Transcription
Good morning. Good morning. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. Amen. Before we even dive into the sermon, that—that mission’s moment just got really home, and I just wanted to say something before we even dived in. So often we concern ourselves and pray about the ministry of the pulpit and for full pews, but we forget about the ministry of the kitchen and for praying for full tables. And that you can preach the gospel of Christ as much with a full plate or a cup of water to someone in need, just as much as you can with a sermon or a tract or something. And hospitality is often underlooked as a ministry. And that's just something that's amazing that these people are doing, but also that we can do in our own lives: the ministry of hospitality, something that's truly unappreciated. But I just wanted to say that because it just got me an intermission moment this morning. So pray for full tables as much as we pray for full pews. Amen. Uh, so this morning, as we continue through our series to the 12, we come to the Apostle Philip.
Now, Philip—we’ve we’ve heard a little bit about him earlier in our sermon on Andrew. And Philip is one of those guys who doesn’t have a lot of spotlight on him when you come to him in the scriptures. Um, a lot of the time we’ve already seen him because he’s always lockstep with Andrew, his buddy. Uh, Jeremiah brought it up when we had Sunday school last week about the TV show, *The Chosen*, and I love how they kind of personify and kind of bring to the stage some possible of the uh, human interactions they might have had, reading between the lines of scripture and kind of seeing how they might have attracted uh, following Jesus, the early years of his earthly ministry, and how they had that brotherhood and camaraderie. And one of the things I love to see as we read between the lines of scripture is the seeing the friendship Philip had between Andrew and him. Because you remember, um, if we look back to that Andrew ser—uh, message we did, Philip and Andrew were the first two disciples to follow Jesus because they were the disciples of John the Baptist. And uh, so they already had a close relationship. So every time we see Philip, we normally see him lockstep with Andrew. So when we look at uh, Philip this morning, it’s going to be kind of interesting to find a time where he was standing alone, because we either see him lockstep with his buddy Andrew or lockstep with his buddy N—uh, Nathaniel, which we’ll see when he has his time to shine in the sermon series. But there’s a moment where Philip gets to say something, and his question produces a conversation that I think is just beneficial to all of us. So we’re going to spend time this morning in John chapter 14, verses 1-4. Now we don’t see Philip do a lot, but the question he asks in this moment, in this whole conversation Jesus is having with his disciples, is hugely beneficial to us all. So I’m going to read uh, John 14:1-14, and then we’re going to dive in this morning to this text.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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? 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 also be. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and you have seen him.” And Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 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’? 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. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; or else believe on account of the works themselves. 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. Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
So as we see Philip there, this is what’s happening right now: they’re at the Last Supper. And as Jesus is at the Last Supper, he is giving a lot of teaching to his disciples. I mean, there is just a lot in this portion of text. Um, he talks about so many things, but in this conversation, we we we love this verse. We we’ve heard it so many times. If you’ve been in church for any more than a number of months, you probably heard the expression, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” because we love it. Um, and it becomes a danger to be one of those what I call uh, coffee cup Christianity moments, where we love those verses, we can slap on coffee cups or um, bumper stickers or T-shirts, because they’re nice, easy, chunky, cool, buzz-sounding verses, but we don’t like to dive into the whole text and get into the into the meat of it. And so it has a temptation to do that for us this morning. But as we’re going to dive into this text, we’re going to we’re going to look at those three points: the way, the truth, and the life. At the very beginning, he says, “Believe”—let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, and believe also in me. The way begins in belief. It doesn’t—believe—it doesn’t begin in an inheritance or accomplishment; it begins in belief. We we as Christians know that this is how our relationship with Jesus started: in belief. In John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And in Romans 10:9, “If you believe in your heart the Lord Jesus and you confess it with your mouth, you will be saved.” We we know our relationship with God begins in belief, and that’s how you begin the following of the way. You know, that was is something important to impart, especially to a Jewish audience who believe that they were saved because they were the children of Abraham, that they were Israel. You know, this—their belief in God and their inheritance was something that they had to deal with. But our beginning of the way starts in belief. It’s putting that trust in Jesus; it’s trusting in Him and not yourself and nothing else. Uh, you know, Paul said at best he’s like, “I could brag about all of these things. I I’m a I’m a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, the tribe of Benjamin, but I count all these things rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.” You know, he he—his belief is what began that relationship with him, began that following of the way.
