I Am the Way, Truth, and Life (John 14:1–14)

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Ruth Chou Simons: Well, good morning, ladies. I am delighted to be here with you all. I trust that this has been such a fruitful weekend. Are you filled up? So filled up ready to be sent back? I mean, maybe not totally ready to be back home, right? But so filled up ready to be faithful in the places that God has you in. And so I am excited for our final day together, so grateful that we’ve been here to fellowship together, to grow together, to study together. I know that we might be new friends, but you may or may not know this part of my story, but when I was a sophomore in college, I switched my major from biochem to fine arts, never imagining in a million years, I know Right, totally makes sense. Go from molecules to paint brushes, never imagining in a million years that I that God would use my artwork in the future through grace lace and my books, I took an introductory painting class that year, and I my first assignment was to complete a an original painting on a seven foot by nine foot canvas. Can you imagine that this is huge, the largest undertaking I had ever attempted. I imagined it to be pretty straightforward as a project, and I was really ready. I mean, I was young. It was early 20s, and I was like, Okay, I got this, I’m gonna do this thing. And I imagined that my professor would give me instructions and tell me what was required to succeed, because basically that’s how I like things like, tell me what it takes to get an A on this and what would be required, and then I would just get myself to the finish line. But to my surprise, instead of getting right to it, we were first taught how to build our own canvases. I remember thinking, Wait, Hobby Lobby sells those right, like, I’m just going to go buy one. No, no, no, they did, but I literally was required to learn how to build one. We’re talking two by fours, saws, staple gun stretcher bars. I mean, if you are an artist, you know what I’m talking about, it’s like, Wait, am I, like, Bob the Builder, what do I need to do here? Like, how? Why am I having to, like, stretch my own canvas, and then after the canvas goes on, you have to gesso and you have to prep it. I had to do that whole thing. And if you’re impressed, please be so, because I have no idea how to do it now, but I am really impressed that I was able to do that then. So I was really ready to get going on this painting. But now that the Canvas was done and prepped and I was so ready for the assignment, we were told, okay, now we have to do this thing called an under painting. That meant that I had to do this entire painting with only black and white paint, the whole thing had to be in grayscale. I mean, I was like, well, that’s not gonna be super pretty, but I guess I’ll try this. And so I just kept going and working on it for several days. An entire painting came together only in grayscale, like when you’re running out of ink in your printer. So everything comes in grayscale. That’s what it would look like. After several days of working on that under painting, we finally got to paint in full color, and I was like, masterpiece. Here I come. I’m ready for it. Ruth the artist. Ruth’s not the scientist. Ruth artist is ready to go. The assignment was to paint something autobiographical, and it had to cover the entire seven foot by nine foot Canvas. We had three weeks to complete the painting, and I thought long and hard about it, and I chose to do a self portrait. Have never done it since, but I painted a giant self portrait of myself as a four year old immigrating to the United States, and I included imagery and iconography from both my Taiwanese heritage and my American citizenship. It was ambitious, vulnerable and overwhelming in size and significance. And I was really proud of it. It was a masterpiece. I thought. I was like, okay, nailed it. I’m done. I remember stepping back from my painting and going, yay. Oh my goodness, I completed this thing. Finish Line, I’ve arrived. I clean my brushes and I put away the paints for the week. And while I was feeling rather proud, we were gathered together in the classroom, and my professor brought the biggest plot twist ever, the words that came out of his mouth. I kind of liken it to like slow motion, or like a horror movie, or the combination of both. I don’t know if there are slow motion horror movies, but it felt like that, basically to me. He said, Okay, now turn your completed finished painting 90 degrees, and start over. Start over. Paint over. The entire thing with new layers of paint. We were instructed to leave moments here and there exposed. But I had to start entirely over. I’m sorry, what a whole new painting on top of the previous one that I thought was pretty perfect already, as in, the layer that was underneath would be gone almost entirely. Do I look bored to you? I thought, is this a cruel joke? Look. I mean, I like that painting. And if you’re wondering, yes, I didn’t put that class. I did paint over the entire self portrait, to my horror. And no, I didn’t take a photo of that layer. Isn’t that so sad? It was before iPhones, y’all. This was like 1990 something. When do you ever still feel like those cars are new, and you’re like, wait, that was actually a really long time ago. It’s like, almost 30. That’s how old I am, okay? And yes, the final painting was interesting, developed and well layered in its meaning. I survived that assignment. And turns out, I went on to be a professional artist without too much baggage, not too much PTSD, you can imagine this story can serve as an illustration for so many life lessons. If we had all that time, I’d go into all the things that I’ve extrapolated from that experience. But I tell this story to you today for one singular purpose that you might know this about me. I am a recovering striver who loves clear instructions for how to get from point A to point B. Anyone else in this room? Okay, none of this plot