Invite Them On The Journey
September 24 , 2011 Psalm 1:1-6 John 14:1-6
(Some of the concepts in this message I gleaned from Andy Stanley's message on the belief in good works as a means of salvation.)
We have been preaching on the series, “Making A Difference.” We’ve Looked At “We’ve Got The Best” and “Put Yourself In Their Place”, “Stop By The Church We’ve Got Good News. Today I will do “Invite Them On The Journey. “ Our invitation to someone to come to church, can make a difference in their lives forever. We thank all of you for coming who received an invitation to join us on our journey to a deeper walk with God.
Let’s suppose for a moment yu are in a place you have never been before. You have no idea how you got there. A person comes out and tells you, “You must go into that room and choose one of four things to take with you on your journey when you leave this place. You may not ask any questions. What you take is yours to keep but you may only take one thing. Leave the room through the door in the back and be on your way.” You go into the room and you find by #1 a huge beautiful diamond ring. By #2 a brief case full of $100 bills neatly stacked all the real stuff. By #3 this is a loaded a gun, and by #4 a map of a mine field showing the location of some old land mines.
You know what each of these objects is and you are smart enough to make a decision on which one you may want. What you don’t know is which one are you really going to need on your journey when you go out the other side of the building. If you go out and find a car waiting to take you home, you may feel pretty good about having taken the diamond of the brief case filled with money. If you go out and find a grizzly bear coming after you, you may feel good about taking the loaded gun. But if you go outside and find a field that has a sign saying, no one has ever made it alive across this field, without having a map of where the mines are located none of the other three choices are nearly as important as that map would be.
Everyone of us is on a journey. It’s called life. We all know where the journey is headed. It is called death. Now death is like that door that we have to enter after we make our choice of what we are going to choose to take with us into the unknown. Now about 2000 years ago, there was a guy by the name of Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of God. And Jesus tells people, “I know what’s on the other side of the journey. I know what’s on the other side of the door. Not only that, I am going there to prepare a place for you, and when I do, I will come back and take you there myself.
Then Jesus makes this big statement, “I am the way , the truth and the life. No one gets to God, except by going through me.” In other words nobody is going to heaven without coming through me. Now many of us who say we believe the bible, we really don’t believe that Jesus was right when he said “ I am the Way.” He does not leave room for other alternatives. Many people even in church , do not believe in a salvation by faith and trust in Christ alone. Many believe we are saved by doing good works. That’s why at funerals we like to say how good a person was.
Many of us believe that good people go to heaven. We believe that not only do good Christians go to heaven, we believe good Jews, good Muslims, good Buddhist, and good people who don’t believe much of anything are all going to go to heaven. So for Jesus to say, that He is the only way, it seems narrow minded, exclusive, somewhat full of bigotry and darn right unAmerican. Jesus statement is offensive to many and they claim it is very unfair to people. What about the people who never even heard of Jesus?
Now if you think Jesus’ statement is offensive today, what do you think it sounded like to those who heard him say actually say it. ‘Jesus what are you talking about . We know your mother. We know where you grew up. We know you family. How on earth can you say, you are the Way The Truth and The Life and no one gets to go to God in heaven except through you. First of all, most of the people have never even heard of you.”
Some of you think that it is much fairer to believe that God should allow all good people to go to heaven regardless of what they believe. God would probably agree with you on that. The only problem is that God says in His word, “I have searched everywhere, and I have not found one good person anywhere. Everybody is contaminated by sin. Everyone of them thinks evil in their hearts. Everyone of them practices deceit. Every last one of them is a journey to death and destruction.
So if we want to believe that all good people go to heaven, then we have to get rid of the bible for two reasons. 1) God said that nobody is good in His eyes, and 2) Jesus said He was the only Way. Okay, so we are left with all good people going to heaven and a God who is waiting to eagerly receive them. The good make it and the bad do not. So let me ask you this if you are among those who believe, all good people go to heaven.
How good do you have to be? Is it 90%, 75%, 51% or can you break even. What are the things that count for goodness? What are the big bonus points? What are the really bad things that cause you to lose a lot of points? At what age do your bad points start to count against you? Is it possible to have a lot of bad points up to age 75 and still do something so awesome six months before you die, that you can overcome the bad.
