I’ve heard just what we might call a couple of rookie mistake questions from two of the disciples, Thomas and Philip, but they actually reveal not only where they were in relation to their understanding of Jesus and his mission, and by extension of where some of us might be this morning, but they also produced some of the most amazing truths ever to pass from the lips of the Lord Jesus that any of us could ever hear. Well, this section which Emily read for us contains what must surely be one of the greatest and most famous verses in the whole Bible, verse 6, where Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Well, we’ll be looking at that verse in a bit more detail later, but to start with, let’s remember the key verse at the start of chapter 14 that we considered last week. It was the title of Colin’s message, don’t let your hearts be troubled. And it kind of bookends chapter 14 because we find it again near the end in verse 27, where Jesus says, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

It shows just how significant and troubling this moment was for the disciples. In the previous chapter, Judas had left to betray Jesus, and although we read that the other 11 hadn’t worked out yet that he was the betrayer, Jesus says first that he is going to be leaving them and then that the disciples won’t be able to follow him there. And then he immediately follows that by predicting that Peter, who was the lead disciple, was going to deny him.

(2:01 – 5:06)

So with that triple whammy, the disciples are stunned. Jesus was in some way going to leave them that they didn’t quite understand, but where was that going to leave them? They had left everything for him. How were they going to continue without him? But we need to remember that not only were the disciples’ hearts troubled, Jesus was troubled too, as we read in chapter 12 verse 27, where he says, now my soul is troubled.

It’s the same word. And what shall I say? Father save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. But the incredible thing that we see about this farewell discourse is how selfless Jesus is in his dealings with his disciples.

His focus is all on them and their needs and not on himself. His patience and long suffering with them, as we’ll see, are truly astonishing. So let’s go through the passage where we start with Thomas.

Now we’ve not heard too much about him in John so far, but he does feature a lot later on in the final chapters. There’s really just one reference in chapter 11 where I think J.C. Ryle in his commentary is correct to say about Thomas’s statement about Lazarus, let us also go that we may die with him, that it’s an expression of despondency and unbelief. But here in verse 5, given what Peter has said a few verses earlier, Thomas does appear to be speaking on behalf of all the disciples when he says, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? In effect, there’s an implicit request there for Jesus to show them the way, although Jesus has just said that they do know the way already.

So why did Thomas deny this? Well, Jesus here, I think, is challenging the disciples’ understanding, as he had already predicted his death in chapter 12. So what is the reason behind this request? Well, there’s clearly confusion on the part of the disciples, quite possibly, in part at least, as a result of their hearts being so troubled at the news that Jesus is going to leave them. Often we can be gripped with grief or fear and worry about different things in our lives, and that often leads us to not thinking straight and perhaps even becoming irrational in our thinking, because what we know in our heads often hasn’t reached our hearts, and in times of trouble or crisis, our faith can appear to vanish.

(5:08 – 9:20)

This is a really important point, because the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10 verse 10 that it is with our heart that we believe and are justified, put right with God. And it’s important for us really to ask that question of ourselves this morning. Do we really believe in our heart what Jesus’ mission was? Is this where we find true comfort, or is it simply head knowledge? But let’s look at the response that Jesus gives.

He is the root to the Father. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Thomas wanted directions, but Jesus offers relationship. The root here isn’t a line on a sat-nav or a map as they would have had in those days. Instead, it’s a person who bridges a divide, none other than the Lord Jesus himself.

And the barrier is not geographical, but it is moral and spiritual. The way, the truth, and the life are not three separate paths. They are one unified reality found in the person of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus is the way because he is the very truth of God as the incarnate word of God, because he is the life of God. And it’s not as if this is something brand new that the disciples were hearing. No, Jesus has been building up to this climax of his teaching about himself throughout his ministry.

Let’s have a quick overview of what we’ve seen already over the past few months. Jesus is the fulfilment of Jacob’s ladder, the way to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on him. We read about that at the end of chapter one, making reference to Jacob’s dream with the ladder to heaven back in the book of Genesis.

