Note: I have prepared a set of PowerPoint slides that I used in delivering this sermon. If you would like to have the slides you may Email me at sam@srmccormick.net with the words "Slides - The Way" in the subject line and I will send the pptx file to you directly by email.
THE WAY
I. Sin in the garden
As the crowning act of his creation, God created man and placed him in a beautiful garden.
Man was originally created perfect, in the very image of God, to love, commune with, and adore God who showered numberless blessings on him. God saw that the man was alone, and created woman to be his companion and help.
God, the man, and the woman were in perfect, unblemished harmony.
But sin entered. The serpent tempted the woman and she ate the forbidden fruit.
She told the man, and he ate.
The situation was altered immediately and radically.
They were now sinners, and hid themselves from God.
There had risen a barrier to perfect peace and harmony, and that barrier was their sin.
The man and the woman were estranged from the creator.
Except by the Creator’s own action, the estrangement was irreversible.
And that action would not be trivial.
Saving the human race would demand a terrible price.
But God would pay it.
The first biblical prophecy of Christ was spoken by God himself, said to Satan himself in the person of the serpent.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel. Gen 3:15
God drove the man and woman from the garden, and made sure they would not re-enter it.
Genesis 3:22-23 - Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
Today our focus is on the way to the garden, and the tree of life.
In our narrative, that way is now closed. Adam and Eve cannot re-enter the garden.
What do the garden and the tree of life represent?
(Everlasting life with peace and harmony in God’s presence.)
Being driven from the garden meant the man and woman no longer had access to the source of everlasting life.
Let’s take it from the beginning:
I believe that, while sinless in the garden, they enjoyed the direct presence of God.
Notice what happened when they sinned:
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Gen 3:8
When they sinned, their sin separated them from God, alienated from him until the day redemption was purchased on the cross outside Jerusalem.
At the moment they sinned, the sweet intimacy with God in his direct presence--as they enjoyed it while sinless—was severed.
In consequence, God placed cherubim and a flaming sword before the garden.
What did the cherabim and flaming sword signify?
Some say:
God himself guards the entrance.
The cherubim (angels) are real, not symbolic
Perhaps they signify divine judgment, denying transgressors the divine presence
Here is what we know. God is utterly incompatible with sin. If God allowed sinful man to dwell in his holy presence he could not cast out sinful Satan, without being an unjust God.
This story is a true tragedy.
• The serpent is degraded;
• the woman cursed with pains, miseries, and a subjection to her husband’s will
• the man is doomed to incessant labor and toil
• and the earth itself cursed with weeds
• the garden of pleasure is sealed from human entrance
• man, who was made in the image of God, was shamefully expelled from a place where only the pure and sinless could dwell.
• The irreversible process of aging had begun.
• In time, their bodies would die.
Death is separation.
Physical death is separation of the body and the spirit.
Spiritual death is a state of separation from God which, if unreconciled, is eternal.
Years later, Isaiah wrote to the people of Judah:
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)
Isaiah did not mean that God no longer cared for his people, or that he would not provide for them and preserve them for the sake of his master plan.
Quite the opposite, he meant that their sins obstructed the full enjoyment of complete peace and harmony between the people and God.
Still later, Paul described it this way:
Eph 2:1 … you were dead in your trespasses and sins...
From the very beginning, God had a plan.
That plan was “The Way,” and it has never changed.
II. The "way”
A. The word is used in many ways (that's one) –
The way is “here’s how you do something.”
The way is a plan of action.
The end of the way (Mary Welch).
The way of the world.
When a person has unique or unusual manners and comportment, we say "he has a way about him."
Prov 30:18-19 There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Four which I do not understand: The way of an eagle in the sky, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a ship in the middle of the sea, And the way of a man with a maid.
The way is the means by which satisfaction is obtained:
Need, desire, goal, or destination -----The Way -? Fulfilment, realization, attainment, or arrival)
Need for reconciliation with God-----Jesus----? The Father’s presence
B. “The way” for the Hebrews leaving Egypt
The Red Sea
When the Israelites were released from Egypt, they soon found themselves trapped (or so they thought) beside the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s chariots in swift pursuit.
They were delivered from bondage to Pharaoh, and now needed deliverance from seemingly certain destruction or being hauled right back into slavery.
But they were not trapped at all, for there was a way they would have never dreamed of, right through the dry seabed.
