John 14:6 Why I Believe in Jesus

I am the way to God: I did not come
To light a path, to blaze a trail, that you
May simply follow in my tracks, pursue
My shadow like a prize that's cheaply won.
My life reveals the life of God, the sum
Of all he is and does. So how can you,
The sons of night, look on me and construe
My way as just the road for you to run?
My path takes in Gethsemane, the Cross,
And stark rejection draped in agony.
My way to God embraces utmost loss:
Your way to God is not my way, but me.
Each other path is dismal swamp, or fraud.
I stand alone: I am the way to God.

I am the truth of God: I do not claim
I merely speak the truth, as though I were
A prophet (but no more), a channel, stirred
By Spirit power, of purely human frame.
Nor do I say that when I take his name
Upon my lips, my teaching cannot err
(Though that is true). A mere interpreter
I'm not, some prophet-voice of special fame.
In timeless reaches of eternity
The Triune God decided that the Word,
The self-expression of the Deity,
Would put on flesh and blood–and thus be heard.
The claim to speak the truth good men applaud.
I claim much more: I am the truth of God.

I am the resurrection life. It's not
As though I merely bear life-giving drink,
A magic elixir which (men might think)
Is cheap because though lavish it's not bought.
The price of life was fully paid: I fought
With death and black despair; for I'm the drink
Of life. The resurrection morn's the link
Between my death and endless life long sought.
I am the firstborn from the dead; and by
My triumph, I deal death to lusts and hates.
My life I now extend to men, and ply
Them with the draught that ever satiates.
Religion's page with empty boasts is rife:
But I'm the resurrection and the life

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

During His Ministry, Jesus made many claims about Himself. He said, for example, that He was equal with God the Father, eternal, and the only way to heaven.

Dr. William Lyon Phelps wrote, "It may be said that the historical evidence for the resurrection is stronger than for any other miracle anywhere narrated."

John Singleton Copley, recognized as one of the greatest legal minds in Bristish history, comments, "I know pretty well what evidence is, and I tell you, such evidence as that for the resurrection has never broken down yet."

I believe in Jesus for PHILOSOPHICAL REASONS

Now are Christians fools for believing in Jesus? Are we mere sentimentalists or do we have reasonable reasons for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? Now may I tell you that everybody is a believer. People just believe different things. Some for example believe in atheism. They are believers; they just believe there is no God. Now if you do not if you don't believe in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, then you must believe in the beginning the heavens and the earth made themselves and then they created man. Now if you won't to believe that as far as I'm concerned you've got rooms to rent upstairs unfurnished but you can believe that if you want. May I tell you this don't get the idea that atheism is the sign of intelligence. It is not a sign of intelligence. Socrates believed in God. Lord Bacon believed in God. Galileo believed in God. Sir Isaac Newton believed in God. Pasteur believed in God. Albert Einstein believed in God. The space scientist Vernor Von Bron believed in God. I mean it's not a sign of intelligence that you don't believe in God. Well, you say I believe in God but I am more of a philosopher. I wouldn't say that I'm a Christian. Well, dear friend, if your a philosopher and you don't believe in the Lord Jesus do you think that philosophy has the answer to life? Schopenhauer was a great philosopher and he said that life is a curse of endless cravings and endless unhappiness. I'm glad that's not my philosophy. Huxley said as he looked around at human beings he was a great philosopher, but he said it seems that we talking of human beings, we are a cancer on the globe. That's you, that's me. Bertram Russell, oh they study him in college, but he said of philosophy, "Philosophy proved a wash out to me." I like what Dr. Robert G. Lee said about philosophy. He said it was a chunk of cloud bank buttered with the night wind. Dear friend, is that what you're going to turn to?

Philosophy at its best is logical and rational. There are some laws of reason that are quite reasonable. For instance a proposition can't be both true and false at the same time.

A temperature can't be both 42c and 16 c at the very same time at the same place.

Jesus can't be the exclusive way to God and there be many other ways to God at the same time.

He said "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me!" John 14:6.

I believe in Jesus for RATIONAL REASONS

Christianity is Cohesive Truth is Cohesive: Truth fits together with all other truth. All truth is God's truth. Truth is Constant:Truth is unchanging. Our understanding of a subject may change as our understanding of that thing grows, but the truthfulness of it of itself does not change. The Hebrew word for truth is 'ehmet' and refers to the faithfulness of God, the unchanging nature of God, and therefore the unchanging nature of truth. Aren't you glad that the truth about gravity doesn't change from day to day? It doesn't change because God is faithful and unchanging.

Jesus as the light of the world doesn't change. He was the Saviour and redeemer then and He is still the Saviour and redeemer now. He is still the authoritative course of truth.

