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Sermons:
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Doing
the Works of Jesus,
John 14:1-14
by HW in HI
Jesus calls out to his people. He called out 2,000 years ago, and he has not stopped.
At first, his only followers were Jews, and Jesus himself only seemed to seek after Jews.
It was well known that the Jews were a chosen people, and God has worked to be known by
them. I see Jesus’ ministry as sort of a circle. He started off with his close
friends – the fishermen, the tax collector and so on. They were known as the twelve,
or the disciples, or the apostles. They were his first followers. Over time his circle
widened. He spoke to thousands of people. His longest recorded conversation was with a
Samaritan woman at the well. She became a follower, and so did her whole town. And
Samaritans were not Jews. They were the first gentile believers. And so the circle
widened. Following his resurrection Jesus gave the great commandment: “Go and make
disciples of all nations”. Which means everybody. Jesus came at first for the Jews,
but in the end he came for everybody.
This morning in churches throughout our country, Christians are congratulating
themselves for being followers of Jesus. In some churches there are altar calls, and
people are choosing Jesus. This is not a bad thing. But we have to stop and wonder if it
is Christian for us to draw a circle around ourselves and basically say, “We’ve
got God, and you don’t. We’re going to heaven, and you aren’t.” It
doesn’t sound much like Jesus, does it?
The Gospel for today is one of the most widely quoted, “No one comes to the Father
except through me.” Which sounds pretty good, if you’re a Christian. This is why
some people get their babies baptized. They figure that the key is baptism, and one of the
biggest problems the church has is baptizing babies we never see again. Some people will
take it a step further and say that no one gets to heaven unless they believe exactly the
right things about Jesus, some people call this dogma. [continue]
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