The Exclusivity of Jesus, Part 5

Thank you for joining listeners across six continents for Leading the Way with Bible Teacher and International Evangelist, Dr. Michael Yousef. In this episode, Dr. Yousef helps you understand commonly quoted words of Jesus and what they mean for life today.

You'll see how his words deliver you affirmation of salvation through his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. So listen with me as Dr. Yousef begins today's Leading the Way audio message. I believe that there is one affliction, one affliction that all of us, everyone at the sound of my voice is susceptible to or prone to. It will be this, stress. Stress. Well, how do I define stress? It is our response to physical, mental, emotional, even spiritual pressures or demands that are placed on us that we feel in life. When we get stressed out, we often experience some physical symptoms, whether it be digestive disorder, disruption of our sleep pattern, nervous ticks, or high blood pressure, and on and on and on.

I am not a doctor, but I play one on television. I often chuckle when I hear one of the so-called experts who come on television or anywhere and say, what you need to do is eliminate stress from your life. I say, well, how?

Tell me how. But thank God that in John chapter 14, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us a manual for stress management. Turn to John 14, please. If you are feeling stressed right now, I have good news for you.

I have good news for you. John 14, because the very first thing that our Lord Jesus Christ says to the disciples after they came from the upper room across the Kedron Valley, the very first thing he says to them before he could tell them that I am the way, the truth, and the life, before he says that, verse 1, he says, let your hearts not be troubled, or do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.

Now, beloved, the fact that more than any other time, at least in my lifetime, and I've seen a lot, individuals are very stressed, highly stressed, whole institutions are stressed, and society at large is very stressed. And that is because back yonder, we stopped to trust in God. And this opening statement about our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 1 of John 14 comes right after Jesus prophesied that Peter is going to deny him three times. Right after that. There's no doubt in my mind that Peter, or even the other disciples, they couldn't even conceive of him doing that.

Peter couldn't even imagine denying Jesus. Well, but please put yourself in their place at that time. It's very easy for us, so many, 2,000 years, and we read the Bible and we had Christian heritage and Christian life and Christian Bible study and all that. We get away from it. But put yourself in their place. Here they are sitting down, around, and these disciples were greatly troubled. They were greatly troubled. They are aware of the mounting pressure. They were told that Jesus is going to the cross.

He just told them that he's going away. They knew that the priests and the rulers of the Jews really were determined to kill Jesus. They were so troubled because Jesus told them that one of them is going to betray him. And most of all, they were worried sick.

Just think about this. They were worried sick of losing Jesus. After all, he's been their Lord, their Messiah, their leader. And if he went away, what's going to happen to them?

What's going to happen to the mission? Would they see him again? How are they going to see him again? So after he tells them not to let their hearts be troubled, he immediately tells them about that marvelous place that he's going to prepare for them.

Immediately. What is Jesus doing? Listen carefully, please. He was gently getting them to focus on the unseen. And the Bible said the seen is temporary, but the unseen is what?

Permanent. Listen, from my experience of using ministry, there is nothing like the prospect of death that would focus a person's attention on what's really important in life. And the disciples here in the same bewilderment, but two of them particularly, became so bewildered and confused about all this talk about, I'm coming and I'm going and I'll come back and all that, they just got so confused. Look at verse 5. Thomas. Thomas. He said, we don't know where you're going.

What is this talk about going and coming? I'm so confused. I love Thomas. I really love that man. Don't ever call him doubting Thomas again. I call him honest Thomas.

And I thank God for Thomas. You notice Jesus never rebuked him. He never rebuked him when he said that. We don't know the way. We don't know where you're going.

How do we know the way? He never rebuked him. Why?

Because he gave Jesus the greatest opportunity to proclaim the fifth proclamation that now we are seeing about the exclusivity of Jesus. I am. Ego ami.

In Greek, I am. The way, the truth, and the life. And no one, no one, no one, can you say that with me?

No one. That means no one on the face of the earth is going to come to the Father except through me. Now let's look deeper into Jesus' declaration of his exclusivity. This series is talking about the exclusivity of Jesus. What Jesus said to them, it can read as follows. Literally can translate it. Because I am the way, the only way, therefore in me alone you will find the whole truth and real life which is eternal.

That's a kind of paraphrasing. So much for narrow-mindedness. Think about it this way. Think about this preachers of tolerance who by the way, I dealt with many of them, they are the most intolerant people on the face of the earth.

They really are. They just accuse us of intolerance so they can shut us up. And somebody actually said that to me. Just think about one of those preachers of tolerance decided to call a phone number and he dials the number. But one of the ten digits is the wrong one. He dialed the number, then he got the wrong number.

