[0:00] Those two things I just want to make you aware of. We are solidifying some plans that are leading up into Thanksgiving of how we're going to be lights to the community.
[0:11] And so we are planning some unique outreach opportunities, and we're still solidifying that with leadership. So keep your eyes open for that. There will be something going on.
[0:24] So Gospel of John, continuing here. Quite a lengthy passage. I think you'll understand why I kept this passage in its bulk and context as soon as we are done studying through it.
[0:44] But what we have here is we have a scene that has transpired after the feeding of the 5,000, the fourth miracle that Jesus does in the Gospel of John.
[0:59] This happens after he provided all the food, after he walked on water and said to the disciples, you know, do not be afraid. It is I. Essentially saying that I am statement, the egoimi statement, the I am statement.
[1:14] And then leading up to the next day, as Gene read. Thank you, Gene, for reading the passage, doing the public reading of Scripture. It says on the next day.
[1:27] So the saga is continuing, and it's bringing in all of this context that began in the beginning of chapter 6. And this hungry crowd is seeking out Jesus.
[1:41] And hungry they are, but they have never been so blind to the reality of who Jesus is. And so it's interesting, what I did in this passage, how I kept this all into a bulk.
[1:56] I probably could have separated some of the discourses, and we could have been edified through that. But through the exposition of Scripture, this entire section has a main point and an application.
[2:07] And it is actually a plot structure which has a climax and has a resolve and a new scene setting. So we're gonna keep that together today.
[2:18] And so doing this, in the study, I basically separated all the discourses, Jesus' bulk statements here, bulk statements there, and figured out that this dialogue is vital.
[2:34] And when we study today, we're going to see, I hope that I prove to you that this dialogue is vital in this narrative as we observe the passage today. Because what naturally comes out of when you have a dialogue with somebody?
[2:47] You understand their attitudes, essentially. You understand their ambitions. You understand something. When you have a discourse with somebody, you understand what's going on in their lives.
[2:59] If you catch me on maybe a cranky day, I might be quick to say, no, no, you know, just be quick and short. We all have those fleshy days, you know, when we wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
[3:11] Or you can catch me on a happy day where I have my coffee. And everything is great. Got a new sweater that was gifted to me. Thank you. You know, the church is dressing me now.
[3:22] So I don't know if that's a compliment or possibly something I should take heed of. Maybe go through my wardrobe. Maybe I'm outdated. Thank you for that.
[3:34] So you can catch me on a good day. But you can find these things out of attitudes and ambitions, things like that, that come through a simple dialogue with somebody. 61% of this passage, 61% of it is Jesus's words and Jesus's dialogue.
[3:53] 61% of this passage. And only 13% of this passage is the dialogue from this crowd back to Jesus.
[4:07] And we're going to see the importance of that. Does anybody have bad vision like I? My right eye is just struggling. It's on the struggle bus.
[4:18] I just, it's blurry as all get outs. And so you know what I'm talking about when you go to the eye doctor and you sit in the chair and they bring this big old thing that looks like it's from like a horror movie.
[4:31] And they got gears and stuff. You think your eye is going to get ripped out of its socket or something. We know those chairs. We know those tests and diagnostic equipment.
[4:45] You know that moment when you're looking at the little house, I don't know what your doctor has. Ours has a little house and it's kind of blurred at first.
[4:56] They put those things on you're like, yeah, I can't see anything in there. And the more they adjust that lens through that test, the clearer it gets. What we have in this passage is a similar situation, a similar scenario where Jesus is essentially sitting these Jewish people down on that chair and he is trying to make things crystal clear for them.
[5:24] But what they think is that sitting in that chair that they had everything perfectly in focus. And so the more that Jesus adjusted things to their actual blindness, things became blurred.
[5:39] But in reality, Jesus is precisely with crystal clarity revealing to them absolute truth, saving truth, and truth that should change their hearts.
[5:52] So as we study the essence of this passage today, we're going to see that while Jesus holds a bulk of the dialogue, 61%, he's merely the doctor sitting these Jews down, telling them, assigning them, diagnosing them, trying to help them with their vision.
[6:09] And that 13% is just you sitting down saying, nope, yep, nope, yep, you know, until that little house comes into view. He's making things crystal clear.
[6:22] And towards the eye and the end of that eye exam in this passage, everything should be crystal clear. But as things come into focus of the truth, the crowd's comprehension becomes quite blurred.
[6:36] So this passage contains that focal paradigm, blindness and sight. Jesus making things clear, the focus, the crowd loses focus.
[6:49] So today we're going to see the importance of actually four words towards the end of this passage and four words that make a difference between a follower of Jesus Christ and a follower of just Jesus's benefits in our lives.
