Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Back in the 1990s, and if you were a real Christian and really serious about your faith, you put one of these on your car.
[00:00:11] Now, I don't know that that changed the world. I actually think it probably just caused people maybe outside the faith to say, christians need to drive better. They need to be a better driver. There were some people that were not on Team Jesus. And so then you started to see these that got put on cars.
[00:00:27] You might not agree with it, but at least say that was clever to do that.
[00:00:32] Not to be outdone, people actually started to put these on their cars.
[00:00:38] Truth eating the Darwin fish. My faith can beat up your faith.
[00:00:43] My God can beat up your God.
[00:00:47] Choose your team.
[00:00:48] Fight it out.
[00:00:50] That's not the cultural water that we swim in any longer, is it?
[00:00:55] I think our culture is captured by this coexist, let's all just get along. Any faith, any truth, any path, any God, they all just lead to the same place. Why can't we just all get along?
[00:01:14] I mean, you do you, whatever you feel in your heart, whatever path works for you, whatever maybe you were taught growing up by your family or your culture, you can believe whatever you want. Just be sincere about it.
[00:01:30] This coexist philosophy, I think, was captured by Gandhi when he said, religions are different roads converging to the same point.
[00:01:40] What does it matter that we take a different road as long as we reach the same goal, wherein is the cause for quarreling?
[00:01:50] Coexist.
[00:01:52] All beliefs, they just simply lead to the same God. It's a very popular belief.
[00:01:59] And there's parts of that belief that I think can be very attractive to us. Because, you know, if that's what's true, then I can just be comfortable with what I believe, you can be comfortable with what you believe. And you know what? We actually never even have to talk about it.
[00:02:16] Let's just get along.
[00:02:20] Well, 2,000 years ago, Jesus stepped into a culture that was just as pluralistic as the one that we live in.
[00:02:27] And he put this bumper sticker on for us to deal with.
[00:02:33] John 14:6.
[00:02:35] It says, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.
[00:02:46] The way, Jesus.
[00:02:48] Not a way. I mean a way. That's fine. But are you trying to say there's no one else that maybe has found another way or could be another way?
[00:03:00] Jesus, you are the truth.
[00:03:04] Like, you alone are the standard of truth.
[00:03:08] The life.
[00:03:10] Jesus, you are the only source of life.
[00:03:16] Whoa.
[00:03:18] That's exclusive, is it not?
[00:03:22] Jesus compounded the issue by his next statement. In case that wasn't clear enough for us. He says this. No one, no one comes to the Father except through me.
[00:03:40] Friends, that is exceedingly exclusive.
[00:03:45] I mean, don't we want to just believe that everybody can be included in whatever they want to believe? Can't we just coexist? Don't we want to live and think about life in a way that is infinitely inclusive of others?
[00:04:02] And I will say this.
[00:04:04] I understand that this claim that Jesus makes to be the only way to God and that all other ways are wrong to many people, to many people in our world, one, they would say that is incredibly bold, that is intolerant, that is divisive, and maybe even to some people, they would say that is hateful.
[00:04:32] Friends, this has been my experience.
[00:04:34] These exclusive claims that Jesus makes, and this is just one of many throughout the Scriptures are one of the primary objections to faith in Him.
[00:04:47] People, if you, if you press them, they love the way that Jesus lived. They loved the way that he loved people and cared for people.
[00:04:56] But there were just some claims that he made, some truths that he held to that people are not crazy about in this world.
[00:05:06] And when I say people, I mean, you might be thinking that I'm talking about people that are outside this room.
[00:05:13] No, no, no, I'm not naive.
[00:05:16] Those people might include some or many of you.
[00:05:21] You struggle with that truth.
[00:05:24] How could a loving God provide only one way to know Him? I mean, granted, Jesus is my way and I think he is a great way.
[00:05:37] But how can it be that he is the only way?
[00:05:42] All paths lead to God.
[00:05:44] It is sounds compassionate. And in so many ways that's what we want to believe.
