Sermon: "Is Jesus the Only Way?"

First in the "Real Questions" series.
Delivered August 14, 2005 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Theme: Isn't Christianity too narrow in its claims? Don't all roads lead to God? This sermon deals with the exclusive claims of Jesus and reminds Christians to be gracious in their communication.

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

Click to Download & Listen (3.8MB)

Thanks Kevin, that video clip was a good lead in to the subject matter for today and I shouldn't really start a sermon with a confession, but I will. On the sermon series of "Real Questions for Real People" no one technically asked this question, okay? But, I think if you see the question that was asked, you may understand why we focused on this question in particular. In fact, when this question was posted on the board outside, and then handed out in the material about the four weeks series, a number of people came to me and said, "I am really glad that that is one of the questions." So maybe somebody meant to ask it, but they just never put it on a pew card. But here was the question that was asked.

What behaviors or attitudes are Biblical and which should we beware of when dealing with divisive issues?

I think we have that question on video, if you guys want to bring that up. Which behaviors or attitudes are Biblical and which should we beware of when dealing with divisive issues? Put it another way and this was also another question from the same person.

How can we engage in discourse with believers and nonbelievers in a way that does not alienate?

Okay? So imposing the question I started to think about it and thought, "Okay, I could preach a sermon about better communication," but I thought, "Let's come up with a divisive issue. Let's come up with a divisive question, something that I think many people would debate whether they are believes or nonbelievers - is Jesus the only way?" And so we want to talk about how to communicate certainly, and we will see in a minute from the passage from Colossians that we should communicate graciously, but at the same time what we communicate is essential to why we are even here as a church. Right on the wall as you come in it says our mission is "moving people towards Christ." So it's not just about the process of communication, let's talk about the central content of communication today. Here are some other related questions that you probably have heard, something like this in regard to the question or essentially to - is Jesus the only way? Look at some of these questions. I think we have those too if you can see them.

• Isn't Christianity too narrow?
• Since all religions are basically the same does it matter what you believe?
• Isn't the choice of what religion you take just a matter of personal preference?
• So many people in the world are not Christians, can they all be wrong?
• Christ can be the only way to God for you, but how can you claim that he is the only way for everybody?

Has anyone here ever had anybody ask them any questions kind of like this? Yeah, sure. All of us have had these questions.

I want to show you a quote from a religious leader who was a Methodist bishop in Illinois. I left out his last name on purpose, because I wouldn't want any Christians putting out a hit on him, okay? So here's the comment from Reverend C. Joseph, I left out his last name. He says,

"I am always fearful when we in the Christian community move beyond the rightful claim that Jesus is decisive for us to the presupposition that non-Christians are outside God's plan of salvation. That smacks kind of like a non Jesus-like arrogance. Many many people in Christendom today are answering the question, is Jesus the only way, with a no."

While there is a part of me that would like to agree with that and like to embrace universalism, which is basically implied in this, that everybody gets there, that God's 'yes' is greater than humanities 'no.' I heard one professor in seminary say, "Imagine this, try to get your head around this. Could you imagine Hitler and Anne Frank dancing in the kingdom of heaven?" That's really tough to think about isn't it? That says a lot about God's mercy if it were to be true, but it says nothing about God's justice, if it were to be true. And the God of the Bible, the God of mercy and justice, that's what the cross is all about. And so, the Reverend Joseph or anyone else had the authority it seems to me to go beyond the boundaries of God's word.

Now, people can debate what the boundaries of God's word are, but an ambassador, which is what we are called as Christians, is told to send a message, to bring a message to someone else. If the ambassador changes the president's message, not only is he or she going to get fired, but that in and of itself constitutes arrogance, to say I have the authoritive message, but I am going to change it because I want to make it more appealing to everyone. And as we look at a faithful ambassador's words keep in mind that Paul was dealing with a culture 2,000 years ago, which is exactly like ours. That people had a place for Jesus in their framework of thinking, but they didn't say that he was head and shoulders above the rest. And Paul in his letter to the Colossians was trying to say, "Listen, he is unique." He is distinctive and I hope you will see that as a result of today's message. Colossians, Chapter 4, 2 to 6 and I invite you to open your Bibles or just watch it on the screen as it comes up.

"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. (I am glad that we can tie prayer in the last four-week series on prayer in to this message. It's a nice tie in.) "And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."

