Joel M Bradshaw

1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God  ; believe also in me. 2My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”

5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.–John 14 (emphasis)

I bolded the most important verse here. It is easily a Top 20 verse in the entire Bible. If you have not memorized it already, please do so today.

IN CONTEXT: The disciples seemed pretty clueless that Jesus was soon to die. They hear Jesus talking about heavenly matters and don’t get it at all. Jesus wouldn’t be arrested for four more chapters! In fact, it’s as if Jesus was speaking about their future hearts being troubled when in fact Jesus did leave them behind when he ascended into Heaven. When Jesus left them, it was with a purpose and for their benefit. Jesus used this moment to make an exclusive statement about himself. He used words like THE and not A.

FOR US: Have you memorized the verse yet? Go ahead, I’ll wait. Our world presents or suggests many options to get to heaven or some kind of afterlife paradise. Just remember, they could all be wrong, but they can’t all be right. All other faiths run into John 14:6. Jesus was being exclusive with this statement. If he was wrong, then he was wrong. But if he was right, then all other faiths will fail to get you to heaven.

The Gospel message is INCLUSIVE in that all may come.

The Gospel message is EXCLUSIVE in that you may only come through Jesus.–JMB