Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Hey, welcome back for another week of solid biblical teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. You know, today, just like the disciples, we often find ourselves asking Jesus, how does this all work?
What am I supposed to do? But as Pastor J.D. will remind us, the Christian life isn't just about checking off the right boxes.
It's actually about a relationship. From beginning to end, it's knowing Jesus. So wherever you feel empty, unsure, worn down, or like something's missing, remember this. He's your way. He's your truth.
And He's your life. We're finishing up this brand new teaching series today. So remember, you can always hear teaching you may have missed by going to jdgreer.com.
But for now, here's Pastor J.D. with our final message in this I Am teaching series. Knowing Him is the way, the truth, and the life. What does that mean?
Let's break those down. Way speaks to, obviously, direction. What Thomas asked is a question we all ask at some point. How can I live my life so that it ends up at the right place? How can I live my life?
What way can I live my life so that I'll be happy, so that I'll be safe, so that I'll be at peace? And the subtext behind that question is we think that safety, listen, and happiness and success, listen, are found in a place over there that you might get to one day, and Jesus will be a good guide for that. It's the place of career achievement.
It's a marital status, getting married, getting remarried. It's a certain level of financial security, but it's not there, Jesus says. Knowing me is the way. I am the place. I have a terrible sense of direction. I get turned around in very familiar places.
It's kind of embarrassing. She says there's a part of my brain that's just never formed. I say it's because we all have a limited amount of brain circuits to deploy, and I just choose to use any of mine, not to use any of them on mundane things like direction. I devote them to loftier things.
That's what I say. Either way, either way, the bottom line is that I live conscious of getting turned around and getting lost. This goes all the way back to when I was a little kid. One of my earliest childhood memories, in fact, is of the first time my dad took me overnight camping in the woods. I think I was five years old. So we slept in a tent just out on some hillside out in the woods, and I remember feeling terrified that I was going to wake up and he'd be gone.
It was dark and scary in those woods, and I wouldn't have any idea how to get back to the car. My dad says he remembers waking up in the middle of the night, and my little five-year-old hand was on him. So he moved it off. He woke up a few minutes later, and my hand was back.
So he moved it off again. And we repeated this little charade again and again until he figured out that my hand was there intentionally because he was my safety. He was my guidance. He was my protection. He wasn't there to tell me the way to those things.
He was the way. I just wanted to be close to him. The happiness and the contentment that you seek, listen, is not found in some place over there.
It's found with the I am in this place right now. And of course, in saying that, Jesus is not only talking about the way to happiness in this life, he is talking about the way to heaven itself. That's what he says there in verse six.
That's obviously what's on his mind. I am the way. No one comes to the Father, the dwelling place of the Father, except through me.
There's no way to get to the Father, no way to get to heaven other than through him. I know this is quite an unpopular thing to say today, but do you see anything else that can mean? Look at it.
Be intellectually honest. Is there any ambiguity in that statement? He's not a way, he is the way. And just in case you didn't understand what that meant, he said, what I mean is you can't get to the Father any other way except through me. He's a one road into heaven. God is not like a mountain where you can take one of many roads to get to the top. Salvation is the way to God's dwelling place, and it's something only he can provide. The whole point of the Bible is that we couldn't save ourselves by being good enough. God had to provide salvation for us. And so he did that by coming in the person of Jesus to live the life that we should have lived and dying to death, we should have died in our place.
That is the only way of salvation because God is the only one who can provide salvation. I am the truth. I'm the truth. Knowing Jesus is the way to know truth. The way to know truth. Again, what Philip wants is to understand life's mysteries.
He wants to see the Father. Jesus said, if you know me, Philip, then you know truth even when you don't understand everything. Listen, knowing Jesus takes you into a whole new way of seeing the world.
When you know him, everything in the world starts to look different. Many of us, those of you especially that are just investigating Christianity, you live in fear with this sense that you're all alone in the universe. And everywhere you look, you see evidence for that aloneness. But see, when you start to believe in Jesus, you start to see his presence everywhere. Jesus is a new lens for looking at the world. If you've seen him, you've seen the Father and you've seen the Father's world. Jesus is who we hold onto and we encounter mysteries that we just can't understand yet. I've told you before, I'm a full-time pastor with a PhD in theology and I still have a litany of unanswered questions.