And he would be absolutely or she infuriated. How dare the telephone company be so intolerant that they would judge me just for one digit. They'd have to have all the digits right.

How intolerant they are. Just one digit and they give me the wrong number. How dare they insist that every digit I push must be right. So think about it this way. I think most of you, if not all of you, agree that 20 plus 20 equals 40, right?

Anyone disagrees? Raise your hand. That's okay.

This is the age you live in. But one of those preachers of tolerance who is intolerant would say, I don't agree with that. I don't believe in that.

I believe that 20 plus 20 equals 38. Think of how tolerant his bank would be with this kind of calculation. At this incident. That's what I believe. I don't care what the bank says. That's what I believe. Oh, think how very intolerant the IRS would be. Now, by the way, those of you watching overseas, the IRS is our tax department.

You have different names for them. How dare the bank, how dare the IRS, how dare the utility company be so intolerant, so narrow-minded to accept what I believe that 20 plus 20 equals 38. It's intolerance. I'm entitled to believe that 20 plus 20 equals 38.

Can you see how stupid that is? So, when Jesus insisted that he is the way and the only way means that only those who go through him and him alone will have eternal life and eternally saved and will make it to heaven. God makes it very clear in his Word that every human being on the face of the earth, every human being that's born of a woman, we're all born sinners. Seven hundred years before Christ, God said through Isaiah 53, 6, we are all like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us has turned his own way. And that is why God made and provided only one way to come back to him, to return to him. And that is why when Jesus said, I am the way, he is saying categorically, categorically, there is not any other way.

Please listen to me. While there are many ways to Jesus, there's only one way to the Father. You say, Michael, what do you mean by many ways to Jesus?

Well, be patient with me, okay? When I explain it, you'll understand it. Now, there are some people come to Jesus out of being overwhelmed with his amazing love. There are others who come to Jesus after being convicted of sin and judgment. Others still will come to Jesus because they cannot carry the burden of sin and guilt and shame. The others come to Jesus because they know that the wages of sin is death, but believing in Jesus, trusting Jesus, is life and eternal life.

Listen to me. No one, no one, no one, no one on the face of the earth can ever come to God the Father except through Jesus. How you come to Jesus, which way you come to Jesus, it doesn't really matter. Secondly, he is the only truth. Now, if you studied the other religions, you have to agree that there are tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny smidgids of the truth in just about all of them.

Tiny. You have to really look hard to get a little bit of truth. Of course, the sad part about our culture today, that was enough to make me weep, is that truth has become a thing of the past. Truth is very relative. We joke about there are multiple sided for truth, your truth, my truth, that truth, and now it's myriads of sides to the truth. But Jesus is the absolute truth. A friend of mine who practiced law for a number of years, he said, never seen, what he sees is happening now is that people absolutely under oath in the court of law till a bold face lies and they know it.

He has all the years of experiencing in the courts, he has not seen that. Today, we see a whole lot of people till bold face lies and they know it. In the media, in public life, oh certainly politicians, government officials stand behind a podium and they tell you a bold face lie. Even those who are sitting there know it's a lie.

They keep their mouth shut. See, brothers and sisters in Christ, when that happens, listen to me, we will have no civilization. We will have no civilization when the truth becomes rare. And when they are confronted with the truth, they say, oh that's just your truth, not my truth. When Jesus said, I am the truth, he left us in no doubt whatsoever to the fact he's not saying, I know the truth or that I have part of the truth.

When he said, I am the truth, he meant, I am the embodiment of the truth and there can no truth exist apart from me. When I was involved in leadership training, I came across a man and I got to know him really well for two, three years. He was one of the highest Islamic authority council member. Lawyer, a background, a brilliant man. And one day he says, you know, I've been attacking Christians all my life, I've never read their Bible. And he found that he was waiting in front of a bus station, in front of a bookstore, Christian bookstore. So he picks up a Bible, takes it home for 15 days. He doesn't leave the house, doesn't leave the room reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And he, at the end, knelt and gave his life to Christ. The very first question I asked him, what happened? He said, you could never read these hundreds of prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament and how Jesus fulfilled them all without believing.

He memorized the entire New Testament. But here's what he said that always intrigued me, always intrigued me. He said, in my previous religion, we had tiny specks of the truth. He said it would be like looking at a wall where the light bulb is coming through a board that has dots in it. So all you can see are dots until you turn around and come to Christ, then you see the whole light bulb.

You see the whole light. He said, in Christ, I was able to see the whole truth. I used to know smidgits of the truth before I came to Christ. Now I found the whole truth. You know what?

