Jesus is the way to heaven

Introduction

Today we live in a time where it is very easy to get from one place to another. If you have a car you just pop the post code into the Sat Nav and it tells you where to go. It gives you the best route and it tells you how long it will take until you arrive at your destination. I read yesterday that 71% of all UK motorists use a Sat Nav.

But I also read that apparently 87% of them didn’t trust their Sat Nav to take them to the correct destination everytime. And 27% of drivers end up in the wrong place when following a tradition postal address.

In our readin from the Bible we see that the Lord Jesus told his disciples how to get to heaven.

Now if you are trying to get to St Ives because you fancy a day out and you get lost because of a fault with the Satnav then its not a big deal, you can pull a map out, or ask directions from a local.

But if you think you are on the way to heaven and realise actually you are lost and will never get there if you continue on the route you have been taking then thats a much more serious matter.

Thankfully the Lord Jesus tells us the sure way to get to heaven. If you take the route that Jesus lays our in our passage then there is no chance of getting lost.

In our passage Jesus tells his disciples not to be troubled that he is going away, because he will come back and take them to be with him. He tells them that in his Father’s house there are many dwellings and that he is going to prepare a place for them.

The the Lord says “Where I am going you know and the way you know.”

At this Thomas, one of the disciples, says “Lord we do not know where you are going and we don’t know the way.”

To this the Lord Jesus replies, and its this verse I want us to breifly look at, v.6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In this verse Jesus tells his disciples exactly how to get to heaven.

We learn two truths.

I. Jesus is the way to heaven.

II. Jesus is the only way to heaven.

I. Jesus is the way to heaven

Firstly, then we lear that Jesus is the way to heaven.

He says “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

To put it simply Jesus Christ is the way to heaven, and eternal life is only found in him.

Why is Jesus Christ the way to heaven?

Firstly we have to answer why we need a way.

The need of a way to heaven suggests that we are lost.

The Bible says that we have forfieted our right to heaven because of our sin. We have excluded our selves from the glory fo heaven because of the wrong we have done.

The Bible says that nothing unclean will enter God’s heaven and sin has made us unclean in God’s sight.

The Bible says For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God () So this is a problem that every single person has.

So inorder to get to heaven we need to be made clean, we need to have our sins forgiven, we need to have the wrong we have done made right.

We cannot do this ourselves. Good works will not do this.

We need a Saviour.

Thats why Jesus Christ is the way.

He is the one who takes away sin.

A few months back I spoke on the verse from John chapter 1, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and said “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

The reason the Lord Jesus can take away our sin is because he died upon the cross inorder to take the punishment that our sin deserves upon himself. Sin must be punished and when Jesus died upon the cross he died to take the punishment for all who believe.

Three days later God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead to show he accepted the price that Jesus Christ had paid on the behalf of sinners.

Now whoever believes in Jesus Christ for themselves, and trust in his finished work upon the cross to take away their sin are given eternal life as a free gift. They are brought into a loving relationship with God and when they die they go to be with him forever. Not because they are good but because Jesus is their Saviour.

Thats why Jesus can say “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

The Second truth that we learn from this verse is that Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven.

II. Jesus is the only way to heaven

Going back to the Sat Nav illustration. When you use a SatNav there are many different routes that it can take you. It doesn’t always choose the best one but usually it gets you there in the end. Unless you are on of the 21% that ends up in the wrong place.

But here in this verse Jesus says that there aren’t many routes to heaven, to the Father, but rather there is only one way and he is it.

The Lord Jesus says “I am the way, the truth the life and no one comes to the Father except through me.”

Here the Lord says I am the way and I am the only way.

We must ask why?

Why is Jesus the only way?

The Bible tells us in “ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

There is no other Saviour that has been sent by God.

Only the Lord Jesus was sent from heaven to die in the place of sinners, only the Lord Jesus rose again from the dead, only the Lord Jesus has power on earth to forgive sin, only the Lord Jesus gives eternal life.

We cannot trust in ourselves, our own good works, our own good behaviour.

We cannot trust in other people, in the faith of our parents, our loved ones, no other religous leader.

Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.

Conclusion

The question is do you have the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Have you believed in him, are you trusting in him this minute to take away your sin and make your right before God.

If not then believe in him. Ask him to save you, to take away your sin and to take you to heaven.

If you are driving and you realise you are on the wrong road. You don’t stay on that road, you get on the right road as quickly as possible.

If you have realised you have been trying to get to heaven by the wrong route, by good works, by trusting in anything or anyone other than the Lord Jesus to take you there, then you must get on the right route.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.