twist unexpected, windy path, the journey is the thing kind of stuff who likes that sounds so good when you’re saying it, but do I really want to experience that the journey is a thing? No, ew, no. Just tell me how to get there and let me do it flawlessly. Basically, tell me I’m not alone. Okay, I’m in a room full of sisters. We can be honest. Give me clear instructions on how to get where I’m supposed to go, and this is the key how I can avoid failure, discomfort and inefficiency. If you give me all those things, I’m golden. Anyone else? Okay, that assignment was my worst nightmare. Please tell me I’m not the only one who would not barely survived that kind of thing, because you just want a plan. You want to know where you’re going, how to get there and again, avoid all discomfort, pain or inefficiency, my temptation to try and pave a perfect path in my life and the to get to the results I long for play out in various places in my life, even now. Let me give you a couple of those scenarios as a mom to six boys. So you know, they’re almost not boys anymore. The oldest is 22 The youngest is 11. That’s a whole other story. New season. It’s kind of wild. But as a mama to six boys, I long for a sure fire path to wholly healthy and obedient kids. Wouldn’t that be totally convenient? As a business owner, I would rather skip learning the hard way and just have someone tell me the fail proof road to a successful, profitable, scalable business that stands the test of time. As a creative artist and writer, I can be led to believe that my giftings paved the way to the life of meaning I so long for as a follower of Jesus, I can still sometimes be tempted to think that the path to pleasing God is by doing more, being more religious or being just good enough. I don’t confess those things out loud, but I know that’s going on in my heart. Can you tell I’m a recovering striver, and maybe you are too, at the heart of all this striving, searching for the way, the path of life and how to nail this thing that we’re trying to do in this time that we have on this earth is the desire to avoid pain, disappointment, failure, or to avoid missing the mark when it comes to this thing called life. Isn’t that all what we’re trying to do all the time, trying to get it right? I don’t know about you, but when I operate in a striving mindset, the state of my heart is usually very troubled. I’m usually not at peace. I’m naturally given to worry and fear when I consider my circumstances through the lens, I’m seeing through the lens of my own understanding what makes sense to me in my own way. When I’m looking through that lens, I’m usually pretty anxious, pretty scared, and when I do so, the conclusions I usually come up with when I assess everything through my own understanding is, this is too hard. I’m failing. It’s impossible. I’m not the right girl for the job? I don’t know what to do. I can’t and sometimes I’m going to die. Does anyone else say that? Clearly, that hasn’t happened yet, but I’m like, I say that almost once a day I’m going to die. Oh my goodness,

Ruth Chou Simons
in our passage this morning, we find ourselves on the night before. Jesus is crucified. The disciples had lived and learned from Jesus for three years. Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of this, start of this week, to cheers from those who were anticipating a political shift. It was like a celebration going on. The disciples were receiving final instructions now He would be crucified the next day. But now today, it’s Thursday, the Passover and Jesus had washed the disciples feet to their surprise. Remember how surprised they were. He’s spoken of his betrayal from within their own they were so confused, and now Jesus was telling them that he was leaving, the disciples were confused. The disciples were fearful. Imagine how confused and anxious they may have felt, how the circumstances seen through the lens of their own understanding and expectations simply didn’t make sense to them. So I invite you to turn in your Bibles to John 14, we’re going to read verses one through six and hear Jesus’s response to the disciples in their anxious hearts. Jesus says, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so would 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 be also, and you know the way to where I’m going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How could we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and 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 in a world where we’re constantly prescribed the latest way to success, the most current truth to believe and the best formula to crafting the life we’ve always wanted. These words of Jesus are rather offensive in our relativistic culture today, aren’t they? Because Jesus doesn’t call himself a way, a truth or a way of life. He definitively and unapologetically declares himself the Way, the Truth and the only life we’re talking about, how the disciples were fearing. They didn’t know what was to come. They couldn’t imagine how their story was going to play out. Correctly with these change of plans as Jesus was going to leave, they didn’t understand what it meant that there might be a betrayer amongst them and like them, we too voice our confusion in the troubled parts of our lives, don’t we? We tend to say things like, how will this work out? God, what if I fail at what I’m trying to do? I thought you said you’d be with me, God, but I feel so alone. This isn’t what I expected or hoped for in my life, but Jesus is from Jesus’s response to the disciples and to you and me is, Let not your hearts be troubled, and his prescription to combat a troubled heart is to behold the truth of who he is and what he’s doing, and to believe, did you hear that it’s literally to behold the truth of who he is and what he’s already done and what he’s going to Do? And to believe literally, behold and believe, like our conference theme for the disciples, Jesus’s statement about himself both confronted and