Farewell: The way to the Father and everlasting life
Please read John 13: 34 – 14: 14 and then pray; From Psalm 119: 41, “May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.” Oh Jesus, faithful friend who I follow, let it be so in my life. Amen.
We turn today to what I affectionately refer to as the “in my Father’s house” passage and promise of Scripture. We continue our focus of what Jesus said to his disciples only hours before his arrest, unjust trial, suffering and death on the cross. We are still at the beginning of his amazing farewell discourse. And indeed, he really does now begin to say – farewell – farewell for now – until we meet again.
Chapter 14 begins with those precious words off comfort so often read at the funeral of a Christian believer. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” This is interesting because this comes from the lips of Jesus whose own heart is deeply troubled. After the triumphal entry described in John 12: 12-19, there is an episode when Jesus is approached by Philip his disciple, in which Jesus suddenly feels stirred to states this;
“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27)
Jesus is deeply troubled by what he is about to face, the weight of the world’s sin and evil, separation from His Father as he bears that sin and God’s wrath upon it, as he endures the pain and dreaded torment involved in crucifixion. No wonder Jesus stated that his heart was troubled. And it was in the garden of Gethsemane after the farewell discourse with his disciples where Jesus really wrestled with his troubled heart and mind. If it be possible, take this cup of suffering from me, but not my will but yours be done.
Jesus knew he was going to die, and he was willingly to do so for us. He knew he was going to be like a Lamb (the Lamb of God) led to the slaughter. His hour had finally come. Nevertheless, in his humanity, He was still troubled, deeply troubled, by the pain he was about to face. This is often the same with saints, with Christians, with people like you and me. We are not afraid of death, because we know as Jesus did, the promise and the guarantee of resurrection. But we are somewhat afraid about what may proceed our death. What pain will I have to bear? Where will I be – at home, in hospital? Will my family and dear ones be around me? What will my final days and hours be like? We are human, we sense such fear. Our hearts can be troubled about all that might precede our death. Imagine what goes through a saint’s mind who is going to be painfully martyred.
But the good news is this. Jesus will be with us and alongside us by His Spirit. He will give us all the grace and strength to face our final days and hours and minutes. He will bring peace to our troubled hearts and comfort to our bodies and minds. You and I, by faith will be enabled to say with the Psalmist; “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Jesus will be with you until you breathe your last breath, and then, escorted by angels, you will go with him “to that place in his Father’s house which he has prepared” especially and specifically for you. Your place – pre-prepared – ready – paid for by His precious blood, for your name is in the Lamb’s book of life. You will be in the Father’s house.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled” says Jesus to the eleven who remain with him, who remain “in the vine.” Jesus speaks of “going away” and it is this that is bothering them, troubling them. Over the next hour or so he will say several times that He is to be with them only “a little longer.” (16:17) He has already shared this truth with them after sharing the “Love one another” command. In 13:33, Jesus says with such deep affection; “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now; Where I am going you cannot come.”
In the precious time left with his beloved disciples Jesus will repeatedly stressed 4 massive truths:
- I am going away.
- For now, you cannot come with me. Later you will follow.
- I am going to send someone to replace me – you will not be left as orphans.
- I will come back for you – to take you to be where I am – the Father’s house.
Read John 14: 1-3 and John 14: 15-20 (Next week will consider the promise and the presence of this second Counsellor – the Spirit of truth)
Let us consider Jesus’s reference to the Father’s house for a few moments before I share some personal application with you. Jesus thought about his Father’s house in two ways. There was the Father’s house on earth and the Father’s house in heaven from where he had come. The Father’s house on earth? What was that? Where was that? That was the Temple in Jerusalem. The most significant building in the whole of Israel – Jesus’s homeland. In John 2, we hear of Jesus expressing strong and uncompromising righteous anger as he clears the Temple which had become like a market place and a den of iniquitous financial dealings.
