Sermon Tone Analysis

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 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.”

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.”

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”

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.”

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 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

The Character of the One who Claims