One-Way
Notes
Transcript
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Sermon Tone Analysis
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INTRO
If I say Burger King what do you think of?
Whopper
The King
Fast Food
Fries
Burger King came out with a slogan of Have It Your Way in 1974. This slogan summed up its difference with its rival McDonald’s. The slogan fits well with the emphasis in pop culture and on individuality. The line makes total sense at a time when self-expression and mass customization are critical elements of culture.
Slide of Burger King Text
Another fairly well known line that you have seen on bumper stickers is this...
Coexist …
Peace with all is Right
All are right is dead wrong
You might be able to have your burger your way but there is only one way to God!
Big Idea of the Message: How can Christianity claim there is only one way to God?
God has opened a doorway to fellowship with him—and it is open to everyone and all creation.
This is called the Exclusivity of Jesus Christ
Application Point: Through our radical love, service, and kindness, we can live out the good news of Jesus and show others the door God has opened.
PRAYER
A - God we praise you this day! You are worthy of our praise and we gladly bring it to you. You are so far above anything that we could imagine that we are humbled at your very idea.
C - And yet we confess that it is not always this way. There are times that we minimize your glory. There are times that we compromise your word. We do not think of you as we ought to, we do not serve you as we ought to, we do not speak of you as we ought to. Forgive us for our transgression against your glory oh God.
T - Thank you Father for sending your son that we might have fellowship with you. You are so far beyond us that it is only by your coming to us that we have any hope of being with you.
S - As we look to this topic today, of the exclusivity of salvation through your Son the Christ help us to not only mental assent to this truth but also to proclaim it and worship you for it. Let us not grow proud in it but rather rejoice in wonder at and joyfully proclaim it!!
MESSAGE
The Clarity of The Claim
The Clarity of The Claim
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
The Counter to the Claim
The Counter to the Claim
The Fairness Objection
“It is not fair that those who have never heard of Jesus Christ will not be saved. It is not their fault that they will never have the opportunity to hear about Jesus because of where or when they were born.”
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Fair according to whose standard of justice? From the limited perspective of a fallen idea of justice, it might appear unfair, but when you consider the issue from God’s perspective, it appears differently. No human being, other than Jesus Christ, has ever lived a sinless life. The unfairness is that salvation for all nations has been extended to a humanity that is not entitled to it. None of us deserves salvation, and it is only by God’s goodness that salvation is made available to anyone (Rom. 3:23–25).
none of us “deserve” salvation
The Judgmental Objection
“Christians are judgmental to think they have the only answer about God and salvation. It is closed-minded to think a majority of the world is going to hell forever because they do not believe in Jesus Christ, especially when so many have never heard of Him.”
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Christians do not intend any judgmental attitude. We extend the message of forgiveness in Christ through evangelism which is the loving thing to do. Ultimately, it is not Christians who are passing judgment on others for their spiritual beliefs it is God. As followers of Christ, we serve as ambassadors of the message God has communicated about the consequences of sin for humanity and His loving extension of salvation in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:20).
The Universal Objection
“All religions basically say the same thing; we should be good people, treat others well, and seek after God. All faith traditions ultimately lead to God, and there are other avenues by which people who are genuinely seeking God might be saved and eventually come to worship Him in heaven.” Since all roads lead to the top of the same mountain, why get caught up in arguing one belief system over another?”
This is “misinformation / disinformation”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
A survey of world religions demonstrates there are genuine differences between Christianity and other religions. There are contradictory claims, for example, between the teaching of Christianity in the Bible and Islam in the Quran about the divinity of Christ. Christ cannot be both the fully divine second person of the Trinity as Scripture teaches and merely a human prophet as the Quran teaches. Ultimately, Jesus alone is sovereign over all false gods, and every knee will bow to Him alone (Phil. 2:9–11).
The Knowledge Objection
“We just don’t know what happens to people after death. Therefore we cannot know that Jesus is the only way of salvation.”
5 Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. 6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
This objection does not take seriously the passages in Scripture that clearly communicate that God is, that humanity is spiritually dead apart from Christ, and that salvation comes specifically through faith in Christ. For example, consider Ephesians 2, where those apart from Christ are described as “dead” and “children of wrath.” Yet, by faith “in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). The New Testament is clear about the spiritual condition of humanity apart from Christ.
Rather than dismiss the exclusivity of Christ, we should embrace it as an aspect of the glory reserved for the Son of God, and it should motivate us to evangelism.
The Context of the Claim
The Context of the Claim
The Bible is the Word of God
You either believe this or you don’t
You cannot believe apart from God
1 Corinthians 2:12–14 “12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
Early church contemporary culture - the roman gods will bow??
Persecution on behalf of this claim
Current context - around the world
persecution over the name of christ
physical - abuse
social - outcast
intelectual - distain
fear and revolt at the certain
Christ Alone was Conceived by the Holy Spirit and Born of a Virgin
must be fully man to die in place of man
blood for blood
Christ Alone is God Incarnate
must be fully God for the value of his sacrifice to satisfy the demands of an infinitely holy God
illustration of Pacific ocean in a drinking glass
Christ Alone Lived a Sinless Life
Leviticus - a spotless sacrifice without blemish
Must be an acceptable atonement
Christ Alone Died a Penal, Substitutionary Death
the wages of sin is death
christ did not deserve to die
the father imputed to him our sin / he died in our place
Christ Alone Rose from the Dead Triumphant over Sin
rose never to die again
full payment for sin and full victory over sins power
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
The Character of the One who Claims
The Character of the One who Claims
Beware of Arrogance
faith is based on the amazing grace of God
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
we cannot be prideful for we bring nothing
we are not allowed to judge others
Beware of Allowance
salvation is not a license to sin
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
do not misuse our freedom in christ
we must still call sin sin
we cannot practice “inclusion”
Beware of Alteration
let us seek to hold true to the faith with zeal
3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
The gospel is the gospel and there is no other
we cannot adopt other religious beliefs or practices
We must stand on its exclusivity !!
CLOSE
Group Questions
Group Questions
What is one thing that stood out to you from this week’s message?
Do you struggle to trust the Bible? How can you develop a greater appreciation of and trust in Scripture?
What do Christians mean when they say Jesus is the only way to God? Why is it important that Jesus is fully God? Why is it important that Jesus is fully human?
What things cause you to doubt the veracity of the gospel and the work of the last Adam? How does Hebrews 2:1-9 help you overcome those fears and doubts?
As you look at the passages where the Bible says this about Jesus, what stands out to you? Do Jesus and the disciples take an aggressive, argumentative posture, or a serving and loving posture? Why does this matter?
When you picture a doorway to God, do you imagine Jesus opening the door wide or blocking the door? Why does this matter?
Consider the millions of unreached and lost people living today. Now consider what Peter says in Acts 4:12. How should we respond?
What aspects of God’s character do we lose if we remove Jesus from his place as Lord—and why does this matter?
How can we pray for you?
https://www.christianity.com/bible/only-one-way-the-exclusivity-of-jesus-christ-and-the-gospel-11602124.html
https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/exclusivity-jesus-christ/
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1224&context=administration_publications