No Other Name | Pastor Jerbin Romero

If you grab your Bibles, I want you to grab them.

Turn to John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

That is where we're gonna be at this morning.

That was a powerful moment of worship.

And that's what we're all about here in United City.

I argue, like I argued last service, that we have the greatest pastor in the country.

That we have the greatest staff team in the whole world.

Come on, yep.

And today you get to hear from the best Spanish pastor in North America.

So hey church, we love you guys.

Um I have the great privilege of serving as a Spanish pastor here at United City for the past four years.

God has been doing amazing things at one o'clock.

However, though, none of that would be possible without my beautiful family, my wife Andrea, Nathan, Matthew, uh Caleb, and Leah.

Princess Leia is what I call her.

Stole in my heart.

Um, but I go to say that God has just done amazing things.

We've baptized over 80 people.

180 people have come to salvation in the past couple of years.

So it just goes to speak that God's favor is over United City.

So I want to ask you three things.

Continue praying for us, continue giving, and continue serving.

Because we truly are working together to advance the kingdom of God.

Uh, before I was called to be a pastor, though, I spent almost nine years in the military.

And if you've never served, uh, here's something that you learn fast and very quickly.

You literally meet people from everywhere.

And when I say everywhere, it's everywhere.

Every background, um, every state, every country, every faith that you've ever heard of, and some that you even haven't heard of.

Uh, I met Muslims from places I've never been able to find on a map.

I met Mormons.

I met guys who grew up Jehovah's Witnesses, uh, guys who didn't believe in anything at all.

And the reality is, this is the pattern that I saw over and over and over again in nearly every single one of the conversations I would have.

Nobody wanted to talk about it.

Religion was the one topic that everyone silently agreed to leave alone.

Politics, sure, we'll talk politics.

You bet.

In the military, you talk.

Family, sure, we'll talk.

Family.

But faith, faith, that stayed in the footlocker.

And on the rare occasion that it did come up, it was because it was probably late at night.

We were probably deployed somewhere.

We didn't want to be.

People were probably scared, people were probably grieving lost earlier in the day.

There was always one sentence that showed up no matter who was in the room or what they believed.

Some version of, I think we're all basically headed to the same place anyway.

I heard it from guys who hadn't been in church in 15 years.

I heard it from people who would pray five times a day.

It didn't matter what they actually practiced.

When the conversation got close to the real question, everyone reached for the same exit, different roads, same destination.

They'd say things like, be a good person, mean well, and all just work out.

Don't worry about it.

And I'll be honest with you, there were moments where I had the opening to say something different, but I just let it pass.

Because I told myself that it wasn't the right time.

I told myself that I didn't want to make it weird with the guy that I was gonna share a bunk with for the next six months on deployment.

So I nodded my head, I kept the peace, and I just let the moment go.

I didn't know yet what I'm about to tell you this morning, but I wish someone had told me I knew it.

That sentence that I kept hearing, whether it was in the barracks, in the chow hall, on the flight deck, preparing for a mission, it wasn't just a soldier's way of coping.

It was one of the most common ideas in the world today.

That all religions are basically climbing the same mountain, that all religions are basically the same map, different paths, same summit, different trails, different traditions, different names for what's at the top, but they all eventually arrive at the same place.

God, enlightenment, peace, or whatever you want to call it.

It doesn't matter which path you take, as long as you're climbing and you're working hard.

And that I feel that idea feels uh generous, it feels humble, it feels like the exact thing that a kind person would believe, an educated person would believe, a tolerant person should believe in a world that is currently divided.

And I want to be honest with you, there's something in that idea that I deeply respect because it comes from a place uh from a desire not to be arrogant, not to write off millions of people who are just wrong, because that instinct of looking for a higher power is not evil, it's actually trying to be very loving.

But here's a question that no one is asking who drew the map?

Because that's where every religion is.

It's a map, it's a claim about where the mountain leads, what the summit looks like, and how do you get there?

