The Way, the Truth, the Life
QUOTES FOR REFLECTION
“Truth is not something we possess; it is Someone who possesses us.”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Christianity is not a set of ideas, but a Person who walks before us and calls us to follow.”
~Timothy Keller
“To follow Jesus is to discover that life itself has a direction.”
~Dallas Willard
“Truth is not found in a principle but in a person—Jesus Christ.”
~N. T. Wright
“The central pronouncement, ‘I am the Way,’ is profoundly significant within the chapter as a whole, for it states in so many words what Bunyan knew, that ‘the way’ is not what Thomas thought it was, a literal route or pathway, but a Person, Jesus himself. The destination, accordingly, is not a place (not even precisely ‘my Father’s house’), but also a Person, the Father himself.”
~J. Ramsey Michaels
“The road to heaven runs through the cross.”
~Billy Graham
“Where is the highway to heaven? Where is the love we all need? Where is the peace we long for? Where is the man who is free?”
~ John Denver, “Hold On Tightly”
SERMON PASSAGE
John 14:1-14 (ESV)
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 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. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”