One of the common objections to the exclusive truth claim of the gospel is that it seems unfair to those who have never heard the name of Jesus.
“How can you say there is only one way to heaven, Jesus, when many have never heard of him?”
This came up twice in my conversations in the past couple of months…it has likely come up in your conversations with others or in your own questioning mind.
Ironically, it is those who are hearing the name of Jesus proclaimed who resist making him Lord because of the hypothetical person in another place who has not heard his name.
According to Scripture, there are two main ways God has made himself known to man.
One is often called General Revelation. This is revealed truth that is available to everyone, everywhere.
In Romans chapter 1, Paul writes of how people can know some things about God by looking at what he has made…like art points to the artist…or a complex invention points to an inventor.
In Romans chapter 2 he writes about how people have some knowledge of God built into their conscience.
The other way God has made himself known is called Special Revelation.
This includes Scripture and the Lord Jesus.
This is special in the sense that is it specific, not general.
That book, the Bible, not those other books.
That man, Jesus, not those other men.
You have to have direct contact with the gospel, with Jesus, and respond to him in faith, in order to be saved, not just general contact with God’s design.
You have to meet the artist, not just admire his art.
In Isaiah we find God judging his people because they have rejected his revealed word to them.
He gave them special revelation, he spoke to them, gave them his word, through Moses and the prophets.
They have been given direct knowledge of who God is and what he wants from his people.
In addition, they were given the mission of taking this knowledge of God to all peoples of the earth; they were not to keep it to themselves.
We find God’s heart for all nations seen as Isaiah, speaking for God, writes “Come, everyone who is thirsty…seek the Lord while he may be found.” Isaiah 55:6
No foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord should say, ‘The Lord will exclude me from his people.'” Isaiah 56:3
Isaiah was a prophet in Judah 100 years before the fall to Babylon.
He was a trusted adviser to King Hezekiah; we looked at his life last week.
Isaiah was probably murdered by Hezekiah’s evil son, Manasseh.
The first part of the book is Isaiah speaking to his own time and place, specifically about the coming judgment for their sins.
The Assyrian invasion of Judah was God’s way of correcting his people, but they avoided total disaster at that time.
If you remember last week…Hezekiah repented, and God relented for a time.
The Babylonians will come a century later, and Judah will not escape judgment then.
The rest of Isaiah looks to a more distant time announcing future hope through the Messiah.
He is called the “Servant of the Lord.”
There are four of what are called “Servant Songs” in Isaiah…these describe the service, sacrifice, and ultimate triumph of the Messiah.
They show the Messiah to be a royal figure, who does what Israel failed to do, he is the high priest atoning for the sins of the world.
A servant, was a chosen and trusted representative of the king or some other official.
But we all know what servants do…they carry out the will of someone else…it’s not complicated…servants serve.
Military Service…members serve at the discretion and a pleasure of a commander, at all levels.
At first, Isaiah identifies the nation of Israel as God’s servant, it was to be God’s witness to the world, a light to Gentile nations.
However, over the centuries we find that Israel was unable and unwilling to fulfill this task.
So, God’s servant, Jesus, will be found faithful to this mission.I
n Acts 3:13, Peter calls Jesus the “servant” of God.
Jesus always did the will of the Father (John 4:34)
Jesus finished the work that God had sent him to do (John 17:4)
Let’s look the four servant songs of Isaiah, that speak of Jesus, the Messiah.
Isaiah 42:1–9. This first of the Servant Songs introduces us to the Servant of the LORD:
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope” (verses 1–4).
These verses are applied directly to Jesus in Matthew 12:18-21
He is this chosen and faithful servant.
Isaiah 49:1–13. This second of the Servant Songs speaks of the Messiah’s work in the world to bring all people groups to savlation.
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (verse 6).
Paul quoted this verse in Acts 13:48 when many Gentiles (non-Jews) came to Christ in Antioch.
Paul knew Isaiah by heart, and as he saw the gospel spreading to non-Jews…he knew this is what God had said would happen centuries earlier.
Isaiah 50:4–11. The third Servant Song contrasts Israel’s unfaithfulness with the Servant’s faithfulness.
Jesus will be persecuted but remain faithful.
I’ll read just verse 6.
“I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting” (verse 6).
700 years later Jesus suffered abuse by the Roman soldiers, his back was beaten, his face disfigured, he was spit upon.
