When you are planning a trip, how good are you at determining which way to get there? Do you just take a guess at which roads to take, or do you actually get a map out and plan your trip?
Of course, smart money is always on the one who plans the trip, but I think we would be shocked to find out how many people just assume where they are going is the best way to get someplace. And, is that someplace the place they really want to go?
Picture, in your mind’s eye this morning that you are climbing a hill, and you know that a you crest the top, there is a cliff on the other side that drops off thousands of feet into a burning volcano below.
Now, you have to get to the other side, but you aren’t really sure how you will do it. When you get up there, you see 20 bridges, all seeming to go to the other side, but you can’t tell because the clouds from the volcano hide the other side of the bridges.
And then you find out that not all of the bridges actually go all the way to the other side. You see a very nice man at the beginning of each bridge, urging you take his bridge. What do you do? Do you just take one without thinking about it? Or, do you try to ask questions or find out which bridge might be the right one?
The above scenario describes the spiritual dilemma we are all faced with. We know our future is either going to be falling headlong into that burning volcano or finding safety on the other side of the volcano. Which bridge do you take?
As with most everything, you can find the answer to that question, but it will not just appear to you automatically. You must search for it. And that explains why most people take the wrong bridge; they don’t want to take the time or go through the trouble to find out which way is best. They do not feel compelled to do anything in life that requires them doing anything differently from what they are doing already.
There is the story of a man who takes his wife and mother-in-law to Israel for a vacation. While they were there, the mother-in-law dies of a sudden heart attack. The man is now faced with a choice: Does he spend $20,000 to fly her body back to America and have her buried here, or does he pay $200 and have her buried in Israel?
After some consideration, he chooses to spend the $20,000 and fly her back to America. One of the local Rabbis asked him why he chose to do that, and he replied with this:
“Over 2,000 years ago, a man was buried in Israel and after three days, He arose. I just couldn’t take that chance with my mother-in-law.”
That man knew something about the Resurrection of Jesus, but he didn’t know very much about it, did he? That is like many people in today’s churches. They know something about Jesus, but they don’t really know very much about Him.
We all have an interest in hearing about life after death, but at the same time, we have a little bit of a fear of it, too. The whole subject intrigues us but also makes us skittish at the same time. It makes us uncomfortable.
So, let me ask you a question. How do we handle uncomfortable things? When a person is uncomfortable or afraid, the first thing they tend to do is either ridicule it or deny it. That is what many do with the topic of eternity.
Why do we do that? It is human nature to try and not think about those things we cannot understand. It’s like sweeping the dirt under a rug. It is still there, but since you don’t have to see it, you can ignore it and think all is okay.
There are many things in life we do not have the capability of understanding, but that does not give us the right to ignore them, deny they exist, or make fun of those who do try to understand them, does it?
Sometimes, when we don’t understand, we make up stories that make sense to us, and then try to push them off as the real truth. They aren’t the truth, they are only comfortable lies. And they give us the chance to let the truth be overshadowed by an untruth.
The story about the volcano represents our climbing the hill of life and then passing over to heaven. And getting to heaven actually depends on obedience more than it does on comfort. But to be obedient, we must know what to be obedient to, don’t we?
And so, whether it is regarding being obedient to God, or choosing the right bridge, it is our responsibility to get the right information, and to get that, we must do the legwork and search for it.
And that brings us full circle back to having to know about Jesus and how He really is the only available bridge that can get us to heaven.
EPHESIANS 2:5, says –
‘Even when we were spiritually dead because of our sins, Jesus Christ made us alive in Him.’
Here is a truth that will never give way to a comfortable lie. If we do not have Christ, we are guaranteed to take the wrong bridge.
Let’s look at this verse a little closer. The gist is that we are born into a world that is sinful, therefore, our very nature is sinful. And that is where we stay, or at least until we make a choice to receive Jesus Christ. At that very moment, however, He makes us eternally alive in Him.
Going down to VERSE 8, we read,
‘For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and that is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of your works, so do not boast as if it is your own efforts.’
That tells us the ONLY way for us to be saved and go to heaven is by the grace of God. To properly understand that, we should know the definition of ‘grace.’
Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve, and His NOT giving us what we do deserve. Or, lifting us above the fate of our sin and not making us suffer the just punishment of the sins we have committed.
When we drop all worldly pretenses and simply humble our hearts, we will accept Christ and that in itself shows God that we do have faith in Him. What when we show God that we have faith in Him, He blesses us with His wonderful grace. But we should know that it is from God, not from us – and that we do not deserve any of His loving blessings. We get them solely because He loves us … that much!
Grace is a special gift. We cannot do anything to earn it and we certainly cannot buy it. All we can do is receive it when offered, but it will never be offered unless we strive to live for God. Many people claim to be Godly, but they don’t ever seem to have any time or room for God in their lives.
Some years ago, a scientist by the name of Hardy, wrote a book. He was a devout atheist and all he wanted to do was disprove God and prove that Jesus was a myth. At the end of his book, he asked two questions: Has anyone ever really defeated physical death, and if so …. could it be duplicated by others?
Dr. Hardy did a lot of studying in the Bible so he could use God’s word against God … but what he found was that God’s Word touched his soul and Dr. Hardy became saved by his newfound belief in Jesus Christ.
I opened this message by asking how we handle things that are uncomfortable to us. I think we mostly ignore them and deny them so we do not have to think about them. What we should do is investigate them to see if we can understand them.