And “In my Father’s house are many rooms,” is the next verse that is huge. “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” There there there is not a uh, No Vacancy sign outside of the Gates of Heaven. That there is many rooms that he tells them that. This—so if I told you, why would I go to prepare a place for you? Why why would I be lying about that? Why—I’m—I’m not—he’s—I’m not giving you false hope. There there is no No Vacancy sign outside of the Gates of Heaven. There is—remember that story that Jesus tells, the parable of the uh, the banquet where he invites all the guests, and they give excuse after excuse after excuse. So he goes and says, “Go to the highways and to the byways; go to the hedges; go to the the back alleys and everywhere you can find in everyone in, because the gates are open wide.” Now, doesn’t mean everyone goes to it, but that’s a different conversation for a different day. But there are many rooms in his Father’s house. And I love this way he says, “He goes to prepare a place for you.” Your relationship with God is no accident. You didn’t stumble into it. You didn’t you didn’t have great wishes and great accomplishment, and you finally got lucky and you know, got the jackpot and you landed on Jesus. He prepared a place for you. I love what it says in the book of Ephesians 1, verse uh, 4: “Before the foundations of the world, he chose you in Christ Jesus.” And man, before the garden, before Adam and Eve, he knew you. He knew all of your sins; he knew all of your failures; he knew all your rebellion, and he still chose you. You weren’t some accident; you were not a mistake. You know, a lot—the time we uh, especially in today’s world, people wonder, you know, if I’m a [Music] mistake, God’s calling—it’s all—that’s a normal conversation for a lot of people today, especially with how mixed and mingled uh, relationships are and the lack of respect for um, marriage and things like that, that people are wondering, “Am I a mistake? Was I here on purpose?” And even being told you were an accident or things like that. But you never have to wonder if you’re God’s accidental child. You didn’t just—well, you know, “One day I was praying too hard, and he came into my life, and then I got to deal with you.” No, he’s never going to one moment say you were an accident. You were—say you just stumbled him through the doors of church. “No one thought you’d come here. Well, I guess you’re here now, so I’ll deal with you.” That was never a conversation God had. Freedom. He knew you before the foundations of the world, and he still chose you through Christ Jesus. He prepared a place for you. He says, “I go to prepare a place for you,” and it says, “I will come again.” We talked about this um, last week. There will come a day. The promises of Jesus Christ aren’t just the cross, which we love—the cross; we wear it around our necks, and we put it on T-shirts and our coffee mugs. We love the cross because that’s the epitome of the love of God. Then we forget sometimes the empty tomb and the victory of God. But even more so, I think we forget that he is coming again; that the promises of God, the love of God, will be fulfilled and completed, and one day there will come a day where he will wipe away every tear, where he will make every promise yes and amen in him. That he will come again. That we are not sitting here saying, “Hey, I gave you my love on the cross, and now kind of just do your thing until one day you come to Heaven.” It’s—he will come again. We’re not left here with this open-ended, like, “I’ll”—he’s not some um, wayward parent or absentee dad. He is in our lives, and he will come again. He is just going and preparing a place for us. He’s preparing the way that we will follow him, and we will know him. I love—verse says, “Take—I—I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you will be also.” Our—the way is not an impersonal thing. It’s not a list of ideologies; it’s not an attendance at a program or a church. It is beginning in the belief and trust in Jesus Christ and being with him. I love—said, “You—I will take you to myself,” not, “I—you did the thing, and now I mark you down on the on the on the census.” “I take you to myself. You are mine, and where I am, there you will be.” It is personal. God wants you in his presence. This is the way that he is calling us to—he’s calling us to himself. That is the way.
