[1:15] Then I'm going to come back and I'm going to take you to be with me so that you will be where I am. And you know the way to the place I'm going. And in verse 5, did you notice or did you hear, Thomas, who's been listening to him, is so utterly confused he can't believe it.

[1:33] Thomas said, scratching his head, we don't know where you're going, Jesus. So how can we know the way? Jesus is off. What's the destination? Where are you going?

[1:46] I don't know that. I don't even know the way. I don't know if you've ever been particularly lost. What I'd like, I was going to use Hunter, but I might use Adam actually to be my hitchhiking friend.

[1:59] So here's Adam, who's very gladly just agreed to help. There's his hitchhiking rucksack. And there's a map here of Chelmsford, Harlow and Bishop Stortford. And Adam, the thing is, open your map up, Adam.

[2:11] This is like in the old days when people have maps, not a smartphone. The problem is for Adam, as he looks at his map, he doesn't quite even know which way to hold it or look at it. But he doesn't know where he's going.

[2:23] And he doesn't even know the way. I mean, that's pretty tricky, isn't it? Say you knew you were going to Scotland. You would find a map and you'd go, oh, maybe it's that way.

[2:34] But Adam is scratching his head with the map, if we can see him. He doesn't know where he's going. And so how on earth can he know the way? Adam, my hitchhiking friend, sit down here and continue looking confused.

[2:49] So here is, this is like it's Thomas. Thomas says to Jesus, Lord, I don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? It's not just about hitchhiking.

[3:00] This is very, very important. Because Jesus is saying he's going to his father's house. This is about the most important things in life. But Thomas is, he's lost. He's confused.

[3:13] Doesn't know where to go or how to get there. Like lots of us in our world today, when we think about the most important things. Where are we going?

[3:24] Kind of. I don't even know how we're going to get there. To whom Jesus speaks such wonderful words. Where he tells Thomas and he tells us his destination and also how to get there.

[3:43] So, where is Jesus going? Where is the destination that actually we all should go to, want to go to, we're built to go to?

[3:54] Firstly, the destination. Jesus says, my destination, my destination is the father. Did you hear in John 14, verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life.

[4:09] No one comes to the father, except through me. In verse 2, Jesus was speaking about his father's house, which might make you think of a place or a destination like heaven.

[4:25] And I guess for lots of people today, you think, can't see it, I don't know where this place is, I don't know what we're talking about. Jesus says his destination actually is not a place, finally, but a person.

[4:39] Not heaven, so much, as a heavenly father. That's the destination. We're going to work this through together this morning.

[5:01] This is a well-trained ladder, it's not going to fall on you. Jesus says, I'm going to the father, which says to us that the destination where Jesus is pointing everyone, it's not, well, what do people say together?

[5:17] Maybe Nirvana, or Valhalla, or paradise, or heaven, and it's a kind of place, and where is it? And maybe it's wispy, and I don't, no, the father.

[5:31] Jesus is talking about going to him, he's offering, opening up a living relationship with God, the father.

[5:44] that as we follow him, we might know the father, and see the father, and be with him forever. This is, in a sense, first point in Christianity, but did you know this?

[5:58] That what is offered to us is to know God. Jesus says in John 17, verse 3, this is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

[6:15] That's what is offered to us, adults and children, to know God as our father and our friend. It should warm our hearts that we are in church.

[6:26] That's the destination. Not, not just warm our hearts, but actually this is for everyone. I'm reading a book at the moment from over 1500 years ago, and Augustine said, you have made us human beings for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

[6:50] Every human being will not find rest until we come home to the father. Okay, first, that's the destination. Confused hitchhiker, Thomas, we don't know where you're going.

[7:04] I'm going to the father. And Jesus has said to Thomas, you can follow. So the second question is, what's the way? How do you get to the father? Listen to these words now from Jesus who says that he is the way.

[7:24] I am the way and the truth and the life, says Jesus Christ. Notice what Jesus doesn't say. Jesus isn't like a tour guide.

[7:35] He doesn't come to Thomas and say, hey Thomas, you're interested in going to the father. Well, if you go along here and round the corner and follow the map that way, then maybe you might just reach him.

[7:48] Jesus doesn't point the way to God. Nor does Jesus say, hey, follow along me. I'll go this route and then you can follow along if you're able to and then maybe you can get there.

[8:03] Jesus doesn't say, follow me along the way. He says, did you notice, I am the way. not a tour guide pointing, not a come along behind me and try and be like me.

[8:23] Jesus says, I am the way. No one comes to the father except through me.

[8:39] You've got to come to Jesus because he is like the ladder. He is the way to God the father. He's the way because he is the truth and the life.

[8:52] Jesus says, I am the truth. I don't know whether you know this as you grow up. Maybe you get brought up in a family and you get told about God and then you go to school and then other people start saying, there's other things you need to know about God that you've not been told at home.

