DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO YOUR DESTINATION?
Friends, we come again to reason with the Lord in His Word.
PRAYER:
Father, we thank You for another time when we can come together to reason with You; and in Your Word. We commit this time into Your hands, and ask for Your presence, Holy Spirit…in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Do You have the Right Direction to your Destination is the title of the message today. And our text is taken from St. 14:1-6
John 14:1-6
1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And 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. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Friend, do you have the right direction to your destination? Life is a journey, and it‘s a journey laden with a mixture of fortunes and misfortunes: no matter what some people will tell you. Life is a journey laden with a mixture of pain and pleasure. Life is a journey laden with a mixture of happiness and sorrow. The disciples of Jesus found themselves in the latter. Let not your heart be troubled. There is an indication that their hearts were troubled. In verse 27 of that John 14 Jesus says:
John 7:14
27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
He is saying it two times. The Greek word translated trouble implies, troubled with fear: to disquiet, to affect with grief, to affect with anxiety. Jesus confirmed these nuances in John 16:6, where He says to His disciples,
John 16:6
6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Since life is a journey the next logical and wise question is, “What is the destination?”
But before we answer the question let me first observe that God has provided you a body and faculties to equip you for life here on earth: planet earth, that is. In a similar way the man who would walk on the moon is fitted with a mechanical body that makes it possible for him to function for a short while on that lunar environment. The real person that inhabits the body is a part of man that lives forever. It also has a spiritual body suited for life outside of this physical world.
In 1 Corinthians 15:44 we are told there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.
The final destination of the journey of life is the place Jesus calls: my Father’s house. That is John 14:2. This place is the place where God lives. And another word for it is heaven. This is the place God planned to receive all He created when their lives on earth come to an end, a place where they will spend eternity with Him. That was God’s original plan. But unfortunately, sin has introduced a second destination, hell, which God originally reserved, not for man, but for Satan and his agents. So let me say that, heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Jesus is preparing a people right now, as well as a place.
John 14:3
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you [Jesus says], I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Whereas heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people; hell is also a prepared place, but for unprepared people.
Matthew 25:41
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels
This is the point I made earlier. The unprepared people who go to the prepared place of torment are those who live carelessly in this life. They are those who forget that life is a journey. They are those who make the stopover place, this world, their final destination. They are those who live in sin and love it: people who are unprepared to meet their Creator. They ignore the command of God in Amos 4:12 where God says, prepare to meet your God.
Since life is a journey to the destination called heaven, what is the direction? There is only one person qualified to give you the right direction to heaven. He is Jesus – the Christ, who says in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. All other directors, all other directions other than Jesus are a fraud: a deception. Jesus is the true and living Way to those who are disoriented and therefore are lost. He is the true and the living Way to those who are deceived because of their ignorance of the truth. He is the true and living Way to those who are dead in the spirit because of the deadly impact of sin. He is the Way to those who are disoriented and are lost. These are not only lost in sin – they are lost in themselves. They know nothing but me, mine and myself. This accounts for a larger percentage of the sufferings we are have in the world today. Selfishness! People keep for themselves that which is for us all. What puzzles me most concerning corruption here in Nigeria today is how people would embezzle far more than they need in a life time. And to make matters worse, they take it out of the Nigerian economy thereby benefiting people in other countries who are far better off than our people.
The heart of sin is selfishness. Those who are lost in sin and in themselves are lost to God and so have missed the way to heaven. But the good news is that Jesus says, in Matthew 18:11: the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
Friend, has He found you. Jesus Christ is your way back to God. Jesus is the truth to those who are deceived by false assurances of religious affiliation: I belong to this church, I belong to that church; those who are deceived by false assurances of worldly influence and affluence. Do you know who I am? Those who are deceived by false assurances of relative morality that says; after all, I am not as bad as my neighbor: but bad, nevertheless – for none can say I am better than my neighbor: since according to Jesus no one is good – not to talk of better. Jesus is the life to those who are dead in sin and trespasses.
Ephesians 2:1
1And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Just as the physically dead do not have feelings, those who are deadened by sin do not feel ashamed of their sins; Instead, they brag about them.
I once overheard one young man bragging about the large number of girls he has slept with in one year. That’s how sexually transmitted diseases run riot now in the land. Those who are dead in sin do not feel the guilt or the moral pain associated with sin. The dead in sin don’t have affection for God and spiritual things either. But Jesus gives life, the life of God: eternal life.
1 John 5:11-13
11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Friend, do you have the son of God? He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. And you cannot come to the Father except by Him. Receive Him today, and He will grant you deliverance from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin.
PRAYER
Faithful Father and our God, thank You for Your Word. I am praying for my friends, especially those who are receiving the Savior this hour. Deliver them, O God, from the pain, from the penalty and from the power of sin, and the consequences of sin, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!