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CPT: Jesus is the only way for for humans to go to heaven.
Purpose: Describe to the church the exclusivity of Jesus.
CPS: Jesus is exclusive in his claim as the pathway to heaven.
Introduction
Do all roads lead to heaven?
We are in our God Questions series, where we are talking about the reality and reliability of the Christian faith.
This particular question, do all roads lead to heaven, is an important one.
I was particularly struck by that question this past week.
I was in Sacramento for a few days earlier this week at a church event.
During my time up there, I used Uber to get myself back and forth from the hotel where I was staying.
Riding in an Uber is a great opportunity for faith conversations.
I kind of have a built in advantage in my job title.
I soon as I tell people that I’m a pastor, they kind of tense up.
“Okay, here it comes.
Why did I start talking to this guy?
Okay, now, what did I learn in Sunday School?”
The Uber driver picked me up from the church, which was another opportunity for a faith conversation.
I asked him if he went to church.
He said that he is a Muslim, and so I asked him if he went to the mosque.
He was nervous.
He admitted that he didn’t pray as regularly as he was supposed to.
You know, people in Islam are required to pray five times a day.
He admitted that he wasn’t practicing Islam like he knew he should.
He was worried if what he was doing, not praying, was a sin.
Well, I asked if he read the Koran.
He said he didn’t understand it, but he could read it, meaning that he could sound out the words.
I asked if he ever read the Bible.
He said no.
He said the Bible was just another book, and it all gets you to God, right?
I gave him an answer to that, and its along the same lines from what we are going to look at today.
Do all roads lead to heaven?
Are all people on some circuitous path that get them to the same place?
We will look at that through Jesus’ words in John 14:1-7:
Scripture Reading
Pray
In John 14, we will focus specifically on verse 6, Jesus’ claim that he is the way, the truth, and the life.
Many of us may be familiar with that verse.
This verse comes in the context of heaven.
Jesus is describing this place where humans are with the Father.
He calls for people to believe in him so that they can abide in his Father’s house.
It is a place that Jesus is preparing for people.
Jesus says he is going away to prepare this place for his people, and says he will come again to bring people to this place.
He says that if anyone wants to go to heaven, the place where God exists, this beautiful place prepared for humans to exist forever with God, it can only come through believing in him, in Jesus.
He emphasizes this in a way that is very Hebrew.
The Bible uses repetition to say something is certain and sure.
It will say, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come” (Rev.
4:8).
It will say, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight” (Prov.
3:5-6).
The Bible will say something, and then to emphasize, say it again in a different way to make it clear that this thing is certain.
Jesus uses that here in verse 6. Jesus says, “I am the way.
I am the truth.
I am the life.
And just to make sure you get it, here is the main point, no one comes to the Father but through me.”
Then to repeat it one more time, in verse 7, “If you know me, you will also know my Father.”
Let’s take a look at these three claims by Jesus, as the way, the truth, and the life.
First,
Jesus is the only way humans can connect with God.
State the point; Anchor the point; Validate the point; Explain the point
Text: John 14:6; Matt.
7:13-14; John 10:9
Filler.
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Jesus claims to be the exclusive path to God
Jesus says in John 14:6 that he is the way to God.
He is the direction post, the pathway for humans to connect to the Father.
He says something similar to this in Matthew 7:13-14, where he describes himself as a narrow gate.
Jesus provides this narrow gate, this small path that many people don’t choose to go down.
Instead, most people choose this wide and broad road that leads to destruction.
The wide and broad road
What does this wide and broad road look like?
Well, if you look at the world today, there are a lot of people who don’t follow Jesus.
Here is a list of people who follow different world religions:
Christianity - 2.38 billion
Islam - 1.91 billion
Unaffiliated (Atheist, agnostic…) - 1.19 billion
Hinduism - 1.16 billion
Buddhism - 507 million
Folk Religions - 430 million
Other Religions - 61 million
Judaism - 14.6 million
(source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/religion-by-country)
According to this list, Christianity is followed by 2.4 billion people.
Now, that includes everyone who would call themselves Christian, and doesn’t look into what they call Christianity.
It’s a mix of people who just identify as Christian but may not in fact be in Christ.
But, we’ll take it at face-value.
Suppose for arguments sake that there are 2.4 billion Christians in the world.
It’s probably less than that, but let’s say that’s the number.
Well, in 2021 the world’s population was estimated to be at 7.837 billion!
That means, and I’m not great with math, but running some numbers, on any given day there are at least, at minimum, 5.4 billion people on earth who are on course to enter eternity without Christ!
That number is huge.
It’s why people come up and say, “Oh, in the end, there must be some kind of winding road that all of these people take to get to heaven.
After all, aren’t they all talking about the same God?”
The problem is that all of these religious ideas and systems contradict each other.
Christians say that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is God in the flesh.
But Islam says that Jesus was just a man, a prophet, a good man, but just a man, and not God.
Atheists say there is no God.
Hindus will take Jesus and try to stick him in with a whole pantheon of other gods that they worship, saying they are all gods.
Jesus can not be God and not god at the same time, or be the only way to God and be just an example of God among many ways to God.
Or Jesus can’t be God and also God does not exist.
Clearly out of all of these systems to know God, they cannot all be right.
All of these paths do not lead you to God.
Rather, the evidence around us shows that many are walking contradictory roads.
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