The Way

Grace Upon Grace

Scripture Reference: Matthew 14:1-7

Discussion Guide 

Matt Z. Live-streamed from Rockford Location

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The Way, The Truth and The Life

BIG IDEA: Do I believe that Jesus is the way and the truth enough, so that his life flows through me? 

In John 14, Jesus says He is the way, the truth and the life. Learn what that means for us today, as Matt Zainea unpacks how we might allow who Jesus is to impact our lives and those around us.

Check out the below notes, questions and thoughts and discuss them as a group. Be sure to take time to open and read Scripture, praying with and for one another as you consider what it looks like to follow the way. 

• Who is Jesus?
  • • Everyone seems to have an opinion.  (Elon Musk, Richard Dawkins, Vladimir Putin, Kayne West)

Group Question: What do you think about the Richard Dawkins quote, “Jesus was a great moral teacher. Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist if he had known what we know today.”

Who does Jesus say he is?

• • • John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled.” The word for troubled includes deep personal grief, almost anger.
      • • Jesus is not saying that we will never be sad or grieve.
        • Jesus is saying, “I am going to face death. I’m doing this so you don’t have to.” Death no longer has the final word.
    • John 14:2-4 “I am going to prepare a place for you.
      • • God goes ahead of his people.
        • Like a bridegroom prepares a place for his bride.
    • John 14:6-7, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
      • • The 6th “I AM” statement. Jesus equates himself with God.

Group Question: Share about a time when your heart was troubled. Are you able to let Jesus’ words comfort you in times of trouble?

• THE WAY
  • • Torah is the law. How you live, the way. Jesus says, “what Torah was, what the law was, I am it. I not only fulfilled it, I am it.”
    • If you’re my follower, you must live a certain way. 
    • To not live “The Way” is to be lost.
    • What does it look like to live “The Way”

Group Question: We all have our own set of rules that we believe are important to follow. (For example: making your bed every morning, never eating junk food, or squeezing the tube of toothpaste from the bottom.) Do you ever forget to show compassion when someone isn’t following your set of rules? If so, please share an example with your group.

• • • • • Water
          • • Living water flows.
              • • To be a Christ follower, isn’t just to believe in Jesus, it’s to allow his Spirit to flow through us and into other people.
                • Christianity is on the move. The way Jesus lived flows through us. When they see how we live, they should see something of Christ.
                • To be living water to people means to raise their humanity. To speak life into them so that they can get a taste of how God sees them.
                • Do we raise other people’s humanity, so that they are seen and valued?

Group Question: As a group, talk about some ways that we can treat people with dignity so that they feel seen and valued.

• • • • • Towel
          • • Jesus washes the disciple’s feet – takes off his spiritual garment and replaces it with a towel.
              • • Don’t let your spirituality get in the way of actually taking care of one another. 
                • Do I just want to talk about spiritual things, or am I willing to take care of the person right next to me? Begin with those in your household first. 

Group Question: James 2:15-17, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” 

Similar to the previous question, take one more step and discuss some things that we can do to raise someone’s humanity and meet a need so that they feel seen a valued.

• • • • • Cross
          • • The cross symbolizes forgiveness. 
              • • Not just something small, but the thing we think we can’t ever forgive. 
                • The most pain we will experience will be relational pain. 
                • Do you trust Jesus enough to give him all of your relation pain? He paid for all of it on the cross. We can have full confidence to hand God our relational pain, because his justice will be perfect.

Group Question: Do you have relational pain that you are holding on to instead of forgiving and releasing it to Jesus? Consider sharing that with your group. What is holding you back from forgiving?

• THE TRUTH
  • • Jesus is the truth. He lived the law perfectly. The law is now a person. “I am the truth are there are no others.
      1. Is Jesus the only Savior?
      2. Is faith in Jesus the only path to Heaven?

• • • • • • • Pluralistic
              • • There are many ways to heaven. Every religion is legitimate as long as it’s sincere.
            • Inclusive
              • • Jesus is the only Savior, but Jesus goes by many names.
            • Exclusive
              • • Jesus is the only Savior. Jesus is the only way to heaven.
    • What convinces us that Jesus is the only way?
      • • Sin. 
          • • Sin can drive people away from God when they ask the question, “How can God allow evil to happen?” We stay external.
            • But when we reflect on our own hearts, look inward, and see sin and evil in the world, it becomes obvious that sin starts with me. 
              • • Another school shooting. We grieve. Our hearts break. Do we step back and ask God how he could allow that to happen? Or do we look deeper in our own hearts and see our own propensity to choose evil? 
                • Even though most of us have never considered doing something like that, we are a culture that kills all the time; we kill in the womb, we kill in the hospital bed, we kill with gossip, we kill with rumor, we kill with slander, we kill with mockery, we kill, we kill, we kill.
                • This should bring us back to our own heart. Sermon on the mount, if you’ve been angry at your brother, you’ve killed.
                • Think of how many times we’ve tried to change and can’t. We make the same destructive choices over and over.
                • “The cross is the only intellectually and experientially satisfying understanding of the problem of evil.”
                • Until we face the evil of our own heart, we will go no where. There is no hope of change.
                • But when we face our own hearts, repent of our sin, then love flourishes.

Group Question: In our sinful nature, our first instinct will always be to blame others. Together as a group, brainstorm some ways that we could help each other to slow down and remind ourselves to look inward and examine our own hearts first?

• LIFE
  • • When we walk in “The Way” because we believe Jesus is “The Truth,” “Life” flows out of us. 
    • When we meet people, do we bring them life, or something else? If we don’t bring life, we bring death. 
    • What do people experience when they experience me? 
    • The result of anything but Jesus is death.
    • Does life flow out of me and into you?

• BIG IDEA: Do I believe that Jesus is the way and the truth enough, so that His life flows through me?