Jesus: The Way

The Only Way?

Introduction: If you’ve been around me for a while, you’ll notice that I have some interesting mannerisms: The first is:

I often making a clicking sound when I’m talking, esp when I’m nervous

When doing a video, I’ll put my hands together like this

Instead of Tuesday Night Gathering, I’ll say Gethering.

If i’m eating a meal with veggies, I’ll eat them first to get them out of the way for the good stuff ha!

While watching basically any episode of any show or any movie, I cry ha.

For some reason, every time I have my browser open on my mac, I check facebook. I don’t even like Facebook, but I check it...

Lastly, I sleep talk, sleep yell, and even preach in my sleep sometimes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken myself up in the middle of an amazing sermon…and poor Kaitlen had been awake since the beginning of my sleep sermon ha!

All of these things, are weird, but I do them, and I don’t really know why, ha!

Connection: There are things we do, where we have difficulty explaining why we do them…maybe your roommate snores at night, or smacks when they chew their gum or is super messy leaving food everywhere and doesn’t do their dishes…one of my roommates would watch cartoon at 6a Saturday morning and laugh like this (big belly laugh)…we can all do some strange and weird things and not know why we do them... In a similar way...

Tension: As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the only True Way, and that can seem really strange to those who don’t follow Jesus, and maybe it can sometimes feel strange to us. And we may at times have a hard time explaining why we believe Jesus is the only Way. We know that we believe that, but why exactly Jesus’ way is The Way and we’re sticking with it…we might struggle to answer that.

So, that introduces our question that we’re gonna try to answer tonight...

Question: Why should you follow “the way” of Jesus?

Read Text: John 14:1-7 “1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 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 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.””

Jesus is The Only Way to a heart of peace (14:1)

And we don’t only see this in 14:1 we see it in other places in scripture!

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:4-7 “4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Metaphor: I’m a man of comfort food. Coffee w/ a hot chocolate chip cookie. A hearty steak and potatoes. Anything mexican food. And it brings comfort for a little while, but it wears out. What do you look to for peace? Food? Substances? Looking at explicit content in secret? relationships? Success? Stuff? It doesn’t sustain your troubled heart does it?

Friends, the peace of Christ is comfort food for the soul, the difference being, you only need one serving of Jesus and that will grant you not only access to peace in the present, but everlasting peace with God in eternity!

Why should you follow the way of Jesus?

Bc Jesus is the only way to a heart of peace!

Jesus is The Only Way To Heaven (14:2-4)

Everyone wants to go to Heaven, right? Like no one is like “you know what, hell sounds like a nice place. Eternal suffering and torment and everlasting flames?! Sign me up! ha. No, that’s why when some of us get angry we don’t say: “heaven no...” you tracking?

No, everyone wants to go to Heaven, but not everyone will believe in the reality that Jesus is the only way. They’ll assume that we either all go to Heaven or if they’re a good enough person they’ll get there, but you gotta go through Jesus and believe in His death for your sins and resurrection from the dead!

Now this place Jesus is going to prepare, whatever it looks like, is for sure a reference to the eternal dwelling we will have with Him. Room and house is not the focus however, but the fact that he is guaranteeing the ability to be able to enter Heaven, He is preparing and making room for all who believe in Him!

Although everyone wants to go to Heaven, most people in this room, including me, are tempted to not think about Heaven, or even want or desire it right now. That’s something we can think about when get old right?!

metaphor: Notice how those of you who have Christian grandparents are always thinking about heaven and the end times? My mawmaw: Jesus is coming soon! Why is that? I think it’s because they’ve experienced all that they thought this world can offer them and they’re like “yep, Jesus is better, let’s go be with Him!”

So, are they onto something?

let’s take a look at a little taste of what Heaven will be like …(comment on verses)

Revelation 21:1–7 ESV

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Friends, following Jesus of course has it’s benefits now, but we will be such in awe of the Heavenly reward that He has for us. And again, it’s only through Him that we can get there!

Why should I follow the way of Jesus? Bc He’s the only way to Heaven!

Jesus is The Only Way to God (14:6-7)

Who is standing between us and God The Father? Jesus. He’s the door remember?