(Read John 2: 12-17, emphasising 16-17)
Do you also remember the story of the boy Jesus – just 12 years old? He went up to Jerusalem with his parents and with many others from Nazareth to celebrate the Feast of Passover. (Remember Jesus would die on the cross at Passover time) When the group from Nazerath were returning after the feast, Joseph and Mary suddenly realised Jesus was not with the group. They panicked! They went back to look for their son in the great city and after three days, they found him. But where? (Read Luke 2: 46-52)
That was the earthly “Father’s house” to which Jesus was intrinsically and intimately attached. Within it was the Holy of Holies….
But what about the other “Father’s house.” This is the house, the home, that Jesus came from to be born into this world. And this was the house he was about to return to after his death and resurrection. He was heading home – back to the place He had come from. Later in John 16: 28 we read these awesome words. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.
One of the things John makes clear in his wonderful gospel is the many different ways Jesus told the world in which he lived and died, where he had come from and where he was returning to. On many occasions He spoke about how He had come from the Father. Let me give you two examples although they are many more. Read John 1:14, 6: 41-46.
Jesus also stresses many times that yes, He came from the Father, from heaven, from above (8:28) from the Father’s house, but He came because He was sent by the Father. He was sent but he came willingly out of love for the world. But he was sent – and sent to do one thing above all others. He was sent for a specific purpose, for a particular task that would take place at particular hour (time) and at a particular spot just outside Jerusalem, but within walking distance of the Father’s house on earth. The great curtain in the Temple/Father’s house on earth would be ripped from top to bottom by the Father in heaven the moment His Son on earth died. Jesus willingly came but was HEAVEN-SENT. (John 6:29, 6:38, 8: 14-20)
But now in John 14 (our passage today), His time had come. This was his final discourse with his disciples, and he was telling them about the Father’s house to which he was returning after 33 years of life on this earth, and that one day, his disciples, his followers would follow him and be with him and the Father.
Now we can see how all this amazing truth and this staggering plan of God impacts and inspires us a Christians today, and how it could impact you if you are not a Christian, but if now you willingly come in faith to the One who specifically describes himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life – the One who is the only way to the Father, and the Only One who has the access, the power and the authority to prepare a place for you in the Father’s house.
The first thing to note is this. Jesus leads the way to the Father. Jesus is in fact the Way to the Father. He has gone to the Father, returned to the Father, but he leads the Way to that place, He is the Way. When we live in this world as we do, Jesus will often call out to us; “Follow me.” If we respond to that call of love and follow the Good Shepherd in this life and throughout this life, we will ultimately follow him all the way to the Father’s house, to heaven, to everlasting life and glory. But the following must begin now for it to continue beyond death. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life.
You and I must believe and follow now. And in fact, if you do follow now, the everlasting life begins now, not after you die. You enter the Kingdom now, and then more fully later. The abundant life begins now (John 10:10) You can go into the Father’s house now, in the sense that you can enter your Father’s presence in prayer and intimate fellowship because God is your Father. Life eternal begins now and the Spirit in you guarantees what is yet to come! Are you following, obeying, bearing fruit now in this life? Jesus will come back for you to take you where He is, where He went! Remember how Jesus put this to Mary Magdalene, the first to witness the resurrected Jesus. (Read John 20: 17)
Secondly, and this is vital. Jesus stresses that He is telling the disciples the truth. In fact, Jesus tells them that that He is the Truth as well as the Way to the Father and to the Father’s house. Please take note of what Jesus categorically states in 14 v 2. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. Did they believe Jesus? Do you believe Jesus? It is impossible for God, for Jesus to lie. (Hebrews 6:18) He was/is the perfect sinless Son of God. But have you trusted him with your life and with your eternal destiny and stepped out to follow him faithfully? Look at verse 1 again. Trust in God, trust also in me. Is that something you have done and are doing right now. Trusting in Jesus to lead you to the Father’s house, to the Father’s side?
