Jesus Lights the Way to Eternal Life

Celebrate Jesus completing His mission to conquer sin and death, lighting the way for believers to obtain eternal life. Our Savior revealed His plans, showed how much He cares, and shared that future believers would be blessed as we applied and shared the Gospel. 

NOTES: 

Rockwell Church     March 31, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien

"Jesus Lights the Way to Eternal Life"

1. Jesus Lights the WAY for us (John 12)

2. Jesus Prepares a PLACE for us (John 14)

3. Jesus Knows our Struggles and CARES for us (John 20)

4. Paul Summarizes the GOSPEL for Us (1 Cor. 15)

· How has Jesus worked in your life to shed light on His will and way in a dark world?

· Was there a time you struggled to believe?

· How does knowing you have an eternal place to stay with Jesus change how you spend this temporary life?

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:21

In the beginning, God created the sun, moon, and stars, the animals, trees, and seas. And he made us his own. And he gave us a garden. And there was beauty and peace and life, but that wasn't enough until we sinned and we ate and we fell. And where there was once beauty and peace and life, there was now pain and chaos and death. We went from a garden to a grave. But God promised to bring us back. Back from the grave into the garden. Days of weeks, years, generations of waiting for the promise, the promise to come back into the garden. Because Jesus is alive, so it's hopeful. Because Jesus is alive, weaken step out of the grave. And into God.