God made a “way,” where there seemed to be no way.
That is what he God does often.
The Desert
But where did “the way” take them?
Into the wilderness of Sin.
Out of slavery, but also out of the land where they were accustomed to plenty of fine food.
Num 11:4-5 The rabble who were among them [the Hebrews] had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic,
The Lord provided a way for them from slavery to the promised land.
That way was through the desert.
No fish, no leeks, no melons, no cucumbers, but...
the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey.
The approach to God’s presence was through the tabernacle complex.
The people could come into the court to bring their sacrificial offerings, but there they must stop, and hand the offering over to a priest on temple duty, who would prepare the animal, grain offering or libation, and present it to God in the manner specified in the law.
Sacrifices
In the desert, and long afterward, the way to God was by sacrifices.
Those sacrifices could never remove sin, but made the people ceremonially clean—that is, fit for community with the congregation of Israel and to approach the tabernacle.
On the approach toward the Holy of Holies, the people could only go into the outer court.
Beyond that, the priests on duty took their sacrifices to the place where they were to be offered, and they presented the offerings on behalf of the people.
Ultimately the sins that separated the people from God were atoned by action of the high priest, which he performed alone--not even the serving priests were allowed to be present.
But those arrangements were temporary.
One day there would be—as the Hebrew writer later described it—a new and living way by which WE have access to the holiest of all places—the very dwelling place of God in heaven.
III. Christ as “The Way”
A. On that last night, as Jesus spoke and prayed with the disciples before going over to the garden of Gethsemane, he told them:
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:3-6
Simply, without elucidation, unexplained, however larger their later understanding would be, he was the pathway to the Father, and he alone.
“No one” he say, “comes to the Father but through me.” John 14:6
About a week after Jesus ascended to heaven, the events of the day of Pentecost inaugurated a new era.
The disciples and all those who accepted their testimony and obeyed the gospel became known as "The Way."
Christ, who spoke in parables and analogies, often without giving explanations meant that Jesus himself was and is the channel by which people would come into a redeemed, reconciled, and covenant relationship with God.
This was accomplished through “the true and living way,” the death, burial, and resurrection (D-B-R) of Jesus, and our replicating it in baptism, as we spoke briefly about 3 weeks ago.
B. The Christian community took up “the way” as their moniker, and embraced the full meaning of Christ as The Way.
That included the foundational doctrines of D-B-R, and also the manner of life which replicates Christ’s.
Acts 9:1-2 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Acts 19:9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.
At Ephesus, Paul testified:
Acts 19:23 About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.
To the crowd in Jerusalem, Paul said:
Acts 22:4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women…
In Caesarea, before Felix, procurator of Judea (the same office once held by Pontius Pilate):
Acts 24:22 But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, "When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case."
The Way became well known, widely recognized by friends and enemies.
IV. False ways – in opposition to the way of the truth
They are deceptive:
Prov 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Jesus urged great care in choosing one's course of life.
Matt 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“The Way” ordains a new walk of life, regardless of where your road takes you.
Over the course of a lifetime, you will see a lot of road.
Sometimes it is smooth and straight
But sometimes winding in every direction
Sometime rocky and rough
Sometimes dangerous and scary
Sometimes cold and forbidding
But sometimes beautiful
Sometimes crowded and frustrating
Sometimes lonely
The views of your life are many as you follow “the way” in your own life.
But the same rightly may be said of Jesus.
His path was often rough and rocky, dangerous, cold and forbidding, and lonely.
V. The way back
Jesus' urging notwithstanding, we may have followed a false way, perhaps even thinking we were on the right path.
It is a virtue, not a failing, to reassess the course of your life.
If you discover that “the way” you have been thinking was the right way, only to find out you were mistaken, and it was the wrong road, there is a way back.
The way back is offered, but you must take it.
You have to be willing to take “the way back,” not just recognize it.
90 and 9
Jesus is seeking to return straying sheep to the flock:
Luke 15:4-7 "What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Jam 5:19-20 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
An important part of Christ’s work, and therefore our own, is his work of lifting up the fallen.
And when the fallen have been lifted, we must see them as lifted and restored, not fallen. Otherwise we deny the power by which they have been lifted.
The penitent are not defined by the sin of which they have repented and been forgiven.
Rom 15:5-7 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
By doing as Paul urged, we become participants with Christ in lifting up the fallen and setting them on the way.
