Left Behind

 Temple Baptist Church - 3-6-2024

John 14:1-6

 

Introduction:

 

A.  Disclaimer time.  Don’t you just love having to give a disclaimer because of the lack of biblical knowledge of most people?  So many people who never read the Bible get their “theology” from people who never read the Bible!  Oh, they read but they have no spiritual understanding.

 

B.  Some years back, the “Left Behind” series hit the bookstores and people everywhere what to know what was coming and where they stood with God.  This series was heretical.  Its vdery premise flew in the face of God as it contradicted what the Bible teaches about Eschatology.  I am not here tonight to either discuss or fix that. 

 

C.  We teach these verses to show the unsaved how to be saved!  Jesus Christ alone!  His death, burial, and resurrection called the gospel is where salvation is found.  I have no problem at all with the application of the verses but that is not the interpretation within the context.

 

D.  The context is to saved men who feared being left behind, supposedly alone, and told that they would be with the Lord later not understanding where He was going or how to get there.  Both Peter and Thomas along with the other disciples (they allowed these two men to be the spokesmen), were afraid and confused.

 

E.  The questions asked:

 

1.  Peter’s problem was two-fold:  John 13:36-37    Simon Peter said unto him, (1) Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.  (37)  Peter said unto him, (2) Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.

 

2.  Thomas’ problem was two-fold:  John 14:5  Thomas saith unto him, Lord, (1) we know not whither thou goest; and (2) how can we know the way?

 

3.  Now, I want to give these disciples a break!  Don’t you just hate it when someone will not even give you the benefit of a doubt?  They had no Bible!  When the Lord spoke of resurrection, they had no examples other than Lazarus and it was the Lord who visibly and publicly raised him from the dead.

 

F.  Verse 6 does not settle a salvation problem though it does settle Who salvation is found in.  Christ!  These disciples did not need to be saved and the understood that salvation was through Jesus Christ. They were both saved!  Peter called Jesus Lord twice and Thomas called Jesus Lord once in the context.

 

G.  The context of verse 6 is both directional and correctional. 

 

1. Their questions were not caused by a lack of salvation but of insecurity in the impending absence of the Lord.  Lord, you are leaving, and we cannot go with you, but you said we will follow you to where you are. 

 

2.  Jesus’ answer was correctional.  How do we know where that is, and how do we get there? 

 

a)  Religions and denominations here and around the world believe that the way to heaven either before salvation or after salvation is a “path” of their own making.  If you try to live right, treat your neighbor right, keep all the rules and regulations, you just might make it to heaven. 

 

b)  Jesus Christ is the only Way of salvation, and He is the only Way to get to heaven!

 

3.  Jesus’ answer was directional. 

 

a)  How do we get from this life and place to our eternal life and place? 

 

b)  The answer is the same!  Jesus Christ!  He said that it is My Father’s house (heaven) and I, Jesus, will take you there!

 

H.  Though we are saved, and have the truth, there are times when we are fretful and insecure.

 

1.  “I am the Way!”  Not just the way of salvation but because Christ is coming back for them.  The way to somewhere has a starting point, a traveling point, and a finishing point. 

 

a.  Jesus did not say that He was the end of the trip because He would be in His Father’s house.  He simply said that He was the Way!  That is from the start of the trip throughout the trip until we end up where He is in the Father’s house.

 

b.  As the Lord stood on the right hand of the Father as Stephen was dying, He will be with us from start to finish when we go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

 

c.  They, as well as we, will not have to cross Jordan alone. 

 

d.  If we live until the rapture of the Church, it is the Lord Himself who will descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel.  If we die first, we will fear no evil because He will walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death with us.  Psalm 23.

 

e.  Jesus is the Way home!  He said that He would come and get them!  John 14:3  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.

 

2.  “I am the Truth!”  The Lord’s promises for both the present and the future are secure.  John 14:2  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.

 

a.  Our Lord told His disciples that He must go while they must abide.  Yet, the Truth would remain with them.

 

b.  The disciples did not know at this time about the revelations that our Lord would later give to them and neither did they know about the fullness of the Holy Ghost Who would descend upon them.  He simply said, “Trust Me!”

 

c.  The Lord will say in a later chapter of John that it was expedient that He go away, otherwise the Comforter would not come.  Instead of dwelling with God, God would be dwelling within them.

 

d.  Grace and strength for every mile of the trip.  Their needs constantly being met by their Lord.  Sometimes, in our lives during hard times, God’s promises happen a thrill per minute as He is always on time to meet our needs.

 

e.  The Truth that they would one day be “where I am.”  God’s promises sure and secure!

 

3.  “I Am the Life!”  The lives of the apostles are getting ready for a drastic change. It is in Christ that we live, move, and have our being.  Colossians 3:1-4  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  (2)  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  (3)  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 

 

a.  Christ is their spiritual life.  Acts 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

 

b.  Christ is their temporal life.  It is in Christ that we live, move, and have our being.  Colossians 3:1-3  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  (2)  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  (3)  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 

 

c.  Christ is their eternal life. Matthew 28:20  “and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

 

Colossians 3:4  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

 

4.  “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.  Simply said, you have nothing at all to worry about it.  As salvation is all of Christ, the rest of the trip at that point is all of Christ.  We will all end up at “where I am!”

 

Conclusion:  Their hearts were troubled because their future seemed to be insecure.  Often our hearts become troubled and insecure.  The answer to troubled hearts is the same for both the disciples and us today.  The Lord Jesus used these verses to reassure them that they would shortly be “where I Am!”