These illustrations are for John 14:1-14
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Sermon Opener – A Haven for Troubled Hearts - John 14:1-14
Eric Clapton, arguably the greatest living rock guitarist, wrote a heart wrenching song about the death of his four year old son. He fell from a 53rd-story window. Clapton took nine months off and when he returned his music had changed. The hardship had made his music softer, more powerful, and more reflective. You have perhaps heard the song he wrote about his son's death.
It is a song of hope:
Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on,
'Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven.
Would you hold my hand if I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand if I saw you in heaven?
I'll find my way through night and day,
'Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven.
Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees.
Time can break your heart, have you begging please, begging please.
Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure,
And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven.
Jesus has just had the Passover meal with his disciples. He has washed their feet in an act of servanthood. He has foretold his betrayal which Judas will soon perform. He has predicted Peter's denial. He has told them he is leaving. But he adds this word of hope: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you and will come again and take you to myself. So that where I am, you may be also.
Hardship has a way of getting our attention. Pain slows us down. Very few us, after facing a trial, come out the same way we entered in. Jesus understood this and attempted to prepare his disciples for the road ahead. He wanted them to know:
1. If you have faith in me you will overcome your worry
2. If you have faith in me you will have direction in life.
3. If you have faith in me you will have help along the way.
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The Way and The Truth and The Life - John 14:1-14
The great American humorist, Will Rogers, had the reputation that he could make anyone laugh. President Calvin Coolidge, on the other hand, had the reputation that he never laughed. Want to know what happened the time those two met? Rogers was invited to visit the White House and as was the custom, the president's assistant brought Rogers into the Oval Office. As was the custom as he entered, the assistant said, "President Coolidge, this is Will Rogers. Mr. Rogers, this is President Coolidge." To which Rogers leaned forward and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't catch the name." With that, President Coolidge cracked up and started laughing.
Don't you wish you were as quick on your feet as he was? Quick with a comeback, quick with just the right thing to say. Well, of all the things that Jesus said, some of the most significant are the words in today's Gospel reading, when Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life." There is an absolute nature to those words, isn't there? There is completeness to that saying. Perhaps that's why they are so powerful and so controversial as well. For among all the words that Jesus spoke, these are also some of the most debated. Notice — Jesus did not say, "I am one of the ways." He did not say, "I am one of the truths among others." He did not say, "I am a life among many others." No, he said, "I am the way and the truth and the life."
The great Catholic theologian, Thomas à Kempis, caught the meaning of Jesus' words and said this about them, "Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; and without the life, there is no living. For Jesus said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.' "
This passage from chapter 14 of John is part of a great discourse, a body of teaching material that Jesus spoke to the disciples in the upper room. The end of his earthly ministry approaching, the cross looming before him, Jesus gathered his disciples around him and to help them understand his life and work, his approaching death and resurrection, he spoke to them these words, which include him saying, "I am the way and the truth and the life."
Let us pause a few moments this morning in our busy lives to give these words some thought. Let us take a few minutes today to pull them apart and examine them more closely for in them there is a great blessing. In them there is eternal meaning and truth…
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What’s With the Fork?
A woman was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. As she was getting her things in order, she contacted her pastor and asked him to come to her house to discuss some of her final wishes.
She told him which songs she wanted sung at her funeral service, what Scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in. She requested to be buried with her favorite Bible.
As the pastor prepared to leave, the woman suddenly remembered something else. "There's one more thing," she said excitedly.
"What's that?" said the pastor.
"This is important," the woman said. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."
The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to say.
The woman explained. "In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, 'Keep your fork.' It was my favorite part of the meal because I knew something better was coming—like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie.
"So, when people see me in that casket with a fork in my hand and they ask, 'What's with the fork?' I want you to tell them: 'Keep your fork. The best is yet to come!'"
Alan Carr, Biblical Facts about a Place Called Heaven
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One Way Out
The year was 1275 BC, before Christ. The land was Egypt. The ruler was Pharaoh. The leader of the Jews was Moses. The Jews had been in slavery for four hundred years to the Egyptians, building their cities and pyramids. But God had sent the plagues, and now the Jewish nation was beginning their exodus from slavery. And at this particular moment, they were stopped by a body of water, the Red Sea, the Red Sea, and the Egyptian chariots and horses were rapidly coming to attack and bring death and extinction. It seemed there was no way out and then a miracle. Suddenly, before them, the Red Sea opened up and there was only one way. Only one way out. Only one way to avoid death and extinction and that was through the Red Sea.
That paradigm, that visual image of only one way out of death and extinction is deeply woven into the theology of the Old Testament and New Testament. I still can clearly see a picture poster from a Bible Series that I used to teach of a high piece of land on the left, a deep chasm in the middle and a high piece of land on the right. The high piece of land on the left represented Earth; the high piece on the right represented Heaven; and then there was a bridge in the form of a cross that went from Earth to Heaven. It was only on the cross of Christ that we moved from Earth to Eternity. It was the only way. It is the only way.
