When Jesus said that he is the way and the truth and the life, he was saying something too profound for his distressed disciples to understand.
Why? They were worried about his imminent departure. They were confused about why Judas had left, and about who was going to betray them. When Peter said he’d lay down his life for Jesus, he was told he’d deny knowing Jesus three times that very night.
It’s all very confusing and upsetting for them.
But the words of comfort that came to them that night have brought comfort to millions since. And now to you today.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church Wirral in February 2026. You’ll find more in the series in our sermon index.
Know Jesus, know God (1-7)
Jesus knows their hearts are troubled.
He knows what that feels like. When Jesus knew that it was time for him to die – his hour had come – he said (John 12:27), “Now my soul is troubled. What should I say—Father, save me from this hour? But that is why I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” And earlier on this Passover night we read (John 13:21), “When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’”
So he was troubled in his own heart because of the impending cross. And he was troubled in his own heart because of Judas’s betrayal – and what that meant for Judas.
But though he was troubled by his departure, his disciples weren’t to be. Read John 14:1.
Now we often hear these words at funerals – and rightly so – but they were originally spoken about being troubled at Jesus’ departure (not anyone else’s). And the grounds for that is simply that you’re to trust him because of who he is: “Believe in God; believe also in me.”
See the power of it? He’s equating himself with God. Just as you can have trust in God, you can trust in Jesus. There’s even a poetic balance in the way he says it, literally, “Believe in God; also in me believe.”
Places after death
And so what are you to believe? Read John 14:2-4. What is his Father’s house with many rooms? Heaven.
There’s a place where you’ll die. Maybe a roadside, maybe a room in your house, or maybe a hospital ward. A space will hold your last outward breath, briefly.
And there’s a place where someone will place your ashes or your bones to rest.
But that’s not where you will be. You will be consciously present somewhere else. If you have never believed in Jesus, you will be suffering in torment for your sins. But if you have believed in Jesus and trusted in his work for you, you will go to the place he has prepared for you. In heaven.
It’s in his own death, his own burial, and his own resurrection that he prepares a place for you. That’s how he prepares it. What place? A place of eternal rest in Jesus, with the Father, in his very heart.
Thomas asks a question
But Thomas wasn’t up to speed. Read John 14:5.
Notice the two halves of what he asks: We don’t know where you’re going; how can we know the way? Jesus is going to explain that they do know because they know Jesus. Jesus is going to the Father, and if they know Jesus then they know the Father, so they know where he’s going! More, because Jesus is the way to the Father, they know that as well.
Read John 14:6-7. To know Jesus is to know the way to the Father. It’s also to know the truth about the Father as he reveals it, and to experience the life of the Father in the Son. Eternal.
Jesus doesn’t point you to the way to God. He is the way to God. And he’s the only way, because he is God.
If you have never come to God in Jesus Christ, you’re not saved; you’re not safe. If you would know eternal life with God – which he longs for you to know – then come to Christ.
Know Jesus, and know God. Do it today. Don’t dare delay. You yourself must pray. To Jesus, to the Father, to God. Don’t worry about the finer points of the trinity: Pray.
You will be heard; you can know God as you know Jesus.
See Jesus, see God (8-11)
The theme continues, again in response to someone’s words. (People often come to me with questions as if they shouldn’t. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, and I know it’s a bit silly, maybe I should know, but…” Please don’t let questions fester. Look at the blessing that came when Philip displayed his lack of understanding! Ask away!)
Read John 14:8. He’s honest, and true to himself. His words display his ignorance and lack of understanding, but Jesus is gentle with him (even though he’s clearly disappointed). Read John 14:9-11.
How can it be that anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father? In truth, it’s been in everything in the first half of John’s gospel. Remember how chapters 1 to 12 are sometimes called the book of signs? Signs of God’s glory in Jesus. Water to wine, healings, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, even raising Lazarus from the dead! Signs.
Over and over, Jesus said that the signs testify to the one who sent him. Everything he did and said was what he’d been told to do and say by the Father who sent him.
Oddly enough, his opponents understood what Jesus was saying better than his disciples did: Read John 10:30-39. His opponents couldn’t refute his works, but they hated his words. They knew he was claiming divinity.
Jesus and the Father are one
Everything he said and did was from the Father. So to listen to Jesus was to listen to the Father. And to see what Jesus did was to see the Father at work. Jesus is the perfect revelation of the Father.
In a sense, you can’t see the sun. But you can see the radiance of light it gives. Without the sun, there is no radiance; they’re of one another, with the sun as the source, and the rays how we experience the source. That’s a dim picture of how Jesus is the radiance of the Father’s glory.