If you have a lot of good points, but then start to brag about the good you have done, do you lose those points because of pride. Who tells you how many points everything is worth so that your system is fair for everybody? What if nobody gave you the score sheet, does your behavior get to be excused for not knowing what you were doing was wrong. Where do you get the answers to all these questions in the good people go to heaven theology? Instead of trusting the bible, you’re simply making up answers in your head.
I remember Andy Stanley giving this illustration. Suppose you signed up for a class and the first day of class the teacher said. There is only going to be one exam at the end of the marking period. If will be pass/fail. Have a good day, class is dismissed until the exam in three months. Are there any questions?
“What books should we read to prepare us for the exam..” Whatever you like.” How will we know what material to study? “Just ask somebody else in the class.” Are you going to give us an outline or a syllabus? “No just make up your own.” Wait a minute, this does not seem fair. “look you all signed up to journey in this class together. You all have the same amount of time in the course to study. You all will have the same final exam. I will grade you all equally based on the standards of what I’m looking for. What could be more fairer.” What standards are you looking for in grading us? You will know them all when you take the test.”
How many of you would consider this teacher as a good teacher. How many of you think the teacher is a fair teacher. How many of you think this teacher is a loving teacher. When we say that all good people go to heaven, this is about as much direction to help a person on their spiritual journey as this teacher is to this class. A person may feel good about the journey they are on, only to be greatly disappointed to find out, he or she did not measure up.
Now contrast this with Jesus, who not only said, I am the Way, the Truth and The Life no one goes to God without me, but in Luke 9:23-26 we find
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? 26 If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (TNIV)
I want us to see that Jesus does not try to force himself on anyone. He says for those of you who are on the journey, I invite you to journey with me. I extend an invitation to you to be my disciple. Jesus is saying, I want to show you not only the place you desire to go, I want to show you how to get there. But you have to want to be my disciple.
You see when we talk about eternal life, we think it begins when we die. But it doesn’t. Eternal life begins when we give our lives to Jesus Christ. Jesus came to make a difference in our lives right now. Our lives are more meaningful and lead to more joy on this side of the grave because of what Jesus does. Jesus sets us free from all kinds of bondages.
Jesus keeps us from making bad choices which wreck our lives. Jesus provides us with strength for the dark and difficult moments in our lives. Jesus offers us forgiveness when we blow it. Jesus picks us up and help us to get our feet back on the ground to move forward. This is part of the eternal life that Jesus offers to us right now. Jesus is offering us a right relationship with God right now so that we become sons and daughters of God.
We are not waiting to die to be judged as to whether we go to heaven or hell. Because Jesus has taken our place in the judgment, and Jesus has already paid the price for our sins, and because we put our faith in Him, God gives us a righteousness which comes from God alone. That righteousness assures us that we are acceptable in God’s eyes and we have already been approved for heaven. Jesus told us, He was going to prepare a place for us. Every person who dies in Christ, is guaranteed a spot in heaven, before even taking the last breath here on earth.
Jesus came with the message, good people don’t go to heaven. Bad people go to heaven. He told the story of two people who came to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee. A Pharisee’s job was to be good and to do his best to keep the commandments. The Pharisee told the Lord, “God I thank you that that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give 10% a full tithe of everything I get.” The tax collector stood at a distance from the temple and prayed, “God have mercy on me a sinner.” Jesus then said, the tax collector went home justified before God.
How could a bad man get the approval and a good one does not. Only bad people realize they are not good enough to go. If you are trusting in how good you are, you will have no hope. But if you admit your badness and your sin, then you make room for God’s grace and mercy to come into your life. Remember the standard of goodness is perfection, not that you are better than some religious person you know.
Jesus’s method of salvation is open to everybody. It does not matter what age you are, what color you are, what status you have, where you were born, what your IQ is, when you come to him in life, what sins you have committed, what religion you came out of, what your family life was like or anything else. You and you alone get to decide whether or not to follow Jesus.
Jesus then went on to say, if you want to follow me on this journey, you will have to say no to many things in this life that will keep you from following on the path He has for you. It is very easy to become distracted by things that only have a temporary appeal. Our goal is to spend eternity with God. Each of us will face different challenges because of our makeup. That is why Jesus says, each of us must take up our cross and follow him.
Although we are on the same journey toward death, there are some things that attract me, that have no appeal to you. There are things that attract you, that have no appeal to me. There are circumstances I will go through, that you will never face, and likewise there are circumstances you will go through that I will never face. So to follow Jesus is an individual journey of constantly getting to know God on an ongoing basis. You will run into situations in which you will have to decide, do I continue this journey with Jesus, or am I checking out.