And what’s even better is that by knowing Jesus, we know the Father, because they are one. Want a relationship with God? If you know Jesus, you have it!

And again, this is not the only place in scripture that says Jesus is the only way to God… we see it in...

Ephesians 2:18 “18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

1 Timothy 2:5 “5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”

Metaphor: You can take several ways to Lone Tree Ranch for Fall Retreat, but eventually you have to turn on that County Road C001. If you don’t go down that road, you’re not gonna get there friends!

Conection: Xians from all around the world come from different backgrounds (directions) circumstances, languages, cultures and struggles, but everyone eventually has to turn on that county road called Calvary...the only way to forgiveness & reconciliation with God is the road that leads straight to the foot of the cross, friends. The Road to salvation narrows down to a one-lane, one direction highway, and you won’t feel the need to leave once you arrive. Bc that’s where Heaven and Earth meet and we find Jesus, the only way to God! Turn that GPS off, we dont need it anymore. Jesus is gonna show us the way from here!

And why should we be so inspired to want to find THE WAY to God? Why is that such an ultimate and beautiful reward?!

Check this out...

Revelation 21:3 “3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Emphasize 21:3- Some people just want Heaven, however they define Heaven, but Heaven is not ultimately defined by a place, but BY A PERSON: God Himself. In Heaven the ultimate reward you receive is God! So many people are like “I wonder what my ‘room’ or ‘house’ is gonna look like, and I’m like, “man, I’ll be homeless in Heaven, I’m just there for God! Just let me sit in the presence of MY CREATOR!

That’s the ultimate reward of Heaven: God!

Why should I follow the way of Jesus? Bc Jesus is the only way to God!

Jesus is The Only Way out of out of death into life (14:6)

Another way of saying it is, if you don’t go Jesus’ way, every other way leads to hell.

And if you’re still not convinced that the Bible affirms that only Jesus can give life, then you’re about to be blessed friend, Come, let’s reason together from God’s Word…here it is..

Acts 4:12 ESV

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.”

John 11:25 ESV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

John 1:4 ESV

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 6:35 ESV

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

John 8:24 ESV

24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

John 10:9 ESV

9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

And how do we know that we need to be brought from death to life?

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

When you read about Lazarus being dead in that tomb, that’s how you should see yourself before Jesus brought you to life! But if you’re a believer, you didn’t stay dead did you? NO, you came running out of that grave into the arms of The Father!

And if you haven’t believed in Jesus, that’s why you feel so dead inside, and empty, because spiritually you are a corpse in a casket…but that can change if you believe that Jesus can bring you out of the deadness of your sins and into resurrection life where you no longer are a slave to sin but Jesus is now your Lord and King!

Why should I follow the way of Jesus?

Bc Jesus is the only way out of death and into life!

Applications Tonight For Unbelievers and Believers (so-called or genuine)

Answering Common Objections From Those Outside Christianity:

1) There is no way at all (Atheistic Worldview)

2) We can't be sure if there is a way or not (Agnostic Worldview)

3) It doesn't matter because we're all going to die anyway (Nihilist)

4) Jesus can't be the Way because Christians do bad things (Hurting Hypocrite)

5) It's arrogant and unfair to say there is only one way (Universalist)

Regardless of where you stand...

Show me a way of life that you have chosen without God and I’ll show you a better way with God.

Show me a life without ultimate truth and certainty about anything and I’ll show you a life with Jesus as the ultimate truth full of clarity and purpose.

Show me a reason for not believing in Jesus because of bad experiences you’ve had under the banner of his name, and I’ll show you His nailed scarred hands and tell you “His death can overcome even the power of other’s sins that have kept you from Him if you’re willing to accept it!”

You tell me it’s not fair for Jesus to claim He is the only way, and I’ll say to you “ok, you ask your god if he’ll get crucified for your sins…wait where did he go? oh, he didn’t stick around did he? Jesus has earned the right to claim He is the only way...

Because show me another man or woman that claims to be the way, and I’ll show you a God Man that paved the way to Heaven for us with his body, blood, sweat, and tears. The Road that Jesus paved to calvary came at a high cost: his own life.

