Three Puzzled Persons

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[Message] Returning in our study of the Upper Room Discourse to John chapter 13, in verse 36, and in the hour that we have tonight I want to try to cover verse 36, through verse 11, of chapter 14.

The title for the study is really just a sort of epitome of the fact that our Lord Jesus has conversations with three men; with Peter, and with Thomas, and with Philip. And so the subject is Three Puzzled Persons. Some of the great themes of the Bible are found in this section. For example, there is the theme of heaven in chapter 14, in verse 2, the Lord Jesus in the discourse says, “In my Father’s home (or house,) are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” And all Christians look forward with anticipation to the experience of heaven.

There is stressed, also, the way of salvation. One of the key verses of the New Testament, perhaps, on the way of salvation is found in the 6th verse of the 14th chapter, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” So the way of salvation, the exclusive way of salvation, through the Lord Jesus is set forth here. And then we have a very interesting revelation concerning the character of God in the 8th verse, “Philip said to the Lord Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” And Jesus replies that know him is to know the Father. And so we have a very significant insight into the character of God, God is like Jesus Christ.

Now I think probably if we look at this passage in perspective the most important of these questions is probably the central one, that is the one I mentioned second. That here we have presented the way of salvation, “I am the way.” It’s a very exasperating thing to get on the wrong train if you are going some place and it’s very exasperating to get on the wrong plane if you are going to some place. Now plane companies, airlines, do everything in their power to keep you from doing it but there’s some people that are able to get on the wrong plane in spite of all that they do, and you’re looking at one [Laughter]. Not long ago I was second in line as we were getting on the plane and I thought, “I’m going to get on there and I’m going to sit in my seat, I already had my seat, I wasn’t in a stressful situation as a result of that, but I was second in line and all of these other people were not experienced travelers like I am so I wanted to get on there and get on in my seat before they disturbed me. And unfortunately the person right in front of me began a little conversation with the man who was telling us what plane to get on or was handling the boarding of the plane and so I went out and there were two planes there and of course I picked the nearest plane.

And I not only went to that plane but I think vaguely I heard somebody yelling after me but I paid them no attention because I knew exactly the plane to go to [Laughter] except I was going to Atlanta and the plane was going to Columbus, Georgia. And so I went on, I went to the plane; I even went up in the plane and was looking for my seat number. I was a little surprised, I went in and the stewardesses were sitting down and eating dinner [Laughter] and there’s a pilot who was also relaxed in the back part of the plane but at any rate I had to slink out of the plane and join the other line, near the end, and noticed that they were looking around at me and smiling and laughing [Laughter]. Now I want to tell you that that’s a very exasperating thing to do but how exasperating it would be to find out after you leave this life that you have taken the wrong way to heaven.

Now the Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” And how important it is that we be sure that we do know the way and that we are following the directions of the divine word. This section is built around three problems. You will notice them if you will look at verse 36, where the Apostle Peter says, “Lord, where goest Thou?” And then the second of the problems is stated in the 5th verse when Thomas says, “Lord, we know not where Thou goest; and how can we know the way?” And the third of the problems is the one to which I have referred when Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”

So we want to look at the problem of Peter and the problem of Thomas and the problem of Philip. Now let me read verses 36 through chapter 14, verse 4, where we have the problem with Peter, given and answered by the Lord Jesus. In verse 36, John writes,

“Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, where goest Thou? Jesus answered him, Where I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto Thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice. 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 where I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

Now it is rather interesting to me in studying this passage that Simon Peter offers a question that does not have to do with the immediately preceding context where he has been given the new commandment. You would think that if Peter had something to ask he would have asked, “Lord, why is this a new commandment?” Or, “How does the new commandment fit in with the ten that we already know about?” But instead he jumps over the immediately preceding context about the commandment to love one another and refers to our Lord’s statement in verse 33, “Where I go, ye cannot come so now I say to you.” And so he says, “Lord, where goest Thou?” It’s almost as if Peter is more interested in knowledge than he is in obedience to the new commandment.

