Palm Sunday 2017, I AM, John 14-1-6

Good morning. We're going to be stepping into this passage, John 14, 1 through 6. One of the things that we do on what's traditionally called Palm Sunday is we teach on some passage anywhere from a week before the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ on into events just before. And I want to give you a warning here. I'm going to be talking because Jesus actually makes a first reference here to the rapture and it points to a wedding.

And so I can get awfully excited since, as I've been telling you, Nancy and I have been married for 15,844 days now. So anyway, I keep track of those things. And why would I get excited about it? I'm excited about it because Every day that the Lord gives us is another opportunity to live out in time the eternal romance of Christ in the church. So anyway, that's why I get excited about it, and that's why I need to give you a warning. And sometimes, who knows?

Anyway, so in the context of John 14, 1 through 6, we need to look at where is this happening. Most of John chapters 13 through 17 are unique to the gospel of John. As a matter of fact, it's chapter 13 where there's some overlap and crossover with the other Gospels. The rest, portions of chapter 13 and John 14, 15, 16, and 17, those chapters are unique to the Gospel of John pretty much entirely. And John, it appears, wrote after the rest of the Gospels were written, and so he had an opportunity to say, okay, that was good, I'll connect up with that, but then to include lots of events and material that the other Gospels did not include. So he had connecting points with the other Gospels, but much of it is fresh and new, and that includes John 14, 1 through 6. There isn't some equivalent passage in the other Gospels.

It appears to have been spoken after what's called the Last Supper. That was a traditional Passover meal. As we've explained previously, Jesus had the Last Supper on what was known as the Pharisees' Passover time. The Sadducees appear to have had a separate Passover event that they prepared for on the next day, and they had the Passover meal the next evening after the Pharisees' Passover meal. So Jesus is observing the Passover at the same time as the rest of the Pharisees and others of that tradition.

This was said, however, before they had left the upper room. The upper room was just in the southwest quadrant of Old City Jerusalem there. And so Jesus still had them there in that upper room. At the end of chapter 14, he invites them, hey, let's go from here. And so he is at that point in time getting ready to head for the Garden of Gethsemane, if not headed there when the rest is spoken.

So John 14.1 says this, do not let your heart be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. So, think about it. Why would their hearts be troubled? Why would He have to give them this caution about not letting their hearts be troubled? So, it goes like this. In John 13, 21, so the previous chapter, just some verses earlier, Jesus had told them that one of them would betray them.

Imagine, they couldn't figure out who it was, which is very interesting just to ponder that. They couldn't figure out who it was who was going to betray them. And that would appear from a couple of different lines of understanding. One is Judas was real good at hiding it. So they couldn't figure out who it was. Secondly, Jesus loved Judas and expressed that love so much, even to the point of including Judas in the washing of feet. Here in chapter 13. So much. that the disciples could not tell that Jesus loved Judas any different. Isn't that amazing?

Here this guy is within hours going to betray them for 30 pieces of silver, as predicted in the Old Testament. But they could not guess who that might be. Now you might be wondering, why didn't they get the picture when Judas left? Because he left here in the middle of the meal, essentially. Why didn't they get the picture? Here's why.

Judas was the treasurer, and it was considered, according to the traditions of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, it was considered, according to those traditions, okay to go out in the middle of the meal to buy additional supplies for Passover, because Passover was that important. If you have no money for Passover, it was so important you're supposed to sell everything that you have in order to observe Passover. So as Judas went out, they would have thought, oh, well, he's just going out to buy more supplies and not thought anything about it that would have been completely normal and acceptable. John 13 33 Jesus said that he would leave them now on top of one of you is going to betray me and they can't figure out who that is. Why would you leave us? You know, we don't understand. Why are you leaving? They just did not get it.

But it was only, you know, roughly a dozen verses after he told them that one of you is a betrayer now here he is in this verse John 1333 saying I'm going to leave you and so that would be a cause for disturbance and being troubled in John 1338 only several verses after that in spite of Peter's vow to be faithful to the end Jesus told Peter that a rooster would not crow until Peter denied Christ three times So between these several things, imagine one of you is a betrayer, is going to betray me, and I'm going to leave you. And Peter, I know you just promised to be faithful to the end, but it's going to be a very short period of time. Hours from now, you're going to deny me three times. So between those three things, are they going to be troubled?

Yeah, probably, especially since they don't understand any of it. All right. So the evening was starting off troubled, and this was, imagine, we're supposed to have this nice Passover meal with all sorts of traditional things that you say, wait a minute, where is this in the tradition, right?

