Title: What will you choose?
Scripture passage: Jn 6: 25-68
Introduction: In year 2000, I went to Disney world in Tokyo together with my family. As usual we went to the different rides and had a good time there. Then we come across a gigantic dome that looks so inviting and when we approach; there is a big board and says “Welcome to Galaxy Travel” the other words are written in Japanese and I can’t read them. So we enter into the waiting area and joined the long queue of people enthusiastically waiting to go in. The waiting area is prefurbished to look like a spacecraft and we are space-man waiting to go to our mission. You see, the interior was so big and we went from one chamber to another chamber of this spacecraft a number of times. All these while, not knowing what I am in for… there was a mixture of excitement as well as anticipation, and mystery surrounding it. You see the problem was I couldn’t read Japanese. However, one thing that caught my attention was a big sign right in front of me with bold letters written in red. I can read those written in English, “ If you have heart disease, high blood pressure, hyper tension, … if you are pregnant. …and so on, please take the exit on the left.” After this warning sign appear for more than three or four times, I begin to feel pretty nervous about the whole thing … all this while I had a thought that this is just a 3 D space simulator where I would strap myself to a special seat and look at a big screen and all the while being bombarded with surround sound and multi colour techno- displays and images of space and the galaxy. But this was getting to be more serious than I had thought. Each time I walked into yet another chamber and there in front was the same warning sign again, and again… . I had to resist the temptation every time, of walking out of that exit door. I have to make a deliberate choice to stay and not to walk out. So what is the ride?
I shall come back to my story afterwards.
Choice #1: What are you working for?
27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
In other words, there is food that will spoil, and others that will not. When I was in Tokyo, out side every restaurant there is a display of the delicacies that they serve. The very look at the display will be enough to cause any hungry patron to salivate- because it looks so good. But they can’t be eaten. I heard that they are real dishes, but in order to preserve them, a special layer of waxy substance is poured over them. In a sense, the dishes become mummified! You can’t eat them.
I don’t thing that Jesus is referring to this when he said about the kind of food that will not spoil. He says food that endures to eternal life.
Jesus says that a man cannot have two masters. He cannot serve God and at the same time serve mammoth, he will love one and hate the other.
Joshua challenged the Israelites, “Choose this day who you will serve.’’
Elijah on Mt Carmel again tells God’s people to decide for themselves whether they will serve the Lord.
Let me ask you a few questions: I keep in mind some of us are not going to be working “full time" in the church, missions or Christian organisation.
- What drives you? What will affects your daily decisions, (such as whether to take up a promotion or not)? How do you allocate your time for ministry, work and family?
Are you working for money or for promotion? What drives you? What will give you the most joy in the long term?
By thinking through some of these questions, will help us to know whom do we serve? What are we working for?
Jesus says in Jn 4 “ my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
For those who are serving God in full time ministry – “inverted commas” again, because in a sense we are serving God full time any way.
We usually get a huge pay cut and get relatively lower pay than the secular. With some rare exceptions, … unless you become a tele- evangelist.
So if we are not driven by money, what are we driven by?
Is it recognition, or pride or ego?
How we do measure our success in the ministry? Is it the size of our followers, or is it the lasting change in the lives we impact. I don’t want to make any enemies this morning.
But what drives us in the ministry. Is it status, the ranking and position in our organisation, or the recognition by our leaders, or by our missions community? What are you working for?
Let be real, it’s a fact. Even the disciples quarrel among themselves who is the greatest and request to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus. We have to deal with this issue too.
Choice #2: Who is Jesus to you? (Jn 6:56)
Some people simply made Jesus to be what they want him to be. The crowd are looking for a miracle worker who can multiply bread and fed their temporary hunger, even a political king to overcome the Romans and liberate the Jews.
Is Jesus like a genie in a lamp to you and me? We come to him to get what we want and tell him when we want it, how we want it
He makes it clear that he is the Bread of life that came down from heaven. He says that this bread is his body, which he will give it for the salvation of the world.
