Bible Passage: John 14:1-11
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: May 3, 2026

Bulletin – May 3, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

A couple weeks ago Sue and I flew to Wichita to see kids and grandkids.  As we were preparing to board the plane in Milwaukee, I obsessively checked that I had everything I needed.  Phone, money clip, carry-on bag, glasses.  Yup, had it all.  So we board the plane and are making our way down the center aisle to our seats.  I tapped my jacket pocket.  Uh-oh!  Can’t feel my reading glasses!  They’re gone.  At some point, in that short distance from the gate to the plane they fell out.  And I really need my glasses to function!  Fortunately, the problem was easily remedied.  A trip to Walgreens in Wichita and I had new readers.  Why do I tell you this very boring story?  To make the point:  it’s not fun to travel and discover that you don’t have everything you need.

Traveling without reading glasses is very minor.  What if the trip is a lot bigger and consequential?  You and I are on a journey.  We are traveling to heaven.  In our text, Jesus will call it the Father’s house.  It is our home.  It is our final destination.  Wouldn’t it be awful to discover too late that we were missing something, that we lacked something for our journey?  Jesus begins our text by saying, Do not let your hearts be troubled. (v. 1)  In a word, relax.  Breathe easy.  You’ve got Jesus!  And in Jesus, you’ve got Everything You Need for Your Journey Home.

Jesus speaks these comforting words on Maundy Thursday evening as he is gathered with his disciples in that upper room.  From here on in, their journey is going to be different.  For three years, they were journeying with Jesus.  Every day, Jesus was literally by their side.  They could see him with their eyeballs.  They could reach out and tap him on the shoulder.  But things were going to be different after this night.  But Jesus comforts, Do not let your hearts be troubled. (v. 1)  The antidote to fear?  Believe in God; believe also in me. (v. 1)

Then Jesus explains what was now going to happen.  In my Father’s house are many mansions.  If it were not so, I would have told you. (v. 2)  Jesus speaks of heaven as a huge house with many rooms.  I am going to prepare a place for you. (v. 2)  Jesus is going to get things ready!  The preparations would take Jesus to Calvary the day after he speaks these words.  There on the cross Jesus would have to pay the fare for us to go to the Father’s house.  It was not cheap.  The Son of God would pay your way to heaven with blood.  His own.  Holy, precious, innocent.  Given and shed to pay for your sins.  He would suffer hell so we can go to heaven.  He gives his life to prepare a place for you!  He rises again to guarantee your way to heaven has been paid in full!  He reascends his native heaven.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (v. 3)  Think about it!  If Jesus left heaven to come to this earth, lived a perfect life, suffered and died on the cross, rose again and ascended to heaven to open the Father’s house, he’s not going to stop now!  He did all that to prepare a place for you!  You better believe he’s going to take you there!  Then Jesus adds, You know where I am going, and you know the way.

But here Thomas is puzzled.  Lord, we don’t know where you are going so how can we know the way? (v. 5)  Jesus answers, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. (v. 6)  In essence, Jesus is saying to Thomas, “Thomas, in me you have everything you need to get to the Father’s house!”  In Jesus, we have the “way” to the Father’s house.  You know, every religion really seeks to answer that basic question, doesn’t it?  “How do I get to God?  How do I access God?  How do I enter God’s presence and dwelling place?”  Jesus is THE way!  Notice, he doesn’t say, “I know the way,” as if Jesus is the keeper of special knowledge.  He doesn’t say, “I can show you the way,” as if going to the Father’s house is following a set of rules that Jesus lays down.  Jesus claims to BE the way.  It is as basic as what Jesus said at the beginning of the text:  Believe also in me. (v. 1)  Believing in Jesus Christ crucified for your sin and raised again to life is the WAY.

And Jesus claims to be the “truth.”  The word he uses is a word that means “genuine.”  We might very loosely say “the real McCoy.”  He is really, truly, genuinely the way to the Father’s house.  This always reminds me of a story I once heard one of our missionaries tell.  He was a missionary in South America.  One day he was hiking out in the hills and got himself a little lost.  He came upon a road and found a man walking along the road.  He asked the man if the road led back to the city.  The man answered, “Siempre.”  “Siempre” is Spanish for “always.”  That road always led to that city.  Trust in Jesus always leads to the Father’s house in heaven!  Really!  Truly! And Jesus is the “life.”  This life in heaven that Jesus has described, this life in the house of the Father, it is all wrapped up in Jesus.  Everything we need for eternal life is Jesus.  He is the way, the truth, and the life!

Philip hears Jesus and says, Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us. (v. 8)  His request may seem rather harmless, but there is something quite dangerous in Philip’s request.  Jesus has just said that he is EVERYTHING they need, and Philip wants something more!  “Show us the Father and that will be enough.”  No, Philip, the words and works of Jesus Christ, God’s Son are enough!  He and the Father are on the same page!  Jesus declares, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. (v. 10) Do you ever want “more than Jesus”?  “Jesus, show me…”  Show me what?  A sign from heaven?  A feeling, a stirring in my belly?  No, friends, Jesus is enough.  Jesus is everything.

We know where the journey ends.  It ends when we reach our Father’s house and are with the Lord forever.  Then we will be home.  When will Jesus come and take you home?  Will he send the angels quietly in the night to carry your soul to the Father’s house, or will you be alive to hear the trumpet blast on the Last Day?  I do not know.  This I do know.  Jesus said, Do not let your hearts be troubled…I am the way and the truth and the life.  Everything you need for the journey you have…in Christ!

Amen.