John 6:66-71
TO WHOM SHALL WE GO
Jesus began his ministry in Judea. His success there seemed to be all that could be desired. However it soon became apparent that the crowds that followed Him misunderstood or willfully ignored His purpose. It seemed they followed Him chiefly for material things. V.2
He left there and went to Galilee and after some time things became they were in Judea as the great crowds followed Him to be healed or fed. V. 26-27 Why are you flowering Jesus? Just to go to Heaven and miss hell, just for the blessing you receive from Him. These are legitimate but should not be the reason you follow Him. The reason you or anyone follow Jesus should be because you we love Him and want to serve Him.
Jesus seeing this finds it necessary to sift the crowd. He does this by addressing them in terms that can be acceptable and understood only by the truly spiritual. He tells them He is not among them for practical reasons nor for the bread that perishes but for the bread that endures. V. 53-58 Because of His teaching many began to go away and follow Him no more. In v.66 Jesus then turns to His disciples and asks them WILL YE ALSO GO AWAY. V. 67
Peter then asks a question and makes a statement that is the basis for of this message. In v.68-69 Peter asked TO WHOM SHALL WE GO, and makes the statement “You have the words of eternal life. Let’s try to find an answer to the question Peter asked for it is of great importance we find the right answer.
The first thing we need to look at and understand is an undeniable fact we all need someone to go too. Make no mistake about it we all at one time or other in our life have needed someone to go too. Any one that would try and tell you they don’t need anyone, I can make it on my own is trying to run a bluff or trying to fool themselves. We need someone to go too and talk too and most likely will need to do so again. I for one am not ashamed to tell you and everyone I need you your love and your prayer. I can’t make it by myself. In fact there have been times I have needed someone more than my companion or friends. I remember a time in my life and ministry I was so distressed and discouraged and in need of someone that I drove over one hundred miles to talk to a man I knew and had the utmost confidence in to talk too and pray with. Let me say here it helped remove the clouds and helped me climb out of the valley I was in.
So who can we go too? Well I am glad I can tell you we can always go to Jesus for He will always be there. Remember it is as the song writer wrote JUST WHEN I NEED HIM MOST JESUS IS NEAR TO COMFORT AND CHEER JUST WHEN I NEED HIM MOST.
We need someone to help us overcome our doubts fears frustrations disappointments grief and sorrows. I think sometimes the greatest thing we need help in overcoming is the unknown especially when the future involves change. Much of the dislike of change is not the change itself but the unknown that change brings. We need to remember that we live in a changing world and society. Whither we like it or not things around us are changing and will continue to change. The things that once seemed so simple now are complex. When computers came out they were supposed to make things easier but I sometimes wonder if it has really made things easier. Whither it is easier or not it is here to stay and we need to adjust to the fact.
But I am thrilled to be able to tell you that though the things in the world and even the church are changing there is one fact that always remains the same, JUST WHEN I NEED HIM MOST JESUS IS NEAR TO COMFORT AND CHEER JUST WHEN I NEED HIM MOST and that He is on the main line waiting for you and me to tell Him what we want. Even in those times it seems that even He is far away and doesn’t care anymore. He cares and is always there. Remember His promise in the great commission ‘LO I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE. (Matthew 28:20) So my friend draw up close to Him lean heavy on His bosom and when the howling winds of adversity assail you though the tug at you they cannot separate you from Him.
We also need someone to help us overcome circumstances we have no control over. Circumstances sometimes come that affect us in so many ways. Many are in perpetual depression for all things always seem against them. It seems every time they think they are about to get their head above the water another wave of uncontrollable circumstances hits them and pushes them under again and again. It seems every time they take one step forward they slide back three. (Ever been there I have?) Things like sickness, disappointments financial reverses. It seems they hardly rise from one flap when suddenly another and another come. But again I am glad to tell you when I have been there Jesus was always there and there on time. It’s as one southern gospel singer sings, “three days late but He’ always on time.)
He has promised not to allow any temptation storm difficulty to come our way but what we are able to bear but will with the temptation storm difficult circumstance come our way but what with their coming will also make a way of escape that we might be able to bear it. (I Corinthians 10:13) That way of escape or ability to bear what comes our way is Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
We need someone to help us out of our confusion. It has been said we live in a most confused world. That statement is an understatement for I am convinced we do not know the half of the confusion that is in the world today. Jesus talked about the confusion this world and the church are in in His answer to the disciples asked concerning the time of His coming. He said, there will be distress of nations with perplexity the sea and waves roaring. (Luke 21:25) This confusion Jesus is talking is evident even in the church. The nations of the world and the church are facing problems they don’t know the answer too. There are good Christian people confused as to what is really right and wrong. This confusion has gotten them discouraged and ready to give up.
Let me share something here that will help you in these times. First be sure you have been forgiven and your name is written in the lamb’s book of live. In other words create a personal relationship with Jesus and maintain that relationship at all cost. Make this your number one goal. Then commit the things you are confused about to Jesus and let Him take care of them. I tell you He will take care of them. I talked to a man a few years ago who was confused distressed and discouraged to the point of completing suicide. I told him what he needed to do was create a relationship with Jesus and let Him take care of the things he was confused about. About five years later he called me one day and invited me to come to his baptismal as he had given his heart to the Lord. Words can never express the joy that flooded my heart and life when I heard those words. And yes I was there and what a time it was. He has since come to the church I pastored and given his testimony of how across the years God had been working to bring him to the point to where he was ready and willing to turn his life over to Jesus. And oh what a difference Jesus has made in his life.
