Flora First Christian Church - Flora, IN

February 17, 2008

John 13.36-14.6

“My Daddy left and is Not Coming Back”

A kindergarten girl went to school one day, and told her teacher that her daddy had packed his suitcases last night, took the family car and he wasn’t coming back. During the afternoon the little girl seemed bothered. The teacher had heard stories like this numerous times. However this particular story ripped her heart out. She knew this family and it seemed so out of character for them. The teacher decided to tell the mother what her daughter had said, and how troubled she seemed. When mom picked up her daughter after school, the mother told the teacher that, yes, her husband had packed his suitcases and left with the car the previous afternoon . . . for a convention with his job. He kissed her and their daughters good-bye and told them he wouldn’t be back . . . until the end of the week. Bev and Mrs. Richards had a good laugh.
Younger children don’t have the same concept of time as adults. When you tell a crying baby that you’re leaving in the nursery that you’ll be back in an hour—for all they know you could be leaving them there forever. Young children don’t get the “when” part.

Disciples Were Like A Bunch of Children

Jesus’ disciples were like a bunch of kids. They were constantly arguing who was the greatest, who should sit next to Jesus, and who were best buds with him. And they were confused and anxious when Jesus told them at The Last Supper that he would be leaving. They didn’t get the “when” part. Peter asked . . . “Lord, well, where are you going,”
In answer to Peter’s question, Jesus said, “I am going to my Father.” Then Thomas chimed in and asked, “How do we know the way to the Father?”

DISCIPLES DIDN’T GET IT–”Jesus Was Leaving”

Again and again, Jesus told his disciples that he would be leaving them, but somehow they never grasped it. They just didn’t get that “when” part or the “where” part. He told them even that night that he was going to the Father who had sent him. They really didn’t understand the way by which Jesus was going . . .the way of the Cross.
One thing we can say about the disciple Thomas: he was an honest guy. He would never have said he understood something when he didn’t. So Thomas asked Jesus, “Where are you going?” Here we see the beginnings of his life as a doubter. Another thing about doubters is they are not afraid to discover the truth for themselves. When Thomas asked Jesus his “Where are you going” question Jesus answered him with that famous answer: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
This is a great promise to all of us. Still yet it had a greater meaning to the disciples and all who were Jews of Jesus’ day. Jesus, in his answer made three tremendous claims of Himself. These claims are promises to us even today. Let’s take a look at these three promises.

THE WAY

In Jesus’ day the Jews talked much about “the way.” They talked about the way in which people must walk and the ways of God. God said to Moses: “You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you.”
In Psalm 27, King David prayed, “Teach me Your Way, O Lord.” The faithful of Jesus’ day knew much about the ways of God and the commandments by which they were to live and to walk. THEN Jesus came saying, “I am the Way.” (Psalm 27.11) What did He mean?

The McDonald’s Commercial and Getting to the Way

It’s a lot like that commercial for McDonald’s restaurants a few years ago where a stranger in town asks two elderly men for directions. The visitor is told, “Take the first right where the old brown house once stood, and the second left by the three legged dog; cross the square where the bus sometimes stops, then go past the hamburger place and take the fourth road.” With those kinds of directions, chances are we’ll be lost before we get half-way there. But suppose the person we’re seeking directions from says “Hey, I’ll take you there - I know exactly where you want to go.” In that case we can’t miss it. That is what Jesus does for us. He doesn’t only give advice and a direction to God, Christ takes us to God. He doesn’t tell us about the Way, he is the way.
Christ’s words, “I am the Way,” gave way to the earliest name for followers of Jesus. Before we were called Believers or Christians we were called “followers of the Way.” As Christian our lives are to point others to Him.

THE TRUTH

In Psalms 86 King David prays in a time of trouble: “Teach me Your way, Lord, that I may walk in Your truth.”(Psalm 86.11). David longed to walk in God’s truth, not what the enemies who would pull him away from God called truth. Jesus came announcing: “I am the Truth.”
God’s truth is not based on feelings and thoughts or opinions of others. Even if it’s a majority the crowd doesn’t have the final Word where God’s truth is concerned.
Throughout life many people have told us the truth. Many people can say, “I have taught you the Truth.” But there is only one person whom the truth of God has ever been embodied. Only Jesus can say, “I am the Truth of God.”

