The Way in a Manger, Part 2 - "The Way of Life"

0:01 Hey, everybody. Andy here. Welcome to Your Move, where we help you make better decisions and live with fewer regrets. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on the generosity of our listeners. So if you have been positively impacted by this podcast, would you consider supporting Your Move with a tax-deductible donation? To give, just visit yourmove.is slash give. That's yourmove.is forward slash give. Thanks for considering. And now back to the show. One of Jesus' most controversial statements is also one of his most quoted and one of his most best known statements. In fact, if you're not a Christian or you're from a different faith tradition, you've probably heard this before and this may be problematic. In fact, this statement of Jesus may be the reason that you kind of push back or resist Christianity.

0:56 And we touched on it last time. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And you know, that's a lot, but by itself, it's a little bit vague, right? I mean, I'm the way to what? You know, I'm the way to where? And how can a person, I, he says I, how can a person be the truth and how can a person be the life? And if he had stopped there, it would be a little bit odd, but it certainly wouldn't be controversial, but he didn't stop there. He went on to claim, as you know, who he was on or who he was the way to. Now, unfortunately, and this may disturb you a little bit if you grew up in church like me, and that's okay. It's okay to be disturbed. Unfortunately, what follows after this, and many of us can quote this, what follows after this is usually interpreted as very exclusive. In fact, maybe one of the reasons you're not a Christian is what Jesus says next.

1:49 It's like, it's just too exclusive. It's too small. It's too limiting. And that's understandable. And unfortunately, the way this passage has been interpreted oftentimes, it makes it sound that way, an attempt to exclude people. But if you read the gospels or if you follow Jesus through the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, you cannot walk away from the gospels with the impression that Jesus was trying to be exclusive or limiting. In fact, it was the very opposite. That was not Jesus' intent. He was not drawing a smaller circle. I mean, that's what the first century religious leaders did. They drew a small circle, our four and no more. Actually, it was our 12, 12 tribes of Israel and no more. And not even all the 12 tribes of Israel, only the law abiding. And in some cases, only the law abiding men, the women were kind of on the edge. There was some doubt as to whether or not, you know, women would even be a part of God's future kingdom. It was very strange. And Jesus wasn't coming to draw a smaller circle. He was, he came to expand the circle. I mean, the other, the verse that we've all heard for God, so love the world. Yeah. Like the whole thing, right? So he wasn't being exclusive. What he says next is actually inclusive, which is great news for everybody. That God's covenant with Israel that we talk about from time to time, it was exclusive on purpose for a purpose. And it was perfect for the reason it was given. But Jesus' new covenant was the way for the rest of us, for the world. And so he continues, I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me or put another way.

3:23 You could say this in a positive way. And this was his point. Read the gospels. Everybody has access to the father through me. His point and what these guys heard, because this is important, they were gathered for their Passover meal. So they're celebrating this extraordinary event that happened in the history of the Jewish people. So when he said this, this is a, for us, it's like, yeah, duh, we're Christians, we get it. This was a major paradigm shift. This was so disruptive. Essentially, Jesus was saying the old way is no longer the way. The old way was you had to be born a son or perhaps a daughter of Abraham to be part of God's righteous tribe and God's righteous acceptable group. And Jesus is saying, no, that was the old way and it's over. I'm introducing something brand new. And in this new way, you're not born into it. You can't birth your way.

4:16 You can't obey your way. You can't sacrifice your way in. You can't serve your way in. You can't even pray your way to the Father. But there is a way to the Father. He said, they're looking at him. This was so difficult for them. He said, I am the way. Everyone can come to the Father. Everyone can come to the Father by means of me. I am the way in. In fact, if you have any doubts about this, if you're thinking, oh, Andy, I think you're kind of messing with this popular text, just remember this. And if you grew up in church like me, you know this. And if you didn't grow up in church, gosh, I wish you knew this. At the end of Jesus' ministry, after he rose from the dead and he gathers with his guys and the men and women in the group, you remember, this is such a famous scene, what he said to them. He said, I want you. His message was so inclusive.