Now Peter is, of course, in the process of being sanctified at this time and he’s learning the truth of Romans chapter 7, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.” And Peter is like most of us, he has to learn it through the bad experiences of life. And so the fulfillment of the new commandment is not nearly so significant for him as it is to find out the answer to the theological question posed by, “Where I go, you cannot come and I say that to you now.” In other words, in Peter’s life, at this point, there does not seem to be any place for, “Him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall.” Chrysostom refers to Peter’s attitude in this part of the gospel records and says, “What sayest thou, oh Peter?” In other words, “Peter, what really are you saying? Are you saying things that really you ought to be saying or are you saying things that reveal a weakness of character?”

Well the reply that the Lord Jesus give to Peter is one that is addressed to all, it’s for Peter but Peter’s asked a question that probably the others were interested in the answer to as well, and so his answer is an answer to all of them but it’s for Peter. And I just want you to notice three notes that are found in this answer and the first is the note of trust. Look at the 14th chapter, in the 1st verse, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

Now it is difficult for us to be absolutely certain in the way we should take this statement of the Lord Jesus, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” Unfortunately in the Greek text the same form, that is, the same word may either be an imperative or an indicative. Now the translators of the Authorized Version, which I’m reading tonight, have translated this, “Ye believe in God,” as if it’s an affirmation, a declaration. But it could be rendered by the imperative. Now since the second is the same word and since it is an imperative it seems clearly to be an imperative, “Believe also in me,” I think it’s more likely that we are to take the first as an imperative too. “Believe in God, trust in him, trust also in me.” In other words, the cure for the troubled heart is trust, “Trust in the triune God, trust in the Father, and trust also in me.” Incidentally, you’ll notice that he equates trust in the Father with trust in him. To trust in the Lord Jesus is to trust in one who is himself also God, “Trust in God, trust also in me.”

Now Peter, of course, was already trusting. In the 15th chapter we will read in the earlier part of it, “The Lord Jesus said to them, And ye are clean on account of the word which I have spoken to you.” So when he says to Peter that he is to trust in God and trust in him, he’s not suggesting that he is an unbeliever, but he’s talking to him as a believer. Now the reason for this is that a little faith in a crucified savior is sufficient to save. In fact, the tiniest bit of faith in someone who is able to save such as our Lord who died for our sins is sufficient to give us salvation. But for the enjoyment of salvation as our faith grows, so grows our enjoyment of our salvation. Now the Lord Jesus spoke, for example, to the apostles, well in the incident in which Peter walked on the water. And remember when Peter was walking on the water he was performing a miracle, he kept his eyes on the Lord Jesus and he was able to walk on the water, just like Bear Bryant does in Alabama [Laughter]. But as he got close to the boat, remember, he looked away at the storm about him, took his eyes off the Lord, and began to sink. And then as he was going under the water, remember, he cried out, “Lord save me,” and he was saved and evidently he walked back with our Lord to the boat. And as a result of this the Lord Jesus said, “Oh ye of little faith.” Little faith, you see there are degrees of faith. Little faith, in fact the Bible speaks of little faith, much faith, great faith. So the degree of faith that an individual has determines the enjoyment of the Christian life. It does not determine the possession of it, but the enjoyment of it.

Now faith is increased through the reading of the word of God. It’s as simple as that, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The faith that we possess, that saves us, is a faith that is given by God. It’s a faith given to us in the redeemer who died for our sins. And the faith from the human standpoint is, of course, given by God thereafter but he says the means by which this faith grows is the reading of the word of God. And so Peter is told, “Believe in God, believe also in me; the cure for troubled and distressed hearts is more faith which comes through the word.”

Now the second note of this passage, incidentally that word for troubled, “Let not your heat be troubled,” was used of the agitation of the waves of the sea. And so when he says, “Let not your heart be troubled,” he looks at the apostles as they are thinking about him leaving them and their hearts are agitated and disturbed, moving backwards and forth just as the waves of the sea do in the midst of the storm. And so the Upper Room Discourse is designed to comfort them and encourage them for the time when he will not be there.

