The apostle John keys in on the last words of Jesus more than any other Gospel writer.  Chapters 13-17 of John’s Gospel cover just a couple of hours, and what Jesus has to say to His disciples is very important.  In verse 1 of chapter 14, the Lord Jesus tries to calm the hearts of His disciples.

I.  JESUS’ WORDS OF COMFORT (verses 1-4)

Jesus begins in verse 1 by telling His disciples not to be troubled.  He said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  The Greek word is “tarasso” and that same word is used in John 5:7 where it says that the water was “stirred up” in the pool of Siloam.  Howard Jones of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association once preached from John 14:1 to a remote tribe in the Sudan.  He noticed that the interpreter had difficulty with the text, and after the service he asked him about it.  “Well,” said the translator, “in the Sudanese language, the heart isn’t the seat of the emotions; the liver is.  So when I translated your words, it came out, “Don’t let your liver quiver!”  That statement many sound strange to us but his listening audience understood what he was saying.

Meanwhile, it’s certainly not surprising that the disciples were troubled after what they had just heard and seen.  A short time before this, Jesus himself had been troubled in spirit as He spoke of the traitor in their midst.  Then He said He was going away and they could not follow Him.  They would be left by themselves to face the hostile Jewish leaders.  Finally, Jesus just finished saying that Peter, the bold one of their group, would deny Him three times.  Those weren’t very comforting facts, were they?  The future doesn’t look very bright from their perspective, does it?

There was a farmer who learned a lesson about worry and fear.  He needed a hired man.  After trying several workers, who had failed to meet his standards, the farmer began to feel desperate.  Then another worker applied for the job.  The farmer asked him, “What qualifies you for this job?”  The man answered, “I can sleep at night.”  That didn’t sound very promising, but since he was desperate, the farmer hired the newcomer.  That night there was a terrific thunderstorm.  The farmer awoke, ran to the hired man’s room and tried to arouse him from his sleep but he could not.  Muttering to himself something like, “I’ll take care of him in the morning,” the farmer went outside into the night and the driving rain.  He found the barn doors securely closed, the hay stack well covered, and the tractor put away in the shed.  There was nothing he could do but return to the house and go back to bed.  Then he understood why his new hired man had said, “I can sleep at night.”  He had taken care of everything and was prepared for the storm.  Isn’t it comforting to know that when we have prepared ourselves for Jesus’ coming by faithfully doing the things the Lord has made clear to us, He will take care of the things beyond our control?

In John 13 , the Lord Jesus gave His disciples the cure for disunity when He told them to love one another as He loved them.  Here in chapter 14, verse 1, Jesus gives them the cure for fear by telling to believe in God the Father and Himself.  Jesus goes on, in verses two and three, to describe briefly the future destiny of believers.  In verse 2, Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.  I go to prepare a place for you.”  There is room enough in heaven for all true believers, and Jesus is getting all the rooms ready.  Have you ever thought about all the rooms there are in heaven?  There must be billions of them!  Have you ever wondered what your room number will be?  When General Paul von Hindenburg lay dying, he looked up at his Christian physician and asked, “Doctor, is death in the room?”  “No, General, but he is walking nearby, just waiting to come in.”  “Very well, then I want to talk with the Lord.”  He reached under his pillow for a small New Testament and read aloud John 14:1-3.  He emphasized the words “If it were not so, I would have told you.”  Then with a smile he continued, “I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.”  “Now, doctor,” he said.  “I’m ready.  Open the door and tell death to come in.  I have no fear, for Jesus says, heaven is really true!”

I’m sure we’ve all seen the words or heard the song that says, “There’s no place like home.”  If we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can add another phrase to,  that statement:  “There’s no place like home – especially when home is heaven.”  A London newspaper held a contest to determine the best definition of “home.”  The winning entry was “Home is the place where you are treated the best and complain the most.”  The poet Robert Frost said that home is the place that, when you arrive there, they have to take you in.  As Christians, there is a sense in which we are all homeless.  We are on a journey to our heavenly home – our eternal home.  As the hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote:  “We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion; We’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.”

