I. Intro.
A. Welcome & Opening Text.
1. Welcome to the Lord’s house today. When I say ‘the Lord’s house’ I don’t mean this physical building, I mean welcome to the gathering of the Lord’s people. Jesus lives in the hearts of His disciples by His Holy Spirit. His Word tells us that we are living stones being built into a spiritual house where His presence dwells.
So welcome to the gathering of living stones. Today we celebrate and reflect on all that Jesus has accomplished by dying for us and rising from the dead. This is the good news—Jesus, the innocent, was crucified for us, the guilty, so that we could have peace with God for eternity. He calls us to turn from our sin, believe and follow Him and we will live with God forever.
2. In John 14, Jesus explains the way to God.
a. John 14:1-6
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 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.
4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
3. The very first step on the way to God is to believe in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. Every step thereafter is taken in faith.
4. Jesus told His disciples that those who believe know the way. But when Thomas didn’t understand this teaching, Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
5. Jesus taught us the way with His words, He showed us the way by His actions and He died to make it possible for us to walk in His way.
6. But Jesus didn’t just teach us and show us the way, He IS the way. This means that the only way to be reconciled to God and have fellowship with Him is through Jesus Christ His Son.\
B. With Jesus, the Teacher is also the subject.
1. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says:
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
2. This is an invitation into discipleship. It is the Lord’s invitation to become a follower of Him on the Way that leads to God and to life. This was not just spoken to the people who heard Him on that day, His words are still speaking to us and His invitation is still open.
3. He says “Learn from Me…” some translations say “Learn of Me…” and both are accurate. Jesus is not just teaching us with His words, He teaches us with His life.
a. Jesus is both the Teacher and the Subject Matter.
b. Jesus is the Instructor and the Curriculum.
c. He shows the way and He is the Way.
4. Jesus uses the imagery of a yoke to show us that He is calling us to walk beside Him, on the same path, bound close together with Him. So not only is Jesus the only way to God, He is the only person Who can keep us on the path to God until the end. And though the way is hard at times, when we take His yoke upon us, we walk with Jesus.
5. We don’t find the way by trying harder or by gaining more knowledge, we find the way and stay on it by staying close to Jesus.
C. Yoked together with Jesus.
1. Throughout our history, we humans have walked our own way. We have paid lip service to God while living our own way and doing whatever we want. So God sent His only Son, Jesus, to teach us the way, show us the way and be the Way.
2. This is why the yoke is so important. The way to God is not found in just the Words that Jesus said, or admiring the mighty works that He did, but in believing that He IS the only way to the Father.
3. In Deut 22:10, God instructed His people not to yoke two different kinds of animals together, specifically an ox and a donkey.
a. In the OT, oxen were clean, donkeys were unclean.
b. Oxen represent strength, donkeys represent rebellion & a stubborn will.
c. A donkey was meant to be ridden (Triumphal Entry), a submitted will.
4. For us, the meaning of Deut 22:10 is that Jesus will not be yoked with a donkey. We cannot remain stubborn, prideful and rebellious and expect to stay yoked to Jesus.
5. If we want to walk on the way that leads to God, if we want the yoke that is easy and light, then we will have to turn from our rebellion and submit our will to Jesus. He must be Lord.
II. His Ways.
A. What is someone’s way?
1. Way: a manner of thinking, feeling and acting. A person’s way is how they live, their lifestyle.
2. Many people are not intentional about their own way of life, and instead follow the common and accepted way of the crowd. This is what Jesus called the broad way that leads to death.
3. Jesus called lifestyle the ‘narrow way’. The narrow way is the only way that leads to life and few find it.
B. What are the Ways of Jesus?
1. What is the way to God that Jesus teaches and shows us? The way of Jesus is not complicated. It can be summarized in three words: love, life and truth, which is God’s Word, the Holy Bible.
2. Jesus demonstrated the Father’s love, even to the point of dying for us.
3. Jesus gave His life on the cross so that we could have life.
4. Jesus always spoke the Truth, capital T. The eternal truth of God.
C. All who follow Jesus, must follow His way.
1. To walk with Jesus on the narrow way:
a. we must learn to live sacrificially, laying down our lives for one another
b. we must learn to choose life, by turning away from things that seem right but only bring death
c. and we must study His Word, not for the sake of knowledge only, but to see Jesus in them and learn His way.
2. The early church was so convinced of this that they were first called The Way. (Acts 18:26, 25; 22:4; 24:14; 9:2; 19:9; 24:22) Paul persecuted those who followed the way, not just those who said they did, or knew what Jesus taught.
3. It’s clear that all who would follow Jesus and be yoked to Him, must walk in the same way. We must pursue God’s love, life and truth above all else.
III. His Cross
A. The Paradox: His death is what gave us life.
1. In a great paradox, the narrow way that leads to life brought Jesus to His death on the cross. But because Jesus was without sin, death had no legal right to keep Him dead.
2. Because He was perfect in righteousness, justice and morality, Jesus was able to defeat death, the great enemy of humankind.
3. Jesus identified with us so that we could identify with Him. He identified with us by taking on flesh— the Son of God became the Son of Man. He was tempted in every way that we are tempted, and yet He never sinned.