Now the next thing that he speaks about, the second note, is the note of his Father’s house, “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.” Incidentally, there are some interesting textural questions here but that would involve some technicalities and it’s not really necessary for the thought. Here is really the answer to Peter’s question of chapter 13, in verse 36, about where he’s going. Why, he’s going to the Father’s house. “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” So that is where he’s going.

By the way, when he says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” he does not mean that we can expect all of us to have a lavish, what we call mansion, in heaven. The term that is used, mone, refers to a wealthy Oriental’s large house with living quarters for all of the family. And so the picture is rather of a dwelling with a lot of dwelling places within it. More like the idea of a heavenly household in which there are apartments for all of us.

Now I don’t think we ought to think materially, what he means is that he is preparing something for us and we are sure that it will be a great place for every one of us. So he’s going to the Father’s house and this, incidentally, does indicated to us that it is proper for us to have a genuine hope of heaven. And of course, when loved ones are in heaven so much greater becomes the hope. I guess the passage of a loved one to heaven should not really increase our anticipation. We should have the anticipation because the Lord Jesus Christ is there but practically speaking, the other is our experience.

Now the third note is the note of the future coming. He says in verse 3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again.” Now he does not mean that he will come again when we are born again, these men were already born again. Some have interpreted it that way. He does not mean he will come again on the day of Pentecost. Long after the day of Pentecost he still speaks about coming again. So he’s not speaking about that, he’s talking about the Second Advent. “I will come again, and I will receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” I’ve always thought that this is the simplest idea of heaven, “Where I am there ye may be also.”

Samuel Rutherford, one of the great Presbyterian men who was responsible for the Westminster Confession of Faith, he was a Scottish man, and out of his writings Mrs. Cousin has constructed the hymn, The Sands of Time are Sinking which we often sing. I have often stood before Mr. Rutherford’s grave in St. Andrews in the cathedral grounds there, and looked at the things that are written on his grave, you can still read some of the things that were said about him. He was a very godly man and a very strong Calvinistic theologian. And the Westminster Confession of Faith was one of the greatest works that he did, he was a pastor in Scotland.

Well, in that hymn there are words like, “The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegrooms face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of Grace. Not at the crown he weareth, but on his pierced hand; ht e Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.” I don’t know how many verses there are in that hymn, I’ve understood that there are as many as thirty or forty. We only have four or five in our hymn books usually but they are magnificent expressions of the Christian faith from a man who understood the sovereignty of God. That’s heaven; where he is there we are also. It’s going to be great to see Paul but the Lord is number one.

When we think about heaven, “It is more by much better,” Paul says, “to depart and to be with Christ.” With Christ. 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 says, “And so shall we ever be with the Lord. That’s Paul’s idea of what heaven is. He talks about being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 5, and verse 8. And the Lord Jesus himself said to the thief on the cross, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” That’s the preeminent thing about heaven, we are with the Lord Jesus. All of the other things are the trappings, I’m sure they are glorious. The city, the heavens, these dwelling places, but the important thing is that he’s there.

Well that’s the answer to Peter’s question, “Lord where are you going?” “Well, I’m going to the Father’s house and I’m going to come again and I’m going to take you to be there with me.” I wonder how much Peter understood it this time. Now the Lord added something that stirred another man of the apostles. In the 4th verse the Lord said, “And where I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

Now Thomas was one of those men who always keep well within the limits of their knowledge. Someone has said, “He was loyal but dull.” “He liked the feel of solid facts beneath his feet,” someone else has said. He reminds me of students who take exams, the best students in the class. You’ve seen them, you all know them, they were some of your friends. They encouraged you until the exam was taken. They all said the day before, that exam is going to be hard, it’s going to be terrible, of course they’ve had a string of 100’s before this particular exam but they say this one’s hard, “I don’t really think I’m going to do very well in it. I haven’t studied sufficiently, it’s very difficult. I’m scared.” And even they will say to the teachers, they will often say to me, these theological students used to say it too, they thought they fooled their professors I guess, but they would say, “I hope I pass.” [Laughter] And they would make their 95’s, you know [laughter]. They were all Thomas’; they liked to live well within the limits of their knowledge.

