. . . Believe Also In Me
Chris Seidman
Part of Until Then
March 1, 2021

Until Then … Believe Also In Me

February 25, 2021
Chris Seidman, Sr. Minister


John 13:33 – 14:3 (NIV)
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My 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? And 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.”


John 14:1b (NIV)
“You believe in God; believe also in me.”


John 14:3-5 (NIV)
“And 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. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

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


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

If You Struggle With Jesus Being The Way Instead of A Way, Consider:

  • All jof us have life experiences which tell us that some ways are better than other ways.

  • Practically speaking, there are many areas in our lives where we are already living as though others have knowledge that is superior to ours.

So Why Jesus? Why Should We Take His Word For It?

  • The depth of His suffering.

  • His resurrection.

Romans 1:4 (NLT)
Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead.


1 Corinthians 15:14 (NIV)
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

If You Struggle With Jesus Being The Way Instead of A Way, Consider:

  • If He’s not The Way, then He most certainly isn’t even A Way.


C.S. Lewis
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

He is either Lord, a liar, or a lunatic.


John 14:7-11 (NIV)
“If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?

“The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”

So What?

  • For those who have yet to believe in Him, will you?

  • For those who say they do believe, will you keep your eyes fixed on Him?


John 14:1 (NIV)
“You believe in God; believe also in me.”


Hebrews 12:1b-2 (NIV)
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Communion

  • Is there something in this message that speaks to you right now?