Edward F. Markquart, Only One Way Out
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The Perfect Church
Those of us who are part of the Church know we are not what Jesus called us to be. We spend too much and share too little; we judge too many and love too few; we wait too long and act too late. Perhaps you are saying, "Show me a church where ministers aren't self-serving; where hypocrisy has been purged away; where church members don't waste time and energy squabbling over petty details; where love is genuine, and I'll become a member." You'll wait a long time, my friend, for such a church takes up no space on this earth. It has floated up, up, up and disappeared beyond Oz.
Or perhaps, such a church lives as a memory -- a time when disciples believed, when faith could move mountains, and motives were pure.
Barbara K. Lundblad, The Body of Christ Takes Up Space on Earth
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Humor: The Peacemakers
Dawne Olson, a South Dakota mother of four, was preparing to give a talk on unity at her women's Bible study. She woke up early to type out the scripture verses. She wasn't quite finished when her four children began coming downstairs asking for breakfast. She could hear the children just around the corner in the kitchen as they rummaged through the refrigerator and cupboards for something to eat. At some point they discovered half of a toaster pastry on the counter from the night before. They all began screaming and fighting; each claiming the half-eaten Pop Tart.
As Dawne made a couple of futile attempts to quiet them down, she finished typing the verse in Matthew 5:9 that says, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God." Taking her cue from scripture, she hollered into the kitchen above the noise, "Would somebody PLEASE be the peacemaker?!"
There was a moment's silence and then Garret, age 6, piped up, "I'll be the piece maker, Mom!"
Then to his brother and sisters he said: "Here's a piece for you and you, and a piece for you and one piece for me."
Needless to say, Dawne had her opening illustration on unity and peace for that evening's Bible study!
Billy D. Strayhorn, I Go to Prepare a Place for You
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The Wednesday Worry Box
Sometimes, if you will just wait, problems take care of themselves. J. Arthur Rank had a system for doing that. He was one of the early pioneers of the film industry in Great Britain, and he also happened to be a devout Christian.
Rank found he couldn’t push his worries out of his mind completely; they were always slipping back in. So he finally made a pact with God to limit his worrying to Wednesday. He even made himself a little Wednesday Worry Box and he placed it on his desk. Whenever a worry cropped up, Rank wrote it out and dropped it into the Wednesday Worry Box.
Would you like to know his amazing discovery? When Wednesday rolled around, he would open that box to find that only a third of the items he had written down were still worth worrying about. The rest had managed to resolve themselves.
If you have a troubled heart, ask God to give you a new perspective. Also ask him to give you patience so that you do not jump ahead and worry about a problem that may never come. But most important of all, ask God for more faith. Faith in God is the best remedy for all our problems. Jesus put it plainly, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, adapted from Daily Bread, 11 December 1999. Cited by David Jeremiah, Slaying The Giants In Your Life (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2001), pp. 67-68.
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Birds Sing After a Storm
At age ninety-three, Rose Kennedy was interviewed by a magazine reporter. By this time, four of her nine children had died violently. Another daughter, Rosemary, was mentally disabled all her life and would soon be gone.
Mrs. Kennedy had outlived her husband long enough to have seen his rather profligate and unscrupulous life told and retold in the press. She was an old lady, hit by tragedies again and again. The reporter asked about all this and Rose Kennedy answered, slowly: "I have always believed that God never gives a cross to bear larger than we can carry. And I have always believed that, no matter what, God wants us to be happy. He doesn't want
us to be sad.
"Birds sing after a storm," she said, "Why shouldn't we?"
In the presence of death, it is not easy to express joy--at least not for the world to see. But those in Christ have an inward joy just the same.
Edward Inabinet,Sermons.com
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An Evening Prayer
A century ago John Henry Newman wrote an evening prayer which expresses well the whole spirit in which we see the present in the light of that place which Christ has prepared for us:
Support us, O Lord, all the long day of this troubled life until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, when the busy fever of life is hushed, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Dean Lueking, From Ashes to Holy Wind, CSS Publishing Company
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When We Glimpse Paradise
In 1816, Lord Byron wrote a narrative poem that has become a classic. The poem is titled, "The Prisoner of Chillon," and it is the story of a man incarcerated in the dungeon at the Castle of Chillon near Lake Geneva, Switzerland.
The prisoner was in a narrow, cramped dungeon cell for such a long time that he began to think of it as home. He made friends with the spiders, insects, and mice that shared his cell. They were all inmates of the same dungeon and he was monarch of each race.
The years in the dark dungeon cell had taken their toll. He was no longer unhappy or uncomfortable. He had grown accustomed to his environment and came to think of his chains as friends.
One day a bird perched on the crevice of the ledge above and began to sing. It was the sweetest music he had ever heard. Suddenly, the desire to see the outside world overwhelmed him. He grabbed the walls of his cell, and began climbing and struggling up the wall so that he could look out of the little window. In that moment, he saw a world that he had forgotten. There was a crystal blue lake ... and some tall green trees ... and the beautiful little white cottage that he called home nestled against the green hills ... and an eagle soaring majestically across a blue sky.
He saw them all for one magnificent moment and then he fell back into his cell. But that dungeon cell was no longer home. For one fleeting moment he had seen a home that lay beyond the tiny cramped cell of the dungeon. He had seen a vision of a world beyond and hope eternal towered over the despair.