Now the Lord has said, “Where I go, ye know and the way ye know.” Now that is stated somewhat enigmatically, isn’t it? “Where I go ye know, and the way ye know.” That’s as if I were to say to you, “I’m going away, you know where and how to get me.” One of you businessmen, if you came home one night and you said to your wife, “I’m going away and you’ll know how to get a hold of me.” Now the first thing she would say, “Well what do you mean, you’re going away, you haven’t asked my permission yet.” [Laughter] But then after that she would say, “Well if I don’t know where you are going, how could I possibly know the way?” Now if you were to say to her, “I’m going to New York tomorrow,” she would know you would have to go by airplane. So you can see why Thomas was stirred by this and no doubt the Lord phrased this statement in just such a way that it would provoke Thomas to ask the question. “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we don’t know where you’re going and how can we know the way? If we don’t know where you’re going we certainly cannot know the path that you are taking.”

And so the reply of the Lord is given in the 6th and 7th verses, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Now notice, he says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” I’ve heard so many expositions of this text that are wrong that I want you to be sure and grasp what he really is saying. Now preachers are people who like to look for three points and so this is a text that is bound to upset them and cause them to think, “Ah, here is a text, I don’t even have to think about it, the three points are so obvious; the way, the truth, the life. There it is.” But I want to suggest to you, and I think you’ll believe you’ll agree with me, that this statement in which he says, “I’m the way, the truth, and the life,” is not to be understood as if the way, the truth, and the life were three parallel things. Now if you’ll look at them carefully you will see that the important one is first of all, the way. Now the reason that the way is the important one is because that’s the question Thomas asked. He said, “How can we know the way?” So we should expect our Lord’s answer to be an answer to his question primarily. He asked about the way, not the truth and the life. And so our Lord’s answer we would expect to be directed toward answering the question, “What is the way?”

But not only that, way is a figure. Way is a road. Truth and life are plain statements, or speak of certain ideas. So we have a figure of speech and then we have a couple of forthright ideas. Way, then truth, and life; they’re not the same things. It’s like apples and oranges. We have one apple and a couple of oranges. And then further, you will notice that the last part of the statement, “No man cometh unto the father but by me,” is directed toward the way. “No man comes except through me.” So the important thing about this passage is the way.

Now then, if that is true then what’s the meaning? If the Lord says, “I’m the way, the truth, and the life,” what does he mean? Well, those two, the second and the third, the truth and the life are really explanatory of the way. Now for those of you who are technical minded, they are epexegetically; they are explanatory of way. So really what he is saying is, “I am the way because I’m the truth and the life.” Or, “I’m the way; that is, I’m the truth and the life.” So the way is the important thing.

Now having said that I want to say some other things about these other words. You’ll notice he says, “I am the way,” he does not say, “I show the way.” The Lord Jesus is not a way sure entirely, he is the way. That is, a person must be identified him and in him by faith before he’s on the way toward the Father’s house. He doesn’t simply say, “I know the way,” though of course he does know the way. He says, “I am the way.”

And then in adding that he’s the way, that is the truth, he doesn’t say, “I am true.” There are other men who have been true. I guess we could say that Solomon was true, Socrates was true. But he says, “I am the truth.” And incidentally, he does not say, “I am truth, “As if he was all truth or the only truth.” Now ultimately all truth is related to the Lord Jesus but he’s not speaking about that here. He says he is the truth. The truth about what? Well, about going to the Father, the truth about the way. The truth about going to the Father’s house. In other words, he’s the truth about salvation. The paramount truth about how to get to heaven that our Lord claims to be. I am the truth and the article is there in the original text.