And then we go on, and we see Philip ask his question. He says um, this is in verses uh, we’re going to look at 5 through 10 right now. “And Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him, and you have seen him.’ And Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough.’ Jesus said, ‘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’? 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.’” We know the way begins in Jesus, but the truth—that that rests on—that everything hinges on—is the fact that Jesus is who he says he is: the Son of God, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. It doesn’t matter if Jesus taught good moral lessons or did a great act of love on the cross, if he is not who he says he is. Um, even Paul himself in 1 Corinthians 15 says that if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then our faith is useless, and we are to be pitied and mocked among all other people. In the Bible, there is that commentary like, “If Jesus isn’t who he says he is, what are we doing here? Like, why are we doing this?” If he is not who he said he is. There was a man who um, believe his name is Lee Strobel. I’m not sure if you ever heard of *The Case for Christ*. Back in the—believe it was the—this was a a newspaper reporter who was an avid atheist—avid atheist—and his wife became a born-again believer, and he was furious at this. Hated God; hated church; hated Jesus. And he said, “I’m going to prove that he is a hypocrite. I’m going to prove that Christianity is a lie. I’m going to prove that all this is false.” And because of his study and his research, he ended up becoming him a born-again believer. But one of the things that started that process is someone told him, “Hey, you you know where you should start is this book about who rolled the stone away.” So he begins investigating like, “All right, look, everything about Christianity hinges on Jesus Christ being who he said he was: not just a good teaching, not just—not the miracles, because how can you prove those 2,000 years later? Not—not any of these things. It has to be—if Jesus Christ is who he says he is, if he really rose from the dead, everything hinges on this. I will prove he did not rise from the dead.” And he reads this book and he does his research, *Who Rolled the Stone Away*, and he investigates that. And because he investigated it, he came to the point of Jesus is who he says he is, and he put his faith in Christ. And now he literally is an apologetic teacher and has written many books on that account, and there’s even a movie about him and all these things. And it’s a great story. But our faith, our belief, the way hinges—that Jesus Christ is who he says he is; or else everything else is foolishness. There are tons of churches out here, especially in New England, we all know them. They love to put the rainbow flags out and all the—“We are open and affirming,” and all these things—and they don’t like to say, “Well, the Bible—it’s a good word, but it’s you know, it’s not the inherent word of God,” because how can you believe there’s truth or how—how you want to be open-ended in these things. But all of it hinges on Christ. You can’t just have good moral philosophy and good feeling God, lowercase g. It’s either he is who he says he is—he is the way, the truth, and the life—or it’s all a lie and a waste of time. And this is literally quotes from Paul himself. He goes on, he says, “So if he is who he says he is, if he is the Son of God, if he is the way, the truth, and the life,” this is what some other quotes from the scriptures say. In Acts 4:12, it says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” And in 1 Corinthians 3:11, it says, “For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” At one point, Jesus tells a parable about there is a broad path that leads to destruction, and many will find it, but there is a narrow way that leads to life, and there will be few who find it. And this is the thing, people: you have to go through Christ; you have to go through the way. You can’t decide, you know, “I’m going to figure out my own way,” and they just kind of—they all eventually meet up, you know, “All roads lead to Rome” kind of situation. And that’s not the case. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” You have to begin your life in your your following in Christ, not in yourself, not in your philosophy, not in your good works. There is no other name under heaven given to man by which you must be saved. There is no other foundation one can lay except the one that has laid: Jesus Christ. You can’t figure it out any other way. But there’s a lot of churches and religions and philosophies that say, “It’s all good—what—what works for you. What works for you works for them; works for them.” It all kind of comes about back to the same place: just trying to be a good person. And that’s not the case. I gave the um, example, I believe it was last week, that if a fireman comes into a burning house and he says, “I have the way out,” and you say, “I’ll figure it out,” no one—everyone’s going