I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life
1. HOOK
- Using masking tape or chairs, set up an obstacle course for a kid volunteer. Take your volunteer outside of the class and tell them that the class will shout directions to them to help them get through the course.
- While you or your helper has the volunteer outside of the class, give instruction to the class to give wrong directions. Put your volunteer at the entrance to the maze and blindfold them. When your volunteer begins to make his way through the maze, he will undoubtedly get off course or bump into chairs. When it is obvious that he will not be successful, stop the class and ask him what the problem is. He will say that he can’t understand the directions to get through. Now, start over again, but this time you take the hands of the child and walk him through the course. He will still be blindfolded and the class will still be shouting out the wrong directions, but this time he will be successful because of your direction.
- Explain to the class: When we are on our own, we cannot find our way because of all the wrong directions from the world. We need someone to show us the way. Who is this someone? Jesus
2. LESSON: I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14)
- One night, Jesus and his disciples were eating together. It was the night Jesus was going to be betrayed.
- Jesus was preparing His disciples about what was going to happen next. He knew it would be a troubling time, so He wanted to reassure them. He also told them that He will be going back to God, the Father, to prepare a special place for all of them and He is coming back for them.
- “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.You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)
- One of His disciples, Thomas, asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
- That’s a good question. How would the disciples know where Jesus was going? How were they supposed to find their way to God? Do you think they had a map? Or a GPS?
- No, they didn’t have all of that. But they had the one thing they needed. Jesus.
- Jesus said, “I AM the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
- Just like in the game we played earlier. Man was separated from God, and man has always tried to find his way back to God. But the world shouts all sorts of wrong directions. And in our own strength, we cannot find the way.
- But when Jesus is in us, He becomes our (only) WAY to the Father;He is our TRUTH (so we don’t have to listen to the lies the world tells us); and He gives us LIFE forever with Him.
- Jesus had to die on the cross to open the WAY for us to the Father.Jesus is the ONLY way. We can’t reach God by our own good behaviour or works, or by any other religions and beliefs. Only Jesus.
- Jesus’ death made us holy/righteous/clean because He is the TRUTH — the perfect man who was punished for the sins of the world.
- After Jesus rose again and returned to heaven, His Holy Spirit came to live in us forever. This Holy Spirit is His LIFE living in us.
- For older classes:How can Jesus claim to be the Way, the Truth and the Life? How can Jesus claim to be the ONLY way to God? Because He is GOD.
“Anyone who has seen me has seen 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.”
- And when we receive Jesus into our hearts, the Holy Spirit lives in us. Jesus said, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:20) God — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit — lives in us today! He is our life!
Conclusion
- Jesus = the Way, the Truth, the Life
- Jesus is ALL we need. We just need to believe and receive Him.
- Jesus + Nothing = EVERYTHING!
3. ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS
- Memory verse activity/game: John 14:6 Jesus said, “I AM the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
- Song: One Way, Jesus
