The Way

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."