That's When You Need Him Most

TEXT: John 6:66-69 "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. {67} "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. {68} Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. {69} We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

OBJECTIVE: That the Congregation will live the four steps necessary to experience the fulfillment of eternal life.

I. EVERYONE IS TEMPTED TO QUIT JESUS

Illustration: Failure..."You’re blocking the way, sir," said the usher to a man sprawled in the aisle of a movie theater. "Please get up." The man didn’t move or reply. The usher called the manager over, who said; "I must ask you to move." Still the prone man didn’t reply. So the manager called the police. "Get up or I’ll have to take you in," the officer said. "Where did you come from anyway?" The man stirred finally and said, "The balcony."

A. I bet Jesus felt like he’d been tossed from the balcony on many

occasions during His life and ministry. Such was probably the case in the scripture selection today.

1. In one day Jesus reaches the pentacle of popularity as he

miraculously feeds over 5000 with just a couple of fish and a few small loaves of bread. The next day while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, He denounces the mass popularity accusing the people of only supporting Him because He gave them a free lunch.

2. He then coupled the slight with a difficult teaching that was really a foretelling of the symbolic meaning of His death. John 6:53-56 "Jesus said to them, "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. {54} Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. {55} For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. {56} Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him."

3. To those who couldn’t peer into the future, it must have sounded

like cannibalism. If I were there, I think I would have put my arm around Jesus and said, "Look maybe you better rephrase that. It sounded kind of weird."

4. Jesus doesn’t seem to base the validity of His ministry upon the

numbers of people who followed Him from day today. He was more interested in telling them the truth rather than what most do these days; telling them what they want to hear.

5. And so, people, even people who followed Him before the

miraculous meal, desert Him en mass.

6. They decided that He wasn’t the type of savior they thought He

was. He certainly wasn’t the type of savior they wanted.

B. This sort of thing happens all the time;;even in our time. I guess I’ve watched more people quit Jesus than commit and hang on for the long haul. I’ve seen people quit for a number of reasons.

1. I’ve watched as people have brought broken situations, damaged

marriages, relationships on the rocks, lost opportunities, wrecked lives. They want a quick fix that will be painless and won’t really cost them anything or inconvenience them in any way.

ILLUSTRATION: I was speaking to a man who had become a minister the other day. He told how one Sunday morning he was a chain smoking, alcoholic, desperately hooked on crack. He went to church, to get his wife off his back, as he had done on many occasions in his life. But something reached out and grabbed him that day and he was completely delivered from all the garbage that was ruining his life. I thank God for his testimony.

a. God deals with people in different ways. Some people have this

kind of marvelous experience.

b. But most people, God decides to work with in a process. Most

people don’t want a process that is going to require a relationship with God; they just want the product.

c. My experience has been that God doesn’t do that too often give the product with out the process; offer the kind of life people are looking for outside the context of a day to day relationship.

d. I’ve sadly watched many people quit Jesus in situations like this.

2. Some people have quit Jesus because of some teaching they

found as harsh, or one they just couldn’t understand.

3. Others have just gotten discouraged due to the slow nature of

progress they see in their lives.

4. Have you ever been tempted to quit Jesus? At some point in time

every person in this room will be tempted to quit Jesus. I maybe talking about you today.