John 14:1-7: The Way Is Going Away

(1) Sermon Script

Introduction: Our Distress of Heart

We have real worries and griefs that we carry around with us. Worry and anxiety does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter what age, sex, race, or nationality you are, what your economic status or financial class is. Anxiety is an emotion, not a decision, and it comes upon us. We don’t choose anxiety, it comes upon us.

Jesus knows our anxieties. There are a number of passages that warn us against worry: “Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanks present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Phil 4:6-7). Or, “Cast your cares upon the Lord because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). All of this is true.

And Jesus knew the distress and trouble that his disciples were experiencing on the night before he died. And so we see him giving counsel and advice in the midst of emotional distress and trouble, so that the disciples can endure through it.

But sometimes, our presenting problems are not the same as our real problems. Sometimes our felt need is different to our real, essential need. And so in this passage, Jesus guides us deal with our real need, not our presenting problem. And that is why, in the end, Jesus is going away from his disciples.

The Disciples’ Distress of Heart

Jesus is engaging in after-dinner conversation, and Jesus is saying that now he is going to leave them. These words were spoken on the night Jesus was betrayed. These are some of Jesus’ last words, on the night before he died, to his dear friends. He names his traitor, and names Peter as the one who is going to deny him. Of course the ten others will be troubled. Jesus’ friends are confused and anxious. And he has sad that he is about to die, and that no one can go with him.

Jesus Bids His Disciples Trust Him (v. 1)

While it is quite natural and expected that the disciples would be troubled and disturbed, Christ commands them to not do something, and to do something. Verse 1:

14:1Do not let your heart be disturbed. You trust in God; trust also in me.

Jesus tells them to still their troubled and disturbed hearts, and to trust him in the same way that they trust God. This is yet another way of Jesus claiming equality with God.

No Need of FOMO When it Comes to Heaven (vv. 2-3)

I’m told that the ‘Millenials’, those who are just entering adulthood, do not like to make long distance commitments—like giving a clear answer to “will you come over on the weekend?”—because they might get a better offer between the time of the first offer to be received and the time of the event in question. This has been described as ‘FoMO’, or ‘Fear of Missing Out’. It is the anxiety related to not getting the absolutely best deal, or having spent your time in the most fulfilling and gratifying way. It is defined as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent". This social angst is characterized by “a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out).

Well, 2000 years ago, Jesus was dealing with that very same anxiety by giving assurances about the future of his disciples. Verse 2-3:

14:2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If there weren’t, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 14:3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will once again come and take you to be with me, so that you also may be where I am.

First, Jesus makes it clear that no one need miss out. There are many rooms in his Father’s house. There is no possibility about heaven being full, and God hanging out a “No Vacancy” sign. God has built excess capacity into his eternal kingdom. Jesus Christ is preparing a place for people to join him. And neither the Father nor the Son wants this house to be empty. Jesus wants his disciples to have the assurance of knowing this house is there—an inheritance in heaven that no moth, rust, disaster, or bankruptcy can take away, and it was not built to be empty.

Second, Jesus asks a question which tests their belief in his own honesty and trustworthiness. He says, “If there weren’t many rooms in my Father’s house, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” The question expects a ‘no’ answer, because Jesus doesn’t tell lies. Jesus has come from the Father. The Father shows him everything. And as the only one from the Father, he can tell us what the Father has for us, for he has spent eternity past in his Father’s house, and knows everything about his Father’s house.

Third, if Jesus is so favourably disposed to his disciples as to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house, he will also do the easier thing of again returning to be with his disciples. He is not going away because he doesn’t like them, he wants to ditch them, and he wants to cut them loose. He is going away to prepare a place for them.

Where Is Jesus Going?

Where is the place that Jesus is going? At first glance, it is surely his Father’s house, that is, the fourth dimension, where God is, and the spirit world is, that we do not have access to, but that Jesus Christ, who has come from the Father and heaven, has told us about. This is the traditional understanding of the place where Jesus is going to make his preparations for the disciples—Jesus is going to the many rooms, the single unit dwellings, which the disciples will receive on entering the kingdom that Jesus is preparing for them.

