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John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
A well known scripture! Here Jesus says that He is the only way.
Acts 9:1-2
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest
2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
Church was called the Way in 1st Century. Jesus said He is the way, now who?s going to show the way, the Church. Here mega persecution is happening to the Way. Disciples are threatened with swords, knives etc. We can see the letter ?W? in Way is capital in the Bible.
Acts 22:4
I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison,
Paul is giving testimony. Even till Acts 22 the word "Way" is still used.
Acts 19:9
But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
Here we see that some of them were talking negative things about the Way. Let us make sure we don?t involve in talking about negative things. God is always in control.
Acts 24:14
However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,
They used to worship the same God their fathers, forefathers used to worship. The Way is called a cult in those days. May be most of them followed are poor, low caste people and so on, it was called a sect or cult. We need to make sure to be a follower of the Way. We need to make sure we are faithful.
Acts 19:23
About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.
Somebody was getting bad attitudes, probably losing his business. In Ephesus many things happen like this. Here we see the Way is creating lot of disturbance. Is our city, neighborhood getting disturb because we are in the Way. Everybody were so curious those days, they were talking, ?are these trouble makers?, ?the controversial people?, ?Are you from the Way?, ?that group? and so on. That was the hottest topic that everybody discussed. Is that the same with us, our family group, and our church? Willing to do anything, go anywhere and give up everything.
One of the prophetic books in the Old Testament talks about the Way a lot. Lot of prophesies were done about the Way. We can see the book of Isaiah was used much in those days because it talks a lot about the Way. Ethiopian Eunuch read that book. Dead Sea scrolls talks about that, full of prophecies. When we read the book of Isaiah we get excited new heaven, new earth?.. The book of Isaiah talks more about Christ, the coming of the Kingdom and the Way.
Isaiah 5:8
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.
Hard line conviction! We see in the book this way is a highway. Way of Holiness. For the wicked it is not the Way, not the highway. For Godly it is a highway. The wicked made it small for them. For the wicked it is tough to enter it. God wanted everybody to enter.
Isaiah 40:3
A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
It talks about John the Baptist preparing the way, preparing the Church. Do you think it?s different to be in the church? Only when we sin we feel like persecuting, beating.. When we are righteous, when we love studying the Bible, praying, love our husband or wife, love quiet times it?s awesome to be in the church. It is a highway for the righteous but narrow way for the wicked.
Isaiah 62:10-12
10 Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations.
11 The LORD has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: "Say to the Daughter of Zion, `See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.' "
12 They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.
The scriptures are talking about the church. Build up, prepare, Lord is coming, get ready. It?s like war cries, get ready, build the church. What about our Church dead or excited. Everybody wants to enter it. We got to be excited about that.
Proverbs 15:19
The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.
Proverbs 16:17
The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life.
What we need to do to be in that highway. We got to be upright, avoid evil not be lazy, sluggard. When we guard our way we guard our life.
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