Is Jesus the only way? The Big Questions (Week 5)

Well, we're asking one more big question today, and you get me again, sorry.

Uh, you're probably like I'm already tired of hearing you, but it's probably nothing more than um important I'm gonna say than what I'll say in the next few minutes.

Um, today we're talking about the big question, is Jesus the only way?

And I want to start with a confession.

Everybody loves when the pastor confesses.

Uh I do not like to be boxed in, uh limited or boxed in to only one option.

I like choices.

Let me confess that again.

I feel like I'm getting free.

I like choices.

So if you've ever been to a restaurant with me, even if it's my favorite and I know everything on the menu, and I can order for all my kids up here on the front row uh before they can.

Uh, I'm still gonna read every line of the menu.

I mean, I like options.

I don't want to miss something.

Ben, they might have added something new, right?

Come on.

Like, you don't want to miss it.

Like, I've had boring people in my life that just show up and like, I'll have the hamburger.

I'm like, bro, you didn't even look at the menu.

I don't care.

I'll have the hamburger.

Like, I care, I like choices.

And then it gets worse when I'm driving.

Especially when in Midland where everything's a square and like you hardly get lost.

Like, you can always go a new way.

I got an amen on it.

I like it.

Come on, Denny.

Uh, I some of you guys are like the engineer analytical type who probably put it in your phone and figured out the most efficient way to get home from work.

And you go that way every time.

I can't do it.

I kick, I scream.

I actually don't even think about how I'm going home until I get in the truck.

I'm like, where do I want to go today?

Oh, the places I should go.

And so I just so I just drive.

And let me take you a little deeper.

I was riding with my daughter Molly, who saw and say she was singing, and so my truck, you know, it has like the screen and it has the map and all the things, and there was a map that, you know, identified the direction, and she's like, Dad, you never push go.

My deeper confession is I'm that guy.

I look up the directions and I never push go.

I don't want Siri telling me where to go.

There might be another way.

Wait, we got a confession over there?

All right, J Tom.

All right, come on, baby.

Like you can read them out, right?

You don't need someone to tell you where to go, and who knows you want to deviate.

So there's my sin before you.

Um, but there's one exception.

It's when you're lost or when I'm lost.

When I'm lost, I humble myself and I hit go.

When I'm lost and don't know the way, I don't need options.

I need direction.

I need truth.

And uh that's the tension we live in.

And when we think about Jesus as the only way, we might like Jesus.

Liz, you like Jesus?

Okay, that's the right answer.

That's the kids' ministry answer.

When I walk through the kids' ministry, I'm like, just always say Jesus, you'll be okay.

Um, we might like Jesus, and you might even be interested in the way, but there's something, if we're being honest, about that word only, that sort of rubs us the wrong way.

It's like nags at us.

Jesus is the only way, and much of it is because we've embraced a lot of what culture is saying, because in culture we celebrate options, right?

And we have grown uncomfortable, we have grown uncomfortable.

That's the cult.

We don't like ultimate truth, we want to explore it for ourselves, like Mike on a back road.

Culture tells us, find your own truth.

That's what culture says.

It says, like in a pluralistic mindset, there are many ways to God.

It says, just be sincere.

As long as you're sincere, Gary, everything's gonna be alright, and that sounds amazing, until you realize that your life is on the line, until you consider the weight of eternity, until you think about your soul, and when you start to ponder those things, when the noise is off, maybe you lay your head down and you get that 30 seconds of silence, something starts to kind of nag at you.

Because in that moment, when you're weighing eternity, maybe it's attending a funeral, or somehow you watch a movie and you're all of a sudden considering eternity, you don't want options, you want truth.

Now, before we just assume Christianity is the only culprit when it comes to exclusivity, it's not.

Because the truth is, everybody is exclusive about something.

Even atheists, they're exclusive.

What do they say?

I don't want God.

I want to live without God.

I want to be my own God.

God, you are not welcome here.

They're exclusive.

What about uh secular?

Uh you know, secularism.

Uh God, you can be around, but just be over there.

When it comes to human affairs, we're going to separate those things.

