From Clocker Valley in County Tyrone we present Let the Bible Speak. It's good to have you join us as Gospel Minister the Reverend Peter McIntyre is here to let the Bible speak and preach Christ in all his fullness. Good afternoon this is Peter McIntyre with you for the next 15 minutes. Today I'd like to share some thoughts from a text that's found in John chapter 16 verse 5. Whither goest thou? The disciples have been asking Jesus this And of course, his journey was the most incredible journey that ever was lived. And it is the incredible journey I want to talk to you about today, because there was no life like the life of Jesus. The disciples couldn't quite understand that here was this man that performed such astonishing miracles. They had been with him. They witnessed. his power, they witnessed his love, they heard his compassion. He was their Messiah, he was their saviour and yet they sensed something terrible was going to happen. The darkness was closing in. He was about to be taken to the cross and where was he going? And they were asking the Lord whither goest thou? And we know that that journey would take him to the cross and to the grave but then to the empty tomb and eventually he would ascend into heaven where he is our saviour today. And that of course is the greatest life that ever lived. But what about your life, what about my life? For we too have our incredible journeys. And life is an amazing journey. Takes us from our mothers womb, takes us to birth and then through the terrible twos in the toddler stage. through those early years of childhood that primary phase on into teenage years and eventually to young adulthood to careers and to businesses to marriage and to children and to grandchildren and then eventually the path winds its way down to the grave and that's the incredible journey of life the life that each one of us are living today and it is an incredible life that we have but where does life lead us to as we think of Christ's journey it took him to the grave but it took him to the empty tomb it took him to the resurrection and his journey was the journey that's fundamental to all of our journeys You see, Pilate, whenever Christ was being judged, the question he asked the people was, what will I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? That really is the question that defines all of our lives, which defines all of our journeys. What will we do with Jesus, which is called Christ? What will we do with him? You see, is life just about living and dying? If life is just about living and dying, then we go to the grave and it's an existence of nothingness, and that's not an existence. It's just to go from the beauty, the reality, the love of this world into a state of non-consciousness forever. Another generation comes and takes our place. Is that really what life is all about? Is that what humanity is all about? Are we really no different from the cow that chews its cud? From the mouse that scurries through its little hole? From the cat that hunts? And from the dog who is our best companion? Are we really not different from those animals at all? Perhaps a little more sophisticated but in the end of the day we just die the way they do and we are nothing. Is that? The incredible journey. Well I would suggest to you if that is the journey then it's not much of a journey and it's not an incredible journey. We are just another beast. Is there more to life than that? I would suggest that there is. When you go somewhere you go to a destination. A journey leads you somewhere. And where is our journey leading us to? Is there more to us than just flesh and bone? Than just DNA? Than just the material essence? Is there more to us than this? Well I would suggest there is. Because we have something within us called the breath of life. Man has a consciousness of the spiritual. He has a consciousness that beasts don't have, the creatures don't have. He is that self-aware faculty and he is that faculty to acknowledge that there is someone else out there. He is an idea of morality, he is an idea of laws, he is an idea of of what is right and what is wrong he has a conscience and where does that come from where does the idea of law come from of good and evil where does that come from there's a spirituality and if there's a spirituality then there is more to us than just the body there is the soul and the soul is on a journey and the question is asked and i ask it of you today whither goest thou where are you going Where are you going? What direction are you going in? It's lovely to have a journey and you're looking forward to something. To be going on a holiday and you're looking forward to a new place, new environment, place to chill out, new places to see, perhaps new people to meet. It's exciting. It's wonderful. It's a lovely experience. And we too are on a journey. But surely we want something good, something profitable. at the end of it. I've been thinking about travelling recently. I've been thinking about the wonders of modern travel. Whenever the skies are clear here in the west of Ireland and I live across in the west of Northern Ireland we see the aeroplanes. only when the sky is clear and that's not very often because we usually have clouds coming in from the North Atlantic but when the sky is clear we see the aeroplanes and it never ceases to amaze me the amount of aeroplanes pass over our skies and with flight radar nowadays I can look it up and see where the planes are coming from, where they're going to. There's a flight coming from London Heathrow and it's going to San Francisco. There's a flight coming from Germany and it's going to Toronto. There's another flight coming from London Gatwick and it's going to Calgary. There's another flight for New York. There's flights coming the other way from Chicago to Berlin or to Paris. and I look up at that and I'm amazed by it all. The amount of planes are up in the sky making that transatlantic route. For example the stats show that from Western Europe to the USA 530 flights each day in each direction 2023. 530 flights each day. That's a phenomenal number of flights. In 2024, there was 1,053 weekly flights. That's 150 flights per day from the UK to the USA on its own. 150 flights from the UK to the USA on its own in the year 2024. 