Isaiah 52:13—53:12. The final servant song describes the suffering and ultimate triumph of the Messiah.
It is a detailed description of the death and resurrection of Jesus…given centuries before his birth in Bethlehem.
I’m going to read this passage but listen for these things as I do.
It begins with the promise of Jesus’ exaltation, then describes the terrible abuse he will suffer.
People will assume that he is being afflicted by God for his own sin but in fact he was crushed for our sing.
His death is a substitutionary atonement for us; his life was given for ours.
His death brought us life.
Then listen for the prophecy of resurrection at the end of the passage.
He will see the light of life…after suffering cruel death.
There is much more here, so listen carefully as I read.
52 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness— 15so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
53 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Let’s go back to the New Testament, the book of Acts, it is the story of the spread of the good news of Jesus to the entire world.
In Acts 1 the resurrected Jesus is about to ascend to heaven and is asked when he will restore the kingdom…bring about the end of the age.
He says, that is not your business, it’s way above your pay grade.
But what is your business is to be my witnesses here and now…starting in this city, then the larger country, then all the way to the ends of the earth.
It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The book of Acts uses this geographic description as an outline.
When we read the book later this fall, we will see the gospel doing just this…moving out from Jerusalem to the entire world.
Interestingly, it was a faithful man being murdered and a great persecution against the church that caused them to finally launch from Jerusalem and begin to spread out as Jesus said they would and should.
*There is a lesson related to suffering in that historical fact.
*Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a sleeping world. (Lewis)…or church.
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” (Tertullian, 2nd century)
On that day (day Stephen was stoned for his faith) a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Acts 8:1-3
Tragedy and trouble mobilized the church…and Saul, was complicit in both the tragedy and the trouble…and…
Saul would become Paul, the great church planter, missionary mobilizer and writer of much of the New Testament.
Let’s go down a bit farther in this chapter and bring things full circle.
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: (SO HAPPENS TO BE ISAIAH 53) “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 4
Isaiah pointed forward 700 years into the future to Jesus, the Messiah, the hope of the nations…the Servant who would draw all people to himself.
Now, 700 years later, this sub-Sahara African is reading Isaiah, and a follower of Jesus, is led by the Spirit to share the gospel, using that very book.
Remarkable.
CONCLUSION:
Let’s return to the question…what about those who have never heard?
How can you say that Jesus is the only way?
In Scripture we see several responses to this question.
1. All people everywhere have been given revelation of God in some form.
People are judged for not responding to the light they have been given.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Romans 1:18
General revelation…everyone, everywhere can know some things about God.
It is not enough knowledge to be saved, but enough to be without excuse.
Now, look at Romans chapter 2.
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, 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, 15 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.)
All people, even without the Bible, have a sense of oughtness built into them.
This is not a quirk of evolution…this is the reality of God built into the human heart.
2. There is evidence, remember Philip and the African, that God will make a way for those whose hearts respond to the light they have been given…to receive more light.
*Outside of Scripture, I’ve read and heard personally, some of these stories.
3. Scripture says that all who are saved are saved by God’s grace, and no one deserves it.
All who are judged, are judged according to their own sin against God.
If you struggle with the question, “What about those who have never heard?”, there are really two good responses.
1. First, you have heard, what will you do with that knowledge?
The question must never be whether we like something a truth or not, but rather whether it is actually true.
Gravity is inconvenient if you are hanging from a tree, but it can be deadly to let go because you don’t like gravity.
Another quote from Isaiah,
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:6-8
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”
“Well, I don’t like that…it doesn’t seem fair.”
Or
“I can’t fully understand that.”
That’s because his thoughts are way higher than yours.
That is no cop out, that is merely a settled fact.
Now, will you call on the Lord while he may be found?
There are those who have never heard, but you have…what will you do?
2. Second, there are those who have not heard, will you take responsibility to make Jesus known to them?
Israel was God’s servant to take the truth of God to the nations…they failed.
Jesus was God’s servant to die for the sins of the world…he did not fail.
We, the church, are God’s servant, we have been given the order, to make Christ known…we must be found faithful.
We are servants…it is the best definition of a human available, and one that many humans would despise.
We serve at the pleasure of God…we exist to obey him…we are to live for his glory and the good of others.
