“I’d Rather Have Jesus”
John 14:1-7
A couple weeks ago I was talking to a young father and mother with a four year old in their home. He designs computer chips and chip boards in his home as an independent contractor. In our discussion I made reference to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and Christianity. Of all religions only Jesus died and rose from the dead.
He said that all religions believe in the Ten commandments. “If we live according to the Ten commandments we will be okay in God’s sight.”
The problem is that you can know the Ten commandments by heart, but unless you know Jesus and his forgiveness of sin and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit you cannot keep the Ten Commandments and obey them.
The person and work of Jesus is Christianity. If you take Jesus out of Christianity you have “…ianity” nothing but dead teachings and laws.
George Beaverly Shea has sung many times a song written by Rhea Miller. It was George’s mother who started the whole course of events when she left a copy of Miller’s song on the family piano in their home in New York City. Years later, George Beaverly Shea wrote: Instead of practicing the hymn I had intended to play that Sunday morning in Father’s church, I turned to a poem that Mother had placed on the piano. Melody just seemed to form around the words. When I had played and sung it through for the first time, Mother came from the kitchen where she had overheard. She wrapped both arms around my shoulders and placed her wet cheek next to mine. In church that morning, I sang for the first time, “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” (George was only 21 years old at that time.)
Born in 1909 in Canada, young George was raised in a home where each morning he was awakened by the voice of his mother singing and the piano playing, “Singing I Go.” Little did either one know that 30 years later that song would be the theme for George’s radio program on WMBI in Chicago. In addition to growing up in a home of music, God’s word was always present too because George’s dad was a Wesleyan minister.
As soloist for Billy Graham crusades, “I’d Rather Have Jesus” has gone around the world and back again convincing our generation of the need for Christ.
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold, I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than Houses or lands, I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand.
Than to be the king of a vast domain Or be held in sin’s dread sway; I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.
There are many non-Christians who would sing: “I’d rather not have Jesus ….. if I have to change my life-style and give up some things I enjoy now.” Or, “I’d rather not have Jesus if I have to give up my belief that all roads lead to heaven.”
Many people are searching for meaning to life. They are asking, “Why am I here?” “What is life and death all about?”
Many people are looking in the wrong places to find Jesus. The good news is that Jesus is always patiently waiting for you. Jesus knocks at the heart of every person and asks the person to open their heart’s door and invite Him in. Revelation 3:20
Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.” NLT
If you had to choose between Jesus and something precious to you…some alluring dream or tantalizing desire…what would you choose – Jesus or something else?
# Joseph Stowell, president of Moody Bible Colege, tells of having dinner with Billy Graham at a dinner for the staff and board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Billy was eighty at the time and Dr. Stowell asked him a question: “Of all your experiences in ministry, what have you enjoyed most?” “Was it you time spent with presidents and heads of state? Or was it….”
Before he could finish his next sentence Billy Graham responded: “None of that, by far the greatest joy of my life has been my fellowship with Jesus. Hearing Him speak to me, having Him guide me, sensing His presence with me and His power through me. This has been the highest pleasure of my life!”
A long time friend and associate of Billy Graham was Chuck Templeton. He worked with Billy Graham in Youth for Christ in their early days of ministry. Chuck Templeton helped organize Youth for Christ in Canada.
But over time Chuck Templeton became an Agnostic and renounced his faith in Christ. He left the ministry and managed two of Canada’s leading newspapers.
Lee Strobel, now teaching pastor at the Saddleback Church in Southern California, was an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He had received his attorney’s degree and was a committed Agnostic. Through his wife influence and the Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area Lee Strobel came to a personal faith in Christ. He has written two outstanding books, “A Case for Christ” and “A Case for Faith.”
Lee Strobel read one of Chuck Templeton’s latest books, Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith. He decided to fly to Toronto to meet Chuck Templeton now 83 years old and interview him. In their interview Chuck Templeton vigorously defended his agnostic rejection of a God who claimed to love, yet allowed suffering across the world to go unchecked.
Then toward the end of their time together, Strobel asked Templeton point-bland how he felt about Jesus.
Instantly, Templeton softened. He said, “In my view He is the most important human being who has ever existed.” Then his voice began to crack, he haltingly said, “I…miss…Him!” Then Templeton’s eyes filled with tears and he wept with his shoulders shaking.
What a contract of two friends, Billy Graham and Chuck Templeton. Once worked together for the Lord and then went their separate journeys. Billy Graham said that Jesus was his most prized possession, while Chuck Templeton weeps for having left Him long ago.
The Bible Teaches that Jesus the one and only way?
John 14:6 Jesus said to his followers:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.
He is here making a claim to be unique, and to be the only way to God. This is not just the claim of Jesus himself. It is also the unanimous teaching of the early Church. For example, when Peter is hauled before the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he tells them, in Acts 4:12:
There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them.
Paul also writes in I Timothy 2:5:
There is only one God, and one mediator who can reconcile God and people – the man Christ Jesus.
The Holy Word of God makes it clear that Jesus is the only way to God. Why? Because very person is separated from God by their sin and in need of forgiveness. Because God is just as well as loving, we cannot cross this gulf and have a relationship with Him (eternal life) unless the penalty for our sin is paid--eternal death. If God did not judge our sin, He would no longer be just.
