Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Welcome back leaders. This is week two of our On the Table series and today we're unpacking the sermon that you just heard hopefully which is is there only one way to God.
This is one of those questions where it's not just theoretical, it's not just a theological question. This is a very relational question, a question that you've probably pondered not only yourself but one that you've walked through with family, friends, relative loved ones. The question of the exclusivity of the claims of Jesus. What does that mean?
How does that work out? So we're going to unpack the leader discussion today as you're preparing to lead your groups through it and I'm not going to buy myself. I've got the second most handsome guy on staff. Interesting to know who number one is.
I'll let the users decide. But it's not either of us sat in your office or I know actually we're standing in your office and we're standing desk because we're both what are we about? Six, six. Generous?
Something like that. Not quite. But if you haven't figured out already, it's Mr. Dallas Viva.
Hello everybody. Happy New Year. I haven't seen you guys since last year. Dallas is still laughing.
Here's resolutions kicking on. Going strong. I didn't really make resolutions the best way not to break one. That's what I would say.
It's also the best way to not achieve goals. I say that jokingly because I asked Dallas just the other week about, let's talk about goals and what you've got listed out for the next year and this guy can do not like create a basically an adult version of a secret chart. He is margin at some incredible stuff personally and also in the ministry that you're still rooting and you're doing such an amazing job. So glad to have you here as we walk through these questions now.
All right. Should be straight from the lean in and remember the idea of the lean in. We call it lean in because we want your group to actually lean in. It's going to be a question they want to engage, get them open and talking the more that we talk at the beginning, the more that we're going to talk and engage conversation all the way through.
So here's the question. What's one thing that you were somewhat of a snob about? Be it a favorite brand or experience? What is it about those things that you held so highly and what would it take to change your mind about these things?
So what do you think, Dallas? How would you kick around that question? What's behind that question? How about you and answer yourself?
Yeah. I'd go for a person I like to get something that might be a little controversial to like get everybody out there. So like Apple. I'm I'm not hard Apple because I love how everything connects.
I've been on the other side in the darkness of non-Apple and I don't need a zoomed in picture of the moon. So what you're going to do is you're going to get the Android people. Wait, what? I would like to introduce people and bring them into the conversation like that.
Right. Yeah. Think about some of the things that could be more of a light-hearted conversation. But what do you think?
What are we trying to get to? What's behind this question? What are we leaning people through? But we all have our own.
It's just naturally like the way we think. We have things going on. We have our preferences and you may not even realize that you have some of these preferences in your life with the things that you like going to vacation with people, going to faith adventure and you see some of these really come to life that we have our own personal preferences as humans. Yeah.
All right. Then we get to the next section and we're reading that familiar passage in John chapter 14, 1 through 7 where, you know, this is a great passage to point to when people say, man, how could you say that? How could you possibly say that there's really only one way to God and really a great answer is, well, I don't say that. I believe it.
But if you look at the direct claims of Jesus himself, not only here in John chapter 14, but you know, where a lot of sort of world religious teachers and thinkers, they say, don't look at me. Look to God. I mean, Jesus himself said, look to me, if you've seen me, then you've seen the Father. I mean, the miracles that he outworks of healing the paralyzed man, you know, what's easier for me to do to say rise up and walk or to say that your sins are forgiven.
And then of course, here in John chapter 14, he says it quite plainly that he is the way, the truth in the life that anyone comes to him would be safe, right? And so we want to interact with this passage, having the understanding of it's not our, it's our belief. It's our belief, what our belief is founded in the words in the words of Jesus. So just as you look at John chapter 14, what kind of stands out to you as you've interacted with the passage yourself?
I love John 14. And I love it because it really kicks off the final address Jesus has to his disciples. I love he's like, hey, don't let your heart be troubled. It's he's saying that at the very beginning and all the things that he's going to say over the next three chapters leading into his, him being arrested, his crucifixion.