We, too, have a vision beyond our present existence. We are pilgrims of the future because our faith enables us to catch a glimpse of an everlasting Kingdom which lies beyond this world.
Robert L. Allen, The Greatest Passages of The Bible, CSS Publishing Company
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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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Don’t Roll It Back! - 1 Peter 2:2-10 - Leonard Sweet
The difference between learning a language and living a language is shown by how well we understand the unique idioms of our new TGiF world (Twitter, Google, instagram, Facebook). Living languages change and adapt to the worlds they are living in. So there is a constant invention of new words, and even new dictionaries, like Urban Dictionary, that tells us daily what these new words mean.
Ancient Latin and Koine Greek are beautiful, expressive languages. They speak of love in a language of love that is unsurpassed in beauty and vibrancy. They are languages that speak about our greatest desires for spiritual connections too. But these ancient languages have not been spoken for millennia. And they do not have any special words for new designations like the internet, or robots, or string theory, or sushi.
English has always been “on the move.” What is most familiar to you today? Words like “Facebook,” “Twitter,” “iPad,” “Face Time,” “Fandango,” “Snap Chat,” “Apps.” These would have been gibberish a decade ago. In March of 2014, some of the words added to the definitive and prestigious Oxford English Dictionary included: crap shoot, honky‑tonker, selfie, twerk, wackadoodle, bestie, bookaholic, scissor-kick, do-over, DIYer, to name just a few. Today these strange new words are guideposts to our daily lives. That is the way a “living language” keeps alive. It keeps changing. It re-invents itself all the time. A fossil language does not communicate. A fossil faith does not communicate, much less change the world.
In the first century, there were lots of words being revisited, reframed, and reinvented. As the disciples and first followers of Jesus encountered the reality of the cross, and then the shock of the empty tomb, the whole concept of “Messiah” was looked over and under in a fresh way.
From the Hebrew tradition of Isaiah (28:16), God is identified as a foundation stone. God is an immovable rock, the primordial solid stone. Peter himself had been identified as “petros,” the movable stone as opposed to petra, the immovable bedrock. Peter knew his own weaknesses all too well and chose to write about a new kind of “rock.” The image Peter offers is even weirder than the identity Jesus had given him as a “stone,” as a petros (me stone), and upon this petra (we bedrock) Jesus promised to build his church. The Me is built upon the We. In Christ Peter’s insecurities will be made solid, as will ours…
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Taking Our Penalty
Friday night my wife and I went to a hockey game. It was between the Colorado Avalanche and the Mighty Ducks. Colorado's goalie got a penalty for "delay of game." A penalty in hockey means your team plays short-handed while you sit in the penalty box.
Yet, during this penalty Colorado's goalie was still in the net. Do you know why? Because another player on his team was allowed to take the penalty for him. That other player was in the penalty box, suffering the consequences of what the goalie did, as if he was the one guilty of breaking the rules.
That's a picture of Christ. We broke the rules, we are the sinners, we have offended God's majesty, we have strayed from the Way, yet it is Christ who paid the penalty. The result? Through Christ and His cross we have a way to God and heaven and eternal life. Through Christ we are saved!
Adrian Dieleman, I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life
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Scrape the Barnacles Off
Along the shoreline in California it is a common sight to see whales stopping alongside rocks as they migrate from Alaska to Mexico to scrape off barnacles. In our lifetime we also will pick up a collection of personal barnacles that will attach themselves like parasites sapping the life out of us. They must be scraped off.
How did Job do it? The same way we can do it--through faith. Faith is the only thing that can heal the hurts. Job scraped the barnacles off. It was painful! The scars would remain but his life was put back together. Strong belief in God was the medicine. His wife and his friends could not do it--only God could! Job said, "I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee.” Job 42:2.
Alan Carr, Help for the Troubled Heart
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You Know Your Master Is There
There is a story told of a dying man who asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he was going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and he had his answer.
"Do you hear that?" he asked his patient. "It's my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here. Isn't it the same with you? You don't know what lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there."
Alan Carr, Biblical Facts about a Place Called Heaven
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This Isn’t Heaven
There is an old story about a man who complained that he had too much work to do. He never seemed to be caught up. Every day for twenty years he looked at his desk piled high with unfinished projects ... letters to be answered ... bills to be paid ... and problems to be solved. When he walked out of the house to get away from the clutter, he saw the grass that needed to be cut and the hedges that needed to be trimmed. If he could only get caught up, just once, he thought that would be heaven.
One night he dreamed that he was in a large room with a beautiful mahogany desk before him. The desk was clean ... and bright ... and shiny. There were no letters or bills or problems waiting to be solved. Through the window he could see the lawn freshly mowed and the hedges meticulously manicured. It was a great relief. He had caught up at last and now he could enjoy some peace and quiet.
But, now he had nothing to do - nothing but to sit and stare out the window. As he was staring out the window, he noticed a postman walking down the street - but there were no letters in his bag. He called out to the postman and said, "I see you don’t have anything to do either?"
"Nope," the postman said, "not a thing."
"I don’t know," the man said, "if I like a heaven where there’s nothing to do."