Living a good, moral life cannot save a person because good works do not pay the penalty for sin. Just as we can only pay a $50 speeding ticket with $50 (not by baking cookies for the judge or even paying $49), only death can pay the death penalty for sin. Being religious cannot save a person either, because religion does not pay the death penalty.
Fortunately, because of His love for us, God sent Jesus to die in our place to pay the death penalty we deserve for our sin. Jesus chose to do this because He loves us, and was the only one able to do this because He is fully God (He had to be infinite to pay the penalty for more than one person) and He is fully man (He had to be a sinless human to pay the penalty for a sinful human). Jesus is not only sinless, but He is 100% God and 100% man.
People have all sorts of objections to the truth that Jesus is the only way to God.
Objection #1: Christianity is too narrow:
Just because something is narrow and exclusive does not make it wrong. Life is full of things that are narrow and true. For example, we want the airplane pilot to land on the runway, not the highway; to land right-side up, not upside down. Truth is always exclusive of error. Two plus two equals four is very narrow, but it is still right.
Objection #2: There are so many religions that we cannot know who is right:
We can believe what Jesus said because He gave evidence that validates His claim. Jesus not only claimed to be the only way to God, but He also claimed to be God (John 5:18; 10:30-33). He then rose from the dead, proving that what He said was true. There is more evidence for Christ’s resurrection than any event in ancient history. Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed and all of the other religious leaders of the past are still in their tombs. But not Jesus. Who would you believe?
Objection #3: Truth changes from person to person:
Sometimes people say "It may be true for you, but it is not true for me." But simply believing something cannot make it true. We believe something because it is true, not to make it true. People used to believe that the earth was flat, but that did not make it flat; it was still round. Jesus’ statement in John 14:6, "No one comes to the Father, but through Me," is a universal truth. It applies to everyone, even if they do not believe it. And since Jesus is God and rose from the dead, He has the authority to say this.
Objection #4: It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere:
A common belief today is that God will accept people no matter what they believe, as long as they are sincere. Sincerity, however, cannot determine whether something is true. It is possible to be sincerely wrong, because faith is only as good as its object. Several years ago a nurse in a large hospital changed an oxygen tank for one of her patients. She sincerely believed that there was oxygen in that tank, but the next nurse to check on the patient found him dead. The tank had been wrongly labeled at the warehouse and contained nitrogen, not oxygen. This nurse was sincere and had a lot of faith in that tank, but the nitrogen still had terrible consequences for her patient.
To further illustrate that faith is only as good as its object, let’s say that I put all of my trust into a potted plant to teach me calculus. Will I learn calculus from this plant? No, because it is the wrong object. In the same way, a person can not get to heaven by trusting in religion or good works, because that is trusting in the wrong object--these things cannot pay the penalty for our sin. Only Jesus can.
We need to always remember that people of other religions can be saved, but not by their religion. If they come to Jesus, He will save them. The invitation is open to all.
The next time someone accuses you of being intolerant of other ways, share the good news of the gospel with him confidently. It’s the truth.
What has the greatest value to you?
Our values tend to change over time. Two of our children had their very own small blanket. They couldn’t go to sleep without their blankee. Special blankets through nearly in shreds had great value to them.
Our youngest daughter valued junk jewelry. She could spend hours putting on and taking off jewelry. She would wear her jewelry everywhere, but we did not allow her to wear it to church. But one Sunday she snuck into church with a light coat on and when she took off her coat she was loaded down with jewelry around her neck on her arms and fingers. She placed a great value on jewelry.
When in eighth grade my pride and joy was a new English racing bike I had saved up and purchased with my own money. I valued the bike above everything else I had.
Carollyn values pictures – especially pictures of our children and grandchildren. Everywhere she goes she has her camera in hand.
What do you value? What things in life have lasting value? Many things we valued in the past now fill our garages and storage boxes.
# A prankster broke into a hardware store. He didn’t steal anything, but he did switch price tags throughout the store.
The store manager knew something was wrong when a customer stepped up to the cash-register with a claw hammer and it rang up for $199.95. The customer’s jaw dropped and asked: “What’s this hammer made of, Platinum?”
An employee noticed that a big screen TV was priced at $14.95. Many items for sale had their values out of sorts.
We need to be careful that we don’t get values in our life switched and create a chaos of price tags for things we value most. The Apostle Paul made it clear what we should value most: (The Message: Philippians 3:7-8, 10)
The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash – along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant – dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him…I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally.
If Jesus seems distant from you. Guess who moved? A gap between you and Jesus happens when you allow sin to bring the separation. If there is bitterness, unresolved anger, sensual thoughts and actions, pride, untruthfulness, or slander and gossip in your vocabulary, you’re going to feel the distance. Jesus doesn’t meet you on those playing fields. Jesus will meet you to pull you out of the ditch of your own ways, but He won’t stay there with you.
You need to pray as the Psalmist prayed: “
Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139:23-24
Jesus surpasses anything you can value in this world.
Is there anything you have? Anything you might hope to have. Anything you hope to become…that can compare with knowing Jesus in a personal way?
When Jesus went to the Cross and died for our sins He became our greatest value in life.
Only when Jesus is our greatest value in life can we sing:
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold, I’d rather be
His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than
Houses or lands, I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand.
Than to be the king of a vast domain Or be held in sin’s dread sway; I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.
Will you say “Yes” to Jesus today? Jesus alone can forgive your sins. Jesus alone can give you inner peace. Jesus alone can give you lasting joy. Come to him Just as you are.