You know one of the places I find a lot of comfort? John the Baptist had his own questions about Jesus. John, Jesus's cousin, the prophet who had heralded Jesus coming had been put in prison, Matthew 11, and was awaiting execution. And he wondered, as one would, Jesus, if you really are the Messiah, why aren't you coming to rescue me? So he sends a messenger to Jesus, Matthew 11, saying, hey, Jesus, are you really the one or should we be waiting for somebody else? Y'all, this is John the Baptist, the one who, when he was baptized, he saw Jesus and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And then when he baptized him, saw heaven open and the Holy Spirit like a dove descend on him, and then heard the voice of the Father say, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. This, John, that one, is now saying, Jesus, are you really the one? He said, why would he doubt after all that? It's because his unanswered questions were so severe. His doubts were so troubling and acute. But even with all he'd seen, he wondered, how could all of this be real?
How could Jesus really be in charge and this still be happening? I've been there. Have you been there?
Haven't you? And Jesus sent back a message saying, yes, John, think about what you've heard from me and think about what you've seen me do. You can trust me, John. What John did is a model for us. John, listen, went personally to Jesus with his doubts and his unanswered questions. And ultimately, he put his faith not in a set of answers, but in a person he knew he could trust.
I know, I know, I know you've got your own unanswered questions. You can't understand why God did or didn't do something. Or if he's a loving God, why is the world in the state it's in? Or maybe it's some apparent Bible contradiction that's troubling you. And you find yourself saying, like John the Baptist, Jesus, are you really the one? Or am I supposed to be waiting for somebody else?
Take a cue from John the Baptist and take those questions straight to Jesus. Look deeply into his person, who he is, look at his works, and I think you'll find that you can trust him. You see, contrary to some of our critics, faith is not a blind leap into the dark. It's a leap into the arms of a person that we can trust. And that's totally different. Yes, it is a leap.
I want to acknowledge that. It is a leap. But it's not a leap into the dark.
It is a leap into the arms of Jesus. And by the way, that means for those of you who are still investigating Jesus, and I talk to you almost weekly, listen, I have walked with lots of people down this road. Listen, there's only so much assurance about Jesus you can get from the outside looking in. There's a much richer personal assurance that only comes from walking with him. Sometimes as you're investigating his claims, you get to a place where you're like, well, I'm not 100% sure about this, but I'm more convinced that he is who he says he is than I am that this is all a hoax. And here's the thing, at that point, you've got to take a leap into his arms with all of your questions and fears. And then you begin to more fully experience that he is real and that he is trustworthy because he is the truth. Maybe some of you are there, you're like, I spoke about kinds of questions and doubts.
I don't think Jesus is a hoax, but what about all these questions and doubts? I'm telling you, come to him. He says, I am the truth.
You can trust me. I'm the life. The primary theme of John's gospel is that Jesus brings life to dead things. John ties Jesus to life 40 different times in this gospel. Jesus brings life to dead eyes.
He puts breath in dead lungs. radio, TV, and podcasts, plus updates on brand new resources, free downloads, and even stories from listeners who are being impacted by the gospel through this ministry. And when you sign up to receive it today at jdgrier.com, we'll also send you a little gift, our I Am reading plan. It's a simple and powerful seven-part guide that walks you through the I Am statements of Jesus in the gospel of John. Each day pairs New Testament passages with rich Old Testament connections, helping you see how Jesus fulfills God's promises and meets your deepest needs. Whether you're looking to deepen your personal quiet time or guide a small group, this plan is a beautiful way to read the scriptures and know Jesus more. So don't miss out.
Head over to jdgrier.com and sign up for our newsletter today. All right, let's finish up our teaching series. Once again, here's Pastor JD. A few weeks ago, I was sitting backstage in this green room area for a Christian talk show that I was about to do an interview for, and there was another guest back there. We had about 30 minutes before the show started, so I asked him what his name and what his story was. His name was Ronald Olivier, and he had just written a book called 27 Summers.
I said, well, tell me about those summers. He said, well, that's how many summers I spent in a maximum security prison in Louisiana. You see, when he was 16 years old, he told me he'd gotten caught up dealing crack cocaine, and one day he got into an altercation with some guys who he thought were trying to steal his jacket, his favorite jacket, and in an attempt to get away from them, he jumped onto a bus, and one of them grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him off, and Ronald panicked and pulled a gun out of his pocket, shot the guy twice, and killed him. The guy was unarmed, and because crack cocaine was involved, it was considered to be first-degree murder.
In Louisiana, first-degree murder was punishable by the death penalty, so Ronald was convicted at 16 years old and then put into a holding cell to await his sentencing. He said, in that cell, the darkness of that cell, I knew the judge was gonna come back with a sentence of death. He was gonna make an example out of me, and he told me, he said, there I sat, pronounced guilty, actually guilty, he said, alone in that holding cell. He said, I remember the worst moment of my life, the sound of that door locking and the footsteps of that guard walking down that long, empty hallway alone. He said, I was all alone, and I was so afraid. He said, subconsciously, I kept expecting my mom to somehow show up.