Chris T 1:58

Maybe you'll talk about it in the car on the way home, and maybe you'll think about it as you leave here. But the first question is how has Jesus worked in your life to shed light on his will and way in a dark world? Next one was there a time when you struggle to believe? And the last one is, how does knowing that you have an eternal place to stay with Jesus change how you spend this temporary life? So when we think about all that Jesus has done, I hope that I do not bring you any new information that you do not already know. I hope this church is filled with people who have studied their Bibles, who have read through the Gospels, who know so much about Jesus and the resurrection that I encourage and remind you of things that you already know. So I don't want to be a pastor who spoons feed, who spoon feeds the people who show up on Sunday mornings to, you know, give them a little bit of Bible each week because they don't feed themselves. Instead, I would like to be a pastor who is a leader of a group of people that happen to congregate in Midway that are making a difference on the Iron Range because they're spending time in God's Word. They're truly saved, they're empowered by the Holy Spirit, and they're on a mission to rescue lost people from sin and Satan, and on a mission to make disciples. That's the kind of church that I want to lead. And I think you are the people that make that possible. It is a good thing. But I just want you to think for a second about light, okay? We take light for granted because we just have so much light around us. Matter of fact, um I appreciate light. I uh my neighbor's garage is further in my backyard than I have electricity. And so I said to him, I said, if I buy you some of those low-cost LED light bulbs that automatically turn on and off, uh, would you want to put them on your garage so that I can enjoy the light from it? And he's like, okay, and he did, and I'm so glad because now I don't have to run a light cable out to my shed in the back to bring light to my backyard where it looks very dark. But I was thinking about how much I appreciate light and some things that I just remember being interesting that have to do with light. I'll share two of them. You probably have more that you could share. But one, when I was a kid growing up in Colorado, on the outside of Colorado Springs, in the Cheyenne Mountain, off to the side was this weird light in the side of the mountain. And um, you wouldn't know that NORAD was there, that the North American Aerospace Defense Command was carved into the mountain, that there's buildings that were built on springs in case bombs came so that they could direct uh the intelligence for the nation at the time, and that they actually gave tours of that back when I was a kid. They don't anymore. But the light and the tiny little lights on the side of the mountain gave it away, that there was something there. What is that? And then someone explains to you that there's literally like a small military command city dug into the mountain, and it's there to perfect to help protect the United States and Canada and to guide uh the strategic defense. Pretty crazy. And Jesus, as light, reveals to us things that we would not know otherwise. The light reveals things that we wouldn't understand. We read in scripture and um we uh learn from what Jesus has taught us the way that things happen in the spiritual realm, the way that we are to relate to our Heavenly Father and to Jesus our Savior, and to our empowering, comforting Holy Spirit, and it is a good thing. The Bible points out a lot of things, a lot of things that you would not know if it wasn't described in the Bible. Now, I don't know how many of you have ever actually with your eyes seen the Panama Canal. Anybody say, oh yeah, I can guarantee the Panama Canal is there because I saw it with my eyes. Okay, I've read about the Panama Canal, I've seen it on a map, and uh some years ago when I was on an international flight in the middle of the night in a cloudless area on this jet, there was a little thing on the back of the seat on the headrest that basically had like a map, and it showed you where you were. And I happened to be awake at the time, and I noticed that the thing, the dots were going right over the top of the Panama Canal. Unfortunately, I had a window seat, and I looked down and there were lights everywhere, and there was it was you could see really well. Um, you could like see like ships kind of lined up, and I literally saw the Panama Canal. I know that it's there. I wouldn't have even thought to look for it if it hadn't been pointed out to me by that thing on that little screen that you know I heard that it exists, but actually at the right time, I saw it because I was told by this you know digital display that there it was. And compared to uh was it the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which was darkness on both sides, you know, it just kind of popped up, and God's word does that. Jesus, as the light of the world, Jesus shows us how we can live a spiritual life, how we can know the things of God, and he points out things to us that we wouldn't notice. Otherwise, he points out sin, he points out righteousness, he points out attitudes that we're to live by, and it is a good thing, just two different things that I can think about illuminating and illuminating light. But Jesus lights the way for us. Jesus lights the way for us. He wants to have a personal relationship with us, he wants us to be on his team, to be on mission, to make a difference in the world. We think that we have so much time, you know, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years. Seems like a very long time. But as you get closer and closer to the end of those days, you start to realize that you don't have as much time left as you thought. And if you're serious about serving Jesus, you're like, I really need to make the rest of these days count. Uh, even better. If you're a young person, make all of your days count for Jesus. Put him first, look into his word, become become a Bible scholar that not only knows about the Bible but applies it to their life. So I know that there are theology and Bible scholars that way that know way more about Bible history and archaeology and all these things, way more than I do. And on the other hand, I also know that they are not believers in Christ. So they would be good for Bible trivia, but they would not be good if you're asking them for advice on how to be saved. And we have the light of the word. I wanted to share, bouncing around in three different passages, and then get Paul's commentary on the importance of the resurrection. So I wanted to read quite a bit of scripture and maybe just comment on it. But uh John 12, John 14, John 20, and 1 Corinthians 15 is where I will find these, and they'll be on the screen, or you can open your Bibles to that. So in John 12, uh the last uh Good Friday message and last Sunday, and um, been kind of talking about John 12. It's the time uh after Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead, one of the greatest miracles that should have