Next Stop Heaven Series

Sermon: Next Stop Heaven

Series: The Gospel of John

John 8:13-30

Introduction

Today we’re resuming our series in the Gospel of John where we are going verse by verse, word by word and examining the life of Jesus Christ through the eye’s of the Apostle John.

Today, I want to start off by telling you a real life story of a man named Arland Williams.

Arland Williams and five others knew their situation was hopeless. Floating in the icy Potomac River, the six survivors of Air Florida Flight 90 knew there was no way to reach the shore just 40 yards away.

They could hear the rescuers trying to reach them, but each attempt to cross the icy waters failed. Just as they were giving up hope, they heard the sound of an approaching helicopter. A life ring fell into the hands of one of the survivors, and he was pulled to safety.

Next it fell in Arlands hands. He could be saved. But before the helicopter could pull him up, he handed the life ring to someone else. The chopper could only hold two, so it turned toward the shore and sped away.

A few minutes later it returned. Again, the life ring fell into Arland’s hands, and again he handed it to someone else. The third time he did the same. There would be no fourth opportunity. By the time the helicopter had returned, Arland had disappeared below the surface.

In 2007 an article was written about Arland Williams sacrifice and appeared in Men’s Health magazine. After recounting Williams story, the author of the article ask,

“Why would anyone put the lives of strangers ahead of his own? He couldn’t even see the faces of the people he was saving, because they were on the opposite side of the wreckage, yet he made a sacrifice for them that their best friends might have refused.”

We live in a world today where the words ‘hero’ and ‘courage’ have been overused and cheapened. Arland Williams is a true hero. It took real courage putting others before self and braving the icy water.

The author in the Men’s Health article is perplexed by the idea of someone laying down there life for someone they didn’t even know.

To the author and maybe many others the idea of self-sacrifice might makes sense in certain situations…

It might make sense to lay down one’s life when it comes to protecting your family. It might make sense to lay down one’s life for a very important leader, for country, or for some noble cause.

But sacrificing one’s life for a complete stranger, for someone you can’t even see, is a little crazy for some. What Arland Williams did doesn’t make sense to most people. Arland should have took the life ring and made it home safely, but he didn’t.

To those of us in Christ his actions make perfect sense. When we look at this story through the lens of our Christian world view, we can relate his actions to the words of Jesus.

Jesus said this, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 NLT

A Christian worldview doesn’t see self-sacrifice as a foolish choice; instead it sees self-sacrifice as the highest act of love.

Matter of fact, we arrive at this view of the world not only by listening to the words of Jesus but also by seeing Jesus‘s example.

In spite of many conversations with Jesus, the religious leaders don’t seem to understand Him. Jesus isn’t making this difficult, He’s keeping it pretty simple for these religious leaders.

He’s summaries what He’s doing and why He came. Jesus gave up the comfort and luxury of Heaven so that we could go to Heaven. That’s why He’s here, it’s what He came to do…

Slide 1. Jesus Came from Heaven

You might recall the last time we seen Jesus in the Gospel of John, He was standing up during one of the Jewish festivals and inviting those who were dying to come to Him for life.

Then the religious leaders brought a woman to Him to be put to death for adultery, and Jesus responded by forgiving her and giving her life, after which He called Himself the light of the world and called all of them to follow Him.

Following Him was the only way to find life, but the religious leaders, the Pharisees, would not listen or believe…

The Pharisees replied, “You are making those claims about yourself! Such testimony is not valid.” John 8:13 NLT

Why? The Pharisees are claiming it’s not valid because Jewish law requires more than one witness.

So how does Jesus respond to this. How does He deal with their unbelief?

Seven times in this conversation He tells the Pharisees that He came from heaven…