John 14:1-6 The Way to Heaven
The purpose of this sermon is two-fold. We take time today to remember someone who is now in Heaven. The Tabiri family in our church has lost a dear mother, and grandmother. Her name was Patience Narki Kartey. Many of you here today are guests of the Tabiri family. Let me first say thank you for coming. So, we begin with a reminder: We take the time today to celebrate the fact that she is in heaven.
Patience was born in Osu, Ghana on December 27, 1940. She was baptized at the age of ten, upon deciding to follow her Lord Jesus Christ. She helped start a Presbytarian church in Madina, Ghana on the early 1960s. The church increased in number, and officially became known as the Immanuel Presbytarian Church. Sister Narki was a founding member of that church. Sister Narki was a marriage counselor in the church. She helped the children in the church. She helped provide food and clothing for the children. She helped to send many children to Sunday School and to help work in the local mission house. Sister Narki fell ill in late February 2007. On February 24, 2007, Sister Narki died on the way to the local hospital. She has left her family but is now in Heaven.
Heaven is a better place. While we celebrate the fact that a sister in Christ in Heaven.
But many may be asking: What should I do while I am alive now, so that when I die, I can go to Heaven?
Well, you are not the only people to have asked this question. The disciples of Jesus wondered about the same question. Jesus sensed their insecurity and made a bold statement:
Don’t worry.
Many people worry about death. But Jesus said don’t worry about death, if you know Me.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
(John 14:1 NKJV)
Jesus says that is you believe in a God, then they way to that God is through Jesus. There is only one way to God. This is through Jesus Christ His Son.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
(John 3:16 NKJV)
Then Jesus reassures them. They had doubts about the future. Just as you and I have doubts about the future. The disciples were just told that Jesus would have to go to the cross to die. This is part of God’s plan.
God loves us. But there is a problem.
PROBLEM: We don’t want to follow God. We want to live our lives like we think is best. The Bible calls this sin.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 NKJV)
When we try to live our own way, that is called sin. Sin pays you a wage and that wage is death. This death is a death that makes you perish.
We all sin. The Bible says this as well.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(Romans 3:23 NKJV)
Because we act this way we don’t want to follow God and His plan. We refuse to accept Jesus.
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
(John 3:18 NKJV)
You see the conflict is that God and sin cannot occupy the same space. God does not tolerate it when we live our lives without Him. He loves us but He does not want us to live our lives without Him. That is why He sent His SON. God did not just send prophets and messengers and angels to help us. God sent His SON. That shows how much He cares for us. That shows how far God is willing to go to solve the problem of sin.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
(John 3:17 NKJV)
Saved from what? The consequences of our living apart from God. We would perish without God in a place far away from Him; a place called Hell. Hell is not a nice place. It is not a nice place because God is not there. So God wants you to come to Him in Heaven when you die. He wants you to learn this.
The disciples were not certain about Heaven and how to get there either. That is why there was this uncertainty in the air. Jesus senses it and tells them not to worry. First, Jesus gives a picture of Heaven.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
(John 14:2 NKJV)
He says that God the Father has a house. has built a Mansion in Heaven for everyone who believes in Him. Why not, He is a carpenter.
But Jesus has taken time to prepare Heaven for you. He wants you to feel at home there.
It is like what is happening in our lives for Heike and I. Heike says she is concerned about what will happen the United States when we go. She has fears. These are natural fears. She has never stayed in the US. She doesn’t know it very well. Of course she would have doubts. So I start to reassure her. I tell her: “Honey, we have a house.”
But we are leaving everything behind.
But honey, we have a house. As a matter of fact, we have a house, a car, 300 cows and lots of land. Don’t worry.
We called my Father last week. He said He is repairing the roof on the house. He is replacing the bathroom, and putting in new floors. He is reshaping the house so that Heike and I will feel at home.
For the Christian, Heaven is our home.
If Jesus is God’s Son and if He is the way to Heaven, then we should come to know this fact. Because the Bible says in Proverbs:
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
(Proverbs 22:6 NKJV)
What is that Way that a child should go? Jesus
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
(John 14:3-6 NKJV)
To me this is the most definite proof that when I die, I will be with Jesus in Heaven. He said: That where I am, you may be also. Where Jesus is – in Heaven, I will also be.
The entire focus of heaven is being reunited with Jesus. Heaven is heaven not because of streets of gold, or pearly gates, or even the presence of angels. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there.
But the question comes? How do I get to this place? The disciples asked it, and you may be wondering it too. Jesus answers very clearly:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
(John 14:6 NKJV)
Jesus is the way to go.
Jesus is the truth to know.
Jesus is the life to follow.
How can I know the way? The way is not a direction. The way is a person. You know the way when you know Jesus.
Parents have the responsibility to teach their children about Jesus Christ. Children have the responsibility to accept that teaching for themselves at some point before they die. It is better to make this decision sooner, rather than later.
But how can I make a decision about whether I can go to Heaven? It is like this story.
There was a father who took his son to the carnival. So the father gets in line and tells the ticketmaster that he is buying the tickets. So the son named Johnny lines up and follows his father. The father and the son Johnny take the tickets and start to go into the carnival. A young boy is behind them. But the ticketmaster can’t see the young boy. He can only hear the young boy. The ti
cketmaster asked the boy: Who are you? I’m Tommy. What are you doing here? Tommy says: I am friends with Johnny. So the ticketmaster lets the little boy in.
So it is with Jesus. Jesus has the ticket. But when we ask to become friends with Jesus, we get to go into Heaven.
When you are Jesus’s friend, you go in.
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