The Way, The Truth & The Life

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We are concluding our series today, Live No Lies, and it doesn't quite fit Mother's Day in some ways. But I think the best thing I can do for mothers out there is to just share God's Word and His truth as much as I can in its fullness. And so we've been discussing spiritual warfare for six weeks, and it's not probably what you've expected. Or maybe, well, it's not like what others may share, which is much more kind of almost conspiracy theory behind the scenes. Oh, my gosh, look at this. Watch out for this. You've got to watch for this. And it's kind of fear-mongering. It tries to bring people together for fear-mongering. And what we are talking about really is the fact that spiritual warfare is much more about the truth of who Jesus is in a world that keeps pushing it out of the way. So let's go to that. 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, I would 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 also may be, 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. Now, this is I am the way, the truth and the life, one of the most famous sayings that Jesus ever made. And often what Christians do with this, and I would say it's there in the text, is they show how Jesus is making such an exclusive claim of being not I am a way, or I am pointing this is the way, or I might be the best way, but I am the way, like there is no other. And that's in the text, but what happens so often is we reduce the text to just kind of that proof text, not misquoting it, but a proof text of, well see, Jesus is the way, and we move on from there. But I think that's why Eugene Peterson, he wrote a, it's a worthy book to read, it's called The Jesus Way, and Eugene Peterson said this, the Jesus way and the Jesus truth must be congruent. Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life. We're going to unpack a little of what he's getting at with this text today as we explore these three points. Believe the way, know the truth, and live that life, okay? Believe the way, know the truth, live the life. First of all, believe the way. What is the way? Did you know that the first mention of the followers of Jesus in the book of Acts, they were called Christians later on, but before that they were called followers of the way. Probably from this name of Jesus, but even more so, the fact that Jesus said, follow me. Boy, I can't help but fall into the, this is the way, the Mandalorian. Any of you seen that? No? Okay. Anyways, but the point is, when Jesus says follow me, he wasn't saying just try to imitate me or I am a model of how, but he was saying follow along with me. And as you follow along with me, you will witness how I offend the religious and welcome the outcast and play with the children and defy politicians of all types. I kneel down to the least. I challenge the wealthy. I forgive the worst of the sinners. I cast out demons. I shock and dismay the crowds. I do all of these things. And as you are following me, you see how I live in such a way that I'm displaying who God really is and how to respond to God's love and grace. Because I'm always communing with the father and anything you see that I'm doing, my father is doing and anything the father wants I am doing. So that is the way of Jesus. He loves us so deeply. He wants the best for us. He's saying, follow me. Be part of the way that I am living. He is God's way to us as well as our way to God. He is the means and the end. He's kind of he is the axis Mundi as it's been stated, which is the center of the world. He is the nexus between heaven and earth. He's where everything comes together. He is, as we will see later, Colossians, in whom all things hold together, in whom heaven and earth are united. He is what reality is. Now, a few years ago, I don't know if you've ever heard, remember this, but we I don't hear it said much anymore. But it says, how do you know what a duck is? Well, if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck, looks like a duck. It's probably a duck, right? Yeah, and I think we need to understand that when it says, well, how do you know what the way is? Well, if it looks like the way of Jesus. Talks like the way. Forgives like the way it loves, like the way that it's probably the way. Eugene Peterson said this, ways and means that are removed or abstracted from Jesus and the scriptures t...