Easter 2026
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. Happy Easter, y'. All. We are In Luke chapter 24 today, verses 13 through 35. Nearly 2000 years ago, almost like. Exactly like 30, 33 AD is when the resurrection happened. Nearly 2000 years ago, some women who were followers of Jesus, they walked to the tomb expecting to carry the spices and to take care of his body and the humbling act of service that they were going to give. But when they arrived at the tomb, they were startled because the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty.
> He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.
And then they went back and they told the company, they told the rest of the followers of Jesus. And then some of the 12 disciples came and they verified his body is not there. And then began to unfold this message that went forth throughout the day and for all the days that followed up until this day that Jesus is alive. That for 2000 years that message has spread and spread, that it's so immersed in so many different parts of the world. It's so immersed here in the South. There are churches all around right now that are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that are singing songs that make much of the empty tomb, that are preaching messages about his resurrection. There's a familiarity with this message. So much so that if we did call and response like this, if I said, he is risen, you would say, he is present in me. Y'. All. We don't even do that here. I'm not against it. We just don't. But it's. You're so familiar with it that you just are prompted. You jump right into it. We know this. We know this message. It's so clear here. But what I want us to see this morning as we look at Luke 24, is that it's more than just a message that we are. That we know, that we're familiar with. This is something that has to hit us deeper. And that's what we're going to see this morning. So I'm going to pray for us. Then we're going to walk through this wonderful story from Luke 24. Pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us be present in a way where your good news that you are alive, that you resurrected, and all that comes with that would come to bear on our hearts. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
So, same day, the message that his body is gone, and they're trying to figure out what's going on, there's some confusion. And then we get to Luke 24, to a story that's only in this gospel. And we're going to pick it up in verse 13 says that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. Let's pause there. Two of them. So we're going to learn the name of one of them in a moment. It's Cleopas. Okay. And then the other one we never get the name of. We don't know much about Cleopas. We don't. He's not talked about a whole lot. And then another unnamed person which could have been his wife, could have been just another guy, we don't know. But these two, it's going to be clear from the context as we read followers of Jesus, they've been following Jesus quite some time. They are walking on their way to a village called Emmaus. And they were talking with each other, verse 14, about all these things that had happened. So they begin to discuss all of these things on this seven mile journey to this village called Emmaus. Now, seven miles, that's about a two hour plus walk if you stop to do anything, maybe a little bit longer. But they've got the time and they're talking about all the things that have happened. A Good Friday, that we just celebrated on Friday, the events of the morning on Easter morning.
> And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?"
In verse 15, while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. So they're talking about all the confusion of where, where is Jesus? Is he actually risen? Is he alive? And all of a sudden Jesus, who's walking from Jerusalem, just starts walking with him. And in that moment you would think they're just going to be so overjoyed. We found him. He's here. He is risen. But it says, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. So Jesus supernaturally puts a veil over their eyes. He's a stranger to them, some type of Jedi mind trick. Just, just, I am not Jesus, I am a stranger. And he just starts walking with them.
> "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
Verse 17. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? So he's a stranger who just jumps in to the conversation, uninvited, I might add. He just jumps on in. I was at Peacewise with someone from our church about a month ago. And if you're at the main cafe area of Peacewise, all the tables are on top of each other. So I'm sitting at a table talking to someone from our church, and then someone beside us is listening in on the conversation. And then all of a sudden, she's like, I can't help but overhear your conversation. And I've gotten older and maybe a little bit grumpier in some ways. And I'm just like, I bet you can't just. We're having a conversation. You don't have to. You don't have to. But I fought it. I put it down. Because I'm like, that's selfishness. We're called to be everyday missionaries. Yes. Join the conversation. Kind of weave her way into it. That's fine. But Jesus does this. He just kind of weaves his way into the conversation and just says, what are you guys talking about? And it says, and they stood still, looking sad, which could be because they're introverts and don't want them in the conversation. Probably not more. Has to do with the substance of what he's about to say right here. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him.
> "What things?"
So Cleopas looks at Jesus and says, basically, are you living under a rock, bro? You're coming with us from Jerusalem. This is all that anyone has talked about for a week. That Jesus of Nazareth came down on the Sunday before, and he traveled in the city, and they shouted hosanna. There was this great hope for this great prophet, for this great leader, for this great rabbi. And then they crucified. Where have you been? Do you not know what has happened these days? And y', all. Jesus responds with one of my favorite responses in all of the gospels, says.
> "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened."
