John 14 v 6 The Way 20.8.00 Jesus Christ said "I am the Way". It's one of His most famous sayings. But what does it mean? According to the Apostle John, Jesus said this in the context of the Last Supper. He was comforting His anxious disciples, offering them personal reassurances just before His trial and crucifixion. Yes, He was going to suffer, but only so He could atone for our sins and go on ahead through resurrection to get a place ready in glory for those who trust in Him. He was promising His followers a secure future in heaven with Him, with God as their Father forever. And Jesus is the centre of the plan. He is the way for people to approach God and get to Heaven. People are sinful, God is holy. We cannot go to Heaven as we are. Human beings are imaginative in dreaming up their own "ways" of dealing with the problem. Jesus is God's way. Here's how it works. Think of what Jesus did on the cross and think of three words: Priest, Sacrifice and Gift. 1. Priest. A priest is a kind of go-between, a peacemaker, one who stands between two people who have fallen out, one who makes a peace-offering in the offender's name. That's what Jesus did at Calvary. Stretched symbolically between Heaven and Earth He bridged the gap between us and the God we have offended. He is the one great divinely-ordained priest. That means, with all due respect to our neighbours and friends in other denominations and religions, that human priests are obsolete, redundant. I am not a priest. I cannot bring you to God. But I can and do point you to the One Who can and that's Jesus. 2. Sacrifice. If I or one of my family break a piece of equipment or smash a priceless ornament in your house we should offer to pay for a replacement. Even if it costs us and we have to sacrifice something we wanted for ourselves. Now God's way is more gracious than we could ever deserve. He doesn't ask us to make the sacrifice, He made it for us. Jesus' perfect life, so willingly given on the cross was the sacrifice which atones for or pays for our sins. Jesus made up for our wrongdoing by accepting our blame and our punishment on His own innocent head. He sacrificed His life so we could receive eternal life. Now this is a hard lesson to accept. Those people with any conscience want to do something, offer something, make some sacrifice to make up for their sins and failures. We think if we do something good we'll balance out the bad and feel better in our consciences. But our debt is too great piled high with pride, jealousy, neglect, dishonesty. No amount of religious rituals or good behaviour could cancel it out. Our sacrifices and offerings are completely ineffective. Our only hope lies in accepting and trusting in Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. Then we do good works out of joy and gratitude not guilt. 3. Gift. At many Irish weddings the hosts provide buttonhole flowers for all the guests on the day. At a New Testament Jewish wedding it was common for the host to provide whole suits of clothes for the guests. The Bible pictures salvation as God clothing beggars and outcasts, making them fit for His heavenly Kingdom. (Isaiah 61 v 10). Again this is through Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5 v 21 says "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. It's like a rather unfair swap. At the cross Jesus took on the whole filthy load of our sin, became offensive to His Father and in return offers to give us His perfect righteousness as a covering so that "in Him", clothed by Him we become acceptable and loved by God. What a gift! The Westminster Confession adopted by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland states "Those whom God effectually calls He also freely justifies. He does not pour righteousness into them but pardons their sins and looks on them and accepts them as if they are righteous - not because of anything worked in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone." (ch 11.1) So here are these confused, grieving disciples and Jesus reassures them by talking about Heaven, His Father's house where His people will live safely forever. He even tells us how to get there. It's through Him. He's the Way, the very ticket we need. He's the Priest, the go-between Who can bring us to God. He's the Sacrifice, having made once for all on the cross the offering to atone for our sins. And He's the Gift we need His righteousness clothing us, making us presentable, acceptable, clearly marking us out as honoured guests of the King. He is the Way to God, the Way to Heaven, God's Way. Have you accepted Him as your way yet? When we were kids we used to get the bus into Belfast. Sometimes an inspector would get on a call out "tickets please". If you didn't have your ticket you were kicked off the bus. At the end of the age the angels of God will be sent out to gather His people from the ends of the earth, to check who has their ticket and who hasn't and I fear many who have attended church and moved in Christian circles will be found out to have been "just along for the ride". And that will be the end of the line for them! Don't be caught out. The Way has been made clear to you. Trust in Jesus. Today.