Uh what about every other religion?

Well, they're exclusive because they don't take Jesus' words as authoritative, right?

They're like, well, we figured out another way, and that excludes saying that Jesus is the only way.

Pluralism, that's basically the same idea that says, hey, there's many roads to God.

It's exclusive in the sense that uh Jesus says there's one way.

Are you with me?

So the question is not, is exclusivity wrong?

It is which exclusive truth is actually true?

That's what we want to discover.

And it's here's what we often miss when you're saying, like, all paths.

Have y'all heard that?

Like, you know, it just sounds nice.

I just want to be your friend.

So just find your own path.

But when we literally say all paths lead to God, we're not removing exclusivity, we're actually creating our own.

We're actually uh excluding what Jesus really said.

And when I think about it, without realizing it, we put ourselves in a position of what part of Jesus' words will we accept and what part of Jesus' word we'll reject.

And when you do that, he may be influential in your life, but he's not Lord.

And I think that's why Jesus' words are so important for us this morning.

I believe this room is probably, I mean, there's a lot of believers here.

There's probably some doubters, and that's okay.

We're glad, I mean, where else are you going to be?

We're glad you're here.

But whether either way, it's easy to swim in the culture we swim in and drift from the truth of the word of God.

And so let's look at John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Uh, if you have your Bible, great.

Starting in verse 1.

Um, if you have your phone, great.

Appreciate the Bible app.

Or we'll put it up here in the biggest Bible in the world, up here.

Probably not the biggest Bible in the world, but it's our Bible.

All right, let's look at John chapter 14, starting in verse 1.

John 14 · chapter mention

It says, Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me.

Jesus talking, obviously.

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?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself.

That where I am, you may also be.

And you know the way to where I'm going.

I love Thomas.

I think I'm a mashup between Thomas and Peter, but that's all right.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

That's what we're answering today, isn't it?

How can we know the way?

Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one man, that's that nagging exclusivity, isn't it?

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my father also.

For now you now on you do know him and have seen him.

What's amazing about this is the way Jesus starts.

This isn't a lecture, it's not a debate.

But the disciples, their lives were falling apart.

They were like Mike being lost in South Midland.

They could not figure out the way home.

They needed a global positioning system, they needed a God positioning system, they needed GPS, they needed direction.

What I love about it is Jesus has spent a lot of time with these knuckleheads, he wasn't condescending, he wasn't like, I've already told you.

He starts like a shepherd.

Don't let your hearts be troubled.

Some of you came in this morning and you have troubled hearts because you're just not sure.

And Jesus' words to us, the good shepherd, are not commands, they're love.

Don't let your hearts be troubled.

That's powerful, isn't it?

And lost people, they don't need they don't need uh options, they need clarity.

Look at Thomas here, he says, Lord, remember what he said, like, Lord, we don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

He realizes he's lost.

He realizes in this moment that their world had fallen apart, their expectations had crumbled, and they were unsure of the future.

He says, Show me the way.

He isn't asking for options, he's asking for truth.

If clarity is kindness, then Jesus' next words are the kind are kinder than any words we could imagine.

What he begins to share with him is the good news of the gospel.

So loving, so real, and so full of grace.

Let's look at what it says.

He says, Jesus says, I am the way.

Not I will show you the way.

Like most religions, right?

Or some teachers that have a list of directions.

Oh, I got another confession.

I hate that feature.

That just gives you the list.

Thank you, Ben.

Is that not painful?

I get more lost looking at the list.

Just like I want to see the map.

Sorry.

He doesn't give him a list.

He doesn't say, I'll show you the way.

He literally says, I give you myself.

My gosh, he says, I am the way.

And honestly, every Jewish listener, anyone, you know, that knew the Pentateuch, anyone that would know, would go right back to Exodus.

I think it's Exodus chapter 3, when God spoke to Moses and said, What?

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

I am who I am.

They realized that all of a sudden, wait, Jesus is not a guide, he's God.

And so, not just a good teacher with a degree and a, you know, like who's like kind of charismatic and kind of smart.

No, this is God who has come to rescue me.