And then in chapter three, Jesus says that being born again through his spirit is the way that we enter the kingdom of God. In chapter 10, he says that he is the gate for the sheep, and whoever enters through him will be saved. So Jesus has already been teaching that he is the way to God.

But John has also been telling us that Jesus is the truth of God. In chapter one, verse 14, we read that the word, that’s Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We’re also told that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ.

And in chapter eight, Jesus promises that his disciples will know the truth, and that truth will set them free. And we’ve also seen that Jesus is the source of all life. Again, chapter one, in him was life, and that life was the light of men.

And in chapter six, he said that just as the living father sent him and he lives because of the father, so the one who feeds on the Lord Jesus will live because of him. And most memorably in chapter 11 that we were just considering just a few weeks ago, we heard Jesus say that he is the resurrection and the life. So this glorious sentence, I am the way and the truth and the life, is the climax to so much of what we have been told already.

But let’s unpack that a bit. What is this way? Well, it’s not merely a way to live, although certainly what Jesus tells us in his ethical commands, what we read in the Sermon on the Mount and other parts of the Gospels, certainly is the way that he calls us to live. But that’s not what he’s speaking about here.

(9:20 – 16:46)

No, the way to God is the way of the cross, Jesus impending death and resurrection. And we read about this explained later in the New Testament, in particular in Hebrews chapter 10, where we read that we have confidence to enter the most holy place. That’s making reference to the sacrificial system under the Old Testament where the high priest was only able to go into the most holy place once a year.

But what the writer to Hebrews says that every single Christian is able to enter that spiritual most holy place, the presence of God in glory, by what he says is the new and living way. Exactly the same word opened up for us through the curtain. That was the curtain that closed off the most holy place.

And it’s described here as Jesus’ body. And of course, if you know the Gospel accounts that the temple curtain was torn in two when Jesus died on the cross, showing in that most graphic of, I guess, pictures there that the way to God was now wide open because Jesus had died on the cross as the final fulfilment of all the Old Testament sacrifices because he is the only one that was able to take away our sins by bearing the punishment for them on that cross. And Peter speaks of this in his first letter where he says that Jesus died for our sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

Jesus alone is the way. No one comes to the Father except through him because no one else has died for our sins and risen from the dead to put us right with God. Only Jesus could do this as fully God and fully man without any sin and only Jesus has done this because we know as we’ll be hearing in a few weeks time that he has risen from the dead.

But because no one comes to God the Father except through Jesus, this is why it is so crucial that every single one of us here today grasps how much we all need Jesus. I was thinking of the corollary of the opposite of why Jesus is the way. What does that say about us? Jesus is the truth.

What does that say about us? Jesus is the life. What does that say about us? Well, if Jesus is the way, that means that every one of us is directionless. We don’t know where we’re going in life.

We may think we are, but as we read in Proverbs, there’s a way that seems right to people, but its end leads to death. Each one of us, the Bible tells us, is lost and Jesus alone is the way to God that each of us must take. Then secondly, we are all deceived.

We have wrong thinking by nature because our minds are darkened because of our sin. We have wrong thinking about God. We have wrong thinking about ourselves.

We are deceived about salvation. We think either that we don’t need it or that somehow we are good enough to be accepted by God. But all that wrong thinking and being deceived by the devil means that we are heading for a lost eternity.

Jesus alone is the truth, the truth of God that we need to hear and heed. Although we may think if our lives are going well that we really are living life to the full, that we are fully alive, the verdict of the Bible is that we are completely deceived if we think that. Actually we are spiritually dead. What that means ultimately is that we are separated from God, unresponsive to him by nature, that great chasm between God and us.

And Jesus alone is the life that each of us desperately needs that bridges that separation between God and ourselves and brings us into fellowship with him. So like Lazarus, we need a spiritual resurrection, raising us from our spiritual death to life with God in Christ. And again I need to ask each one of you this morning, have you experienced that yet? Because it’s something that you’re not going to miss.

You’re going to realise that something has happened in your life. You were once in darkness, now you’re in the light. You were once spiritually dead, now you’re spiritually alive.