comforted them. Do you see how that could be? And I believe it can be. It can do the same for us as well. You see, if Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life than every other human made formula for having peace with God, knowing right from wrong, and living your very best life any other man made way is categorically false. So this morning, I want to invite us to consider Jesus’ response to the disciples troubled hearts. I want us to see four ways you and I can, in turn, respond to our times of uncertainty. We will see that Jesus calls troubled hearts to belief. Number two, to hope, to look and to choose. Choose. I’m giving them to you right up front. Believe, hope. Look and choose. We’re going to take those all apart. The first response Jesus calls us to when we have troubled Hearts is to believe. We see that in verse one, we begin by believing that Jesus fulfills the promises of God. He says, right there, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. What does Jesus mean by that? Believe in God. Believe also in me. Friends. It means that Jesus was sent by the Father, that God and Jesus, the Son, are one. That God, that the God of Israel’s history, is the same God whose promises are fulfilled in Christ. When we skip down to verses nine, verse nine later in chapter 14, Jesus makes a profound statement. He says, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. I do not speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his works. So believe in God, believe also in Me. Is in essence Jesus calling them to not be troubled, but to put their faith in him, just as they had believed and hoped in God their father. So the first thing I want you to notice here is that the solution Jesus gives you to what feels like a very complex or difficult problem, at least for them and for us. Is it a list of things to do or ways to get themselves out of a mental funk? Do you find it interesting that unlike the various multi step self help plans we’re inundated with today, Jesus starts with the most basic and foundational starting point for troubled Hearts is to believe correctly, to believe in God. He calls them to actively trust, not the act of trying harder. You see, we’re so obsessed with trying a little harder, and he calls them to active trust instead,

Ruth Chou Simons
you see, the cause of the disciples troubled hearts originated with their lack of true belief. They may have listened and heard and they may have understood a little bit of the plan, but they hadn’t fully trusted in God’s purposes and plans. Through Jesus, their Savior, they had yet to fully grasp the truth of Jesus’ teachings and submit fully to them. I don’t know about you, but my most troubled and anxious times are always characterized by a wrong belief that my problems, my unknowns and my seemingly impossible circumstances tell the whole story of my reality, you too, start thinking, Oh, I know what’s happening here when we really don’t believing and trusting God through Christ is where we must begin when our hearts are troubled, notice also that this is a command. Jesus isn’t just suggesting that we put our faith and trust in Him. He is instructing us to do so without question. Let not your heart be troubled. Is a command. This is why we see so often in the letter sound, especially in the New Testament. And I think of the letters by Paul where he always gives instructions to the churches. But have you noticed those instructions always come after. He makes a real, clear teaching on who God is, what he’s done, and how he’s transforming us. He begins with that paradigm of we must begin by believing correctly. So not only do we believe first, but we respond to our troubled heart, secondly, by hoping, we hope in Christ our eternal home, Jesus makes a promise in verse two and three of chapter 14 about our future. Our future hope, he tells the disciples that their forever home is with him. What a comfort. But also, did you notice that he is making it possible for them to enter into that dwelling place with God, there was so much there, and I think they were missing it. Do you see what he’s saying? He’s saying he’s making a home within himself, a place for us to dwell, a place of belonging, a place of safety, a place of forever, presence. It might not be obvious in our modern context, but no doubt, the disciples would have heard these words and thought of the Jewish wedding traditions they knew so well in their tradition, when a bride and a groom were betrothed, the bridegroom would begin physically preparing a place for his bride. He’d build an addition to his family home. He’d prep things. He’d get to work. It was laborious. He would make space for his new family. He’d continue to work, sometimes for over a year, until the day when his father. Approved the work and gave him permission to go back and bring his bride back to his home. Believers are the bride of Christ and Jesus is the bridegroom. The imagery here would have been so significant for the original audience and their understanding of the story of redemption unfolding in front of them. Jesus is saying, I’m going to go prepare a place for you. When my father says, It’s time, I’m coming back for you. Our home and forever dwelling place is with Christ in the presence of God, but we can’t even enter into it unless Jesus prepares the way. Remember, he is the door. The point of Jesus’ words here is to emphasize the hope that we have an eternal home with God, and that there is room and a place of belonging, that every certainty you’re longing for is actually with him. So you don’t need to fear, you don’t need to have a troubled heart. You can believe and hope. So not only do we believe and hope, we also need to look. How must we look? We must look to Jesus, the person. And here’s the thing, the person, not just the road map. Notice Thomas’s response to Jesus in verse five, here in chapter 14, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? It’s an honest question, right? One, I would have