Then he says he’s the life. Not, “I am the living one,” that is, the eternal one. He was that. He doesn’t say, “I am life.” Others live. But he says, “He is the life.” And when he says he is the life, he means he’s the life whereby we may truly live. In other words, if we don’t have this life we don’t really have life. Now just previously here he had said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And he meant that he was the resurrection because he did have the life that overcomes death. And let me say to you, if you are in this audience tonight and you do not have the life of Jesus Christ, you do not have the life that overcomes death. There’s only one life that ever has or ever will overcome death and that is the life of Christ. And it is only those who have his life who will overcome death, so you have it.

So he is the life, the life, by which we may truly live. So to accept the truth, to receive the life, is to be on the way. It’s not surprising, then, that later on in the Christian faith and in the history of the Christian church, Christianity came to be known as what? The way. In the Book of Acts we read about those who were of the way so this idea attached to Christianity because through Christ we do get on the road to the possession of the eternal life.

I always think about a man who was already retired many years ago here in Dallas who heard me preach. And afterwards he told me that he was converted through my preaching and I thought it was probably the brilliance of the exposition and I had given. And he said, “It really wasn’t anything much you said about the text itself, it was an illustration you told.” And I realized I was lost, I had told an illustration about a woman and a family and a burning house and I have forgotten all of the details of it but I remember that was the thing that stirred him and he was retired and he became a Christian and he still was going downtown Dallas on certain mornings to have coffee with some of the people in his office who were still working, who were still not sixty-five. And he said, “I just had one friend down there that I couldn’t sleep until I had an opportunity to tell him about Christ.” And he said, “I put it off and put it off until finally one day I just said, “I’ve got to do it.” He said, “The next morning I went down to have a cup of coffee with him,” he said, “I walked in, I was so intent on talking to him and so trembling over saying it,” he said, “I walked in right by the secretary and didn’t say anything to her, I walked over to the door, went right in without announcing myself, I sat down by the man at his desk and,” he said, “I just want you to know, John, that I’m going another way.” That was all he was able to say. “I’m going another way.” It was just about a year after that that I was called over to his house over near Caruth and University Park, and he was sitting in the living room, his head had leaned back against the chair and he had had a sudden heart attack and he was in the presence of the Lord. He had been saved but just a couple of years but he was on the way and therefore had come to know the Lord.

Now notice that the destination of the way is the Father. In the 6th verse, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father.” It’s a person, primarily. Not simply a place. And then, of course, I want to emphasize once more the exclusiveness and the distinctiveness of the way. Jesus says, “I,” and in the Greek text that pronoun is found and it is emphatic, “I and no other am the way. No man cometh unto the Father except by me.”

You know, Christianity is very, very exclusive. It does not permit of any other ways but Jesus Christ. That’s why when a man preaches the gospel he’s not very popular, generally speaking. Because people like to think that they’re going to heaven their own way and everybody’s going to heaven, we’re just going by different routes. But the Lord Jesus does not know that doctrine. In fact, that is a Satanic teaching. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the in thereof are the ways of death,” the Proverbs says. There’s only one way, there’s only one foundation, as Paul puts it.

Peter says, “There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Salvation only through him. Don’t be afraid to say that. Errant people get made and irritated at you and say you’re a religious fanatic; rejoice that you’re counted worthy to suffer a little bit of shame for his name, as the apostles in the Book of Acts did. Get some of the real joy of the Christian life when they heap a little opprobrium on you. You know you are giving the truth out when you get the same response the apostles did. If you give a message and the world pats you on the back it’s pretty certain you haven’t given out the word as it should have been given out; So the way.

Now he adds something and that stirs up Philip, “If ye had known me, (verse 7) you should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” Well now, that last statement’s too much for Philip. He’s a man who had the anxiety of unenlightened faith. Now he really had a large view of the Lord’s power because he says in the 8th verse, “Lord, show us the Father and it’s enough. Just give us a good glance of the Father and that’s all I want. Just that; show us the Father.”

