Chardon church of Christ

Am I Blessed?
Matthew 5:1-8

A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard.
Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.
He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.
As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.
He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door.
She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal items.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, making hand gestures to the guy in front of you, and cussing up a storm at him.
I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' and the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper stickers, and Naturally... I assumed you had stolen the car."

This morning, we start a study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded in Matthew 5-7.
--I’m calling it, “Am I Blessed?”
Jesus begins His Sermon on the Mount by redefining what it means to be blessed.
True blessing is not found in worldly success but in a transformed heart shaped by God’s grace.
Jesus begins not with commands but with blessings. Grace precedes instruction.
Before Jesus tells us what to do, He tells us who we are.
Each Beatitude builds on the previous one, forming a spiritual progression.

Matthew 5:1-2 – “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying...”
--There’s one theme that runs consistently through this entire teaching segment:
Christ-followers are to think and act differently than the world around them.
We’re not supposed to be thermometers adjusting to the moral climate of our environment.
--We’re to be thermostats setting the standard for the culture.

The Bible reminds us that we’re in a battle between kingdoms:
the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God --AND… SPOILER ALERT … We’re told which kingdom ultimately wins the battle.
The important thing is who you chose to serve.
I want this church here in Chardon to not just grow in number but to grow in integrity and character.
I want us to grow in maturity and become more like Christ.
I want us to be people who, in such a positive way, live differently from the world.

Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
     • Poor in spirit means recognizing our spiritual bankruptcy.
     • The world says, “Be self-made.” Jesus says, “Be God-dependent.”
     • Promise: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the poor.”
Jesus loved the poor such as the widow who only had two mites and Lazarus, the beggar who ate crumbs from the rich man’s table.
Blessed are those who recognize that they are spiritually impoverished.
--This is an honest evaluation of ourselves realizing we’re not able to do much on our own.

Remember the parable of the Pharisee who worshipped next to a tax collector in the temple?
The Pharisee boasted of his spiritual riches: “I fast, I tithe, I keep the law. I’m good!  I’m better than that tax collector,” he said.
The tax collector just humbly prayed, ”God be merciful to me a sinner.”
--Jesus said the tax collector went away justified; the Pharisee did not.

As long as we’re proud of our goodness and feel self-sufficient we’re out of God’s favor.
When we see ourselves as spiritually bankrupt, we’re ready to turn to God for His help and receive His riches.
Without a doubt, one of the most popular hymns in America is Amazing Grace.
I know that we ALL know the first stanza: Amazing grace! How sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

Matthew 5:4 – “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
     • Mourning here is grief over sin, injustice, and suffering.
     • God meets honest sorrow with comfort.
     • Promise: They shall be comforted.

What type of mourning and grieving is Jesus referring to?
The word translated as “mourn” is a word that points to the heart-rending, soul-wracking, eyes-overflowing-with-tears kind of mourning.
It recognizes the loss of something important.
It understands that there is a hole in the heart that needs to be repaired.
We need to despise sin... so it follows that We should especially despise our own sins.
We’re told over and over in Scripture to repent of sin—to recognize how much it offends the heart of God and then grieve over it.

James 4:6-10 “⁶ Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

Do you experience a godly sorrow that leads to repentance?
2^nd Corinthians 7:10 – “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
Repentance has become a neglected word in the church.
We may sit in our pews Sunday after Sunday, thinking that God ought to be glad that we have agreed to bless Him with our presence.
One of the central events in our worship service is the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The Bible tells us that when we do that, we proclaim the death of Christ.

Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
It has been said: “Repentance precedes the blessing of God. A lack of repentance shuts off the power of God.
There will be no revival or renewal without repentance. And there will be no repentance without godly sorrow.
Until we come to the place where we truly mourn over our sin, we will never see the hand of God revealed.”
The great thing is that when we show that godly sorrow and repent, God comforts us.
Oh, what joy to know our sins are forgiven.
We’ve come humbly before God in a godly sorrow that produces repentance.
We want to change our life and God blesses our efforts.
Not because of what we’ve done, but because of Who He is!

Matthew 5:5 - “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
     • Meekness is not weakness; it is controlled strength.
     • A meek person is teachable, gentle, and surrendered.
     • Promise: They shall inherit the earth.

What do you think of when you think of a meek person?
You probably wouldn’t consider it a compliment if someone said, “You are the meekest person I know.”
You probably think of someone who is insecure, unassertive, or timid. That’s not what the Bible means by meekness. Meekness is not timidity or indecisiveness.
The Biblical word ‘meekness’ means “strength under control.”

