THE WAY WHERE? PART 1

THE WAY WHERE? PART 1

John 14:6 “Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.”

It is said that “The incarnation of Jesus was the master stroke of love!” When man was driven from the Garden of Eden because of his sin, he voluntarily (because of his sin) left the realm of the spirit and began to live in the much lower realm of the flesh or the senses. His communion, intimacy and fellowship with Father God were broken. The incarnation of Jesus was God’s intrusion into the fleshly sense realm. It was God’s way of dealing with man where man was living, moving and being.

God began to reveal Himself to the Jewish Nation by this intrusion into the sense realm. Spiritual revelation was impossible because they were spiritually dead due to Adam’s transgression.

When Jesus came, He revealed something brand new to the men and women of the fleshly sense realm who surrounded Him. It was something awesome and incredible to even begin to imagine. He talked with Almighty God, the God of the Jews, with a sense of intimacy that they couldn’t even begin to fathom. Ultimately He called their Jehovah God, His Father!

For this, He paid the price of confessing God as His Father. John 10: 36 “ Do you say…you blaspheme; because I said, I am the Son of God?” Before He went to the Cross, Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 I always thought that Jesus was speaking that He was the “way” we get to Heaven; and He is. But it is so much more than that!

Read the following Scriptures, found in the Book of Acts, concerning the Title Christianity earned in its infancy stages. They weren’t known as Christians, or Pentecostals, or followers of the Messiah. They were recognized as members of a movement called “the way.”

Acts 9:2 Paul was sent to Damascus to arrest anyone who he found to be of “the way.”

Acts 18:26 Priscilla and Aquilla talked to Apollos and “expounded to him the way of God.”

Acts 19:9 Some spoke evil of “the way.”

Acts 19:23 “And about that time there arose no small stir concerning ‘the way’.”

Acts 22:2 I persecuted this ‘way’ unto the death.”

Why was this movement originally called “the way?” It was because their Master, Jesus, called Himself “the Way” and everyone knew exactly what He meant! He was declaring Himself to be the “way” where? Hebrews 10:8 begins to clear up the matter as Paul writes “^…the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.” God’s Presence had been separated from man. Not only had the Relationship between God and man been terminated, but because of man’s sin nature, God could no longer fellowship with His precious creation in the manner in which He longed for.

We are told by the Historian Josephus that the veil which separated God from man, in the temple, was four inches thick and fifteen feet square, made of the finest dyed linen, inlaid with threads of gold.

This Scripture begins to shed light on exactly what the “Way” is! It is access to the very Holy of Holies, in the Old Testament, which provided a place for the Presence of God to manifest Himself and to dwell among His people. This new “Way” that Jesus proclaimed and that Paul preached was the “Way” into the Presence of God, which had previously been inaccessible. No one could enter the Presence of God except the High priest, and He could enter only once a year, in a cloud of incense and with a bowl of blood, to make the yearly atonement for the nation of Israel.

When Jesus (The Way) said “It is Finished!” something extraordinary occurred. Mark 15:37-38 “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” The veil that separated God from His people was torn “from the top to the bottom,” indicating the Hand of God had initiated the tearing of that which had alienated us from Fellowshipping with Himself.

The Holy of Holies is now open to anyone and everyone whom the Blood of Jesus has cleansed.

What does this mean for us today? Way back in time, Adam lost the way. Jesus came to point out that He was the reinstatement of the Way! Hebrews 10: 19 “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”

God is waiting for you to enter into His Presence and commune with Him through the mercies of the Shed Blood of Jesus! Wont’ you spend some time alone with Him today? (And everyday!)

Read the conclusion to “The Way Where?” this Thursday in Part Two.