My dear friends in Christ,

Can anyone tell me what this is [hold up map]? Those of us who are men probably don't recognize it, right? We'd rather keep on driving rather than use one of these, or even stop and ask for directions. What makes a map so valuable? It helps us figure out where we are, shows us our destination, and guides us along the way.

When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they lost the road map in their heads of who God was and how much he loved them. Ever since that day, people have been trying to rediscover the road map to heaven. How can we get closer to God? How can we get to heaven? Every culture in every country across the world has come up with its own map that claims to show the right path. We've been looking at urban myths this summer. Today's urban myth is a very popular one. "There are many paths to heaven." Is that true? Are there many paths, or one path? That's the question that Nicodemus came to ask Jesus. We're going to try and answer that question today.

  Let's go back to our map for a minute. I want to take a trip from Stillwater, MN, to Milwaukee, WI. What route should I follow? It depends on a few things: how fast do I want to get there, do I want to take the scenic route, how many special places do I want to see along the way? Depending on who plans the route, there are probably hundreds of ways to get to Milwaukee from Stillwater. Which one is the right one?

Which path do we take to heaven? It depends on who you ask. Ask the ancient Egyptians and they would have a whole list of gods to follow. Ask a Muslim and they'll tell us to follow Allah. Ask a Buddhist and they'll tell us to look deep within ourselves to find that spark of the divine. Ask a Hindu and they'll tell you to follow a thousand different gods. When Jesus told Nicodemus "flesh gives birth to flesh," he wanted him to see that sinful human beings don't change. We're born sinful. We're born on the wrong path, and no matter how hard we try, we can't find the right path.

That truth doesn't keep us from trying to find it by ourselves. Today, as in ancient times, we can find as many ideas about the path to heaven as there are different cultures and places in our world. All of those paths have three traits in common. Each one tells us that we have to turn our lives around. Then we need to find God and aim for him. Finally, we connect with God and gain the path to heaven by doing as much as we possibly can here on earth to make God happy.

 Every path to God has a grain of truth in it. The Jews believe the LORD is one. Muslims believe that Allah is holy. Mormons teach that people should follow the Golden Rule—"Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31). Every path has the benefit of the "natural knowledge of God." The apostle Paul refers to that in Romans 1. He says that even people who do not know the true God have a basic knowledge of right and wrong, and that there is a "higher being." He says that "when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them" (Romans 2:14-15). Every religion knows that there is a path, but which one is the right one?

Every path to God has followers who sincerely believe that they're on the right path. Does sincerity get them to the right place? Let's go back to our map for a second. If I sincerely believe that taking 35E south will get me to Milwaukee, will I get there? Once I get to San Antonio, Texas, I might realize that my sincerity has led me along the wrong path.

The same is true with the path to heaven. People can sincerely believe they're on the right path, and still end up in the wrong place. The story of Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal illustrates that. The prophets of Baal sincerely believed that Baal would hear and answer their prayers—he would send fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice. They shouted their prayers throughout the morning until lunchtime. Nothing happened. They shouted until they were hoarse, and even cut themselves with swords and spears so that their blood flowed freely. They kept trying to get Baal's attention until 6 PM, time for the evening sacrifice. The Bible tells us, "But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention." (1 Kings 18:29). Sincerely believing in a path that's wrong doesn't make it right!

There are many routes to go from Stillwater to Milwaukee. We can only take one. Which one is the right one? The one that gets us from Stillwater to Milwaukee.

What's the right path to heaven? In John 14, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to heaven to prepare a place for them, rooms where each of them would live forever. He told them that they already knew the path to heaven. Thomas responded, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). There's the question, the thing Nicodemus wanted to know, the thing the disciples desperately wanted to understand, the thing the entire world is searching for: what is the path to heaven? Listen to Jesus' answer: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Jesus claimed to be the one and only path to heaven. Faith in Jesus guarantees that we are on the right path.

