Title: All Paths Lead to God… Not!
Text: Acts 4:5-12 (John 14:6)
Thesis: All religious paths do not converge at the same place, rather they diverge and end at different places… the only path that leads to salvation is the Jesus path.
Introduction
Imagine one of our staff of teachers in Friends and Followers this morning talking to the students about how one gets to go to heaven. Imagine the teacher asks, “If I sell my house and my car and have a huge garage sale and then give all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” The class in perfect unions relies with an emphatic, “NO!” “Okay then, the teacher asks, “if I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard and kept God’s house all neat and spiffy, would that get me into heaven?” And once again the emphatic, “NO!” “Then how about if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all my neighbor children and loved my wife and kids and was a great neighbor, would that get me into heaven?” And once again, “NO!” “Then,” the teacher asks, “how DO I get into heaven?” And one deep thinker among them answers, “First, you gotta die!”
We understand that what the teacher wished to hear was the students affirming faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as being the correct answer.
As we open our text today we immediately see that Jesus was a polarizing figure.
I. Jesus is polarizing… Jesus is a polarizing figure!
While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the leading priests, the captain of the temple guard and some of the Sadducees came over to them. They were disturbed… Acts 4:1-4
I was disturbed to learn that a survey conducted by the Christian Science Monitor found that atheists and agnostics and Jews and Mormons were among the highest scoring groups who took a 32 question survey of religious knowledge. On average Americans scored 16 of 32 correct. Atheists and agnostics averaged 20.9 of 32 correct. Jews scored 20.5 and Mormons scored 20.3 correct out of 32. Protestants averaged 16 correct and Catholics scored 14.7 correct answers. It is actually a pretty simple quiz… I scored 31 out of 32 so it can’t be too tough. Non-the-less the quiz focused on one’s knowledge of different major religions and the major distinctive of each.
One question asked, “Which of these major religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone?” “Only Protestant Christians” was the correct answer.
Obviously Christ is a polarizing religious figure in the world. Then and now, some people are receptive to Jesus and others are not in the least.
In his sermon “The Great Polarizer,” Kent Edwards says, “Like a magnet, Jesus will attract or repel people.”
A. Some people are receptive to Jesus
• Those who believed and were baptized and added to the church… about 3,000 in all. Acts 2:41
• But many who heard believed, so the number of believers totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children. Acts 4:4
B. Some people are resistant to Jesus
• They were very disturbed that Peter and John were claiming, on the authority of Jesus, that there is a resurrection of the dead. [So] they arrested them and since it was already evening they jailed them until morning. Acts 4:2-3
The people in our text today were resistant to Jesus because Jesus was perceived as a threat.
II. Jesus is a threat… Jesus is a threat to established power!
They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power or in whose name, have you done this?” Acts 4:7
The religious leaders responded by hauling Peter and John into religious court and essentially demanded to know why they thought they had the right to turn the town upside down.
The Sanhedrin was the Jewish version of our Supreme Court. The Sanhedrin was every bit as partisan as is our Supreme Court. While the intent might be the constitutional upholding of the law we know that in a perfect partisan world the stars line up and the Congress, Executive and Judicial Branches of Government agree in ideology.
Currently our Supreme Court is embroiled in the constitutionality of mandated healthcare in our country and the constitutionality of Arizona’s immigration law. Of late the overt biases of the justices are clearly partisan. The court is divided along partisan lines. Justice, so to speak, is always tempered by ideological biases.
When Peter and John were hauled into court the court was clearly and overtly biased. The Sanhedrin was not an objective court anymore than our Supreme Court is an objective court. The members of the priesthood who sat on the Sanhedrin were members of a prestigious few families who passed down power from generation to generation. The Sadducees on the Sanhedrin were the keepers of the status quo. And the Pharisees on the Sanhedrin were the legal fanatics who were sticklers about the fanatical observance of every detail of the law.
Their very existence was a warning to any dissenting groups or divergent ideas.
The religious court felt threatened on several fronts.
A. Their corner on the truth was threatened…
… and some of the Sadducees came over to them. They were very disturbed that Peter and John were claiming, on the authority of Jesus, that there is a resurrection of the dead.
The Sadducees did not believe in a bodily resurrection of the dead so when the news of Easter morning began to spread and eye witnesses to the resurrection of Christ began to share their stories and the disciples spoke of the man being healed by the power of the risen Christ, they were nervous.
They said these things could not have happened because we don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead therefore Jesus did not rise from the dead and the power of Jesus could not have healed that man.