"Don’t you know?" the postman asked. "This isn’t heaven, my friend, this is hell!"
Robert L. Allen, The Greatest Passages of The Bible, CSS Publishing Company
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Birds Sing after a Storm
At age ninety-three, Rose Kennedy was being interviewed by a magazine reporter. By this time, four of her nine children had died violently. Another daughter, Rosemary, was severely retarded all her life and would soon be gone.
Mrs. Kennedy had outlived her husband long enough to have seen his rather profligate and unscrupulous life told and retold in the press. She is an old lady, hit by tragedies again and again. The reporter asked about all this and Rose Kennedy answered, slowly: "I have always believed that God never gives a cross to bear larger than we can carry. And I have always believed that, no matter what, God wants us to be happy. He doesn't want
us to be sad.
"Birds sing after a storm," she said, "Why shouldn't we?"
In the presence of death, it is not easy to express joy--at least not for the world to see. But those in Christ have an inward joy just the same.
Edward Inabinet,Sermons.com
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More than a Casual Follower
The author Bill Bryson, tells of going to Hannibal, Missouri, to visit the boyhood home of Mark Twain. Mark Twain was one of his heroes. As he visited the home, he was disappointed. The home was supposed to be a faithful reproduction of the original, but it was easy to see that it was not. Far too many items from the 20th century were included in the home. In a sense it was false advertising. Mr. Bryson was further disappointed that he was not able to actually go inside the house. "You look through the windows," he says. "At each window there is a recorded message telling about each room." As he proceeded from window to window he asked another tourist, "What do you think of it?" The friendly stranger replied, "Oh, I think it's great. I come here whenever I'm in Hannibal--two, three times a year. Sometimes I go out of my way to come here." Dumbfounded, Bryson replied, "Really?" "Yes," answered the tourist. "I must have been here twenty, thirty times by now. This is a real shrine, you know!"
As the two of them continued walking, Bryson asked his last question of the man. "Would you say the house is just like Twain described it in his books?" "I don't know," said the tourist. "I've never read one of his books."
Thomas did not want to be a casual follower who was not truly committed to following Jesus. And Jesus wanted to reassure Thomas that his teachings were not false advertising.
Eric S. Ritz,www.Sermons.com
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Sound Theology
One of my favorite "Peanuts" comic strip columns features a conversation between Lucy and Linus. Lucy and Linus are looking out the window and it is raining quite hard. Lucy says "Wow! Look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world again?" Linus--the kid with the blanket--says with confidence, "Lucy, God promised Noah in the ninth chapter of Genesis that it would never happen again. The sign of the promise is the rainbow." Lucy exclaimed: "Linus, you sure have taken a great load off my mind." Linus shares with Lucy: "Sound theology has a way of doing that."
Jesus shares with Thomas sound theology in our lesson today. He reassures Thomas and the other disciples that he is the Way--the Truth--the Life. And he is, still, today!
Eric S. Ritz, The Ritz Collection,www.Sermons.com
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I Know Not What the Future Has
We do not know what lies beyond, but we know that our heavenly Father is there! That is the faith which we find in John Greenleaf Whittier's familiar lines:
I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life or death,
His mercy underlies.
I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.
O Lord, support us all the day long of this troubled life,
Until the shadows lengthen and evening comes,
And the busy world is hushed,
And the fever of life is over,
And our work is done,
Then in Thy great mercy
Grant us a safe lodging,
And a holy rest,
And peace at the last,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Donald B. Strobe, Collected Words,www.Sermons.com
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Settling for Less Than Is Promised
Charles Schultz, the artist who provides us with the Peanuts cartoons, is one of my favorite theologians. In one of his cartoon series, he has Snoopy, that hound of heaven, saying of Woodstock, that would-be bird of paradise; “Someday, Woodstock is going to be a great eagle.” Then in the next frame he says, “He is going to soar thousands of feet above the ground.” Woodstock takes off into the air and as Snoopy looks on he sees the bird upside down whirling around crazily. So he has second thoughts. In the third frame Snoopy says, “Well, maybe hundreds of feet above the ground…” But hardly had the words gotten out of his mouth when Woodstock plummets to the ground and lies there, on his back looking dazed, and Snoopy has to conclude, “Maybe he will be one of those eagles who just walks around.”
Isn’t it amazing – how quickly we settle for less than is promised, and for far less than is possible?
Maxie Dunnam, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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I Am Counting with You
Robert Drake is a Tennessean who writes stories about growing up in that part of the country a generation ago. He told a story about Miss Caroline Walker, who was a music teacher. She had been doing it for as long as anybody could remember. She was something of a legend in her county in Tennessee.
She had two goals in teaching. One was to teach her girls to be ladies. So she taught them manners as much as she taught them music. She also taught them to play one piece perfectly for the May recital. She rehearsed them and drilled them all year long to play that one piece perfectly, including instructions on how to sit on the piano bench, to spread your skirt as you sit down, and how to announce the song by standing straight and holding your hands together at your waist.