convinced people he was truly the Messiah. And then Jesus rode into town uh on the colt of a donkey uh for Palm Sunday. People shouted Hosanna, thought he was the Messiah. And now in this part of John 12, he's he's telling the people about himself. And here he's talking about how he is the light. So he has repeatedly said he's the light of the world, even in the beginning of John. But again, Jesus told them, You're going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, for before darkness overtakes you, whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light. And it says when he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them because he was on his way to being crucified. He knew within six days he was going to be on the cross that he knew that his time was limited, and he was trying to make sure that he had time to share all the things that he needed to share in that period of time. He was using his time wisely. He wasn't afraid of them, he was being strategic. But nonetheless, the light of God, to live in the light of God, to look to the light of Christ in your life, can make all of the difference in the world. We wander around not knowing what to do or how to live without Christ. And I don't know who was the first person to tell you about Jesus or if you've heard about Jesus and what the message was. So unfortunately, there's a lot of people sharing messages out there that aren't accurate, that aren't true when it comes to the things of Jesus. So, but when you truly hear of the Christ who was God in the flesh, who set aside his powers to come to earth to teach us how to live so that he could die on the cross for our sins and pay our ticket so that we can go to heaven. Um, and not only that, but to be made right with the Father, to have an opportunity to be used to accomplish spiritually significant things, eternally significant things. What a great opportunity that is. How exciting that is. If your heart is tuned into Jesus, you can't help but get excited about wanting God to use you. And so many times people are so afraid. They're like, I just don't know what I would say, I don't know how I would do that. People, people might talk about me, people might think, you know, that I'm not and I'm not good enough, that I that I don't qualify. But yet, some people, even though they have all of that stuff in the past, even though things aren't perfect, they stand up and they step up for Jesus and they're quick in conversations as they have opportunity to say, Hey, have you ever come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Or they ask, tell me what you think about Jesus, and they start a conversation, and maybe they have an opportunity to share their faith story, and they have an opportunity to share how the other person might find Christ and be saved. And I know that people struggle with that, so that's why. Um, starting next week for April and May, we'll look at different ways that we can share the story of our salvation with other people so that we can make an eternal difference in the world. So, okay, John 12, 37, even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. So they were expecting a Messiah who was going to show up, be victorious, live forever, and Jesus keeps talking about uh dying on the cross. And so they were confused, they didn't understand, they saw, but they didn't totally grasp it at that time. And it is a spiritual thing for people to believe in Christ. I don't believe that a person just wakes up one morning and picks up a Bible on their own and then says, All right, I want to give my life to Jesus without the Holy Spirit convicting them of their sin, convicting them of their need, working in their life and doing things. The Spirit works to call the people and then they respond to what God is doing. And God uses us to share the message, to ask the question, to try to prompt people to respond to following Jesus and then helping them to grow in their faith. What does it take for you to believe in Jesus if you haven't? But then it says in John 12, 42, yet at the same time, many even among the leaders believed in him. They believed, they saw and they believed, but they didn't want to tell anybody because they were afraid of what other people would think. Because of the Pharisees, the religious leaders uh that added to God's requirements and came up with this rule book of like over 600 other things that you needed to do to be right with God, they were afraid of the Pharisees that they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. They didn't want to get kicked out, be kicked out of their church because they believed in Jesus. And sometimes we don't serve God, we don't live for God, we don't speak for God because we're afraid of what other people think, terrified of what our parents would think, terrified of what our friends would think, or what our what our boss would think, or what our coach would think, or what our neighbors would think. Don't want to be one of those religious fanatics. So next week we'll be looking at John chapter 3, where Nicodemus uh shows up a Pharisee and says, and Jesus says, You must be born again. I've literally heard people say, I'm a Christian, but I'm not one of those born-againers. And I'm like, what Bible are you reading? Because Jesus said, You must be born again. But these people, they loved human praise more than praise from God. You know, those people are only going to be around you for a short period of time. You know, some people might be around, you know, for their lifetime or your lifetime, um, but then you have the rest of all of eternity, and you should focus on getting praise from God. You should focus on glorifying God and living for God in a way that pleases him. You know, when you delight yourself in the Lord, the Bible says he'll give you the desires of your heart. So if you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, he'll promise, he promises to provide what you need. So John 12, 44, Jesus cried out, Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but the one who sent me, and the one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me, and he's saying that if you want to know the Father, I am. Well, Hebrews says that Jesus is the exact radiance of the glory of God, that Jesus is God in the flesh, it's the image of God. And so when you believe in Jesus, when you see what Jesus does, does and acts and says, you see the heart of God, and Jesus says, I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. There's no excuse for us to stay in darkness, there's no reason for us to wander in darkness not knowing how we should live our lives. I realize that some people don't understand how a Bible works, and so us mature Christians should come along and help people. So when a new person comes to Christ, don't just say, hey, I bought you a Bible, here you go. Explain to them that it's a library of 66 books under one cover, and that it's divided between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There's a there's a poetry part, there's an Old Testament law part, um, there's a part where it talks about the life of Jesus, and often the