The Father is love, and grace, and life. And you see those as Jesus lives in perfect obedience to the Father, supremely in his work at the cross. Believe in Jesus; believe in God. See Jesus, see God.
Even here, with these disciples, Jesus is having to persuade them to believe his words.
And if you find his words too hard to believe, let the signs speak of his deity and of the Father’s work through him. His actions are supernatural. And so is the power in his words. Believe him.
And if you’re still in doubt, look at his resurrection.
He lives, never to change, always to save, always to receive you. Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him. To know Jesus is to know God, and to see Jesus is to see God.
You say you can’t “see” Jesus now, so how can you see the Father? You see him with eyes of faith, trusting in his words, believing in his works – written down for you here. Believe and live.
Expect much from Jesus (12-14)
Remember that Jesus is giving words of comfort to his troubled disciples. He’s going away from them, and they’re unhappy and confused. He’s explained that he has to to prepare a place for them by way of the cross.
And he’s also encouraged them that because they already know him they also know God because they’ve seen the Father at work.
But now he goes further. These are astonishing words. Read John 14:12.
Should we expect to perform miracles, as Jesus did? Or do you think that you might even do greater works? As you aim to serve Christ, do you expect to do greater works? Greater than turning water to wine, than healing, feeding 5,000, walking on water, raising the dead?
Yes! You can do greater than these. Greater than all of them.
Jesus says you will do even greater “because I am going to the Father.” Why say that? He means that the work of the cross, providing a sacrifice for sin, providing atonement, will be complete. He also means that he’ll be alive, reigning and ruling us all. And then from heaven he will have sent the Holy Spirit into the his church, to enliven and fuel it up, as well as to convict the world.
So when one sinner like you turns in repentance and faith, praying to God for forgiveness of sin, what happens? The angels celebrate! Imagine that! The sinner’s sins are washed clean. No more condemnation – no matter what you’ve done. Jesus punished in your place. Eternal existence transformed: From justified damnation to gracious salvation – from hell’s fires to eternal peace and rest with God. Eternal life as a child of God, treasured by him forever.
And that, frankly, is “greater” than Lazarus’s resurrection. He died again. It’s way “greater” than turning water to wine.
Jesus works through you
But obviously, if you speak about Jesus to someone and they come to faith, it’s not you who’s saved them! Read John 13:20 (from last time).
How invigorating, enabling, encouraging! Christ at work through you. Unless, of course, you never speak of him. Jesus simply expects you will, and that you’ll pray as you do. Read John 14:13-14.
What does it mean to pray “in Jesus’ name”? It’s not a magic formula, like abracadabra. There’s nothing wrong in saying it when you do pray. At the least, praying in Jesus’ name is praying as a Christian, clothed in his righteousness, coming to God in Christ’s merit, not your own.
But these two verses sound like a blank cheque, don’t they? Imagine if everything you prayed for, you got! It would soon go wrong. You’d ask for unhelpful things, selfish things. I don’t need to suggest them to you. Tim Keller said that if God gave us everything we asked for when we prayed then a wise person would never pray again!
Pray in Jesus’ name
So what is it to pray in Jesus’ name to be assured he “will do it”. It’s praying consciously under the Lordship of Christ. It’s praying in the revealed will of God.
In general terms, you can pray for
- The Spirit to show you more of your self-centredness and sin, leading you to repentance and thanksgiving;
- Help in holiness of life and putting sin to death;
- Boldness to speak the gospel to unbelievers around you;
- Grace to forgive those who sin against you.
These are things Jesus wants for you; pray for them in his name and you will glorify him – and thereby glorify the Father.
But you can pray in Jesus’ name with great specificity:
- Pray for others by name.
- More than “Please bless so-and-so”, pray something like, “Give them boldness, or joy, or strength, or comfort” according to their need, and according to Bible promises.
- Pray to the God who raises the poor from the dust, who sets widows and orphans in families, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and can shake the nations for gold when his people need it!
- Love one another enough to pray properly for one another.
- If you don’t feel you know the Bible well enough, pray the Bible itself. I heard a lovely sermon on prayer online which spoke of praying through something like Philippians. You read it out to God, pausing on each verse, meditating on it for yourself and for others. It’s a powerful, simple thing to try.
Pray to Jesus; he’s actively involved in you and this church. Pray to the Father. He loves you and wants the best for you as his child. Know Jesus. Know him in prayer and in daily experience.
Meditate on Jesus as he’s revealed to you in the Bible. Take time.
As you know him, you know the Father.
Expect much from Jesus because he is God, because he loves you, and because he has made promises to hear your prayers.