Promises of John 14: Home, Way, Seeing God

There's room for you, and that's not because you are perfect. No one except Jesus is perfect. But Jesus went to the cross to carry our sin so that when God looks at us, he doesn't see us as sinners, but we have substituted our sin for Jesus' perfection. And so the road back home is open to us, and his invite is clear. He says, follow me. I am the way, the truth, and the life. [00:56:03] (34 seconds)  #RoomThroughGrace

In our modern world, these all messages that we hear. Blaze your own path. Find your own truth. Create your own life. It's up to you. You are the star of your own life. But if we put these up alongside what we've just been looking at today, we see that Jesus invites us to a very different way of living. Instead of blazing your own path, he invites us to follow him because he makes the way for us. [00:53:18] (44 seconds)  #ChooseFollowing

This is, I think, one of the most comforting promises in the Bible. Jesus says, you have a home with your heavenly father. That is the creator of the universe has made a space for you, but not just a place. I don't think that's the important part. It's actually about the presence because he goes on to say in preparing that place that he is going to go before his disciples. He's gonna open up the way, and then he's going to come back for the disciples so that they can follow in his footsteps. [00:33:56] (40 seconds)  #HomeInHisPresence

What does that even mean? These disciples have watched him heal the sick and raise people from the dead. What does it mean for us? If you think about it, Jesus' earthly ministry was confined to a particular time and space, to those three years that he had in ministry, and I'm sure leading up to that. But beyond his death, when he went back to heaven and the Holy Spirit was sent to us, the word of God continues to go out in the testimony of you and I. [00:51:17] (47 seconds)  #TestimonyContinues

Maybe a more modern version is if you've done a bit of bush bashing, if you've been out hiking and you've headed off the beaten track, You know maybe perhaps what it's like when you've got to find the way and push back all the growth, but the people who are coming after you have a much easier time. Or even if you've been in deep snow, that idea that someone trampling the way and making the snow compact so that you your steps are easier, and you can follow through the snow. That's what Jesus is to us. He's made the way ahead of us that we can follow in his footsteps. [00:36:45] (43 seconds)  #HeMadeThePath

And to those who have been in the church a long time, I can I ask you to consider renewing your passion of what it looks like to live out a life where Jesus is the way, where he is the hope that we have no matter what our circumstances are, that we have an anchor that assures us that we have a home, that we have a way, that we know God? He's not mysterious. He's known to us through what we see of Jesus, and that we are called into a great journey to do even greater works than what Jesus did during his time. [00:57:10] (47 seconds)  #AnchorOfHope

Now I want to look at that just for a moment because many teachers will claim to know the truth. And you can open your social media, and you don't have to get far before someone is claiming that they have a life hack for us. But Jesus does something unique. He doesn't say, I know the truth or I'll teach you the truth. He tells his disciples, I am the truth. And by that, he means that he embodies the truth. [00:43:21] (27 seconds)  #TruthEmbodied

The Jesus who raised people from the dead, who forgave sinners. And I wonder if in the coming days, they would think back to the same comment that Jesus made, the Jesus who was beaten and crucified, who hung dying on that cross, and the God who was not distant, who came near, not because he was trying to change, because he wanted to change our minds about who God is. That when we see Jesus, we see the heart of God. [00:50:01] (46 seconds)  #SeeGodInJesus