Because that’s what happens with every single individual who becomes a Christian. We pass from death to life. And there is no other way to God.

This was a shocking claim in the first century and it’s still as shocking today in 2025. And it’s hugely important that we do not compromise on this key truth of the Bible. Because as Peter would go on to say in Acts chapter 4 verse 12, salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.

I do hope that each one of you takes that to heart this morning. Please do speak with Colin or someone that you know who is a Christian afterwards to explain things further. But we need to move on to Philip that we read of next in verse 8. Now he was from Bethsaida in Galilee like Andrew and his brother Simon Peter.

And he’s only mentioned again before this incident in chapter 12 when he along with Andrew go and tell Jesus about some Greeks who want to see him. Pointing there to the gospel being not just for the Jews but for Greeks or Gentiles. And that would include ourselves today as those outside of the Jewish people that the gospel is for us as much as for them.

But Philip has an explicit request this time where he says show us the father and that will be enough for us. Now while in the face of it it seems to be a sincere request that seems to display a heartfelt longing for God. It’s clear that the reason if we dig a little bit beneath the surface the reason that Philip makes this request isn’t a good one.

(16:48 – 17:10)

Because he is expecting something that was independent of Jesus. A kind of epiphany, a revelation of the glory of God similar to what Abraham experienced in Genesis 18. What Moses experienced with the burning bush in Exodus 3. Elijah in First Kings chapter 19.

(17:11 – 19:13)

And Isaiah in chapter 6 of that great prophecy. I wonder if when Philip said this if Jesus possibly paused before giving that response. Because I think there’s no escaping that what Jesus is saying here don’t you know me Philip even after I’ve been among you such a long time? How can you say show us the father? Surely there’s at least disappointment perhaps even frustration in Jesus’ voice.

And please do note then that disappointment and frustration are not inherently sinful feelings because Jesus clearly felt disappointment here. That there’s an odd teaching going around just now saying God’s never disappointed in you if you’re a Christian. Well if you know the book of Revelation that there’s letters to the seven churches there and five of them we read Jesus saying the risen exalted Jesus saying to churches but I have this against you.

So rather than Jesus never being disappointed I would say that probably five times out of seven if we’re going to take that as a as a benchmark. There are things in our lives that he is disappointed with and therefore we need to repent of them we need to seek his forgiveness and we need to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. So Thomas and Philip and indeed the other disciples clearly still haven’t got it and this is why Jesus is disappointed.

They didn’t believe that Jesus himself was enough. Instead they wanted a spectacular manifestation of God the father. And there’s still sadly many today who want that.

(19:13 – 19:54)

They want something spectacular but they don’t want Jesus. And there will be a clear rebuke from the Lord Jesus for those who have that attitude just as there was a clear rebuke from him to Philip that he and the others because the word you hear is plural still really didn’t know him even though they had been with him for three years day in and day out. Now like the disciples most of us here will know lots about Jesus and if we’ve been coming to Greenview for any length of time that’s certainly going to be the case.

(19:55 – 20:25)

But let’s ask ourselves do we really know him? In a mysterious way what Jesus’ response tells us here is that he expects us to know him if we know about him because we all have a responsibility to respond to what we’ve heard. And in a real sense he is disappointed if we don’t. But how gracious he is to Philip.

(20:26 – 21:47)

And he goes on to tell him that he is the revelation of the father. We’ve seen here that he’s the first of all he’s the route to the father. Now we see that he is the revelation of the father in verses 8 to 11.

To see Jesus is to see the father not because they are the same person they are distinct and I’ll say a bit more about that later but because they share the same nature. Jesus is not simply a messenger from God he is the very manifestation of God in the flesh. He doesn’t the son doesn’t merely represent the father he reveals him perfectly.

As the hymn says true image of the infinite whose essence is concealed brightness of uncreated light the heart of God revealed in the Lord Jesus. If you want to know what God is like John has already shown us look at Jesus touching the leper look at Jesus forgiving the woman caught in adultery look at Jesus washing his disciples feet even the feet of Judas who was going to betray him. That’s the father’s character on display.