Even a surface reading of this passage makes it clear that the Apostle Paul believed that he had to share a message, even if it meant imprisonment. He says, "I am in chains for this message." And you would think, if I was in prison and I asked prayer for something and I was talking about doors opening, I would pray, "Lord, I pray that the jail cell of this door opens" and Paul didn't pray that, he didn't ask prayer for that. He asked that there would be an open door for the message so that the guy he was chained next to would be able to hear the mystery of Christ. So there is two things that I want us to get out of this today. One that the message Christians share is not about a religion and it's not about an ideal; not even about the teachings of Jesus. It's about the person of Jesus Christ. And secondly, that ambassadors or messengers of Christ are commanded to be gracious and hospitable in their communication.

You see, we live in a day and age where many people are skeptical that somebody proclaims an absolute truth. Jesus is the only way. Many people would challenge that. They don't want to accept that. And yet those same people who react would recognize and admit that Jesus was a history-changing figure. In fact, he was probably the greatest person to ever live. And this person who is the greatest person who ever lived, even if you are not a believer, you would probably admit that, stood up one day in a crowd and there were skeptics and seekers listening to his words and he said this, "And you will know the truth (you know the rest of it?) and the truth will set you free." So Jesus himself said that the truth was an obtainable reality. Many people believe that you can't know the truth today; you can't have an absolute truth today, there is none. Whatever is true for you is all that matters. And yet the greatest person of human history said, "Truth is obtainable" and later he said, "That truth is me." He said, "I am the truth" and invited people into a relationship with him.

In today's text Paul asked for prayers so that he might make abundantly clear the mystery of Christ. He said, "I don't want to make abundantly clear doctrine. I don't want to make abundantly clear the mystery of Jesus Christ himself." Now if you go back in Chapter 1 of Colossians, the letter that we are looking at, and in Verse 25 we learn a little bit about what he meant by the word mystery, because Paul was talking to people who were into mystery cults and mystery religions. The heresy of the day was that you could only know about God if you were among the initiated. You could not communicate the Divine directly and openly. It could only be symbolic and I find it fascinating that Daniel Brown's books like "Angels and "Demons" and things like that are so popular today. What's that other book that he wrote? "The Da Vinci Code", yeah that's it. That those books are so popular because it's all about secret societies and knowledge that has been hidden and if you just look for it in the right place you will find it, right? That's kind of like part of that human mindset of the first century. And Paul says, "Let me tell you what a mystery is. What the mystery I am talking about is" and you go back to Chapter 1, in Verse 25 and he talks about again being commissioned to share a life-changing message and in Verse 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. Something that was hidden and is now revealed, okay? And what is that mystery?

Verse 27, "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Now that's mysterious isn't it? That God could actually come and live inside of us. That is what he says the mystery is.

If you go down to Chapter 2 and look in verse 2 he states his purpose again. He says,

"My purpose is that they (the believers) may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, (not hidden knowledge), in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, (listen to this) in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

You don't have to go beyond Jesus to find out any treasure of wisdom or knowledge according to what Paul was saying. Paul also goes on to say let no one disturb you with fine sounding argument, which is not of the truth. He says my message is open to anybody who will have the ears to listen.

Now go back with me again in Chapter 1 of Colossians, just a little bit further and I want to share with you the verse that is just point blank on their face of what Paul was saying, of who Paul was saying Jesus was and then think of the question, is Jesus the only way to God , in the light of these verses as we look at them. Okay? As a matter of fact, I would invite you to read them with me. Okay? Colossians, Chapter 1, Verses 15 through 20. Let's read together.

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church;he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."

Paul goes on to talk about how humanity is alienated from God, that we don't naturally go towards God. We strayed and went our own independent way and fellowship with God was broken and now Christ has come as the good shepherd to seek and save that, which was lost. And when we allow ourselves to be in union with him and he comes to live inside of us, the alienation of God goes away, all our sins are forgiven. We become children of God and we are destined for eternity with the Lord. You know if you took the question and said, Is Jesus the only way to God and because of the way that Paul describes Jesus, substituted God, is God the only way to God? Then the answer seems a little bit more less elusive. Of course God is the only way to God and that's what the mystery is all about. That God became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ to communicate and bring us back to God.