None of it's in the tradition. I'm going to leave you stuff that, Peter, you're going to deny me? One of you is a betrayer? I mean, all that is, you know, you look in the listings of here's our traditions, and they'd write it down. No, it's not in any of that.

So this is troubling. So is that all there is? Let's ask this question to peace and tranquility. Just don't let your heart be troubled. Do you just stop there? Is that it? Hey, folks, you know, don't worry today. Just don't let your heart be troubled. Does that help you? Is that pretty good? Probably not so much, huh? So we just do we just not keep calm and just do it, right? Not so much.

So Kenneth Weist has this translation which may help a bit. Do not let your heart continue to be agitated, implying that your heart is troubled right now, right? And we understand because I've said that one of you is a betrayer, I've said that I'm going to leave you, and I've told Peter he's going to deny me three times before morning hits, right? So what is it?

It's a matter of where we put our trust. As a matter of fact, that's a point that we've made previously. Oftentimes we presented that Christians have faith, people of religion have faith, but people otherwise, people who are atheists or skeptics or secular for whatever reason, they don't have faith. No, everybody has faith. It's only a question of where you put it, right? Everybody has faith. It's a matter of where we put our faith or trust, trusting God the Father and the Shepherd who is the guardian of our souls, Christ.

That's how we not let our hearts be troubled. It isn't a matter of saying, stop worrying. Good luck with that. Stop worrying. Don't let your heart be troubled. It is a matter of putting our trust in God, and that's exactly what he says. We have further insights from later on in that same chapter, John 14, 25-27. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, he says again, nor let it be fearful. So we need to ask the question, you ever hear about have faith, believe, trust?

You might say, well, what's the difference? Actually, in English we have those differences of meaning, or as we say, these are related words. We wouldn't necessarily define them all the same. But interestingly, they come from the same family of words in the Greek language that the New Testament was written in. And so all those nuances shouldn't be ignored because the translators are looking at context, but nonetheless, Well, that's the case. Faith, belief, and trust that Christ intends is the same word in the Greek, and it's one of true and personal dependence.

So one of the things we want to tell you here in this passage is to brace yourself. After 42 books in the Bible before this one, after 13 chapters in this book, We come across the first passage in the whole Bible that is about the rapture of the church, the body of Christ. This is the first rapture passage in the whole Bible, the one that you'll be taken up. Jesus uses getting ready for a wedding words. Yeah. Getting ready for a wedding words with the disciples.

And so, here where they're puzzled by all the things Jesus is saying, He's going to introduce one more thing they're going to be puzzled by. Get ready for a wedding. What? What's He saying? These are wedding words. I mean, we're all guys here. Isn't this a little weird? Right? What we have is getting ready for wedding words that he tells the disciples about the rapture for the first time that we have any record. First time. The disciples must have been puzzled, maybe blushing, possibly both. All right, so what are we talking about? So here's John 14, 1 through 3, looking at it together. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Now, here is a passage. Many will read it and say, well, wow, that's quite a jump. But let's look at it. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 17. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-17, and we can include 18 with that, but I'm stopping at 17 for a reason, is a passage where the Apostle Paul explains what we call the rapture, the catching up of the church to be with Christ.

And it goes like this, But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, And with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so we shall always be with the Lord. So we have these two raptured passages, and they actually have a lot in parallel and even in the same sequence between the two passages.

So here's John 14, 1-3, 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-17. We have there, for example, in verse 1, don't let your heart be troubled, right? And he talks in verse 13 and 1 Thessalonians 4 about grieving. He talks in believe in God, believe also in me. And then that word believe is also in 1 Thessalonians 4, 14 and on down the list.

God and me, Jesus and God, and then told you, say to you, and then come again, the coming of the Lord, receive you and caught up, So that, and then to myself, or to meet the Lord, be where I am to ever be with the Lord. So those things are all in parallel, they're in the same sequence between those two passages. Very interesting. So we have Jesus speaking these words in John 14, 1-3, and then the parallel Paul wrote sometime later to the church at Thessalonica. And yet we find the contents there are parallel and even in the same sequence. So we have the two, and you can take time to examine that yourself. That's kind of fascinating to look at those.

John 14, 1 through 3 is the first rapture passage in the New Testament. And so we have a listing of more of them. And what's interesting, the president of the seminary wrote a chapter in a book. Matter of fact, this is the book. He wrote a chapter in the book. And it went and explained all these great things that you see here.