Thirdly, why does Jesus speak with such clarity and authority about being the only way to the Father? According to the context here and John’s gospel everywhere, Jesus is the only way to the Father because he is the only Son of the Father and no-one is as close to the Father as He is. He possesses a unique relationship and bond with the Father. God the Father and God the Son. God the Spirit is yet to come among them in power. Jesus and the Father ARE ONE. If we are in Jesus’s hands we are also in the Father’s hands for all eternity. Listen to John 10: 27-30. Jesus and the Father are ONE. In John 14: 1 the disciples are told to trust the Father and the Son. In verse 7, Jesus tells the disciples that knowing him is the same as knowing the Father. Astonishingly in verse 9, Jesus tells Philip that if he has seen Jesus and he has, for three years no less, he also seen the Father. In verses 10, Jesus asks; Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words I say to you are not just my own.
Elsewhere Jesus speaks about the fact that his words are also the Father’s. His works and miracles are also the Father’s. His authority is from the Father. But even beyond this, Jesus is the way to the Father because He knows the Way, He is the Way because of His death and resurrection. Jesus is unique. He came from the Father. He was born uniquely of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. He alone is God incarnate – the Word become flesh (1:14). He alone has brought the words of the Father and the words of eternal life into the world. (6:68) Who else has opened blind eyes, unstopped deaf ears, raised cripples to their feet, and raised the dead, driven out demons and stilled violent storms with a simple word of command? Who else has lived a totally sinless life? Who else has fulfilled every OT prophecy about the promised Messiah – and done so to the last detail? Who else has died an atoning death for the sins of the world? Who else has not only conquered but destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel? These reasons and many more, mean that only Jesus can be the Way to the Father and to everlasting life? Who else divides the whole of human history by their presence in this world? Who else could possibly be acknowledged and worshipped as Lord and God? Who else could open the scroll with its seven seals. (Revelation 5: 4-10) But for, the biggest reason why Jesus is the only way is this. No-one who have ever lived has been as merciful as Jesus. You can only get to the Father’s house by the mercy of Jesus.
I close with this. If what I have just communicated is true, this will have a very significant impact on the way you view evangelism. If you know and believe John 14: 6 to be true, if you believe this is not a lie because Jesus cannot lie, then you must be a Christian person who is constantly willing and prepared to share the truth about Jesus with others. We must not and cannot apologise for stating this vital gospel truth – that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that He alone is the Way to the Father and the Father’s house. Political correctness is irrelevant here! This is the heart of the gospel. Trust in God says Jesus, trust also in me. When Philip asked Jesus to show the disciples the Father. Jesus replied – you are looking at Him! When Pilate asked Jesus – What is truth? The Roman Governor was looking at Truth directly in the face. Jesus is the Truth as well as the Way – and He is also Life – billions have believed it. Eternal Life. The Bread of Life. The Resurrection and the Life. As John concludes right at the end of his first letter: We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true-even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20) Friends, if you know “him who is true” and if he has “given you understanding”, then you have no choice but to be his mouthpiece in the world – and to tell everyone who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But you do this with humility not arrogance. With tenderness not judgementalism. With compassion not condemnation. You share the uncompromising truth about Jesus with gentleness and respect for all. (1 Peter 3:15f)
Finally, if you allow John 14: 1-6 to be the word of promise that you ground your hope upon, you need not fear death, nor need you fear that you will miss out on the promise of the Father’s house and eternal life. You can be assured as you stand on the very word of Jesus who is the Lord and the Good Shepherd, that your place in heaven is ready and prepared for you. Jesus gives you His Spirit now as a guarantee of what is to come. Your eternal house and home are secure. You are as the apostle Paul puts it, a joint-heir with Christ. If you approach your death, with your family and friends around you already weeping and upset at your imminent loss, and if by God’s grace you still have some ability to speak, you can say this; look your beloved family in the eye and say something like this;
In my Father’s house there are many rooms and one has been prepared for me by my blessed Saviour and Friend Jesus. Therefore, do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. I am going home.
And the only other thing to say is – and it is the final verse of that great Psalm 23: Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life (however many there are) AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOREVER. (Psalm 23:6) And now to God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit be all glory, praise, honour, and worship.
Amen.
Revd Peter J Clarkson (11.5.25)