We will be looking at John 14:1-6:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Probably, the most important question that there is in the world is, “How can I get to Heaven?” “How can I go to Heaven?” “How can I live forever?” This is the most important question. Of course, we get bogged down with every other kind of question that there is and every other type of problem and worry and concern. But really, in comparison to the question of eternity and where we are going to spend it, these other concerns do not even compare. Everything else is really temporal, if we look at these things properly and with the correct mindset.
Here in John 14:1, Jesus actually tries to calm people down, in a sense, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Do not worry; do not be anxious; let not your heart be troubled regarding eternal life and regarding salvation. “Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”
In this passage, especially in John 14:6 that we are going to take a look at, God lays out the way of eternal life, the way of eternal bliss and happiness and joy and peace. Anything good that you can think of, it is all wrapped up in the Kingdom of God and in the salvation of God. So we are going to go quickly through the first few verses, and then we will spend a little time on John 14:6.
Let us start here in John 14:2, where it says:
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
This is a comforting verse, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” Yet people get the wrong idea about this verse. They picture something like huge houses, because that is our idea of “mansions” in this world. If someone lives in a mansion, they have something like thirty bedrooms with have all kinds of bathrooms and all kinds of space.
I actually remember talking to a Christian at my workplace years ago. He literally thought that Jesus had gone to begin preparing or building a mansion, this type of huge place, for every one of His elect. I tried to explain to him that this was not really what this verse meant, that this was not what it was saying. He said, “Well, it says it right there,” and this is how a lot of people respond. “The Bible says it; I believe it.”
Yes, the Bible says this and the Bible is using a word that we commonly use today, but we have to disregard our own understanding of this word and go to the Bible and try to find out what the Bible means when it uses this word.
God actually does use this word in the same chapter a second time, and it is the only other place in the Bible that this word is used. We find this word again in John 14:23, where it says:
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
The word “abode” is the same word that was translated “mansions” in John 14:2. It simply means “a dwelling place.” It means exactly how it sounds, as Christ is saying in John 14:2, “In my Father’s house are many abodes, many rooms, many places for all of His elect, for the great multitude that He intends to save, to come and live with God.”
Of course, it is all a figure anyway, because we are not going to Heaven to live in some huge house where we are all going to have a room among all the different floors of this house. This is not what God has in mind.
He is building a house, but remember, He is using “living stones.” He is creating the New Jerusalem, that heavenly City, and we are all a part of that City. We are all a part of that House and we are just going to simply dwell with God. We will have our “abode” with God forevermore.
We do not know what this really entails. We can not even begin to understand this. We know that this is where we would want to be. We would not want to be in the only other alternative place, which is in Hell. We will want to be in God’s House, dwelling in His “abode,” in the “mansions” that Christ has prepared.
When Jesus said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you,” He was not talking about a time when He would leave earth and then go to Heaven and begin a construction project. He was talking about when He was going to go to the Cross and when He was going to take the sins of His people upon Himself and die for those sins, and in that way, prepare an eternal habitation for all of the children of God. This is what Christ had in mind.
Then in John 14:3-5, we read:
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
How can we know “the way” to Heaven? How can we know how to get to Heaven? Thomas is asking an excellent question, is he not? How can I know the way, from where I am in my life, to get to Heaven itself?
Of course, if it was left up to me or left up to any person, no matter who that person was, if it was left up to man, we would not know “the way.” We would be in darkness. We would be blind, wandering about, feeling for a door. Where is the entrance? Where is that portal into eternity? We would not be able to find it. It would be an impossibility for any and every person—for any man, any woman, any child—to get to Heaven. We just would not know how to do it, and it is our sin that would be holding us back and keeping us back. Our sin is damning us. It is condemning us. It is bringing us down into Hell and we would not know how to get right with God and how to enter into the Kingdom of God because of all of our sins.
So Jesus is going to answer Thomas. Jesus and Thomas had some of the greatest exchanges that we find in the Bible. Thomas is that doubting Thomas that we find later in the Gospel of John. Thomas was not with all of the other disciples when they had seen Jesus in the flesh as He appeared to them. Thomas said, “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Yet God used this to get one of the greatest statements of who Christ is out of Thomas as Jesus did appear to him later.
Let us go to John 20:27-28, where it says:
Then saith he to Thomas…
This is Jesus speaking.
…Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
This is a wonderful statement of who Jesus is: “My Lord and my God.” Notice that Jesus does not say, “No Thomas. You can not call me Lord and God.” Of course, if He was anything less than Lord and God, He would have had to say that to Thomas, but He accepts the praise. He accepts what Thomas says of Him, because it is true! It is a fact that Jesus is Lord and God.