I'm just going to be honest. Jesus is playing dumb. He knows good and well what things. And as God, he foreordained them as man. He lived them out and felt all the suffering and the power that came with the cross and the resurrection. He knows good and well with things, but he's being coy and he's playing dumb, which for me is helpful because I play dumb with my kids. Sometimes I will witness something that I see them, you know, fighting. And I've. I've. I've seen it all. And I kind of come up and I'll say, hey, what's going on here? Why is. Why. Why is there crying? What. What happened? Just because I want to hear. What do you have to say? And I hear some version of, well, what happened was, is that I was here, and then she was running, and she ran, like, right into my fist. And it's like, oh, that's a. That's a spin. We're gonna have to talk about that after you get disciplined. Like, that's. He says, what things? He plays dumb. He wants to hear what they have to say. Which I think gives us a partial permission structure to do this if it's for a good thing. So if you're ever wondering, is that sneaky? Kind of. But Jesus does it, and he's perfect, so we'll rock with it. He says, what things? And this is where we see the sadness come out. This is where we see their dashed hopes and the confusion. They give a pretty succinct summary from Palm Sunday to Easter. And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word, and before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him, which is what we celebrated on Good Friday, that Jesus Christ gave himself over to be arrested, to be condemned, to be nailed to a cross. They say they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one who would redeem. To redeem Israel. We had hoped that he was the Messiah, the one who was going to fix all of this. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these. These things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said. But him they did not see. So they tell it all. They tell all the events from Palm Sunday to Easter. And now that Jesus is caught up on the matter, he has something to say about this.
> "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."
Now, mind you, they still don't know it's Jesus. He's just a stranger. Supernaturally, he's got their eyes veiled. And these two followers of Jesus hear from this stranger, you foolish ones, O slow of heart, to believe all the prophets have spoken. You thought that hope was lost at the cross. You thought that was the end of hope. You don't know that was the very beginning of it. And then he Begins to walk through the Old Testament, begins to walk through from Moses, the law to the prophets, this is going to be Genesis to Malachi, and it begins to interpret to them all the things in the scriptures concerning himself. Y', all. There are moments in history that I just wish I could have been a fly on the wall to witness greatness, to witness a conversation like this happen. Like, if you could have been there. The moment that two people who were talking together realized that if you milked a cow, that you could actually systematize milking and have tons of milk, and the whole history of humanity was blessed because someone discovered something like that. And for those who are lactose intolerant, someone eventually discovered that you could milk almonds. And now we have that. There are moments of greatness that you get to witness that you just wish you could be there to see it. This is one of those moments where Jesus begins to walk through the Old Testament to point to all the different places where he is there. There's so many pictures and images and covenants and moments throughout the Old Testament that point to Jesus Christ. Some would call them Easter eggs. There you go. That are hidden, that point forward to what he is doing in his word. So for a moment, I just want to dream a little bit. We don't know what the substance of this conversation is, but for the moment, I just want to imagine what are some of the places he went to. Where in the Old Testament did he go to to point to himself? Did he start in Genesis 3? Did he start when the curse is being handed down to Adam and to Eve? And all of a sudden, in the middle of this curse, there's this declaration of hope, really the first declaration of the Gospel, that one day that the seed of Eve, the offspring of Eve, would crush the head of the serpent, which is the first declaration that there is a day coming that someone in the line of Eve will come and he will crush the head of evil and Satan and defeat the power of sin and death. Did he start there? Did he keep flipping through Genesis and he gets to the story of Abraham and Isaac on the mount, and he said, do you. Do you remember when Isaac was put on the altar being sacrifices Abraham's one and only son, the promised Son. But then God intervenes and says no and spares him. Do you not see that? That pointed one day to the day when God the Father would not spare his one and only Son, that he'd be raised up on an altar, on the cross to be crucified for the sins of man. That he keep flipping through the Old Testament and get to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and see, hey, do you see Moses? Do you see how Moses, this mediator, which is a man in the middle between God and man, mediated this covenant, that they would follow the law and they'd be in the promised land. It would go well for them all. That was pointing forward to the day when one day the mediator of a better covenant, Jesus Christ, would come and he would stand between God the Father and mankind, taking on the sins and fulfilling all the perfect righteous requirements of the law. Did he go We've been walking through first and Second Samuel. Did he go to Second Samuel 7? We went through that about a month ago, which is the Davidic covenant, the covenant with David. We looked and we saw how there was a promise that in the line of David there would be someone who would bring an eternal throne, an eternal kingdom, an eternal house, that he take them there and say, do you see how that points forward to the day that one day Jesus Christ would establish an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne. Did he keep taking them through the prophets to show how all the prophets spoke of him? Did he reference how Isaiah called him the man of sorrows, of how Jeremiah called him the righteous branch of how Ezekiel called him the one shepherd, how Daniel calls him the Son of Man, how Hosea calls him the Son who was called up out of Egypt, how Joel calls him the Lord who pours out his spirit, how Amos calls him the tent of David, how Obadiah calls him the Lord who brings his kingdom? Did he go to the story of Jonah in reference back what he taught in the Gospels, that the sign of Jonah, Jonah being in the belly of the fish for three days, points forward to when he would be in the belly of the earth for three days and he would conquer death by stepping out? Did he go to Micah and say that he calls him the ruler from Bethlehem? Did he go to Nahum that says that this is the stronghold and the day of trouble? Did he go to Habakkuk and reference how Habakkuk calls him the Messiah, the Anointed One, which is the language of expectation, that they've been sitting in the for hundreds of years before Jesus comes? Did he go to Zephaniah that calls him the King of Israel, to Haggai, that calls him the Greater Temple, to Zechariah that calls him the king who rides in on the colt, which just happened the week before on Palm Sunday? Did he finish in Malachi, when Malachi talks about How John the Baptist prepared the way for him. He could have gone anywhere from the Old Testament and said, this all points to me that the entirety of the Old Testament is pointing forward to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, man. To be there and to witness and to wonder, what did he walk them through? What a glorious moment to see. And it made quite the impression on them, whatever he walked them through. Because at the end of all of them, they asked him, why don't you spend the night with us?