The night of the recital came. It was held in the high school auditorium. Ten pupils of Miss Caroline's were there waiting for their turn. Ann Louise's turn came. She was terrified. She thought she was going to faint. She knew she would never make it, but it was her turn, so she moved forward to the wings where Miss Caroline was waiting.
She could see how nervous Ann Louise was. Her body had become stiff and rigid. Miss Caroline put her hands on Ann Louise's shoulders, and bent down to whisper in her ear, "You have worked hard. You know this piece. You have nothing to fear. And remember, I am counting with you all the way."
With a little shove she pushed Ann Louise out onto the stage where, all of a sudden, she was facing this large audience of everybody's relatives, including her own. She announced her piece, then spread her skirt, and sat on the bench. She noticed that she was much calmer than she thought she would be. She noticed that Miss Caroline was still there in the wings. She remembered the last words that she said to her, "I am counting with you all the way." She didn't say, "I am counting on you." She said, "I am counting with you."
And Drake wrote this. "She felt that they were held together by something beyond either of them alone. Teacher and disciple were as one. She realized that it was this that she had been preparing for all year long, this test. And the music, at her command, came cascading out of the baby grand into the darken auditorium full of joy and full of life, right on cue."
I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.
So let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com
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Has God Revealed Himself in Other Religions?
Karl Barth was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton. One student asked the German theologian "Sir, don’t you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?" Barth’s answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son."
John H. Pavelko, Avoiding a Troubled Heart
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Lewis on Uniqueness of Christianity
A Christian who understands his own religion laughs when unbelievers expect to trouble him by the assertion that Jesus uttered no command which had not been anticipated by the Rabbis—few, indeed, which cannot be paralleled in classical ancient Egyptian, Ninevite, Babylonian, or Chinese texts. We have long recognized that truth with rejoicing.
C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections
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Luther on Christ's Divinity
On our own we cannot know who God is; we need Jesus to make God known.
Martin Luther, as usual, made the same point so well in one of his sermons on the very gospel text that we are considering. Here is what he said: "This is the knowledge in which St. John, an outstanding evangelist with regard to this theme, and St. Paul instructs more than the others do. They join and bind Christ and the Father so firmly together that we learn to think of God only as Christ. As soon as we hear the mention of God's name, or of his will, his works, his grace, or his displeasure, we must not judge these as the voice of our heart or man's wisdom discourse on them ... but we must nestle and cuddle on the lap of Christ, like dear children on their mother's lap or in her arms, and close our eyes and ears to everything but him and his words."
Mark Ellingsen, Preparation and Manifestation, CSS Publishing Company
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Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow's troubles.
E. Stanley Jones
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Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. In encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.
Arthur Somers Roche
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I could no more worry than I could curse or swear.
John Wesley
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You Don’t Need a Passport
A friend of mine was married recently and for his honeymoon he took his new wife on a cruise to the Caribbean. One of their stops was Cozemel, Mexico. It is one of the most popular ports-of-call for cruise ships and a popular vacation spot if you want to relax in the sun and get away from it all. You need either a passport or proof of your US citizenship to go there. If you’re going to travel to exotic places you have to have the proper paperwork. Peaceful surroundings are not possible without red tape. Nor are they free.
Many people believe they need a passport to heaven. As long as they belong to the right groups, observe the right practices, believe the rights things, they are guaranteed a room in God’s great mansion. Jesus told his followers that there is only one way to heaven. It is not with a passport, it was through him. He said, "I am the way … the only way to God is through me."
Keith Wagner, Passport to Peace
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Home is with the Father
Homecomings can be wonderful, emotionally rewarding experiences. About one memorable homecoming, Rev. Scott Grant writes:
“A few years back I spent two months overseas. Experiencing a different culture was exhilarating at first but then became somewhat demanding. I began to yearn for home. After a long flight across the Atlantic, I landed in New York. Bleary-eyed after the 13-hour flight, I passed through customs and held out my passport for the agent. He took a quick glance, noticed how long I'd been gone, handed my passport back to me and said, "Welcome home."
There was nothing special in his voice. He had probably said the same words hundreds of times already that day. But something about those words awakened me out of my comatose state. I experienced a strong emotional reaction that caught me by surprise. Home. I was home.”
In John 14:1-14, Jesus tells us about home. Home is not so much a place as it is a Person. Home is with the Father (14:1-3).
Scott Grant, Home With Our Father
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Relative Truth
How long would you continue to fly with an airline whose motto was "Safety Standards are Fine for Those Who Are Uptight About It, But Our Engineers Aren't So Narrow"? How excited would you be about going under the scalpel of a surgeon who told you: "You know, I never bothered much with anatomy in Med school, since all medical truth is relative anyway"? How long would you leave your child in a school where the chemistry teacher said to her, "You're free to drink from either that container of H2O or that beaker of H2SO4. After all, they're both clear liquids and we're only talking about a couple of molecules here or there, so imbibe whatever you prefer"?
Daniel D. Meyer, People of the Way
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All Doors Lead Into Heaven
One of my favorite cartoon images of the entrance to heaven I saw a few years ago in a Christian magazine. At the pearly gates, St. Peter is welcoming each person standing in line, waiting to peer into the book of life. (By the way, don't you think it's ironic that standing in line would be connected at all with heaven?) Anyway, in the cartoon, each person comes up to Peter and announces the denomination they had belonged to on earth.
