Back in the sixth grade we made maps of the state of
California. We started out with a piece of cardboard and then used some sort of
paste and made our own individual 3D interpretation of what California looked
like. The curves of the coast line, the changing height of the mountains, and
even which areas were green to represent vegetation and which areas were more
or a desert.
We all started with the same reference picture, but at the
end of the project we had 30+ different versions of what California looked
like. If you think about all the maps you have used over the years, they have
definitely changed. I remember using the Rand McNally Road Atlas and having to
verify which version I pulled out of the cupboard to make sure I was using the
latest. In the city the changes from one revision to the next would have been
minor, but as you looked outside the city the changes could have been
significant.
After the big Rand McNally books came MapQuest. We would go
on-line enter our starting position and our destination and print out the step
by step directions. From my experience I would say about 25% of the time, even
in Southern California, they were wrong. Once I was going on a job interview
and it told me to turn right when I was supposed to turn left. It was in an
area I was unfamiliar with and it almost made me late for the interview.
When we moved to Michigan we bought our first car GPS, the
sad thing was you had to buy maps to go with it. I downloaded the one for
Michigan but it was already outdated. They really needed to do a better job of
updating the maps and making them available for people. It did work on the
drive from Michigan to Iowa, but I don’t think we used it much after that. We
have tried selling it but no one wants it. It is outdated.
Nowadays all you have to do is have a smart phone and you
get up to date maps and GPS. Are they perfect? No, Apple showed us earlier this
year that they are not always accurate. The nice thing is though, you don’t
need to buy a new book or make sure you print out your directions before you
leave. You turn on your location tracker, enter your destination, and off you
go. I talk like it is easy, but when we were on vacation this past July the new
sub-division we were staying at was not on the map. So even today, maps are not
perfect. They are a man made model of something much larger that really needs to
be updated more than they are.
John 14:6
“6 Jesus
told him, “I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.”
Jesus tells us He is the way. He not only points the way to
salvation, He is the way of salvation. Jesus’ way is not something that needs
to be updated, it is not something that is manmade, and it is not something that
is scaled down to fit what we can understand.
Hebrews 7:23-25
“23 Now many have
become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in
office.24 But because He remains forever, He holds His
priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore, He is always able to save those who come to God
through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.”
There have been a whole lot of Levites become priests since
the Israelites left Egypt, simply because death prevents them from continuing
to serve. Not one of the men who became the high priest has ever been able to
hold onto his job once he died. That changed with Jesus.
Back when God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, God said
‘I AM WHO I AM’, in other words He is the eternal God. His essence is eternal. Jesus
is THE Way and since He is the connection to the Father, He is the eternal way.
The difference between the Levitical High Priests and our
True High Priest, is that Jesus died and came back. The resurrected and
ascended Jesus lives forever. He is our permanent priest; He does not change.
Hebrews 13:8
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Nothing can change Him or the work He has accomplished.
Jesus completely saves anyone who comes to him. Where the old sacrificial
system attempted to provide a relationship with God, Jesus does not just try,
He does it. The old way was incomplete, Jesus’ way is perfect.
God has always taken care of His people. When they were
being judged, God would provide a way out. When the challenges were
overwhelming, God provided help. With Jesus all who seek Him are provided
salvation. Where the high priest of old would offer sacrifices for his people,
our permanent High Priest has already paid the sacrifice for us and always
intercedes for His people.
Romans 8:34
“Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who
died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and
intercedes for us.”
If you belong to Jesus, He is right there interceding on
your behalf and He will do so until He comes again. The Way of God is
permanent.
Hebrews 7:26-28
“26 For this is the
kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
and exalted above the heavens. 27 He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every
day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people.
He did this once for all when He offered Himself. 28 For
the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath,
which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been
perfected forever.”
The Way of God is perfect. Jesus is the way and absolutely
nothing else is ever needed. Jesus is Holy, Blameless, and Pure. He remained
obedient to God through a life time of testing. He was 100% faultless when He
climbed on that cross to die for all of humanities sins. The Way of God, aka
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, is absolutely, and undeniably perfect.