And I went and reduced that all to one chart on one page. And I came and showed him, and he kind of went, oh. So anyway, but what I've also found as I examine it is he missed at least three that I can tell. So I'd actually like to go through and add three more verses to the list of rapture passages beyond what he included in this chapter.

And so at some point in time I'll catch up to that and do that. But it shows in here there is a great deal of motivation, a great deal of doctrinal teaching that shows up in all these passages, and they have a lot in common. That is a supplemental handout that you can get more of. I don't have it in all of your handouts, but you can pick one on the cabinet to the right and we'll also post this to the website so you can download it. It's a great thing to look through, to look at all the places where our Lord included promises, information about the rapture and looking for his coming.

So Jesus uses a term, in my father's house. Now, first of all, let me just say that this term, in my father's house, these guys didn't necessarily understand what that meant. In well-off Jewish homes in Israel, the extended family often took up their lodgings in a family compound, and those who are less well-off would actually build up, the sons might build up their house with a common wall with the father, in the father's house. So that would be common. These men had never been to the father's family compound, that is, to heaven, right?

And so that's what Jesus is beginning to describe. He's assuring them that there's plenty of room in the father's family compound, if you will. There's lots of rooms there. They're assured by Jesus' words of being part of the Father's family and lots and lots of rooms. There's plenty of room for all of you and everyone who I'm going to meet in the air when I come again to take you unto myself. There's plenty of room, so don't worry about that.

But one of the other messages that Jesus is trying to get across, your ultimate home, guys, you're going to go through a lot of really disturbing things, He's telling the disciples. A lot of really disturbing things and disruptive things, and your life is going to be rather tumultuous. Oh, and by the way, you're going to travel. Did you want to do that? Yeah, you're going to, right? You're going to travel, and you're going to go out into the world, and you're going to preach the gospel. You need to know where your ultimate home is, and don't worry, you're going to get there. Don't worry, there's plenty of room there for all of you. The Bible actually has a lot to say about what a Christian home is to be like here on earth, but a key part of the Christian perspective is that our ultimate home is with the Lord. Our ultimate home is with the Lord.

So at this point we're going to kind of digress a bit into Jewish marriage and wedding traditions in order to have further insight into what Jesus is beginning to introduce here. This is what Jesus said here in this passage and what we're going to see later on as the disciples wrote the rest of the New Testament. So the relationship between Christ and the Church as the ultimate marriage relationship, this is a romance begun here and extending for all eternity, is a continuing thread in the New Testament. And that is why I get so excited about my marriage to Nancy. And I remember that it's 15,844 days today. Why? Because every day the Lord gives us is an opportunity to live out the eternal romance of Christ and the Church. Here's Ephesians 1, 3, and 4.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love.

That just as He chose us in Him, the Father did the choosing of the bride in Jewish tradition. And in this case, it's the church for His Son, just as was done in Jewish families. God the Father chose the bride for the Son, just as was done in Jewish families. And He did so when? Before the foundation of the world we were chosen in Christ. So notice here that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

So Ephesians 5.27, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. Here it is, those same words used again. So this is he, Christ, present to himself the church in all her glory. So that holy and blameless thing, It goes back to the choosing. Why? Because of the eternal romance of Christ in the church.

See also Colossians 1.22 and 2 Corinthians 11.2, which we're going to read shortly here. Real shortly, here it is. I betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. This is also here in 2 Corinthians, the class that is teaching it downstairs is going to get to this passage and a very exciting one it is.

So the next one, at the appointed time the father would send the prospective bridegroom from the father's house to the home of the prospective bride. You see that? So here's the father of the groom sending the groom to the home of the prospective bride.

And so we see Jesus repeatedly saying, including in the Gospel of John that we're studying here, in John 12, 49, the father himself who sent me. John 20, 21, the father who sent me. And by the way, those are just samplings. There are other instances of him talking about being sent from the father.

Derry would negotiate with the father of the woman to determine the purchase price of the bride. And by the way, what happened is the father would tell the son, this is the maximum amount that you can pay. because I can't pay more than that, right? But the purchase price of the bride.

And by the way, with Hassan, we had this very same thing. His uncle, in his case, did the negotiating for Juliet and he had to pay three cows and four goats and some chickens for Juliet to Juliet's father. By the way, Juliet has over 30 siblings and doesn't remember exactly how many beyond that. But nonetheless, Esaun had to pay those three cows, four goats, and some chickens to pay the bride price for Juliet.