[7:02] And I plan to apply those four words toward the end of our time today to examine our devotion, our sight. Are we seeing Jesus clearly or are we seeking Jesus only for possibly the benefits?
[7:16] But I am burdened to pray before we go into this message. It has been a busy week and I want to be obedient to the Lord in preaching his word today. So please join me in prayer as we center our heart and our minds upon his text.
[7:33] Father, thank you for just a time to come around your word. And we know that this is coming to a spring of water that does not run dry. It is a living, breathing organism that has tremendous implications.
[7:49] We can read one passage multiple times and something new will come out depending on our seasons of life. Father, this is encouraging to us. And while many, the world sees just a book full of rules and things like that and regulations, we see life.
[8:04] And so we pray that we can tap into this life today. Father, help me in my weakness to come and encourage this body of believers and possibly unbelievers.
[8:17] Father, they are yours and you know each and every one. You know their needs. You know their struggles. You know the very stresses that they brought into the building. And you know the encouragement that you plan on giving them to leave with.
[8:29] So I pray, Father, through all of that that I depend solely upon you at this time and that this congregation depends solely on you to speak the truth today in word and action.
[8:43] We praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So I'm going to break this up into three different sections. The first section is following Jesus for the bread.
[8:55] And a little play on words of what's going on. But the discourse has, contains one of the first I am statements in all the Gospel of John.
[9:07] I think the women's Bible study studied the I am statements in a previous Bible study where they looked specifically at these I am statements. I guess I'll follow up with my wife after this service to see how I did with this first I am statement.
[9:23] But this is an emphatic I am statement. The egoimi. I am that I am. It's a phrased word that means essentially the same words that were spoken to Moses in the burning bush when God revealed himself to Moses.
[9:39] And most, this discourse, this I am statement is best well known as the bread of life discourse. The bread of life discourse. The bread was something vital in this culture.
[9:53] And it was a trusted food source in that culture. Today, we kind of live in a post-bread society. We're sort of anti-bread, it seems. I don't understand it. I know it leaves Olive Garden scratching their head because we were all raving about the bread probably 10 years ago.
[10:10] The bread and the salad, right? Maybe not Olive Garden. I might be making some authentic Italian folks cringe right now. But we live in a post-culture of bread.
[10:22] We try to avoid gluten and things like that. But if you're a carb maniac like me, you know how wonderful bread is. It fills you up temporarily until, you know, you work that out in your store.
[10:35] It burns. If you want to see my wife about the logistics of the dietary process, see her. She tells me everything I need to know about carbs and diets. But I love carbs.
[10:46] I mean, that is my stronghold. So I love my bread. It's filling. It seems as if, like, you can eat a couple pieces of bread and almost feel satisfied to a certain extent.
[11:02] But it quickly, quickly fades away. Throughout this discourse that was just read by Gene, Jesus is becoming known as the wonder worker for what would be known as, you know, maybe in our culture, the wonder bread worker.
[11:17] He is the wonderful worker of these signs. But his aim in all of this is to prove that he is the life giver, not the wonder worker, the life giver.
[11:32] And so these Jews think they have it all together. In verse 22, they think that their vision is so precise, they know exactly the truth, they can even correct Jesus in asking the questions.
[11:43] Look at with me. If you're new with us today or if you haven't been around in a while, just keep your Bible open. We're going to be going through a couple sections that I want you to see what I'm speaking and referring to.
[11:54] In verse 22 in chapter 6, look with me. The crowd, after realizing that Jesus was gone, you had the Sherlock Holmes within that Jewish culture figuring out they see these boats coming in.
[12:07] Jesus is nowhere to be found, the disciples. And ding, ding, ding, they figured out Jesus ain't here anymore. They figured out, they solved the problem and they made their route to Capernaum.
[12:21] The crowd's sight was focused on Jesus. The crowd sought out Jesus, right? That's good. You know, maybe a motivational preacher might stop there and be like, this is why you need to seek out Jesus.
[12:34] This is why you need to get in your boat. I need to paddle over to Capernaum. I need to find Jesus and go on out to Bob Evans. You'll get your reservations early. How we can so rip that and strip this out of its context of what's actually going on because the attitude of what they seek actually isn't the attitude that Jesus was looking for in this crowd.
[12:54] And so we see that the crowd seeks out Jesus and they found Jesus. But we're going to continue here at Youngstown Metro Church. We see something important in verse 26 before we go through to verse 28.
[13:09] Jesus saw the heart of this crowd, doesn't he, in verse 26? And all they were concerned about was getting more bread. They were worried about getting their fill.