Yes Jesus can and will bring us out of our confusion if we will surrender all to him trust and obey Him. Don’t become discouraged if it takes some time to bring you our but rest assured He will. It has not been too long ago that I went through a time of confusion distress discouragement that I was on the verge of doubting God’s very existence. But by sheer bull dog tenacity I continued to believe read His word and pray and one day He assured me He was real and there all the time. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and just the time we need Him He is near to comfort and cheer just when I we need Him most.
We need someone to go too when discouraged. Discouragement is a shoreless bottomless ocean on which many a soul has been lost forever. It has nothing to anchor too or hold too. Many more are sinking in this ocean and the further the sink the darker things become. I know for I’ve been there and have discovered it is both dangerous and frightening. In fact I remember one time when I was driving a log truck to help make a living for myself and my family in a small mission type church I became so discouraged that one day I said to the Lord, Lord just release me from the call and let me go. Less than one hundred yards later suddenly the realization came to me of what I had said and tears began to stream down my cheek as I prayed Lord forgive me I am so sorry for what I just said. It was then that I realized the danger of allowing discouragement to advance that far.
We all face and fight discouragement but we don’t have to become its victim but can become the victor through Jesus Christ our Lord. Remember He has said he would allow nothing to come our way that we cannot bear but what with it He will make a way of escape. (I Corinthians 10:13) So when discouragement comes and it will don’t burrow your head in the sand like an ostrich but lift your eyes to the hills from which comes your help and look full in His wonderful face as the things that discourage you grow strange dim and weak in the light of His glory and grace. This is easy to say when you’re not in that situation but very difficult to do when you’re facing discouragement with all you’re might. Remember we may and will lose a battle now and then but He has already won the war. We are fighting a defeated enemy and he knows he is defeated but he never gives up on trying to defeat us and one of his greatest weapons is discouragement.
A discouraged person is on the brink of despair for they see no help or hope in sight. If you are there let me share with you the words of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN. (Daniel 2:29) Let me assure you He will help you He will not leave your there He will come to you and lift you. He will lift your feet out of the miry clay of discouragement and set them on the solid rock of confidence and assurance. He will stand with you like He stood with Paul on the raging stormy sea. You will know He is there and suddenly realize He has been there all the time.
We need someone to go too in the midst of the battle for instruction on what to for guidance and direction. Ever stood at the cross roads of life and knew you wanted to do the whole will of God yet wasn’t sure which way to go. If you have then you know as well as I that it is then you need someone to go to for direction. When one is in this situation the best thing to do is wait until the Lord makes it clear what He wants you to do. I know this is sometimes hard but if we trust and never doubt He will surly bring us out. He will make it so plain that one will never doubt they are going in the right direction and doing the right thing.
Before I moved to my last pastorate the place my wife and I were in seemed at a dead end road. We often talked about moving but didn’t really know what to do as we had no indication from the Lord. One morning as I was having my morning devotions before going to work I told the Lord He knew what we were think and asked Him to make it as clear as the blue sky on a cloudless day. Well He did and when He did I was dumbfounded shocked and a little discouraged as I had never had anything happen in thirty six years of pastoring. As I was going back to the room my co-worker and I were sitting taking a break the Lord whispered to me “well you asked” needless to say the clouds lifted and rejoiced the rest of the day in anticipator of telling my wife of the prayer and answer. The next day in my prayer time I said now Lord you have made it clear that we are to make a move now make it as clear as the clear blue sky where you want us to go, that day a district leader called and wanted me to go to Pittsburg, TX where I spent the last fourteen years of my pastoral ministry. So if you are in the valley of confusion and don’t know where to turn, turn to Jesus and He will lead you out.
Then we need someone to go too when the storm is raging. The disciples went to Him in the midst of the storm and He claimed the stormy sea. Paul went to Him in the midst of the storm and was assured there would be no loss of life only the ship. Jesus in His closing remarks in the Sermon on the Mount tells us the storms will come and where and how we build will determine if we will be able to rid out our storms or be swept away with the raging billows the storms bring. The song writer wrote a song that’s appropriate here, listen to it and note what it says, “You been in the storm seems like forever your nights of confusion has been so long, your ship has lost anchor and the storm's got you drifting your night's almost over you can ride out your storm. Just remember God's promise, I'll never leave you though the waters are raging, they'll do you no harm don't give up the battle, for your answer is coming just hold on to Jesus and ride out your storm. Ride out the storm God is there with you, you may not feel him you're not alone you're hurting now but our morning is coming just hold on to Jesus and ride out the storm
We sometimes need someone to go too that can lift our drooping spirits. Because of fatigue our spirits began to sag and drag it is then we need someone to give us a shot of spiritual adrenalin to boost our spirits. Daniel talks of a time that satan “shall wear out the saints of the most high”, (Daniel 7:25) As we face the battles of life and endeavor to get the unsaved saved and in the church and it seems the harder we try the less they seem interested we do become tired in the battle but not of the battle. It is then we need someone to go to that is able willing and ready to give us that strength to keep fighting the fight of faith.
We need someone to go too who can lift us out of sin. Sin is our number one problem. If people can only see this and solve the sin problem most other problems will go away as many of them are result of sin. Sin is the cause of selfishness, hatred, envy adultery backbiting spreading evil surmise tale bearing strive and discord in the church. Sin is too big of a problem for us to handle alone. But there is one who has already won the war and all we need to do is claim the victory He has won follow close to Him and we too will win the war.
Last we need someone to go too that we can always imitate and be right. Every one of us has at one time thought I wish I could be like this or that person. However we might want to imitate them and be wrong. But we can always imitate Jesus. So when you don’t know where to go what to do and become tired in the battle as you ride out the storms of life remember there is one you can go too that is always there. In fact He has said, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