Back in John 14:5, it is Thomas who is wondering how we can know “the way.” Then we read in John 14:6:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way…
“I am the way.” It is no accident that we read the words “I am.” It sounds like it is just part of the answer to the question, but it is actually much more than that. It is the two Greek words, “ ego eimi,” which is really a name and a title of God Himself. God is the Great I AM. Right? Is He not?
If we go back to Exodus 3, where Moses saw the burning bush and God spoke to Moses “out of the midst” of the bush “that burned with fire” and yet “was not consumed.” We read in Exodus 3:13-14:
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
This is the Name of God. It describes His being, because He has always been. He is God from eternity past and He will always be. He extends into eternity future. There has never been a point when God has not been, so He is “I AM.”
In order to answer Thomas’ question, “How can we know the way?,” Jesus says, “I am,” indicating that He is Jehovah God. He is the God of the Bible. He is the only Saviour that the Bible talks about.
We see this also if we turn to John 8, where Christ is having a discussion with some of the Jews, and He says to the Jews in John 8:56-58:
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old…
This is interesting. We really expect as we study the Bible that Jesus was born in 7 B.C., which would have been a Jubilee year and a Jubilee year comes every 50 years. So there could be a little bit of evidence here that the Jews were aware that Christ was born in a Jubilee year and that the next Jubilee year had not yet come. Jesus is actually in His thirties, but they picked the number 50:
Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Christ is making a very definite statement. He is saying this of Himself, “Before Abraham was born, I lived, I am, I existed.” Who could He be? Who could Jesus be?
Well, of course, there is no question, although all kinds of people for some reason (and they have their own particular reasons) want to deny that Jesus is the God of the Bible, so they try to find their way around this. But the Jews knew exactly what Christ was saying, because look at what happens next in John 8:59:
Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Because if you are saying, “I am,” and they are very much aware of Exodus 3 where God speaks from the bush, “I AM THAT I AM” and “Before Abraham was,” Jesus says, “I am,” well, how blasphemous! How blasphemous, if it is not true, if it is not fact. Yet, it is not blasphemous, because it is true. Jesus is the God that the Bible talks about who would be the Saviour of His people.
So here in John 14:6, we read:
…I am the way…
God is saying that He is the only way to salvation.
If we go back to Isaiah 43, we will see a statement that really is basically saying the same thing. We read in Isaiah 43:11:
I, even I, am the LORD…
And that is the word “Jehovah.”
I, even I, JEHOVAH; and beside me there is no saviour.
“There is no Saviour.” This is what the Bible says. There is The Way, not “many ways.” There are not two thousand ways to Heaven. There are not one hundred ways to Heaven. There are not fifty ways to Heaven. There are not fifteen ways to Heaven. There are not even two ways to Heaven. There is exclusively and only one way to Heaven.
This is why the Bible is a Book that so many people in the world do not like. They do not like the Bible, because the Bible is really excluding so many people. Look at all of the religions that are out there. Am I saying that it is only through the Word of God—the Gospel of the Bible, what we read in the Scriptures—that this is the only way to get to Heaven?
What about the Muslims? How many Muslims are out there? There are maybe hundreds of millions? I do not know the exact number—one billion?
How about the Hindu? I do not know the numbers. I will not even try to guess, but we know that there are large populations that are Hindu in their religion.
What about Buddhists? There are all kinds of people that are Buddhists in the world.
There are many, many, many other religions, some natural religions in Africa and in other parts of the world, tribal religions maybe in South America. There are all kinds of teachings that man has developed and that people have come up with in order to get right with God, in order to make it into Heaven.
So here is what you have to do if you live in India. Here is what you have to do if you live in China. Here is what you have to do if you live in Africa, as many of these religions have been geared to certain portions of the world and this is where you will find great numbers of them. Of course, there are followers of these religions in every country of the world.
“Here is how you can get saved.” “Here is how you can be alright with God.” “Here is how you can enter into Heaven itself.”
Yet the Bible says, no. Again, Isaiah 43:11:
I, even I, JEHOVAH; and beside me there is no saviour.
He is the only Saviour. “There is none other name.”
Let us turn to Acts 4:10-12:
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
You can see how the Bible just states this matter-of-factly. This is “the way.” This is the road. This is the path that leads to salvation—none other. None other. Of course this is also saying that Jesus is Jehovah, which we know because He is the “I AM.” He is that Name that Isaiah 43:11 was referring to. Again, Acts 4:12:
…there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
First of all, the Bible really helps a person. It really helps a person, of course, who is out there and they want to know, “How can I be saved?” “How can I get right with God?”
The first thing: forget any other religion. Do not worry about it. Do not consider it. It is not even a possibility. Narrow it down to the Gospel, the religion of the Bible.