[13:23] They were seeking the benefits that Jesus Christ could provide to them, the convenience that they could bring. He's their bread bearer.
[13:34] In other words, their end goal was still to embrace Jesus Christ, but not as their savior, not as their capital K king, but their military political king to end their suffering under the Roman government, to march up to Rome, to say, enough is enough and do a mighty work and overthrow the government through a miraculous way.
[14:03] This is the king that they were after and Jesus was not concerned about that realm of king. And we should find it fascinating how this crowd, full of law keeping, they are all about doing the works.
[14:17] They will wash their hands, they'll wash their arms, their elbows, they'll do it 20 times if it means that they are obeying the law and keeping the commands that they have instituted in order to observe the Old Testament law.
[14:32] And we should find it fascinating in verse 28 where they ask in this passage, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Isn't that interesting?
[14:43] This is right up their alley. They want to talk about what they can do to receive that benefit from him, to continue to benefit and keep getting that bread. What do we have to do, Jesus?
[14:54] I'll do anything. This is great because you know what? You do bread today. I hope you overthrow Rome tomorrow. Whatever you want, we will do. But Jesus replies that essentially the only work that someone can do is not trust in their own efforts, but to believe the Father who sent the Son.
[15:18] They think that they got it all together, but so blind that they are. And verse 30, look at this. They're looking for another miracle, another sign.
[15:29] As if feeding 5,000 men with women and children included in that, that's probably 10,000 to 15,000. They want another sign. It is literally just eating bread and feeling hungry within an hour that I experience being a car maniac.
[15:49] That bread feels filling at first, but it runs dry very quickly. They want another sign. The crowd insists upon another sign as if the previous miracle wasn't good enough.
[15:59] Come on, Jesus, keep showing us. Give us a reason constantly to believe in you. And church, what we have here is a snapshot of the same dialogue in the wilderness between the Israelites and Moses.
[16:14] This is deeply rooted in biblical theology. Notice their immediate response was to point not to the provision of bread from Jesus a day earlier, trusting in him for what he's done in the past, but all the way back to Mosaic history.
[16:31] Looking all the way back to the days of Moses in verse 30, they said to him, what signs do you do? So that way we may see and believe you.
[16:44] Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. Trust for the fathers, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. They're even, they're quoting scripture to Jesus.
[16:55] These men don't have any sight problem, right? But doesn't this echo way back to Exodus 16, back to the bread, the bread of life or the bread of heaven where we see the manna falling and being provided miraculously to these Israelites.
[17:13] Doesn't this echo back to Numbers 11 of those same people who the manna miraculously fell to feed and take care of their daily needs to the next day complaining Israelites longing to go back to Egypt.
[17:30] They'd rather be in bondage. And similar, even looking back just a couple chapters in the Gospel of John, we find ourselves with this double meaning of the living water case with the Samaritan woman in chapter 4, verse 16.
[17:46] We get the born again double meaning with Nicodemus in John 3, verse 4. The followers of Jesus at this time, this crowd, are concerned about their immediate needs just as Nicodemus, just as the Samaritan woman and still we have it in chapter 6.
[18:06] In verse 32, Jesus makes it clear that the food provided had nothing to do with Moses but everything to do with the Father's giving to Moses.
[18:18] The Father was the source of that bread and likewise, the Father is the source of sending Jesus, the Son of Man, upon earth.
[18:30] He also links himself to being the bread of God who comes down from heaven in verse 33 and gives life to the world. And the crowd seems to want this bread provider.
[18:44] They truly want shwebels. They want him to open up his shwebels around the corner in Capernaum. Give us this bread. Keep giving us these benefits. Obviously, your surplus doesn't run dry.
[18:57] We'll feast for a long time. Our families will be very well taken care of. But what they seek in Jesus, they are not finding.
[19:10] And surely, we see that their vision is truly blurred at this passage. They are not seeing Jesus. They are not observing that miracle and allowing that to last any more than a carb feast at dinner time.
[19:25] Let's look at section two. It's a larger bulk of text. Section two is titled, The Bread of Life is a Stumbling Block. The Bread of Life is a Stumbling Block.
[19:39] Verse 35, we see that he says, I am the bread of life. Look with me. Don't take my word for it. He says, I am the bread of life. This is the first of the seven I am statements.
[19:52] And this should give hope that, as it says, whoever comes to me shall not hunger. And whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[20:04] Man, these sound like pretty good benefits of following Jesus. I ain't gonna be hungry and I ain't gonna be thirsty. But unfortunately, the Samaritan woman got it.