And maps aren't always equally trustworthy just because they're maps, a map is only as good as the person who drew it.

That's why Waze is better than Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Did they actually make the climb?

Did they come back?

Or are they describing a summit that they've only imagined?

Because hear me on this church, every major religious tradition in human history that we know has a founder, they have a prophet who handed people a map and said, This will get you there.

Follow this law, walk this path, surrender to this.

Every one of those people pointed away from themselves to something else no one claimed to be the destination.

None of them claim to have already submitted to the top and come back down to carry you up themselves, except for one person.

And so that tension that you just felt, that's exactly where we're gonna be at this morning.

Week four of Taboo series, where we as a church go to places where most churches avoid.

We've talked about Israel and Palestine, we talked about the D-word, divorce.

Last week, Pastor Chris gave us a masterclass on AI in the church, and today might be the most uncomfortable conversation of the whole series.

We're gonna be talking about other religions.

Specifically, though, we're gonna talk about the claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, not one way, not the best way, the only way to God.

Because we, before we go any further, I do want to point that this message is not made or designed to make you feel superior or better than your Muslim co-worker or your Mohammed friend or a person who is Jehovah's Witness that you know.

Because if that's where you land today, let me just tell you, you missed the whole point.

This message is about love and what love looks like when souls are at hand, when the stakes are eternal.

Today, we're gonna learn how to love and not lecture.

So I want you to think about someone in your life right now.

Might be a coworker, might be a family member, a neighbor, someone that you probably eat lunch with, maybe share a fence with, um, someone who you probably sit across the Thanksgiving dinner table from, someone who you genuinely care about, who doesn't know the Jesus that we're gonna talk about here today.

And I want you to do this little exercise with me just for 30 seconds.

Would you hold their face in your mind for a second?

That person, whoever you identified, whoever God has burdened your heart with, someone that you know that you need to share Christ with, someone that you know is following a different faith than you, and you know by the teaching of his word today, you're gonna know it's wrong, but out of love, we need to tell them the truth.

Just hold their face in your mind for a second.

This message is for them, and it's about whether we love them enough to tell the truth.

Because here's the reality: Jesus didn't hand his disciples a map, he didn't say, Hey, here's the trail, I'll see you at the top.

He said something no other religious figure has ever said about themselves.

So that's why this morning I want to share four truths and two points of application with you.

I always encourage you to take notes.

Um, truth number one, he didn't show the way, he said he is the way.

He didn't show the way, he said he is the way.

John 14 6 says this I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

He didn't say I know the way, he didn't say follow my teachings and you'll find it.

He said, I am.

It's present tense in the Greek language, it's an active verb, it's personal to us.

And throughout the history of world religions, every significant spiritual leader has pointed beyond themselves.

If you rightly remember, uh, Moses said, follow the law.

Muhammad says, submit to Allah.

Buddha says, walk the eightfold path.

Every one of them pointed away from themselves towards something else, toward a map, but not a destination.

Jesus is not handing you a map to the mountain.

He's saying he already made the climb, he already stands at the summit, and the only way up is through him.

And that I am is not accidental.

It's interesting to note that if we go back to Exodus chapter 3, we see that Moses is standing before a burning bush and he asks, Hey, burning bush, who should I say sent me?

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

And God, speaking through this burning bush, says, Tell them I am sent you.

And that I am, it's a particular covenant name in the Hebrew scriptures.

When Jesus is saying, I am the way, he is standing in the middle of a culture who didn't recognize their Messiah.

And so every Jewish person that's in this room, exactly, and they understood exactly what he was saying.

When he said, I am, everybody knew this guy is gonna cause trouble for us.

And he surely would.

Because he was not speaking as a prophet handing out directions, he is speaking as God in the flesh, the one who made the mountain in the first place.

He is the truth, he's not a teacher of truth, but he's the living standard of which all other maps are measured, and he is life, he's not a wellness guide pointing the way, but the actual source of eternal life itself.