She'd always been the one to come and rescue me when I was in trouble, but this time she couldn't come. He said, I sat there in the darkness, all alone, awaiting my death sentence. He said, it was as if darkness was about to swallow me, and then he said, just out of the blue, like a bolt of lightning, I remembered something my mama had said to me. She said, Ronald, if you ever get into a situation where I can't help you, call on Jesus.
He'll help you. He said, and so I did. Trembley and I got down on my knees, and I said, Lord, I know I haven't paid any attention to you, but if you will keep them from sentencing me to death, I will serve you with whatever is left of the rest of my days. He said that in that moment, they're in that cell.
He said, I don't know exactly how to explain this, but suddenly I was surrounded by a presence I've never felt before, a peace and a love like nothing I'd ever experienced. He said, when I was summoned back into the courtroom for my sentencing, I walked back into that courtroom, a changed man. He goes, I didn't say a word, but unexplainably, they reduced my charge to second degree murder, which carried a life sentence, and so on. He said, I didn't say second degree murder, which carried a life sentence instead of death.
It was a life sentence without the eligibility of parole, but at least it wasn't a death sentence. He said, I was taken to a maximum security prison in downstate Louisiana. He said, but I went into that maximum security prison, a changed man.
God had kept up his side of the deal with me, so I was determined to keep up my side of the deal with him. He got involved in a Bible training program, much like the ones that we summit, host in our prison campuses here, by the way, and eventually he enrolled in a Bible degree program offered by New Orleans Baptist Seminary and earned his bachelor's degree in New Testament studies. He ended up serving as a kind of pastor there in that prison, leading dozens, if not hundreds, of his fellow prisoners to faith in Christ.
20 years later, the US Supreme Court in the case Miller versus Alabama, argued very famously, by the way, by Bryan Stevenson, as told in the book Just Mercy, or maybe some of you have seen the movie based on that book with Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson there, the US Supreme Court found it unconstitutional to give a juvenile a life sentence without parole because it amounted, they said, to cruel and unusual punishment. The court battle lasted for years, but eventually the justice initiative prevailed and Ronald was able to be put up for parole. He told me, I'll never forget that day. He said, I was summoned for my parole hearing, the first one in 27 years, something I thought would never happen. He said, when I stepped into that dock, he said, I was ready to make my plea for parole because that was the custom.
The prisoner makes their case to the board for why they've been reformed and why they should be considered eligible for parole. He said, but before I could even speak, the judge just raised his hand and said, Mr. Olivier, I've read everything about you already, held up this big file. He said, for 27 years, you've lived as a changed man. This folder is filled with accounts of good deeds that you have done, story, after story of how you have loved and served other prisoners and how every corner of this prison is saturated with the love of Jesus Christ because of you. He said, I don't need to see anything more.
I don't even want you to say a word. I declare you to be a free man. He brought the gavel down and that was that. Ronald said, Ronald said, that was the second time I'd been released from bondage. And the second release where I got released from physical prison was not nearly as important to me as the first one. The first release happened 27 years prior when I was on my knees alone in a jail cell with just Jesus. And there he said, I was released from my sins and set free to live unto God. The second release came because of my good deeds, but the first release, the real release was granted because of the good deeds of my savior who lived and died in my place.
His gift of life to me was much more important than the judge's gift to me. Y'all listen, I'll be honest. Okay. Safe space here. Safe space here. When this guy, Ronald, I'm sitting backstage, first told me that he'd been released from prison after being convicted of murder, I felt myself tense up. I knew I shouldn't feel that way, but I mean, I'm sitting with a murderer and I thought, is this okay?
Is this safe? But as he told me his story, he's got a wife and two kids and a ministry now. I'm telling you without any volitional cognitive thinking on my part, that sense of fear started to be replaced by one of wonder. And soon all I could think about was that I was sitting in the presence of somebody who had been covered head to toe by the great I am. I was sitting in the presence of the one speaking here in John 14, six, the one who takes dead things and restores them to life. And I got good news for you. I got good news for you. He can do that for you too. You see, maybe you feel like your life is hopelessly irredeemable. I can assure you it's not.
It's like our friend, Joby Martin says, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. But that leads me to the last point, the last point real quick. Number three, claiming he is the only way is not born of cruelty.
It's born of love. Now, like I said, there's perhaps nothing more offensive in our generation right now than to say this. In fact, Oprah Winfrey, America's pastor, said once on her TV program, one of the biggest mistakes people make is to believe that there's only one way. Actually, there are many diverse paths leading to what you may call God.
