"The One Stairway To Heaven"

Genesis 28:10-19

“The One Stairway to Heaven”

By: Rev. Kenneth E. Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA

“There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.

When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed, with a word she can get what she came for.”

These are the opening lyrics to the number 1 most requested rock and roll song of all time by the rock

group Led Zeppelin.

The name of the song is, of course, Stairway to Heaven.

In our lesson for this morning, Jacob--who had deceitfully stolen Isaac’s blessing from his brother Esau

was now on the run from his brother who had determined to kill Jacob.

This was an unsettling time for Jacob. He had left home as a fugitive, and when he reached Bethel he was

tired.

So, he lay down to go to sleep and while asleep he had a prophetic dream.

“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the

angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the

God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac....”

.... “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of

it.”

Have you ever been on the run, or in an unsettling situation?

Maybe you were having trouble with your faith...

...maybe you were going through a time when you thought to yourself, “I have gone too far...

....I have sinned too much....

.....surely God is not with me...”

Then suddenly, God made Himself known to you...and you saw that indeed...God was right there with you

all along...ready to forgive you and love you!

“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”

This is God with us!

This is Emmanuel!

This is Jesus Christ!

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has promised, “I am with you...I will not leave you....”.....

....and this is a promise we can all bank on!

Unlike the gods of the pagan religions of Jacob’s time, in which the gods were merely local deities who

gave protection only within their own territories....

....the One true God assured Jacob that He would always be with him wherever he went.

Recently one of the major denominations met in Columbus, Ohio to debate, of all things, whether or not

Jesus Christ is the One true Savior of the world!

Is He the universal Savior or are there several?

What about the other world religions and their claims?

Some people wonder if perhaps there are not many ways to God.

If we were to ask the average American today what the difference is between the major world religions,

many people might mumble something about all religions being pretty much the same.

People assume that all religions have nearly the same moral teachings and ideals.

They might have different names for God, but it is the same God.

These religions, many people believe, may travel different roads, but they all lead to God.

As long as you believe in something, as long as you believe in God, it really doesn’t matter what form

your belief takes.

In fact, these religions are all very different and even contradict each other at crucial points.

All religions are not the same...all roads do not lead to the same end....in fact there is only one way to

heaven!

There is only One Stairway to heaven, and this Stairway can neither be bought nor sold!

Jacob’s dream was an offer from God--the Lord offered to be Jacob’s God.

And this is what God does for us through Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 1:51 Jesus tells Nathanael: “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of

God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Sound familiar?

Jesus Christ is the Stairway to Heaven that Jacob dreamed about.

Jesus Christ is our only access into the very presence of God: Jesus is the Door to heaven through whom

we must enter.

In John 14:6, Jesus declares: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except

through me.”

And in 1st Timothy 2:5 the Bible makes it clear: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and

men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.”

There is only One God--not the many gods of the many world religions, and there is only one way to

God...

...there is only one way to reach Him...

...there is only one way to be saved!