[00:05:50] Because aren't we, as followers of Jesus, aren't we called to be compassionate? Wouldn't we want to believe something that seems more compassionate? Shouldn't we take a position that actually gives hope to more people?
[00:06:02] Why wouldn't Jesus want to be more inclusive with his message?
[00:06:10] Here's what I want to do today, friends. I want to talk to you on a couple different levels. One, I want to talk to you at the level of the mind. I want to talk about logic a little bit, but I'm not going to stop there. I also want to talk about the heart.
[00:06:23] Because if you come to a place logically where you believe in the exclusivity of the claims of Jesus, it's going to do some things in your heart, heart as well. And there's some emotional things that we're going to need to think about and deal with.
[00:06:38] First of all, from a logical standpoint, all paths lead to the same God. All of them are equally value valid that they're all actually teaching the same thing. You've probably heard people say things like that and now it is true. Like when you look across the scope of all the world religions, there are some commonalities, there's some things that they hold in common. Things like loving your neighbor who can't get around that.
[00:07:07] But here's the deal. As you start to press in with all the religions of the world, and I'm not talking about a need to do some kind of an exhaustive study, even as you start to understand the basics, the fundamental truth claims, the Core 10 Teachings of World religions, what you're going to see is they contradict one another.
[00:07:29] And you step back and you think they can't all be true because they say different things about who God is, whether God is one or many or no God.
[00:07:41] What is the path to God? What are the things that a person must do in order to reach God? They're all very different. What happens to us when, when we die?
[00:07:52] What happens to us in the afterlife? Very, very different.
[00:07:57] And I want to say from a logical standpoint, Aristotle is very helpful.
[00:08:04] Yeah, a guy from Shepherd, Montana is going to quote Aristotle to you.
[00:08:09] But in one of the most basic laws of logic, Aristotle said this. This is called the law of non contradiction.
[00:08:18] It says this. Contradictory propositions, meaning two things that are opposite, two contradictory propositions, cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time.
[00:08:34] And according to Aristotle, this is the most fundamental and firm of all logic principles.
[00:08:43] And when we think about this belief that all paths lead to God, all of them are valid, all of them are equally true. It doesn't hold up to Aristotle's law of non contradiction. Here's the deal, friends.
[00:08:58] Either one of them is true and the rest are false, or they're all false. But you can't take these fundamental principles, teachings, core teachings that are contradictory with one another and say all of them are equally valid. They can't all be equally true.
[00:09:18] That doesn't mean that Christianity is true.
[00:09:21] It doesn't prove that Christianity is true. I'm just saying you cannot come to a position that says all of them are true.
[00:09:29] Now let's put Christianity in the hot seat.
[00:09:33] Jesus made some incredible, very specific and exacting claims about himself.
[00:09:41] Claims that according to Aristotle, we've got to come to the conclusion either they're true or they're not true. They can't be both true and not true at the same time in the same Sense. Either Jesus was the creator of the cosmos, creator of everything that we see, or he was not.
[00:09:58] Jesus is either God in the flesh as he claimed to be, or he's not.
[00:10:06] Jesus is either the way to God as he claimed and that his death on our behalf is the way that we reach God, or it's not.
[00:10:17] Jesus either rose bodily from the dead or he did not.
[00:10:26] They can't both be true and not true at the same time.
[00:10:31] And here's what is so unique about Christianity, friends.
[00:10:37] No other religious leaders make the kind of claims that Jesus made.
[00:10:43] Founders of other religions, they claim that they are a prophet trying to help people find God.
[00:10:51] Jesus came to say, I am God, come to find you.
[00:11:00] Christianity is fundamentally different, but that makes it at its core, by its very nature, exclusive.
[00:11:11] But here's what you need to think about and understand as well.
[00:11:16] Every belief system is exclusive. Even the belief system that all roads lead to God, that is exclusive at its very nature. Because if you claim that, you are saying that that is the correct worldview. And anyone that would believe that there is only one way to God, they are wrong.