1,053 flights a week. These are incredible statistics. New York to London, there's 72 daily flights. Many people are on the move. Many people are traveling. That's just one of the world's great routes. When we go east, there are many, many people traveling from Europe and they're stopping off in the Middle East. And then they're going on to Australia and to New Zealand and to India and to China, to Indonesia. People are on the move, across the world, people have learned to travel and it's made the world a very small place. And that's an incredible feat of modern science. And yes, there are times flights go wrong. We've witnessed that recently with a terrible flight disaster in India. Hearts of prayers go out with those victims. But it's true as well. In the journey of life, things go wrong. People meet catastrophes. People meet tragedy. People meet sadness. Things don't turn out as we planned. Life's like that. As we think of the journey of life today let me ask you the question Whither goest thou? Where are you going? What direction are you travelling to? Where are you bound? Where are you going today? As I think of the journey of life I think of the path. We have choices in this world haven't we? We always have choices. The Bible talks about a way that's straight and narrow that leads to life and a way that's broad that leads to death, to destruction. The broad way is a way for straying about, doing your own thing, but it's not a good path. The narrow way is a straight way. It's a way that you have to be disciplined on, but it's a way that leads to life. What's your path of life today? What's your path of life? Are you in a disciplined way, a straight way, a narrow way? Or are you on a broad way just doing your own thing? The Bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. But the straight way and the narrow path is Christ's way for he said I am the way truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me. Life's incredible journey there's a path. Life's incredible journey has pleasures. There are pleasures in life. There are pleasures. Without pleasure we wouldn't have life. What would life be without the little bit of pleasure that we have? And it's good in the midst of all the brokenness and the tears and the sorrow there is pleasure. But there are the pleasures of sin. And some go after the pleasures of sin to their own destruction. They find it in the point of a needle. They find it through some kind of drug that they smoke. They find it through the paint bottle, the whiskey glass. They find it through in a moral lifestyle. And yes, there's fun and excitement and all of that, but it doesn't last. The alcoholic wakes up with an empty pocket and a sore head and many regrets. And many people have regretted indulging the pleasures of this world to their own hurt, to their own destruction. But there are pleasures to be found in Christ that surpass the pleasures of this world. The pleasures of this world, we are told in the Bible, they're only for a season. But the pleasures that are in Christ, they last. The psalmist said, in thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. I have been asked over the years, you don't drink, you don't smoke. What do you do? How do you get pleasure? I tell you there's pleasure in Christ just by having a personal relationship with Jesus. There's nothing quite like that in this world. And then as we think of life's incredible journey we don't just see the path and the pleasures but we see the problems and there are problems in life. There are problems and as life develops the problems they mount up and there are tears. There are tears in life. their sorrows and yes we talked about the clear skies but here in the west of Ireland the grey skies come in so quickly and in life The grey skies they roll in very quick and there are the thunderstorms. The Lord told about two men that built houses. One man built his house on the rock. When the storms came his house stood firm. The other man built his house on the sand. He had no foundation. When the storms came his house fell down. He wasn't prepared for the storm. I'm going to tell you something we all have trouble. We all have problems and they come to the home and they come to the business and it's perplexing. And sometimes we don't know what tomorrow will bring, such is the nature of our problems. But I want to tell you this, when you know Jesus, you're on the rock and you can cast your care upon him, for he careth for you. That's the value of being a Christian as we face this incredible journey. And then let's think about the purpose. The purpose of this incredible journey. The purpose of the journey of life. What's the purpose? What's the purpose of life? Why are we here? Why are we here at all? Is it just an accident of nature that we're here? Is that the way it is? There is a great purpose in view. The Shorter Catechism that we teach our children in Sunday School asks the question, what is man's chief end? What is the purpose of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God. To enjoy Him forever. You see, if God is our Creator, if He has placed us here, then to know God and to enjoy God, and knowing God is enjoying God, if religion is a chore to you, if it's a burden to you, then you don't know God. But when you know Christ, faith is real, Jesus becomes real. He becomes your best friend. The hymn writer wrote, what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. We have a companion that never leaves us. We forget hope that one day we're going to be in heaven. And when the Christian dies, Paul said, absent from the body, present with the Lord. present with the Lord forever. And the Bible says that there's no crying there, there's no tears there, no death there. We can extrapolate upon that further. There's no doctors, there's no needles, there's no hospitals. There's no uncertainty, there's no farewells. The tears are wiped away forever. Is that where you want to go? That's where I know I'm going. I'd love you to be going there because the alternative is unthinkable. It's hell and darkness forever. You see, Christ's incredible journey was lived and we might have an incredible journey with him. Without Christ, your end will be tragedy. Whatever you've achieved in life will be wasted because it will be lost in hell. But I want to tell you something, Christ lived that journey. He suffered the darkness for us. He suffered hell for us. He suffered the pain for us. He suffered our curse. He took our place. He shed his blood to save us. He died on the cross that we might be saved. No greater love was this that a man should lay down his life, not for his friends, but for his enemies, because we are sinners separated from God. And he gave his life that we might have our life. And he says, through him, we can have abundant life. So again the question is asked, what will you do with Jesus? Your life can have meaning and purpose through knowing Christ. Will you come to Him today and embrace Him as your Saviour? I pray that you will. I thank you so much for listening. You've been listening to Let the Bible Speak. If we can be of any further spiritual help, or if you would like to receive some free gospel literature, we invite you to write to us. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, Rev. Peter McIntyre, 13 Willand Crescent, 5 Mile Town, County Tyrone, BT75OQL. That's Let the Bible Speak, You may hear Mr. McIntyre preach each Lord's Day here in Clocker Valley Free Presbyterian Church at 11.30am and 7pm. For further information you may phone us at 028-8952-1611. 028-8952-1611. We assure you of a very warm welcome at all the services and look forward to having you visit with us. Thank you for listening today. May the Lord richly bless you. And don't forget to tune in on this same station at the same time next week when once again we turn to the scriptures and let the Bible speak.