“BELIEVING, THE WAY TO ETERNAL LIFE!”
--JOHN 6:56-71
--by R. David Reynolds
Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, tells this story in his sermon, “Your Ever After Heaven”: “If you ever get the opportunity to visit Egypt and the tombs and pyramids, study what was required to construct some of those monuments. Some of the studies revealed that it required the efforts of one hundred thousand workers for forty years to build one of the great pyramids. As you tour the area there, you can’t help but ask why. Why would somebody put that amount of emphasis on a tomb, on the afterlife?
“The answer is that the Egyptians understood full well they would spend a lot more time in the afterlife than they would spend in this life. Granted, some of their conceptions of what would happen in the afterlife were a little skewed. But the point is, they understood to the core of their being that the afterlife was a whole lot more important than this life, and so they prepared for the afterlife during this life. God had placed eternity in their hearts.” (--Bill Hybels, “Your Ever After: Heaven,” Preaching Today, Tape 34.)
Sixty-five percent of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John is Jesus’ discourse and testimony, I am the Bread of Heaven.” The word “believe” is a key word in the Gospel of John. It appears a total of 99 times. In fact, that is the theme of the Fourth Gospel as stated in John 20:31, “But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” The purpose of this Gospel is two fold: (1.) That we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and (2.) That believing we might have life in His name. Our text today bears witness to these eternal truths.
All three Persons of the Trinity play a part in our Salvation. The Father sent us Jesus, and Jesus lives because of the Father, and by believing in Jesus we live as well. Not only do the Father and Jesus give us life; we see in verse sixty-three that the Holy Spirit is “The Lord the Giver of life” : “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” I believe in the Living God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who give us life; but how is that relevant to us today, and how can I experience the eternal life that Jesus came to bring?
Believing is the Way to eternal life. The words faith and believe are one and the same in Greek. Faith is a name; believe is a verb, an action word; and John’s Gospel is a Gospel of action. He is always calling us to believe in Jesus. To believe is to trust. To believe in Jesus means I place my confidence for eternal life in Him and Him alone! It means I rely on Him, and not my own good works and self righteousness, for eternal life! It means I depend upon His promise of forgiveness that “If I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive me my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).” To believe in Jesus means I commit my life to Him as my Lord. To believe in Jesus for eternal life means that I acknowledge that He is indeed the Son of the Living God and entrust everything I am to Him! I accept His Words, “which are spirit and truth,” and totally obey them as my “way of life.”
In John’s Gospel to believe means that I actively and continually trust in Jesus. It is a total, absolute commitment of myself to Him as my Lord. To believe in Jesus means I commit my life to Him to take care of me forever. To believe in Jesus means I give up all desire for personal power! It means I stop thinking and that somehow my own self righteousness will win my way into heaven. It means I acknowledge with Isaiah that “all my righteousness is as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). I confess with Paul , “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” and admit the all includes me. To believe in Jesus means I accept the fact that only “His blood can cleanse me from my sin.”
Christine Dente of the Contemporary Musical Duo OUT OF THE GREY expresses so well what it means to believe in Jesus for eternal life: “Scott and I are dedicated to pursuing the Lord and His Word in a very God-centered sense, rather than a self-centered sense. Faith is Jesus is based on facts—that fact that Jesus came, died, and rose again; not that He makes me feel good or that He’s healed me from a hard life. Those are all the fringe benefits. The fact is, He is God, and He is to be worshiped, and we need a Saviour because we are all sinners.”
John’s twofold purpose in writing His Gospel was “so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing we might have life through His name.” The theme living or life appears not less than eight times in our text this morning: (1.) “The Living father sent Me,” (2.) “I live because of the Father,” (3.) “Whoever feeds on Me will live because of Me,” (4.) “Whoever eats this bread will live forever,” (5.) “It is the Spirit who gives life”; (6.) “The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life”; (7.) “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”; and (8.) “We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ the Son of the Living God.”
Jesus offers those who believe in Him eternal life. We usually think this means a life that never ends, but that is only a shallow definition which only begins to scratch the surface. Eternal life emphasizes the quality and character the life of God Himself. Physical life at best is fleeting; eternal life is God’s own life; and the good news of the Gospel is that His desire is to share His life with you and me. I appreciate the way Peter portrays God’s desire to share His eternal life with us. Listen to two passages from I Peter in Eugene Peterson’s translation THE MESSAGE. First of all, look at I Peter 1:23, “Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God Himself!” Next, let’s go to Peter 2:21, “This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came His way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.”
One more quick point I want to make. Verse sixty-three of our text declares: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. . . .” I am also reminded of the words of Paul in I Timothy 4:8 in the New Living Translation: “Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.” Everyday I feel guilty if I don’t try to get to the DISC, “Decatur Indoor Sports Center,” by at7:30 a. m. to do my morning run before coming to the office. It’s good for my physical well being and the fellowship with other runners and walkers is very rewarding. Jesus and Paul are reminding us about the importance of priorities. Without the Spirit of God, physical things have no lasting value.
I close with two brief stories this morning. D. L. Moody reminded his congregations: “Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! AT that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all-out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal; a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.” (--D. L. Moody, Christian History, No. 25.)
“The March 1985 issue of OMNI magazine reported a study by Dr. Maurice Rawlings, cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga. He and his emergency room colleagues are constantly treating such cases. It is now standard that those who have near death experiences later speak of having experiences of light, lush green meadows, rows of smiling relative, and tremendous peace.
“However, in his study, also reported in his book BEYOND DEATH’S DOOR, Dr. Rawlings obtained new information by interviewing patients immediately after resuscitation while they are still too shaken to deny where they have been. Nearly 50 percent of the group of 300 interviewed reported lakes of fire and brimstone, devil-like figures and other sights hailing from the darkness of hell.
“He says they later change their story because most people are simply ashamed to admit they have been to hell; they won’t even admit it to their families. Concludes Dr. Rawlings, “Just listening to these patients has changed my whole life. There’s a life after death, and if I don’t know where I’m going, it’s not safe to die.” [--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1988), p. 151.
How about you; do you know where you’re going; is it safe for you to die? The one who feeds on Jesus will live forever. If you don’t know where you are going; if it is not safe for you to die; you can begin eternal life right this very moment if you, like Peter and his fellow Apostles will come to Jesus, the one who has the words of eternal life; the One who is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