This is the sad part. After 2,000 years, there's 500 years of Western civilization. Now so many people in the West who knew Christ to be the light. Now they're turning to look at this dotted board wall with the little truth, and they make them all look alike.

No wonder we are entering into a new dark ages. I am the way says that we can be saved only through Jesus. I'm the truth says that Jesus, the only one who can assure us of salvation. I am the life says that you can be assured of eternal life here in this life. Jesus said, I came so that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Remember that? Actually that word life should be in capital L in English. Capital L. I think you know and I know that most people, you know, they live the life defensively.

What do you mean by that? Well I mean that we have survival instinct in us. I mean that's just what God created in us. We try to live a life to the fullest. We try to squeeze everything that we can out of life. We often, anything, we see that anything that impedes our life or causes us discomfort, anything that limits or diminishes life, we abhor and we abhor it vigorously and with passion.

Why? God created us with a zest for life. But when sin came in, when sin entered in, the human heart, it created the havoc. It turned everything upside down.

How? Because sin brought curses and diseases and death. Sin dictated that no matter how long we live, we will die.

We must die. Sin says that we live, therefore, either afraid of death or some people like to think that they'll never experience the shadow of death. And when Jesus said, I am the life, he was saying that everyone who comes to the Father through me should not be afraid of death.

Did you get that? Should not be afraid of death. Or deny death is existence, as some people do. The Bible said, even youth grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord, they will renew their strength and they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. Oh, my beloved friends, when you come to Jesus, who is the way, when you come to Jesus, who is the whole truth, you will receive not only eternal life forever with him, but you will live this life to its fullest, as it's supposed to be. When you come to Jesus, he will place his spirit, a new spirit, his spirit in you, and his spirit will constantly invigorates you, energizes you, constantly renews you, and fills you with hope.

Can I get an amen? And listen, the more time you spend with Jesus, the more your spirit is ignited and energized. The closer you walk with Jesus, the more spiritual vitality you will receive. The deeper you go with Jesus, the more focused on eternity with him you will be.

Let me tell you this as I conclude. Someone said years ago, you don't go to heaven to find Jesus. You go to Jesus to find heaven.

In fact, there's an old song that goes something like this. No matter where on earth we dwell, on mountaintop or the dell, in cottage or mansion fair, where Jesus is, tis heaven there. Oh, hallelujah, yes, tis heaven.

Tis heaven to know my sin is forgiven. On land or sea, no matter where, where Jesus is, tis heaven there. Thomas C. Kempsey once said, when Jesus said that, follow me, for I am the way, the truth and the life. He was saying that without the way, there is no going. Without the truth, there is no knowing.

And without the life, there is no living. Today, Jesus still calling, still calling. He's still calling boys and girls, men and women.

He's still calling. He's calling and he says, come to me, for I am the way. I am the invaluable way. I am the infallible truth. I am the unending life.

I am the way that is straight. I am the supreme truth. I am the life that is true and blessed for his uncreated life. If you abide in my way, Jesus said, you shall be my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Jesus indeed is calling. Will you answer? Thank you for taking time in your day for leading the way. Pastors and counselors are available to speak with you about what you heard today.

And it's so easy to begin that conversation. Just start by filling out a short contact form at ltw.org slash Jesus. You know, in the West, we're blessed to live where following Christ is generally accepted. But do remember, many live and work in locations where difficulties, even persecution, come to those who name the name of Jesus. For example, Elaine recently contacted Leading the Way after hearing one of Dr. Yusef's messages in Jordan, writing, I grew up Muslim, but hearing your messages has led me to love Jesus and believe in him as my savior. I live in a remote area of Jordan with no churches and face persecution from those around me who may find out about my faith.

Despite this, I continue to live and grow as a Christian. Friends, the Leading the Way team helped Elaine by connecting her with a small community of believers. She sought baptism and after some time being regularly connected with the team, stopped responding. Leading the Way feels this is due to persecution and continues to pray for and reach out to her while being mindful of her safety. Please, if you haven't done so already, consider standing with Dr. Yusef through ongoing prayer and generosity. Right now, by way of the Open Door campaign, ministry is expanding in key areas, including reaching the unreached and the unengaged in the West, taking the message of Jesus to Muslims worldwide, and sharing the Gospel in remote villages. Your gifts make it possible for teams to reach people like Elaine and so many others.

Get the details at 866-626-4356. Or you can visit us online, ltw.org. Experience the stories of changed lives. Be a part of touching even more through the Open Door campaign. ltw.org. Well, that's all for today. Do join Dr. Michael Yusef right here anytime for more Leading the Way. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.