Another one of our nation's most popular religious figures, Rabbi Shmuley Botitz, is that how I think you pronounce it? I am absolutely against any religion that says that one faith is superior to another. I don't see how that is any different than spiritual racism. It's a way of saying that we are closer to God than you, and that's what leads to hatred. But friend, I want you to see that this is exactly what Jesus is saying. I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and contrary to Oprah and to Rabbi Botitz, that is not cruel. It's love.
Why? Well, first, and maybe this is the most important thing, first, and maybe this is the most important thing, you've got to understand that Jesus makes this claim, listen, in the context of describing a love relationship. We understand exclusivity in a love relationship, don't we? It's not loving for the groom to let the bride go with any other guy who shows up. The groom wants the bride for himself.
They are in love with each other. It's because I love my wife that I say, I'm the only man for you, and you're the only woman for me. Friend, Jesus feels that way about us. He wants our affection on him as our savior. See, the one in heaven I'm going to love most, the one I'm going to adore most, the one I'm going to worship most is the one who saved me. And Jesus says, I am your God, and your father, and your savior. I'm your one divine husband.
I want your affection on me. Through the prophet Isaiah, God has said, listen, I love this verse. Isaiah 42a, I am the Lord. Anytime you see the word Lord capitalized in your Old Testament, it means they're using the name Yahweh. I am Yahweh. That is my name and my glory.
I will not share with anybody else. I am Yahweh, and beside me, there is no savior. The uniform testimony of the Old Testament is that only God can save. The claim of Jesus in the New Testament is Yahweh, I am that savior. In fact, you want to know what the name Jesus literally means? Jesus in Hebrew is Yah Shua.
Yah Yahweh Shua saves. His very name means Yahweh, my savior. So to those who are hungry in the gospel of John, Jesus said, Yahweh, the bread of life. To those in darkness, he said Yahweh, the light of the world. To those in need of shelter or refuge, he says Yahweh, the door. To those feeling the sting of death, he says Yahweh, the resurrection and the life. To those in need of spiritual vitality or strength, he says Yahweh, the true vine. And now to all those who want to know God and the way of eternal life itself, he says Yahweh, the way, the truth and the life. That means whatever you need, whatever you lack, wherever you feel incomplete or broken or addicted or whatever you're missing in yourself or you didn't get from a parent or you're not getting from a spouse or a boyfriend, Yahweh, the way, the only way, the truth and the life. And friend, if that's true, it's not cruel and it's not hateful or bigoted to testify to that.
I serve a savior who died to redeem people, and that includes people like Ronald and people like me and people like you, and I want to tell you about him. We don't control the way of salvation. We just testify to it. I'm not saying that my way is better than yours. Of course not. I couldn't save myself. I don't have a way that I'm giving to you.
I'm not recommending something about me to you. I'm saying that Jesus is the only one who could save us both. There's one testimony we must take to our grave summit church. I am the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me. There is a fountain filled with blood. It's drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Nobody else's. Emmanuel means God with us.
God himself did it, and sinners plunged beneath that flood, and only that flood lose all their guilty stain. Here's a question. Do you know him? Do you know him? And are you telling people about him? If you've ever wondered why our message doesn't waver, it's because of this. Because Jesus didn't leave us guessing. We have assurance that he is who he said he is.
Today was the final message in the I Am teaching series here on Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. With that, JD remind us one last time, why is it significant that Jesus uses the phrase I Am in these seven statements we've been learning about over the past couple of weeks? Molly, this is one of the most profound things that Jesus does in the Gospel of John. Because when he says I Am, he's not just using a statement like an auxiliary verb like we use.
What he's saying is he's invoking the name of God from the Old Testament. It's interesting how each of these he's applying into the places of one of our greatest needs. I Am the Bread of Life speaks to just our spiritual hunger.
I Am the Way, that's the need that we have for direction. I Am the Resurrection is about our fear of death. The reason that's so important is because he's showing us that the answers that we're looking for are not found in religion, they're not found in education or the next rung on the ladder in our career. These things are really found through knowing Jesus. If there was one thing that I could go out and convince people of is that the happiness you're seeking in life is found right here, right now through a present relationship with Jesus. To that end, to help you really get your mind around this and to soak out some of this incredible, just jaw-dropping truth here in the Gospel of John, we've got an excellent resource for you this month. It's a seven-part Bible study of these I Am statements.
I honestly can't think of anything better for you to spend time diving into. It's available in both print and digital versions. I'd love for you to take a look and reserve your copy at jdware.com. We'd love to get you this study guide today.
It's our way of saying thanks when you donate today to support Summit Life at the suggested level of $45 or more. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or give and request the resource online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Tomorrow we'll go back to the Old Testament and begin a new teaching series about Moses' first encounter with the great I Am. See you Tuesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