And in the line that makes the most modern world uncomfortable, no one comes to the Father except through me.

Not sincere people, not people who do good works, not nice people, not those who've never heard of me.

The word of God says, no one.

And every religion offers a map to God, but Jesus claims to be at the top, and he is promising you today that he will carry you there.

There's no safe, so safe third option here.

You cannot decide Jesus was just simply a good teacher, a wise teacher who drew a map really good and leave it there.

Because wise teachers don't claim to be the destination.

Either Jesus was telling the truth or he was the most dangerous liar who ever lived.

And that's why, church, I want to tell you this morning that your salvation does not rest on feelings or your performance or how well you climb.

It rests on a person who said, I am.

He does not shift, he hasn't rewrote the statement.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that is the most stable ground in the entire universe.

There are hundreds of millions of people in the world right now: Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, secular, who are genuinely seeking God.

They're seeking a deity.

Sincerely, they're devoted, and they're climbing as hard as they know how.

They're following the best map that they've ever been handed, but never once encountering the one who already made the climb.

And that one person is calling them to stop climbing and start being carried instead.

That should not make us feel superior because we're in Christ.

It should actually break us, it should burden us and it should send us.

Because Jesus made the most radical identity claim in history.

But identity claim still has to be confirmed true.

So naturally the question arises how do we know it's true?

And scripture tells us that the early church answered that question with their lives.

Truth number two, I want you to write down this morning.

His witnesses stake their lives on it.

His witnesses stake their lives on it.

Acts chapter 4, verse 12 says this.

Acts 4:12

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.

I want you to feel the weight of that context.

Because Peter's not standing in a church, Peter's not standing in a comfortable home with AC in hot Houston.

Peter is under arrest.

And he's standing before the Sanhedrin, the most powerful religious body in Israel at the time.

The Sanhedrin were the same people who handed Jesus over to be crucified, and they ask him, Hey Peter, by what name are you doing this?

And the scriptures tell us that Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, uh, says, Jesus of Nazareth, whom, by the way, you crucified.

But guess what?

He's raised from the dead.

And that's why Peter is saying, Salvation is found in no one else.

No other name.

And he's not trying to be a man that's socially acceptable.

This is a man who literally watched Jesus die.

He watched them suffer.

However, though, he watched them walk into a room three days later.

Peter's not defending the doctrine here.

He was reporting what he saw.

Because a witness doesn't say, I think the light was probably red.

A witness says, I was there.

You know, when I was very young, I used to work really hard and I always wanted to buy my own car, and so I did.

At the age of 17, I raised up a lot of money, and I went ahead and bought my own car, a Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer.

You can imagine how amazing that was for a 17-year-old, a very young person having an own car.

And I remember as I'm going to meet Andrea at the bowling alley, I bought the car on a Thursday.

This happened on a Sunday night, a couple days later.

And as I'm standing there on a red light, I'm waiting to turn.

It's a green line.

As soon as that green line hits, I start going and boom, T-boned out of nowhere.

And I'm like, Well, there goes my car.

And as I'm talking to this officer, uh, she's asking me all these questions, and I'm like, I'm just in shock.

I don't know what to do right now.

My dad's gonna kill me.

And out of nowhere, this guy just comes running up and he says, Hey, hey, don't worry about it.

I saw it.

I saw how that guy ran the red light.

It's on my dash cam.

I can send you the footage, just make the insurance claim, they're gonna pay you out.

And he was so adamant about this.

And I was like, dude, I don't care.

I care what my dad is gonna do to me, he's gonna kill me.

Like, I don't care.

And so Peter's posture here, notice the reach.

Because Peter saw, and he's saying no other name under heaven, not just in Israel, not just in the first century, universally, absolutely, across every culture and every time period, because he's a powerful choose church, you're not defending an idea.

You're standing on a historical event.

You are standing on a historical event that Jesus told his disciples, you better follow me with everything that you have.