probably asked myself, Thomas is looking for a road map to ensure successful navigation. Remember how I said I am that person who really loves the instructions up front. Just tell me exactly the coordinates of where I must be and how to get there and succeed at it. And just let me do it. Just let me get after it. Thomas wanted Jesus to drop a pin on his future location. Jesus wanted the disciples to make their home with him in the present, right now, he wanted them to want him more than just the directions Thomas was asking for how to know what to do, but Jesus was declaring himself as the very truth that would inform every next step they would need to take. Do you see the difference there? He wanted their trust and believed in Him, not just for GPS directions. You see when Jesus says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, he is giving an antidote to fear and confusion about what is to come if you are hidden in the one who know, not only knows the way, but is the actual vehicle for delivery, what do you have to fear? So what does he mean by this declaration that He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE? I want to take a few moments here to notice a few things about this. I am declaration. How is Jesus the way we understand what those two little words mean, right? We understand that it means a path or a road. But do you notice how he doesn’t say, Follow me to the way he doesn’t say, I can tell you about the way Jesus says, I am the way. You see, if Jesus was a moral teacher, he’d tell us about the way. If Jesus was a religious teacher, he’d preach to us about the way. If Jesus was a scientist, he’d investigate about the way, if Jesus was an author and wrote books, he’d write stories about the way. That’s all the more you and I can do. We can only help to try to understand a little about the way, searching for the way, trying to craft our best understanding of how to navigate our lives. But Jesus is saying, I am the way. Put your trust in me. There’s nothing better. He is God’s perfect son who is himself the chosen vehicle to bring us to God. He is the Way. Remember First Peter 318 says, For Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. He doesn’t just tell us about it. Show us the road map or point the way he is, the way friends, acts 412 states it clearly, nor is there salvation in any other let’s not be mistaken, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. There’s only one way. Our salvation isn’t secured when Jesus points to it, it is in and through him as the way and so. Friends, we can stop looking for any other way. So what are the implications of Jesus being the way? Here’s what’s true if Jesus is the way. I’m going to just give you a couple of thoughts that come to mind that if you jot quickly, I want you to chew on this a little bit, because Jesus is the way. We can’t lose our way when we walk with him. Isn’t that the truth? Because Jesus is the way. We don’t need Jesus. And fill in the blank, whatever your blank is, you don’t need Jesus. And something like Vanessa was talking about for salvation, because Jesus is the way. We can be confident there is an actual destination. We’re not wandering aimlessly, and that the destination is worth every step of the journey, because Jesus is the Way. The Gospel redemption through Christ is not a potential root, but the actual root of rescue. Amen. And what does it mean that he says he is the truth? Well, we read about it in John 831, through 32 If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Jesus, the word is the truth. He is the Alpha and Omega. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And the word What was God?

Ruth Chou Simons
What are the implications, then, of Jesus’s statement about being the way? Well, here are some truths you can jot down and meditate on, because Jesus is the truth. He can’t lie, and therefore he always keeps His promises. Because Jesus is the truth, he is our source for what is right and wrong, what is worthy and unworthy of our worship. Because Jesus is the truth. It means there is no there is such a thing as an untruth or a lie. So we have to be able to discern and study the truth so well that we know what a counterfeit really looks like, because Jesus is the truth, the meaning of life is knowable friends and not relative or subjective based on our culture, because Jesus is the truth, we won’t miss our ultimate purpose when we walk in him. So don’t be afraid that the good life is passing you by. And then lastly, what about the life? What does he mean by saying that I am the life? I think it means that he is our sustenance, our fulfillment and our satisfaction, the definition of what it means to actually, not just like kind of breathe, but to have true, abundant life. Remember John 1010. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jesus is the definition of the true life we are meant to have. Colossians, three, four says, When Christ, who is your life? Wow. What if we spend some time thinking about that every day. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory that was Colossians, three, four. So again, what are the implications of Jesus saying, I am the life. Here’s what I know is true, because Jesus is the life we can access everything we were created for when we walk with Him, because Jesus is the life he supplies what we need. Remember when Melissa taught us about Jesus being the bread of life, the actual satisfaction we crave, because Jesus is the life we won’t ever be more satisfied on this earth than when we find our satisfaction in him, because Jesus is the life. The more you walk with Him, the more you experience abundance and eternity. So let’s review if we were first called to believe and then hope and look to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life as responses to combat our troubled hearts, remember the fourth response Jesus calls us to when we’re troubled is to choose. To actively choose. We choose Jesus. We stop trying to make our own