It’s Time To Grow Up Part 4
Scriptures: John 6:53-69; Hebrews 4:12
Introduction
This is part four of my series, “It’s Time To Grow Up!” In my previous messages I shared with you that there are many baby Christians within the Church, some who have been members of the Church for many years. I shared with you that God expects us to grow up and mature in Christ. It is through our maturing that we are able to reach others for Him through our personal testimonies. I have shared with you that it can be easy to recognize a baby Christian based on what they eat. As it relates to Christian growth in the Word of God, baby Christians can understand and accept only the simple concepts of Christianity (the milk of the word.)
My plan this morning was to focus on 2 Timothy 2:15, but I want to lay the proper foundation for it. This morning we will examine how baby Christians are unable to rightly divide God’s word, (read it and gaining deeper insight from it.) In some cases it means they read the Word but do not necessarily gain the real truth from it. In other cases they read and study the Bible to confirm what they already believe and then build their personal foundation on Scriptures taken out of context. These baby Christians know what they want to believe and search the Scriptures for those that can be “interpreted” their way. Once they find their Scriptures, they begin quoting them and making their view a sound doctrine that others will follow. For example, remember how people always say, “the Lord gives it and the Lord takes it away, blessed be the name of the Lord?” Someone took this from Job 1:21 and established this as a truth for Christians to accept. However, Job’s understanding was not accurate as everything that was happening to him was not being done to him by God. Had Job known the source of his troubles he would not have blamed God for all of his misfortunes. This is what I am talking about when I say we read without the full understanding. There are many believers walking around thinking that God is taking things away from them to teach them a valuable lesson.
This morning we will examine what was recorded in the sixth chapter of the book of John to how baby and mature Christians respond to the meat of the Word of God. Before we go to the book of John, I want to remind you of what was recorded in Hebrews 4:12. It says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This is what the Word of God does in our lives. It speaks to heart matters! His word is the authoritative standard by which all thoughts and actions are to be measured and mature Christians understand and accepts this. Now I want you to keep this Scripture in mind as I share with you the examples from the book of John.
I read an article once about cannibalism and how the Bible not only mentions it, but that Jesus taught His disciples to do that very thing. Let me be clear, when you read the Old Testament, you will find examples of this, but it’s not recorded as something that God approves of versus something that He knew would take place because of the hearts of the people. There are people today who use what Jesus said to His followers to justify this behavior. Before I read this to you, I want to make this point: we know that Jesus did not teach that we should eat other people and that their interpretation of this Scripture is not true. However, if we do not rightly divide the Word of God (continuous study) we will not be able to defend the truth of the Word because based on what they are quoting, it’s exactly what Jesus said. Turn to John 6:53-58 and let’s read what Jesus said. “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” (NASB)
This is an extreme example of someone (baby Christian or not) reading the Word of God to justify something they believe and wish to do. Now in their defense, did Jesus say that His disciples were supposed to eat His flesh? Yes He did! Did He also say that they were supposed to drink His blood? Yes He did! Did He say that if you did this you would have eternal life? Yes He did! If Jesus said this, and we just read where He did, is He not recommending cannibalism? No He is not! Now let me tell you why so that if you are ever questioned about this you can provide a short concise answer. Jesus was not talking about people actually eating His body. He was sharing with them a spiritual concept about how to gain eternal life which is something His disciples should have been aware of because they had spent time with Him. As the Scripture bears out, even though some of the disciples followed Jesus they were not ready to accept that the reality that He was the Son of God. Because their understanding was limited, they could not understand and/or accept this difficult teaching. What Jesus was trying to get them to understand through his statement was that just as we must eat food to stay alive physically, the same applies spiritually and He became that food for us.
In the natural we are able to live because something else died to provide us with the food we need to survive. A plant is a living organism until it is pulled from the ground to provide us with our vegetables that we need to live. For us to have vegetable, the plant must die. Their death provides for our life. The same applies to our meat. When you are eating your seafood, beef, pork or whatever your meat of choice is, that animal gave up its life so that you could live. Think about it. Every living animal had to die in order for us to have meat. Their death was the ultimate sacrifice for them and it will continue until Jesus returns. Life exists because of death. The death of one thing provides life for another – some call this the circle of life. This is a natural process that Jesus used to explain a spiritual concept. In order for us to have the opportunity to have eternal life, Jesus had to die. He died so that we could live. He provided His flesh and blood as the final sacrifice so that through His death we can live forever. He was not speaking of His disciples eating His flesh and drinking His blood in the natural, but spiritually. We partake of His flesh and blood when we accept Him as our personal Savior. We accept that His death gives us spiritual life just as my eating vegetables and meat sustains my natural life here on earth. When we eat, the food enters our bodies and is digested giving us energy and the building materials to maintain our health. Once our bodies have received what it needs from the food, the waste is discarded from our bodies. When the waste does not leave our bodies quickly enough we become constipated – which is defined as a difficult bowel movement. Now I want you to see this, spiritually we have some really constipated Christians – especially baby Christians!!! If you consistently take in the Word, digest it (place it within your heart) and never gives any of it out (sharing the Word, your faith) to others, my friends, you are spiritually constipated! The Word of God is having a very hard time leaving you because you refuse to let it go!!! When we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior, He, through the Holy Spirit, dwells within us, giving us spiritual life. Our natural bodies are fed by the food we eat while our spirits are fed through the Spirit of God dwelling within us as we eat of the Word of God. Someone using this story to justify cannibalism is an extreme example of someone taking the words of Christ out of context and building a doctrinal belief to justify something they wish to believe or to nullify the Bible as a whole.