There were two fishermen who met for coffee. And, as all fishermen do, they began to swap stories. One said he caught a 400 pound bluegill and the other, not to be outdone, said he had gone fishing off the coast of Florida and had hooked something really heavy.
He said when he brought it up it turned out to be an old kerosene lantern from the 1700’s … and the amazing part was, the wick was still burning!
After thinking about it, the first fisherman said he would shave most of the weight off his bluegill if the other fisherman would douse the light in the lantern.
We all like telling our little fibs, don’t we? The trouble with that is they are actually little lies, and all lies are sinful in God’s eyes because they are not the truth, and God only deals in truth.
And those little lies were born when people first started to deny God His rightful place in this world. They started with Satan, trying to rob God of His throne in heaven.
Remember the guards who fainted outside the empty tomb? While the two women went to tell the other disciples what they had seen, some of the guards went and told their commanders, which in turn told the religious leaders.
The leaders did not want the truth to be known that Jesus really did arise from the dead, so they told a lie. They bribed the guards to tell that lie, and that lie said Jesus’ friends stole the body. But even so, none of the disciples were ever arrested for it or charged with it.
We tell our lies for two reasons: To either impress somebody by giving them false details, or to cover the truth up so as not to get in trouble or look bad. But no matter why we lie, it is the worst thing we could do. All sin is born out of some kind of lie … a lie that says God isn’t God or that it is okay to rebel against Him.
In 1 JOHN 2:23, we are given a stern warning,
‘Whoever denies the Son, does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father, also.’
Getting back to Dr. Hardy’s two questions; yes, somebody did defeat death, and yes, He did it in such a way as to make it duplicatible for each of us, too. After all, the most truthful person who ever walked this earth told us that because He lives, so shall we.
ECCLESIASTES 3:11 says that God put a yearning for eternity in our hearts. We have the instinct, but due to the hardness of our hearts, we cannot understand that instinct.
So what do we do with everything we cannot understand? We ignore it or deny it. And then, if we end up having to pay a consequence for doing so, we try to blame others for the decisions we made.
In PROVERBS, we read where there is a way that seems right to man, but in the end will lead to our death. We come up with some very crazy ideas to replace God’s truth, just so we can seem to understand, but it never works.
There once was a nurse who worked in a children’s ward. She would let the kids play with the stethoscope and listen to their own heartbeat. The kids loved doing this.
One day, she let a little boy do that and all of a sudden, his eyes got big and he began to smile and get excited. He looked at her and said, “I hear God knocking on my heart!”
He was so innocent of the lies of this world, he was able to react to God’s imprint upon his heart. Such is the innocence of man that our God adores. Jesus said, that unless we change to become like little children, we will never see heaven. I believe He was talking about having the innocence of heart that would let us live in the truth … just like that little boy was doing.
Our biggest hindrance to doing that, however, is our human need to understand something before we are willing to believe it. With God, we cannot understand His ways or His thoughts, so all we can do is either accept them or reject them.
EPHESIANS 6:11 tells us,
“Put on the full armor of God so we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes.’
Satan wants to snare us in the traps he sets around us. Those traps are baited with the lies that keep us from the truth. Were you aware that, even though you are a Christian, if you are not actively pursuing Jesus in your life, the devil can sneak in and start to destroy you? It’s true. If we aren’t walking with Jesus purposely every day, we are not wearing the full armor of God. And that leaves us open to the devil’s schemes against us.
It is our duty to stand up for truth and confront things that hinder others from seeing the truth.
2 TIMOTHY 4:2 tells us how to do that.
“Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.”
But when we confront, we do not do so arrogantly or in anger. We do so in the love of God. But if we choose to not confront evil, we are offending Jesus Christ.
ROMANS 12:9 says that we must have a sincere love that lets us live like Christ and we that type of love is not impatient, not hateful, and not intolerant. And those are the traits we must show others, even when we are rebuking the lies we hear from them.
We say we are Christians, but we must be sure that our lives reflect that to others. The best way to do that is ask ourselves whether we have a religion about Jesus, or if we have a personal relationship with Jesus.
The difference is a religion focuses on WHAT we do, while a relationship focuses on WHY we do. A religion makes sure we LOOK good to others and a relationship makes sure we RELATE well to others.
Religion deals with pride. It makes you think about how great “I” am, while “I” am doing something that makes people notice “me.” Relationships deal with love. It makes you think about what others need and lifts them up in your esteem and respect.
In MATTHEW 23:25-26, Jesus tells us that trying to impress others with how good of a Christian we are is like cleaning the outside of a cup and leaving the inside filthy. He tells us to clean the inside and then the outside will be clean, too.
While many churches have gone from preaching about sin and its consequences to giving pleasant and entertaining sermons, many Christians have gone from pursuing Jesus to wanting their itchy ears scratched so they can feel good about themselves.
In closing, let me tell you about a man who bought a mousetrap, but didn’t have any money left to buy cheese to put on the mousetrap. He found a picture of some cheese in a magazine and cut it out and put it on the trap. The next morning, that picture was gone, but in its place was a picture of a mouse.
This shows that a counterfeit truth will only produce a counterfeit result. If we rely on a false walk with Jesus, we will end up with nothing more than a false hope of eternity.
Let us be sure we do all we can to get the information that would show us which bridge is the one and only true bridge.
Let us close in prayer.
* After 4/12/2015, this video can be seen at:
www.cowetanazarene.org/videos.html
