09-02-18
Sunday Evening Service
(Dig Deeper)
John 6:60-71
Christ's
call to commitment
Christ’s Call to Commitment is a
double-edged demand.
·
First, it sets forth clearly his life mission and his
expectation for those who would go further with
him.
·
Second, it weeds out shallowness of commitment from among
them. As a result, thousands drop out.
Then, Jesus turns to the twelve and
asks his pointed question: "You do
not want to leave too, do you?"
It is a make-up-your-mind
moment of a lifetime!
Can you remember within the Scripture where a
Double-Edged sword is mentioned?
Revelation 1:16 “In his right hand He held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth
was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its
brilliance.”
So what is that saying?
Yek – Does Christ go
around with a sword in his mouth like you would see in a freak show?
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and
marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Out of His Mouth went
a sharp two-edged sword: This is a heavy sword (the ancient Greek word
rhomphaia, used to kill and destroy. Sometimes the New Testament speaks of a
smaller, more tactical sword known in the ancient Greek language as the
machaira. Hebrews 4:12 uses the term for this smaller, more precise sword.
The idea of it coming
out of His mouth is not that Jesus carries a sword in His Teeth. The idea is
that this sword is His Word. His weapon – and ours also – is the Word of God.
(Ephesians 6:17)
We live in a make-up-your-mind
generation.
·
While there is
evidence of church growth in many areas of the world — such as parts of Asia
and Latin America —
·
The fact is that the
mainline churches across North America are being forced to recognize a decline
in membership and mission outreach,
·
So much so that many
sociologists are saying that we, you and me are now living in a post-Christian
generation.
·
Many people are
walking away.
Why is that? These verses help us
to see some reasons.
Most of the
time, and maybe all of the time, the Truth Is Hard To Handle.
Despite the fact that
Jesus performs a miracle or two.
·
Jesus heals the sick.
·
Jesus feeds 20000
people with a boy's snack,
·
Jesus gets to a boat
in the middle of the sea without a boat.
·
Jesus calms the sea.
·
And their boat is
moved to the shore by super powers.
It doesn’t take long
before doubt takes over.
o
Like what, less than
24 hours
o
There is Suspicion, Doubt,
and Open Hostility that sets in against him.
The majority of the
people are not ready to commit to his unique claims and uncompromising truths
about the way of salvation.
Please read John 6:29
Jesus claims His
ultimate identity
Please read John 6:32,
Jesus claims His
superiority to Moses
Please read John 6:35, 49-58
And that salvation
comes from God alone
Please read John 6:35-65
You know how great it
is to be a witness to a miracle or two, how great that is but that is one
thing.
·
To Openly and to
become Totally Devoted, Completely Commitment to the miracle-worker, that is a
whole new ball game.
·
When truth comes to
us, we ultimately have only two ways to respond to it:
o
We receive it
o
Or we reject it.
The people in this
crowd chose poorly. They chose to reject Christ's Truth for many reasons.
What do you think their reasons for rejecting
Jesus could have been?
1.
He is new.
2.
He is different.
3.
People do not like
change.
4.
Many Jewish leaders
disagree with Jesus' teaching from the beginning.
5.
He is not a local
fellow.
6.
He is from Nazareth
and they have a saying, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Can someone read John 1:46.
Please read John 6:41-42
The Jews began to
grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from
heaven'?"
Rejected by his own
people!
Please read John 1:10-11
He was in the world,
and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He
came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Please read John 6:52
Later, the same people
argue, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They reject both
him and his teaching.
They are like those
people outside and inside today's church who want to rewrite the gospel.
Still there are others
among the crowd who seem blind to truth no matter how obvious it is. They see
and benefit from Christ's miracle with the loaves and fishes, and they marvel
as to how Jesus crosses the lake.
Can someone read John 6:5-13, 22-25
Yet, how soon after
witnessing miracles, they forgot!
How soon after we
witness a miracle, do we forget!
How can this be?
Can someone read John 6:65
Jesus says, "No
one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him".
Indeed, how can it be?
They are shallow from the
beginning.
Can someone read a writing from Saint Paul - 2
Corinthians 4:4
"The god of this
age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God"
Still others want the
miracles without a master!
Are we like them?
Let’s look at John
6:28
“They replied, “We
want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
Are we like them too?
Do we want, desire, and wish for that as well?
We are constantly on
the lookout for some new emotional high.
We only follow for the
excitement of the moment.
These people
expectations and hopes are all heaped,
·
They are piled upon
Jesus,
·
They are focused upon
the last "big thing" he did
·
Or upon their
expectation of what they feel should come next.
They come looking for
a king who would lead them out of Rome's bondage in ways that they imagine it
ought to happen.
·
They give no thought
about what they themselves might do to make that come to pass.
·
Having seen Jesus
miraculously provide food and enough to spare for their fleshly appetites,
·
They constantly want
more signs and wonders,
·
Something that they
can report to their friends,
·
The desire to feel an
experience
·
The excitement
·
A claim in which they
could say, "I was there!” I saw it happen!”
Look around you.
·
See what is happening
in some areas of the church.