[20:15] These Jews, not so much. We see something interesting. Jesus makes it clear in the next couple passages in verse 37 through 39. He makes it clear that those who seek Jesus are the ones who become aware of their need.
[20:32] Of not just earthly need. We know when we're hungry. We're supposed to know when we're thirsty. I don't understand it. I just know when I want coffee. My wife says that that's a bad habit because it'll lead to dehydration and kidney stones.
[20:47] I just found out. Often, I think a normal human being will know when you're hungry and thirsty. You'll feel that thirst throughout the day. But, he makes it clear that those who seek Jesus, those who become aware of not just their earthly need, but their spiritual need.
[21:06] We see that people have an awareness just as hunger, just as thirst. That you have an awareness that something is missing. And you indeed are blind at a certain time.
[21:21] I once was blind, but now I see, as the hymn writer John Newton says. Right? These are folks who God gives grace to, who God lavishes in grace, and you feel that hunger.
[21:35] And any Christian, any born-again Christian, I believe, can attest to that yearning that you sense, that you feel deep within your soul knowing that you have come to an end of yourself.
[21:46] And that's where Jesus takes you, spiritually speaking. He makes it crystal clear. It is crystal clear at this time. Jesus is diagnosing vision, and at verse 40, if you want to highlight it, circle it, underline it, take it, post it, crystal clear.
[22:04] The will of the Father is revealed in Jesus Christ. Everyone who looks to Jesus and believes receives an inheritance, unperishable, undefiled, and unfailing.
[22:18] This person is the one who will receive the greatest need of all, being raised with Jesus Christ. this passage says, for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life and will raise Him up on the last day.
[22:36] This supersedes any physical need, any hunger, any thirst. This is a deep spiritual need that God of this universe is stirring within mankind.
[22:49] And these followers of Jesus, followers of Jesus at this time, are drawn to Jesus not for the amenities that I accommodate, but because of their desire to have Jesus Christ alone.
[23:02] These followers of Jesus are actually, I've reworded that wrong, but they're following Jesus for the amenities, the accommodations. They're the people who reserve their hotel room and they say, I would like my pillows fluffed, I would like an extra set of pillows, I would like a warm towel, and all of these amenities, and here, what can I do, how much is that going to cost to provide my needs?
[23:27] Jesus is saying, no, no. Those who believe me and trust in me who are true, genuine followers of Christ will follow me regardless of their physical need.
[23:40] I love how Fernando, Fernando, Fernando, Fernando, Fernando Ortega, I love how he writes in his song.
[23:51] It was made popular by Jeremy Camp. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, but give me Jesus. This is the reality that should bring great joy.
[24:09] This should bring great hope, great peace in our lives. And these Jewish people had nothing to say except to grumble at this reality.
[24:24] Jesus is making the vision clear for them. And what are they doing? Jesus, I can't see that little house up there on the wall. You're saying that it should be perfectly in focus, but man, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
[24:39] Questioning his sanity even, essentially, because clearly Jesus was the son of Joseph, they attest. They're looking through like, what the world are you talking about?
[24:51] You come from heaven? You're Joseph's son. Look at your hands. They still have splinters from your last carpentry project. Have you lost it, Jesus?
[25:04] As Jesus reaches the point of making his identity crystal clear to them, the focus is adjusted again. And these Jews had absolutely nothing but grumbling.
[25:16] Had nothing other than questioning Jesus. And church, it has to be said, grumbling is toxic. Grumbling is absolutely toxic.
[25:33] And you want to know what will stifle your belief and your faith in Jesus is a grumbling attitude in life.
[25:45] Grumbling produces unbelief and disqualifies any faith that you might think you have. It's the antonym of faith. You know, the group of people, maybe in your own life, you may not experience it, but throughout life, you meet a lot of different folks.
[26:04] I've worked in secular, different jobs, and there's always like that one lunch table at the workplace full of just the political warriors. They know everything. They know more than Fox News and CNN. They want to start their own news program.
[26:17] People who go on social media and just set the record straight, you know, and just, you know, go out there and make sure that everyone knows the truth.
[26:28] And so they tweet, and boom, getting this all straightened out. And those grumbling people, often, it's almost like a toxin that spreads.
[26:43] It is attractive, something, something that within us, our sinful nature, is attracted to grumbling, to complaining, just as the Israelites, just as the Jewish people as they are accustomed to be attracted to, and grumbling they were.
[26:58] And it's almost like it's a toxin that spreads. All of a sudden, a great faith, God could have done something so great in your life. I think of somebody we just provided furniture for, and maybe the next day, if she surrounded herself with grumbling people, she might find herself being ungrateful for the work of God in her life, and the provisions of God in her life.