Now of course the fact that he thought that Jesus Christ could show them the Father was an evidence he had a high view of the power of Jesus Christ. But now the reply is given in verses 9 through 11 and I’m going to read these three verses and then I want to say just a word about the answer,

“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, (notice the stress on the union between the Son and the Father,) or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

Now you see, the answer is very simple. The basis for seeing the Father in the Son is their union. He is in the Father, the Father is in him. And it is corroborated by the words of the Lord Jesus and the works that he does. No man could preach and teach as our Lord did, give this magnificent discourse here and those other magnificent discourses if the word of God was not in him. And no one could perform those mighty Messianic miracles that he has performed except that God is in him. They are the evidences of his union, his total union, his complete and full final union with the Father.

Why Philip, if you’ve seen me you have seen the Father, you’ve seen the words, you’ve heard the words, you’ve seen the works that he performs. He is the true, the final theophany. The angel of the Lord in the Old Testament reaches its climax in the appearance of the angel in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. A great man once said, “If God is not like Jesus Christ then God ought to be like Jesus Christ.”

I knew Dr. Alva McClain who was the President and founder of Grace Theological Seminary at Winona Lake. A couple of times we were in Bible conferences together and I listened to him with a great deal of attention, he was a man of God and a deep student of the word of God: an excellent expositor of the word, too. In one of his messages he spoke about knowing a very fine scholar himself who was a doctor in education and a very good Christian man. He said the man approached him once with a very real problem. He said, “When our little girl came into our home we promised the Lord that we would bring her up in nurture and admonition of the Lord. And we taught her the gospel records and much of the Bible. We taught her everything that you would teach a child.” But he said, ‘A strange thing has happened Dr. McClain, she now wants only to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ and not to the Father.” Dr. McClain said he replied, “You’d better let her alone, she knows more now than many theology professor.” [Laughter] But then he added, “Anyone who prays to and worships the Lord Jesus will never have any trouble with the doctrine of the trinity,” for the man had asked, “But what about the doctrine of the trinity?” And that is true. If we have come to the conviction that the Lord Jesus is truly the Son of God and that God is seen in him, that he is God, then we won’t have any trouble with the doctrine of the trinity.

All of this, of course, is necessary because if the Lord Jesus had not come as God we would never know that we truly had words from God. That’s why the prophets are not enough. That’s why the apostles are not enough. The prophets only speak with authority in the light of the fact that God would come the apostles only are able to teach and instruct in authority because God did come in the person of Christ. We would inevitably saying, “Well it’s fine for you apostles to claim to know God and it’s fine for your prophets to claim to know and announce God, but we need God himself to speak these words because they are the most important words of a man’s life, the words of life. And God did come. He did not stay at home at headquarters but he came to the battlefield, to the trenches, to the lines, and there revealed God to us in Christ. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father; he has lead him forth into full revelation.

Well in summary, then, we’ve learned that we’re going to the Father’s house by the way of the Son who is in union with the Father and thus we have the assurance of the truthfulness of the things that we’ve been reading about and of ultimate truth in Christ. Therefore, the ways of men only plunge us into the ditch, the way of good works. The way of reformation, the way of church membership, the way of religion, the way of self-righteousness, the way of ordinances as if they are saving ordinances. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ. It is striking, is it not, that the Gospel of John is a book written to bring men to life, so John tells us in the 20th chapter. And in the gospel, this Gospel of John, we are never exhorted to be baptized. We’re never exhorted to sit at the Lord’s table. Salvation is presented as through Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. You come to God through him. If you’re in the audience and you have not come to him we invite you to come to him who is offered the atoning sacrifice whereby we must be saved. Let’s bow in a word of prayer.

[Prayer] Father, we thank Thee for these wonderful words that have come from our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for the truth of the divine word and we rejoice in the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus and the sufficiency of his word. And we pray, oh God, that our thoughts concerning him may be pure and in accordance with the word of God…

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