Walking To Heaven

By

Rev. Todd W. Allen

Villa Rica 8/24/03

Colossians 2:1-8

        I shall always remember my grandfather Todd leaving his house with his cane for his afternoon walks. Doctors recommend walking for young and old alike. We do seem to be more aware of the need for exercise in recent years. Jogging seems to be very popular, and I see commercials for exercise equipment that you can use in your home. I myself have an stationary exercise bike that I use when I can’t walk.

But I prefer walking to other forms of exercise, and so does Judy. We find that we feel better, sleep better and have more energy when we walk at least four times a week for forty-five minutes.

Our Lord walked everywhere he went. I only read of one time when he rode on a donkey and that was when he was fulfilling Zachariah’s prophecy when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. I don’t read that he jogged or ran at anytime. But walking was his means of locomotion during his public ministry.

If a person can’t walk and doesn’t do any other form of exercise he or she will soon become very weak and frail, as any person knows who has been confined to a bed for any length of time. Surgeons are unanimous in recommending that a patient who has been operated on get up and walk as soon as possible. They know that it speeds up the healing process and strengthens the body. There was a time when this was not the case and surgical patients were confined to beds and wheel chairs, but not anymore. It used to be that mothers were kept in bed for a week or more after having a baby, but not any more. Now they get them up as soon as possible after delivering a baby. 

I.     THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A WALK

A. In verse 6 of our scripture reading Paul says: (Col 2:6  As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.  I would like to use this as a text for my message.  Your spiritual life in Christ and mine requires walking, movement, forward progress. We cannot stand still. To stand still is to go backwards. The Christian who fails to walk will become spiritually just as weak and emaciated as an invalid who never gets out of bed. To be spiritually healthy we have to walk. We can even take this scripture and apply it to the physical as well as the spiritual because attending church, going to a Bible study or prayer meeting, requires some physical effort. A lot of folks would rather stay in bed on Sunday. It takes muscle and effort to get up out of bed and dress and get the children ready if you have any, and then go to church.

However, I wouldn’t limit it to the physical. We must take this text to mean spending time reading the scriptures, praying, witnessing for Christ. We need to spend time daily in the Word. We certainly should have a devotional time for our family and ourselves.

Think about the pains we go to in order to feed our bodies. We all have to eat or we will suffer malnutrition. We spend a lot of time eating meals. Most folks would think they need to eat at least once a day; and in our country it is customary to plan on three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Someone has to shop for the groceries, plan the meals and prepare them. That is necessary unless you take all of your meals at a restaurant. And even if you eat at a restaurant you have to make the effort to go to the restaurant. But when it comes to the spiritual we think we can get by with a lot less food and drink. Some folks only go to church occasionally and spend little or no time in Bible study and prayer. But the soul needs food just as much as the body.

Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. In the passage from Deuteronomy which Jesus quoted Moses told the people that God had humbled them by letting them get hungry, then feeding them with manna from heaven in order that they might come to understand that man does not live by bread alone, but that he lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

The manna was a type of Christ, of the heavenly bread. Do you remember that episode in the life of Christ when the subject of the manna came up? We find that in  John 6:30-35  They said therefore to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? {31}"Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.'" {32}Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. {33}"For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." {34}They said therefore to Him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." {35}Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

In that response to the Jews Jesus is telling them that they are to come to him, believe in him and feed on him. We do not come to Christ and then coast our way to heaven. We are given soul food. We must read our Bible and attend upon it taught and preached. This is how we walk on in Christ.

And our walk affects others. A gentleman was seeking directions in a strange city. He enquired of a person he met and the instruction he got was vague and unsatisfactory. Another coming along, seeing the stranger’s perplexity, asked him where he wished to go. On being told, he replied, Just come along with me. I am going that way myself.

It reminds me of the time Judy, Rachel and I were lost in Quebec City where most people speak only French. We asked a man in a convenience store how to get back to our hotel. He told us but we didn’t understand. There was a man who overheard and he said, Come, follow me, I will show you the way. He was like an angel for us that night. He was going the way we needed to go and he bid us follow him.

You don’t know how many are watching you and that will follow you if you only ask them to. Not all men know the way to heaven. But we do. 

B. Our text says something else. Let me quote it for you again: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. It is because you have received him that you walk in him and I believe this verse also tells us to remember how we received Christ.

How did you receive Him? Do you remember? Wasn’t it with gratitude? Didn’t you receive Him because you recognized that you were a sinner under the sentence of death, a sinner without hope in the world? Weren’t you conscious that you were lost and in danger of hell fire? Do you remember that? When you understood that the gospel offered you salvation and forgiveness wasn’t it sort of like a drowning person seizing the life preserver or life jacket tossed to you out of heaven. Wasn’t it a time when you identified with the words of John Newton in the hymn Amazing Grace, Amazing grace! How sweet the sound -- That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind by now I see. Don’t you recall a time when the second verse of that hymn was also your experience, Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

John Bunyan has Christian finally being relieved of the heavy burden on his back when he saw the cross and received what Jesus Christ had done for him. How relieved he was to be rid of that burden. He skipped and hopped and went merrily on his way.

Were you like Zaccheus when you received him? We are told that he was a wee little man who had climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus when he passed by. Jesus when he came to the place, looked up, saw Zaccheus and said to him, (Luke 19:5 "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."

(Luke 19:6 KJV)  And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.

       Zaccheus was joyful. He made no delay but obeyed the Lord and came quickly. He didn’t spend a lot of time studying the situation as so many seem to want to do. No. He came quickly and with gladness and joy.

This is how you received Him, wasn’t it? We should walk daily with that same gratitude and thankfulness for what Christ has done to save us. You and I had joy unspeakable and full of glory! And this is how we are to daily walk in him, just as we received him. As Thoro Harris wrote: All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me; and the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see.

Let us not lose our first love. Let us not get bogged down with the cares and problems of this life so that we lose the joy of our salvation. The ground of the joy of our salvation can never cease to be. When we belong to Him he promises to never leave us nor forsake us.  As you received him, so walk in him. Don’t let your faith walk become a chore, make it a joy. If you lack joy can it be that you are not walking close to Him? Maybe you are walking afar off or God forbid, not at all.