Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Compromising on Truth | New Testament | John 14

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

Can all religions coexist? Are some religions right while others are wrong? Can there be multiple ways to God? In today's episode, Jensen shares from John 14 to discuss the danger of compromising on the truth of Jesus. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: John 14

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. There's an ancient story of blind men investigating an elephant. In their investigation, they come up to the elephant and begin examining it by touch. One man approaches at the trunk and determines that an elephant is like a thick snake. Another approaches it at the ear and says, no, it's like a thin fan. While another grabs it by the leg and explains to them, the elephant is more like a very large tree trunk. Another felt him along his side and decided the elephant is like a wall.

While another still grasps it by the tail and describes it as a rope, the final blind man feels the tusk and states the elephant is hard and smooth like a spear. Which one of these men is right? All of them? None of them? Well, this parable has often been used as a metaphor for God and different. world religions. See, the elephant represents God. The blind men, the world's different religions. Each believes he is right about God. But all of them are actually experiencing different parts of God.

None of them have the whole picture. They're all right, and yet none of them all have the full picture. Together, they may begin to discover who God really is. As the logic goes, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists all reveal different parts of God. Follow any one of them and you'll see God. It just looks different in each one because each one has its own unique view or perspective of him. And it sounds nice. It sounds tolerant, harmonious. No one has to be right or wrong. We all just have our own subjective experience with God. It reminds me of those coexist bumper stickers, the hope that all religions can live peacefully and coexist with one another. And on one hand, of course we want peace and respect to be had between all people, all religions. As Christians, we

should coexist peacefully with anyone and everyone who may believe differently than us. Our first step forward should be kindness and humility. It should be loving and not divisive. And yet, as Christians, we should never compromise on the truth because Jesus never did. The call to believe that all religions can coexist theologically, that all religions can have some piece of the truth, and that all religions lead to the same place, but maybe take different paths to get there, cannot be accepted. In John 14, Jesus makes a famous claim that directly disputes this idea. While he is with his disciples in the upper room before he faces crucifixion, he offers his disciples comfort. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.

My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take take you to be with me so that you may also be where I am going. You know the way to the place where I am going. See, Jesus is letting his disciples know that he is leaving, but that as he leaves, they will not be abandoned. He came into the world so that he could rescue them through his death and resurrection, creating a way for them to live for eternity with him. He tells them that they know the way to be with him and the father. But Thomas isn't so sure. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. So how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the

truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. So how do we get to the father? How do we know God? Jesus says he is the way. He says he is the only way. That no one can get to the father except through him. And to know the father is to know Jesus because he is God become man. Jesus is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. No one else is. When we hear cultural wisdom that does not align with the gospel, it is a lie. When we hear the claims of other world religions to have the answers to life, we know that life cannot be found apart from Jesus. It's not true. When the world around us claims to have truth, but it goes against the very words of Jesus, we know it cannot be true.

Because Jesus alone is truth. Jesus alone is the way for us to know, see, experience, and be with God. He is our only hope. Everything else is false. Everything else will fail. Everything else will lead to death. Further down, Jesus continues to explain. Verse 23, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the father who sent me.

Jesus is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. To have life, we must hear the truth and believe it enough to follow in its way. Jesus tells us that anyone who loves him will obey him. It is through obedience. faithfully following in the footsteps and direction of Jesus that we will enter into the kingdom of God to live alongside the Father and the Son for all of eternity. But we are not left alone to do this.

Jesus further encourages His disciples saying, all this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace, I leave with you. My peace. Peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Jesus has left with us the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us as we expectantly wait until we can once again dwell on this earth with Jesus and the Father. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we will keep in step with the commands and teachings of Jesus. You see, Jesus claims to be the only way to get to God. He claims to be the only way to have eternal life to live with him and the Father in his good kingdom for all of eternity.

He says that the only way to the Father is through him, following him, obeying him, loving him. And he doesn't leave us to accomplish that task alone. He sent us the Holy Spirit to enable us to faithfully follow in his ways, to understand the truth, to have abundant life. No other religion, no other wisdom, no other offer can stand. next to what is being offered to us in King Jesus. He alone has the power to resurrect our broken bodies from the grave. He alone has the righteousness to give to sinners like you and me. He alone is God. Apart from him, we have no hope. Apart from him, we are left to strive and figure it out on our own, always falling short, never being good enough. But in him, he has made a way for us to be with the

Father, to seek God, to dwell with our Creator, he enables us and sustains us. Do not let your hearts be troubled. There is only one way, but that way is good. And you do not have to earn it. You do not have to discover it for yourself. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, truth has been revealed to all of creation and in it we can't find life. We just have to call Jesus Lord. We have to surrender our lives to the only one who can be trusted to cherish, protect, and sustain them. He is a good king. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and through him we can know and be in communion with the Father. Don't miss out on who Jesus is. He is everything and all that we need. He offers us hope. He offers us life. And he is the one who did the work to bring us to the Father.

preparing a way for us to live with him in his kingdom. Will we seek that way? Will we follow our good king today and every day?