[27:23] And through that, that place was a physical need that they needed. Grumbling is toxic, church. Okay? Grumbling produces unbelief.
[27:34] It disqualifies any faith that you may think you have. So I encourage you to watch your grumbling because Jesus says in verse 43 through 50, he pretty much addresses it.
[27:49] He literally says, stop it to these Jewish followers. Look, in verse 43, it says, Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.
[28:01] Good thing they didn't have social media. those are the, Jesus addresses this grumbling and says, stop it. Those who are true followers in Jesus Christ will not produce grumbling, but their grumbling will be replaced with gratitude.
[28:18] It'll be something that we are grateful for. Even if Jesus and the Lord takes everything out of our lives, all of a sudden, our jobs are stripped from us, our income is stripped from us, all these amenities of this life that make things a little bit easier to live and to provide for our families.
[28:36] Even if everything is stripped, how quickly we could grumble as time goes on. But might God be actually trying to make you in great gratitude for what he's done in your past to focus upon the feeding of the 5,000, those types of things?
[28:54] If these Jews are concerned about the provision of manna and the glory of their forefathers, the physical provision was only temporary because we know that all of the forefathers, they didn't have the bread of life.
[29:09] They had the bread from heaven and it was manna. It only suited their physical desires and it was temporal. But they still died after that.
[29:19] Every one of them passed away. What Jesus is offering is something new and it's changing the biblical narrative and all of scripture points to it and circles and encompasses this very reality.
[29:35] So I gotta ask you, how might your grumbling become a stumbling block to your faith and you might not even know it, church? May our temptation to grumble be exchanged for gratitude.
[29:49] The moment that we attempt to grumble, maybe we can hold each other accountable in this endeavor that we might encourage people to say, you know, things do kind of stink in your life and all this is happening but God still got you.
[30:05] He will hold you fast just as the song repeats. And so Jesus sends these followers for a loop in this last statement.
[30:16] Look with me in verse 51. He says in sort of a weird way, I mean, I gotta admit he puts it in such a weird way. And the bread that I will give in verse 51 for the life of the world is my flesh.
[30:37] Wow. Isn't that interesting? Now, this isn't endorsing cannibalism as there's groups of people out there that says that Christians believe in cannibalism because, guess what, they're just as blind as the Jewish people.
[30:55] It's not the point of the saying. This has dual meaning in this passage just as the living water at the well, just as being born again for Nicodemus. It's not the physical expression of the saying, it's the metaphorical saying of the expression.
[31:11] And so, this is a bold statement. A very odd way of making this bold statement because you got these people that are focused on chewing physical food.
[31:22] They can't get their physical hunger out of their heads. They want Jesus for the benefits. And so, Jesus basically meets them where they're at and says, okay, you wanna eat the bread of life?
[31:34] You have no idea what you're even talking about, but this is what it means. If you wanna eat the bread of life, you must feast upon my flesh. I mean, you wanna talk about head scratcher for people who are already blind.
[31:46] It has a dual meaning. It's not endorsing even transubstantiation as well, like within the Roman Catholic Church where you lift up the elements and all of a sudden it mysteriously turns into the actual physical bread, the body of Christ.
[32:00] The bread turns into the physical body of Christ and the blood lifting it up turns into the physical, real blood of Christ. There's people within a mile radius who teach this.
[32:12] It's the Eucharist. Transubstantiation. This is not talking about that either that when we take communion at this time, like we're feasting on Jesus' blood. Those are merely symbols of it.
[32:24] But in other words, Jesus is saying, if you hunger, I can provide bread all your lives and those things will only satisfy your fleshly needs.
[32:35] so Jesus can make it clear, like he can provide all these amenities in your life, but it's only going to satisfy your fleshly needs. So better for you to feast on me.
[32:46] This is a thirst that I will quench that will never run dry. This is a hunger that I will provide that you will never hunger again, regardless of what you have, regardless of your physical hunger.
[32:57] And what he's getting at is feast on me, meaning in the metaphorical sense, believe in me. Jewish people, believe in me.
[33:09] And this will bring you life. In other words, when you eat his flesh and drink his blood, it is metaphorically symbolizing accepting the work of Jesus Christ at the cross.
[33:23] Here's a body that was broken at the cross. His blood was poured out. This is a shadow of communion. Now, don't get me wrong because when you talk about feasting and everything, but it's not an explicit reference because communion wasn't established as an ordinance of the church at this time yet.
[33:42] This has not happened yet. So obviously, you can't take this as a literal sense meaning communion. I wouldn't read this for communion in any sense. But this sort of casts a shadow forward to what the Lord was going to do in order for us to remember his provision.