Can you imagine how they must have felt when they realized that this changes extra and everything?

The exclusivity of Jesus flows from the identity of Jesus.

The reason he can say what no other God, little G says, is because he is God.

And because he's God, he can say, I am the way.

He again is not primarily a moral teacher telling you how to get to God.

He is God who has come to you.

And man, that is good news.

He doesn't say, go like, here's the way now, go perform it.

Go achieve it.

He says, No, I'm coming to achieve it for you.

It's not come up to me, but it's God who comes down to us.

He says, I am the way.

And when I thought about that, like the way, my mind starts to ponder like the way to where?

Whataburger?

Or like, where are we going?

And a lot of us think, you know, like we're going to heaven, and our image of heaven is like fat babies with pampers on.

And our image of heaven is fat babies with pampers on.

And we're going to float on the clouds.

Or maybe you've heard of a funeral about this, maybe even this scripture about how there's mansions with many rooms.

But Jesus, he does talk about he's going to build a place for you or space for you.

But I believe the emphasis is not on the limitation or the uh mansions and gold-paved roads, because surely God is more than all that.

He's just saying there is a place for you.

There is many rooms.

There is space for you.

Are you with me?

And he says, What I love is the destination is something different.

Look what he says before I get too far ahead of myself.

He says, no one comes to the Father.

Maybe about a place and more about a relationship.

Will did an amazing job uh last week.

He got, you know, he's our church planting resident, so I get to choose.

Like, I'm like, I'm gonna preach heaven, you preach hell.

Uh he did an incredible job and basically defined hell as eternal separation from God.

Sure, we think about hell and flames and all that stuff, and like images of movies and pictures in our mind, but essentially, hell is living for eternity without the relationship of God.

Obviously, the converse of that, what Jesus comes to offer us is what he says, I will take you to the Father.

How many want to be in your daddy's arms?

How comforting is that when we're talking about funerals and real believers and man, we've lost loved ones, and but we know that they they we know that they love God.

How much peace can we know right now that though we miss them in our own hearts, they are with God, they're with the Father, and they're being they're taken like they got it a lot better than we do.

Are you with me?

This is good news.

It's not just a place, but a person.

Jesus had already told him, He said, I go prepare a place for you.

Look at listen to his language.

I will come again and will take you to what a relationship, to myself.

Man, we get Jesus.

There's nothing better than that.

We get Jesus.

He doesn't say you'll find your way.

He says, I will come and take you.

Thank you for your grace.

Jesus is inviting us into a relationship.

Right?

Jesus, this this grace is not about how hard I can work to climb up.

No, he says, like, I will take you.

That's good news.

Jesus is coming to bring you home.

The idea, whether it's secularism or pluralism or atheism, is you don't get Jesus.

And Jesus says, I am the way.

And I bring you into relationship with the Father.

My my.

John did over in John 17.

He says, and this is eternal life.

That they know you.

That's not babies with pampers on and golden mansions in the sky.

This is experiencing an etern eternity with a living God.

And Jesus and John says this, he says, he defines it this way the only true God.

In Jesus Christ, whom you send.

Therefore, the destination.

Heaven is not first about a place to go.

It's about a person to know.

Love that.

And then he says, like, hey, it's not just a place out there, but he says, literally says, I am the access point.

I am the way to that destination.

It's uh, he says, and he goes on to say, no one comes, right?

Except through Jesus.

I looked up no one, and it you know what it means in the Greek.

Maybe there's a little passage of water that you've been hearing about in the news that maybe you never heard before.

I taught geography, so I'm gonna have a little geography lesson.

It's a tiny water passage that's causing quite a how many of y'all or find an honest person.

Glenn, thank you for your honesty.

You can't lie in church.

Who actually had to look up the Strait of Ormoz?

Maybe you don't care, but it's a kind of a big deal globally, and a big deal here, obviously, for us locally.

And if you don't care about anything else, then you can always fill up my truck with gas.

It's a big deal.

And I was thinking about that because you have this tiny waterway.

Do we have that graphic, Zeke?

