Welcome to Pathway.

 

And welcome to the finale of our summer series called What's the Difference?

For twelve weeks we have asked one question: What's the difference between historic Biblical Christianity (evangelical Christianity, us), and what other systems and religions say.

My talk today is part 13, and with this we wrap it up.

I want to remind you today that answer to our question is not a system. Not a philosophy. Not a practice. Not a better moral code.

The answer is a Person.

And that person stands ready to save you and deliver you and unleash you for the most abundant life you were created for.

My talk today is called: Jesus is the Difference

Jesus is the difference. Who He is and what He did is so unparalleled that no religion that does not honor Him above all can even begin to compete.

Every other system gives you a teaching. Jesus gives you Himself.
Every other founder points a direction. Jesus IS the direction.
Every other sage says, "Follow this path." Jesus says, "I am the Way."

So bottom line... What's the Difference?

Actually, it's Who's the Difference... because the difference is Jesus. And specifically Jesus in his identity, Jesus in the fullest picture of an incomparable person painted in vibrant hues from cover to cover in Scripture.

Catholicism points to Jesus: but hides behind layers of sacraments and masses, priesthoods and penance and purgatory. Scripture never does that.

Eastern Orthodoxy points to Jesus: but confuses him with their teachings on theosis and tradition and holy mystery. Scripture never does that either.

Mainline Protestantism claims Jesus: but displaces him with morality and social progress and political religion. Scripture never shows Jesus moving in these ways.

Universalism respects Jesus: but demotes him because they say every road leads to heaven eventually. Not in Scripture.

New Age makes Jesus one of many gurus. Not in Scripture either.

Secularism/Atheism makes Jesus a nice example at best, or just another fake at worst. Anti-Scripture.

Cults make Jesus less than what the Bible says, and more than what anybody else says, and claim that only they know what's missing.

The world's religions deny Jesus and demand climbing, working, striving, purifying, submitting, extinguishing, improving, working, paying, sacrificing, and performing... to get whatever they say salvation is.

Every single religion says DO.
But along comes Jesus Christ to declare: DONE.

It is Finished.
Paid in Full.
Once for All.
That you might know that you have eternal life.

There's an episode in John where many followers are leaving Jesus. And Jesus asks his 12 disciples if they also want to go away.

"But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You [alone] have the words of eternal life.'" (John 6:68)

They're saying nobody else has what he has because nobody else is who he is.

He's the difference.

How about today, let's focus on Jesus for a while.

We'll start in Mark 4:
"On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side." Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"" (Mark 4:35-38)

The Demoniac
Jesus has been teaching all day. Crowds pressing in. Parables about seeds and soil and harvest. By evening, He is tired. He tells His disciples, "Let us cross over to the other side."

They get in the boat. He falls asleep in the stern, on a pillow. This is a real man. A man who gets tired. A man who works until His body demands rest. A carpenter with calloused hands, asleep on a hard plank in the back of a fishing boat, with a pillow.

He was exhausted because He gave everything He had to people who needed Him. That is not a detail. That is Hebrews 4:15 in a fishing boat:

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)

He has been there. Every place you have been — every fear, every fatigue, every betrayal, every loneliness, every grief — He has been there. Not in theory. In skin.

A storm hits. It's a violent one. Waves are breaking over the gunwales. The boat is filling.

These are experienced fishermen. They have survived storms on this lake before. And now even they are terrified.

They wake Him up. "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"
He stands. He looks at the wind. He speaks to the sea. "Peace, be still."

Three words. The wind stops. The sea flattens. Dead calm. Instantly.

Then He turns to His disciples. "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?"

They don't answer Him. They are staring at each other. Mark 4:41 says, "and they feared exceedingly." And they say to one another: "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

Here is a man. Obviously a man. Fully human. He got tired. He grabbed a pillow and took a nap. And then he got up and spoke to the storm and made it stop. And now they freak out.

But "Who can this be?"

The question that every religion on earth asks, but only biblical Christianity answers.

They arrive on the other side. A man comes running — not just running — he's screaming — running out of the tombs and out of his mind.

He had an unclean spirit. Demon possessed.

In case you don't know it, the dark side is real.

He lived among the dead. They put chains on him, but he snapped them. A wild man. He cut himself with stones. He was matted in his own filth. Howling, bruised, broken.

Everyone had given up on him. He was beyond hope.

This man was the very reason Jesus insisted they cross the lake.

And if you've ever been without hope, or loved someone without hope... Jesus crossed over for your sake too.

The man sees Jesus from a distance and comes running. Falls on his knees. The voice that comes out of this man's mouth is not his own. It is the voice of hell.

"What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me." (Mark 5:7)

Do you hear that? Even hell gets it right when everyone else gets it wrong.

That should make you stop and listen.

The disciples are still asking, "Who can this be?" Just because he calmed a storm.

Now he's going nose to nose with demons.

"Then He asked him, "What is your name?" And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion; for we are many."" (Mark 5:9)

A Roman legion was six thousand soldiers.

This poor man is literally carrying a whole army of darkness inside him. Clawing at his soul. Decimating his body. Suffocating his spirit.

And Jesus — one man, no weapon, no ritual, no incantation — Jesus commands Legion, "Come out from this man."

The demons flood out. They rush into a herd of pigs. Two thousand pigs rush down a cliff and drown. The man is free.

When the townspeople come, they find this wild man sitting. Sitting! Clothed. Washed. In his right mind. Listening to the words of Jesus.

Do you know what that looks like?

That is what salvation looks like.
That is what deliverance looks like.
That is what Jesus does to a life no one else can fix.

This is what Jesus is just waiting to do for you.

No system of philosophy produced that.
No penance. No purgatory.
No eightfold path.
No five pillars.
No karmic cycle.
No religion. No cult. No secret initiation.

It was the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

He did that.

He put himself through the fiercest of storms to rescue the one hopeless person that the whole world had written off.

The man who had even given up on himself.