[33:58] I wanted to talk about a little bit of application of this passage. And the followers of Jesus weren't concerned about being raised up.
[34:11] They weren't concerned about anything other than what meets their eye. And they thought their vision was completely dead set, focused. They didn't have a care in the world. They thought that they can quote passages of scripture and attest to Jesus that they were right and justified him.
[34:26] seeking satisfaction, not a savior. I don't know about you, but this has such great application to our culture today. And we're going to hit on that very, very strongly today.
[34:39] The belief that we can seek Jesus for great satisfaction in our life, for the amenities, and miss him being our savior. So I want you to open your ears today and receive this encouragement.
[34:54] We see at the center of the their concern was their physical needs. That was their concern. They couldn't get past their physical needs and the concern of that. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be a concern.
[35:06] You should be concerned that you should hydrate yourself. You should eat and things like that. I'm not talking about anything regarding like being cruel to your body, asceticism, like that some of the Gnostics were privy to do.
[35:24] But at the center of their concern of their physical needs, it was that was the focus. It wasn't doing the will of the father. And the saddest part of this whole dialogue is that their bellies were crying out for food.
[35:40] Yes, it was. But most tragic of all their needs that they are aware of at this point is that their souls were crying out for Jesus.
[35:50] But they were so blind, they couldn't even see him standing in front of them. They needed this savior, the one who Moses foreshadowed.
[36:02] And I want to ask us today, are we seeking Jesus only for the benefits? And if this offends you, it might offend you.
[36:15] There is a false gospel that exists that has been exported from our Western Christianity, which would probably have bookshelves of these Jewish people. If we could see these Jewish people's bookshelves, it would probably be lined with these authors.
[36:30] And I won't name them all. But we need to heed the warnings of this very same fallacy that is nothing new in our day today. What you have in Joel Osteen theology, Bill Johnson from Bethel theology, Benny Hinn theology, is there's false gospels that exist that are exported to very hurting and needing countries who are hungry, physically hungry.
[36:54] And what they have is this good news that Jesus, they can come to Jesus and be filled with everything that they need. And it's false. Costi Hinn, Benny Hinn's nephew, captures it perfectly within this fallacy of this false gospel.
[37:12] gospel. And he explains it in an article in Christianity Today where he captures in many of his books and references and resources and you can view them on your own.
[37:23] You can go to your Amazon. I highly doubt Costi Hinn will be found in Barnes and Noble bookstore because honestly some of those books don't represent Christianity at all.
[37:35] They represent the Joyce Meyer, you know, do this and get that, buy those shoes, things like that. It's false. Costi Hinn writes about growing up in the Hinn family.
[37:47] And I just want to capture that for you today. Growing up in the Hinn family, Empire, Costi writes. Costi was behind the scenes in this time. Being working for Benny Hinn, the miracle worker, and he was up there catching people as they were falling and being slain in the spirit and things like that.
[38:06] Growing up in the Hinn family, this man, Costi Hinn, who has been taken out of that, that falsehood. Growing up in the Hinn family empire was like belonging to some kind of hybrid of the royal family and the mafia.
[38:21] Think about that. Growing up in the royal family and the mafia. Our lifestyle was lavish. Our loyalty was enforced. And our version of the gospel was big business.
[38:35] Though Jesus Christ was still a part of the gospel, Jesus Christ was still a part of the gospel, he was more of the magical genie role of the gospel than the king of kings, the central figure, the object of the gospel.
[38:55] It seemed like that Jesus would revolve around mankind's needs rather than mankind's needs revolving around who Jesus is and especially found of him being the life giver. And so he says, continuing on that statement, he was more like a magical genie rather than the king of kings.
[39:12] Rubbing him the right way by giving money and having enough faith will unlock your spiritual inheritance. God's goal was not his own glory but our gain.
[39:25] His grace was not to set us free from sin but to make us rich. And the abundant life he offered wasn't eternal. It was now.
[39:36] There was nothing laying ahead. He was experiencing God's kingdom now here on this earth. And they lived in a prosperity gospel of what Jesus can do for you.
[39:49] Think about this in relation to the passage. As Jesus turns toward these Jewish attitudes, the same attitudes of these Jewish people. He uses the language of eating and drinking to illustrate the intimacy of the union between a Christ follower and a true believer.
[40:08] Christ and the true believer. He's talking about feast upon my flesh. Drink of my blood. That you are ingesting who I am. That that is an intimate union.
[40:21] We see this that will be talked about in John 15. What we're abiding in Christ and keeping his commands. We see this mystical union in Galatians 2 and Ephesians 1.