5:09 He said, I want you to take what I've taught you and what you have seen to the entire world. And our English text says to all nations, which some of them were thinking, well, you mean all neighborhoods, like from Judea to Galilee, and maybe we'll skirt around the Samaritans because we know they're kind of off, you know? And Jesus is like, no, this isn't a Jewish message. This is a message for the entire world. I'm drawing a circle larger than you ever thought imaginable because I have come to reveal the will of the father for every single person in every single nation for every single generation that this was a message for sinners like me and sinners like your husband or your wife kidding for sinners like all of us right for your middle schoolers and your high school students This was a message for all people.

6:05 So when the shepherds were out in the fields watching over their flock by night and lo, the angel of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid, you know, the story, the Christmas story, the angels were correct when they said, we have good news of great joy for all people. Today in the city of David, a savior has been born to you. The doors have been thrown wide open and everybody is invited. So at Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of that way, the way, the truth, and the life. We celebrate the way in a manger. If you weren't with us last time, we're in part two of this series entitled The Way in a Manger, where we're talking about this extraordinary thing that Jesus said and this extraordinary thing that Jesus demonstrated throughout his ministry. Now, understandably, when Jesus made this statement, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father through me, the guy's in the room, because this is the very night he's arrested, so there's a lot going on.

7:01 There's a lot of emotion. Judas slips out. They don't know where he's going. I mean, a lot's about to happen. They didn't understand this the way he meant it. I mean, in fact, if you read the passage, they ask so many questions. They're so confused. And it did not become clear to them honestly until after the resurrection. In fact, the night that he said this, they're thinking by the end of that night, they're thinking, yeah, you're the way, all right. You're the way to a short-lived life. You're the way to an early execution. You're a way to get arrested. I mean, everything about your way is bad because that's why they ran off when he was arrested. But after the resurrection, this becomes clear to them. In fact, it was so clear, some of you know this, the early Christian movement was called the way. This was so central. They named their movement after this idea that Jesus is the way, so they just called their movement. We just called it, they didn't call it the church, they called it the way.

7:54 Jesus was in fact, they discovered who he claimed to be, the way to the father. but more than that, as we talked about last time, Jesus' actions and his reactions to everyone he met reflected not just the way to the Father, but the ways of the Father. And this is why he says, I'm the truth and I'm the life. I'm the truth of how the world works and what's best for you. And I am the life you must live. And I'm a reflection of the life that has been given to you. And I'm a reflection of the life you have been called to live if you're gonna be my follower. So his invitation, this is so powerful. We talk about it all the time. His invitation didn't begin or end with, believe something or believe in me. His invitation began then, and it begins with each of us with this invitation. I want you to follow me. I want you to follow me. He was more than simply a way to life. He was the way of life.

8:51 And he taught and he modeled and illustrated this different way of life, a different way of living. And your heavenly father sent his son into the world, not simply to be the way to the Father, but to show us and demonstrate the ways of the Father, the way that leads to a full life, a fulfilling life. For one occasion, Jesus called it an abundant life. But this is challenging for us because this way, this way of Jesus, it requires something of us, but it's like a good parent requiring something of their children. Sometimes we require things of our children, they resist, but we know, son, if you'll just trust me, if you'll just do this, if you'll just practice this, if you'll just do what I'm saying, in a few years, you're gonna look back and you're gonna be so glad that you did. And so the father sent the son with that same sense of urgency because simply believing, simply believing doesn't require a way of life.

9:52 If we're just gonna be believers, all that requires is a box of beliefs. and a box of beliefs hasn't ever changed anything. In fact, you know, in fact, if you're not a Christian, you get this because you're not a Christian and you know some Christians and they're like the worst people you've ever met. And they lead with their beliefs. They are so quick to tell you what they believe. Here's what we believe. Here's what Christians believe. Here's what the people in our church believe. And you say to yourself, or maybe you say to them and we deserve it. It's like, yeah, that's what you say you believe. I don't see it. I mean, I don't know. you may say, I've never read the whole Bible, but I know enough about Jesus to know you ain't him. Okay, there's not very much I see in you that reminds me of anything I've read about Jesus. That's what happens when our faith is just a box of beliefs and we lead with our beliefs rather than leading with the way that Jesus has called us to live and modeled us to live the way of life that he came to demonstrate for us.