Now I am not saying that Christians have all the answers, you know what, we don't even have all the answers among ourselves. Christians fight with each other. We don't even understand certain answers to things that we disagree with. But what is stated today is an answer that's a mystery that was revealed. People did not make it up. It came right from the historical person of Jesus. You can go to the Encyclopedia Britannica and read 20,000 words about the life of Jesus. The only issue is, did he rise from the dead or not? And we can have a whole sermon about did Jesus rise from the dead? Of course, we believe that he did. But we are not, Christians aren't trying to be bigoted or presumptuous by saying that we believe Jesus is the only way. It is because of who he was and what he did.

And the other passages of scriptures, there are other verses; Peter preached in Acts and he said in Acts 12, that there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. He is the only name that has been given to proclaim this way. In Timothy, and Paul said to Timothy there is no other mediator between God and human, only the man Christ Jesus. Galations 2:21, Paul powerfully says,

"If salvation could come, if righteousness could come to a person in any other way, then Christ died for nothing."

You understand, if God could make another way, God would have made another way and spared his son, but he didn't spare his son, but delivered him up freely from us all. When Jesus Christ himself was standing before Pontius Pilate, his own lips said this,

"For this reason I was born in to the world to testify to the truth, everyone who is on the side of truth, listens to me." To which Pilate said, "What is truth?"

And the answer to that question, what is truth, was standing right in front of him. So the truthfulness or the falsity of an individual's heart is revealed by what they think about Jesus. It's not so much that he has the answers to life's questions as much as he is the answer and he said,

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me."

Now these words weren't spoken in a vacuum. They were spoken in the context of a 33-year life and I will talk about that in a second. But when people say, those who believe that all religions lead to God, actually when I hear people say that, I think that they know very little about what the individual religions say about getting to know God. Because if they really studied what all the religions say about getting to know God they would realize that they are all contradictory. They are not all the same. Jesus didn't die to bring another religion. He died to bring us into a relationship with God. All the religions of the world are people trying to get to God by good works or good deeds or right thoughts. Christianity is God coming down to us and bringing us out of the pit of despair and depression and self-loathing or whatever and putting us on a rock that's higher than we.

See to believe something sincerely doesn't mean that it would also be the truth. I have heard of a true story, a nurse who hooked a patient up to what she thought was an oxygen tank, but it was a nitrogen tank, and it was mislabeled in the factory and the person that was hooked up to it died in a matter of hours. She sincerely believed something, but it was sincerely wrong. Now Jesus said that people needed to trust him for their eternal destiny. Wouldn't a person who said that and believed that he couldn't deliver not be a moral teacher at all, but be unspeakably evil if he knew that he couldn't deliver eternal life, but he said trust me for eternal life?

He made shocking and startling statements about himself. He clearly stated that he not only identified himself with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but he said before Abraham was ever born I am, and do you know what the people that listened to him did when he said that? They started to pick up stones to throw at him and to kill him because he was making himself out to be God. This happened at his own trial when one of the leaders said to him, "Are you the Messiah? Are you the one whose coming?" And he said,

"You've said it yourself, and I tell you, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand or Power, coming in the clouds of heaven"

And when he said that the high priest tore his robes and said "What further need do we have of any testimony. You've heard the blasphemy yourself." Jesus made no bones about it that he was the Son of God. Then he said to his disciples earlier, "Who do people say that I am?" Some people said well they think you are a prophet. They think you are Elijah. They think you are John the Baptist. And then he asked the question that every heart has to answer, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter upon hearing this question answered "You are the Christ. You are the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God." You know Jesus did not rebuke him. Jesus was not shocked by that answer. He said, "You know what, you are right and not only are you right, but you didn't get that from yourself. God revealed that to you." Jesus would often equate what a person thought about him with what they thought about God. He said to see him was to see God. To know him was to know God. To believe in him was to believe in God. To receive him was to receive God. And to hate him was to hate God and to honor him was to honor God. And his character coincided with his claims.

One time in John, Chapter 8 he asked the question that none of us would ever ask of anybody else. He said this, he asked this question,

"Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?"