[40:33] Jesus Christ is not the magical genie to grant your wishes. OK. He is not the magic carpet to bring you the American dream. I love how it's quoted.
[40:47] It sticks with me often where it says biblical Christianity is not popular. Popular Christianity is not biblical. Because what does John even say in John 1?
[41:00] That the light was in the world but the world despised him. The world does not love Jesus. So I love how that says biblical Christianity is not popular and popular Christianity is not biblical.
[41:16] And we see here that he talks of he continues in verse 51 in this discourse. He says and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
[41:32] That he's saying that there is suffering to come in this life. That in order to have Jesus Christ in absolute fullness regardless of amenities, but to have eternal life with him to fully be united with him is is going to first, he has to first endure the cross. He has to suffer where he will give for the life of the world being his flesh. Remember church, narrow is the pathway that leads to life and not many find it. And remember that that has to do with salvation.
[42:10] It doesn't have to do with this life right now, as many churches preach on. One of the most resonating quotes I heard entering the pastorates and the reason why I approached such boldness on this topic, because I'm a pastor. This is my job to keep the people under my care in check and obeying the word of God as the Lord intends.
[42:40] If you want people to like you, don't be a pastor, sell ice cream, right? I know that this might rub people the wrong way. I know that this might have to, you might have to go up on your bookshelf and maybe take a couple books out of there that actually don't represent biblical Christianity, but represents sort of the scenario here of people just wanting what Jesus can give. And it has nothing to do with eternal life. Isn't this a tendency at times for us? It's interesting though, being a pastor, sometimes that means that the cost of unity and biblical Christianity comes at a cost.
[43:20] Boyce writes about the United Presbyterian Church in the USA, and nothing like bad about it, but it's interesting how he spoke about the book of order, which it vows that these are vows that were taken to ministers that are entering into the United Presbyterian Church as ministers at their ordination. And so these phrases were concerning peace. They were concerning unity. They were speaking about purity, which all who became ministers agreed upon, and they were encouraged to do. Peace, purity, unity of the church, these are all good things. But the difficulty lay in the fact that it is not always possible to promote peace and purity of the church concurrently. Peace could be maintained without purity, and purity could be achieved without peace and unity. But to do both at the same time was difficult. The reason was the truth always will have enemies, and that pure doctrine always will be opposed, just as we see in this scenario with the Jewish people, the followers of Jesus.
[44:33] Actually, Boyce continues, I will go as far as to affirm as a rule of Christian experience that strong teaching of sound doctrine will inevitably produce discord in some quarters. Speaking the truth might be opposed, and that's okay. You might go out on the street and somebody will say, actually, actually, you preach a false gospel. And you're like, okay, thank you. I don't agree with you. I will read the Bible. Mark Dever puts it perfectly, where he says, correct division should be preferred over corrupt unity. Correct division should be preferred over corrupt unity. And that is with boldness that I exhort you today in our modern Christianity that we live in.
[45:20] So if we want to look at the final section of this passage, Jesus actually provides four words. And so section three is titled Four Words of Challenge. We're going to look at this through verse 60 through 71.
[45:33] And so as verse 60 continues, at this time, there were faithful disciples who heard this in verse 60. I need to turn my page here.
[45:50] And so when many of the disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? Meaning that not everybody's going to believe you, even if it is solid truth. It's not your job to sort of prove to people to believe you.
[46:05] It's the Lord's job to draw that understanding out of people, to start tilling the soil within the heart to understand. That's his grace being lavished upon mankind.
[46:18] And it's only up to him to bring true understanding of this. And it's still up to him to bring true understanding of the tough words that I'm speaking today. But at this time, there were faithful disciples who heard this.
[46:30] And even they could not understand the truth that Jesus makes so clear. And they become offended by it. Jesus makes it clear that our understanding in the gospel comes by the power of the Holy Spirit, granted by the Father.
[46:46] We see this previously with a little bit of hints of the Lord drawing that awareness within believers. And this means that as believers, when we have that light bulb moment, I don't know, maybe I might be the only one.
[47:04] But when you come to know the truth, maybe when you're living a life in sin, and all of a sudden you just realize, what the heck am I doing in life? All these things that I'm chasing after of being filled and things like that.
[47:17] What am I even doing? I'm always thirsty. A high is never good enough for me. I can take as much heroin as I want. But it will never satisfy that need.
[47:28] That low is still going to hit. And low it is, depending on your vice. And you can have this in so many different arenas. You can have this with a porn addiction.
[47:39] Where you have that height, you have that low. And not enough of consumption of that vice is going to be good enough to fully satisfy. And so believers at times have that light bulb moment.