Remember what I said about how baby Christians can only accept the simple things of Christ? From this Scripture comes an example of this also. Jesus told His “disciples” that they must eat of His flesh and drink His blood. He told this to believers who had been walking with Him and learning at His feet. He told this to believers who supposedly knew Him and understood how He taught spiritual concepts utilizing natural experiences. In other words, He said this to believers who were supposed to know better. Let’s examine what took place after some of these “believers” had a few minutes to process this new teaching of Jesus. You will see two different responses to what Jesus said. Look down at verse 59 and we will begin reading there.
“These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, ‘This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?’ But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, ‘Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, ‘For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.’ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:59-69)
Do you see this? The babies among the disciples, after they took a few minutes to process what Jesus had just said, were offended. They did not ask Jesus to explain what He meant, but talked among themselves about not being able to accept this. You see, a baby Christian will want their teaching served in such a way that they can accept and tolerate it. In other words, it must be simple and easy to hear. What Jesus had just said offended their sensibilities greatly. As a baby would, they incorrectly assumed that He meant exactly what He said – that they were supposed to eat His flesh. When Jesus perceived what they were thinking he questioned them. He did not offer them an explanation because they should not have needed one. Instead He told them if they were offended at this saying how would they handle seeing Him ascending back to where He had come from? Are you picturing this? What Jesus had told them about eating His flesh was transitional food for them, moving them from milk to vegetables – something more difficult to chew on but not really that hard to swallow. Some of them were not able to handle what Jesus said (the vegetables) so they became offended. When Jesus gave them a taste of the meat (His ascending back to where He had come from) they choked on it as they could not accept (chew and swallow) it. So you know what they did? They stopped following the Son of God. The Bible does not go into this, but I want to offer “my personal” thoughts on what potentially could have happened to them. If someone gets offended with you and they act in an immature way, what will they do? They will begin to talk about you in a negative way. I personally believe that these disciples who became so offended at Jesus that when they left Him they began to talk negatively about Him. Can you imagine some of them saying, “That Man actually expects us to eat His flesh! Who does He think He is! Did He really expect us to believe He came from heaven!” I would like to believe that at some point some of these disciples repented and came to their senses, but we do not know. These were the baby Christians. Remember what Paul said about the Word being a two edge sword? Baby Christians cannot handle how the Word cuts both ways! We will talk more about that in coming weeks.
The remaining twelve disciples stayed with Jesus (although Judas would later betray Him.) When the other’s left, Jesus asked the remaining twelve would they depart from Him also. Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” Examine closely what Peter said. He acknowledged that Jesus had the words of eternal life – he was speaking of the meat. He also confessed that Jesus was the Son of God. That too was meat! Therefore, because he believed this he asked Jesus “Where would we go?” Peter knew that Jesus offered something that no one else had but everyone needed; forgiveness from sin and eternal life through Him. His response on behalf of the twelve was the response of a maturing Christian who was able to chew on the meat of the Word. These disciples, minus Judas, remained with Jesus and were the foundation for the Christian Church. They were not perfect men and they had times when they failed, but the one thing they did was stay dedicated to Christ, even when it cost them their lives. Unlike a baby Christian, they were not offended at the Word of God when things were being taught that convicted them. Unlike baby Christians, these disciples did not shy away from conflict when people questioned them about their faith. Unlike baby Christians, these disciples were not ashamed of Christ.
In this story I have given you two behaviors of baby Christians. The first was taking the Word of God and interpreting it to suit your lifestyle and/or confirm what you already believe. When you only search the Scriptures to justify what you already believe, you do not grow. In the second example I shared with how baby Christians cannot hear or accept some of the more difficult teachings. When the Word begin to cut deeply (especially when it goes against the norm) baby Christians get offended and sometimes even walk away from their Church (to find one that teaches what they want to hear) or they walk away from their faith altogether to find something that is more “reasonable” and non-restrictive. It is difficult for a baby Christian to understand that we do not get to pick and choose what we accept and believe versus what we can ignore when it comes to the word of God. I hope that you were able to visualize these examples and will be aware of them when you see them in your life or the lives of others.
Next Sunday is Easter and I will continue this series. We will examine what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:11-15. This will be an Easter message that you will be able to apply to your life as you being to teach others about your faith in God.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