For us, the Church, the bride price was Christ's death on the cross. Christ's death on the cross is the bride price. And guess what? Christ says, I will gladly pay it. For the joy set before him, he endured the bride price for you and for me. Once the bridegroom paid the purchase price, so that was paid then, the marriage arrangement was thereby established and the young man and woman were then considered to be husband and wife. They were betrothed, they were called husband and wife, that doesn't mean they were to be intimate at that point in time, they were not. But they were considered husband and wife, they were called husband and wife, and the term was they were betrothed, to use our modern term. Since Christ the bridegroom has paid the price, the marriage arrangement has indeed been established, and the church is now betrothed to Christ.

This is what 2 Corinthians 11.2 that we just read is talking about.

And here's Romans 7.4, Therefore, my brethren, you also are made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead. He paid the bride price. He was also raised from the dead, but we were joined to Christ.

And by the way, the context there, verses 1 through 6, is marriage. That's the context. Next, then the bridegroom would declare to the bride before the father of the bride that she was consecrated, sanctified, and set apart exclusively for her bridegroom. Do you see all those words in the New Testament regarding us? Yes, that's exactly what you see.

So that's why the Apostle Paul would say in Ephesians 5.25 that Christ paid the bride price so that he might sanctify the church his chosen bride. As a symbol of the marriage relationship that had been established, the bride and groom would drink from a cup of wine over which a betrothal benediction had been pronounced. So our taking of the Lord's table is a commemoration of the betrothal we have with Christ. who has paid the full bride price in blood with his own blood until he comes."

Oh, until he comes. Then the betrothed bridegroom would begin preparing a place for the bride and the bridegroom to live in which they would live together once the wedding had taken place in the father's family compound. I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there may be also in the place that I will be preparing."

From then until the time of the wedding, the father was to keep the bride consecrated, sanctified, and set apart exclusively for her bridegroom. So Jesus, praying to the father, said, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth," as he prayed there in the Garden of Gethsemane, John 17, 17.

Family and friends, by the way, were expected to help in this task. This is something often misunderstood by even Christians gathering together that they don't understand that her preservation Her sanctification to be presented before her, holy and blameless, is not just the father's responsibility, but the whole family and all the friends join in in that process. That's a mentality that isn't necessarily out there among Christians, but it's an important one. Family and friends were expected to help in this task in preserving her for her wedding day. 2nd Corinthians 11 to Paul says that's what he was seeking to present the church as a pure and spotless virgin right among the Jewish wedding customs New Testament times then when a wife was a bride was betrothed it was a solemn duty of the bride's family and friends and the father of the bride everyone during that time and even the bridegroom himself To be able to present the bride to the bridegroom as a pure virgin, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. The bridegroom, the family, friends, everybody was to pitch in on that assignment.

The last part of 2 Corinthians 4.14, and He will present us with you. See that? He will present us with you. And the bride was also to prepare for her wedding day. She was in her preparation for the wedding day to take a customary bridal bath, hopefully not one once a year, not just so she was physically clean, but to picture her moral cleanliness.

And so that's why 1 Corinthians 6.11, but you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. On the wedding day, the father of the bridegroom would say to the bridegroom, go get your bride.

And by the way, that is the timing for when the rapture will take place. Who picks the times and the places? The spans of time and the moments of time, that's the fathers to call. Even, here's the disciples, they're on the Mount of Olives, Jesus is very shortly going to leave. And they say, is now the time when you're going to establish your kingdom for Israel? And so what does Jesus tell them? The Father is the one who has those times set out.

And He's going to tell His Son, go get your bride. And that's the day I'm looking forward to. Right? Go get your bride. I hope He says it today. So the bridegroom would go to receive his consecrated, sanctified, set-apart bride unto himself, to be presented to him by the bride's father, family and friends, the groom also presenting her to himself, she being holy and blameless.

So think about this, just hours before Christ was betrayed by Judas, whom he loved immensely, Christ told His eleven disciples He was going to come again to bring them all to the place He prepared. Christ loved Judas so immensely that He washed Judas' feet too.

He didn't treat Judas any differently. He treated Judas so much the same that none of them could guess that Judas was the betrayer. He loved Judas that much. Within hours, Jesus would die for Judas' sins. Isn't that amazing? He loved Judas so much, they couldn't tell at the Last Supper, and they would take years to catch up with. He loved Judas so much that He took on Judas' sins too. Do you know that Judas could have been saved?