Jesus give us a further warning in saying that, if you think the only way for me to enjoy my life is to hold on to it, then you will lose it. But if you are willing to give your life to Jesus, then you will find it. To give your life to Christ is to put him in charge. It affects the way we chose to act and to react.
He says, “what good is it to gain the whole world and then lose your soul. Our bodies will exist for no longer that 125 years if we are in the great minority that lives past 95years. Our souls will be here for all eternity which is billions and more of years. Think back to the opening question of the choices you had. What if you had chosen, the diamond, the briefcase full of cash, and the gun, and came out only to discover you had to cross a field full of land mines that explode on near contact. That map of the field of mines would be far more helpful to you than riches or power.
Some of us do not see it yet, but Jesus Christ is far more helpful to us on this journey of life than anything this world has to offer. Everyone one of us here in this building and outside of this building is going to declare that “Jesus is lord.” The question is when are we going to do it. We can do it on this side of the grave, with great joy or we can do it on the other side with great regret. For the bible says that one day in the book of Philippians, that one day at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You were invited by God to come to church today, so that you can receive power from Jesus Christ to help you on your journey. It’s good when you’re lost to run into somebody who has gone to the place where you’re headed and is willing to say, I’ll take you there myself. Jesus walked on this planet for about 33 years, he died and was on the other side of death for three days. Jesus came back to life on this side of the grave and spent 40 days teaching us about the journey, and then he went into heaven. One day He’s coming back again. He speaks with authority when he says, “I am the Way, The Truth and The Life. Noone comes to the Father except by me.” My friend when your journey ends, may it end with your hand in the hand of Jesus Christ. He’s invited you to join him on the journey.
Invite Them On The Journey
September 25, 2011 Psalm 1:1-6 John 14:1-6
We have been preaching on the series, “Making A Difference.” We’ve Looked At “We’ve Got The Best” and “Put Yourself In Their Place”, “Stop By The Church We’ve Got Good News. Today I will do “Invite Them On The Journey. “ Our invitation to someone to come to church, can make a difference in their lives forever. We thank all of you for coming who received an invitation to join us on our journey to a deeper walk with God.
Room With
4 Items diamond ring, $100 Bills, Loaded Gun
What’s On The Other Side Of The Door
Car Waiting, Grizzly, Mine Field
All On A Journey—Destination Death
What Will We Take
Jesus 2000 years Ago
Promise To Go Prepare A Place
I Am The Way, The Truth, The Life
Many Believe Saved By Good Works
Funerals
Good People Go To Heaven
Jesus Narrow minded, exclusive Un-american,
People not heard
Jesus Statement In His Time Offensive
Problem With Good People Going To Heaven
God Agree—God’s Search
No Eligible Candidates
Must Get Rid Of Bible 1)God—no good 2) Jesus The Way
Good People To Heaven
How Good, Bonus Points, Bad Rating, Age, Catch Up
How Will Others Know, Lose Points
Who Sets The Rules
Andy Stanley Teacher Test Illustration
3 Months, Content, Material, Syllabus, Fairness
God Like The Teacher
Good Person Theology Little Help
Now contrast this with Jesus, who not only said, I am the Way, the Truth and The Life no one goes to God without me, but in Luke 9:23-26 we find
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? 26 If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (TNIV)
Jesus Does Not Force—Jesus Invites
Eternal Life Begins Now
Meaningful life, Changed Lives, Freedom Bondage,
Right Relationship With God
Not Waiting For Judgment
Acceptable Now
Good People Don’t Go To Heaven—Bad People Do
Pharisee & Tax Collector
Bad Recognizer The Need
Jesus Method Of Salvation Open To All
Age, Color, Status, Where Born, IQ, Family, Religion, Sin
You Decide
To Follow Jesus Means Saying No To Things
Pick Up Your Cross—Different For Different People
Warning—Saving Life Will Lose It Give It Up Life
Souls Compared To Diamond, Ring,s Gun & Map
Jesus Best To Offer
When Will WE Say Jesus Is Lord
You Were Invited To Receive Power
Jesus Is A Person Been Where We Are & Are Going
33 Year Walk, 3 Day Death, 40 Day Teaching, Eternal heavens
He Is The Way, Truth & Life
Invitation To Join The Journey