Lies Xians Believe About Jesus: Satan gets you to believe the lie that Jesus isn’t the way the truth and the life, and so here is one of his effective strategies..

Satan causes you to have a really small view of Jesus....

Your main struggles occur because this is how you see Jesus (pocket Jesus)

1. Jesus is just one of the ways, one of the truths and one little part of my life.

(play talk to the pocket Jesus explaining that he is just one of the ways)

When Jesus is a small little god in your life, you will never experience the life transforming power He has for you, and honestly, I would hesitate to say that you are a Christian, because the Bible says to believe in Jesus to be saved, but if your Jesus is a small little Jesus that doesn’t have the power and authority to tell you how to live! If He is NOT the only way, the ultimate truth, and the source of eternal life, then you are not worshiping Jesus at all, but just a figment of your imagination.

turn to the real Jesus tonight and believe in Him!

2. You are the way, the truth, and the life, not Jesus.

(play talk to the pocket Jesus as if He isn’t big enough (britches are too little to be making those claims) I’m just gonna pick you up and set you over here)

And when we set Jesus aside, Let me show you how this fleshes out in real life. I’m gonna go straight for the jugular of your typical life experience…let’s talk about the general struggle with anxiety/depression/angst in your age, not clinical, but general. I’m talking about an anxiety and general mental state that you have total responsibility and control of...

Millenials and Gen-Z are so anxious all the time, and Christians are no an exeption... Why?

Because how we function day-to-day is like this.. we may not say it, but with how we live our lives we say about ourselves “I am God. I am the way, the truth and the life.” You worship the idol of yourself...

And so when we put ourselves as the Way, what that means as we have rested our entire life’s purpose and meaning upon what we can do and accomplish within ourselves.

When we’re the truth, whatever we feel is true..andt that’s a bad way to Go! When we do that we “follow our heart” and that is a terrible idea because scripture says in Jeremiah 17:9 “9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Lastly, we look in the mirror and say “I am the life.” I decide what is life-giving, all that I do and all that I will become will be the pinnacle and essence of living. For many of us, your world revolves around you. You act as if you are the source of life. It’s one thing to love yourself. It’s one thing to have self-care. It’s another thing to have SELF WORSHIP. And we have a lot of self worshipers..and guess what, when we worship ourselves and say “in me and all that I am is life,” we are worshiping someone, ourselves, that can only yield death, not life. The only one that can yield life is Jesus, but we have said, naw, I’ll take myself. And when life doesn’t go as we had hoped and we don’t prove to be as life-giving as we thought, of course that makes us anxious and maybe a little bit depressed.

Friends, its no wonder so many of feel so messed up, it’s because your way, your truth and your life is YOU. And you in reality have no clue where to go or how to live without guidance, you believe things are true that are not true and your days often depend on how you feel, and you apart from God or not life giving but death giving.

When we do this we have rigged our lives to be a total mess.

Unless you repent of worshiping yourself your gonna go to counseling and have anxiety, panic attacks, not follow through on your commitments, and be a very wimpy Christian that will never be able to make disciples because are not reflecting the image of God, Jesus, in your life, but simply reflecting your own sinful self.

Repent. Cast yourself off of that throne and let Jesus take His rightful place as The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Then the power of his words “let now your hearts be troubled’ AND HIS surpassing peace that Philippians talked about will usher in, because your peace and hope and joy are no longer dependent and founded on you, but on the Prince of Peace and Giver of Joy! Amen?!

Resolve: Friends, for some reason we try to worship a little bitty Jesus, but that Jesus doesn’t even exist. It’s a lie from Satan to get us to view Jesus like that.That’s not the Jesus who created the world with His words, that’s not the Jesus who parted the red sea, that’s not the Jesus who fed the 5,000, that’s not the Jesus who turned water into wine, that’s not the Jesus who rose Lazarus from the dead, who caused the blind to see, who made the lame walk, and the deaf to hear… or as Michael Scott said “healed leopards (Lepers)

NO the Jesus who did all those things and more...that is the Jesus who has all power and authority to say “I AM THE WAY, THe TRUTH, ANd THE LIfe,” and only by believing in me and following me will you be saved from your sins and find true life.