Yeah. Christ paid for his sins. At the direction of the Father, Christ would come for his bride, the church, and that's you and me, and all the saints, from the day of Pentecost to the day of the rapture, when we, the bride, go home. Think about it. The arrangements have already been made. The Father chose us before the foundation of the world in Christ. The Son has been sent by the Father. The negotiated bride price. Christ's death on the cross for you and for me.

He goes away and He's coming back to take us to be with Him. I hope it's today, right? But the Father calls the right time. It'll be a time nobody expects. The Father will tell the Son. God the Father will tell God the Son. Jesus Christ, our Lamb, go get your bride. Now.

And that will be the moment. Here's John 14, and I'll read three and four just to get the context, but this is to take us in the next part into verse four. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I'm going."

So, it was just perfect. And what do I mean by that? Perfect? It was perfect tense. And you already know, right? Jesus told these eleven, because Judas had been sent off, that they already knew in the perfect tense the way that Jesus was going. You already know. How could he say that? He was telling them that they already knew the way that Jesus was going. He had already told them the way. Now they weren't getting it and in fact they would take a while to understand it. Why? They didn't have the Holy Spirit yet. They didn't understand. Here is something else to actually be troubled about if you don't understand.

As recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus had already told the disciples many times in advance that he would die and be buried and rise again. As a matter of fact, three times, you can put a parallel in Matthew and Mark and Luke, each one, he told them in advance, I'm going to die, I'm going to be buried, I'm going to rise again.

Christ himself, as we'll very soon see, will be the way, the way. It will be because of who he is, he uniquely is the way because of who he is and because of what he has done, that he will be the way for them and for us. So, to the Father. In less than 24 hours, Jesus would commit his spirit to the Father. On May 14, 33 AD, Jesus would bodily ascend to the Father to take his place in heaven.

And by the way, some of these time factors, we've got this handout that you might want to take a look at. It's a two-page handout that summarizes some of these specific dates that I'm talking about here. These eleven disciples, and we as well, will be identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. Those five things. These things are all about the way and the where.

Here's John 14.5, Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How do we know the way? By the way, this is the same Thomas who very shortly, in a few days, would say, I'm not believing that he's resurrected. Even if all you other ten guys say so, I've got to see for myself. Right? Same Thomas. We don't know where you're going. How do we know the way?

So these disciples, they'd been told everything they needed to know. That's why Jesus could tell them, you know the way. Had not a clue what Jesus was saying, especially since they had not received the Holy Spirit yet. They didn't understand what Jesus was talking about heaven, why it was a good thing for Jesus to go away. That was all just disturbing to them and confusing. They did not yet have a heavenly hope. They were not heavenly minded.

Here's John 14.6, and Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

What we find is there in the Gospel of John, John has seven metaphors I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the gate, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life. And here in this passage, I am the way, the truth and the life. And he's going to tell them once more that same evening as recorded in John 15, I am the true vine. This is said in such a way in the Greek that it's rather unique and it points to Jesus being deity. as it does with, here is Moses talking to God through the burning bush, and Moses says, well, who should I say has sent me? And in the Greek Old Testament, it's these words, ego eimi. I am. Tell them I am has sent you.

So a lot of Christians want to have a Christian cookbook. Hey, just give me the steps. Give me A, B, and C and do that, or 1, 2, and 3, or a number of these things. Give me the steps. How do I live the Christian life? I want a cookbook. Give me the instructions. I want to do it X, Y, and Z, and A, B, and C, and I want to get things in order, and I want to know how hot do I set the oven, and how long do I put the cake in. They want to look at the Christian life as if it were a cookbook. Everything that they can control.

Well, guess what? There is no Christian cookbook, and whatever is printed that anybody claims is, is wrong. What God has in mind is that we take things very, very personally and specifically in the person and work of Christ. Unless I depend upon who He is and what He has done, Him specifically, Nothing else is going to matter. There is no Christian cookbook. If we don't start from and with Him, we'll just do it all wrong.

That's the hazard. Here's John 14, 6 expanded and explained, and by that I include meanings from the full understanding of the Greek and the context and the culture. So Jesus said to him, who? This is this Thomas guy with the question. I, in contradistinction to anyone else, being in fact God, am the singular way, the singular truth, and the singular life. No one comes to the Father except exclusively through me, who I am and what I will do, which is of such great certainty that I will express it in the present tense or even the past.

This is a picture of the Tetons. And Nancy and I went there some years past. If we have really nice pictures of the Tetons, it's Nancy took them. She's much better at that than I am. But anyway, so this is a very nice picture of the Tetons that Nancy took.