[00:11:39] Everyone is exclusive. At the end of the day, that's just true.
[00:11:46] So how do we deal with this? All roads lead to God and the person of Jesus. People that believe that all roads lead to God, what do they say primarily about Jesus?
[00:11:59] They can't say yes to the claims that I just told you about Jesus because that would make Christianity uniquely true. So they put Jesus in a category of being a good moral teacher.
[00:12:14] That's what they do.
[00:12:17] Here's how we have to think about that. And I love how CS Lewis, he took this idea around Aristotle's law of non contradiction and he applied it to the claims of Jesus.
[00:12:28] Here was his conclusion.
[00:12:32] He understood that Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh, that he came to find us.
[00:12:39] Lewis would say either those claims are true or. Or they're not true. They can't be both true and not true. So they're either true or not true. And so on this side of the not true, he said there's two things that could be true about that. Either Jesus knew that his claims were false, or Jesus did not know that his claims to deity were false.
[00:13:05] And here's what Lewis argues. If Jesus knew that his claims were false, that makes him a liar.
[00:13:16] That makes him the greatest deceiver that this world has ever known.
[00:13:22] And he pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes that has ever been perpetrated on. We are here today because of what happened. That could we all just be living a lie. He's saying it'd have to be one of the greatest hoax because it would come out of a lie.
[00:13:40] And that would also mean that Jesus was saying things that were completely contrary to his character and to his teachings.
[00:13:51] We would have to come to the belief that Jesus is a liar.
[00:13:55] But then on the other side of that, maybe Jesus didn't realize that his claims were not true.
[00:14:01] There have been lots of people over time claiming that they are God.
[00:14:06] What do we call people like that?
[00:14:09] They're delusional.
[00:14:11] They're mad men.
[00:14:13] Was Jesus a lunatic?
[00:14:17] That's what Lewis argued. You've either got to come to the conclusion if the claims of Jesus are not true, that he was either a liar or he was a lunatic. Does his life look like someone who was absolutely crazy claiming to be God?
[00:14:32] His incredible wisdom, his incredible balance in how he engaged the world around him, his incredible influence in the world. We're not influenced today by people that claim to be God. We're kind of, we push them to the side.
[00:14:50] But Lewis will argue, if he's not a lunatic and he's not a liar, that makes him Lord.
[00:15:02] That makes him who he claimed to be.
[00:15:07] This law of non contradiction, friends, and the way that Lewis has articulated this, this makes these exclusive claims of Jesus, it makes them a fork in the road for every one of us. It's a fork in the road.
[00:15:23] Lewis said, you can reject Jesus, you can reject him if you want to, but you can't reasonably reduce him to just a nice moral teacher.
[00:15:36] His claims, if his claims are to be taken seriously, he has to be more than that if you're taking his claims seriously.
[00:15:47] This argument that Lewis gives, it's meant to, to push us to think, what am I going to do with Jesus? What am I going to do with these claims of Jesus?
[00:16:01] What are we going to do with the things that he claimed to be true to push us to consider Jesus identity? And we can't be neutral on these things, friends. That's what this series has been about. Maybe this isn't the question that you're wrestling with, maybe there's other questions. But, but we've got to wrestle these questions down. Ask honest questions, but dig in.
[00:16:22] Try to get the answers to these questions because the answers to them are important.
[00:16:28] They are eternally important in your life. It's not worth just being like, huh, that's interesting. Maybe I will think about that someday. Dig in, ask the hard questions.
[00:16:40] Because here's what I believe to be true.
[00:16:43] I believe that There is great reasonable evidence out there behind these questions and what that evidence does for us friends. That evidence actually gives us confidence, confidence to push our chips all in with Jesus and give our life fully to him, fully surrendered to Him. Ask and answer the hard questions.
[00:17:10] And secondly, I would say this. There's something else that is incredibly unique about the message of Christianity.
[00:17:16] And it's this gospel message of grace.
[00:17:22] One word, Grace.