Christianity is Comprehensive

Truth is Comprehensive: Truth is not relative to where or when you live. Truth is something that is universal everywhere. The world is round everywhere in the world. Jesus is the true God and saviour who gives true perspective to everyone anywhere in the world.

Christianity is Corresponding to reality

There are strong experiential reasons, phenomenological reasons for believing in Jesus.

We can know the truth of Who Jesus is and what He has done for us, and because He is a Person, we can know this not only as propositional truths, but also in a Personal life affecting way as we are in a relationship with Him.

Christianity is Cogent Truth is Coherent: Truth is understandable and knowable. We may not know much truth but we can know truth.

A Designed universe

Looks structured to point beyond itself.
Unpredictable to show human limitation?
Discontinuous to show divine intervention?
Planned to show a mind behind it?
Finite to point the the infinite beyond it?
Non-local to point to the omnipresent God?

Experiential reasons

Rational reasons

Phenomenological reasons

Einstein "firm belief . . . in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience."

Polkinghorne "The physical universe seems shot through with signs of mind. That is indeed so, says the theist, for it is God's Mind that lies behind its rational beauty."

Einstein's belief in a theory of everything that matters.

Various Terms for Scientism

Scientism Materialism Naturalism Evolutionism

Einstein's belief in a theory of everything that matters.

I believe in Jesus for HISTORICAL REASONS

Jesus is a fact of history. John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Resurrection
Archaeology
Miracles
Prophesy

I believe in Jesus for SCRIPTURAL REASONS

John 6:44-45 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me—

The Bible is the Word of God. How do we know the Bible is true?

Fulfilled prophecy

The unity of the Bible

The longevity of the Bible

The accuracy of the Bible

The power of the Bible (John 6:63) The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn't help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Jesus is the central theme of the Bible: His miraculous birth and life. His sacrificial death Acts 10:43 All the prophets testify about Him that through His name everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins."

I believe in Jesus for SPIRITUAL REASONS

John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me— John 6:63 The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn't help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

If you sincerely seek the truth, God the Holy Spirit will speak to you and confirm that Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is the Ultimate Reality

Jesus is the Ultimate Priority

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

During His Ministry, Jesus made many claims about Himself. He said, for example, that He was equal with God the Father, eternal, and the only way to heaven.

Dr. William Lyon Phelps wrote, "It may be said that the historical evidence for the resurrection is stronger than for any other miracle anywhere narrated."

First, He is the only One who can pardon man from his sin.

Second, He alone can give purpose for life.
Third, He alone can give peace to a troubled heart.

Fourth, and finally, only Jesus can give us power to live an abundant life.

Jesus Uniquely Pardons Sin

The Bible tells us that God is holy and man is sinful. Sin creates a great gulf between the two, which man cannot bridge no matter how good he is. The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, NASB), and "the wages of sin is death [Eternal Separation from God]" (Romans 6:23, NASB).

Jesus Uniquely Gives Purpose to Life

\In T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" we find the same struggle,

This is the way the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

There is something within the nature of man that rejects this type of existence and end. There has to be more to our life than what many experience.

H.G. Wells, famous historian and philosopher, said, at the age of 61, "I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether."

Pascal, the French physicist and philosopher, wrote:

There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.

Perhaps, in the quiet of your own heart you are saying, "Yes, there is a vacuum; I am not satisfied with my life."

Jesus Uniquely Gives Peace

What kind of peace does He give those who trust in Him? It is a quiet confidence that, since our sovereign, loving, all-powerful God is in control, we have nothing to fear. Jesus gives us peace with God through the forgiveness of sin. He provides peace of mind through an unhindered relationship with Him. He shows us how to have peace with man by teaching us how to love others. When He is in control, no situation, heartache or sorrow can ever disturb that peace.

Jesus Uniquely Gives Power for Living

Pardon, purpose, and peace are not all that He can give.

Jesus of Nazareth is the only one who can give you power to live a new life. He is the Life.

Frequently men and women say, "I would like to become a Christian, but if I do, I am sure that I will never be able to live the life. You don't know the mistakes that I have made, the resentments that I have, my tendencies to sin, my immorality, heavy drinking, drug addiciton, cruel tongue and many, many other problems. I do not believe that I could live the Christian life."

But, as they have received Christ into their lives, these same people have discovered that the Christian life is a supernatural one and that Jesus literally changes them -- their attitudes, their actions, and their desires. When we trust in Him, Jesus Christ literally comes to live within us and lives His life in and through us. Therefore, it is no longer what we do through our own self-effort, but what He does supernaturally, because He is the one who provides the power, and we are merely the instruments through which He releases that power.

The Secret is Surrender

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