WHY ALL RELIGIONS WILL COME TO JESUS
John 6:45
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: HOW WILL YOU EVER LEARN?
1. I heard the story of a nine-year-old girl who returned from Sunday school and as her father was sitting down with his newspaper after a delicious Sunday lunch, she asked him some questions.
2. ''Daddy, why did God make all the leaves green?'' He thought a moment and replied, ''I don't know.'' Then she asked, ''What did God do before he made the world?'' Again he said, ''I don't know.''
3. She asked him another one: ''Daddy, how did Noah catch the two snakes and put them in the ark?'' He put down the newspaper and said, ''I don't know.''
4. The little girl sensed that her father was a bit restless, so she asked, ''Do you mind if I ask you questions?'' He replied, ''Not at all, how are you going to learn anything if you don't ask questions?''
B. THESIS
1. Atheist Dr. Ray Bradley says, “[Christians’] God will torture the majority of humans eternally in hell for the sin of unbelief, even though most of them have never even heard Jesus' name.”
2. He says there is no way such a punishment is either “just” or loving. Is it true that a person's salvation or damnation could simply be the result of a historical or geographical accident – they were born in the wrong place or time?
3. Are these charges true? The Lord Jesus Himself contradicts this when He declares John 6:45, “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me.” The title of this message is, “WHY ALL RELIGIONS WILL COME TO JESUS.”
I. THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT SALVATION:
A. ONLY JESUS CAN SAVE US FROM SIN AND MAKE US ELIGIBLE FOR HEAVEN
1. HE’S THE ONLY WAY TO THE FATHER; “I am the Way… No one comes to the Father except through Me,” John 14:6. HE IS ETERNAL LIFE; “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” I Jn. 5:11-12.
2. ONLY HIS SACRIFICE IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD; “He will save His people from their sins” Mt. 1:21. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” 1 John 2:2. The Father was satisfied with His sacrifice, Isa. 53:11.
3. ONLY HIS NAME SAVES. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12.
B. THE BIBLE’S GOD IS A GOOD & JUST GOD
1. God declared Himself to be “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” Ex. 34:6. That’s His good nature.
2. God will also judge justly, not meting out a harsher punishment than necessary, but taking into account all the facts of each case. As Abraham asserted, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Gen. 18:25. He WILL do right.
C. EACH PERSON WILL BE GIVEN A CHANCE TO MAKE HEAVEN
As Adrian Rogers said, “I believe with all my heart that there’s never been a person who died without some opportunity to have received Christ, had they lived up to the light that God gave them.” Josh McDowell adds, “...God will not exclude anyone because he happened to be born at the wrong place and at the wrong time” (Answers to Tough Questions, 1993; p. 137).
D. ALL ARE GIVEN GENERAL REVELATION
1. Paul in Rom. 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
2. Even those who’ve never heard the Gospel have it written on their hearts (see Rom. 2:14-15).
E. ALL ARE GIVEN SPECIAL REVELATION
1. Every person receives a certain amount of special revelation, that is, a personal exposure to the reality of God & His presence, answers to prayers, signals that God is listening/ responding. If they respond positively to that, they get more light (Lk. 8:18; 19:26).
2. The goal of general & special revelation is to bring us to the saving knowledge of Jesus as our Redeemer. That why Jesus said, “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me,” Jn. 6:45. That’s why all religions will come to Jesus Christ!
F. ALL SALVATION IS FROM JESUS ON CROSS. All salvation – even that of Adam & Eve, Seth, Enoch, Noah & Abraham – was made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
II. GOD WILL JUDGE THOSE WITHOUT THE GOSPEL DIFFERENTLY
A. DID THE O.T. SAINTS GO TO HEAVEN?
1. In the O.T., God only held people accountable for the level of knowledge of God they had. In the O.T., numerous people sought God and were found by Him, all before Christ & the N.T. gospel came into existence.
2. Hebrews 11:1-40 tells how people like Abram, were forgiven & declared righteous by God, because they had faith in God & walked with & obeyed Him, even though they did not know about Jesus.
3. They lived up to the light that God gave them and were blessed to be included in God’s eternal kingdom. Some of them caught glimpses of God’s coming Redeemer (through revelation from God) and trusted in Him.
B. MAJOR CHANGE: WHEN JESUS CAME
1. In John 15:22, Jesus said, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.” We are now in a time of “no excuses.”
2. The Apostle Paul explained the difference of before Christ and after Christ in Acts 17:30, AMP., “Therefore God overlooked and disregarded the FORMER AGES of ignorance; BUT NOW He commands all people everywhere to repent....”
3. With the coming of the Redeemer and His saving gospel, there is no longer any excuse due to ignorance. The whole world has been penetrated with the Gospel. [Some have said that people are better off without the knowledge of Christ, because then they’re not guilty of hearing & rejecting. This isn’t true. The whole situation has changed since Jesus came; we’re now ALL called to repent.]
C. BASIS OF JUDGMENT FOR UNREACHED
1. William Lane Craig says, “But the Bible says that the unreached will be judged...on the basis of their response to His self-revelation in nature and conscience.” (Rom. 2:7, 14-15)
2. Now this does not mean that they can be saved apart from Christ. Rather it means that the benefits of Christ's sacrifice can be applied to them without their conscious knowledge of Christ, because of their faith in God (like Abram, Gen. 15:6.)
