Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 7th September 2008
John 14v4-14
You know the way v4.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the way!
This verse shows that salvation is all about a living relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ.
In order to be saved we need to get to know a Person.
In that person we find the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Salvation is not a philosophy, an abstraction, a theory, or even a doctrine.
Salvation is knowing Jesus. Salvation is a relationship.
It is all about Him. He is the Way the Truth and the Life.
Context:
The disciples were a group of people seeking God.
And they knew that in Jesus they had found the One who could bring them to God.
When many were deserting Jesus the disciples stayed. Why? Because:
John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
They knew Jesus was the answer they were looking for.
Here Jesus has intimated that he is going away and so the disciples are at a lose!
But Jesus tells them that they already know the way to where he is going v4.
The disciples are quite confused so Jesus has to enlighten them further.
He says that they know the way, because they know Jesus and he is the way!
The whole section goes onto show that in following Jesus they are following God because “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” v10,11.
They had believed that in following Jesus they would get to God but they need to believe further that in following Jesus they have already gotten God!
And that is the point of this great text v6. Following Jesus gets us God!
No-one can claim to be the Way the Truth and the Life unless that person is God.
So let us break it down:
We start with the end first. The last statement is what makes sense of the first parts.
Jesus is talking about salvation. He is talking about getting to God.
About coming to the Father, the only way we can get to the Father is through Jesus.
“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
What a counter cultural message this is today!
If there were other ways of salvation, Jesus would have surely told us.
But there are no other ways of salvation because we do not need any other ways.
The mercy is that there is ‘a’ way!
The human soul cries out for salvation, because it knows it is lost!
That cry for salvation can only be met in the way God has provided for it.
It is met in the great “I am” of Jesus Christ.
1) the Way.
Jesus is the way to God because he is God.
But why does He use this term Way?
Another word for way, is road. Which highlights for us that salvation is a pilgrimage.
We need to follow a certain route and that route is Jesus.
Which means I need to ask - am I following Jesus?
Do you want to be saved? Then its as simple as this : start to follow Jesus.
Get going! Jesus says “follow me”!
But why should you follow Him?
2) the truth
Because Jesus is the truth. By truth, we understand what is real.
It is not just truth in the sense of knowledge.
Jesus is not just an intellectual fact or a peace of information. He is what is true in fact and information, and because of that he makes up what is real!
Jesus is ultimate reality. He is the truth, he is the real thing.
So much of our modern day life is made up of what is lies, what is false.
What is simply unreal, illusory, fake.
And what is false is at the end of the day unsatisfying!
But Jesus is the Truth. He is what is real and thus satisfying.
The world offers happiness through lies and deceit, it is a mirage!
But in following Him we discover that He is real.
And in that discovery we find salvation, we find Life.
3) the life.
Jesus is the life. True life can only be defined in Him.
True life can only be gained in him.
Outside of Christ we are dead.
We have a form of life. We have bodies that live and breath.
We have appetites and desires and spiritual longing and cravings.
But it is so far from where is should be that the bible describes it as dead!
Because it is detached from the life of God!
The only way we to enter into life is in Jesus.
He is the life and we only become alive in Him!
Nothing else will do, nothing else satisfies. He himself is the life.
In Him we get God and get to God!
sunday evening 7th September 2008
Gen 15v9-21.
Last week we left this chapter half way through.
We saw that Yahweh had come to Abram with words of encouragement and each time Abram had responded by seeking reassurance.
The final reassurance that God brings to Abram is the making of a covenant with him.
This is what we will be looking at tonight.
Remember Abram is living by faith and he is wrestling with God for blessing in that life of faith.
The blessing does not simply fall into his lap, he has to seek God.
He has to be diligent and pursue Him with all his might.
And how God responds to such faith!
In wrestling with God Abram receives further blessing:
V9 - according to the customs of the time God calls him to bring the appropriate animals for the cutting of a covenant.
V10-11 immediately Abram knows what is going on so he sets out the sacrifices for the making of a covenant.
V12-16 Abram is given a vision of the long future.
It will take 400 years of enslavement before the promise of land is fulfilled.
Why? God is being gracious to the Amorites v16. They are given time to repent!
Lesson 1: faith knows the future
We know what is going on now and we know how history will unravel and we know the ultimate end!
V13 Now we are strangers in a foreign land. We live amongst a people who consciously or unconsciously hate God. (Heb11v13, 1Pet2v11)
V14 Judgement will come in the end
V14,15 We know our ultimate end. We will enter heaven the real promised land.
V16 God is patient with the rebellious - why? Because he longs for them to come to him! (2Pet3v9)
We are called to live by these great facts.
Not arrogantly but humbly; we only know because God has revealed it to us!
But what a witness assurance about these things is. Today people are afraid of the future and what will happen with the world.
The Christian can stand up and be fearless because we know!
V17-21 finally the covenant commitment is made. The contract is sealed.
V17 Usually both parties to the agreement would walk through the sacrifices, thereby saying “if I fail in my end of the bargain I will be cursed and die like these animals.”
But here the astonishing thing is: Only God walks through the sacrifice!
Taking the curse upon himself for any covenant failure!
Ultimately God is pledging to Abram that the covenant will be fulfilled because he is taking on the responsibility himself!
So God will take the punishment of covenant breakers on himself!
Ultimately we see that in Jesus. He who became a curse for us.
Who died in our place because we could not keep the demands of the Covenant!
Lesson 2: our salvation is secure because God secures it.
Ultimately our security lies in the fact that God has pledged himself to us.
In other words our faith does not depend on us!
God is the one who will take care of us and see us on into the promised land!
Notice the change in the covenant promise here: in 12v7 & 13v15 the promise is “I will give” but now in 15v18 “I give” !!
Yet this does not mean that Abram has nothing to do! He has plenty of work!
Notice what Abram did around the making of this contract.
He prepares the sacrifice. He beats off the birds of pray. Birds are often in the bible symbolic for the work of the enemy. So Abram has to fight off the enemy.
He waits upon the Lord. He has to go through the dark dreadful sleep!
Lesson 3 : faith is a gift, Yet we need to work at our faith too!
God secures our salvation but we have to grasp it with both hands too!
This is the whole point about us living the life of faith.
It is life, it is living.
We are not to be lazy or idol.
God has done all the work but we need to walk in it.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
What blessing are we yet to experience from God if we would but by faith diligently seek Him afresh!