10:51 Jesus did not leave us with the option of living with a box in the list of beliefs. Later, in fact, and this is really convicting, okay? So I'm with you. I'm sitting with you in the audience on this one, all right? Later in that same conversation where Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and life. Nobody gets to the Father except through me. In that same conversation, he smiles and he says to these guys who've been with him for three or three and a half years, he says, now guys, if you love me, to which when we read this, we think, what do you mean if we love you? Of course we love you. I mean, you died on the cross for our sins. you paved the way to God. We can live with a clear conscience. We can live with hope that we're going to see loved ones again. I mean, what do you mean? If we love you, we have peace with God. There's no if about it. I mean, Jesus, it's Christmas. This is why we celebrate your birth because we love you for which I would imagine. I don't know that Jesus is very grateful that we celebrate his birthday, but you'll notice he didn't finish it this way. If you love me, you will celebrate my birthday right do you know what he said this isn't as famous a verse but it's in the same conversation if you love me this is the good father speaking through the son you keep my commandments in other words if you trust me if you really believe I'm who I say I am then you will keep my commands because you'll know as later another author says because my commands are not burdensome because my way, as Jesus would say, I'm the good shepherd and I'm leading you in a good way. And yes, there's some bumps and yes, it's going to be difficult. And yes, there are challenges, but trust me. If you love me, you will keep my commands. Believers, you know, Christians, you just want to be believers are like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought we were done with commands. I thought this was just about, you know, loving Jesus. Can't we just celebrate your birthday and be done with it? Can we make it that simple? Again, Jesus doesn't leave us that option. In fact, again, I'm putting words in the mouth of Jesus, so don't take this too seriously, but I think Jesus would respond to that, hey, if you got to choose one or the other, I would prefer you embrace the way I live over celebrating the day I was born. Celebrating the day I was born

12:57 doesn't mean you love me. It just means you're grateful for what I've done for you, but if you love me, I want you to follow me. The way in a manger came to show us the way we were created to live. That's why he came as one of us, to live as among us, to show us the ways of the Father, the way of the Father, the way that the Father actually created us to live. It's the best way to live. And central, and here's where we're going for the next few minutes, and central to that way of life, the way of living that Jesus modeled and called us to, his commands. At the epicenter of that is the command, we talk about it all the time, that informs all the other commands, the command that informs all of our behavior, the command that's supposed to shape our actions and our reactions. And it's namely that we are called to do for others precisely what Jesus did for us. That we're called to live our lives in such a way that reflect that we do for others what God through Christ has done for us.

13:53 And what did he do for us? He reconciled us to God, the Father. And then as we're gonna see in the next 10 minutes, he looks at us who have said, and we love you, and he says, if you love me, you'll keep my commands. Okay, what are your commands? Well, let me give you the big one, because this is kind of the overarching one. I want you to respond and treat people the way that God, that I have treated you through my son, and you've seen how he's treated you. And specifically, I want you to begin by reconciling with each other, because I have reconciled with you. He's commanded us to reconcile with each other because God, through Christ, has allowed us and given us the opportunity to reconcile with him. And our tendency, I get this, this is how I was raised. Our tendency is to go, wow, thank you for allowing me to have a relationship with you. We're good to go. And Jesus is like, no, we're not done now. Now I want you to turn around and do for your brother and your sister and your enemy, what I have done for you.