(21:49 – 22:50)

And once again Jesus calls upon his disciples to believe in him look at verse 10 don’t you believe that I am in the father and that the father is in me. But even if they don’t take his word for it he says let the sign miracles that they’ve seen the signs of life speak for themselves because they all point to the divinity of Christ. Jesus is God in the flesh.

Now while Thomas’s request was implicit and Phillips was explicit there’s an unspoken question that you’re not going to find in the text here but I do believe that the last three verses throw it up because all believers are included here. If you look there whoever believes in me. So if you’re a Christian this morning these verses are very much for you.

(22:54 – 23:35)

And since Jesus was happy to take questions from his 11 disciples I believe that we can ask questions of the text ourselves and here they are. Lord show us what this means for us because this verse sounds impossible and your statements don’t seem to reflect our experience. How could anyone do the same works as you Lord far less greater things turning water into wine, stilling the storm, walking on water, feeding the thousands, raising someone like Lazarus who’d been dead for four days.

(23:35 – 29:17)

Even the apostles didn’t do any of these things in the book of Acts. So what is it that you’re referring to Lord and what kind of prayers should we pray that you promise you will answer personally? Well Jesus says that all of these things are gloriously possible because he is returning to the Father. We see that in verses 12 to 14 and his purpose in doing so is to enable his people to continue his work.

That’s what we read in the book of Acts. You may remember if you were here a few years ago that that series was called Jesus Acts because Luke himself says that that he’d written his gospel to recount everything that Jesus began to do and the implication is clear that Jesus has continued to act through his people as they spread the gospel in the book of Acts. Well the works that Jesus did don’t necessarily mean performing the miracles that we’ve mentioned because not only as I say did the even the apostles do these things.

In first Corinthians chapter 12 Paul asks a number of rhetorical questions including, “Do all work miracles?”, with the expected answer, “No, not everyone does that”. So that can’t be what Jesus is referring to here. The works that he did were works of compassion and mercy and kindness.

The selflessness and long-suffering that he shows here that we’ve just been seeing and each one of us who are Christians are called to walk just as Jesus walked as John says in his first letter. But what of the greater things then? Well greater doesn’t mean more spectacular it means greater in scope depth and significance. Jesus earthly ministry was limited just to one region and time but after his resurrection and ascension his Spirit empowered church, with every single believer filled and empowered with that Holy Spirit, would take the gospel to the nations first in Jerusalem then in Judea then Samaria then to the ends of the earth.

And also if you think about it the gospel and the Christian life would be explained far more fully in the rest of the new testament. If you think about most Christian doctrines we will look at the writings of Paul or Peter or John or the book of Hebrews or other parts of the new testament to unpack more fully what Jesus taught in the gospel. Surely these are the greater things that were to be done.

But also if you think about what the preaching of the gospel how that reflects Jesus’ own ministry and in all sorts of ways. In chapter nine Jesus opened the physical eyes of a blind man. In chapter eight he said that those who believed in him would not walk in darkness but have the light of life.

In the same chapter he told the pharisees that they were of their father the devil yet even Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both of them pharisees, turned from that satanic deception that power of satan to God as we read as we’ll be reading later on in John’s gospel. Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery in that same chapter. And in chapter 10 he spoke of the one flock with the one shepherd speaking there of the global church made up of believing Jew and believing Gentile.

And he spoke of people being saved simply by putting their faith in him in chapters three five and six. Well why do I mention all these things? Well in Acts chapter 26 verse 18 the apostle Paul tells King Agrippa that the risen Lord Jesus whom he had met on the Damascus road commissioned Paul to do all these things to open the eyes of the spiritually blind Jews and Gentiles turning them from darkness to light from the power of satan to God that they like the woman caught in adultery might receive forgiveness of sins and a place among that one flock those sanctified by faith in Christ. And through the preaching of the gospel ever since whether it be by those called to full-time ministry or simply Christians sharing the gospel one-to-one with their family friends and neighbours people are actually raised from spiritual death to eternal life.

