Is There Only One Way to God? | Dr. David Jeremiah | John 14:4-6
Is There Only One Way to God? | Dr. David Jeremiah | John 14:4-6
Message Description:
Many people ask if there is only one way to God. Learn why there is only “one name” by which we can be saved—it is the name of Jesus.
the Bible teaches us that the part of us that is dead toward God which is true of everyone before they meet Christ that deadness becomes alive and the Bible says it’s not just life it’s Abundant Life I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly John 10:10 Jesus Christ did not come into this world simply to invigorate our old sin nature he did not come to just refine the ugliness in our life Jesus came into this world to give us a whole new life where there was deadness that
we might know God and come alive spiritually I don’t know any better way to describe what happens to a person who accepts Christ they just come alive spiritually we see it in the testimonies in our baptistry we read it in the emails in the letters that come and tell us what happens they were dead toward God and then something happens and receive Jesus Christ and all of a sudden the way toward God is opened in our age of pluralism and tolerance the question is there only one way to God is the most toxic and
volatile question you could ever ask on the night of his arrest Jesus addressed this very question he was gathered together in the upper room eating and drinking with his chosen disciples and he spoke to them about a number number of troubling things that would soon take place and then he comforted them with these words which are known to us he said to them let not your heart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me in my father’s house are many mansions and if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place
for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also and where I go you know and the way you know well when Jesus said that to his disciples that the way to God was certain and knowable doubting Thomas one of his disciples spoke up and he said to Jesus in verse 5 he said Lord we don’t know where you’re going and how can we know the way obviously Thomas hadn’t been listening to what Jesus said he got it all wrong he didn’t understand that
Jesus had just got done telling him that he was going to go to heaven he was going to prepare a place and he was going to come back and get them and take them uh to the place where he was Thomas obviously thought Jesus was talking about going someplace in Israel and hiding out and he wanted to know how would he be able to find Jesus and how would he get there if he didn’t even know where he was going how would he ever know the way he was looking for some sort of Earthly map to where Jesus was going you see Thomas’s problem was his
mind was on Earthly things Jesus was trying to communicate something spiritual and the answer that Jesus gave is the question that we’re talking about today the answer that he gave is John 14:6 listen these are the words of Jesus and Jesus said to Thomas Thomas I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me in that powerful statement Jesus declared himself to be the answer to the three greatest questions of the human heart to the first question how can I be saved he
said I am the way the second one how can I be sure he said I’m the truth and the third how can I be satisfied he said said I am the life I’m the way the truth and the life and Jesus claims that he is the answer to Life’s greatest question by pointing to himself and saying I I only am the way to God we are like Adam and Eve after they were thrown out of the garden we keep looking and looking for something to satisfy us and we can’t find it there’s this emptiness in our lives but here is the good news when
Jesus Christ came he came specifically to fix all of the things that were broken because of the Fall he came to be the one who would restore our fellowship with God he came to be the truth about God in his very being and he came to give us life not just in Heaven someday by and by but life in the here and now that’s better than anything you will ever find anywhere in in reality Jesus is communion restored he is truth recovered and he is life regained notice first of all he is communion restored he said I am the
way apart from Christ you are barred from communion with God because of sin but Jesus says that he came to remove that barrier the Apostle Paul said it this way there is one God and one mediator between God and man and it’s the man Christ Jesus he came to be the bridge to open up the way again so that we could have fellowship with god he has come to be the way now we believe all of us that Jesus is the teacher of the way we accept the fact that he is the guide along the way but that’s not what he is
saying here he is saying here that he is the way he’s saying I am the way to restore communion with with God now if you have come to this church for very long you have probably heard the rumor that your pastor is directionally challenged that I spend at least a few moments every week totally lost I have so many stories I could tell you of how I have lost my way one of the most profound ones that I thought of this week was when I was a pastor in Fort Wayne on one occasion I was conducting a funeral and I was in my
car following the hearse to the graveyard and I was talking to a friend of mine about a church that we were trying to help over here and instead of following the Hearst I took the right turn and went to the church the hearse went to the funeral and I didn’t know where the cemetery was it took me a while to get there and when I got there they were waiting for me and I’m telling you the truth from that moment on that funeral director would never let me conduct a funeral unless I promise to ride with him that’s
how bad it is and of course now we have all of these wonderful devices that are supposed to help us find our way I have two I have one in my car and one in my phone but what I’ve discovered is that they don’t always agree so here I’ve got the voices of two women I’ve never met telling me where to go and half the time they get me more lost than if I would just try my best it’s so bad for me friends that often times when I get to a place where I have to make a decision if it seems right to go right I go left
suppose I were to go to another city and I was visiting there and I needed to find a place and I would go up to a man and say to him I need some directions to this location and he would to say to me here’s what you need to do Pastor Jeremiah take the first right and then the second left cross the shopping mall Bridge go to past the church and take the third right I’m in trouble right there I can’t listen fast enough or even write fast enough to hear what this man is saying and I will probably be too