But as I read verse two, you know, our main point is Jesus is radically exclusive and radically inclusive. And in the context, verse two, in my father's house, there are many rooms. That would be inclusive. It's, it's not a problem of there's no room in the end.
So you have to go out kind of how Jesus was born. That's not the problem there. And then you go down to verse six, I am the way, the truth in the life. No one comes to the father except through me.
That's where we can see it's super, super exclusive there as well. So I love that the contrast just in that passage of scripture as we're dealing with this as followers of Jesus. That's right. And people wrestle through that, you're that clean, right?
You wrestle through that clean from a lot of different, different stand points. I think sometimes it's the standpoint of like, just the, the rest of the authority that we often have in our life, like to say that there is someone above me that is giving me access to something that I can't get in and of myself. That's a vessel in our current culture, right? Because you think that it's going to be my, my grit, my ingenuity, my intelligence, my inclusion, whatever it is, my goodness, it's going to give me access.
It's going to give me one of these rooms that you're talking about. And so the claims of Jesus, you're right. As Eric mentioned in the message there, they're beautifully inclusive and exclusive at the same time. And how do we enter into them by saying, yes, and by acknowledging that we beat the authority of Jesus over over our lives.
It's really good. There's so many things in our culture like that, that we don't experience, we don't experience that in our culture, which makes this such a profound statement. Everything is either inclusive or exclusive, rarely do you find something that is both. That's right.
Yeah. And we're going to get into that a little bit here, even in the, in the lookout section. So you're going to lead your group through this conversation to look down. You're going to talk about man, how are his claims that he's the way, the truth in the life.
Like, what does that mean? How is that life getting to us? And then we want to begin to look out in the, in the world and see where we wrestle with these things and culture. And so the questions here are, you know, where are the places that you seem people disagree about who Jesus is?
What kind of arguments do they bring? What are, what are behind those things? We've talked about that a little bit, Dallas, but how would you leave through that? How would you respond to these questions?
Yeah. I, I'm reminded of a John 18 pilot is saying, Hey, what do I do with this? What have you done wrong? Like who do you say, who are you?
And he ends with this, this question, what is truth? Hey, what is truth? And I love that because truth, truth is a person. Jesus is truth.
It's, it's the most church answer. If you grew up in church and you never knew the answer to the question, you could always say Jesus. And this is one of those spots. Truth is a person.
Truth is Jesus. So for me, as I look at this, it's actually a weight off my shoulders, knowing that Jesus is the ultimate authority now and forevermore. It ties into his holiness. Everything he says, everything he does is good, is right.
Jesus is supreme authority at the end of the day. You know, you have a boss who's asking you to do something great. We submit to our authority, but if that contradicts the truth of scripture, if that contradicts Jesus is teaching at the end of the day, we will stand before the throne of Jesus. And that's who we bow to.
Right. That's good. That's good. That's good man.
And then the next question kind of teases out more of the first question we give you one of the kind of the arguments against the belief that Jesus is the only way. You've heard this, Eric talked about this, he addressed it in the message. You know, statements that say, you know, there are multiple ways to heaven. So, you know, all religions contain element of truth.
They're all basically the same. All religions teach the same thing. And so people will say, you know, there's a, there's a relativism of, you know, what's true for you and not be true for me, vice versa. There's a, there's kind of a syncretism at play where we take and choose from different worldviews and philosophies and kind of make our, make our own way.
And this is often the something that we hear, that there's got to be multiple ways to heaven. But how does that contradict from, from what we're reading and what we're leading for here? And so, you know, we're saying it, he is the one way. And you know, there are multiple ways to heaven.
How is that contradict? I think Eric has a really good piece in his, in his message where he talks about different leaders and, and actually how offensive it is to say something like that. Hey, all religions are exactly the same because at the end of the day, we don't. Yeah, not only offensive, but could he set the area to do that, you know, everything about every single religion that you have concluded under your authority.