Surely those are the greater things that Jesus speaks of here not physical miracles but spiritual ones regeneration the new birth and transformation of our lives on a global scale. And notice what Jesus says here the reason for this is because I am going to the father. It was his departure his death resurrection and ascension that triggered the coming of the spirit the birth of the church and the worldwide mission until his glorious return at the end of the age.

(29:19 – 31:44)

So the pattern of the passage is this Jesus goes home to the father so that we might come home to the father and through us others might find their home in God the father. Jesus is the route he’s the guide and he is the destination. And the key to being a part of all of this as we read in verses 13 and 14 is dependent prayer.

Because of the work of the gospel and spreading it isn’t ultimately our work it’s the work of Jesus. Twice he promises this in these verses to answer our prayers. So what kind of prayers will Jesus answer for us? Well not selfish ones for a start.

As Christians we continue the work that he began the work of spreading the gospel and making disciples. So our prayers should be shaped by that. They should be prayers that as we read in verse 14 will lead to the father being glorified in the son.

So it’s all caught up in what Christ’s purposes are for us. And if we’re thinking well what are his purposes? Well come back over the next few weeks because in these amazing chapters 14, 15, 16 and 17 we see unfolding in a fuller way than I think anywhere else in the gospels exactly what Jesus has in store for his people and in particular the things he prays most for us. As we’ll see in chapter 17 really big prayers.

Now praying in Jesus’ name isn’t some kind of magic way to get our prayers answered because remember the rest of the verse is so that the father may be glorified in the son. We must pray in accordance with what we know of Jesus’ character, his purposes and his will. We pray the way that he taught us in the Sermon on the Mount which is our father in heaven generally addressing the father but as we see here this is one of the few instances and that’s perhaps significant that we can pray to Jesus as well and ask Jesus anything in his name.

(31:47 – 34:44)

But let’s not conflate the two in our prayers father and son. If we want our prayer to be addressing Jesus we shouldn’t start it with heavenly father and then thank the father for doing what Jesus did and then finish in your name. I hear this everywhere because we are never told to pray in the name of the father we are to pray in Jesus’ name and if we mix and match the father and son in our prayers willy-nilly we are denying the great truths of the trinity that we’ll see unpacked in these coming chapters and what we’re doing is we’re telling God that they really don’t matter.

Well if that’s our attitude are we any different from Philip? Do we really know Christ? Do we have a real understanding of the trinity? One God in three distinct persons father son and holy spirit? Or are we perhaps confused like Thomas? Do we maybe think that people in other religions will be in heaven so long as they are sincere that there actually is another way to God apart from Jesus? These are really really serious matters because God hasn’t changed, his word hasn’t changed and we are to worship him in spirit and in truth through Christ here and now. Well it’s interesting in this section that Jesus speaks of himself as going to the father but in verse six of us coming to the father and it reminded me of what happens when you receive a wedding invitation. Usually it’s the the bride’s parents who invite guests hoping that they’ll be able to come and when the day arrives the guests get ready to go to the wedding because they’ve been invited.

Well it’s the same with the gospel isn’t it? God the father invites us to come to the marriage supper of the lamb. Jesus has gone ahead of us and awaits that great day when all those who have responded to his father’s gracious invitation will come because they have come to know him through Christ in this life and have been a part of his great plan of redemption to invite others to attend too. It’s once been said of verse six being a Christian isn’t just about going to heaven when you die, it’s about coming to the father while you live.

(34:46 – 35:44)

Well have you responded to this invitation? Have you thanked the father for it? Are you getting to know him and his son Jesus better and better here and now each and every day? Well let’s pray together. Heavenly father how we thank you that the Lord Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and without the way there is no going, without the truth there is no knowing, without the life there is no living. Help each of us Lord to put our faith not only in you but in the Lord Jesus as he calls each of us to do and that as we put our faith in him we will know that life eternal.

(35:45 – 35:48)

In his name we ask it. Amen.

The post Jesus is the Way – John 14v5–14 appeared first on Greenview Church.