Yeah, so I'm a little geography lesson.

So obviously, yeah, the big waterway, the straight.

Man, that's a great graphic.

I don't know who did that graphic.

It's that little tiny passage.

Like, let's see that that next graphic.

Bam, right there.

53.5 kilometers at its narrowest point.

And through that, it is literally uh the only it's it's the really the only maritime gateway into the Persian Gulf.

And much of the world's oil supply, along with other things, has to flow through that.

There are no alternate routes, it's narrow.

But it's necessary.

Can you think about that?

And what Jesus is saying, I am your strait of Ormuz.

I am the only entry point.

I am the access, and no one gets to the Father except through me.

Over in John 10, he describes it this way, just to kind of build on that concept.

He literally says, I am the door.

There is no other route.

It's narrow, but it's necessary.

Jesus in love says, I am the entry point.

Can you imagine what the disciples are hearing?

They're like, thank God, there's a way out.

Can you imagine the grace when it no longer depended on them or political power?

But only the good news of the gospel.

When they heard this.

At the deepest level, friends, there's only two ways to God.

Two ideologies.

There's only one way to God.

Two kind of concepts.

You either earn it.

And I thank God I don't have to earn it.

I'm not smart enough, rich enough.

I'm good looking, but not good looking enough.

Come on, baby.

Take him to the eye doctor.

You can either earn it or receive it.

And what I love about this is the grace in this concept.

Most every other religion, what's it say?

It says obey.

Right?

Obey, and then you'll be accepted.

Maybe.

If you obey enough, if you live clean enough, if you do the right things enough.

But that's not the gospel.

The gospel says you are accepted in Christ, and now you can obey.

Listen to John's words when he's describing this gospel.

He says, This is how God showed you, showed his love among us.

Let me say that again.

I butchered it.

This is how God showed his love among us.

He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.

He goes on to say, this is love.

Not that we love God.

Some of us just need to sit under that passage and be humbled.

Because you might have thought you love God so much that He granted you favor.

The Bible's pretty plain.

Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus did what we couldn't do.

He lived the life we couldn't live.

He died the death we couldn't die in our place.

And three days later, he rose again, proving he's the Son of God, saying, I am the access point.

What I love about grace is grace destroys superiority.

It's not built on race, pedigree, riches.

It's not for the rich, the poor.

It destroys the idea of superiority.

There's no room for pride when it's all about grace.

No room to look down on anyone else when it's all about grace.

Because uh ground level is at the foot of the cross.

You know, there's a lot of like uh uh chatter right now about uh what's gonna happen with Israel and uh being a Zionist, and maybe you know, those those those the Jewish people are rejecting God, he'll provide another way.

Can I tell you this morning, there is no other way?

He will contend for his people, uh, Israel, but he will contend on one thing Jesus and Jesus alone.

There is no other way, it's the same, it levels the playing field, Jew and Gentile.

Talk about good news, Gentiles, is that it levels the playing field, it's all by grace, and we all enter by the same way.

It's humbling, but it's man, it is so loving and so good.

Are you with me?

I hope you understand that while it seems exclusive, it is equally inclusive to all who believe.

Pastor Timothy Keller, rest in peace.

We love Pastor Tim.

He says this the gospel is an exclusive truth, but it is the most inclusive, exclusive truth in the world.

Why?

Because Jesus tells us, he says, There are many rooms in my father's house.

There is space available to everyone, each and everyone who put their trust in Christ.

Rick Warnick was here, he's an elder, he'd been serving God for a lot of years, 50, 60 years.

At that same moment, there was about an eight-year-old kid who gave his life to Christ in the last service.

He was sitting right there.

He said, You know what?

I put my faith in Jesus and I want to be baptized.

He's eight years old.

How many of you know what grace does is level the playing field?

That eight-year-old is exactly like the 55 years of faithfulness of Rick Warnick.

The Bible says the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.

Today you might have come in feeling like a stranger, but I can tell you you can leave feeling like family.

Grace level the playing field.

How many of you know we need some grace?

But you can't hear about this grace and stay neutral.

Are you with me?

And why is this so dang hard?