You better love me more than you love your mother and your father.

Matthew 10, 28 says, and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

So the resurrection of Jesus is the most documented miracle claim of the ancient world.

And so that allows us to know that our confidence is not in Christ is not blind.

It's it's we know what we believe in.

It's a faith built in a body of evidence that changed the trajectory of human history.

Because Peter said that the name in front of the name of Jesus in front of people who had the power to execute him right then and there.

So my question to you this morning is: Are we willing to say it across the dinner table?

Are we willing to say the truth to the coworker who says, Yeah, I'm spiritual, but I don't do religion, so don't talk to me about it.

The question is not whether we believe it, it's whether we love people enough to say it.

Because the claim has been made and confirmed.

Now a question arises: what does his exclusivity actually give us?

What do we have in Christ that can't be found anywhere else?

And Paul would answer that question directly.

Truth number three, I want you to write down In him you have already been made complete.

In him you have already been made complete.

Colossians 2, verse 8 through 10 says this see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:8–10

For in him the fullness of the deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him.

Paul is writing to a church that's literally being pulled apart.

And it's interesting to note that it's not being pulled apart by open enemies, but by people who love Jesus, but are basically saying, I love Jesus plus other things.

They're saying, Give me Jesus, but also give me my rituals.

Give me Jesus, but also give me my philosophies, give me Jesus, but let me keep my cosmic powers.

Jesus is great, they're saying, but he needs some help.

And that sounds absolutely just ridiculous.

Paul's answer to that would be in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form.

Jesus as a man is God also.

And then six words that I want you to hear personally from me today.

The word is telling us, you have been filled in him.

I don't know who in this room is struggling with their faith.

Or maybe you're you're you're questioning your salvation, or maybe you find yourself in moments where you're like, I just can't, like, I don't I don't I don't even know if I really believe.

Let me just tell you something.

If you're in Christ and you surrendered your life to him, would you just believe God's word over your life today?

In him, you have been filled.

Because it's past tense, it's already done.

You're not a half-finished project waiting for the next revelation or experience to make you whole.

If you are in Christ, you are full.

Because I know at times we can get confused and we can question and we can have doubts, but um sometimes we can mix things up a little bit.

And I know some of you have quietly been mixing things.

Uh, maybe you check your horoscope, maybe you've been reading about manifesting or pulling in from spiritual practices outside of the faith.

Um, let me just tell you that I'm not here to shame you, I'm here to ask you one very important question What are you looking for that Jesus hasn't already given you?

Because Paul's point is not that those other things are powerful, it's that they're hollow.

It's like drinking from a cup that looks full but believes you thirstier than before.

I actually needed that medicine ball.

Because the people in our lives who chase crystals, who chase karma, who chase energy healings, who chase these weird manifesting things, they're not chasing nothing, they're hungry, they're feeling a real void in their hearts, they just know they just don't know what fills it, and that's not a reason for contempt to just move us to compassion.

Because in Christ we have made been made complete, there's nothing to add to Christ, Christ and Christ alone.

But here's the most dangerous ground we'll cover today because the enemy of the gospel is rarely the open atheist.

Listen to me on this.

The enemy of the gospel is rarely the open atheist, it's almost always the convincing substitute, and sometimes that substitute where's The name of Jesus.

Truth number four, I want you to write down today.

A counterfeit Jesus cannot save anyone.

A counterfeit Jesus cannot save anyone.

Look what Paul writes to the church in Galatia, Galatians 1 8.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be a curse.

2 Corinthians 11 4 says, For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, Paul would finish that verse by saying, You put up with it readily enough.

It was already happening.

People were already giving themselves up to Jesus and Jesus plus something else.

Paul didn't say here, watch out for people who hate Jesus.

We're all gonna have haters, especially for our faith.

Don't worry about that.

The Lord says you can expect that, but he's gonna be with you through it.

Paul didn't say, watch out for people who hate Jesus.

He says, watch out for people who preach a different Jesus.

Because the danger is not the open enemy, the danger is the convincing substitute.

And the only way to spot a counterfeit Jesus is to know the real one really good.

To be in his word, to be in prayer, to be practicing your spiritual disciplines, to know that when a fake Jesus comes around, you're like, I know the real Jesus.

And that's why I want to look at three more maps, all claiming to lead up the same mountain that Jesus already stands on top of.

That's why I want to look at where each one of these goes.

The first map I want to look at is Islam.

Followers of Islam are called Muslims.

Islam holds Jesus, Aisa, in Arabic, in a very high regard.

The Quran describes him as born of a virgin, a worker of miracles, and one of the greatest prophets who ever lived.

It's very interesting that up to this point there's not many differences.

Islam takes Jesus more seriously than most people realize, but Islam clearly says that Jesus is not God, that he is not the Son of God, that he did not die on a cross.

The Quran actually teaches that he was raised up before crucifixion.

And that he most certainly did not say no one comes to the Father except through me.

And here's the honest collision, Church, this morning.

The gap between prophet and I am is not just a small theological disagreement that you can concede to somebody.

It's literally the difference between a signpost and a destination.

A prophet points towards God.

Jesus claimed to be the access point to God.

Jesus himself is God.

Islam's Jesus cannot forgive sin.

Therefore, he cannot save.

He cannot be the way because Islam's Jesus never claims to be.

And the most loving thing you can do for your Muslim friend is not to agree that we're worshiping the same God.

Because I know sometimes it can be real simple to be like, yeah, yeah, we're we're all headed the same way.

Yeah, we're worshiping God.

Yeah, you call him Yahweh and we call him Allah.

Yeah, it's just no, it's not church.

There's a difference.

It's important for us to understand this because we want to be firm in our faith and we truly want to know what we're worshiping and we're following.

It's introducing our Muslim folks to the Jesus who said, I am the God who saves.

The second map I want to look at today is Mormonism.

Mormonism.

Mormons are called um members of the latter-day Saint, uh, latter-day saints.

They're some of the kindest, most family devoted people I've ever known.

They um they tithe, they serve, they love their Jesus deeply.

But Galatians 1.8 said, even if an angel from heaven should preach a gospel, other than the one we preach, let them be accursed.

And that's exactly what happened in 1828.

A guy by the name of Joseph Smith claimed that an angel named Moroni came to him and told him, Hey, here's a new restored gospel.

And it's interesting that Paul, 2,000 years earlier, would write Galatians 1.8, as if he knew that this was coming.

Because the LDS Church teaches that God the Father was once a man who progressed to become God.

They teach that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers, that exaltation requires temple ordinances and works that have no end.

The Jesus they're trusting cannot bear the weight of their eternity.

And the most loving thing we can do is tell them the truth.

Because the latter-day Saint Jesus, the Mormon Jesus, can't say it is finished.

Can't mean it.

The third map I want to look at is Jehovah's Witnesses.

Jehovah's Witnesses are among the most dedicated religious people you ever meet.

They literally knock on every door, they study for hours and hours.

They really sacrifice real social comfort to practice their faith.

And I respect that.

I respect the devotion, but their Jesus is a different Jesus.

Their governing body, the Watchtower Society, teaches that Jesus is Michael, the archangel, that he's not God in the flesh, but a created being.

And they literally change John chapter 1, verse 1, from the word was God to the word was a God.

John 1:1

And that small letter change is a huge, massive difference.

Because they also deny the physical resurrection and they say that Jesus rose spiritually only.

They teach that he rose spiritually and not bodily.

But Colossians 2, when we go to God's word, it says that the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.

Not a God, not an angel, the fullness of divinity, God, deity, in a body that walked out of a real tomb on a real Sunday morning.

Jesus.

These are not theological exercises.

These are our people, these are your people.