But there is another possibility for the place of preparation. Rather than think that Jesus will return to heaven to prepare his disciples’ places, it may be that he is going away to the cross, and by the cross he is preparing a place for the disciples. The Greek can mean either, and it is ultimately context that determines which is most likely.

From John’s very first chapter, when Jesus was twice announced to be the lamb of God, the one who would take away the sin of the world, or from chapter 3, when Jesus has said he was going to be lifted up on a pole like Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, Jesus’ has been telegraphing and foreshadowing that he was going to die in Jerusalem for our sins. So it would be fitting that the place of Jesus’ preparation for his disciples entrance and accommodation in his Father’s house would be by going to the death of a cross, which he would do the next day as he suffered and was crucified. While the Father’s house might be far away and, humanly speaking, inaccessible, Jesus will not be going there in the first instance. He will be going to the cross.

For Jesus is the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and he does that by taking our sins in his body on the tree. He is the righteous one who suffers for and on behalf of us sinners. On the cross, he will bear the brunt of God’s anger against us and our sins as a sin offering. As Isaiah prophesied:

He was pierced for our transgression, and bruised for our iniquity, and to bring us peace he was punished, and by his stripes we are healed. We like sheep have gone astray, turned each one to his own way, yet the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6 NIV)

Jesus is the good shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep. Jesus lived the life we should have lived. No one could accuse him of sin. He died the death we deserve to die, as the sin bearing lamb of God. And very soon after he says these words, Jesus will rise again to new resurrection life, victorious as king over death, because he is the resurrection and the life.

However, while Jesus’ sacrificial death is that which is necessary for his disciples to enter into heaven, the reference in verse 3 to Jesus coming back and taking the disciples to be where Jesus would be is almost certainly a reference to his second coming—which takes place after his heavenly session is concluded between his first and second comings. And given the reference to ‘the Father’s house’, it does make sense that the ‘place’ of preparation would be the Father’s house, and that Jesus would be making those preparations after his ascension and before his second coming at that actual location, in his Father’s house. Indeed, the emphasis on Jesus’ revelation of the Father (vv. 4-7), suggests that it is the Father’s house in heaven where Jesus is going to make the preparations. This fits also with John’s introductory comments at the beginning of his account of the Upper Room in chapter 13 verse 1:

13:1Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, seeing that his hour had come, so that he would transfer from this world to the Father [...]

So I think that on balance the understanding that Jesus goes away to make his preparations in his Father’s house in heaven is to be preferred. However, the cross is undoubtedly a ‘via point’, a stopping point along the way.

Where Is Jesus Going? Do the Disciples Know the Way? (vv. 4-5)

Jesus has said that he is going away and that where he is going the disciples cannot come. So chapter 13 verse 33.

13:33Children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, and just as I said to the Jews that “you cannot come where I am going”, now I also say it to you.

Indeed, in verse 36, Peter directly asks where Jesus is going:

13:36Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “where I am going, you now cannot follow me, but you will follow later.”

The same issue applies here that we have discussed concerning Jesus’ place of preparation. Where is Jesus going? Is Jesus talking about his going to heaven and his returning to his Father? Or is Jesus talking about his going to the cross? Or is the ambiguity on purpose, such that Jesus on purpose leaves the possibility of two or more referents to grasp the whole complex of events that are about to take place? Any of those three possibilities are possible. However, though none of the disciples can come with Jesus or follow him where he is going, Jesus is expecting that the disciples know both where Jesus is going, the way to get to where Jesus is going, and the ‘Father’, whose place it is where Jesus is going.

In verse 4, Jesus says to the eleven disciples in the upper room, “And you know the way to where I am going.” And in verse 5, Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going: how can we know the way?”

Jesus says that the disciples know the way to the place where Jesus is going. He then implies that they know the location of the place of Jesus’ destination, because if they know the way to—or how to get to—that place, then they would also know the location of that place. And this explains Thomas’ question in verse 5: for Thomas is saying, “We don’t know the destination, so how can we know the route?” But Jesus says that they know both the destination and the route.

Destination and Route of Jesus’ Departure, and Our Only Way to Heaven (vv. 6-7)

14:6Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7If you knew me, you would also know my Father. And from now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus has just told the disciples where he is going, his destination: he is going to the Father. And he has told the disciples the route: Jesus himself is the way, the route. The way to God is right there in the upper room with the disciples: it is Jesus. Jesus is the way to God, to heaven, to the Father’s house. You get to be with God only by going through Jesus.