It was a word used to describe a horse that had been taught how to respond well to the bridle and bit.
When a powerful horse is under control of its rider, it’s a meek horse.
It’s under the authority of the one who guides it.
The meek animal surrenders himself and allows the rider to control him.
Meekness is an inner attitude that results in controlled reactions.

Consider these people whom the Bible describes as being meek:
Abraham
Moses
David
Jesus
They all did brave and courageous things
When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek,” He was commending those who had surrendered their strong, self-will to the authority of God in their daily lives.

The meek surrender to God’s will.
“Meekness is allowing the One who is meek and lowly at heart to rule our lives, our motions, our behavior.”
Jesus promised the meek would “inherit the earth.”
Jesus was saying that the meek will share with Him as heirs of the Kingdom of God.
We think the assertive – the self-promoting – are the ones who will get ahead.
--But Jesus promised that in His kingdom, those who are submissive to Him will inherit the leadership of the earth.

Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
     • This is the turning point of the Beatitudes.
     • Righteousness means God’s will lived out personally, relationally, and socially.
     • Promise: They shall be filled.

“What do we crave most? Comfort or Christ?”

Most of us in the United States have no real concept of real hunger or real thirst.
God has blessed us with an ample supply of food and abundant water supplies.
Isaiah 55:2 – “"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what is does not satisfy?”
What are you hungry for?
What do you crave every day?
If I could read your mind what thoughts would you be most focused on?
Are you hungry for wealth, popularity, status, sports, pleasure, golf, fishing, shopping?
What are you passionate about?

Jesus said that we’re blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
We receive God’s favor if we hunger and thirst to be close to Him and live like Him when you mature spiritually, you hunger for the worship of God, the fellowship with Christian people, and the study of God’s Word.

Even though Moses had a close relationship to God, he asks God the following in Exodus 33:13 – “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”

And, David says in Psalms 63:1 – “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
Moses, David and Paul already knew God in a very deep sense.
But what they meant was that they wanted to know Him more intimately, personally, and powerfully.
They had a hunger and thirst for God. They had a passion for Him.

CONCLUSION: Do you see how different the Christian is in attitude and spirit?
The world says, “Blessed are the rich, the proud, the self confident, they will get ahead.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The world says, “Blessed are the funny, the light-hearted, the positive thinkers, they will be popular.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are genuinely sorry for their sins; I will comfort them with grace and forgiveness.”
The world says, “Blessed are the independent thinkers, the assertive. They will gain respect from people and be powerful.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek who humbly submit their strengths to my authority; they will inherit the earth.”
The world says, “Blessed are those who are hungry for success, the ‘Type A’ personalities who are ambitious enough to make their mark in the world.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are hungry for a relationship with me; they will be filled.”
Everything the world has to offer you will leave you empty, guilty, but only Jesus forgives, saves, and satisfies.
Psalm 34:8 – “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”
Becoming a Community of Blessing
     • Cultivate dependence — daily prayer, confession, surrender.
     • Practice mercy — forgive quickly, serve generously.
     • Pursue purity — guard your heart, simplify your devotion.
     • Live counterculturally — embody Christlike character in a self-centered world.

The Potter and the Clay
     • Imagine clay in the hands of a potter. It does not strive, pretend, or perform. It simply yields.
     • The Beatitudes describe the clay God can shape into the likeness of Christ.

“Lord, make me poor in spirit, honest in mourning, meek in posture, hungry for righteousness, rich in mercy, and pure in heart.”

Rivers of Living Water
John 7:19-52

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. John's gospel continues to show us the pattern of unbelief toward Jesus. John continues to emphasize what true belief looks like. His purpose is that those who would read this gospel and hear these words would come to the true belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and it would be seen by their actions. It's not simply some kind of mental ascent, but a radical life change.

As we come into the rest of John chapter 7, I think John, while pressing the story forward, is summarizing many of the messages that have been found in this gospel. It feels to me like an encapsulation of concepts of unbelief, those who are unwilling to follow Jesus, and the renewed message by Jesus to come to Him for true life. As well as Jesus trying to break through their dull and stubborn hearts because they don't want to see who He really is. All that message is bundled up into this final section of John 7.

I. Rejecting The Truth – We’ll read John 7:19-24 first. “19. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20. The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21. Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? 24. Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.””

A. If you recall earlier Jesus had told them He was speaking on God’s authority and if their will was to do the will of the Father they could determine that. He continues with that thinking and teaching through this section. In verse 19 He is reminding them they are lawbreakers, Moses gave you the law, right? So how come none of you do it? I'm sure that won over a lot of people.