And some of them, some of you know people that are trusting a Jesus that cannot save them.

And that should not harden you, it should break you wide open.

Because here's a thread that ties all four points together.

The same Jesus who made the identity claim in John chapter 14 is the Jesus whose witnesses confirmed his resurrection in Acts chapter 4, fundamental to our Christian faith.

John 14 · chapter mention Acts 4 · chapter mention

The same Jesus in whom you find complete fullness in Colossians 2 is the only Jesus whose gospel says is worth dying to protect in Colossians 1.

It is not four different arguments, it is one person seen from four different angles.

Millions and millions of Mormons.

Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims are sincerely devoted, but they're trusting a Jesus who cannot save them.

They've just become your mission field.

It's not a cause for content, but rather a reason for urgency.

And what do we do with doors?

We open them and we walk through them.

So today's invitation is not that we would stand at the door and lock it and just leave it locked.

It would be that we would go, we would be bold in our faith, and we would turn it and we would walk right through it.

Having the assurance that Acts chapter 4, 12 says there's no other name.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

And that same name is available to every human being on this earth.

Whether it be Jew, Gentile, Muslim, Mormon, Jehovah's Witnesses, atheists, the word of God says that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved on that one narrow road that's open to everyone.

And that is the most inclusive message in the history of the world.

As I was writing this message, I started reflecting and I wrote, The more settled you are in Christ, the more compassion you will feel for the people who are not.

Settled people are sent people.

I love what G what C.S.

Lewis said.

He said Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.

Because there's no fourth option where Jesus is simply a wise teacher.

Wise teachers don't claim to be the only road to God.

You have to decide.

And the way you live this week will tell the world and will testify unto unbelievers which decision you've made.

Here's what I want to want you to walk out of here with two points of application.

First, be secure.

Be secure.

Not because you can win every debate, not because you have a comeback for every door knocker or coworker who questions your faith, but because you know a person and that person said, I am.

He hasn't revised the statement, he doesn't change scripture, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Your salvation is not a feeling, church, that you have to maintain or keep up with.

It stands on a person and he holds you in the palm of his hand, the word says.

That is your confidence.

Have security in that.

Build your faith on that.

And knowing that he is the truth.

Second point of application: be sent.

Adopt this posture of missionary.

Like you need to be sent.

You need to be on mission 24/7.

Because that face that you pictured at the beginning of the message.

Maybe it was a Muslim coworker you get in lunch with a hundred times you never once mentioned Jesus to because you don't want to break the peace.

Maybe it's the neighbor who grew up Mormon and left the church but never found the real thing.

Maybe it's the family member raised as Jehovah's Witness who is quietly asking questions they've never said out loud.

I'm gonna ask you to pray for them by name this week.

Every day this week.

Would you ask God to open a door?

And when He does open the door, because He's an expert at opening doors, you would walk right through it, and you would know that the exclusivity of Christ isn't something that we hide behind or take pride in.

To motivate us to pray, to share our faith boldly, and to reach out because his name holds, and you need to tell someone.

If you don't know where to start, start with Acts chapter 4, verse 12.

Acts 4:12

Because it says, 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, and his name is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Let's pray, Father.

We thank you this morning for speaking to us.

Thank you, Lord, that our salvation does not rest on our feelings or our performance, Lord, but a person who said, I am.

Jesus, thank you because you never revised the statement.

Thank you because we can go to you in times of need.

Thank you because we can trust that you don't change, you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And for everyone in this room, we ask, let us leave today more settled than we came.

Remind us, God, that we stand on you.

We don't stand on how well we can climb, we stand on your name that holds truth.

In Jesus' name.

Man, what an amazing time that we had today.

Hey, if you know of someone that needs to hear this message, we'd love for you to share that on socials.

We'd love for you to actually go and check out our socials so you can stay up to date on everything happening at the life of United City.

And if you need to take the next step, we'd love to help you do that as well.

Love you guys so much, and we'll see you next week.