[47:52] And it has nothing to do with our level of intellect, as Nicodemus attests to in John 3. But it occurs deep within our hearts where the Holy Spirit is starting to work and stir up and resides in believers.
[48:09] This is encouraging, I believe. Because in that, we are at peace knowing that we can explain the gospel to people. We can go out on YSU's campus all we want and have the perfect words.
[48:21] We could stand up in small group under the evaluation of that mean Pastor Brent and articulate the gospel so perfectly to somebody else who's a non-believer. And still, we know that it is not in our power to make them truly understand.
[48:38] And isn't this true in the passage? Jesus is saying truth. It is full focus. That little tiny house in that medical exam is crystal clear. Every edge is intact. You should be able to see.
[48:51] We can draw pictures. We can do a song and a dance for people. I could wear a costume on stage and everyone would come, probably, out of entertainment. But they're going to be missing Jesus.
[49:03] It's not under my intellect. It's not under my charm. It's not under my ideas or gimmicks in order to make people understand the gospel. It's the work of God.
[49:15] The Father's work is to do that. We can't save everyone. This is encouraging, but also sad, isn't it?
[49:27] Because we ought to live a life laboring to enable as many people to hear this message as possible. This isn't supposed to be a cop-out saying that we can pick and choose who we witness to. No, not at all.
[49:39] We are professional seed casters. We are seed planters. The Lord is doing all the growth. He brings all the growth. It's not he who waters either.
[49:51] It's God who gives the growth. And we see in verse 66, many disciples leave Jesus. This is a sad scene. Such a tragic scene.
[50:02] It brings the reality that it could encourage us in our witnessing here today. Many disciples leave Jesus in verse 66. And notice that this was in the synagogue at Capernaum.
[50:14] Man, he probably had a pretty good crowd in there. He probably had a lot of followers. He probably could have boasted, you know. Oh, look how many people attended my sermon. And then they all left.
[50:29] And only 12 remains. And with four words in the original language. In the original language, Jesus says, do you want to go away as well?
[50:42] Those are four words in the original language. Eight words in our ESV translation. But those four words, similar to Jesus testing the disciples with him prior to the miracle of the feeding of 5,000.
[51:03] And asking, where are we going to get money to provide bread for these people? He tests the disciples again. After you hear all of this, are you going to go with the crowd? Because biblical Christianity is not popular.
[51:19] You want to go with the crowd. Do you want to go away as well? Do you want to grumble along with the crowd? Do you want to complain along with the crowd?
[51:31] All revolving around the physical circumstances of their lives. And in a resounding faith in Jesus Christ, Peter responds.
[51:42] Look with me in verse 69. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed.
[51:54] And we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. What a fantastic response of faith. Now there is great faith in at least 11 of the 12 disciples.
[52:09] Because they weren't simply in close proximity with Jesus. This following Jesus doesn't mean that you are in close proximity of Jesus. As we see with Judas.
[52:20] You could be right next to Jesus and your heart can be far from him. But they shared great intimacy. The 11. With their unity as believers in his identity. In verse 70.
[52:33] We see. One of them. Among the 12. Who remains. Who should have left probably with that unbelieving. Grumbling crowds.
[52:44] A self-sufficient crowd. This man, Judas, is the guy on the fringe line of belief. And did not share that same faith with the other 11. Despite his close proximity with Jesus.
[52:57] Church, I got to encourage you as well. You can read the Bible all you want. You can do all the things that consider yourself a Christian. You get baptized. You can be here every Sunday.
[53:08] You can have better attendance than many of our church members. You can be here every Sunday. You can give your money and your finances more than anybody else. But if you're only following Jesus in close proximity and not intimacy.
[53:19] This is the recipe of exposing fickle faith. At the minute that Jesus comes into your life and rattles that foundation and tests you. And he asks you. Would you like to go also?
[53:31] You'll be the first one at times. Without that intimacy of feasting on Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood. Are the ones that will leave from faith.
[53:44] And additionally, if you are following Jesus just for the bread. I got to ask you to repent. If you are following Jesus just for the bread. I ask you to repent.
[53:57] Because that is idolatry. And while you still have time on this earth. People do not live on bread alone. But on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8.3.
[54:09] Follow Jesus today regardless of the benefits. Or convenience. Offering your lives as a spiritual sacrifice. Offer your life as a spiritual sacrifice.
[54:20] Regardless of benefits. Contingencies. Knowing that when you. When Jesus comes and asks each and every one of us. Those same four words in that original language. Do you want to go away as well?
[54:30] We can confidently respond. Lord. To whom shall we go? Let's pray.