Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus is the Way

Who is Jesus Christ?

In our culture today He is different things to different people, even among professing Christians.

In a time when truth is relative and subjective, each seems to define Jesus Christ according to their own eclectic preferences like a combo meal.

In cultures and nations around the world He is seen in different ways.

To some He was a heretic, to some just another prophet, and to others a great hoax and myth.

To some historians and intellectuals He was merely an apocalyptic pontificator, a charismatic healer, a cynical philosopher, another Jewish Messiah, and a messenger or advocate for social change.

But the real question, the question that will determine your eternal future, is who is Jesus Christ to you?

I saw a social media post from a lady in another nation who had become a Christian recently.

All her post were about celebrating Christmas.

The focus seemed to not be on the Christ or even worship of the Christ but on the decorative lights.

Sadly, I thought to myself, when the West exports the Gospel, this is the majority of what people take away from it - how we celebrate holidays.

Who Jesus Christ is, is demeaned down to holiday festivities and decorations.

I have nothing against holiday festivities and decor.

I love to shop at Hobby Lobby and when the house is all decorated.

But I am concerned, as evident in our international exporting of religious practice we call Christianity, that we have merely used Jesus Christ as an excuse for cultural holidays.

Does Christ define our Christmas and Easter or does Easter and Christmas define our Christ?

As Dr. Seuss puts it, “And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?”

To the Follower of Christ who has surrendered to His Lordship, Jesus is more than a baby in a manger, a moral teacher or rabbi.

To the true believer in who He is, not just what He accomplished, Jesus Christ is more than another prophet or spiritual guru.

In fact, to the mature Christian, Christ as become so much more than a deliverer and redeemer, he has become the very essence of all that shapes and defines who they are, the choices they make, the way they live every single moment of every day.

He defines their inner most self, their thoughts, emotions, hopes, dreams and ambitions.

To the sold out disciple of Christ, He is the way, the only way, there is no other.

So what does it mean, Jesus is the Way?

I remember as a child the popular symbol of pointing your index finger to the sky and exclaiming, “One Way Jesus!”

But what does it truly mean?

What did Christ mean when He said, “I am the way”?

In the days of Christ the phrase “the way” was a concept from the term Halakah הֲלָכָה meaning the way to live according to the Torah both the oral and traditional laws of the Jewish people.

Some even consider that the concept of the word may be descended from hypothetical reconstructed Proto-Semitic root halak meaning "to go", which would give new meaning to the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20.

The use of the word “Go” would be in contrast to the Hebrew concept of aggadah (“the telling”).

In other words, Jesus would have been commanding His followers to not just go and tell others about Him but to show them who He is with how they lived their lives in the same way He lived His.

What does Scripture say about “the way”?

Can you imagine, there in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve stand listening to the voice of the serpent gazing upon the forbidden while right there given as a choice was “The Way”, the Messiah, to the Tree of Eternal Life and they chose Him not.

Throughout Scripture God presents to us two ways that a man may choose:

The way of the Lord God which is the way of life through his righteousness.

Opposed to the way of the wicked which is the way of death.

It is the way of the man who does not live the way of the Lord.

I fear that so many in the Body of Christ have defined Christ according to humanistic cultural assimilation, Christ is simply “My way”.

In essence, instead of me conforming to His way, I assimilate Christ into my way.

Folks, He is the only way and people must know.

If you do not show them who will?

Who is He to you when no one else is looking?

Who is He when your children look at you? Who is He when you are in a crisis?

Who is He when you are not the preacher, teacher, or musician?

Who is he when you facing hardship, sickness, or great loss?

I hear your words Christian.

You say He is savior, deliverer, healer, your refuge and Lord.

I hear you sing about Him and who He is.

I know you read some books and post some memes about who He is.

But just don’t tell people, show them with your life.

Jesus is the Truth

So often I use Hebrew words that most are unfamiliar with.

In previous messages I have broken down the Hebrew word emet which means “truth” and how in it we find a deeper sod (Hebraic revelation of the Christ) of Yeshua being the way, the truth and the life.

But in this lesson I want to start with a Hebrew word that you are probably all extremely familiar with.

The seemingly simple littler word אָמֵן (amen) can be found in thousands of languages around the world and revealing an essence of Messiah few will ever know.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Etymology)

The common understanding of the Hebrew term “amen” (אָמֵן, amen) is “truly, surely, let it be so.”

It carries a basic meaning of “reliable,” “trustworthy,” or “firm” (HALOT, 63–64).

Etymologically, “amen” is related to the nouns “steadiness,” “trustworthiness” (אֱמוּנָה, emunah), and “truth” (אֱמֶת, emeth).

The Septuagint includes seven untranslated instances of the term “amen” (ἀμήν, amēn; Num 5:22; Neh 5:13; 8:6; 1 Chr 16:36; Jer 11:5).

It translates the other instances into Greek using various terms, including (Moberly, NIDOTTE, 428):

• the verb “may it be” (γένοιτο, genoito)

• the adjective “true, faithful” (ἀληθινόζ, alēthinoz; Isa 65:16)

• the adverb “truly” (ἀληθῶς, alēthōs; Jer 28:6)

But what is the true essence of the simple little word and how does it apply to the Christ?

The essence of the word is “affirmation”.

The word amen is the affirmative response to a blessing from God.

According to Joseph Lowen (Hebrew Speak), “the closest equivalent can be found in modern American slang.

The expression ‘Right on’ is, believe it or not, probably the most proximate to the original sense of the root אָמֵן (Alef, Mem, Nun), which, as a verb, meant ‘to array in a straight line.’”

This understanding gives way to a deeper context of the Messianic prophesies such as that found in Isaiah.

In Jewish history and the story of Hadassah (Esther), a derivative from the root is found.

In context of Hadassah and Mordecai we find the word אָמַן (aman) meaning to tutor, to teach, and to bring up a child in the way they should go.

Many Christian parents have quoted it in hopes that their child would somehow just get it through parental hopes.

This verse starts with the idea of אָמַן aman (mentor, train, tutor, teach) them in the way.

Note that in this Proverb we see “the way”.

Conceptually, it is indeed the idea of halak or the way of Christ and the Law of the Lord.

But the word actually used here is the word דֶּרֶךְ derekh meaning the path or journey in which one takes.

In other words, parents are to guide their children through choices and help them make the right ones in leading by example.

This is the upbringing of a child in true affirmation found in Christ not cultures postmodern humanism of self actualization.

What is self-actualization?

By definition it is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where one achieves the highest level of psychological development, where personal potential is fully realized after basic bodily and ego needs have been fulfilled.

Can you say, perversion of truth?

Unfortunately, entire generation have been raised under this perverted humanistic concept and just look at us now.

But this is not the way of Christ nor the truth.

Contrary to modern culture and Christian easy belivism, there is but one truth.

So many people live by untruths that have molded and shaped their worldviews.

There are consequences to untruth.

But there is only one antidote to untruth and that is truth.

Untruths can lead to a false identity, broken relationships, despair, discontentment, confusion and all kinds of dysfunction.

But truth can restore.

When untruths creep in trust is lost.

Trust in relationships, trust in identity, trust even in truth.

But if you want restoration, let truth have its way.

Merriam-Webster defines truth as “reality”.

Truth is the affirmative.

Therefore, truth cannot be subjective or relative.

It must be absolute and transcendent.