"Catholic," says the first. "Baptist," says the second. The next two say, "Methodist" and so on. Each person was then pointed toward a door with the name of their denomination inscribed above. Ole and Lena, of course, went through the "Lutheran" door. But the way the cartoonist drew the picture, you could see not only what's on this side--namely Peter, the desk, the book of names, the long line of people waiting--but, you could also see what's on the other side of the doors. In fact, all the doors were a part of the same facade; they all opened to one and the same place--heaven....
Dave Schreiber, Is There A Heaven?
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The Power that God Gives
Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, a well know preacher many years ago, said that once, when he was a high school student, he had a very difficult examination. But he had discovered that verse, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do..."
He believed that verse meant that all he had to do was ask and he would pass the exam. He told God he was believing God's promise, and he wanted a good grade. The next day young Weatherhead took the examination, but when the grades were in, he had failed. He was disillusioned. He rebelled and almost lost his faith. He came to the conclusion that the promises of the Bible were not good - all because God had not granted his wish for a good grade.
The next year he repeated that course. He worked hard, and he passed. This time he decided that he did not need God, that he could get along by himself.
After some years had passed, Dr. Weatherhead came to understand that his own powers and abilities were in reality the power that God had given to him. He began to realize that God had already given him the power to pass the examination, but he had not used that power the first go around.
Richard J. Fairchild, Our Desire and Our Growth
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Bonhoeffer's Foundation
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian, who was imprisoned by the Nazis and then just days before his prison was liberated, he was hanged. Bonhoeffer is one of our great 20th century persons of faith. He wrote: "Faith means the finding and holding fast of this foundation [the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ]. It means casting anchor upon it and being held fast by it. Faith means founding my life upon a foundation which is outside myself, upon an eternal and holy foundation, upon Christ."
Rev. Timothy S. Stevens, "Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation"
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Ain't No Sense Worrying
Mickey Rivers, a one time outfielder for the Texas Rangers, explained his philosophy of life:
Ain't no sense worrying about things you got control over, because if you got control over them, ain't no sense worrying. And their ain't no sense worrying about things you got NO control over either, because if you got no control over them, ain't no sense worrying.
Reported in Dallas Morning News, May 20, 1984
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Only Christ Can Save
Some pastors fall into the trap of feeling that their job is to rescue people. But only Christ can save. Perhaps the best thing ministers can do is grasp their own salvation, and share that experience with others. Writes William C. Martin in The Art of Pastoring:
Your task is impossible. Consider the demands: 'Show us God.' 'Tell us what God wants.' 'Lead us to God.'
If you think you can do these things, you are already deceived. But you CAN find your own soul and perhaps show others how to do that. To their surprise they will satisfy their demands on their own.
William C. Martin, The Art of Pastoring: Contemplative Reflections (Decatur, Ga.: CTS Press, 1994), 14
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Regret & Comfort
[This illustration assumes that Jesus in John 14 is attempting to comfort the disciples for the opportunities they will soon squander by denying their relationship to Jesus.]
Some of our most painful regrets are for opportunities lost. As John Greenleaf Whittier said:
"Of all sad words of tongue or pen.
The saddest are these: It might have been!"
(Maud Mule' 53)
How many people go under a dark cloud by thinking, even momentarily, of the person they almost married, the investment they almost made, the position they nearly won. But for every person who is filled with regret for an opportunity lost, there is another who regrets a deed done, a word spoken, a relationship consummated. These are the stories of decisions made, of tempers lost, of conversations that cannot be re-called. Here are deeds-sometimes sinful ones, but often only erratic or misguided ones-that have changed the course of a life and have left a person with a crushing burden. "I'd give anything," a man or woman says, absolutely anything, if I could take back that one day of my life." Regret. It can eat at your inward being like the most malevolent cancer, destroying by the inch and the hour.
And there is no surgeon's knife, no radium or chemical that can reach it.
Yet, regret can refine and improve character as only a skilled teacher can do. I venture that there are few great saints who have not possessed a high capacity for regret. Effective regret is the growing edge of godliness. But the key word is "effective!"
Saul of Tarsus knew something about regret. His regret was so strong that it surfaced in the midst of a wondrous recital about the resurrection of Christ. As he listed those who had seen the resurrected Christ, he continued, "last of all…he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (1 Corinthians 15:8,9).
J. Ellsworth Kalas, If Experience is Such a Good Teacher Why Do I Keep Repeating the Course, Dimensions, 1994, pp. 47-48.
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How Many Legs Does A Cow Have?
There is a story about Abraham Lincoln who was arguing with a political opponent.
"How many legs does a cow have?" he asked his adversary.
"Four, of course," came the disgusted reply.
"That's right," agreed Lincoln. "Now suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?
"Why, five, of course," was the confidant reply.
