This is the Way

This Is The Way

John 14:1-11

• God wants to be known. Jesu sis the self revelation of God.
• A great misunderstanding is that Christianity is not about getting to heaven and having a mansion, walking golden streets or communing with the dead. It is about knowing God. Jesus makes God known.

Lee Strobel, author and former legal journalist for the Chicago Tribune and once an avowed atheist, says, “By far the most outrageous thing Jesus ever said, the most politically incorrect words ever to come from the lips of Jesus are found in John 14:6, “I am the way, No one comes to the Father but by Me.” I remember when I was an atheist I got outraged that Christians believed this. How bigoted of Christians to say Jesus is the only way. How narrow-minded. How snobbish.

After many years of studying this issue I’ve come away with the conclusion that Jesus was telling the truth when He said it. I’ve come to the conclusion that He said it not out of arrogance but out of great compassion. I believe the closer we study this statement that He makes the more sense it makes. In fact, I believe this single sentence is one of the most important bits of information on the entire planet.

1. The way (See: John 14:1-6, Matt. 7:13-14)

4 Views of Salvation:

• Puts Christ on par with founders of other religions. He’s “a” truth; one of many. In this view, Christianity and other faiths are all equal in the universe of faiths.
• This view teaches all are saved through Jesus, but adds that Christ can save by other means. Salvation is grounded in Christ but does not necessarily require knowledge of Jesus.
• Is mixing different religions to develop your own. It makes religion a buffet.
• Jesus taught “” or “.” Jesus expressed that the Gospel requires explicit faith in Christ personal.

2. My Hope is

• Jesus claims that truth is a person; and he is that truth.
• Jesus frames my worldview. I believe what I believe about this world because of Jesus.
• Jesus centers my theology. I believe what I believe about God because of Jesus.
• Jesus calls me to put my trust in God.
• Jesus personalizes our need to trust God with a call to trust him. Jesus is the image of God.
• We don’t hope in hope; we put our hope specifically in Jesus who is the Person of God.

3. I can

4. The way

• John 14:6.
• Jesus did not come to start a new religion. He came to bring us to God.
• Religion is spelled “DO.” You have to do something to earn favor with God.
• Faith in Jesus is spelled “DONE.” Titus 3:5: “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”