Why is it hard to receive it instead want to earn it?

The truth is we want to be our own boss.

This is I'm gonna go from preaching to meddling.

Like you should have probably brought heart, like your steel toe shoes.

But I'm gonna give you the truth right now, and the same truth for me.

The same reason I don't like to hear go and hit Siri is because I don't want anybody bossing me around.

I want to choose my own way.

Deep down, it is the sin nature.

And the reason exclusivity is so hard is not because we like X don't like exclusivity.

The reason exclusivity is so hard is because if Jesus is the only way, then we better do what he says.

Are you with me?

I'm not yelling.

I'm I'm I am yelling, but I'm not mad.

My wife will be like, baby, they think you're mad at them.

I am not mad, I'm just passing it.

Let's be honest, why we don't like it is not that we reject exclusivity, but we reject his authority over our lives.

You want to be in charge of your way, you're equally exclusive.

You're excluding Jesus' words.

If he is the way, he doesn't just guide your life, he defines it.

If he's wrong, reject him.

If he's right, surrender to him.

We don't get to keep Jesus as a teacher or an influencer or even a savior, if he's not Lord.

He's either Lord of all or not Lord at all.

So to the doubter in the room, some of you have built your life on something else.

Might be chance, like this is all a big experiment, fate.

I lived a long time that way.

I thought I was gonna figure it out until I couldn't.

A lot like when I was lost the other day in South Midland.

I tried to figure it out for a while.

Guess what?

I just got not a word probably, but lost her and lost her.

The question isn't, are you sincere?

It's is it true?

Can it save your life?

I mean, I don't know about you, but if I'm laying dying in a hospital, I don't really care about my preference.

I care about truth.

You can be sincere and still be wrong.

If Jesus is telling the truth, then he's not one option among many.

He's the only way to the Father.

So if you're a doubter here, you are loved.

And the door is wide open for you.

All you have to do is say, I'm gonna stop trusting in myself and start trusting in Jesus for salvation.

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

Chances are more than doubters in this room, there's drifters.

What do I mean by that?

We're swimming in a culture that doesn't like truth, doesn't like exclusivity.

They want us to play nice.

And somehow, maybe your confidence has in him has been shaped more by culture than scripture.

Today's just a day to just like get back to the plumb line.

Recenter your life on Jesus.

Maybe you haven't rejected him, but you've softened him.

He's kind of like Santa Claus.

You know, Jesus, he loves us, he loves everybody.

A hundred percent he does.

God so loved the world, he gave one access point.

We're not comfortable with it, right?

We prefer a different version of Jesus, less exclusive, less authoritative, more aligned with the culture like around you.

I mean, I thought about just printing a bunch of shirts that said Jesus is the only way and make y'all wear them to work tomorrow.

That would be awkward.

But this softened Jesus is not the real Jesus, it's not the real gospel.

At some point, it's not about more information, it's about what you will do with Jesus.

Today, I just encourage you if you're a drifter, that you leave here more confident, sure that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

I just want us to ponder that just for a second.

Because it's easy just to move on, and I know we've gone a little bit long this morning, and we're still gonna receive communion.

But just hang in here with me just for a second.

Jesus, if we've drifted, just bring us back to center.

Let us not run from the truth, but stand boldly on the truth.

If you're in the room and you've never trusted Christ, today's the day.

You're not promised tomorrow.

You know when I was wandering around in South Midland, I was lost, and all I had to do is hit go.

The answer was right in front of me.

Maybe today is your day to hit go with God.

Maybe today is your day to say yes to Jesus for the first time.

And you don't have to do anything else other than just like that eight-year-old boy who said, You know what?

Jesus, I realize Jesus came to save me.

I don't want to follow him all the days of my life.

Can I pray for you?

Father, if there's a doubter out there, someone has not put their trust in Christ, let them do it right now.

Let them say, I've been trying to find my own way, and today I turn from that.

Let them say I've tried to be my own authority and it isn't working out.

Today I turn from that.

I trust you as the way, the truth, and the life.

Forgive my sin and bring me to the Father.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.