If the Bible would just agree that all you have to do is to say that you are a Christian, then, of course, there are hundreds of millions of Christians, are there not? I do not know how many. Again, I do not want to get into numbers. There might be a billion or two. I do not know how many, but I know that there are hundreds of millions of professing Christians in the world.
The world might even begin to accept the Bible if it would just allow for all those Christians who say that they are following “the way.” They say that they are following the true Gospel Way. They say that they are Christians, so they think that they are following “the way,” and they believe that they are all going to go to Heaven.
No, no, because first God narrows it down from all of the other religions in the world to Christianity—to the Gospel of the Bible. But then, He gets more precise and He describes what that Gospel is. It is a Gospel that has to be followed. You can not say, “I am a Christian. I go to church and my church follows something that adds to the Word of God.” Or, “My church follows something that takes away from the Word of God.”
There are all kinds of Christians who are in these kinds of churches and in these types of gospels where they have added or subtracted from the message of the Bible. Right away, they are out of “the way.” They are out of “the way.” They are going another “way.” They might as well be a Buddhist. They might as well be a Hindu. They might as well be someone with a tribal religion, because it is going to produce the same effect on the Last Day, which is that there will be no salvation for them.
There is only salvation in “the way” that the Bible prescribes and in “the way” that God sets forth in His Word. This is why we read in Matthew 7:13-14:
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
This is talking about all of the religions in the world. There are many. All kinds of people are going to remain in serious trouble with God on that Last Day and have to stand for judgment, because their religion will have provided no protection from the wrath of God.
Now look at Matthew 7:21. Jesus is going on and saying:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord…
…and it continues. So there are going to be many professing Christians—many professing Christians who have not been following “the way.” They just simply have not been following “the way.” They had been following “the way” of their church, “the way” of their denomination, “the way” of their pastor, “the way” of other gospels, but not the Way of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is One Way and that is the Gospel of the Bible. We do not add or subtract. We do not interpret the Bible with our own minds. We allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. Whatever God declares in His Word, that is the Word of God and that is the Way that we are to follow. It is “the way” to wonderful salvation. There is wonderful grace of God and wonderful mercy, as long as we are following the right Way.
Of course, the only ones who will follow The Way or “find” The Way are God’s elect. This is why it says in Matthew 7:14:
…few there be that find it.
God tells us, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” It is those “few” that He has elected to salvation that will “find” the “narrow way,” that “narrow way” that man just simply can not follow on his own; he needs the supernatural help of God to do things God’s way.
Let us go back to John 14. It continues in John 14:6:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth…
“The truth”—this is a wonderful word. “Truth” is a wonderful word that is so misused in the world, and it is so hard to find in the world. Remember, Pilate said, “What is truth?” He was really speaking for a great number of people, “What is truth in this world?”
If you close up the Bible and put it on a shelf and have nothing more to do with it and decide to just go with what the world says and the philosophies of men and what the world tries to figure out in their own understanding, what a mess. What a terrible mess it is in this world as man stumbles around in the darkness of his own mind, trying to figure out, “What is truth?” and “Who is God?” All the real important questions, he just can not even get close to answering.
So truth becomes something that the world really does not want to talk about. They try to avoid the issue, actually. Everything becomes relative, and they just go about their lives not thinking about the real important things, such as truth or absolute truth. But Jesus said, “I AM the Truth.”
Let us turn back to Psalm 119:142, where we read:
Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
The Law is a synonym for the Word of God, the Bible.
Also, look at Psalm 119:151:
Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth.
The Word of God, again and again, testifies of itself and says, “I am Truth.” The Word of God is Truth.
Turn to Psalm 19:7-9:
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
So God’s Word is all of these things that Psalm 19 is describing. Above all, it is True. It is True, and that is unlike anything that you will find in this world.
Or turn to Titus 1:1-2, where it says:
Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
God “cannot lie.” It is really an impossibility for God to lie. That should amaze us because we are so used to lies. What does the Bible say? How does man enter into the world since the fall? Psalm 58 says, they are “born, speaking lies.”
This is how every human being comes into the world. We are “born, speaking lies.” We are very familiar with falsehood, and we are comfortable with deceit. We have no problem with half-truths. We are just born and brought up and live in a world that is full of lies—and it is all around! It is in books. It is books that claim to be fact. It is in nonfiction books. It is in our history. It is in our government, and it is not that I am saying something negative about our government because it is in every government. There are deceitful things that happen in every nation of the world. In every country of the world, man speaks lies. Of course, it is every person and every human being, as you talk to anyone—your family members, your friends. From time-to-time, you are going to notice that they are passing lies, that what they are saying is not true. They are not speaking the truth.