It was probably thirty years or more ago, while serving the Lund Covenant Church in western Kansas, I was helping a group of men tear down two houses in Oberlin, Kansas. Wolfred Marcuson was retiring from farming and his son, Ralph was to move to the farm, so Wolfred and Selma bought adjoining lots in town. There was a small houses on each lot so both houses were to be torn down and a new home built on the site. Wolfred older brother Albert, well into his eighties was there to help. He spent the morning puttering around collecting scraps of lumber and piling them to be hauled away.
At noon we all sat down under a big tree for lunch and Albert decided to take off his shoes but he could not get his right shoe off. Finally the shoe was pulled off along with his sock, which seemed strange. But upon examining the shoe we discovered Albert had stepped on five nails and every nail had gone between his toes… so when he tried to pull off his shoe his foot came out but the sock was firmly nailed to the shoe by five nails.
Now you can tell me that the odds of stepping on five nails, all of which went between Albert’s toes is statistically impossible, but I was there and I saw it with my own eyes. A person can deny the truth but that does not change reality.
Whenever a belief system is threatened the tendency is to become defensive.
And whenever our status quo is threatened, the natural tendency is to become defensive as well.
B. Their status quo was disturbed…
“Leaders and elders of our nation, are we being questioned because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed?” Acts 4:9
Everything was just fine until the disciples came around and started healing people and talking about how Jesus had been raised from the dead… now they had a newly healed guy and several thousand former faithful Jews who where were intent on becoming followers of Christ. They would have preferred the man remain a beggar at the temple gates..
Essentially Jesus was eroding their support base and they felt totally powerless to do anything about it.
In Acts 4:12-22 the Council was stymied:
1. The disciples were actually pretty amazing guys… contrary to their earlier perceptions these guys were pretty sharp for men who were perceived as ordinary and for having had no formal training. Acts 4:13 (Reference: Remember, few of you were wise in the world’s eyes, or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful… so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God. I Corinthians 1:26-27)
2. There was the healed guy standing right there… there was no denying a miracle had taken place… the man had been crippled for 40 years. Acts 4:14 and 22
3. The entire populous was praising God. Everyone knew the guy and knew the story and had heard the disciples talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and they knew that if they took any public action against the disciple they would literally have a riot on their hands because everyone was marveling and praising God. Acts 4:21
The religious leaders just wanted these guys to go away. They wanted them to shut up and hoped that all this controversy and excitement would eventually go away. After all, the status quo is good!
So the religious leaders felt their hands were tied to the extent that the only thing they could really do at that point was to try to stop them from spreading their propaganda and warn them never again speak or teach about Jesus. Acts 4:17-18
However, Peter and John were not to be silenced and they persisted in citing the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
III. Jesus is unique… Jesus is uniquely cited as the singular way to salvation.
There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all heaven for people to call on to save them. Acts 4:12
When Peter spoke of salvation he was inferring two things about the extent of salvation.
A. The extent of being saved or salvation
• Restoration to health physically
• Preservation from eternal death
When Peter spoke of salvation and being saved in acts 4:12 he was affirming the power of Christ to heal the sick, restore life to the dead and preserve us for everlasting life.
Additionally Peter spoke of the absolute uniqueness of Jesus as requisite for salvation.
B. The exclusive uniqueness of the way to salvation
• In or through Christ everyone may be saved.
• Apart from Christ no one may be saved. (Apart from Christ there is no salvation for anyone
When Peter spoke of the uniqueness of Jesus he was affirming that the power of salvation is solely and singularly through Christ… when Peter spoke of the uniqueness of Christ he was absolutely uncompromising and totally without accommodation to any other claim. Salvation is through Jesus only and only Jesus. No way, no how is there another option.
And therein is the rub! No one likes to be told the options are limited to one way…
Robert Frost waxed whimsical in his poem The Road Not Taken:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both
And being one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent into the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence; Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
When it comes to salvation we would like for all the divergent paths to converge. We want to believe that no matter what path you take, everyone will eventually arrive at the same place in God. You’ve heard people say, and perhaps you even believe comments like, “It really doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe something.” Or, “All that really matters is that you believe in God and live a good life.”
If I could have a heresy of choice I would love to believe in the doctrine or theology of universalism, i.e., eventually everyone will be saved. Universalism is particularly appealing to a pluralistic society that wishes to respect all religions equally. Jesus may be unique to Christians but not an absolute uniqueness. Other beliefs are equally valid.
Pluralism allows everyone to begin on a divergent path as in the model of multiple paths originating at the foot of a mountain, will eventually all converge at the top of the mountain. In other words all roads lead to God and salvation. Pluralism is a comfortable belief for people like Halle Berry who is not sure which God to believe in. She once said, “I believe in God. I just don’t know if that God is Jehovah, Buddha or Allah.” (Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church, Zondervan, 2003, p. 54)
In Frost’s poem the roads diverged in the woods and they never converged… having taken the one path made all the difference. It did matter where he began because the outcome was different from the other.