> "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent."
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent that Jesus has left such an impression on them, this stranger, that they can't know who he is. Yet they said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're coming with. You're staying with us tonight. So he comes. He stays. So he went to stay with them.
> When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
So they finally get down, ready to eat, and Jesus takes the bread, just like he did a few nights ago when he instituted the Lord's Supper. And he breaks the bread and he hands it to them. And supernaturally the veil is removed and they can see Jesus. And I like to imagine that Jesus was just grinning ear to ear, just, it was me. It was me that walked him through the Scriptures. It was me. And then they don't have a moment to, like, jump across the table and embrace Him. He just gone, just vanishes, supernaturally leaves the building and they're just left hanging, like, what just happened? And then on, in response to this, says,
> "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"
And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11. And those who were with them gathered together, saying,
> "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon."
Then they told what happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. And they, after he vanishes, they just like, we got to get back to Jerusalem. I don't think it took them two hours. I think they sprinted. I think they sprinted all the way back to Jerusalem and they burst through the door where the disciples and all the followers of Jesus are trying to figure out what happened. Comparing and contrasting all the events of the day. And there had to be a moment where they just were like, wait, okay, you are. You're not going to believe what just happened. We just spent, like the whole afternoon with Jesus and we didn't even know he's Jesus. Like, we couldn't see him. He did something to our eyes, and then all of a sudden, he broke the bread and boom, he was there. And then he was gone. But I'm telling you, he's alive. He is risen. And that story has been told and retold and retold for the last 2000 years.
Now, there's so many parts of this story that you could post up in that you could focus on. There's not one way to approach this text. I want to focus on one phrase as we close out. It's the immediate aftermath of Jesus appearing to them and then vanishing. It's what they say, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us? The scriptures, they had. Their eyes were veiled the whole time they're with Jesus until then, but they. They make the connection to something that was happening within them. Like, did our hearts not burn within us when he. When he walked us through the Scriptures, when he taught us what all these events were supposed. Did he not. Did you feel it? Yeah, I felt it. Did you feel it? I felt it. Did our hearts not burn within us when we encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ as he declared the message of the gospel to us? That's where I want to spend the rest of our time, is trying to understand this. It's important to understanding this passage. But more importantly than that, it's one of the most important questions that you could reckon with in your entire life. So let's try to understand this. What they're pointing to is something very specific, and it's very rich how they respond. They're not talking about the literal heart. So when the Scriptures speak about the heart, this is not the literal organ that is pumping blood through your body. What they're talking about when in the rest of the Scriptures, when it speaks of the heart, the heart is the inner self. This is your inner self. And what they're tapping into is, did our. Did our hearts. Did our inner self not burn within us? Were those affections that we were sensing not stirring within us? As Jesus, the resurrected Savior, walked us through the gospel throughout the Old Testament, explained to us the story of redemption from Genesis to him? Did you not sense that holy stirring, that holy burn within us as Jesus began to connect all those dots. That is a picture of what it looks like for God to work within us. This is what it means for the. For the Spirit of God to come at work within us and to change us. And it leads us to the most important question that you could ever reckon with. Does your heart burn within you when you hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Does your heart stir within you when you consider the message of this Jesus? Because here's the deal. You can hear that message over and over and over again. You can know it, you can recount it. And I could. I could walk through it all. I could. We could go through the Old Testament and point out all the places where God is weaving his redemption story together, leading to the cross and the empty tomb. That we could talk about how when you flip from Malachi into the Gospel of Matthew, that Jesus, God takes on human flesh and dwells among us. We can look at how he ministered to the people, how he taught the people, all the miracles that he performed. We can go all the way to the end of each of the gospels where he's betrayed by Judas, where he's abandoned by his friends, where he is given over to Pilate, where he is nailed to a cross, where the full cup of God's wrath is poured out on him. And we can keep going to what we celebrate today, that he was resurrected and that he walked out of the tomb. And that the power of the resurrection, the meaning of the resurrection, means that death doesn't have. That's what we just sang. That death doesn't have to have a grip on us, that through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, we can be made new from old to new, from dead to life, that we can step into an eternal life. And we can keep flipping through the pages and we can celebrate that all of this happens by grace, through faith alone in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. We can see how you can't earn this relationship with God, that you must trust in what Jesus has done. We can look at all of this and consider it. And, and, and what I would. What I would suppose is that many of us are familiar with that. We know that message. We know it. We've heard it. We've heard it over and over again. The central question is not do you know that message. The central question is, does your heart burn within you when you consider that message? Does God stir in you affections, worship, love, joy towards Him? That is the question that we must reckon with. That's what Ephesians, chapter One is getting at in verse 18, when it says, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you? What are the riches of his glorious inheritance? In the saints, the question is, have the eyes of your heart been opened enlightened when you consider the riches of the glorious inheritance that he secures through through his redemptive work? Does your heart burn and stir within you when you consider this? There's an old Puritan pastor named Jonathan Edwards from hundreds of years ago. He has a work called Religious Affections. It's a collection of his writings that are put together. And in this. In Religious Affections, what he's trying to do is make a distinction between false religion and true religion. So dead religion, that's a name only, and true religion, that is a relationship with God that is uniquely different. And he tries to separate this out, even goes to Luke 24, this passage, to be able to help us see that there's something different about true religion, about true relationship with God. There's something about this zeal and this love and this wonder and this worship and this wonder that he stirs within us that exemplifies a new life in Christ that is true, that is different than this false religion that may know all of these things, but God hasn't stirred within this individual affections for him. And when getting to the description of this false religion, I want to read what he wrote. He says here, their love is cold, their desires languid, their zeal low, and their gratitude small. How they can sit and hear of the infinite height and depth and length and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, and of his of giving his infinitely dear Son to be offered up a sacrifice for the sins of men, and of the unparalleled love of the innocent and holy and tender Lamb of God manifested revealed in his dying agonies, his bloody sweat, his loud and bitter cries and bleeding heart. And all this for enemies. He says that you can know these things. You can sit and hear about the height and the length and the depth of the love of God that you can picture and have pictured before you this infinite, infinitely dear Son who is raised up on a cross. And we can bear witness by reading the Gospels. We can hear about his agonies and his suffering and the love that it took to stay on that cross for us. And that he does this all, all this for enemies, to redeem them from deserved eternal destruction, and to bring to unspeakable and everlasting joy and glory. And hear this and yet be cold and heavy and sensible. And regardless that we can be familiar with that message and have a heart that is cold, apathetic, does not care heavy, does not inspire to move insensible, just lacks complete sensitivity to the message of the gospel, regardless, does not consider it, does not regard it, that that is what he's getting at with this false religion.
Friends, I, I, I want you to hear this very clearly. I think there are many of us in the south that are very familiar with this message. We know it, we know this message. But knowing doesn't save you. The question is, is that when you consider this message, if you know it, are your is your love cold? Are your desires? Is your zeal low? Is the gratitude small? Do you know it? But it that knowledge does inspire love and worship and affections towards Christ and faith and repentance and obedience and delighting in him over all things. Because if that isn't the fruit of what you say you believe, then the reality is you don't believe the message. Familiarity with the message of the gospel doesn't save. And Jesus may be looking at you this morning and saying, oh friend, slow of heart to believe. Slow of heart to believe this you might know all the Sunday school answers from growing up, and you might wear a cross around your neck and you might be a good, decent person who lives a good, decent life, will one day have a good decent funeral. Or people talk about you as a good, decent man or woman and none of that saves, none of it. What saves is encountering this resurrected Savior. And then your heart begins to burn within you. Your heart, your affections begin to stir within you. And my hope is on this Easter morning as we celebrate the goodness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he is alive, that he is risen indeed, and all of the eternal implications of hope that come with that. My hope this morning is that as you consider this message, that you might sit honestly before the Lord and you might begin to ask yourself, do I have actually believe this in a way where my heart burns for him, where my heart is stirred for him, where my affections are growing for him. And if you come to the maybe painful reality that that is not the case, my hope this morning is that you would begin to burn, that that stirring would happen in your heart. And I've walked with people long enough to know that sometimes this happens. Sometimes you can feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit beginning to work in your heart. And maybe right now you're trying to convince yourself out of this. Maybe you're trying to say, let's just get to brunch. Let's just get to the rest of the day. I don't want to reckon with this. I don't want to lean into this reality. I just want to move on. I want to press on. But I want to invite you to lean into the heat of that discomfort. Because what Jesus offers you, if he begins to stir and in your heart is a wonderful relationship with him. That is what we say every single Sunday here. That is far better than anything this world has to offer. Everything that you could possibly build your life upon in this world is nothing in comparison to Christ. Paul says it is rubbish in comparison to him. That what you are missing out on is eternally wonderful. So do not deny the heat that is burning within you. Do not run from it. Do not explain it away. Lean into it. I'm going to pray for you in a moment. And my hope is that as I pray, maybe for the first time, you'll lean into the heat. You'll begin to let the Spirit take over your life in a way that transforms you into a new creation in Christ, into someone who loves, worships, follows, and delights in God from now into eternity. But hear this. You must. You must pray. And you must ask Jesus to take over your life. That this cannot be in head knowledge only. This has to be a surrender of the heart to him.
So I'm going to pray at the end of all of this. I'm going to be outside that door over there, that connect corner. And as I pray, if you for the first time are choosing to follow Jesus Christ, come talk to me. If you came with a Christian this morning who loves you, talk to him or her. But don't run from the heat. Let it take over. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that right now you might open the eyes of our heart to the reality that you loved us so much that you came. You didn't leave us in our sin and our rebellion against you, but you came and you went to the cross to die for our sins. And that you conquered, you walked out of the tomb conquering the power of death and sin in our lives. And Lord, I pray if there's anyone here this morning that has known this message from their youth, that maybe is young and knows this message can recite it back word for word, but they've never had the burning desire of the stirring of affections towards you. Lord, would you melt their heart this morning? Would you work in their heart this morning? Would you bring them to life and that life into eternity. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Band's going to come up, we're going to sing and we're going to worship Christ because he's worthy of our worship and worthy of our praise. And if this morning, if that moment right now, you just prayed to follow Jesus Christ, I want to invite you again. Come find me out there at the connect corner. Talk to a friend that brought you, but don't run from it this morning, lean into it.
Palm Sunday 2026
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. Good morning. My name is Mike. I'm an elder in training here. Today is Palm Sunday. So we're taking a break from first and Second Samuel, the series we've been doing there. And we're going to be in the Gospel According to John. This is the Sunday before Easter, and this is the time we commemorate Jesus entry into Jerusalem. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the final week of Jesus life. Most of the Gospel accounts actually move pretty quickly from his entry into Jerusalem up to his death on the cross. But John is different. In the Gospel of John, the first 11 chapters are about Jesus life leading up to his final week on the earth. The next eight chapters are about his final week of life leading up to his death. So John really slows way down to capture some intimate moments in the life of Jesus. In fact, chapters 13 through 17 are all an account of his last night with his disciples. And so try to put yourself in that moment where you as a disciple, you've left behind your profession, you've left behind your possessions, and you've been living your daily life now with Jesus for several years. And things are starting to shift. Things are getting a little bit emotional, things are getting a little bit intense. And you can feel a sort of heaviness almost in the air. And that's what we're jumping into today. We're stepping into Jesus final conversation with his disciples before the cross. And Jesus knows he's going to die. And what we're going to read is what he chooses to communicate to his closest followers before his death. We're going to pick up today in John chapter 14. This is on page 525 in your blue Bibles. I would encourage you to follow or follow along there. If you, if you don't have a Bible, you can use that. We're going to begin in verse one. But before we do, I am going to pray because I need help. Father, we come before you now as your children, excited to hear from you and from your word. And I stand up here as a desperate man, but I know that you're the God of desperate people. Please help me this morning to forget myself and to teach people about you. In Jesus name, Amen. I'm going to pick up in verse one of chapter 14, follow along with me.
> 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, would I 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 may be also.
> 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." (John 14:1–7, ESV)
All right. He starts out by saying, let not your hearts be troubled. That is to say, don't worry. Don't let your heart be anxious. Well, why is he telling them not to worry? In the context of this passage, if you go back to chapter 13, he actually says some really heavy things to them, things that would really shake them. Chapter 13 and verse 21, he tells them that one of them is going to betray him. In verse 33, he tells them he's leaving, and they can't follow, at least not immediately. And in verse 38, he looks at Peter and says, you're going to deny me? Now? Imagine being in that room. Imagine sort of going along together, business as usual. And then one night, you sit down for dinner, and all of that comes out. Oh, think of it like us having family meeting, right? We're singing, we're playing games. We're having a great time together, thinking about all the things that God has done. We're there to celebrate togetherness. And Chet hops up and says, we're planning a church. Mike and Isaac are going, and some of you need to go. And it's like whiplash. Oh, no. We were here for togetherness. And so in some sense, I think there's a feeling in this room where he's telling them all these things that they're going to do or that they're going to be without him. And I think there's a heavy, heavy weight on their shoulders. I think their thoughts are racing, their minds are racing. They're thinking things like betrayal, you're going to leave. Peter is going to just cast you aside, huh? And I think the intensity kind of rings through. And I think if we were sort of in that moment, too, and someone was telling us that's what we'd experience, we would feel that weight as well.
So Jesus knows that when hearing this, the disciples would just naturally be anxious. And he says, don't worry. How? Believe in God, believe also in me. And there's two things I think we learned from his response here. One is that Jesus actually contrasts fear with belief. Why because often our anxiety is rooted in untruths, in misunderstandings, in disordered thinking. And how you deal with fear and anxiety is you reorient your mind to what is true. But it's not enough to just reorient your mind to anything. It actually has to be something that's true. Matthew Henry, in his commentary on John, says, the joy of faith is the best remedy against the griefs of sense. So that joy, the joy that comes with faith in God, stands in direct opposition to the pain of our existence. And no matter what life you've lived, you either have experienced or will experience the pain that comes with being human or on this earth. Maybe it shows itself for you in sickness or maybe in toil, maybe in labor, maybe in fractured relationships. Or maybe, like the disciples, it's the impending loss of someone you deeply care about, or the fact that, like Peter, you're about to do something awful to another person, a person that you love, no matter what it is, that makes you anxious. Jesus says, believe in God, believe also in Me. And that's what separates Christianity from the other religions. It's not believe in yourself. It's not buckle down and get through it. It's not serve God better so he'll bless you more. It's believe in God, believe be in relationship with him, and throughout a lifetime of knowing him, be slowly changed to be more like Jesus. There is hope for the anxious heart. There is hope for those dealing with trials, and it's coming from the relationship with Christ.
The second thing that we see here is when he says, believe in God, believe also in me, is that he's linking himself with. With God. And this is actually some foreshadowing of what he's going to say later on. But, guys, this is serious. And I think if you've been around the church maybe for a while, you're probably so used to hearing things like this, you know, yes, Jesus is God, that you may not really flinch when you hear it. However, this was an absurd and outlandish statement. How would the Jewish men who are sitting there with him feel? It would be almost to them, like someone saying, well, I played quarterback in high school, so I should be considered alongside Tom Brady. I acted in a middle school play, so I'm expecting an invitation to this year's Oscars. Or maybe me just walking up here and saying, well, hey, we're going to go plant a church. And those of you coming with me, you don't have to worry because I'll do all the work for us. I'll Guide us. I'll lead us. Put your trust in me. I have got this. I think that some of you, even knowing that those are illustrations, would probably recoil a little bit inside at someone getting up there and doing something like that. Just know that if that was something you're a little bit sensitive to, the Jews would be way more sensitive to something like this. They were extremely sensitive to blasphemy, which is claiming to be God, and rightfully so. This was actually, in their. In their law, punishable by death. So him saying, believe in God and believe in me is saying that he is God. And that's a big deal that is included here for us by John because he says later in his book that he is writing so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that in believing you may have life in his name. So John wants to communicate to us that Jesus is God. And he records this claim that Jesus himself makes when he says, believe in God, believe also in Me. And can I tell you actually how great of a thing that is? Because if a church planter or a spiritual leader or a political leader or whoever gets up and tries to act like he is on par with God, run away from that person, he will only let you down. But Jesus, God the Son, perfect in all his attributes, will never. For whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. And to those of you in this room who hold positions of spiritual leadership, pastors, group leaders, church planners, Baptist convention workers, kid city teachers, Sunday school teachers, right people follow you as you follow Christ. Do not lose sight of him on this journey. So Jesus is saying, don't be afraid of the things to come. Instead, believe in God and believe in Me.
Let's pick up in verse two.
> In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I 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 may be also.
> And you know the way to where I am going. (John 14:2–4, ESV)
So remember, this ties back to chapter 13, where he's telling them he's going away. The disciples love Jesus and they're concerned because they don't know where he'll be. And he tells them that he'll be in heaven. Now, he doesn't say that to them directly. The metaphor he uses is a house with many rooms. He says, in my Father's house there are many rooms. And this is a beautiful thing to believe that in the Father's house, Heaven, there is room for every disciple. And of course, this is encouraging to the disciples that he is speaking with, but it's also encouraging to the disciples that are reading this in 2026 that the father has room for all of his children. And some of you are excited about that because, you know, it kind of just sounds great. But for some of you, it's probably a little bit different because maybe here on earth, someone did not have room for you. Maybe schoolmates or neighbors, or maybe your actual family. But here, Jesus makes a promise that rests on the gracious love of God, and that is that for his disciples, for his children, there is always room. You'll hear some version of this in the world today, but they'll tell you that you have to group up with people who are like you, who can relate to you, who accept you. But in the Father's house, all of us who believe in Jesus are grouped together and we're all equal. Equal in being undeserving. But because of Jesus, there is room for us all. And we talk like this here. Sometimes we say things like, well, we're going to multiply. We're going to multiply groups to make more room for people. Even though there's some sadness, right, that comes with leaving behind the people that we grow to love. There's excitement in being able to welcome people into the family. But there is going to come a day where we will be in the Father's house, and there is space for all of his children there. And Jesus says, that's where I'm going. And the reason I'm going is to prepare that place, and one day you're going to come and be with me there. And then he says, okay, you know the way to where I am going.