And one of the things we did there is we crossed a lake, and it was fascinating. We went to the edge of the lake, and it was kind of after the main tourist season, and so you can take a boat across this lake, which we did. And as it turns out, nobody else came when it was time for the boat to leave. So it was just Nancy and me and the driver of the boat. who happened to be a young lady. And so I said, you know, you're driving the boat in this beautiful place.

What's your story? And she said, well, I just graduated with a degree in religion. I said, well, that's fascinating. Tell me, did you draw any grand conclusions after studying religion for several years and getting a degree in it? She said, yes, I did. She said, if you want different states of consciousness Go for Buddhism.

If you want truth, go for Christianity. Wow, okay. Didn't have time to follow up on that discussion, but I thought that was an amazing set of conclusions. If you want truth, go for Christianity. And I would just tweak that a little bit. Go for Christ, right? Go for Christ.

The world likes to offer alternative paths and strategies and options, okay? The world likes to give us other ways. You ever heard that? You know, there's multiple paths to God, or, you know, if there is one, who knows what God is really like. And so there's all these different options out there. And some would say, if you find a fork in the road, take it. Right? And so, at any rate, that's kind of a lot of people's philosophy. The world likes to offer ways to save yourself or by your own efforts.

That essentially is what I mentioned Buddhism earlier. Buddhism has the eightfold path to enlightenment and none of it involves Jesus Christ. And so I guess you can get enlightened and still spend eternity in hell. So that's not so good. The world offers lots of on-ramps and off-ramps, ways to get on and ways to get off. It's doubtful at best where these will lead us.

Salvation Jesus says himself is exclusively through Christ his provision his accomplishments Where he has us now and where he's taking us. Okay, that's it. He's been spelling it out. Okay, I'm going to come back again and Take you to be with myself. Why because you believe in me the way the truth and the life and So salvation is exclusively by Him. There are lots of ways offered, even within Christendom. By the way, within what's called Christianity, lots of different things.

Boy, there's lists of things you've got to do and things you have to not do, and make sure you don't lose it. Much of Christendom teaches us salvation that you can lose. Notice I said Christendom, that's not biblical Christianity. Here, have some law, you're going to love all of them. Wow. It's the message that many Christians are told.

Salvation is exclusively in Christ and by what He's accomplished, and not at all by our own merit. Not mine, not yours. Our part is to believe Him. Jesus didn't say, Do not let your hearts be troubled. I've got a whole list of rules here for you to follow, right? Believe God, believe also in me. What does the Word of God say? You believe Him.

Now, there was a tightrope walker, Nick Wallenda, who in 1979 took and walked a tightrope all the way across in front of Niagara Falls. I don't recommend that, but I'm just telling you, that's what he did. There's another guy who has a French name I won't try to pronounce because I'm sure I'll butcher it. He went by Blondin. Summer of 1859, that was just a month or so after my great-great-grandfather came through Denver for the first time.

He went across Niagara Falls on a cable, like you see, But he did something else beside what you see there. He took across a wheelbarrow and went all the way across and then went all the way back. When he came to the crowd, he said, how many of you believe that I can do that again? All kinds of people put their hand up. And then he said, OK, get in.

It's not believing intellectually, yeah, I believe you can do that, right? But it is a matter of getting in the wheelbarrow, putting your dependence upon what God has said. It's personal dependence, not intellectual assent. Not, I have a fairly high degree of confidence He can make it, but on the chance that He might not, I think I'll pass, right? But getting in.

Now, after this you're probably expecting a story of Nancy and I getting married on a tightrope and that kind of thing. I'm sorry, I'm going to disappoint you on that. We didn't even get married with the cows. So, no farm stories about getting married with the cows. But, salvation is exclusively in Him. For us in the body of Christ, salvation and every spiritual blessing are in the heavenly places in Him.

There are lots and lots of things to do in this world, and at least some of them you'd better do. By the way, April 18th is tax day, right? So, things you'd better do, okay? Things that must be done, things that could be done. However, we're called to believe in Him, to rest in Him, all that He is, all that He has done, no matter what.

As Peter said in Acts 4.12, there is salvation in no one else.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this. You've made it very clear. We have a certain, that is a specific and absolute hope in your coming for us. We do pray that it's today. We thank you, Lord, that we can count upon everything that you have written. Those are the things you've called for us to believe, to believe for our own lives, to believe for the sake of our families, to believe for the sake of those we love. And so, Lord, we do ask that you'd teach us what that means, even now, even today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.