THE LIFE

The writer of Proverbs said, “He who heeds instructions is on the path to life.” (Proverbs 6.23) Then Jesus came announcing: “I am the Life.”
The real meaning of life: that’s what we all want to discover. Our search in life is always for what will make life worth living.
A writer makes characters fall in love and say: “I never knew what life could be until I found it in you.” Love brings life. That is what Christ does. Life with Jesus Christ leads us to love God and to be loved by God.
And there is one way of putting all this. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus alone is the way to God. That has become a very controversial statement for Christians to say in the 21st century. The media puts persons under scrutiny who say that. However, we didn’t come up with that—it is the words of our Lord and we either are Biblical or we aren’t. It’s not a matter of judging others, it’s what God has announced through His Son.

PROFESSOR POWELL AND TOMMY

In the book “Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul,” John Powell tells about a university religion class he taught. A student named Tommy was the resident atheist in the class. Tommy constantly objected or smirked at the possibility of an unconditionally loving God. At the end of the course when Tommy turned in his final exam, he asked Dr. Powell, “Do you ever think I’ll find God?” Powell decided on a little shock therapy. “No, Tommy, I don’t think you’ll ever find him, but I am certain that God will find you!” Tommy just shrugged his shoulders and left.
Some time later Powell heard that Tommy had graduated and that he was very ill with cancer. Before Powell could find Tommy out, he showed up at Powell’s office. Tom’s hair had fallen out from the chemotherapy, he was very thin, but his eyes and voice were bright. The two began to talk very candidly. Powell asked, “What’s it like to be only 24 and to know that you are dying?” Tommy said “I guess it could be worse. I could be 50 and have no values, be hooked on booze; chasing women and think that making money is what life is about.” Tommy said why he really came back was to talk to him about something he said to him the last day of his class. That was when Powell said God would find him. Tommy went on to say that when doctors removed a malignant lump from him, it got him serious about locating God. When the malignancy spread to vital organs, he really began to bang on the doors of heaven. But nothing happened. One day he woke up and decided to just quit about making appeals to God. He decided to spend what time he may have left telling those who had loved him, that he did indeed loved them. He began with the hardest person in his life, his dad. That day his father was reading his newspaper. When Tommy told him “I love you,” the newspapers fell on the floor and his Dad did two things he couldn’t remember him doing before. He cried and he hugged his son. They spent the rest of the night talking. It was easier telling his mother and his younger brother. He went on to tell Dr. Powell: “I was in the shadow of death, and I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to. One day I turned around and . . . God was there. He didn’t come to me when I bargained with Him. You were right, Dr. Powell, God found me, even after I stopped looking for him.”
Like Tom the surest way of finding God is by opening up to love. Tom discovered a life far more beautiful than the human eye had seen or the mind had ever imagined when he accepted Jesus Christ as the way, the truth and the life. (”Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul/’ 1997, pages 185-198.)
The major characteristic that separates Christianity from other ways of life is that it’s not by jobs and good deeds that get us to God’s eternal care. We don’t earn our salvation. God came looking for us and brought us to His Way, His truth and His life.

STAYING ON THE WAY

When we are awakened to the real fact that Jesus Christ doesn’t just show us the way, but is the way, being a Christian isn’t about religion, but about a personal relationship. Now we can truly take up the path of walking in his way . . . claiming his truth and living in His life.

The first step toward Christ becoming the Way, the Truth and the Life is to awaken to the fact that every other way . . . pleasure, fame, power, and wealth … is a dead-end. The second step is to commit ourselves to the long walk before us. While this commitment is made for a lifetime it is one for which we must seek help from God every day for an eternity.

“Gospel Trumpets” Illustration

In his book “Gospel Trumpets” Dale Ohlman tells the story of a group of children during World War II who were being evacuated at night when the German army was bombing the city during World War II. On this particular night the king himself was leading the children being evacuated through underground tunnels to the edge of the city. One little girl led along by her slightly older brother kept saying to him, “But I don’t know where we’re am going.” After hearing this repeatedly her brother replied, “I don’t know where we’re going either, but the King knows so we must follow!”
This illustrates our life as Christians. We may not know where life will exactly take us, but if Jesus Christ is doing the leading, and the King knows where we are going, we can move ahead and not be afraid. (Adapted from “Light for Living,” Robert Ozment.)
When we feel lost or stranded on our way through life, recall the words of the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust in me.” It is as if our Lord is asking us: “Do you have a clue where you are headed? Follow me - I know where I’m going. I’ve walked this way before.”
Christ goes before us as our guide. We can go forward confidently because we are following him and he knows where he is going. Amen!