Would anybody dare to ask that question of anybody in their family? I mean my wife and daughters and brother-in-law and father-in-law are here. If I asked that question they would say, Oh yeah I have the answer. I will give you a whole list that could prove you are guilty of sin. And the people that he was talking to would have loved to have found one thing that would indicate a flaw in his character, but they couldn't say a word because he was the sinless Son of God. We read of the temptations of Jesus but, we have never heard or read of him confessing any sins. He never asked for forgiveness, although he told his followers that they should do so. What's even more astounding when you really do compare Jesus to other great religious leaders, no matter what their religion, the more you study the other religious leaders, the more that they realize that they get closer and closer to God how many failures there are in their lives and how apart from God they really are. None of that is evidence in the scriptures about Jesus and you would think that the people who walked with him for three years would know him the best, right? And yet listen to what they wrote. Peter said, he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. John said, he appeared to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. Pilate asked at the trial, what evil has he done and no one could answer. The soldier at the foot of the cross said, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

You know what's behind the question about Jesus' exclusive and daring claim that Jesus is the only way, what touches us and makes us even ask the question many times is our sense of fairness about things. But I want to ask you, what is fair about one person dying for the ungodly? You know Paul said to the Romans, maybe, maybe one of us would die for somebody who is a righteous person, maybe. Here's the question, who would you die for? Who literally would you die for? I would die for my family. I would die for some people who are close to me. I might die for some of you guys. I don't know. I am not sure, but I might. But I will tell you what, I don't think I would die for any ungodly people. I don't think I would die for a prisoner on death row. So in a question of fairness, while we are still powerless, Christ died for us. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. That goes so far beyond fairness; that's got nothing to do with fairness. It's got to do with grace and mercy and you know what, you are included in that gift. You are included in the cross and then it's just a matter of, do I make Jesus' death and resurrection my resurrection, my trust in him, my forsaking self rule and self addiction and embracing him as my Lord and Savior.

Some of you may be here today as honest seekers and you just don't know ,and I would just tell you that when you get to a place of what do I have to do, it's the same thing as if somebody knocked at your door. What would you have to do to get them on the inside of your house? You have to open the door, right? You have to invite them in. Jesus today stands at the door and knocks and he is inviting anyone who listens to open that door and invite him in, and he promises that when he comes in our sins will be forgiven and we will become children of God. And I am going to pray that for you in just a minute, but I just want to wrap up with this.

I want to wrap up with the other part of the question about the style issue of sharing, because the person who wrote the original question was distressed by how our communication can sometimes be less than kind. And while we don't apologize for the message of Jesus' uniqueness, we do apologize for anytime that the messengers have been unkind or insensitive. Paul says in this text in Colossians, Chapter 4, always preach at people, always give advice, always use lots of religious jargon, always tell people that they are going to hell. No, that's a different passage. He says, always let your speech be gracious. You know what the word always means in Greek? Always. Always let your speech be gracious and I know all of us have fallen down on that one. But what does it mean, let your speech be gracious? It means courteous. It means amiable. It means charming and he says seasoned with salt. That's a preserving quality, a purifying quality, a flavoring quality. No tasteless communication allowed.

And Paul said elsewhere in the Bible that if you go to speak a message and you understand all the mysteries, but have not loved, you are like a person taking two cymbals and putting it and smacking it in front of people's faces and all you are doing is annoying people. You see if a person doesn't know that you love them, or that you like them, chances are they are going to filter out most anything you have to say to them, especially when it has to do with their eternal destiny. So, what we need to pray for even if someone never believed what we had to say, that the love of God, that the messenger itself would be someone who would be communicating the love of God, even if that person is rejected so that the message and messenger are one.

That's what Paul is saying. It's love that invites us to pray today. It's love, the love of God that invites through me to offer you to pray that if you hear Jesus knocking at the door of your heart, that you would make this prayer that I am about to pray your own. And if you don't pray this prayer today, there is Alpha on Wednesday evening that you know you can talk to any one of the pastors, leaders. There are some people that will pray for you down at the chapel today and you can go down there, but today for those who may be saying, "You know what, I do need Jesus. I see how unique that he is and that his death has made a way for me." The only thing that Jesus said people would be judged for would be blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that said that he was not sent from the flesh. He said the Holy Spirit would come and convict the sin, and what's that sin? That they did not believe in me. Let Jesus worry about all the folks who have never heard. Today is the day of salvation. So harden your hearts, but receive him. Receive him today if this makes sense for you. Let's pray. Here is a prayer that I prayed 35 years ago and I invite you to pray it in your own heart today if God is knocking at your heart's door.

Lord Jesus I need you. I thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I know that I have gone my own way and as a result sinned against you. Lord come into my life, take up residence in my heart and my body. Make me one with God and with you. Make me the kind of person that you want me to be. I ask it in your holy and righteous name. Amen.

© 2005, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org