[00:17:25] Now, if I were to try to sum up succinctly.
[00:17:29] The Christian message is that God and people are separated.
[00:17:33] And the issue is that sin separates us from God.
[00:17:40] And here's what world religions will tell us. There's ways that we can try to release to reach God. It can be through living a good life. It can be through living some kind of a philosophy. It can be through some kind of religious practice. It can be anything. But the point is, is that world religions tell us how we need to reach God. It answers the questions, what do you need to do?
[00:18:09] What do I need to do to be accepted by God and to reach God? Christianity is completely flipped upside down. It's not anything about what we do to reach God.
[00:18:25] It is only about what God has done. God reaches down to us through the cross of Jesus to make a way for us to have a relationship with Him.
[00:18:40] And what grace means is that it's not about do.
[00:18:44] It's about what has been done, what Jesus has done for us, world religion. It is about do. Grace is about done what Jesus has done for me.
[00:19:00] I want us to unpack just a little bit this idea of grace.
[00:19:04] Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. There's no better place. I'm going to read it and I'm going to highlight some key words that are important for us to understand.
[00:19:12] It says, for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves.
[00:19:23] It is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
[00:19:35] It is by grace, unmerited favor.
[00:19:39] These two words right here are tied together.
[00:19:42] Grace is the idea of a gift. A, a gift is something that's given to you that you didn't work for or earn.
[00:19:50] That's grace.
[00:19:53] And Paul makes it abundantly clear after that, what it's not what grace is not. It is not from yourselves.
[00:20:01] What does that mean?
[00:20:02] You can't do it on your own.
[00:20:05] You can't create a path to God on your own. It's only a path that God has created on for you. It is not as a result of works. It is not about do in any way.
[00:20:20] Do you get the picture?
[00:20:22] It's not what we do, it's about what he has done. It's the only hope that we have and the result, because there's nothing that we can do. Paul makes it really clear. No one can boast.
[00:20:36] If there was a way that we could establish a relationship with God, we could pat ourselves on the back and talk about how good we're doing. Paul just says, that makes no sense at all as it relates to the gospel. Because you didn't do anything. God did everything. But what is it that we do?
[00:20:56] Faith.
[00:20:57] We are rescued by faith.
[00:21:01] We put our trust, we put our life in the hands of Jesus.
[00:21:08] Faith, it's an action word. We surrender our life to him. We make him our king. He is our boss.
[00:21:15] We trust him.
[00:21:18] That's our part. We just put our trust in what he's done.
[00:21:24] Founders of other religions, they claim that they are a prophet to help you find God.
[00:21:31] They're going to tell you what to do.
[00:21:34] Jesus came to say, I am God, come to find you.
[00:21:40] I'm going to tell you what I've done, what I've done for you.
[00:21:46] It's not like there's this mountain and there's all these different ways to God and we're all climbing a hill and we're all doing it in different ways.
[00:21:54] The message of the gospel is that God has come to us.
[00:21:59] That Jesus would say, I would rather die than live eternity apart from you.
[00:22:07] And so he came to this world and he died.
[00:22:11] And here's the thing, who did he do that for?
[00:22:20] Everyone.
[00:22:23] Everyone.
[00:22:25] Friends.
[00:22:27] The invitation of Jesus to walk his path, the way, the truth and the life.
[00:22:33] It is an incredibly inclusive invitation because it's for everyone.
[00:22:41] But the path itself, the decision to choose him is exclusive and it's narrow.
[00:22:52] I said I wanted to talk to our mind a little bit, but I also said I want to talk to your heart.
[00:22:59] I'm not even going to assume that you're convinced that Jesus is the only way. But for argument's sake, let's say that you do believe that as a follower of Jesus, you believe that he's the only way.
[00:23:14] I believe that something is going to happen in your heart because you're going to start asking questions because the exclusive nature of the gospel is a fork in the road. You're going to be asking questions because you have compassion.
[00:23:30] You're not going to just be thinking about yourself. You're going to start asking, what about questions?