3. As David Hunt says, “We may rest assured that no one will suffer in hell who could by any means have been won to Christ in this life. God leaves no stone unturned to rescue all who would respond to the convicting and wooing of the Holy Spirit.” [In Defense of the Faith]
III. EXAMPLES OF SPECIAL REVELATION AMONG THE UNREACHED
A. BOOK, ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS, Don Richardson
1. GOD OF THE SANTAL. In 1862, a bearded Norwegian missionary named Lars Skrefsrud and his Danish colleague, Hans Borreson, found 2-1/2 million people called the Santal living in a region north of Calcutta, India. They were waiting to be reconciled with Thakir Jiu, the “Genuine God” since their ancestors had sinned. Lars & Hans proclaimed that Jesus, the Son of the Genuine God, had reconciled them. 100,000 were immediately saved & baptized!
2. ETHIOPIA’S GEDEO PEOPLE. Several million quite different tribes share common belief in Magano – omnipotent Creator of all that is. The Gedeo tribe actually prayed to Magano. One leader, Warrasa Wange, saw a vision of two white-skinned strangers under a large Sycamore tree and he heard a voice that said, “These men will bring you a message from Magano. Wait for them.” In December, 1948 Canadians Albert Brant and Glen Cain arrived at the village in their truck and pulled under a large Sycamore tree and parked. Many thousands of Gedeo promptly accepted Jesus!
3. CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC’S MBAKA. Missionary Eugene Rosenau sat spellbound listening to the Mbaka tribesman, “Koro, the Creator, sent word to our forefathers long ages ago that He had already sent His Son into the world to accomplish something wonderful for all mankind. Our forefathers…forgot what it was that He accomplished for mankind. Since that time, generations of our people have longed to discover the truth about Koro’s Son.” No wonder there was such a tremendous revival among the Mbaka people
4. THE KAREN OF BURMA. The Karen people were electrified and asked if he were the “white brother” they had been expecting for centuries. Their ancestors had said, “He’s supposed to bring us a book from Y’wa, the supreme God, which will free us from oppression.” 800,000 Karen converted to Christ!
5. THE LAHU OF BURMA. For centuries, the Lahu have had a tradition which said that Gui’sha – Creator of all things – had given their forefathers his written law, but they’d lost it. They couldn’t obey their Creator perfectly until they regained His laws. The Lahu had “prophets of Gui’sha” to keep the expectation of Gui’sha alive in their hearts. And the tradition, “Gui’sha himself will send us a white brother with a white book containing the white laws of Gui’sha lost by our forefathers so long ago!” They wore wristbands to remind themselves of their need. When missionaries arrived it was like the Book of Acts!
6. THE SHAN, PALAUNG, and KUI, tribes built extra rooms on their houses or a church-like structure in every village in anticipation for the day when God would restore the “Lost Book” to them to worship Him.
7. INDIA’S NAGA PEOPLE. About one million strong, this people had prophets in the 1600’s to whom God revealed His laws, many of which were remarkably similar to the Laws of Moses. 76% of the entire population of the Naga people became Christians and church members!
8. THE MIZO OF INDIA. An ancestor had a dream, “A great light will come from the West and shine upon Mizoland. Follow the light, for the people who bring it will be the ruling race….” The Mizo people also possessed traditions of a sacred book given to them but lost by their forefathers. 95% of the 3 million men and women accepted Christ!
B. MUSLIMS HAVING VISIONS OF JESUS
1. Article, “Visions of Jesus Stir Muslim Hearts,” CBN.com. "What's happening nowadays in the Muslim world has never happened before.
2. IRAN IS NOW THE HOME OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST GROWING CHURCH! Even though Iranians live under the most extreme forms of Islam and the Bible is illegal, the Holy Spirit is stirring the hearts of the Iranian people. Oppression and the pharisaic religion they live under has caused a thirst for God as never before. From person to person, the faith in Jesus is spread. Being exposed brings terrible punishments & imprisonment, but people’s hunger to know God is greater. When Christians are interrogated, they tell the authorities that Jesus gives them a peace they never had with Islam. The Shiite government doesn’t have a response, except punishment! https://www.crossway.org/articles/how-iran-became-a-hotspot-for-christianity/
IV. ONE WAY GOD IS UNJUST
1. There is one way that God is unjust – He’s unjust to let wicked humans (that’s all of us) come into the perfection of Heaven and into His holy presence.
2. So if we’re going to accuse God of bending the rules, let’s accuse Him for all the gracious and merciful things He does, which, according to true justice, He should not do.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: CHANCE TO BE SAVED LIMITED
1. We are used to expiration dates and “limited-time” offers on all kinds of products. ALL OFFERS HAVE LIMITS! One of the old Saxon kings set out with an army to put down a rebellion in a distant province of his kingdom.
2. When the insurrection had been quelled and the army of the rebels defeated, the king placed a candle over the archway of the castle where he had his headquarters and, lighting the candle, announced through a herald to all who had been in rebellion against him that those who surrendered and took the oath of loyalty while the candle was burning would be spared. The king offered them his clemency and mercy, but the offer was limited to the life of the candle.
3. Even so, between the Cross of Jesus and His Second Coming, we are in the temporary time where God’s forgiving grace is extended to all His rebellious creatures. If you don’t claim your pardon during this limited time, the day will come when it will cease to be offered and you will face God’s justice without His mercy.
B. THE CALL
1. The Bible says “Today is the day of salvation; now is the appointed time.” Don’t miss claiming this favor of God tonight. Tomorrow may be too late for you!
2. How many of you want to accept God’s offer of forgiveness through Jesus Christ? How many have something you want to get under the blood? How many know someone who needs to be invited to join God’s kingdom? PRAYER