In the pioneer days, the father would often go on ahead, clear the land and build the house, and then he would bring his family there to move in.  We see Jesus doing the same thing here.  Then He said to His disciples, “That where I am, there you may be also.”  What a simple and clear description of heaven.  Heaven is being with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Very soon, the disciples will have a hard time believing that these promises of Christ will come true,  They will have cause to fear for their own lives, but the key to their own security and inner strength will be their personal faith in Jesus Christ.  1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.”  Jesus was going to heaven, and His disciples knew the way to heaven because He had told them many times.

II.  THOMAS’ QUESTION ANSWERED (verses 4-6)

Thomas, however, didn’t understand what Jesus meant.  He seems to be saying, “How do we know the way if we’ve never been there before?”  Notice that Jesus does not rebuke Thomas for his unbelief, but gives him a clear basis for belief.  In verse 6 he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  This is one of the greatest statements that Jesus made about himself.  He doesn’t say, “I’ll show you the way” or “I know the way.”  Jesus Christ is the only way to God, the only way to salvation, and the only way to heaven.  A pioneer missionary to Africa tells how he was taking the gospel to a new tribe, far to the north.  He arrived at a village and his baggage carriers refused to go any further.  The missionary appealed to the local chief.  Was there someone in his village who could act as his guide to the distant northern tribe?  The chief summoned a man who was tall, battle scarred, and carrying a large axe.  A bargain was made, and the next morning the missionary set off through the bush, following his new guide.  The way became increasingly rough and the path had all but disappeared.  There was an occasional mark on a tree, and occasionally a narrow path.  Finally the missionary called a halt.  He asked the guide if he was sure he knew the way.  The man pulled himself to his full height.  “White man,” he said.  “You see this axe in my hand?  You see these scars on my body?  With this axe I blazed the trail to the tribal village to which we go.  I came from there.  These scars I received when I made the way.  You ask me if I know the way?  Before I came, there was no way.  I am the way.”

The Lord Jesus came from glory.  Now He was on His way back to glory by way of the cross.  Before He came, there was no way.  The scars of His crucifixion would demonstrate the price He paid to blaze the trail for us back to God.  Jesus also said, “I am the truth.” — the ultimate and most important truth, upon which all other truth rests.  The Lord Jesus is also “the life.”  He is the source of spiritual and eternal life.  There are many today who say that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.  They say that all religions have some good in them, and they all lead to heaven at last.  But Jesus says, here in verse 6:  “No man comes to the Father, except through me.” .

Martha Snell Nicholson wrote a poem about John 14:6.  I hope this poem does not refer to you.  It goes like this:

If you should wake, some dreadful day,
Before His throne and hear Him say,
“I am the Way you did not take,
Although I died once for your sake;
I am the Truth you did not heed;
You were so sure you had no need;
I am the Light you would not see;
Now darkness for eternity.”
You cannot say, “I did not know”;
He plainly wrote and told you so.
And if you would not read His Word;
That word still stands, “Thus saith the Lord!”

There are many ways to become unpopular in a hurry.  Maybe you’ve found a few yourself in the past.  One of the quickest ways to become unpopular is to take a stand for something you believe in strongly.  You’ll be called a fanatic or something worse.  Christianity claims to offer the only way of salvation, to the exclusion of all others.  Jesus Christ here claims to be the only way to God.  You won’t get to heaven by being learned, highly gifted, likeable, charitable, or sincere about some sort of religion.  God is so holy that all people are guilty in His sight.  Sin is so sinful that no mortal man can remove it.  Sincerity alone will never wipe away our sins.  There is only one way to God:  through personal faith in the crucified and resurrected Son of God, accepting Him as one’s own personal Savior and Lord, and living for Him.

Someone near you needs to know that:  a friend, a relative, a co-worker, or a neighbor.  It may be someone who has already tried other ways to God and found them to be dead-end streets.  You won’t always be popular for pointing the way.  But then, if the Holy Spirit uses you to bring someone else to the path of life because you cared enough about him or her, will it really matter what others may say or think?

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  Completed. .: