WISDOM THE WAY, TRUTH AND LIFE
LESSON FOR JUNIORS
Study Scripture: John 14
Lesson 8 July 25, 2020
Key Verse
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:6
INTRODUCTION
Have your mother or father or your closest friend, your bosombuddy, or even your favourite aunt, uncle grandfather or grandmother left you to go someplace when you really didn’t want them to leave? They seemed not to understand how hurt, pained and disappointed you are to be away from them. Their going away confuses you for you do not think that they should ever leave you. You were happy in their company. You feel you cannot do without them. And it hurts.
Sometimes when your parents send you away to Camp you do not really want to go. If they are at home sometimes you do not want to go to school and leave them alone at home.
You know and they know that you have problems. They know that you like to sit down with them and discuss these problems and ask them to help you to make choices so that you know the right things to do.
Now the disciples of Jesus were probably about 20 years of age or maybe a little more than 25 years old so they were pretty mature men. But they had come to count on the company of Jesus. They could not imagine Him not being there with them. They had traveled all over the country for over three years and He had taught them many, many things. They even thought that Jesus would want a get an Army together maybe of men or angels and take over the country and they would be ruling the nation of Israel and the entire world with Him. They would be living a splendid life.
But now horror of horrors happened and the world came crashing down. This was a total loss for Jesus was telling them that it was time for Him to leave the Earth and go back to Heaven. They couldn’t believe what was happening.
Peter was a disciple who liked to jump up and speak what was on his mind and when Jesus told him that before He left He would have to suffer Peter insisted that he would go everywhere with Jesus. Nobody could touch Jesus when he was around. He would follow Jesus. He would be a great bodyguard. But Jesus had a way of looking into the hearts of everybody and could tell them what they were really like no matter what they were saying.
Jesus had been telling His disciples that He was giving them a New Commandment which was that they should love one another just like how He loved them. Their love for each other should be special and the world would look at them and realize that they were really people of God.
But all this meant nothing to Peter and the disciples. When Jesus began talking more about going away and about them trusting and believing in Him they had a hard time understanding that what He was telling them was very simple. Even though He was going away it would only be for a little while not forever. He wanted the disciples to understand that He would never ever really leave them alone. As a matter of fact Jesus will tell them soon that He would send the Holy Spirit which would make Him live in them and so He would always be with them.
But they were not concerned about new Commandments. They were worried about Jesus leaving them. They were more curious and more interested about where He would possibly be going.
Jesus therefore had to pull Peter up and tell him that he would not be as brave as he thought he would be for he would deny knowing Jesus when Jesus had big problems. He would tell a big lie to protect himself.
But we should never forget that Peter had a big heart and he really loved Jesus. He was fearful, anxious, and worried and he did not want anything bad to happen to Jesus. He had what we would call a selective memory for he should have known that Jesus came to carry out a powerful ministry, die on the Cross so that men would be forgiven of their sins, and then take all those that believed in Him to go to the Father in Heaven.
Peter was just like us. We tend to hide away from facing all the important things and concentrate on the little things which are not so important.
Now another disciple named Thomas was listening to the conversation Jesus had with Peter and he realized that Peter was just discouraged. So though Jesus was telling them that they were not to have troubled hearts but instead they were to believe in God the Father and believe in Him also, for God and Jesus would not allow them to keep on living in worry and anxiety and having troubled hearts.
As a matter of fact Jesus told them that He was going to His father in Heaven and His Father had a dwelling place with many rooms or mansions in it and He was going to prepare a place for them so that when He came back to them they would all be together.
Jesus then reminded them that despite what they were thinking they already knew where He was going and they knew the way to get there. They knew how to go to the Father in Heaven.
Thomas now chimed in and told Jesus that they did not know where He was going so how could they know the way! So Jesus told them plainly that the way to go to the Father was through Him. He was in a sense a roadmap. They had to always be His disciples, listen to Him, follow His rules and direction. He was the way. Their relationship with Him and among all of them should be extremely close. In other words, they should be in Him in every sense of the word.
But Thomas was still confused so Jesus emphasized that He was the way to the Father. He was the only way. If anyone came to Him He would be able to take them to the Father in Heaven. Their job would be to make people believe that so that they would be saved. When anyone came to Him they would have come to the right way to the Father and so they would know the truth and they would have life and be saved.
The other disciple whose name was Philip was the type of person who wanted proof for everything. He had a practical approach to life and he wanted to be sure of everything. So he asked Jesus to show them the Father. That would be enough for him. That would satisfy him.
Jesus had to get Philip to understand that once they saw Jesus they would have seen the Father. He and the Father were one. The Father was in Him and He was in the Father.
They should believe this. If they had not known this before all they had to do was to see how He Lived His life. He had lived and done miraculous things not in His own authority but on the authority of the Father in Heaven. It was the Father in Heaven that was doing all the great works and miracles through Him. They did not have to see the Father with their own eyes but they would see the Father through observing Jesus for He had come to reveal the Father by the works of love and mercy and grace that He was doing. These works showed them that He was in the Father.
Jesus therefore was calling His disciples to come to a deep understanding and belief and trust in Him. They should trust Him. He was the way to the Father.
Then Jesus made the disciples a great and big promise. Anyone who believed in Him would do greater things that Jesus had done in the sense that they would be able to preach and teach more people than Jesus Himself had ever done. More people would be saved by their preaching and teaching than He had done for His ministry was only in Israel and Samaria. But their work was going to be all over the world and they would, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit save the souls of millions of people.
When He left them He would be going to the Father in Heaven and anything that they wanted they could ask the Father in Heaven for that. The Father would grant their wishes since what they wanted would be exactly in line with what the Father wanted them to do.
So have you ever been feeling lost? Stop and think what Jesus said to His disciples. When we trust in Jesus we don’t have to know everything that He intends to have us do. We know that He will always be with us and always look after us so even if we do not see Him physically. We know that He is right there living inside us and we do not have to worry or fret. It might be difficult to do this was when we are having difficulties remember that God loves you.
So our advice and our encouragement is to remember to trust God and to trust Jesus and remember what He said:
Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.