Sometime last semester, I went to my roommate's church where they were talking about life apps. For the first sermon of the series, they played a sermon that was available at the North Point Community Church. I absolutely loved this sermon series because it talked about actually having applying biblical teachings to our lives.
When I got back up to Fort Collins for the rest of break, I found myself restless to hear more messages so I went back to this sight (http://www.northpoint.org/messages ) and searched for a title that intrigued my heart. And that's when I found Shocking Statements of Jesus.
During the first sermon, the preacher touched on the Liar, Lunatic or Lord Trilemma made famous by C.S. Lewis. If you think about it, there is no reason that Jesus would have said these things if he was simply trying to get popular. Think about it.... would anyone win an election by telling people to pay their taxes, give all their belongings away, and wash other people's feet? No way! But those are just a few things Jesus said because He wanted people to live for a higher purpose and differently than what the world was telling them.
For this first sermon in the series however, the pastor focused on John 6. To put this in context, Jesus had just fed 5000 people in verses 1-14. This is amazing because;
1. This was probably the largest group at that time to ever be fed all at the same time. Now a day, a good catering service could feed that many people so we down grade how truly amazing it was that this many people were eating at once.
2. Five loaves of bread and two fish fed 5000 people. No matter how big you think these "small" loaves and fish may have been, it's hard to believe that in a normal situation they would be able to satisfy more than a few teenage boys. Add in that the 5000 people may or may not have included women and children, and this can be nothing short of a miracle.
3. There were 12 baskets of leftovers! Does this even need to be explained? The fact that the people were satisfied and there were leftovers just goes to show that God is more than sufficient.
So Jesus just did this awesome thing where he fed thousands of people from basically dinner for two, and then he got up withdrew from the crowd because he knew they would want to "make him king by force" (v. 15). In my mind, just the fact that he left instead of basking in the glory and praises of people wanting to make him king is amazing and shows that his heart was different than those of men. In the next few verses, Jesus walks on water, showing yet again that He was special.
At this point I can't help but put myself in the position of a disciple. If I was one of them I would be like "Wow! This guy is the real thing. He's doing all these miracles. He's going to take over this land and be King.... and I'm His friend! I am so stinkin' awesome by association!"
So as you can expect, the people who were fed the day before followed him. I mean, why wouldn't they? He had served them free food and they wanted more. When they went to Jesus however he told them "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." (v. 26-27)
Now these people are excited! They have to be thinking "YES! Today he's going to feed us food that will never spoil." So, they ask Jesus what they should do and Jesus replies "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (v. 28-29)
Confused, and still seeking food, they reply "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers are the manna in the desert; as it is written; 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" (v. 30-31)
This leads to Jesus trying to explain that God, not Moses delivered the manna but now God was delivering the true bread of God to give life to the world. This makes the crowd want the bread even more and they cry out "from now on give us this bread." (v. 34)
Then Jesus tells the people that HE is the bread of life, that those who come to him will never go hungry. He tells them that the Father sent him so that they could have eternal life. The crowd begins to grumble at this saying things about how he was the son of Joseph, a man that they knew so how could he have come down from heaven. Jesus then continued to try to explain, telling them about the ways of the Father (v.35-47) . Again he repeats "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers are the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man ma eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is m flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (v. 48-51)
Eat my flesh? Were they really hearing him right? The Jews again began to question him saying "how can this man give us his flesh to eat?", but Jesus replied "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. " (v.52-56)
Eat my flesh. Drink my blood. Now would you say these counts as a SHOCKING STATEMENTS? I know I sure would. See, Jesus was obviously not just trying to say things to get people to follow him because if he would have, there is NO WAY he would go around telling people to eat and drink of his body. Even with the vampire craze in the states right now, I still think people would look at him like "ARE YOU NUTS!?"
Now if you grew up like me, this is usually where the sermon ends, with the pastor talking about the Passover supper, but I absolutely loved that this pastor took further on to the rest of the chapter. There are still 11 more verses in John chapter 6.
In my bible, the subheading for the next session is called "Many Disciples Desert Jesus". In all honesty, I have never even heard of this section. I have been missing out on some important stuff! In verse 60, the disciples said "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Like the crowd that is sure to have left, the disciples were thinking about it. Then Jesus says to them "Does this offend you?" (v. 61)
I think it's really important to point out here that Jesus doesn't back down from what He's been saying. He doesn't try to sugar-coat it. He is bold, and "from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him" (v.66) but Jesus turned and asked the twelve "You do not want to leave too, do you?" (v.67)
At this point, you have to know, that the twelve are at least thinking about turning back and going to their old lives. They don't want to follow a crazy man. The day before they had been in the close circle of a man that the people wanted to make king, but now that he looked like a lunatic, why would they choose to go with him? They were doubting if they wanted to stay with this man because it was no longer a "give a little, get a lot situation". With his crazy speech, Jesus was making following him an unpopular choice that seemed to cost more than the rewards it would reap.
But then Simon Peter, one of the twelve stood up and said "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe AND KNOW that you are the Holy One of God".
Bam! Those are powerful words. See, Simon Peter had this flash of insight that walking away from Jesus meant that they had to be walking towards someone else. No one else had these words of eternal life. They didn't just believe that Jesus was the "Holy One of God".... they knew it!
Application Time!
Now just looking at this last part of the passage, I can see myself as one of those disciples; I have tried to walk away. In fact, I would bet that at some point in our lives, all of us at least entertain the thought of walking away from God because the cost of following seems to be a lot higher than the rewards. In times of trials, transitions and temptations, it's often easier to just saw, "I'm going my own way God. You're too crazy and outlandish for me." Look at people in the bible; they did it too. The first example to pop into my head is Jonah.
Jonah 1:1-3
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amitai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
BUT JONAH RAN AWAY FROM THE LORD ....
But the thing is, He came back to God. He KNEW that God was in charge, and although he ran away, he ran back to God when he finally had enough of trying to do things his own way.
When I think back to when I ran away from God, I can clearly see how I was running towards the devil's tricks, towards mirages of fulfilling things. People, relationships, food, exercise, romance and media.... nothing filled that void, but I hurt myself in the process of trying to find fulfillment in those directions and I missed out on some amazing comfort from my Daddy who loved me. In the back of my mind I have to keep this lesson for when I face trials, transitions and temptations....
TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?
In Christ's love,
Liza
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