"Now, that's where you're wrong," said Lincoln. "Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
Traditional
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Trouble of the Heart
Every believer faces trouble. It is part of life itself. As long as we are in this world, we will face trouble, saint and sinner alike. J.C. Ryle (Expository Thoughts on John’s Gospel) calls the words of Christ in our text, “A precious remedy against an old disease.” The disease, of course, is trouble. He goes on to describe it:
That disease is trouble of heart. That remedy is faith. Heart trouble is the commonest thing in the world. No rank or class or condition is exempt from it. No bars or bolts or locks can keep it out. Partly from inward causes and partly from outward, partly from the body and partly from the mind, partly from what we love and partly from what we fear, the journey of life is full of trouble. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find the world a vale of tears.
Phil Newton, The Great Consolation
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We All Need Need a Strong Foundation
When Charlie Atlas was a teenager his parents bought him a dresser mirror that he placed in his bedroom. Before this time, whenever Charlie needed to use a mirror he went to the bathroom, but there he was only able to see his head and possibly his shoulders. When he got dressed up he used his parents' full length mirror in their bedroom. Charlie was happy with his new mirror; he spent many hours in front of it.
One day when he was standing in front of the mirror, Charlie decided to take off his shirt. He was very disappointed. His chest was scrawny and his biceps were so thin that he could place his hand completely around one. This was an intolerable situation; he did not want to be known as a scrawny weakling. Thus, on that very day, Charlie Atlas made a pact with himself; he would work as hard as necessary in order to build up his upper body, so that he would not be embarrassed in the mirror ever again. Charlie began a rugged daily regimen of exercise. For several hours each and every day he did exercises - push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups. Later he began to lift weights - barbells and dumbbells. He bought a special machine with weights, pulleys, and springs which allowed him to exercise even more.
After several months, Charlie again looked in the mirror. There was definite improvement. His chest had grown and his arms were more muscular. The positive results encouraged him and thus he doubled his efforts. He did more difficult exercises, lifted more weights, and now even began to eat only certain foods. He took lots of vitamins as well. After a couple of years of this strenuous exercise program, Charlie again looked in the mirror. He was quite satisfied, even elated. His chest was huge and taut and his biceps were so large that two hands could not encircle one. His stomach rippled like waves on the ocean. As he stood in personal admiration, all of a sudden Charlie collapsed. His parents were quite concerned and rushed him to the doctor. They thought for certain that it was a case of overexertion, but the doctor, after examining Charlie, said it was much more simple. Charlie's ankles and legs were too weak, they could not support his massive bulk, thus he collapsed. You see Charlie could only see his upper body in the mirror and that was all he developed.
The story of Charlie Atlas is a good illustration of a problem most of us have - we build up the externals of our life, but we forget about the rock foundation upon which our life must be based. We are like the house of which Jesus speaks that is built on sand and is washed away in a storm (Matthew 7:26-27). We need to fully recognize that we must build our house on the rock foundation which is Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Richard E. Gribble, CSC, Sermons For Sundays: In Lent And Easter: Building Our Foundation On God, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Paraphrased from "Charlie Atlas and the Dresser Mirror," in John Aurelio, Colors! Stories of the Kingdom (New York: Crossroad, 1993), pp. 26-27.
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God as a Heavenly Parent
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" (Psalm 8:3-4)
What, indeed? H.L. Mencken said that man was "a sick fly on a dizzy wheel." Christopher Morley once defined man as "an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing." But Jesus knew better. He knew what genius did the assembling, and told us that we are children of a Divine Parent-God. "I will not leave you orphaned," He said. And because of Him we have come to know that we are not orphans left on the doorstep of an indifferent universe, but rather children of a loving God, a God who loves us infinitely more than our earthly parents love us, even more than we love ourselves!
Donald B. Strobe, Dynamic Preaching
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The Marketplace of Ideas and Finding Your Faith
I think both Jesus and Paul listened to people as much as they talked. Paul was in dialogue with his Greek audience enough to know their beliefs and find God revealed in them. But Paul was also not afraid to put his own Christian faith into the marketplace of ideas.
Wil Willimon and Stanley Haweras have raised this issue on the DukeUniversity campus in our time. According to Willimon, the popular idea that all religions are essentially the same and merely a matter of personal opinion is both intellectually dishonest and ultimately intolerant. As Willimon suggests, "this is merely a way of saying, `Religion is wonderful as long as we first all agree that it doesn't mean anything.'" And any genuine student of world religions knows they are very different from one another in the way they understand the Divine, the human, and the world. No, it is more honest and more respectful to learn the specifics, to understand the differences, and to know what you believe and claim it. It is possible to honor other people, to respect their religious beliefs, to find common ground where it actually exists, and to assert your own faith at the same time. Having a specific faith, talking about a specific faith does not mean you have to be arrogant and intolerant about the faith of others. Says Willimon:
Sometimes the biggest challenge is to admit that all of us are living by some point of view or another. All of us are betting our life on something. We may be betting our life on the point of view that says, "I try not to have any point of view other the officially enforced point of view that there are no points of view worth acknowledging or living and dying by." Or, there is that point of view that says, "I still have lots of questions about Jesus and his way; of course there is still much about all this that I don't understand, and I fall constantly short of being a faithful follower of Jesus, nevertheless, I am trying. I am convinced that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and I am doing my best to be faithful to that."
