“LEAVING JESUS”
JOHN 6: 60-71
OCTOBER 8, 2000
INTRODUCTION: A PRINCIPLES FRUSTRATION/ AMSTERDAM 2000
TRANSITION SENTENCE: Our text this day teaches us that there will be those who “Leave Jesus.” There will be those who cannot understand what Jesus is saying.
THESIS SENTENCE: [We CHOOSE to HEAR God or Reject HIM!]
I. LISTENING TO JESUS ISN’T EASY (V. 60) [SOME JUST DON’T GET IT!]
A. The Story of the “OFFENSIVE MESSAGE”
1. Context is everything. Jesus has just told the disciples, “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 (vv. 53).”
2. Now why on earth would that be an offensive statement?
3. Do you have a problem with Cannibalism?!
B. The origin of the offensive message.
1. Chapter 6 records the feeding of the five (5) thousand.
2. Jesus was the most popular man in town.
3. So much so that the crowd wanted to make Him King (vv. 15)
4. SO, Jesus gets out of town and we read that He Walked on water to do so (vv. 16-24).
5. Once more the crowd wants to find this “ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET MAN.”
6. They find Jesus and ask, “Where on earth have you been?”
7. JESUS GET’s OFFENSIVE: “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 (vv. 26).”
ILLUSTRATION: A little over a century ago, Leo Tolstoy tried puzzling out a plan to rid Moscow of the poor and homeless. The famed novelist and wealthy aristocrat first went to the worst hovels in town and gave money to beggars. He realized, however, that he had been “cheated by men who said they only needed money to buy a railway ticket home” when he spotted them still in town days later. Next, Tolstoy spent several months helping take the Moscow census, searching for the “Truly” needy. But Tolstoy saw the homeless could not be helped merely by “feeding and clothing a thousand people as one feeds and drives under shelter a thousand sheep.” At last, he sadly concluded: “Of all the people I noted down, I really helped none… I did not find any unfortunates who could be made fortunate by a mere gift of money.”
JESUS KNEW THAT BREAD ALONE DOES NOT SATISFY!
C. The Meaning of the offensive message.
1. Now that the crowd has been reprimanded, they ask, “What must we do to do the works God requires (vv. 28)?”
2. Jesus reply is offensive and is the meaning of the offensive message, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent (vv. 29).”
3. The crowd brings up the past, Moses, and signs from God, but Jesus remains in the present, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty (vv. 35).”
4. For more clarity on the matter, Jesus ads, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him... (vv. 44)”
Now I have a problem here! What is Jesus saying? Can’t just anyone come to Him to be saved? Isn’t salvation open to everyone? Why must the Father draw me if I am to come to Jesus?
5. Jesus understands that we are slow and need more information. Jesus clarifies the situation by saying, “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me (vv. 45).”
Now what is this all about? Jesus is saying, if you are will to hear from God, You will come to me. If you are focused on God and not on yourself and really want to know what God is all about, God will send you to me.
SO, HOW DO WE LEARN TO HEAR?
II. WITHOUT THE SPIRIT’S HELP WE CAN’T HEAR JESUS (VV. 61-66) [HERES HOW YOU GET IT!]
A. The Sign is offered?
1. Jesus knew that the disciples were upset and grumbling.
NOTE HERE: There must have been a large crowd of disciples here, not just the twelve (12), for they will be discussed in verse 67!
2. Jesus asked, “What if you saw me rising up into the sky returning to Heaven from which I came? Would that help you believe?
B. The Spirit is the Key.
1. What Jesus is saying is that He is talking about Spiritual things and He is trying to HELP these “CHILDREN” move from the concrete to the Abstract.
2. Remember John chapter three (3) and Nicodemus? Jesus tries to explain to him that understanding the natural law should help us to move into the spiritual law. Nicodemus couldn’t understand how a person could be born again from his mother when he was grown.
3. In our text, Jesus tells the disciples, “The Spirit gives LIFE (vv. 63).” 4. Jesus is trying to teach a principle here, “Words have the Power to GIVE LIFE.” My words, if you will consume them, if you will take them to heart, and apply them to your life, they will give you life and transform your very being.”
C. BUT, without the aid of the Spirit, Really without a willingness to hear from God, as taught in verse 45, NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND JESUS OR WHAT HE TEACHES.
1. Jesus states that the Flesh only understands what happens in the natural world. Therefore, “the flesh counts for nothing (63b).”
2. The “Fleshly” way of thinking only leads to “Offense” with the words of Jesus and complaints that He doesn’t do more miracles.
3. This whole text is about people, who just want what works for them now, not what will save them from an eternity of separation from God!
4. Jesus response, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him (vv. 65).”
5. We are left with this most disturbing statement: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him (John 6:66)!”
ILLUSTRATION: LOST DRIVER: On Monday, February 6, 1995, according to the Chicago Tribune, a Detroit bus driver finished his shift on the Route 21 bus and headed for the terminal. But somehow he took a wrong turn. He didn’t arrive at the terminal at the scheduled time of 7:19 P.M., and a short time later his supervisors started looking for him. Meanwhile the driver’s wife called the terminal and reported her husband might be disoriented from medication he was taking.
For six hours, the forty-foot city bus and its driver could not be found. Finally the state police found the bus and driver – two hundred miles northwest of Detroit. The bus was motoring slowly down a rural two-lane road, weaving slightly from side to side. The police pulled the bus over, and the driver said he was lost.
A police news release later stated, “The driver had no idea where he was and agreed he had made a wrong turn somewhere. Apparently this had not occurred to him during the four hours he drove without finding the bus depot.”
We too can take a wrong turn and never realize it if we are not seeking the Father who in turn will lead us to the SON!
III. SOME HEAR AND UNDERSTAND JESUS (SOME ACTUALLY GET IT!)
A. Jesus knows that Many will turn their back on HIM!
1. In verse 64 Jesus states that He knows some of the disciples do not believe. Also in verses 70 and 71 He states that one of the Twelve is a devil!
2. Jesus is not blown away by the fact that some will refuse to hear him message of hope and salvation! Jesus is aware of the disbelief
B. Jesus also knows that some will actually get it!
1. Jesus asks the disciples, NOW the TWELVE, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”
2. Why did Jesus ask this question? Was He afraid that all would desert him that all his hard work would come to naught?
3. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they must choose for themselves what they will believe. In spite of what everyone else is doing, each of us is accountable for our own actions.
4. Peter proclaims, “We are not like the rest!” We have weighed all the options and have come to the conclusion that there is no one else to go to. “You have the words of eternal life. We know and believe that You are the Holy One of God (vv.68-69).”
5. Peter proclaims in the midst of the desertion, “WE GET IT! YOU ARE THE MAN. YOU ARE GOD’S SON, THE MESSIAH WE HAVE LONGED FOR.”
ILLUSTRATION: C. S. Lewis writes, “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.”
CONCLUSION: DO YOU GET IT? CAN YOU HEAR WHAT JESUS IS SAYING TO YOU TODAY? MANY OF YOU DO! WOULD YOU PLEASE TESTIFY BY SHARING THE TESTIMONY IN THE BULLETIN? ONE BY ONE WILL YOU TESTIFY THAT YOU GET IT!
