Sunday Worship Service November 3rd, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Jeremiah 17:7
Hymn JBC #339 The church’s one foundation
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 523 Jesus loves me!
Offering
Bible Puppet Show
Special Praise
Scripture 14:1～14
Prayer
Sermon “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 338 To worship, work, and witness
Doxology JBC #674
Benediction
Postlude

I think people need something believe in and live by. But what does it mean to believe in and live by something?
　When a person lives by something, it means that the object of that belief is very important to them and is central to the guidelines and values that guide their life.
　In other words it is an object toward which people live. What is the object that you live by?
　Maybe it's some ideology, some belief, some other person that you respect, or maybe you think, “Honestly, for me it's money”. Money is a necessity for everyone, indeed.
　Or perhaps you believe that the only thing you can believe in is yourself. Or, maybe you think “What do I believe in and live by? Nothing in particular. Simply being alive is all there is to life.”
For me, the object that I live according to is God. For me, as a Christian, God is One who has revealed Himself to man through the person of Jesus Christ.

　But that does not mean that I always understand Christ my God and always live according to His ways.
Despite being a Christian and now a pastor and leader of a church, I am still a weak and flawed human being and am not always able to obey God.
　In many cases, I am not sure what is really God's will or what He wants me to do.
　Nevertheless, God to me is One who has revealed Himself to man through Jesus Christ, and I at least aim to live according to His ways.
Jesus Christ was crucified and killed on the cross about 2,000 years ago. Today, we usually cannot visibly see Christ nor can we audibly hear Him.
However, we can still learn about what Jesus Christ did and said through the Bible.
　There are many different so-called“gods” in the world, but Christians believe that the One who revealed Himself through Jesus Christ is the one true God.

　The phrase “revealed Himself through Jesus Christ” means that God Himself came into the world in the person of Jesus, a human being, and lived a human life exactly the same way as everyone else.
　The Bible teaches us that very clearly. Even in the Bible passage we just read (the Gospel of John), Jesus spoke on the premise that He is equal to God.
At the beginning of today's passage, Jesus says the following.
　　You believe in God; believe also in me.
　　After saying, “Believe in God,” Jesus followed up by saying, “Believe also in Me.” Jesus was saying, “Believe in Me as you believe in God,”so in other words, He was declaring Himself to be equal to God.

　Then, Philip, one of Jesus' disciples, says the following.
　“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”(Verse 8)
“Show us the Father” means “show us God the Father.”

I think we can all understand what Philip is trying to say. People often say, “If I see with my eyes, if you show me some evidence, I will believe in God.”
We usually think that if we can see with our own eyes, and if the evidence is convincing enough, then we will believe.
Jesus responded to Philip as follows.

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father　(verse 9)
And Jesus continues in verse 10.
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

Jesus is saying that He is in God the Father, and God the Father is also in Him.
　This may be difficult or even impossible to understand or believe when you hear it for the first time.
What Jesus is trying to say with the statement is that“God the Father and Jesus are one and the same and that Jesus IS God.
And the Bible tells us that the God who revealed Himself through Jesus Christ is the one true God.
I know this is one of the reasons Christianity is not popular. There may be some Christians out there who say “Christianity is narrow-minded because it claims there is only one God.”

However, as a pastor entrusted with the Word of God, I cannot dilute or compromise that point (that there is only one God, Jesus Christ).
In verse 6 of today's passage, Jesus says the following words, which are coincidentally also the title of today's sermon.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus never said, “I am a way, a truth, and a life (implying that there is another way to God, another truth, and another life besides Jesus).”
As long as you are going in the right general direction, no matter which road you take or which mode of transportation you use, if the destination and direction are correct, you will arrive at your destination.
If you are on the wrong road, you will not arrive at the destination you want. But Jesus asserted that He is the very road to God the Father (there is no other road).
If a mere human being had made such a claim, there would not be such more self-righteous and extraordinary.

So, we, as we hear Jesus’s claim, are presented with the choice of rejecting outright or believing Jesus' assertion that “He is the only way to God the Father, and He is equal to God.”
What kind of God would go to such lengths to self-righteously assert His uniqueness and urge us to follow Him?
In short, God is love. The Bible says exactly that. In 1 John 4:16, it says, “God is love.” I would love to read the verses before and after together if we had time, but I encourage everyone to pick up a Bible and read it for themselves.
“God is love” means ”You are important to God.” God loves you and you are important to Him.

In the beginning, I said, “For me, the object that I live according to is God (Jesus Christ).
Upon hearing that, you may think that God is like a master or manager who simply bosses around human beings.
No, it is not so. God, through Jesus Christ, through His actions and words, is the One who speaks to us the words, “You are precious and loved.”
And when we know that we are loved by and are precious to God, we begin to desire to follow Him.
And when we know that God loves us, we are able to love (care for) ourselves and others. At the very least, one will desire to love others. (I’d be worried if you don’t)
I would like to urge you all to be open to the possibility that there is such a God, Jesus Christ, who loves us and urges us to love ourselves and others as well.

Lastly, I would like to read a message that one of our members from this church who passed away six years ago, realizing that she was going to die, wrote to the church members shortly before her passing.
Sometimes I still look back at this little note, a sure sign that this believer truly believed in the loving God, lived in His peace, and ended her earthly walk in peace.
“I am grateful for the joy and peace that fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ has brought to my life. I have lived a very happy life. I now go to our Lord Jesus in the embrace of the Holy Spirit (*the Spirit of God). Please pray for me as I pray for everyone's happiness. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.”

There is another message by the same person that I will read as well.
“Dear Pastor, thank you very much for all you've done for me during my lifetime. Please pray that I don't let go of Jesus' hand.”
May all of us here today meet the Lord Jesus Christ. May the love and peace of the one true God fill each and other single one of us here today.