B. Isaiah 53— the Man of Sorrows.
1. Isa 53:2-6
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
2. This passage makes it clear that Jesus identified with us so that we could identify with Him. Vs 6 says that all of us have gone astray, every one of us has rebelled against God and walked in our ways that are against God’s ways. And yet Jesus paid the penalty for our rebellion in His one body.
3. Jesus, the innocent, was murdered for us, the guilty, so that we could have peace with God for eternity. He calls us to turn from our sins, believe in Him and become His disciple.
4. On the cross:
a. Jesus was punished so that we could be forgiven.
b. He was wounded so that we could be healed.
c. He became sin so that we could become righteousness.
d. He tasted death so that we could share in His life.
e. He was made a curse for us so that we could receive His blessing.
f. He became poor so that could share in His abundance from the Father.
g. He bore our shame so that we could share His glory.
h. He was rejected so that we could be accepted.
C. The serpent lifted up in the wilderness.
1. In John 3:5, Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and said “…Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
2. Nicodemus didn’t understand, so Jesus used an event from the OT to illustrate it for Him. Jesus referred back to the time when the Hebrews were wandering in the wilderness.
3. John 3:14-16
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
4. Jesus was referring to Numbers 21. So many venomous snakes had infested the camp that many people were being bitten and were dying.
a. God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole.
b. Whoever would look at the bronze serpent would be healed and live.
5. God instructed them to just look to the serpent and be saved.
a. They didn’t fight the snakes, they just looked and lived.
b. In the same way, we don’t save ourselves, we just look to Jesus and live.
6. Jesus died on the cross to finish the work of our salvation. He taught us the way, He showed us the way and He died to make a way for all time. In John 19:28-30 we read:
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
6. Just as God instructed the Hebrews to look at the bronze serpent and be saved from death, if we look to Jesus on the cross with faith, the sting of death and it’s venom of decay will have no effect on us. We will be saved and given life.
7. There is no way to deal with the consequences of sin ourselves. The only way to life is to look to Jesus on the cross with the eyes of faith, believing that He is the only Son of God and that He died for our sins.
IV. His Life.
A. Death could not hold Him.
1. Because Jesus was without sin, death had no legal right to keep Him dead.
2. And because He conquered death and rose to life, He now offers life to all who will believe in His name. The grave couldn’t hold Him and it can’t hold those who belong to Him.
3. John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
4. Acts 4:12b “…there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
5. Romans 10:9&10
9 “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
B. Take up our cross and follow Him into life.
1. Jesus identified with us so completely, that now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven is a human man.
2. But to follow His way means that we must take up our own cross. Jesus said in Luke 9:23 “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
3. Remember, the cross is an instrument of death, it’s not jewelry. To us, the cross means death to our fallen nature. It means that we must crucify our pride, lust, bitterness and greed and anything that stands in the way of love, life and truth.
4. But again, just as the cross seemed like certain death to Jesus but ultimately lead to life, even so, the only way to everlasting life is for us to take up our cross and follow Jesus, even to death. But we will find everlasting life on the other side of the cross.
5. To all who believe in Him, this everlasting life can be tasted at the moment of salvation. When we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and God has raised Him from the dead, we become a disciple of Jesus.
6. Even though our natural bodies will grow old, wear out and pass away, our spirit and soul will never die. By faith in Jesus, God gives us the gift of everlasting life.
V. Close.
A. Prepare the Way of the Lord.
1. In the days of Jesus, God sent a witness, John the Baptist. In Matt 3:3 John preached, saying “…prepare the way of the Lord…”
2. This word still speaks to us. To anyone who would yoke themself to Jesus and become His disciple and follower, this word comes to us in our heart. It is the voice of the Spirit, calling to us in our dry desert places… “Prepare the way of the Lord.” This is the voice of conviction.
3. Remember that God forbid the Israelites to yoke an ox and a donkey together? The donkey represents rebellion, stubborn, rebellious will.
4. If we are gong to be yoked to Jesus, we must submit to His Lordship.
B. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but it only leads to death.”
1. There are only two ways. The way that seems right… and the way that leads to life.
2. The truth is—we were all born walking the wrong way. But God, Who is rich in mercy, when we were dead in our sin, sent His Son Jesus.
3. Jesus didn’t just teach the way, He showed the way and He made a way. Today He is calling you to walk in the way.
4. Just like in the wilderness, they didn’t fix themselves, they didn’t fight the poison they looked and lived.
5. And today if you will look to Jesus and believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that He is the Son of God and God has raised Him from the dead, you will live.
6. The cross looked like death, but it was the doorway to life. And the same is true for you.
7. Come to Him. Believe in Him. Follow Him. And you will find that He is not only the way, He is your life.
C. Altar Call.
1. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow. We are not in control of our lives the way we think we are. We live at the mercy of God.
2. Remember, Jesus, the innocent, was crucified for us, the guilty, so that we could have peace with God for eternity. Turn from your sin, believe in Him and surrender to His rule and authority.
3. One day, every human being that has ever lived will stand before God and be judged. Those who walked on the broad way will be sent to hell and eternal separation from God. Those who walked with Jesus on the narrow way, will find life and peace with God forever.
4. Sinner’s prayer:
“God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. But right now I am putting my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness. I turn from my sin and I choose to follow Jesus from this day on. Jesus, I believe that you are God’s only Son and God’s only way. Be Lord of my life and make me Your disciple. Thank you Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!”