We do not need anything other than Jesus, and if we are
following Him and living for Him, when our address change happens we will end
up in the right place. Some say there are other ways to get there, but we know
that those are detours or wrong turns that will never get us where we are
trying to go. Mohamed is a liar, Allah is not real, Buddha does not lead you
were you want to go, and the world will obviously cause a detour. There is only
one perfect Way, and that is Jesus.
There was a generation of Israelites that spent 40 years
wandering around the wilderness simply because they did not follow God’s way.
They wasted their lives, but God never turned His back on them. He still cared
for them, provided for them, and took care of them. That generation did not
make it to the promised land, but God saved them so that the future generations
would receive what He had promised them.
When you look at your life you need to decide if you are
going to follow God or follow something else. If you follow those in the world
who think there are many paths to Heaven, or those that think all that matters
is being ‘good’ you will find that you will not reach your desired destination.
It is like following a map that is 20 years old in a growing community. The map
will not get you were you want to go since it does not show the new roads that
have been added, or closed off.
Jesus is the only map we should follow. He is our perfect,
permanent High Priest. If we follow Him, even if we have started going in the
wrong direction, He will guide us to our rightful destination. Jesus is the
perfect Way.
Hebrews 7:28
“28 For the law appoints as high
priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the
law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.”
The Way of God is personal.
When Jesus said “I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.” it was not simply directional, it was
personal. Directions may change due to detours or circumstances, but the way to
the Father, through Jesus, does not change.
Most
of us have given directions that would be unclear to some people, such as ‘take
a left at the old oak tree’, ‘turn right at the old Johnson barn’, or ‘turn at
the school district building.’ If you do not know the area or the history you
will not find your way, the directions are personal. They might work for the
person giving them, but not necessarily help those needing them.
Jesus
did not just leave us just a set of directions to follow, instead it was much
more personal, He said ‘Follow Me’.
John
14:7a
“If you know Me, you will also know My Father.”
Knowing
someone is not memorizing a list of things they like, it is much more personal.
Instead of directions, Jesus wants to show you the Way, His Way. Following Him,
is like following someone to your destination. There is no guessing what is
meant by the ‘old oak tree’, instead when they turn you turn. There is a
personal connection, like the personal connection each person has with Jesus
once they choose to follow Him.
Following
someone is much better than using a map, directions, or GPS. A map may or may not
get you there, but when you follow someone who knows where they are going you
will reach your destination. If you follow us after church, more often than now
you will end up at Dos Arcos in Centralia, we know how to get there. If you
follow Jesus, you will end up spending Eternity with Him.
Whether
you are using a Rand McNally, a GPS, or your smartphone they all depend on maps
that need to be updated. Without regular updates, it will never be completely
accurate. Even with updates you never know when you are going to hit a road
closure, some unexpected detour, or who knows what else. With a map, you may or
may not make it to your destination. The Way to the Father has not changed and
will never change. There are no shortcuts, roadblocks, detours, there is simply
Jesus. With Jesus you will reach your destination.
Like
the maps of California that my sixth grade class made, all maps paper or
electronic are scaled down models of something much larger. They are not
perfect representations. The salvation that God gave to the Israelites points
the way towards eternal salvation. Just as the Israelites followed the cloud by
day and the pillar of fire by night in hopes of one day reaching the promised
land, we are to follow the Way to our eternal destination.
Maps
are man made as are many of the things people believe. There are many false
religions created by man and people dream up many different ways to earn their
spot in heaven. Some may use the ‘map of good works’ or the ‘map of all
beliefs.’ These so-called maps will lead you down a road, but not the road you
want to go down. These man made maps do not correctly represent the map designed
by God, the map that has Jesus as The Way to the Father.
During
our journey through life, we will take more detours than we care to. Those
detours are caused by us following a map we designed, or making choices
according to our desires, instead of God’s desires for us. If we know The Way,
Jesus Christ, any time we make a wrong turn, there will be a place for us to
turn around and get back on the right path. And the great thing about it, is
the toll has already been paid.
Follow
Jesus, He Is The Way!
Are you following Jesus? If not I encourage you to go to church, talk to a believer you know, or check out the many resources online on that very important first step of becoming a member of God's family. You can reach out to me, I would love to walk you through it!
God Bless,
Robert
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