Sermon Central
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Being Transformed By The Ressurection, The Way, The Truth, And The Life Series
Contributed by Greg Buchner on Mar 3, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: Jesus is the one and only way to the Father. He is the source of all transformation. He offers those who are spiritually dead the very way, truth, and life of God. Our vicotry is in Him and Him alone.
“Being Transformed by the Resurrection, The Way, the Truth, and the Life” – I AM series
John 13:31-14:6, John 11:17-27
February 23, 2003
Purpose: Jesus is the one and only way to the Father. He is the source of all transformation. He offers those who are spiritually dead the very way, truth, and life of God.
Our victory is in him and in him alone.
Introduction –
Illus. - Bubba and the potato field
An old man lived alone in Idaho. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was backbreaking work, and his son, Bubba, who used to help him, was in prison.
The old man mentioned it in a letter he sent to his son by saying, “I’m not sure exactly what to do. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. It looks like I won’t be able to plant that garden this year after all.”
A few days later, he received a short letter from his son, “Dad, For heaven’s sake, don’t dig up that garden that’s where I buried the bodies!”
At 4 a.m. the next morning, a crew of police officers, and the FBI arrived to find the bodies. After digging for hours, they gave up and apologized to the old man and left.
That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
“Dear Dad, under these circumstances, that’s the best I can do, go ahead and plant your potatoes now.”
Sometimes we are like the stubborn earth that stands in the way of experiencing a completely transformed life in Jesus Christ. Instead of being willing to trust, to take direction, and to accept the rewards Christ offers. We remain a potential garden…a potential garden in need of resurrection…a potential garden that needs to find the way, the truth, and the life…a potential garden just waiting to accept the victory that’s found in Jesus Christ.
There’s another passage in John that speaks to this. It’s found in John 11:17-27…
In it, we have the story of Martha and Jesus standing at the tomb of Lazarus. Martha tells Jesus that he’s late, that if he would have been there just a little sooner, this death could have been avoided.
But Jesus, knowing Martha’s grief, told her that not only would Lazarus rise again at the resurrection of the last day, but that he would live today. Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (v.25-26)
And then he asks her with a simple question, “Martha, do you believe this?” And her response is that of the well plowed soil, “Lord I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” And within a mere number of verses, Jesus told those present to “take away the stone” and Lazarus was alive once more.
This Jesus had challenged Martha’s faith over time. She had learned to trust him, she was willing to look for His direction, and she readily accepted the reward for doing so.
How many of us here this morning need a resurrection in our lives?
How many of us may doubt that Jesus is only the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
How many of us are in need of a transformation from the potential garden of our lives to the
abundant garden that God has planned?
In this passage, we have three steps of making this transformation occur….
I. First and foremost, we must be willing to trust in the right things…
A. John 14:1…”Let not your heart be troubled, Trust in God, trust also in me. (NIV) This type of trusting goes against what we find it easier to do, doesn’t it?
We understand that in order to trust in something means that we can hear, see, touch it…we can sense that its there…but on the flip side of that thinking, there is nothing here on this earth that can be trusted in forever. In fact, we know that all things are temporary.
The vehicle that brought you here today…won’t be here forever. This building, the pews on which you sit, won’t be here forever. This pulpit…temporary. The organ…temporary. My physical bodies…temporary. Your physical bodies…temporary.
Jesus said those if you want to trust in something that lasts beyond a lifetime…consider God, consider his Son. Jesus’ presence will last for an eternity… “I will never leave you nor forsake you…” are words that we can trust. So, we trust in God’s presence…
B. John 14:2 tells us we need to trust in his promises as well. “I am going to prepare a place for you…” Jesus said, I will come back to take you home.