Conclusion: One of my favorite things is seeing Jesus and references to Him in the Old Testament. Sometimes it’s subtle, but it happens a lot in prophetic books, and in particular, I love how I can find how Jesus ultimately fulfills a lot of the Psalms written in the Bible. It’s like on the other side of the cross we can look back at the Psalms and say “wow, that prayer that David prayed and promise He declared was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus.” Tonight, I want to show you how the one who calls Himself the Way, the truth, and the Life, was calling out to us thousands of years before He came to this earth as a man…look at this with me...

Psalm 25:1-5 “1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

The reality is that all of us have the same need as David: we have an ultimate problem: us. We find ourselves constantly in a place where we don’t know what to do, or where to go, or what to believe. This can be because of something we’ve done, something that has happened or happening to us, or something that seems random and out of our control…either way we can resonate with David saying:

“God, show me your ways - ie what are you doing?!” Teach me!

Lead me, I don’t know where to go and I don’t know what to believe or what to do!

And it wasn’t until this morning that I noticed something that I want to share with you… In verse 4 of chapter 5, does a particular word stick out to you?

The word I’m talking about is “ways”

Why should that stick out?

Well, Jesus said He is The Way, The Truth, And The Life...

And wouldn’t you know that in the Old Testament through a simple word search, this word “ways” translated into Greek is the same word Jesus used when He called Himself “the Way.”

What does that mean friends?

That means that David’s prayer in Psalm 25 from long ago was answered in a way that he could have never imagined!

It means that God said “ok, I’m gonna make my WAY known not only to you David, but ALSO to everyone who is seeking my Way.”

And friend, tonight, no matter where you are, this is what I want you to hear:

God’s “Way” has a name, and His name is Jesus. And He has made Himself known.

Will you allow Him to lead you, to teach you, and to follow him, and as the Psalm 25 says in verse 5: will you trust in Jesus, The Way, as your God of salvation, follow Him day by day by day, all the way into eternity when you see Him face to face?

That’s the invitation that is on the table tonight!

Why should you follow the way of Jesus?

He’s the only way toward a heart of peace.

He’s the only way to Heaven

He’s the only way to God

He’s the only way out of death and into life

And even more than that, He in Himself is, THE WAY.

Believe in Jesus. The Way. The Truth. And The Life.

Heads bowed, Eyes closed:

I want to talk to those who would say they don’t know Jesus as The Way, or feel very far off from Him. If tonight, God has been stirring in your heart the desire to embrace and believe in Jesus as The Only Way, to follow Him, to trust that He died for your sins and rose from the dead, to say Jesus You are my greatest pleasure and purpose and The only way I want to go, would you just lift up your head so that I can pray for you silently up here?

Now I want to talk to those who are saying I’m a Christian. I follow Jesus, The Way.

If you were to be honest and say, ‘you know, i’ve claimed Jesus, but until tonight I really had no idea what all it meant that He is The way, the truth, and the life. Maybe I haven’t understood the Gospel, or maybe my faith has been very shallow and tonight I just want to dive into the deep end and fully embrace and reconcile my shallow life with a life of deep commitment to Jesus…that means “hey, I’m done playing games and treating God and church like one little part of my life, but I’m saying Jesus you are MY LIFE, you are my TRUTH, you are MY WAY...

would you also lift up your head so that I can pray for you as well?

Now with heads still bowed and eyes closed, no one is looking around, judging or being nosy about the business you have going on with God tonight, what I’m going to ask you to do, is if you are one of those who looked up to acknowledge ‘hey, God is working on my heart in these ways,” I’m going to ask you, while everyone’s eyes are still closed, to follow through with what God is doing in your life and walk over to our Jesus over everything else banner, and some of our staff love you and want to pray for you and talk through what God has put on your heart, and help shepherd and lead you toward allowing the seed God planted to come to fruition, seeing the fruit of obedience and following through on this commitment. There is no magic in walking to the banner, but to let another brother or sister come alongside you, now that’s powerful and something we want to invite you into, challenge you toward, and offer up to you tonight.

Let me pray and while I’m praying you can use that time to walk over and allow us to help lead you through this significant decision in your life…