Sermon Guide: John 14:1-7, “Jesus is the Way”
Date Preached: February 9, 2025
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Key Passages
John 14:1–7
“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 be also. 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 to him, “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 have seen him.”
John 2:13–22
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Sermon Overview
The search for meaning and purpose in life is universal, and we can think of it as a search for “Home.” We were designed and created to be at home with God, and we’ll be restless until we rest in him.
In John 14, Jesus comforts his troubled disciples with the truth that he is preparing the way for them to come home, and for home to come to them. Today, we can take comfort in that same reality — that God makes his home with us as we believe in Jesus and are filled with his Spirit. And one day, that home will be fully realized and manifested when Jesus comes again. For that comfort to take hold of our hearts, we must understand that Jesus has flung wide open the door — and that he is the only way.
Sermon Structure
1. Do you know where your home is? (vv. 1–3)
The alternative to a troubled heart
Interpreting “my Father’s house”
Comfort for later & for now
Functioning according to our design
2. Do you know the way? (vv. 4–7)
Jesus came to open a door, not close it
Jesus is the only way
Why we share Christ
Definitions & Resources
Temple
A temple is a physical location in which mankind can encounter God. Think of it as the overlap between heaven and earth. Jesus taught his disciples in John 2 that he is the True Temple; heaven and earth overlap in him. And he is the only way to truly encounter God the Father.
Didactic
Relating to a teaching. When Jesus speaks didactically, he teaches people in direct, plain words. When Jesus speaks symbolically, he teaches people through metaphor and imagery.
The First Two Principles of Hermeneutics (Biblical Interpretation):
1. Scripture interprets Scripture
2. The didactic interprets the symbolic
(i.e. what is more clear interprets what is less clear)
Questions for Discussion & Reflection
1. How are you tempted to find comfort when your heart is troubled?
2. What does Jesus tell us to do as an alternative to a letting our hearts be troubled? What could that practically look like for you?
3. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” What do you think each of those three main words means in this context?
4. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” How does that create urgency for evangelism?