But that is never the case, never, never the case with the Bible. God can not lie! That is super important, because this means that everything that we read in the Bible is true. So when God speaks about how He created the world, it is true. When God speaks about the devil tempting Eve, that is how it happened—it is true—and man falling into sin, absolutely true! Also, the consequences of sin, “the wages of sin is death,” totally true, and because of your sin, you are going to one day soon and stand before God and give account for your sin and then be thrown into Hell forevermore—completely true. This is no lie, no lie, no fudging, no half-truth, not a little bit off, but perfectly, purely, wholy, true. This is what the Bible says, and God says it again and again.
Turn to Hebrews 6:17-18, where we read:
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel…
Do you know what “immutability” means? It means that if you are mutable, you can change. If you are immutable, you can not change. So He is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” God does not change. What He said was true in the Old Testament and what He says is true in the New Testament; it does not change.
So here in Hebrews 6:17-18, it says:
…the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation…
We were talking about consolation and comfort last week. This is the best! We have a “strong consolation” from God that everything that we read in His Word is true. So this also means that if we are a child of God, we have eternal life. It also means that Heaven is right there at the door, along with the Judge, and that the entrance into eternity is close at hand. It also means that we will live in the very presence of God in that “mansion” that He speaks of forever and ever. It is not going to change. We can rely on it; we can trust it; we can lean back upon it, and we can just let all of the cares and the troubles of this world come upon us, “So what!” because we have eternal life. By God’s grace, He has given me the gift of faith and the gift of salvation. Now I have everything because I believe the Bible and the Bible is believable. It is something that I can have faith in, because God is absolutely faithfulness Himself.
Again, Hebrews 6:18:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
The first thing is God can not lie. The second thing is the very nature of God, His very being, He is completely trustworthy in His very essence in who He is. We could go on and on.
Revelation 21:5, after laying out the beautiful vision that the Apostle John received of “a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,” it says:
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
We could find many verses like this. “These words,” the Bible, “are true and faithful.” “I AM the way, the Truth.” “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” “I AM the Truth.” It is a “narrow way,” but it is “the way” that God is going to bring His people through, like Moses led the children of Israel through the Red Sea.
Let us turn back to John 14 and look at the final statement that the Lord Jesus Christ made there. We continue in John 14:6:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
“I am the life.” He is life. We might have physical life. We might have our heart beating right now and our minds might be active physically, our eyes are operating and we are living in this world. We have the things of this world that we want and desire; we are getting some of them. We have feelings, and so forth; we feel really alive. But if we do not have Christ, we are dead. If we do not have Christ, we are dead because the Bible tells us, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” This is what God said to Adam, and we have died in our souls. We have become spiritually dead because of sin. The only way that there can be “life” now is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, so Christ must be in us. He is “the life.” If He saves us, His Spirit enters in and then we can live, then we can say that we have spiritual life.
Let us look at Colossians 3:3-4:
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
And look at 1 John 5:11-12:
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
It is all wrapped up in Christ, in Jesus Himself. If you or I have Jesus, there was no way that we could have taken Jesus to ourselves. We could not bring salvation to ourselves. We could do everything that the Bible would allow, which is reading the Bible and praying and turning from our sins as much as possible. Even in this we are going to suffer all kinds of setbacks because we do not have that life or the strength of God to help us in turning from sin. Yet, it all is in Jesus.
Jesus is eternal life. He is the very essence of life, so if we do not have Him, then we will not enter into the Kingdom of God. We just simply will not become a child of God, and we will not experience the great blessings that come with salvation. It must be through the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is interesting, because we know how Jesus is “the life,” but Scripture is also called “life,” because Christ is also “the Word.” In John 6:63, it says:
It is the spirit that quickeneth…
“Quickeneth” is an Old English word that means “to be brought to life.”
…the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
You see, the Bible is a living Book. The Bible tells us, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.” It is alive; it is spiritually alive. I do not know how this could be, but God says that His Word is alive.
This is why when the Word goes forth, when the Gospel seed is sprinkled upon the hearts of the hearers, God is able to quicken through the Word to bring to life those who are spiritually dead. He can create a new heart and a new spirit and give someone life in their soul through the living Word of God. This is another reason that the Bible says, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
This is why we are so eager, those of us who are God’s people, to share this Word—this Word that will lead someone “the way” that they need to go, this Word that is nothing but “the Truth” that they need to follow, and this Word that can, in itself because it does not take any action of ours, but the Word will accomplish the job of bringing to life anyone who is one of God’s elect.
The Word will do all of these things, so we are greatly blessed that God has given us His Word and that we can read it this day and also share it with others.