14:53 And Jesus says, if you love me, you will. And if you love me, you'll trust me. And trust me, he would say, this is how you were designed and created to live. You were created to live a life of reconciling relationships. You were not created to live with anger. You were not created to live with bitterness. You were not created to live with resentment. You were not created to live with unresolved conflict with people. And though you can't control how they respond to you, you were created to open the door to relationship to them, just like my father opened the door of relationship to you. That reconciliation was the purpose of the way in the manger to begin with, to reconcile God to his rebel race. And those of us who have experienced that reconciliation, that fix, that peace with God that we long for and desire, we have been called to extend that same reconciliation to the people around us.

15:49 We're to do for others what God through Christ did for us. As God, and this is hard, okay, as God took the initiative for God so loved the world, He's like, I'm sending my son in. As God took the initiative to reconcile with us, we, as Jesus followers, are to take the initiative to reconcile with our brothers and our sisters and our friends and the broken relationships and even the people that have no desire to reconcile with us. Just as God, and this is so important, just as God removed obstacles, we are as well. The reconciled, here's kind of the bottom line if you have to leave early. The reconciled should be reconcilers. This is the way of Jesus. And if we love him, this will become our way as well. Now, to just show you what a big deal this is, perhaps, in my opinion, as I read the gospels, perhaps, in fact, I think this is Jesus' most, I would say, inconvenient application of anything he taught has to do with reconciling with other people.

16:50 I mean, the thing that I think when Jesus said what I'm about to read, when Jesus said this, I think everybody in the audience was like, Oh, we're not doing that. I mean, this is so extreme, but because it's so cultural, we read it, we read right through it, but I'm at the end of the message today. I'm gonna try to bring this back around and kind of wrap a little more modern application. But here's what he said. He said, if you go to Jerusalem, and if they didn't live in Jerusalem, and you decide to go to the altar to make a sacrifice, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and again, if you lived in Jerusalem, this took maybe a quarter of a day, depending on how long the line was. If you lived outside Jerusalem, this could take days to travel to Jerusalem, spend the night on your way, especially if you lived in Galilee and you've got an offering, you either purchase it there in Jerusalem or at the temple or you bring it with you and you're going to make a peace offering with God, you're going to sacrifice for some sin you committed. Again, you're there to clear your conscience so you and God are on good terms.

17:47 He says, if you get there and you are in line and you're, you know, there's three people ahead of you and you're doing that thing where it's like, three, two, oh, she is so slow. Like the grocery line, like, oh my goodness, I got in the wrong line. Can I come up there? You know, because there were multiple lines to make sacrifices, you know, at the altar of the temple. He says, if you're offering your gift and you remember that your brother or sister, and this could be literal or figurative, you know, a son or daughter of Abraham, you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, they're angry with you, either because of something you did or maybe something they did and the relationship is strained, it's broken. You hope you don't see each other in the marketplace.

18:28 Leave your gift there in front of the altar. But I, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is why they were like, we're not doing that. It took me days to get here. I've been in line for hours. He says, I know, I want you to take your little cage of pigeons that you were gonna sacrifice. I want you to set them in the shade. I want you to tie your lamb up. I want you to look to the people behind you and say, hey, can you take care of this? I have something to do. He says, first, before you clear your conscience with God or before you make this sacrifice to be right with God, first, of first importance, first in sequence, before you do business with God, this is what just, I mean, this was completely backwards from everything they've been taught, backwards from everything I was taught. He says, first, you go be reconciled, there's our word, to the brother or sister, the employer, the ex, that you've left things kind of hanging loose with and you know there's more to be done.

19:22 You know there's another conversation to be had. You know there's restitution to be made. You know there's an apology that's hanging out there. You first go be reconciled with them. Then you come offer your gift. And I'm telling you, when he said this, the audience is like, that's crazy. Wait, wait, wait. You want me to prioritize my relationship with my brother-in-law over making peace with God? To which when you read the teaching of Jesus, Jesus would say, well, see, You can't have peace with God until you make peace with your brother-in-law. Because you are to be a reconciler. Because you have been reconciled. The way of Jesus. The way of Jesus. It's the way of reconciliation. With God, yes. But with the people around us as well. And when possible, your enemy.

