The Way to Heaven

John 14:1-6 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.  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.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.  Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither you goest; and how can we know the way?  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

In this passage the Lord Jesus teaches us about heaven.  How do we get there? What is the way to heaven?  We have to ask that question because there is a way to heaven.  In our modern western world people just assume heaven.  It is assumed that we will go to heaven when we die.  People assume that they will arrive in heaven after death, this is an almost universal idea.  People who have no interest in God, no interest in Jesus Christ, no interest in His church, no time for the bible, somehow still think it's fitting and  natural that they will end up in heaven after they die.  If their destiny is questioned, they are hurt and offended. "They are looking down upon us now from heaven", that is what they say about people who had no interest in God their whole life.  "They are in a better place now."  Wake up.  Heaven is assumed because the people in the world don't seem to understand one of the facts of life: if you are going to end up somewhere, you need to be on the way to that place.  If you are not on the way to that place you are not going to end up there.  That is a fact of life.  Everybody knows that.  

Does there need to be a way to heaven?  Of course there needs to be a way.  There is a connection, a logical connection, a factual connection, an unquestionable connection, no one can deny it, between the way you are on and the destination at which you will arrive.  If you want to go to somewhere, you need to be on the road to get there.  If you are not on the way to a certain destination, you will not end up there.  There is an undeniable factual connection between the way you are on, and the destination at which you will arrive.  You don't get to a place by doing nothing.  Modern people assume they will get to heaven by sitting in their living room and doing nothing.  They assume that there is no connection between the way and the destination.  They assume heaven because modern people are illogical and irrational in this area.  The bible says they are foolish.  Jeremiah 5:4 "Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God." 

What is the way to heaven?  John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."   The way to heaven is a person.  Jesus Christ says "I am the way"   The way is a person.  How can the way be a person? Jesus is the way to heaven because sin bars sinners from heaven, but Jesus Christ the Saviour, when he saves a man or a woman, he removes the barrier to heaven, he clears the way.  How does he do that?  Because he redeems us through his death and resurrection, he pays the price and buys sinners back from sin, he takes the punishment for the sins of every person who would and will trust in him, the spotless Lamb of God that has become a substitute, who takes the place for sinners.  It is so easy to say, but as the substitute for sinners, he took your sin and mine, he became sin for us, he who knew no sin, and God's justice and the wrath of God and the eternal torments, he was able to bear in time.  He was the substitute for sinners.  Jesus is the sin-bearer.  The scapegoat for all those of faith so that the barrier to heaven has been removed that we may go in, and that is how the way to heaven is a person. Jesus said "I am the way"  he said in John 10:9  "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved...." What is a door?  a door is simply an entrance, the door is the way in.  Jesus says "I am the door"  Jesus gives entrance, he is the way to heaven.

The way to heaven is narrow.  Jesus is the only way to heaven, the way is narrow.  He is the only person, no other.  If you miss the one narrow way to heaven you are lost.  John 14:6  There is no other way.  If any one will get to heaven it must be through Jesus Christ, nobody else, no other religion, no other way, neither is their salvation in any other. Acts 4:10,12 "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead..... Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby must be saved."  Conversion is a change, by nature we are children of wrath, by nature we have all gone out of the way, there is none that doeth good, not one, but we have to be changed to the way by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  The way is narrow and few there be that find it.  

The way is sure.    John 10:27-30 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.  I and my Father are one."  The way to heaven is sure because the way to heaven was made by the unchangeable God.  The God who knows his sheep, who gives his sheep eternal life, and who Jesus says that no one is able to pluck them out of his hand.  When you walk down a footpath holding a little child by the hand beside a busy road, who is holding whose hand?  the child is holding your hand but if the child was to let go, would the father let the child go?  the real connection is that the father is holding the child's hand.  The way to heaven is sure because the sheep are in God's hand.  We are in God's hand and no one can pluck them out of God's hand.

So how do you get to heaven?  You follow the signposts, the bible.  The signpost points in a certain direction as the bible points you in a certain direction.  All the signposts, reading the bible, hearing a sermon, they all lead to heaven because they all point to the same person, Jesus Christ, God's Son.  As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the Sons of God, even to them who believe on his name.   You won't get to heaven if you are not in the way.  The first step is guilt from a human side, condemnation, confession, faith, then a narrow walk on the narrow way that leads to life.  

People assume they will get to heaven, people who have no interest in God, Jesus Christ or the bible, it is extremely foolish to assume that because that is not what the bible teaches at all.
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The above notes were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=117161024314