He also says that his flesh and his blood are real food and real drink. Whoever drink of it and drink of it will have eternal life. In Jn 6:56 he also says that whoever eats of his flesh and drinks of his blood remains in him, and Jesus in him. Hey, this is an important point. This is not a passive, “ I accepts Jesus and I am saved” kind of thing. Rather, Jesus is in me and I am in Jesus. I will love what Jesus love and do what Jesus does. Hate what he hates and don’t do what he will not do. Do I become a robot and automatically do that – no. But on a daily basis I surrender my will to him.
2 Cor 5: 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Cf.: Jn 6:29 and v.38 Even Jesus himself does not come to do his own will but the will of the Father.
Choice #3: Who will you choose to follow? (v. 66-67)
- Will you follow the crowd or Jesus?
It must have been a very exciting time for the disciples to see so many people following Jesus. They had just gone through an experience of their life. Something great is happening here. They saw Jesus multiplying bread and fed five thousand men. They must be getting somewhere, and becoming somebody - so many people are following Jesus…they might want Jesus to be their king, some were even talking about Jesus being the messiah who would liberate the Jews from the Romans. What’s the implication for the disciples, will they also be somebody important?
And all of the suddenly, the crowd stopped following Jesus, everyone had left. And Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them if they would also want to leave (v. 66-67) “do you not want to leave too, do you?” (Expecting a negative answer).
If they wish they can choose to leave, they are presented with a choice, and opportunity to leave if they wish to. This is a moment of great testing for the disciples. They just went pass a period of all time high, and now they suddenly plunged into the depth of a new low. At this time, they have to decide whether to leave Jesus (just as the crowd did) or to follow Jesus all the way. Nowhere else has it been recorded again that Jesus asked the disciples if they want to leave. This is a milestone in the faith of the disciples and they made a decision to follow Jesus all the way. Peter spoke up on the behalf of the rest and said, “Lord to whom shall we go? You (alone) have the words of eternal life.” (v.68)
Thus all of them (except Judas, and John) did follow Jesus all the way, because they (all) later became martyrs for Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, at some point of time in our lives, we must also make a decision to continue to follow Jesus or not. Maybe the road ahead will be rough, when no one will go wth us and we have to travel alone with Jesus. Will we still continue our journey with Jesus or not?
An old, old chorus express it so well:
THOUGH NONE GO WITH ME, I STILL WILL FOLLOW,
THOUGH NONE GO WITH ME, I STILL WILL FOLLOW,
THOUGH NONE GO WITH ME, I STILL WILL FOLLOW,
NO TURNING BACK, NO TURNING BACK.
I HAVE DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS
NO TURNING BACK, NO TURNING BACK
… Coming back to my story, (at Tokyo Disneyland). I went thru many chambers in the ‘space-craft’ and finally sat down in the seat. It was none other than a Super-Duper Rollercoaster. ( I knew that I was going to regret…..ah, .. ahh!) It’s very scary in a pitch black space of endless loops of twist and turns and gravity defying plunge and the pull and thrust that is equivalent to a G-force of 10.
You can imagine the rest of the story. I was hanging on for my dear life and screaming my lungs out! After the death defying and most horrifying ride of my life, we came out of the ‘spacecraft’. When I was still in the state of shock and pale with fright, my lovely wife, turned, looked at me and gave a satisfied smile. Then she said to me, “Didn’t you enjoy that ride …?”
You see, in our lives, along the way we will encounter many checkpoints where we have to make a decision whether or not are we going to continue our walk with Jesus. Just like those warning signs at the Disneyland Galaxy Travel ride that says you can exit from the left if you choose to. Are we going to exit and stop following Jesus when life and ministry becomes too tough and trying? Or are we going to decide to follow Jesus regardless of… (no “but’s” and no “if’s”) … because we have made up our mind to follow him all the way, no turning back, no turning back. No, we will not look back, nor will follow the crowd to leave.
God bless you to decide wisely, Who will you choose to follow, the crowd or Jesus? You decide!
By Ps William Tan