to think you’re crazy because you’re going to burn to death. And this is the same situation here. Try to sell God, you know, “You paved away from me. You are the way out; you are my rescuer,” but “I—I don’t need to be rescued. I’ll figure it out. You know, I’ll move that rubble; I’ll walk through the burning door; I’ll do that.” And no one’s going to question why that person burned alive. And it’s the same thing with our relationship with God, with our with our eternity. We try and do it ourselves; we try and figure out our own path. It only leads—leads to destruction. He is the way; he is the truth; and you can’t argue truth. We live in an age where we try and argue that there’s no such thing as truth, but that is foolishness. And we’re going to talk about more than that in Sunday school. So if you want to hang out for that, we’re going to talk a lot about truth today. But he goes on, he says, “I’m the way and the truth,” but he’s also the life. At the very end of this portion, right after he answers Philip, he tells them that those who—“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. Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” It’s not just a matter of putting your faith in Christ and then just easing back—“You got the ticket to Heaven here; you’re here; you are good to go.” It’s—he calls us to then go live the life of Christ, to go and and and to do the works that he does, to go and lean on his name, to go and have life in him. I love where it says in uh, John 10:10, “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” So many people think the end game of a relationship with God is Heaven. That’s the icing on the cake; that’s the that—that’s—that’s the cherry on top. The point is that he came that you might have life, and life abundantly, starting now, not when your heart stops beating. But so many of us are living like we’re already in the casket, and like, you know uh, what John—you said something amazing the other week about the word of God isn’t just bread; it’s cake. And sometimes we underappreciate that, man. I just—I just got to get into it, and I have to have this life with God because that’s—it’s what I need. But it’s not enjoyable. But Christ is our cake. He—he’s our sustenance and our delight. And sometimes we underappreciate and we forget that. But we just think the whole point of this is, “I got my ticket to Heaven; I’m good; I got my fire insurance.” But he came that you may have life, and life abundantly. And then we’re living—comas—sitting in bed waiting for him to come again and living each and every day like we just don’t have the victory. In Galatians 2:20, it says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The end game isn’t a ticket to Heaven; it’s that Christ now lives in you. We talked about so many times in the past few weeks that we are the hands and feet of Christ here to this world, that the Holy Spirit has no body here on Earth, so he is using yours. Your flesh is no—no longer your flesh; your life is no longer your life; it’s his life. He lives through you to the world, to minister to the darkness and to the people who are lost and and broken. Not so we could just come here—coming here is great. I love y’all—all—I love coming together; I love worshipping. But it isn’t just about these four walls; it isn’t just about this moment and this hour on Sunday. He came that we might have life, and life abundantly. He came so that we would live our life for—us. I—the other week about how I’d love to use this metaphor with my teenagers that I would be like getting into Southwest Airlines and kicking the pilot out of the seat and saying, “I know where I’m going. I’m going to drive.” And that’s a terrible—terrible idea, ‘cause I don’t know how to fly a plane, and I don’t know how to be the god of my own life. But God says, “I—it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Get out of the driver’s seat; let Christ fly the plane; bring you to where he wants you to go; use you for where he wants you to use you for, which is way more than just this morning. I love this morning, but this is just the start. He is the way, the truth, and the life. We begin in knowing him and trusting in him; it rests on who he is; and then he calls us to let him live his life in and through us. I know Philip barely shone through this text; he just asks a question—“How can I know the Father? Or let me know the Father; that will be enough”—and God’s answer—Jesus’s answer—is, “You know God; you know me; and that’s enough.” We don’t get a lot of time where we see Philip on the limelight, but the time he answers this question, and Jesus’s answer is amazing: “You know God; you know him; so Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.” Let’s go follow; let’s go trust in him; and let him live his life through us and in us. Let’s pray. Heavenly God, Father, I just thank you for this morning. I thank you for who you are and all that you do in our lives. I thank you, Lord. I pray that you get all the honor and glory, living through us, Lord, in your Son’s name, I pray. Amen. Amen.