red letters mean that Jesus is speaking, and so then there's letters that talk about how we're supposed to live as Christians in the church, and then at the end, um there is a book that talks about in kind of a cryptic way, um, you know, what happens in the end, basically that Jesus wins and believers are victorious, and then uh past that is probably a concordance in some maps. But you explain that to them and then suggest maybe you want to start in the book of John or the book of Philippians, and as you read through that, maybe you want to read through it a couple times and then ask me any questions you might have, and let me help you to understand it. Um we have New Testaments out there, as I mentioned, during the prayer time, that have all sorts of notes on how to receive Christ as your Savior, how to how to pray, how to lead your kids to Christ, uh, all sorts of notes and things like that that we would love for you to take and even take and share with someone. Um I like to put them in a Ziploc bag in my car so that I have it available, so that if for some reason God brings me across someone's path and I have an opportunity to give away a Bible, I can you know take it out of the Ziploc bag and give them a perfectly fresh Bible that doesn't have anything that was, you know, slush, mud, salt, or whatever that was floating around in my car or whatever. Uh a clean, fresh Bible. And sometimes I feel like the Spirit has compelled me to give Bibles to the weirdest in the weirdest situations. I was literally at a coffee shop and there was a FedEx guy in the parking lot, and I felt overwhelmed that I needed to give that guy a New Testament. I didn't know why, but I gave it to him, and I don't know what the Lord did with it, but I was obedient at that prompting to give away that New Testament to the FedEx guy, and hopefully it made a difference in his life. But we don't need to walk in the darkness. The world is a very dark place, the world system is a dark place, the way that um the political leaders and um the university professors and all of these people have a warped mind that are leading us away, continue to lead us away from the things of God, and we can stand uh on God's word and say, I'm not going that direction. That's not what God's word says about this situation. And I'm choosing to follow Jesus. So, all right, number two. Number two, Jesus prepares a place for us. Jesus prepares a place for us. So when we are going through this life, if we're going to give our life to serving Jesus, if we're gonna make a commitment, if we're gonna make an investment, if we're gonna put Jesus first, um, what what is there for us at the end? Where do we go? There's people that believe that eternity is, you know, heaven is us sitting on a cloud playing a harp with the angels. Some people think they become angels. Neither of those things are true. So I think marketers did that, this idea of sitting who wants to sit on a cloud? How boring can that be? I want to do stuff. So I want to get out there and explore. You know, if we have opportunity to spend eternity with Jesus, I want to get out there and check out some of those planets that these scientists are saying, oh, look, this planet over here, oh, that's livable. It only takes a hundred million years to get there, but we saw with our little telescope eye that that's a very inhabitable place to live. So maybe Jesus will let us travel in that direction and take a look at the rest of the universe. Who knows? But the thing is, is that Jesus promises that we, as followers of Christ, as adopted children of God, will be with him for eternity. So John 14, Jesus says, Don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me in my father's house. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, I would have told you. Would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. So in the old King James Version, it said many mansions. And I know a lot of people are like, oh, I can't wait to get my mansion. I got a mansion over the hilltop. Uh would you want to be in a lonely mansion by yourself? It's like, yeah, I got my mansion in heaven, you know, I'm back in the development way back here. Or would you rather have a space in Jesus' presence? Would you rather many rooms or many dwelling places sounds to me better than mansions? So I want to be where Jesus is. I want to be able to uh you know experience that heaven, um long-term heaven, is the dwelling of God is with men. A place with no more sin, no more dying, no more sadness. Sounds like a great place to be, and that's what's promised for those who know Jesus in the Bible. So Jesus is throwing all this out to his disciples. And he's got one disciple, Thomas, who's really analytical. And he's he's people call him doubting Thomas, but I don't really necessarily think maybe he was doubting as he was just looking for facts. So he he wanted to, you know, he wanted to know the facts. And I actually think that it's good that he asks these questions and he's part of the story because it helps bring credibility to this gospel account that John brings. So, all right, Jesus says, You know the way to the place where I'm going. And I think all of the disciples were kind of sitting there when they sort of look down at the ground, you know, like, don't ask me any questions because I don't know anything. Do you ever do that? You ever been in a class or whatever, and the instructor or the professor or the teacher is, you know, asking questions around the room and you're not like looking up because you don't want to get called on because you don't really know if you have the right answer? And you don't want to feel dumb, Thomas says to Jesus, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? So he literally just calls it out. He's like, We don't have a clue of what you're talking about. And so now that we have like the whole New Testament and we can look back and see how the how it all played out with Jesus on the cross and rising again and the New Testament church, and it all makes so much sense to us. But at that time, Jesus is saying this stuff, and their the disciples' minds are kind of kind of veiled anyway, so they don't give out the big secret as to what Jesus is going to do until he actually comes back from the dead. But Thomas literally says, We don't know. And I'm sure the rest of the disciples are probably nodding their heads, they're like, Yeah, that's true. That's true. And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. This is a verse that divides Christianity from every other religion. So this is the one that gets us in trouble. This is the one where we say, you know, um, you know, Buddha, Muhammad, Muslims, uh doing good works, uh, doing all those things doesn't get you to heaven. Jesus is the only way. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him, which means we must do what he requires. And he says, if you really know me, you will know my Father as well. And from now on you do know him and have seen him, because again, Jesus is an exact representation of God's being. And Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teachings. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Do you look into God's word and say, What did this mean to the original hearers? What does this mean to me today? How am I supposed to respond to this? Is there is there an action I'm supposed to take? Is there a sin that I'm supposed to, you know, turn from? Is there a promise that I can claim? What as I read this, what what is it that you want me to do with this Jesus? I want to obey your word and your will. Show me what to do. So, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and he promises to prepare a place for us. And number three, Jesus knows our struggles and cares for us. I don't know all of the things you struggle with, or all the pain and difficulty, or excitement, or whatever is going on in your life. I don't know. And I'm really glad that I'm not a Roman Catholic priest that sits in a box and hears people's confession, because I don't think I'd want to know what everybody is actually doing and hearing that. So confess your sins to the Lord in prayer. And if you have a besetting sin that you struggle with, maybe talk to a pastor or a counselor. We actually have a counselor lady here on Mondays and Tuesdays that you can make an appointment with. But nonetheless, Jesus knows what's going on, okay? So Thomas, Thomas, uh, it's called doubting Thomas. This is the passage why. I don't really know if he was uh necessarily uh, you know, doubting per se. He just wanted to stand on the facts. So here it says in John 20, verse 24. So this is after Jesus has been resurrected, and this is after uh the disciples have already seen Jesus and the women have already gone to the tomb, and everybody knows that Jesus rose from the dead pretty much except Thomas. I don't know where Thomas was. So I don't know if Thomas is like, oh, Jesus just died on the cross. This is just too much for me to take. I just have to go, I have to go somewhere. Or maybe they send him on errands. Maybe they're like, hey, you know, we're all hiding up in the upper room and we don't have enough groceries. And Thomas is like, hey, I'll go get the groceries. I don't know, but he totally missed it when Jesus showed up. So 20, 24, Thomas, also known as Didymus, one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus showed up that time. So the other disciples told him, We've seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. So he set up this requirement. I don't necessarily think that that was probably a wise thing to do. Um you would think you'd be able to trust the other disciples that you'd been hanging out with for all those years. Um, but nonetheless, this is what he said. And I actually think it's actually great for the gospel to count because it gives even more credibility to what's going on and how Jesus treats us. So a week later, maybe it was eight days later, his disciples were in the house again. And Thomas was with them this time. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. So in his glorified body, Jesus just walks through the wall and shows up. And he knows that Thomas is there. He knows that Thomas has this issue. And what does he do? He doesn't go, Thomas, what is wrong with you? Why how could you not believe these guys? These are trustworthy guys. I'm going to entrust them with the gospel and you don't even trust them? But instead, Jesus is like, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. Put your finger here. See my hands? Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. And then Thomas did believe, said, My Lord and my God, and cried out to him. And it was a good thing. So he did struggle. He did struggle with his faith. He did struggle with believing. And sometimes you and I struggle with believing. And there are so many, I could, I could talk about different um, you know, things that prove the right resurrection. Um, but we have this Right Now Media video service that has like 20,000 videos that you can watch on your computer or on uh Roku or your Fire TV or your computer. And so if you go to RightNow Media, so you go to rockwell.church forward slash right now and get yourself an account. If you go to Quick Shots, Fast Answers to Hard Questions by Jay Warner Wallace, that will answer a lot of your questions. Otherwise, one minute apologetics, I think that's by um Sean McDowell, or responding to atheist answers to common objections, that's good. Otherwise, you could just search. Search resurrection or apologetics or skeptic or doubts, and you'll get some good things. There's also a website called gotquestions.org that has a lot of questions and answers. So, all right, so then Jesus says to Thomas, Jesus told them, Because you've seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe. If I asked every one of you, would raise your hands that you have not literally seen Jesus with these eyes, but you probably would be able to share how you know Jesus is real because you've experienced him in your life as he has saved you and guided you and answered prayer and been involved in your life. So blessed are we who have not seen Jesus and yet we believe. So that is awesome. So I just wanted to summarize real quick uh Paul's summary of the gospel for us. So this is what we are to teach, this is what we are to believe, this is what is important, and I'll primarily just read it and then show you uh a video clip, and then um the worship team will come up. But Paul says, Let me remind you now, let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the good news I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you stand firm in it. It is the good news that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you, unless, of course, you believe something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the scripture said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the scripture said. He was seen by Peter, and then by the twelve. After that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time. Most of at the he says, most of whom are still alive, although not alive now, though some have died. Um he was seen by James, that's his half-brother James, who wasn't a believer at first, and later by all the apostles, last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him, Paul says. And then he jumped, we'll jump down to verse 17. It says, if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection of the dead has begun through another man. And just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. If you have not received that eternal life, maybe today is the day. Maybe you'd cry out something like, Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that I am a sinner in need of salvation, and I want to accept your offer to be saved from my sins and to be able to have eternal life in this world to be guided and directed and provided and used by you to make a difference for all eternity. Lord Jesus, I come to you in Jesus' name. Let us know if you've done that. Maybe you need to recommit your life to Christ today. But we are going to again go through a series on Tell Someone and next week how to be secure in Christ. So, Jerry, you want to grab the lights and we will watch this.