[00:23:37] What about people in my life that I love that are choosing Other paths or no paths, what about them?
[00:23:45] What about people that have never even heard about Jesus? What about them? Our compassion starts to grow.
[00:23:53] What about people that grew up in cultures where the knowledge of Jesus was little to none? What about them?
[00:24:01] If we understand the exclusive nature of the Gospel, it's going to create compassion in our heart because that's what it did for Jesus.
[00:24:12] It's on the wall in our office wing because I believe it's that important. When Jesus saw the crowds, it says in Matthew 9 that he had compassion on them. It wrecked him on the inside. Why?
[00:24:27] Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. It wrecked Jesus that there were people that were separated from him.
[00:24:36] So what did he do?
[00:24:38] He turned to those that were followers of him and he said, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
[00:24:46] Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest field. What does Jesus see? He has compassion on people that were lost. What does he say to us?
[00:24:57] Tell them, be a worker in the harvest. Let people know who he is and what it is that he's done for them.
[00:25:08] Friends, I believe this is true. I think there's great evidence out there that can bring confidence to our life and trust that Jesus is the way.
[00:25:18] But I also believe that that's going to bring compassion to our heart if we really understand the heart of Jesus. And that is going to lead to mission. That compassion can't exist in our heart unless it leads to. To mission.
[00:25:32] Jesus doesn't say, this is what I'm going to do if people don't know. Jesus says, tell them that is the purpose of the church. That is what Jesus launched as the church. People that saw and believed and understood who Jesus was, they told everyone and they turned the world upside down. We are here today because people understood the exclusive nature of. Of the gospel, but they were compelled to let people know who Jesus was.
[00:26:03] And I'm going to say something that might. I want to stir things up a little bit because sometimes maybe people are saying like. Like these questions. I don't have these questions, Bob. Why are we talking about these?
[00:26:14] If you are not regularly dealing with these questions, this is what I believe might be true. You are not engaged in the mission.
[00:26:24] If you're not having questions about the authority of scripture, about faith and science, about the exclusivity of the gospel, it's probably because you're not talking to anybody about anything. Because these are the questions that people have.
[00:26:38] Compassion leads to mission.
[00:26:43] But I also want us to understand this.
[00:26:47] That confidence that we have, as we start to share that with people, this is just true.
[00:26:57] It will sound like arrogance to them.
[00:27:04] It just will.
[00:27:07] For them to have a different worldview than you, and you to come in and say that this is the path, not all other paths are equal to this path. It sounds arrogant. You've got to realize that as you have conversations with people about the message of the gospel, because I listen to people, I've overheard conversations where people are sharing and they're actually acting arrogant toward others, like they're smarter than someone else, they're better than someone else, they're more deserving than someone else. We can't be arrogant. And you just need to know that even if you are humble of heart, the exclusive claim of Jesus will sound arrogant and people will want to throw the yellow flag.
[00:27:54] So, friends, how do we approach the world with this message that maybe we know that they're going to feel like this is arrogant?
[00:28:07] Paul helps us.
[00:28:09] Colossians 3:12.
[00:28:11] He says, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved by him, clothe yourselves.
[00:28:23] Put this on your life. Let this be what people see when they look and hear of your life.
[00:28:32] Compassion.
[00:28:34] There's that word again.
[00:28:36] Kindness.
[00:28:38] Humility.
[00:28:40] Gentleness.
[00:28:43] Patience.
[00:28:53] How does the word arrogance fit with those other words?
[00:29:00] It doesn't.
[00:29:02] Arrogance has no place.
[00:29:05] Even if we are convinced that our way is the right way, Arrogance is the worst thing that you can do if you are arrogant. Keep your mouth shut about the gospel, because it's not going to help.
[00:29:19] We need to be humble and kind as we relate to people.
[00:29:25] And here's why, friends, it's about grace.
[00:29:32] I'm going to say it again.
[00:29:34] Paul said it. If you understand grace, you understand that nobody can boast.