Philippians 2
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
He took on human likeness…the form of a servant.
To be a human is to be a servant.
This is why selfishness is a failed method for human happiness…it will never work because it is to try and live outside our design parameters.
We are made to be servants of God and in serving others we serve him…there is no human thriving apart from human’s serving.
This includes many things…but certainly it includes sharing the good news of Jesus with others.
Whether God calls you overseas, or to remain here…the location is not the point…the calling is the same.
We are servants of God and others…we are servants called to make the gospel known.
ONE FINAL THOUGHT ON WHAT TO DO WITH DIFFICULT AND TROUBLING QUESTIONS LIKE THIS ONE:
Epistemology: The study of knowledge…how we know what we know.
Really important to understand that everyone has an epistemology…a belief about how we know.
This is foundational…Beliefs shape behaviors.
How we know what is true and real…determines how we live our lives.
But most haven’t considered why they base their beliefs on what they do.
This is true for the unbeliever…who largely trusts self.
It is often true for the believer…who just believes but hasn’t been challenged to make sure they know why they do.
You don’t have to have every answer, we talked about this two weeks ago…but you do need to have confidence that you believe what you believe not by default but by a decision.
It is why we encourage questions from super church up through high school and beyond.
Limited options for epistemology…knowing what is real and true.
1. We can’t know.
-If we can’t know anything, we can’t know that we can’t know anything…it is circular reasoning.
-Of course, we can know some things…we just can’t know all things.
-So, you can reject this foundationless foundation right away.
2. Start with self: Experience/reason/feeling
-Observation, experimentation, personal discovery, feelings…human based foundation for knowing what is real and true.
-Of course, can know things via reason and experience…it is how God has made the world.
Einstein famously said, “God doesn’t play dice with the Universe.”
He was expressing his belief that the universe operates according to predictable laws, rather than through random chance.
Of course it does…this doesn’t make miracles impossible…it just makes them rare, normally God does things through normal means.
We can know much about what God has made, through human effort and intelligence…but the key, “about what God has made.”
But, the really important things to know, must be revealed.
3. Revelation
-God tells us things we could not discover without him
We all base our conclusions about what is real and true and what is not real and true on our foundational epistemology…who will we trust?
Ourselves or God.
If you trust that author, or blogger…you are trusting yourself to choose who to trust.
What is your point Terry?
My point is that when asking the big and hard questions like…
“What about those who have never heard?”
Or
“Why is there evil and suffering?
They are often framed like God is on trial, rather than human reason being on trial.
“You have to give me an explanation that will satisfy me, that I can completely understand, and that I like…or I will not believe.”
But then what?
You will believe that there is no God?
How many problems are there in your unbelief?
Do you understand how many there are?
Do you know that unbelief in God, based on just the facts of reality before us…is unreasonable, unbelievable?
You will believe that humans are not sinful, or they don’t need salvation, or that Jesus is not the resurrected savior?
Do you many problems are there in those beliefs of unbelief?
Do you know how hard it is to make a case for Jesus NOT being who he says he is?
-A number of people have set out over the years to make the case for Jesus not being the Savior and they have been saved in the process…some really smart folks.
You believe that God cannot exist or be good if there is suffering in the world.
Do you know many problems are there in that belief of unbelief?
The disbeliever may demand that I answer for everything in my belief…but I can answer for much more in my belief than they can for their unbelief.
Because what I believe is real…the unbeliever is believing what is not real.
Isaiah is one of many reasons to believe the Scriptures, to believe the gospel, and to make Jesus Lord of your life.
He told in remarkable detail what would happen in 700 years.
In Isaiah we see God’s heart for people who are far from him…we see that he calls those who know him to make him known.
We are not to sit around and try to get our minds around all this…we are to move out and share the good news of the reality of God, and the resurrection of Jesus, with others.
This is the core mission of the church and the key calling of the Christian…not meetings, not fellowship, not service to one another…all these things are important because they help us fulfill our mission.
But the mission is and always has been…make Jesus known to those who do not yet believe.
We are to do this in Wichita, we are to do this in Central Asia…we are to do this as we work jobs, raise families, suffer with illness, go on vacations…mission is to be the core of who we are and what we do.
This is not burden, this is opportunity…this is God’s invitation to join him in what he is doing and has been doing in the world since Adam and Eve were evicted from the garden.