Jesus is the ‘way’ because it is through him we get into heaven. He is the “highway to heaven”, just as he is the “stairway to heaven” (John 1:51).

Jesus is the ‘truth’ because he is truth incarnate and only ever spoke the truth. The truth is a person. He came from the father full of grace and truth (John 1:17).

Jesus is the ‘life’ because he has life in himself, all things received life at creation through him, he now gives new life of being born again by the Spirit, and he will be the one at the end of time who will call to the graves and all who hear him will rise to life. Jesus earlier in John’s Gospel said, in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though that person dies. And every one who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26) All this shows that he came to give us life to the full (John 10:10).

Jesus himself is the route, because he is the way, the truth, the life, the resurrection, the gate, and the light of the world. These metaphors show us that Jesus himself is the path, the stairway to heaven. Jesus is Jacob’s ladder upon whom the angels of God ascend and descend (John 1:51).

And Jesus is the route to the Father because he is the Word who is God and has come from God and who became flesh. That’s his person. And Jesus is also the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the serpent lifted up on a pole, so that all the sin-sick might look on him and live. Jesus’ unique person (the only begotten God the Son) and work (the lamb of God) makes him the only way. For only God himself is our saviour, and Jesus is God. For if righteousness could come through obedience to the law, then Christ died for nothing (Gal 2:21). So Christ’s person and work is the route to heaven.

To say that Jesus is the only way is, in our culture, extremely arrogant. But we are just glad that there is a way. If it wasn’t for Jesus’ person and work, there would be no way to the Father. Peter says the same thing in Acts 4:12:

Salvation is found in no on one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (NIV)

There are not many ways to God. There is only one way, and his name is Jesus Christ. That’s Christianity, and if it is arrogant, that’s only because it is just what the Bible says. But it’s a bit hard to see how it is arrogant, because it is saying that we are all sinners and don’t deserve a way to heaven, and Jesus will give eternal life to anyone who trusts in him, so everyone can have it. So none of us deserves this way to heaven, and each of us can have it if we trust Jesus. How is that arrogant? We didn’t write the Bible, we just read it. It tells us about things we don’t know about, because we haven’t been to heaven to see the Father’s house. And if Jesus is the only way, as the Bible says and as Jesus says, that just shows how precious or unique Jesus Christ is to the Father, and how valuable his precious blood is for us. So be it. Jesus is the only way to God, and we thank God that we sinners have one way out of death and hell.

Conclusion

We don’t have to search for the way to God the Father and his house anywhere else. We simply must come to Jesus, and he will give us rest. For life, and the resurrection, we must come to Jesus.

Friends, because this is the case, let me urge you to follow Jesus Christ, to confess publicly with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and to believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Please, change your mind about Jesus and God and his world, and then you will be able to say, to “live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Then Jesus’ words in John 14 will make sense, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.”

Let’s pray.

(2) English Translation

My Translation

14:1Do not let your heart be disturbed. You trust in God; trust also in me. 14:2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If there weren’t, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 14:3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will once again come and take you to be with me, so that you also may be where I am. 14:4And you know the way to where I am going.”

14:5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going: how can we know the way?” 14:6Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7If you had known me, you would also know my Father. And from now on, you do know him and have seen him.

(3) Exegetical Notes

On verse 1, the NIV1984 takes Jesus’ words translated “Trust in God” as a command. But the NIV2011 takes them to be a description, “You trust in God” or “You are trusting in God”. The Greek verb πιστεύετε (‘believe, trust, have faith, rely, depend’) can be understood either as an indicative (“you trust in God”) or as an imperative (“trust in God”). At one level it doesn’t matter, although Jesus’ claim to be an object of trust alongside the Father might be a little stronger if he has already established that they trust God. Either way, it is yet another instance of Jesus claiming equality with God his Father.

On verse 2, while the NIV takes the question as terminating half way through verse 2, the Greek text of NA28 takes the question as also comprising the subordinate ὅτι clause in verse 2. While the NIV translation reads easily, it does not adequately render our Greek text, thus my translation.