20:17 Your enemy. I mean, the same sermon that he told this story, he's like, yeah, and love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. You know why we pray for those who persecute us? Praying for those who persecutes us, you know what it does? It brings the temperature down in our heart so we can begin to see little baby steps we could take toward reconciliation. The reconcile, this is the message of Jesus. This is the way of Jesus. This is what we're called to. For those of you who aren't Christians, you might be one if we've gotten this right. The reconciled should be the reconcilers. So let me ask this question. Is this really that big a deal? Yes, here's how big a deal it is. What is the number one complaint right now about our nation? We're so, yeah, some of you said it, we're so divided. And what is the antidote for division?

21:13 It's not agreement. You don't have to agree with someone to reconcile a relationship with someone. The antidote, the solution isn't agreement, it's reconciliation. Just a thought. If the Christians in our country, because there's so many of us, there's so many people who claim to be Christians. If the Christians in our country adopted this posture, and this isn't extra credit, this is central to what it means to follow Jesus, right? If the Christians in our nation adopted this posture, we could fix that. If we decided, if we decided collectively, we're not gonna listen to and we're not gonna celebrate the dividers, things would change. See, this isn't complicated, but it's really difficult. It's not complicated and it's really hard. And some of you are listening today and I know what you're thinking and I get it.

22:08 I'll be thinking the same thing. You're like, Andy, you need to hear my story first. I understand that. And I would never stand up here and make these blanket statements if Jesus hadn't. but it's just it's not complicated it's just it's just hard because I'm a divider by nature and most of you are dividers by nature because you're sinners and sin always divides the very first sin divided human race from the human race from God the very first sin divided the first man from the first woman. Sin always divides. Selfishness divides. Selfishness says, I want what's coming to me and I want a little bit of what's coming to you too because I think it's actually coming to me. And if I don't get what's coming to me, then I can't have anything to do with you and we're divided. Fear divides, pride divides.

23:00 But if the spirit of God lives in you, if the spirit of God lives in me, sin is not the boss of me. My savior is. So, initiate. Be the first to apologize, whether they deserve it or not. You didn't deserve it. Be quick to forgive. Don't sit on it. Don't have those imaginary conversations where you come out looking good and they look awful. In my imaginary conversations, there's always a crowd and I have one great one-liner and drop the mic and walk off and everybody's like, ooh, Andy's amazing. You know, the guy's a loser, you know. It's just me. I know you never do that. You never have imaginary conversations. And what do those imaginary conversations do? They do nothing but rob you of energy. And your savior who loves you says, I don't want you to live this way. You were not created to live that way. You will rot from the inside out. How many examples do you need to see of that?

23:54 So make that call you've been putting off. Write that note you've been putting off. Refuse, come on. Refuse to return evil for evil. do what Jesus did and return good for evil. Again, I'm gonna put words in Jesus' mouth for just a second. Maybe if he were here preaching this sermon, he would end it like this. He might say, so if you're on your way

24:26 to the Christmas Eve celebration at church and suddenly you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, and it may be your fault and it may be their fault and it's probably everybody's fault, perhaps he would say to us first, first, before you come celebrate what I've done for you, and before singing to me about how much you love me, how about you prove it by keeping my commandment? Go, first go and be reconciled to them. Then go celebrate my birthday. So inconvenient. No guaranteed outcome. In some cases it's risky because you're kind of putting yourself out there.

25:20 Maybe you've tried before. but the cross was inconvenient. And when Jesus died for your sin, there was no guarantee you would respond, but he left heaven, and he came to dwell on earth as one of us. anyway. The way of Jesus is the way of reconciliation. the reconciled.

25:51 We're called and we're commanded to be the reconcilers. And if we love him, we will. If we love him, we'll try. If we love him, we'll begin removing even the smallest obstacles between us and that other person. Because our heavenly father removed all the obstacles between himself and us. And that's why we celebrate the birth of our Savior and our King. And we will pick it up right there next time as we conclude our series, The Way in a Manger. So thanks for listening. But before you go, I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who supports Your Move financially. It's the generosity of our listeners that makes this podcast possible.

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