THE WAY IT STARTS

Nathaniel Froese, Young Adults Pastor

I hope that as we continue to live out our vision to double our reach by 2030, that the phrase

“We exist to follow and teach the way of Jesus so that people near and far would encounter and be transformed by him”

is becoming more and more familiar to us.

We as a church have taught on quite a wide variety of things as of late. Whether its Pathways, or the Roots series, or teaching on prayer at youth group, we as RockPointers have taken in a lot of content! But to what end?

The phrase above tells us! So that people near and far would encounter and be transformed by him! I love this phrase and I really believe this is the point of who we are and what we are doing. Jesus has absolutely transformed my life, and I would love to see him transform more lives. The only question for me then is “how do we join in with what he’s already doing?”

We follow and teach The Way. 

Jesus says in John 14:6 that he is The Way. This is a pretty strange thing to say. I have never once referred to myself as “the way”, especially in this context. The disciples seem to be asking for directions, so that they can go be with Jesus when he goes away. Jesus began his ministry with the words “follow me” (John 1:43). But now at the end he’s saying that he’s going away “And where I am, there you will be” (John 14:4). The disciples just want to know how to get there, which seems innocent enough to me, and the answer is that Jesus is The Way. It is no wonder that the disciples seem so confused throughout the gospels!

But then if you keep reading Luke refers to the earliest Christian community as The Way (Acts 9:2). Maybe the disciples understood him after all?

So what is this Way and how is Jesus a part of it?

For Lent, we will be going through a series on Mark’s gospel. Which opens up with the words “Behold I am sending my messenger before you, who will prepare your way. The voice of one calling out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’” This whole book is oriented around The Way and I believe that as we lean into this text, we will uncover immense beauty and life in following Jesus’ way.

So I’d encourage you to lean into our reading plan and our series this Lent. Afterall, as we uncover what The Way of the Lord is, it is through following and teaching that Way that people will encounter and be transformed by him! This Way isn’t just information, and it's not just action, otherwise we could just follow, or just teach. But Jesus, The Way, did as he saw his Father doing because he was a follower, but he also taught us about his Father, because he was a teacher. It is only in watching Jesus that we can learn to do both well.

The Way is a person and he put his life on display for us so that we, through his Holy Spirit, could get to know him well enough that we too could follow and teach The Way.