Larry Bethune, Christ on the West Mall
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His Hand In Ours - Comfort
A little girl had a cut near her eye. Her father quickly took her to see the doctor. The cut was not serious, but the location of the injury made it important that it be fixed properly. The doctor decided a couple of stitches were needed, but he didn't want to give the child an anesthetic. He explained to her that the procedure would be painful and asked if she could stand it. The little girl replied that she could, if her father would hold her hand. The father then took her in his lap, slipped his arm around her, and held her tight. The doctor did his work, and the little girl never flinched. The father could not possibly have erased the pain from this process. If he had not been there, though, the girl's reaction would have been much different.
So it was for the disciples. The time was fast approaching when they would split up and travel to the far corners of the world to proclaim the gospel. Jesus would not be with them physically. He wanted them to know, though, that they would not be alone. His hand would still be in theirs. And that made all the difference in the world.
Arthur G. Terry, Eating Cold Grits
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Being Lost Is Terrible, Being Found Is Wonderful
James Moore remembers the time when he was seven years old and got lost at the Ringling Brothers Circus. It was a frightening experience for a seven-year-old boy in a crowd of over twenty thousand. Jim and his older brother, Bob, went to the concession stand to buy some cotton candy. People were pushing and pressing toward the counter. Since Bob was taller he was waited on first. After Bob got his cotton candy he stepped aside for his brother. Just then loud laughter came from the arena. Bob wanted to see what was going on. Certainly he didn't mean to leave his small brother alone. He simply got caught up in the excitement listening to the crowd laugh at the clowns.
Little Jim also got his cotton candy and then he looked around for his big brother. His brother was gone. In that moment of panic nothing looked familiar to this little fellow. He was lost. At that point he wondered if he would ever see his family again. "I started to run," he recalls, "trying to fight back the tears. Everyone was laughing loudly at the antics of the clowns, but they weren't funny to me at that moment." In this young boy's moment of panic and confusion he thought, "How can they laugh at a time like this? How can they laugh when I feel so lost?"
Just then Jim felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned around and saw his father. "My father had come after me and had found me. He held me down, reassured me, then bought me a Coke, a hot dog, a Yo-Yo, a lizard, a little stuffed bear, and a candy apple. I learned a valuable lesson that day: Being lost is terrible...being found is wonderful!"
Jesus wanted his disciples to know that even though he would no longer be with them he would not let them get lost. He would be with them every step of the way. He is the Way. All they had to do was follow. Who would not respond to such a sacrifice? Who would not follow such an example?
James Moore adapted by Arthur G. Ferry, Jr., ChristianGlobe Illustrations
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Parable of the Brain and Your Religion
"Did you see that fellow that passed just now? I wonder what is wrong with him?" said George.
"He's had some brain damage in an accident, and it affects part of his body. He's really a nice fellow. I see him in church every Sunday," said Jim.
"If seeing him in church makes him a nice fellow," said George, "there must be damage to another part of my brain."
"What I meant," answered Jim, "is that's how I got to know him quite well, and thus he explained to me about his handicap. When you understand him, then you see past the physical difficulty. And frankly, George, since you brought the subject up, going to church would do a lot for your brain and your attitude toward others."
It is true that different parts of our body are directed by different parts of our brain, having different functions to control. It is true, also, that "man cannot live by bread alone." If we fill our mind with evil thoughts, we have committed our lives to enmity with God and enmity with our selves. We are all our own worst enemy, doing things to ourselves that others cannot or would not do. We should be our own best friends in doing what is right.
If we treat our enemies with Christian understanding, our friends would be the most blessed of all.
Jesus said, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
Somehow, seeing people in church not only associates them with thoughts of kindness, but, also, we make contact with their personality when we are in the best frame of mind to give proper understanding.
"Let not your heart be troubled; neither let it be afraid; Ye believe in God, believe also in Me." said Jesus.
Unknown, Sermons.com
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Parable of a Song and a Prayer
The war-time song "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" parallels a truth revealed in a true story of a local Bedford citizen.
During the war this army pilot and his co-pilot and crew were flying a B24. One day its controls jammed as they took off and they skimmed precariously low as they neared the mountains.
The co-pilot folded his arms and said, "Our number is up," but the pilot, helped by the gunner, feverously worked at the controls and finally cleared the controls.
The pilot reports, "I got a transfer to another plane to get rid of the co-pilot. I want no fatalist at my side."
Prayer is not a resignation to fate, but true prayer in Christ's name is employing the power that God makes available for Christian living.
We sing, praise God and pray, but the ammunition to fight life's battles must be employed daily. Prayer is God's channel of power to bless mankind.
We must pray, believe, and work!
"And whatsoever you shall ask in my Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my Name, I will do it."
Illustration, www.Sermons.com
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John 14:6
A traveler engaged a guide to take him across a desert area. When the two men arrived at the edge of the desert, the traveler, looking ahead, saw before him trackless sands without a single footprint, path, or marker of any kind. Turning to his guide, he asked in a tone of surprise, “Where is the road?” With a reproving glance, the guide replied, “I am the road.”
So, too, is the Lord our way through unfamiliar territory.
Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching