I used to have a shape ball as a child, which basically was a plastic sphere with the shapes of triangles, squares, rectangles, stars, etc, and the objective or purpose of this toy was to stick the dozen or so plastic shapes that came with the ball and insert them into the correct shape in the ball itself. So if you picked up the square block, you needed to find the square on the ball, and the same with a circle, you needed to find the circle on the ball and match the two together. Eventually when you were all done the ball would be completely filled with shapes and you could start over again.
But one thing about that ball was that you couldn’t cheat. You couldn’t put the triangle into the circle slot, or the square into the star slot, as the shapes were just the right size so that you couldn’t insert them into any slot that you wanted. You had to put them through the one, single slot that was meant for that specific shape.
And this is kind of like how we need to be to get to Heaven. As we will read, Jesus told His disciples that He would be leaving them to go back to be with His Father, and they they could come to be with the Father in Heaven as well, but they needed to go through Jesus to get there.
John 14:1-7 “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 ye may be also.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou 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.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.”
Jesus teaches us that He is preparing a place for us up in Heaven, mansions, no less, and that when He one day returns to receive us unto Himself that we can go back to be with Him and the Father. But to be among those who are admitted into the gates of Heaven we need to go through Jesus, and it is only through Jesus that we can get there.
There is no other way. There are no other alternatives or bypass routes through which a person can acquire eternal life. Although there will be many people who will try to get to Heaven through other means, they will all fail. It just will not work, like trying to put a square into a circle on that ball, it is just impossible.
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, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Only one way, one method, one solution to the question “How can I go to be with the Father in Heaven someday?” The answer is not multiple choice. It is not a “choose your own adventure” book where there are multiple choices and endings. The way, and only way, is through the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. Just like that toy shape ball.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 