God the Father confirmed Jesus' claim. Twice during Jesus' ministry the disciples heard his voice thunder from heaven, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (Matthew 17:5). The apostles preached the same message. "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

God has shown us the only path to heaven. It's a road map that's distinctive in a world filled with ideas about many different paths. Christianity is the only religion that points to God acting uniquely for humanity. God became a human being, not to produce immortal children, not to manipulate human events, but to experience his fallen creation and know every struggle and temptation that we face.

God acted decisively for humanity. Jesus didn't give in and act like every other sinful human. He loved his parents perfectly. He honored government officials. He took care of the sick and injured. He lived a perfect life for us, because we could not.

God gave his perfect life for humanity. Immortals don't die. Read the Greek myths. Zeus could slay with a thunderbolt, but could not be slain. Study the gods of Egypt and every other religion. The gods don't die. They can't. At the same time, in all of those religions the death of a human being cannot save anyone else. Orpheus could not bring Eurydice back to life with his harp playing. His own death did not bring her back, but reunited them in the underworld. Jesus, the Son of God and son of man, died. In his own words, he came to "to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). He took his life back, all by himself. "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord" (John 20:19-20). Just in case we don't understand why God would do all this, Jesus explained in his words to Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God loved the world. God gave and kept on giving. His gift of love is what makes the path of Christianity different from every other religion. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. He shows us the way. He helps us walk along the way. He gives us eternal life.

Jesus is the only path to heaven. That sounds a little exclusive, doesn't it? After all, saying that there's only one route to Milwaukee on our map is kind of limiting, isn't it? I'd like to share a quote with you from a book by Pastor Mark Paustian called More Prepared to Answer. He wrote, "Should we find, for example, a cure for cancer or the precise center of the universe, will it turn out that everybody was right? Will the answer be something bland and vague? Won't it be, in a word, specific? So also is the search for God and the cure for sin and death. The answer is as sudden and unexpected—and specific—as John 3:16" (p.25). Heaven is for more than Germans, Norwegians, and Swedes who go to a church with WELS behind its name. Heaven is for everyone who believes that Jesus is their Savior from sin. It doesn't get any easier than that!

That doesn't mean the path to heaven is easy to find. Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus said the same thing to Nicodemus. He just used a different picture. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3:3). The first time we're born is a painful process. The baby is comfortable and safe inside mom's tummy. Suddenly, muscles contract and push. Mom cries out at the pain. She pants. The baby is caught in the birth canal, stuck for a moment between life and death. Suddenly the baby is born. New life—howls from a cold, angry infant, tears from an exhausted, tear-filled mom, and slowly the pain begins to fade.

Before we're born again, we are comfortable and safe inside our sinful flesh. We're happy to do what we want. We're confident that we'll find the path to heaven all by ourselves. Then God comes to us with his law, and the birth process begins. At first it makes us a little uncomfortable admitting that we are sinful through and through—that our own flesh betrays us from birth. It becomes more painful as the law contracts and pushes away our pride and arrogance—that we can't find the path by ourselves, and even if we found it, we can't walk it alone! Slowly, painfully, we progress until the Word works faith. Suddenly, we are born again. New life—howls of joy from our hearts, angelic celebrations before our Father's throne, and we realize that we belong to Jesus. We are on the right path. We are headed to heaven! That's the promise we hear in Titus 3:5-7. "[God] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7).

What does all this mean for the people in our world who are following the wrong map, who are on the wrong path? They need the path that Jesus provides. They need to know him and believe in him too. There's only one way to accomplish that. The Bible says, "'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!' But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our message?' Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:13-17). We need to tell others the answer to this urban myth. There aren't many paths to heaven. There's only one—through the love of God that we experience in our Savior, Jesus Christ. They need to hear it. If they don't believe it the first time, we need to share it again, and again, and again. The more they hear, the more the Word will work in their hearts. Then, by God's grace, they may even believe it!

Are we headed in the right direction? Do we have the right path? When we use the Bible and believe and trust it as God's word for us, we have the only map we need. It points us to Jesus as our Savior. When we believe in him, we are on the one path to heaven. Amen.

To God alone the glory!