LifeWay Family Bible Series for March 3
Jesus is the only way to know the Father
___ John 14:1-14
___By Barbara Kent
___University Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___Fear lies just below the surface of our minds and hearts. We are anxious about the future. We are even anxious about the present! We live in a world that is filled with trouble and disastrous possibilities. We are concerned about illness, aging, accidents, job loss, terrorist activities and death, to name a few.
___The disciples were afraid Jesus was about to leave them; that he was going to die. Jesus addressed every fear the disciples had and we have, and we know by his simple words that he has prepared a place for us and will come and take us to that place, a place where he will be with us (vv. 2-4).
___Voices that speak for us___
___Enter Thomas, voice of every person, "Lord, begging your pardon, but we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?" (v. 5).
___Thomas, like each of us, had not learned to trust the Lord as he needed to do. In his honesty, he blurted out his deepest fear. Jesus answered him with some of the most profound spiritual truth ever recorded: "I am the way and the truth and the life" (v. 6).
___The next words of Jesus have troubled folks ever since he spoke them. He said simply that if we really know him, we know God the Father. In fact, he said that knowing him is the way to know the Father. It is the only way. He also said to the disciples that day, "From now on, you do know him and have seen him" (v. 7).
___Thomas always has been one of my favorite Bible characters, but Philip ranks high on that list of favorites. If I had been there that day, I probably would have said what Philip said: "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us" (v. 8). He missed the point of all Jesus had just said. But in fairness, Jesus was asking the disciples to believe what they could not fathom, to accept what to them was the absurd, to simply and completely trust him.
___And why not? They had walked with him. They had seen him day by day. They had witnessed the miracles he did. It should have been enough, but they found it difficult to accept so simple a truth: Jesus is in the Father and the Father in him. How different are we from those disciples?
___A probing question and a startling clai___
___Jesus gently rebuked Philip for not knowing him after he'd had the opportunity to be with him for such a long time. "How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" Jesus chided him (v. 9). Perhaps the idea embedded in this question is simply that all fellowship with Jesus loses its significance unless he is recognized as the one whose purpose is to reveal God. Perhaps also it suggests the possibility of seeing God is inherent in the fellowship with Jesus.
___Jesus claimed the words he spoke were those of the Father living in him. The works he did were evidence of the Father living in him. The startling thing is that he said the evidence that we have faith in Jesus will be demonstrated by doing the kinds of things he did. (v. 12)
___Can you handle one more shock? Jesus went on to say that, because he was going to the Father, those who believe in him would do even greater things than he had done (v. 12). He also said that if we have faith in him, whatever we ask in his name--consistent with who he revealed himself to be while on earth--he would do it, thus enabling the Son to bring glory to the Father (vv. 13-14).
___Does it really matter?___
___Can having faith in Jesus, believing he and the Father are one, trusting he told us the truth and acting on it make that kind of difference? Jesus said it could. Do we trust him? That is the question each of us must answer as we encounter this passage from John.
___The message of these verses is simply this: Jesus is the way to the Father. To know Jesus is to know the Father.
___Do we know Jesus? If we do, we will be faithful to do the things that Jesus did--feed the hungry, minister to the sick, care for the dying, bind up the broken-hearted, stand for righteousness and proclaim the good news that to know Jesus is to know God.
___Where am I?
___Today take inventory to see if you know Jesus. Do you believe that he is who he says he is? Do you trust him? Does your life bear witness of that trust? If you cannot answer yes at any point, then today is the day to begin to believe in Jesus, to trust him and to give evidence of your faith by living as he lived.
___Questions for discussion
___ How can knowing Jesus as Savior calm your fears about the dangers of the world?
___ Does it make a difference whether or not Jesus and the Father are one? If that is not true, what would be different?
___ How does your life present evidence that you have come to know the Father through his Son?
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