[00:29:44] There is no place for arrogance in any kind of conversation that we would have with another person about what we believe, about the claims of Jesus, even the exclusive claims of Jesus.
[00:29:57] And I'm going to say it again.
[00:30:00] If you're arrogant, if you're boastful, I'd probably go so far as to say you actually may not understand the gospel. You may not understand grace.
[00:30:14] Because people that understand the message of the gospel, people that understand grace, they realize we're all just beggars needing the gift of God. We are just beggars trying to tell another beggar where we found bread.
[00:30:30] There is no room for arrogance.
[00:30:36] But with that being said, I will say, personally, I don't believe that all paths lead to God.
[00:30:45] I'm convinced that what Jesus said is true.
[00:30:53] That's why As a young man in my 20s, I thought, I want to spend my life helping, helping people understand who Jesus is and what it is that he's done for them.
[00:31:06] Because it changed my life.
[00:31:08] And if I can do that for other people and a kind, compassionate, relevant way, I believe many people will jump at the chance, just like I did as a young man. You've got people in your world that if we communicated the beautiful truth of who Jesus is, they would jump at the chance.
[00:31:31] Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.
[00:31:37] Friends, here's your assignment.
[00:31:42] Messages like this are challenging, but they're meant to be.
[00:31:48] I believe these claims of Jesus need to be a fork in the road for every one of us.
[00:31:54] For some of you, you may not be convinced about the claims of Jesus. Let this be a fork in the road where at least you start to dig in and start to ask some questions and try to answer some questions. Even if you come to a place where you reject Jesus, in the end, don't do it because you didn't do the to ask the questions. Maybe for some of you, that's your assignment. Investigate the claims of Christ.
[00:32:20] For some of you, you're at that place at fork in the road where you're convinced. Maybe not every question is answered, but you're convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus was who he claimed to be.
[00:32:37] Put your faith in him, don't wait.
[00:32:41] Put your trust in him, bow before him, push your chips to the middle of paper. Put your trust in him.
[00:32:51] That's the fork in the road for you.
[00:32:55] Some of you are actually wrestling with this very question, Do I really believe in the exclusivity of the Gospel?
[00:33:04] You need to wrestle down that question.
[00:33:06] Because here's what happens, I think, for a follower of Jesus, if you don't believe, if you just believe that Jesus is my way and not the way, you will never be involved in the mission of Jesus.
[00:33:20] You'll never be involved in, because there won't be an urgency. I can just believe what I want to believe. I can do my way. Everybody else in the world can do their way.
[00:33:29] When we actually come to believe and understand the exclusivity of the claims of Jesus, that compassion moves us toward mission, and an urgent mission it is.
[00:33:43] And for some of you, maybe the last thing.
[00:33:47] You just need to engage in the mission. You believe in the exclusivity of Jesus, but you're sitting on the bench.
[00:33:56] You're not talking with people humbly, compassionately, patiently, kindly, and sharing with them the greatest message that this world has ever known.
[00:34:11] What's your next step?
[00:34:14] What's your next step?
[00:34:19] Faith leaders around the world of world religions, they've come to tell you what to do in order to find God.
[00:34:31] Jesus said, I am God, come to find you.
[00:34:40] Grab his hand.
[00:34:42] Grab his hand. Put your faith in him and grab his hand and get involved in his mission. In the world, it matters for eternity.
[00:34:52] Let's pray.
[00:35:00] Jesus, we know that your heart is not exclusive.
[00:35:10] Your heart is radically inclusive.
[00:35:16] Your message, your death is for everyone.
[00:35:21] You want everyone to come to know you, Jesus, but the way and the path you said is narrow.
[00:35:32] Jesus, I pray that you would stir in our hearts, that we would understand how the narrowness of your message leads to an urgency to help people know who you are and what you've done.
[00:35:49] Jesus, use us to be your spokespeople in the world.
[00:35:55] Jesus, we trust you and it's in your powerful and resurrected name that we pray. And all God's people said, amen.