Thomas responds in verse five, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? So Jesus is talking about heaven, and they don't really seem to get it. And Thomas speaks up and says, well, we don't know where you're going, so how can we get there? And if you're sitting there with them and you didn't realize he was talking about heaven, well, you might be wondering the same thing. I don't know. Maybe they were thinking geographically. Is he going up to Samaria? Is he going back to Galilee? Are we supposed to take 20 or 26? Is it faster to go over the dam? I don't know. It depends on the time of day. It depends on the day of the week, and it depends on the month of the year. And the disciples don't often follow exactly what Jesus is trying to communicate. But Jesus answers him. He answers him.
> 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." (John 14:5–6, ESV)
So Thomas asks them, how can we know the way? And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. And this is a classic interaction of God and man, where man is so locked into his own world. What he knows, what he can see, what he can perceive, what he can touch, taste, what he can feel. And Jesus responds from his perspective, his supernatural perspective, by saying that he is the way. If you want to go to the Father's house, you don't have to go north and then turn at the right spot. You go through him, through Jesus. In other passages of scripture, like First Timothy, we read that there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. Jesus is the way to God. And this is turning the minds of men upside down, that they would need to get access to God not by a certain task that they perform, but by a relationship with Jesus. But he's not just the way, he's also the truth.
> And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14, ESV)
> Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17, ESV)
The Word is truth. Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the truth. He's truth right in front of them. But truth about what reality? That in six days God created the world. And on the seventh, he looked over it and said that it was good. He's the truth about humanity, that they were perfect and how they were created and their desire to elevate themselves to the level of creator. God corrupted them, introduced sin, and brought on them a curse called death. He's the truth about eternity, that those in sin are destined to be forever separated from God. He's the truth about hope. That one day, through the line of David, a suffering servant would become king and reign in peace and righteousness. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life.
> For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, ESV)
> Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." (John 11:25–26, ESV)
Believing in Jesus is life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And each of those on their own is incredible, but they do almost connect in some way. If he's the way to God, he must be true. God does not lie. If he is the way to God, he must be the life, because God does not die. And God, it must be true, because he does not lie. And if you see him, you've seen the Father. And so he claims to be both equal with the Father and the only way to access the Father.
After hearing all of that, Philip has a request.
> Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."
> Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
> Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
> Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves." (John 14:8–11, ESV)
All right, so hereafter, hearing Thomas question, Philip sort of exclaims, show us the Father and it will be enough for us. We just need to see the Father with our eyes and we will be good. And Jesus rebukes him and he challenges him, asking, how can you say, to show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? And I think this is another thing where if you grow up around the church or in Christianity, you might be tempted to read it and say, boy, how could Philip be so dumb? I mean, this is so clear, right? And, you know, maybe we would have picked up on this, right? Maybe, maybe not. But the problem here is actually not about hearing or comprehension. And it's not that Philip just needs to get his ears checked or practice his social skills and do some reflective listening exercises. The problem is deeper than that. And it's actually in some way similar to the problem with Thomas's question. It puts too much reliance on the natural and it misses the supernatural. And this is actually deep within all of us, that idea that if we could just see it with our eyes, and it would be so much easier to believe that if God could just tell Us the next step, to take what job, to accept, where to live. It would be so much better for us. And we do what Philip does. We say, do that Lord, and oh, it'll be enough. We won't have any more doubts, we won't have any more struggles. We won't worry. We'll believe anything God says and do anything he wants us to, as long as he just shows us what we need to see. It is that easy. But that is not the system that he has created. He has created man to take what he says in faith, not always being able to prove things. And if you're wondering why he would do it that way, consider this. Consider the ability to know all things and to see all possible ways forward. And how everything on this earth connects together is such a powerful and and weighty thing that there is only one being in the universe who can handle it, and it is not you. If you do not have to exercise faith in God, but could see everything played out, it probably would go one of two ways. One is it might just overwhelm you to the point where you would be crippled because some of you have a hard time choosing what soap to buy when you walk down the aisle in Walmart and see 100 different soaps. The other is it would cause you to rely on yourself, on what you've experienced, on what you've seen, instead of your relationship with Christ. And some of you already struggle with that. You rely on your human experience, on the jobs you've worked or the events you've hosted. And if you and Philip could just see God, that would be enough for you. And how does Jesus respond to that? Have I been with you so long and you still don't know me? Right back to the relationship to knowing Jesus is knowing the Father, that the more you get to know him, the more you realize you don't have to see anything. And that your heart and mind are guarded by his love, not your ability to anticipate all outcomes or understand all the workings of the world. And that out of that heart that's deeply connected in relationship with Christ, you can say that
> Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. (Psalm 23:4, ESV, partial)
We must reject the temptation to believe that seeing with our eyes is better than knowing through relationship with Christ. Today I want you to understand that knowing Jesus means knowing God the Father, and that he is the way and the truth and the life.