That's that word again. You know what? Yeah, they're all basically the same. Muslim friends, you know, Buddhist for, they wouldn't say that about their religion, understanding the doctrines of the Tennents and Christian faith.
They would know intellectual honest person would come to that conclusion that they are the same. And so yeah, not only do we have the claims of Jesus, but as Eric talked through and get a plug for that, if I had more time, podcast that Eric did, it's something that we talked about, we recorded that actually today too. The lynch can argument is the resurrection. It's the resurrection of Jesus, right?
It's not only his claims and his words, but the fact that we believe that Jesus is alive, that you can go to Israel today and he's, he's not there as tomb is too, is empty. Yes. You know, Paul says that's not the case. Then you're basically dead in your sense and there's nothing that we can do.
But because that Jesus is alive, it changes everything, right? You know, Eric's going to talk through that great C.S. Lewis quote on the cliff notes version of it basically, you know, he's either, he's either a liar, Jesus' claims about himself or untrue. He's either a lunatic.
He's absolutely out of his mind. He doesn't even know that he's trying to deceive. He's just crazy or the conclusion, if they're actually true, he's, he's Lord. And so we look not only at his words, but the, the truth of the resurrection.
I'm curious, you dials in this looking question, you know, I think the resurrection is, is, is the biggest piece that we have in this conversation. But the question says, you know, how would you describe your own confidence in navigating these conversations around the claims of Jesus? What have you found helpful questions that you received? How have you navigated that?
Yeah, I think I've been asked this question before and I was asked by someone who didn't believe and immediately I was quoting scripture and they stopped me and said, I don't believe that. Don't use the source material that I don't believe to back this up. And that stopped me in my tracks. So two things that I go from here is one, I went and I did some research.
Okay, is there outside is the only thing that talks about Jesus? And actually look at that. There are so many outside sources through tradition for years and hundreds and thousands of years, like that talk about Jesus. And also the thing that we have as followers of Jesus is we have the second greatest story of it all.
And that's the story of what Jesus has done in our lives. So it's super important for every follower of Jesus. I like to have what's my one minute version, the quick version of my story, what's my five minute version, what's my hand? I want to sit down and have coffee with you a version of my story of what the Lord has done in my life because that's real.
I can, it's tangible. I can talk about it. I can share stories about it. One can argue, no one can argue my story of what God has done in my life.
That's the confidence that I have navigating those conversations. Yeah, which is exactly why we've kind of landed with that question in this discussion is how have you personally experienced Jesus as the way, the truth in the life? Because at the end of the day, I think you're right, you're on to something very rarely is somebody went over through an intellectual debate, but it is often through the life on life, what they see in you, what you've experienced from Jesus and skin that compels people to drop to dive in, to learn more and obviously the gift of grace, the gift of faith that the Holy Spirit gives to the people as he draws draws him in. So really good.
I would say again, leaders that if I only had more time, podcast, that should really be, I think I wanted to tandem for this series and really compliments and goes in some deeper ways or can I have a conversation today about the resurrection and how can you believe it outside of the circle of logic of scripture? What other things that we could point to and look to have confidence? So we encourage you to look at that again as well. But and I've been so encouraged by this series, we're only out week two.
I know. So how many weeks to go? If we're two, there's eight. I'm doing math.
So six more weeks. Watch out. That's it. And with this podcast and man, as always, we are so just amazed and encouraged by what God is doing because of your faithfulness, because you guys are stepping in to say yes, you're engaging these conversations and you're not just having conversations, right?
You're putting them into action. You're sharing it with others or serving. Something that's doing great stuff and you're shepherding. That's it.
For shepping God's people, we do not have enough staff members to shepherding God's people and you play that role that when people come up to me on the patio, they get to tell me about each of you. Oh, hey, I got to talk to my life group leader. Hey, look how my life group has supported me. So just thank you for bearing the weight of shepherding God's people here at Mariners.
We could not do without you. That's great. Amazing. Thanks so much for watching.
I'll see you next week for our leader podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.
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