[9:08] Well, we believe different truth about God. And then you grow up even further into the wider world and you hear people saying, I'll tell you the truth if there isn't any God, really.

[9:19] or, well, people all around the place saying, search for the truth about God inside yourself, maybe. Listen to other people, go and travel and hear other truth and maybe you will discover something that's true.

[9:37] And you can get a bit confused and lost and think, goodness, how will I ever know what is true about God? But Jesus says, I am the truth. sometimes people say, well, you'll never know anything about God, you really can't because no one's ever seen him.

[9:56] How could you ever know the truth about God? But Jesus does because he has come from God.

[10:08] In John 1 verse 14, he is the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth. he has come into the world and made the father known.

[10:23] In John 3, Jesus says, the one who comes from heaven, Jesus, testifies to what he has seen and heard. He speaks the words of God.

[10:36] So the thing about Jesus is he doesn't just say, I have discovered true things from the father. He says, I have come from the father and I speak truth. In fact, as you listen to Jesus, whatever I say is just what the father has told me to say, says Jesus.

[10:52] He is the truth about God, which is just wonderful because we live in a world where all sorts of people try and make up things or wonder and there's opinions and distractions and fake news and half truth and you can look inside yourself and think, I don't know what is true.

[11:11] Jesus says, I am the truth. Listen to me. But not just that because thirdly, in these verses, he is the life.

[11:26] Do you know this about Jesus? He's so different from any other religious leader or prophet or king. They don't have life in them. But as Jesus is speaking, he says, just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the son gives life to whom he's pleased to give it.

[11:49] Or, as the father has life in himself, so he's granted the son to have life in himself. Jesus doesn't just give life, he has life in him.

[12:02] he says, I am the resurrection and the life and he speaks a word and he raises Lazarus from the dead.

[12:15] This is just wonderful about Jesus. We live in a world where you can imagine all sorts of things about God and what's spiritual and true and what religion would I like to sign up to.

[12:30] But at the end of the day, all of us will die and everything we've liked to believe and hold on to will come to nothing unless there is someone who can give us life and Jesus comes into the world and says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

[12:53] He speaks truth from God to us. He is able to give us the life of God. He is the way. And he's about to go on the way in John's Gospel to the cross as many of us know where on the cross he pays for our sins, dies and then rises from the dead so he can take people to God the Father for all eternity.

[13:22] this is such good news. In a lost and confused world, here's our hitchhiker friend, he says, I don't know the way, how am I going to get there?

[13:35] Jesus speaks so clearly, I am the way and the truth and the life. Come to the Father through me. It's so wonderful that.

[13:48] But did you notice the last thing that Jesus says in these verses? Not just he is the way, he is the only way.

[14:00] No one comes to the Father except through me. Which makes such sense really because only he is God the Son, only he is from God, only he has life in himself, only he has died and risen from the dead.

[14:19] What Jesus says here I think still makes lots of people today quite nervous. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus, the only way.

[14:33] And I guess you probably know that. That if you went into school tomorrow morning or to work and they said what happened at church on Sunday and you said I heard that Jesus is the only way to God, I suspect people would not be very pleased to hear that.

[14:49] In fact there is so much pressure in our world to not believe that. Do you know this? This is quite often how people think that kind of like there is God at the top of a mountain and there are lots of different paths going up.

[15:06] So it doesn't really matter if you're a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or you have your own way you can get to the top of the mountain if you want to.

[15:18] In fact it's helpful to know this last month a couple of months ago we got him there he is Pope Francis the head of the Catholic Church was very clear about this.

[15:30] There's only one God and each of us has a language to arrive at God some are Sikh Muslim Hindu Christian and they are different paths to God.

[15:41] said the Pope to which Jesus says no no Jesus says no one comes to the Father except through me.

[15:57] Can you see why? There is only one who has come from the Father full of truth. Only he has seen God only he speaks truth Only Jesus has life in himself only he can give you eternal life.

[16:18] Only Jesus has died for our sins and risen from the dead and opened the way to God the Father only he can give us life.

[16:31] So finally to our hitchhiker down here this is what you need to know. Jesus is the way he is the way to the Father.

[16:43] But you know what hitchhiker as you go along in life people will say other things to you. they will say maybe if you're nice maybe then you can get to God or if you go to church maybe that will help or if you have faith then you can get to God if you follow another religion that's good and maybe you can get there but it's Jesus who opens the way to the Father and if you try and go up this ladder well you're not going to end up with truth and life you're going to be on the ladder of lies and death and eventually you're just going to topple over the end.

[17:35] It helped me this week just thinking about these ladders like this. So what I want to say to my hitchhiker friend is not hey go any which way that you like and that will be fine.

[17:49] Do you not think that? How cruel it would be for me to say to my hitchhiker yes climb up this ladder and you