Peter uncompromisingly stated that there is only one path and one path only.
There is a second perspective we call inclusivism, which agrees that all those who are saved are saved through the work of Christ but Christ can save through ways other than a pure belief in the gospel. Basically, any person who repents of their sins and trusts in what they sincerely believe to be true are demonstrating saving faith. If they are truly repentant of their sins and trusting God to save them then God saves them and they are included in Christ’s saving work. The terminology is consistent with the phrasing in Hebrews 11 that speaks of the faith of those who obeyed God and of how “God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith.” Hebrews 11:2 They had never heard of Jesus Christ but God still justified them because of their faith. (Reference Romans 1:18-20 re general revelation being sufficient to know God.)
Inclusivism assumes a posture in which a person refuses to play God and claim the right to determine who does and who does not get into God’s heaven. Inclusivism believes that Christ did indeed die for all the sins of all men of all time. Inclusivism believes that Christ died for the sins of all those people mentioned in Hebrews 11 who never heard of him and they and all who are justified in God’s eyes are saved through the work of Christ. Inclusivism is a way for us to trust God with the salvation of those who may never have heard of Jesus as the way, truth and the life. Inclusivism believes God sees a person’s heart…
Some seem to be hedging their bets. The Pew Forum found that 65% of those surveyed showed evidence of adhering to contradictory religious beliefs. They might say they believe in the bible but also believe in reincarnation, astrology, séances, psychics and yoga as a religion. (pewforum.org, 12/09/09) In an interview regarding his faith Tiger Wood said, “My Father was a Christian – of course Christianity was part of my life. But my mother was Asian, and Buddhism was also part of my childhood. So I practice both faiths respectfully.” (Elliot Harris, “Woods Takes Evangelicals to Sunday School,” Chicago Sun-Times, 10/10/06)
And then there is exclusivism. Exclusivism believes that Christianity is true and all other religions are false and that when Peter said, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved,” he meant the only path to God, salvation and eternal life is through Christ.
When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no person comes to the Father except through me,” Jesus meant there was one way and one way only and he was the one singular path that leads to the top of the mountain.
In my reading of the book “With” some time ago I was impressed by the simple way the author illustrated the truth of Jesus as the way, the truth and the life that leads us to God. He spoke of the way we typically draw a picture of a mountain… something of a pyramid. And then we draw a whole bunch of paths at the base of the mountain… all beginning at divergent points but converging in God at the top. That’s pluralism and to a certain extent inclusivism.
But a more accurate understanding is to imagine the divergent paths continuing to diverge rather than converge. They begin at divergent places and they arrive at divergent places. Only the path that we call the Way of Christ ultimately leads us to God, salvation and eternal life. So it is not only critical that a person be on the right path but that he or she be climbing the right mountain.
Perhaps you recall a comment made by Warren Buffet in June of 2006. He was the world’s second richest man at the time. He had just announced that he would donate 85% of his $44billion fortune to five charitable foundations. Commenting on his level of generosity Mr. Buffet said: “There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way.” (AP, ”How Do You Spend $1.5 Billion a Year?” cbsnews.com, 6/27/06) Philanthropy is a great path but is neither the right path nor the right mountain.
Conclusion:
Christian Apologist Lee Strobel likens the exclusivism of Jesus being the way, truth and the life that brings us safely home to God to the way we might treat an illness.
Imagine you are the parent of a very, very sick child. You are keenly aware that unless your child gets medical treatment your child will die. So you rush to the hospital emergency room where the physician examines your child. When the examination is complete the doctor comes to the waiting room and says, “Your child has a severe case of jaundice that is potentially disastrous but if properly treated jaundice is fairly easily treated. What we need to do is place your child under a special light that will stimulate proper liver function. Your child should recover fairly quickly.” But you object saying, “We would prefer to treat our child at home with our own home remedies. Baby aspirin will do the trick. Maybe some bleach baths along with some herbal applications will do the trick.” The doctor persists but you say, “Listen doctor, we know you are sincere about the light being the only solution but we have our truth and we believe that if we do it our way everything is going to work out okay in the long haul.”
When we get all broadminded about truth, we miss the cure
In addition to the medical metaphor, consider the mine-field metaphor. If we imagine the way before us as a booby-trapped minefield in which there is only one way to cross the minefield without stepping on a mine… we do not think taking the singular path to safety as being narrow-minded. We think the person who walks that carefully marked path through the minefield is a pretty savvy survivor who will arrive safely on the other side.
Jesus is the right path… the right path is the Jesus path!
The many paths do not converge, they diverge. Only one path leads us safely home to God. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Invitation