way when we believe, when we behold and believe, we stop trying to make our own way and we choose to follow him instead. In Verse six here of chapter 14, Jesus says, No one comes to the Father except through me. That’s a pretty clear statement. Jesus makes it super clear, no other path, man made solution, right, living or a strategy will do not only are there, they entirely unworthy substitutes. When Jesus says, No one comes to the Father except through me, he’s really saying. There’s no other way to the Father. So if you try to go by any other means, you’ll end up in another place altogether. You won’t even get into His presence. There is no other way to the Father. You must go through Jesus. Have you experienced this reality starting in one place with a specific intention, but ending up in a totally different place than you expected, because you’ve believed wrongly right. Believing leads to right living friends. That’s why we have to believe hope. Look to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life, and to choose Jesus is saying, I have a plan. I am the plan, and there’s no better plan than the one I’ve created for you, because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We need not anxiously strive to find purpose and plans for our lives. We don’t have to anxiously try to make that happen, try to carve out our path and make sure that we’re not missing it. Instead, we must believe, trust and follow Him for all that we need. You see, Jesus is not just offering a little leg up. He’s not offering a navigation tool or a better route. Jesus is offering himself. He’s offering himself. The promise and assurance of arriving securely at your destination is through the only means Jesus himself, but we must choose to follow him. Thomas, a campus summarizes Jesus’ words in this passage like this, I think he says it beautifully, without the way. There is no going without the truth. There is no knowing without the life. There is no living. I am the way which thou must follow, the truth in which thou must believe, the life for which thou must hope. So, sisters, I ask you, what about the story you’re living is troubling your heart today? What is it that you might be going home to at the end of today or tomorrow. What is waiting for you on the other side of a wonderful conference? What’s troubling your heart about your right now story? What part of God’s plan makes no sense in your own understanding when you look through your lens of expectations, what inefficiency? And I should say air quotes, inefficiency. Are you trying to skip over what is taking too long or feels not like the right plan? What’s troubling your heart? Because I think Jesus’s response to the disciples troubled hearts absolutely applies to us today. Let’s consider again, Jesus’s instructions to his disciples. He told us troubled disciples to believe, not just with their minds and intellect, but with their hearts too. He called them to remember the relationship and the example he set for them. He called them to hope. Secondly, right to set their hearts on heaven, a sure destination, unshakable and a road to safety that only he could take them. He called them to look to him instead of just searching for a road map or trying to draw one out for themselves. And finally, he called them to choose to follow Him, to give up on all the other ways in which they are trying to navigate the right plan and to go through him. Instead, in many ways, this statement Jesus makes about himself, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life is a statement that encompasses all the others. These three statements answer the fundamental questions of our existence. Who am I? What is the meaning of life? Where am I going? What troubles our hearts? These are the questions we can’t answer within ourselves. These are answered by this I am declaration of Jesus. So friend and fellow striver sisters who have troubled hearts give up on your own navigation systems and your formulas for success. I plead with you to stop looking to all the ways in which you’re working overtime and you’re exhausted, trying to draw your own path, trying to manipulate everything, just so so that you can get where you want to go. I plead with you to stop thinking that you’ve got to create your own way. You belong to a loving Savior who says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Believe in God, believe who he says he is. And believe what he’s offered you. Spend some time every day, beholding the truth of what he’s already done. Believe hope. Look to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. And choose this day who you will serve and who you will walk with. Let me pray for us,

Ruth Chou Simons
Father, I thank you that you have provided what we never could for ourselves. Lord, thank You that even within this morning session that did not go as planned and that brought about a total plot twist that Lord, we could stop even now and recognize that the sovereign God of Creation chose to give us a session like this one, where we might even have to stop and confront our own fears, whatever they may be, the fears of this exact moment, the fears of what happened this morning, the fear for our sister in Christ who needed medical attention, or The fears that we feel are going on in our own lives right now. And Lord, thank you for that very real context. Because, Lord, we recognize that in ourselves we immediately try to fix things in the way we know best, but God, in our greatest and deepest need, the way to the Father. Lord, you have made yourself the way And so Father, thank You that today we can believe, hope, look to you and choose you this day when we are afraid, when we’re troubled, when we’re anxious, when things don’t go as planned. Lord, we can choose to keep our eyes on you. Help us to keep our eyes on you. We love you, father, and we thank you for all the ways that you have proven yourself faithful and will continue to do so in and through our lives. In Jesus name, Amen.