Sermon Tone Analysis

“Jesus said … ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’”[1]

Many exist; few live.

Even among the churches of our Lord, this statement holds true.

Reflecting as we do, the society within which we are immersed, we Christians have become almost indistinguishable from the inhabitants of this dying world.

The most of mankind confuses existence with life; and among the churches, the situation is not much better.

Existence means that one has presence in the world; life means that one rises above existence.

Living is more than breathing, taking nourishment, reproducing—living speaks of vital interaction with the Author of Life.

Jesus spoke by faith when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

The Master said, “I am the Way,” when soon He would hang impotent on a cross.

“I am the Truth,” He testified, when the lies of evil people were soon to prevail against Him.

“I am the Life,” was spoken by one whose corpse within mere hours would lie wrapped in grave clothes in a dark tomb.

How the faith of His disciples would be shaken; how our puny faith is often shaken in the face of wickedness that appears to always prevail and triumph.

Perhaps you recall the words that the Master spoke to a grieving sister when death had taken her brother.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” [*John 11:25*].

Soon after speaking the words recorded in our text, the Master comforted His disciples, saying, “Because I live, you also will live” [*John 14:19*].

Whenever Jesus spoke, He exuded life—not mere existence, but life.

Those who knew Him were alive in a way that they had never known previously.

After He had risen from the dead, Jesus encountered two disciples walking to the village of Emmaus.

After correcting their theology, the Master was taken from their sight as He blessed bread in their presence.

Listen to these two men after they realised Who had been with them.

“Did not our hearts burn within us when He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures” [*Luke 24:32*]?

My prayer is that all who hear the message this day will be able to say with conviction, “In Christ Jesus, I am alive.”

I pray that all who listen will cease existing and begin to live.

Examine the Word with me, praying that together we may discover in a fresh way what it means for us that Jesus is the life.

*The Life is Exclusive* — “I am … */the/* life.

No one comes to the Father except through me” [*John 14:6*].

From His words, we know that Jesus claimed that the life He offered is exclusive.

Though people sometimes say, “There are many ways to God,” there are really own two ways conceivable for man to approach God.

Either some action can compel God to accept people into His presence, or an individual must cast himself on the mercy of God, trusting that grace will be extended to permit him to enter into His presence.

It is “do” or “done.”

Among Jesus’ hard sayings is that which reminds disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He may give it to you” [*John 15:16*].

Though the language commonly employed implies that we chose Christ, in reality, no one can say, “I chose Christ.”

Each Christian is compelled by truth to confess, “Christ chose me.”

Peter reminded believers of the Diaspora that they “are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by being set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with Jesus Christ’s blood” [*1 Peter 1:2*].[2] Chosen by God, set apart by the Spirit and cleansed by Christ’s sacrifice—this is the felicitous situation that applies to each believer.

While many people attempt to do something to make themselves acceptable to God, we are taught in His Word that atonement for sin has already been provided.

The price for salvation has been paid by Christ Jesus the Lord who gave His life as atonement for sin.

Therefore, no individual can do anything to make himself or herself acceptable to God.

Each one must receive the life that is offered in Christ Jesus the Lord—there is no other way to life.

Our world is readily and deeply offended by the exclusivity of God’s Good News.

Ours is a relativistic world in which no one wants to appear so arrogant as to claim that there is but one way to God.

However, we cannot deny the sobering warning which the Lord spoke when He informed His disciples, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

As He delivered the message we know as “The Sermon on the Mount,” the Master said, “Enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” [*Matthew 7:13, 14*].

There is a broad road, and it is startlingly easy to traverse that road; however, that easy road leads assuredly to destruction.

One need do nothing in order to travel this road; all that is necessary is that an individual follow the crowd.

Contrasted to that easy road is one that is narrow and which promises, not ease, but hardship; however, this latter road leads to life.

Simply wishing to be on the road that leads to life is insufficient to ensure that you are actually on the road.

Focus on Jesus’ final statement, for it is sobering in the extreme; and though it is rejected by many who wish to call themselves by the Name of the Risen Son of God, His words hold true to this day.

Jesus warned that few find the road to life.

Many who seek ease of life delude themselves by imagining that reciting a prayer, or saying that they love Jesus, or performing religious duties will somehow suffice to please the True and Living God.

All who seek to follow the Master need to hear the stern words spoken when He cautioned believers against assuming that the Christian life would be easy.

The Christian life is not an easy life—not if it is real.

Listen to a warning that Jesus gave His disciples immediately before His Passion.

“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first.

If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.

However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.

Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too.

But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.

But they no longer have any excuse for their sin.

The one who hates me hates my Father too.

If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

But now they have seen the deeds and have hated both me and my Father.

Now this happened to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’

When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me, and you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

“I have told you all these things so that you will not fall away.

They will put you out of the synagogue, yet a time is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God.

They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me.

But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about them” [*John** 15:18-16:4a*].[3]

Vibrant Christianity is increasingly marginalised in this day.

Wickedness strides pompously through the land and the saints of the Most High God are silenced through official threats and intimidation to keep our faith private.

I admit that I am concerned when I see church buildings filled to capacity and yet see no evidence of transformation in the lives of those professing to follow the Son of God.

Where are the followers of the Risen Son of God who live with radical abandon in the midst of this pagan world?

Where are those disciples who love God supremely, bearing the imprimatur of holiness on their lives?

Where are those followers of the Lamb who eschew sinful conduct, seeking instead to honour God?

When marital infidelity among professed Christians is indistinguishable from the population at large, where is the evidence that these have been born from above?

When integrity of Christians is comparable to the world in which they live, when those who say they are following the Son of God practise deception and speak deceitfully, where is the evidence of the indwelling Spirit who changes those who are redeemed into the image of God’s dear Son?

When Christians spend pursue the tawdry rewards of this dying world while ignoring what pleases the Father, how can they say they are walking on the narrow road?

When attendance at the House of the Lord is treated as optional rather than being seized as an opportunity for growth in grace and power, how can the professed Bride of Christ claim to long for Him?

The issue is far more serious than most people realise.

Remember Jesus’ dark warning!

“If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire” [*Matthew 18:8, 9*].

The Master spoke these words to people who indicated that they wished to be His disciples.

Therefore, if ease of life means more to you that fidelity to the will of the Master, know the danger in which you stand!

If the accolades of inhabitants of this dying world are of greater importance to you than standing true to the Word of the Master, know that your soul is in eternal jeopardy.

If the censure of those who do not know the Master dissuade you from choosing to honour Him, you must know the peril in which you now stand.

When John and Peter were hailed before the Sanhedrin to answer for their crime of healing a crippled man, Peter testified, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” [*Acts 4:12*].

He testified that the life offered in Christ the Lord is exclusive.

Salvation is found in no one else—not in Buddha, not in Allah, not in your inner self, not in your church—salvation is found only in Christ Jesus.

No one can please God except through faith in Christ Jesus the Son of God.

Paul sought to shame the Corinthians when he asked, “Was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptised in the name of Paul” [*1 Corinthians 1:13*].

Their Christianity had grown sectarian, and as a consequence they were beginning to live as though mere mortals were of greater importance than was the Master.