·
There are those who
leave the church because they say,
o
"I don't get
anything out of it ...
o
“That church did not
feed me ...
o
“It didn't meet my
needs.
For them, an many
times, for us
·
Church is all about
what it does for them, for us,
·
Giving little or no
thought to what they might do for the church or for its Master, God.
·
They, sometimes we,
run from fellowship to fellowship looking for the most recent famous change or
newest gospel gimmick.
·
Let us be painfully
honest:
o
What they want
o
And yes, sometimes it
is
o
What we want is
entertainment, not devotion to the Lord of the universe.
The truth is not
always easy to accept nor readily apparent to us.
We see this pattern in
other places, too.
·
In John 3, Nicodemus —
a religious scholar no less — confused spiritual truth with prenatal or pregnancy
type of medicine.
·
In John 4, the woman
at the well first believed Jesus was some kind of water quality expert.
·
In John 5, the man by
the pool of Bethesda believed at first that he had been the beneficiary of some
kind of welfare program. There was nothing spiritual about his understanding of
his healing until Jesus told him, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:14).
We see this all
revealed in Jesus' parable of the sower:
Please read Matthew 13:3-9
A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was
scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it
up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up
quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants
were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell
among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on
good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was
sown. He who has ears, let him hear.
Think about it.
It is all there, isn't
it?
Make no mistake:
·
The way of
discipleship is not easy and not everybody is ready to accept it.
·
Jesus warns us that
this would be the case:
o
Please read Matthew 10:16
§
"I am sending you
out like sheep among wolves"
o
Please read Matthew 10:22
§
"All men will
hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved"
o
Please read John 16:33
§
"In this world
you will have trouble"
It has always been the
case that the call to discipleship is hard and it is never timid.
Face reality: The TRUTH
makes demands of us and the gospel of Jesus has never been easy to follow nor
popular among the majority.
·
TRUTH, however, is
never nor has ever been settled or washed down by popular opinion.
·
If TRUTH has been, it
would be in a state of constant change.
·
The TRUTH is that the TRUTH
is always TRUE,
o
Whether or not, it
doesn’t matter if the majority of people accepts it or not!
·
It cannot be
reconfigured and it cannot be rewritten!
·
There TRUTH stands for
all time.
·
Unwavering in the face
of unbelief and uncertainty, or lack of acceptance.
·
TRUTH itself will
never change but it will always change us when we take it in and live by it.
·
Let’s say that again.
TRUTH itself will never change but it will always change us when we take it in
and live by it.
Please read John 14:6
Jesus Christ, who says, "I am the way,
the TRUTH, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through
me"
·
John 14:6 will never
be universally popular.
·
Because he knows who
he is, the crowd's departure in this passage does not panic him.
·
With boldness and
certainty, he asks the twelve, "You do not want to leave too, do
you?" (John 6:67).
o
How can he do that?
·
It is Only because he
knows that his TRUTH will still be TRUE even if he stands alone, as indeed he
is destined to do when he goes to the cross and even the twelve leave him.
Authentic People,
Authentic Disciples Cannot Walk Away From Jesus
Peter answers for the twelve,
Please read John 6:68
"Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".
There is, when all is
said and done,
·
Only one way to follow
Jesus Christ,
o
And that is with cruel,
hard-nosed self-rejection,
o
Taking no step except
those we take with Him and for His Glory.
What did Peter see that the crowds did not?
Peter realizes that
Jesus Christ is God's eternal bread come down from heaven and that he has the
words of eternal life.
What type of faith did Peter have? —
His faith was not only
of who Jesus was but also believing that Jesus was going to do all that He claimed
that He was going to do.
This faith is not merely
emotion.
It is, rather, action.
I invite you to choose
to see it as an acronym, F-A-I-T-H.
F-A-I-T-H stands for
Forsaking-All-I-Trust-Him.
Please read Luke 14:33
Jesus says, "Any
of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple"
When we receive Christ
by faith, we then receive the second great possession of those who come to
Christ completely.
It is the possession
of Christian experience.
It is demonstrated
over time in new desires, new goals, new direction for your life, a full heart,
and in the first-hand experience of seeing Christ do all he promises to do for
those who follow him.
Please read 2 Corinthians 5:17
The Bible says,
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new
has come!"
Peter knows that his
life is changed for the better in walking with Jesus. Certainly, there would
later come a time when Peter would deny the Lord and go his own way for a
while, but the reality is that even then he could never really walk away.
Once we have tasted
the light of Christ's glory
·
And have sensed the
touch of the master's hand on our lives,
·
And once we have known
the best that he has to offer us,
·
We will never again be
satisfied with second best.
Peter knows that and
asks,
"Lord, to whom
shall we go?
You have the words of
eternal life."
We may wander away for
a time,
·
But just like the
prodigal son we will come to our senses
·
And remember that life
in the Father's house is life worth living,
·
And we will come home
again.
The call of this day
is for each of us to examine our own commitment to Jesus.
Do we follow him for
what we imagine he can do for us?
·
Or for who he is and
what we can do for his glory?
What about you?
Surely, "You do
not want to leave too, do you?"
If you will follow
Jesus Christ, come with all your heart!
Amen.