So what does that mean for us? How do we live in light of a truth like this? Well, Jesus is the way. He is our access to the Father. And if you've seen him, you've seen the Father. That means that we can be in true relationship with God. Terrific. That's really neat. No, this is the God who spoke the universe into existence. There is no more satisfying relationship than this. Not a best friend that you can laugh with, not. Not a spouse that you can confide in, not a child who you can nurture. No relationship can compare to this. Jesus is the truth. He is the absolute truth. He is true reality. And what he says and how he lives are the standard for how we should view the world. Jesus is the life. He. He is the victor over death. He has overcome this world. Do we need any of this, really? Well, the world would say no. There was an opinion piece written in the Washington Post in 2023 entitled, America doesn't need more God, it needs more atheists. Now, of course, I did not read it because it was behind a paywall. But that line of thinking is not new. In the 1880s, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote that God is dead, meaning that God, religion, and morality are no longer the foundations of society, but instead science and the reasoning of men reign supreme. So do we really need God? We've got the human spirit. We've got ingenuity. But what some call our greatest strength is actually, in fact, our deepest weakness. Because what did the serpent say to Eve when she wasn't supposed to eat of the fruit?
> But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4–5, ESV)
And she bought it and they ate the fruit because they didn't need a way to God. They would just be God. And sin and death entered the world. And humanity has been falling victim to that same exact desire for centuries. Do we really need the truth? If I say, go ahead and speak your truth, you can probably think of tons of times you've seen a phrase like that on the television or on the Internet. And what do people mean by that? What does that actually mean? It means I feel so strongly about this so much that it is reality whether you agree or not. Is that okay? Is it okay to determine what you think is reality? Can we function without objective right or wrong? Well, the answer probably always just depends on what kind of day you're having. Is that how we actually want to exist? Do we need life? Or maybe better phrased, is there any fear in death? The famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said, I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers. That is a fairy story from people afraid of the dark. And so if that is true, then why would we need any offer of life? If death is just the end of consciousness and we simply cease, then what really is the big deal? So what do you think? Are you satisfied with all of that? Are you satisfied with the idea that we don't need to access God because we can just be our own God and therefore we can determine what is true for ourselves and then we die and it's just nothingness? Or does something sear hot within your soul? Does something deep within you recoil at the idea of man, makes his own destiny? Does something cry out alongside the philosopher Blaise Pascal, who said that there is an infinite abyss within man that can only be filled with an infinite God? Guys,
> The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1, ESV)
and he says,
> I am the LORD, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:5, ESV, partial)
He is real. We are his creation. We need Him. And we're separated from him by our sin, by our insistence that we got this, that we can be in charge, that we can determine the truth. And this intrinsic rebellion causes our separation from Him. And that separation from him, what it really is, is the weight of the world on your shoulders. It's the deepest unrest you've ever experienced. It's total darkness. It's absolute silence. And that's us without him, without any hope. Until one night a few thousand years ago, a child was born. And that night God the Son entered humanity. And he grows up and he lives a perfect life, which we could never do. And he starts saying stuff like, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And no one comes to God except through me. And I and the Father are one. And he is the only one who could ever actually make those claims. And they want to kill him for it, and he lets them. And he goes willingly to a death on a cross where God crushes him and makes Jesus the one who never sinned to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And if we repent of our sins and put faith in this Christ, this absolute truth, we have a way to God and we have eternal life. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. And when you know him, you know the Father and there is room for you because he guarantees it.
And so Christian, if you know Jesus and you know he's the way to God, does your life reflect it. Perhaps you want to believe what he's saying, but deep down you're just a little bit skeptical, like what he is offering is too good to be true and you rather fall back on what you can do, what you can earn, and how many friends you have. If so, repent. Rest in his work do you ever take the relationship for granted? You pray when there's danger, but when things are good, it doesn't really matter to you that you have access to God. If that is you, repent of your self sufficiency and talk to him in prayer. Listen to him through His Word. Enjoy what it means to really know God. To the one today who feels downcast from broken relationship and loss, remember that there is room for you in the Father's house. The band is going to come back up. My hope today is that if you know him, you will respond to this in praise and worship to Jesus because He has reconciled you to God. And that will go into this week with our Good Friday remembrance and our celebration of the Resurrection next Sunday. Absolutely in awe of Jesus. And if you don't know him, please, please take one of those blue Bibles home and read the Gospel of John. You can know him and you can have a relationship with him and nothing will ever change your life like that.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for Jesus coming to this earth to be the way, to be the truth, to be the life. And we thank you that we have access to you through his sacrifice. We give glory to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.