Looking For Directions? Series

Imagine a little league baseball team of six and seven-year olds learning how to play the game. Having once been a six-year-old eager to play the game and having coached little league, I know that many six and seven-year olds would rather just play the game than learn how.

Now can you picture one imaginative player who thinks he has found a better way to play the game? This little guy stands at the plate and manages to get the bat to hit the ball. Immediately he jumps on home plate and yells “Home run! Home run!”

Meanwhile the fielder throws the ball to first base and the umpire calls the imaginative player out. The little guy bravely stands up to the umpire and says, “I’m not out. I got on home base before they did. I got a home run.”

The umpire says, “I’m sorry slugger, but you have to run all the bases to get a home run. The rules say ‘you’re out.’”

“That’s what they told me,” the imaginative player responds, but I decided it’s too hard that way. My way I get a home run every time and never get out!”

Unfortunately every generation of little leaguers must learn to play the game BY THE RULES. Now if that’s how it works in baseball, what makes us think it would be any different making our way to our eternal home in heaven? Just like baseball players must run the bases to get home, God has established a specific path we all must follow.

✎ If you were to plan a trip to Washington D.C., you could sit down with a map and plan many different routes to take. Each route would have its own unique experiences, but regardless of the way you decided to go you would ultimately arrive at your planned destination.

Unlike a trip down the road, our journey to heaven has only one road we can take to reach our eternal home of heaven. Every other road is a dead end isn’t it?

God has set the course we must follow. Like baseball, if we decide to try to go our own way and not follow the path God has set for us, then when we arrive we will find ourselves being called “Out.”

Does this seem unfair to you? More and more people today–even many who consider themselves Christians–believe there are many roads that lead to God. Today people believe that as long as you are sincere in what you believe and do your best to be a good moral person God will accept you in the end.

Let’s look at God’s rule book–the Bible–and see what Jesus said about making our way safely to heaven. Some folks may want to use a different book. If the book has God’s guidelines or the path for man to follow, then regardless of the book you use each one should agree because it’s from God. If they don’t agree, then either God is schizophrenic and can’t make up His mind, or some of the books that claim to be given to us by God really aren’t. I accept the Bible as God’s inspired, infallible and inerrant Word with the authority for our lives today. It has proven itself to be the authentic Word of God.

+ John 14:1-6 1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going." 5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (NIV)

Jesus makes a very bold statement. What Jesus says does not fit within our pluralistic society that encourages tolerance of all beliefs. Jesus claims to be THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE (not just a way, a truth and a life). But He didn’t stop there. Jesus also said no one would come to the Father God except through Him. Jesus leaves no room for the inclusive mentality that believes all paths will lead to God.

Before we look closer at Jesus claim of being the way, the truth and the life, let’s explore what else Jesus said. How He comes to the place of making such a statement will either be validated or contradicted through what He said.

Jesus begins by reassuring His disciples to trust Him. The hearts and minds of each of the disciples were overwhelmed with the thought of what Jesus has told them. They can’t imagine that each of them would forsake Jesus, that one of them was set to betray Jesus, and that Jesus would be crucified–executed like a criminal. It was all unbelievable, and yet it all happened just like Jesus said it would.