"I AM the Way, the Truth..."
Look Up: John
14:1-6
(Copyright 2006)
INTRODUCTION: On
a day when we are thinking about life and celebrating life, it is a good time to
ask “How is yours going?” On a scale from one to ten [ten being the
best, most meaningful], what number would best represent your life? This
is not a question about success and achievements [you may have already
accomplished more than you ever thought you would, make more than you ever
thought you would make, have a life style better than you thought you would ever
have]. This is a question about life. How’s your life? This is not
a question about how well things went this morning in getting here. It is
much more than that. How’s your life?
Many
of you will remember Pistol Pete Maravich, the basketball player [I’m going
back to the late 70’s and the 80’s]. In the time of freshmen
ineligibility, crowds would pack college basketball arenas to watch him play and
then leave before the varsity team took the floor. He scored 3,667 points
in his three years of college eligibility. That was an average of 44.2
points per game, which led the nation in scoring three years in a row. In
his senior year, he was named College Player of the Year. He played in the
NBA for ten seasons. He was the youngest man ever elected to the
Basketball Hall of Fame.
But despite Maravich’s fame, fortune and success, he was not happy. If
someone had asked him, “How’s your life?” he probably would have said [on
our scale] maybe a one. After his retirement in 1980, he began searching
for a reason to live. He dabbled in astrology, mysticism, survivalism, and
UFOs. He even contemplated suicide once as he raced his Porsche over a
bridge at 140 mph.
Then he met Jesus Christ—who said I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life
and everything changed. Pete Maravich died 8 years later at the age of 40
after a pick-up game of basketball.
Shortly before he died, he sent a Bible to Larry King with a hand-written note
inside.
Dear Larry,
I’m so glad to hear that everything went well with your surgery. I want
you to know that God was watching over you every minute and even though I know
you question that, I also know that one day it will be revealed to you. My
prayer is that you remain open and God will touch your life as He has mine.
He went to say how he tried sex, drugs and material things to fill his life.
But he was never satisfied. He found true life in knowing Jesus Christ.
He concluded the note this way:
He will reveal His truth to you, Larry, because He lives.
Pistol Pete
[Reference is ChrsitianStudents.
Com].
Maravich was alive for 40
years, but only really lived 8 of those 40. Who made the difference?
The One Who said I Am the Life [Jh.14:6].
For 4 weeks we have been looking at the first part of the sentence in John 14:6
I Am the Way, and the Truth….
[Being good is not the way to
heaven, the way that seems right is not the way, sincerity doesn’t correct the
wrong way. Truth is not broad. All religions are not the same.
And then last week we saw that to answer the question, “Why did Jesus die?”
answers the question, “Why is He the only Way to heaven?”].
Now today we come to the last part of that verse.
I AM the Way, and the Truth and the Life.
This is Easter and today we
celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. But I want you to realize that because He
lives He is not only the Resurrection for Believers who have died but also the
life for believers who live.
And that is exactly what He claimed to
be:
I am the resurrection and the life [Jh.
He covers it all. What Jesus
claims is this—I am the resurrection. I am the way and only way to
heaven. I am the truth. I am the life—in other words, without Him
we do not experience real life.
What an amazing claims!
First
of all, I want to deal with I AM the Resurrection and then we will look at I AM
the Life.
I. THE
RESURRECTION
Jesus
is alive today, resurrected, because He dealt with sin. When He defeated
sin, death became powerless over Him. The victory was at the cross when
sin, which ends in death, was conquered. Jesus said, “It is finished”
and the Father said “It is finished indeed!” The victory at the cross
was endorsed and proclaimed in the resurrection.
Because
Jesus has been resurrected, I will be resurrected. He has promised that
and obviously has the power to do it. But most of us think that our
resurrection is a ways off [no one, but Jesus, has experienced this yet].
Death is out there somewhere [for the believer not an end, not a severance from
God-- but a door]. At some point we will die, go to heaven and there await
the resurrection. For me, death is closer than it used to be. Since
my parents have died, I have experienced the loss of a reliable presence [they
had been there all of my life]. Death seems a little closer. Life is
short. Death is real and universal. But resurrection seems out there
a ways.
But life—that is right now.
II. THE LIFE
Jesus
also claims to be the Life. He is the Way right now. He is
the Truth right now. And He is the Life right now. The Way is
particular. Truth is particular. Life that He offers is particular
as well. So, as you think about your life right now—as Dr. Phil would
ask: “How’s that working for you?” Are you experiencing the life
that Pete Maravich talked about after meeting Jesus Christ? Here is what
we need to understand. Eternal life is a gift that comes to us when we
trust Jesus as our Savior. Eternal life does not start in eternity and it
doesn’t just mean existing forever. Everybody continues to exist
forever. Eternal life is a kind of life right now. It is a quality of life
now and continuing. It is a quality of life that only He can give.
It is a gift. It is The Life.
Paul’s
summary of eternal life is in 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone,
and the new has come.
This
life begins when your heart is awakened—your dead heart is raised from the
dead. The devil looks at Christ and sees something he hates. Before
we met Christ, we were like that—dead, blind, insensitive to God’s glory and
to the One for Whom we were made. But when we became a new creation, we
were awakened to life [Piper, “A Taste for Christ,” Decision Magazine].
Eternal life is knowing God and Jesus His Son.
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, Whom You sent [Jh. 17:3].
Knowledge of God involves knowledge
of Jesus who revealed the Father. This is not mere intellectual knowledge.
This entails fellowship with God, trust, faith, forgiveness, purposeful living,
etc. It is coming out of the deadness and bondage of sin, its guilt, our
self-centered existence, etc. You don’t have to wait until heaven to
experience this. You can experience it now.
This
life continues to be experienced when we live by His victorious resurrection
power.
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by
the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live [Rom.
There is a kind of life that
leads to death and a kind of death that leads to life.
Christ gives us the power to
die to ourselves, our selfishness, our self-centeredness—everything that takes
away that qualitative life. He gives me the power to say no to temptation that
leads to sin that destroys my life. Nobody sins out of duty. People
sin because they believe the lie that sin’s pleasures are superior to God’s.
When Christ died, He bought for me pleasures at God’s right hand, which are
superior to all sinful pleasures. A superior satisfaction waits for me if
I don’t click on the mouse to do pornography. A superior satisfaction
waits for me if I give my money for Kingdom purposes rather than just building
bigger barns, if I humble myself to serve rather than just being served [thought
from John Piper], if I forgive rather than carrying a grudge, if I can see the
purpose of suffering and difficulty rather than just growing bitter, if I can
overcome anxiety because I cast my cares on Him, etc. He gives me the
power to really live.
Jesus said His way is a narrow path, but It is the path that opens into an
exploding width—versus the broad highway that leads to death [merge, merge,
merge].
It is like a seed that falls to the ground and dies but it springs forth in
greater beauty [Jh.
It is like a worm—the caterpillar—that finds it has wings to fly.
It is like taking off grave clothes. Take off his grave clothes and let
him live [Lazarus, Jh.11:44].
After this weekend they will
pull the Easter cards off the shelves, do something with the candy eggs they
didn’t sell, you will throw your dyed, real eggs in the garbage, the Easter
bunny will go back in storage—But how will your life be? How’s
life? Maybe Pete’s note was also penned to you—“My prayer is that
you remain open and God will touch your life as He has mine.” What
difference does it make how much you make, how successful you are, how many
achievements are racked up—if you are dead.
CONCLUSION: Jesus
came to change that {I have come that they may have life and have it more
abundantly. He is the Life. He has the power to give it. Will
you receive Him Who is The Life as your Savior and Lord?