1. Here are the people of God, and they revere Moses greatly. As Israelites, the Jewish people, Moses gave them the law, and yet they don’t follow it. He points out exactly what He means by that in verse 19, “Why do you seek to kill me?”
2. I think that should have caused them to pause. Jesus is reading the hearts of the people. I recognize that you're a bunch of lawbreakers, and I know that you're trying to kill me. Remember the reason why Jesus does not go to the feast with His brothers is because the Jews are plotting to kill Him. Here Jesus is telling the crowd, I know what's in your heart.
3. Rather than listening to Jesus and considering how His divine knowledge can know their hearts and their thoughts, they simply deflect what Jesus says. They say “You have a demon!...” I’m told that in that day, in that parlance, if you said to somebody “you have a demon”, that means you're nuts. It was the way to say that you did not take that person seriously.
4. You don't know what you're talking about. You're paranoid. Nobody here wants to kill you. They are not being truthful are they? In chapter 5 Jesus was in Jerusalem and heals the paralyzed man at the pool. Jesus reminds them of this in verse 21. “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.”
5. John 5:18 tells us, “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” We haven't seen Jesus back in Jerusalem since that time, but now He's returned to the city, and what are the Jews wanting to do?  John 7:1 says "... the Jews were seeking to kill him."

B. Their response is “Who is seeking to kill you?” They're deflecting. Oh no, you're just nuts. We're not trying to kill you. I suggest that is a common response to the word of God, deflection. Put the shields up. No, no, that doesn't apply to me. We are good people. I hope that other person heard that lesson. It's not to us. It's to everybody else. They all have the problem, not us.

1. Jesus was putting His finger right on the problem. Notice how Jesus deals with them in verses 22 and 23. I’m paraphrasing, He says, all right, let me show you. Moses gave you circumcision, here John gives a parenthesis because Moses didn't give the command for circumcision, it was part of the covenant given Abraham in Genesis 17. However, the law that was given through Moses formally codified this as a mandatory religious commandment. No uncircumcised male was permitted to eat the Passover meal.
2. He poses the problem; What do you do if the eighth day falls on the Sabbath? Do you go ahead and fulfill the law and circumcise the child on the eighth day? Even though it's a Sabbath and even though you're not supposed to do work. Of course you do. That's what He's pointing out in verse 23.
3. You understand that you are keeping the law of Moses, that you are perfecting the child, because now they can obey God as God had commanded them to do. If you do that on the Sabbath, how can you criticize me for healing this man so that he can now participate and obey God? He can now worship God, serve God, keep the law of Moses.

C. Jesus is trying to help them see that they are judging Him with false judgment. He says, don't judge by appearances. We notice that Jesus does not say that a person should never judge. People love to quote His words out of context, “Do not judge.” However what Jesus taught there is the same as He is teaching here. You don't judge by your own misconceptions, your own perceptions, your own traditions, your own “I think”. You judge according to right judgment, which is the word of God.

1. He's telling these Jews that you are passing judgment upon me that I have not been sent by God because you have misconceptions about Me and My purpose. You're unwilling to listen to what I'm trying to teach you. You won't hear anything that I have to say. You've already passed your judgment. You've already decided that I'm not eligible to be the Messiah, and that's why you're trying to kill me.
2. If they were listening to what Jesus is saying, I know it's in your heart that you want to kill me, that should have given them pause. They did not consider that might be one of the many evidences that He is from God. How did you know that? You're at least a prophet. You're at least somebody from God to be able to know what's going on in my mind… but they don't want to do that. They don't want to listen, and so they continue to pass false judgments against Him.
3. It is important for us, as true believers, to make sure that we do not pass superficial judgments, not only upon one another, but upon people in the world. It's not about judging by physical standards or by things that we see, but it's about what God says. We must continue to pass that judgment.
4. We live in a time where passing judgment based on what the word of God says is going to be highly ridiculed and scorned. We will hear a whole lot of — “who are you to judge my lifestyle?” We must stand up recalling John 7:24, and judge by right judgment. You're not doing what God says. This is not my judgment. This is what God says, and that's the end of the story.
5. We need to take a stand and recognize that God has not only allowed us to do that, but has commanded us to tell the world those right judgments that this is what God says to do to be right with Him.

II. Reasons For Unbelief – After Jesus said that, did they listen and agree they should hear Him? Let’s look at John 7:25-36 “25. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26. And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27. But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28. So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know." We will stop and look at this.

A. When we read verses 25 and 26, we might think, they're finally getting it. They're beginning to wonder maybe He is the Christ. Then in verse 27, they say, but we know where this man comes from and when Christ appears, no one will know where he's from.

1. Where did that perception come from? Scholars suggest this was Rabbinic tradition and interpretation of scripture. Jewish thought included a concept that the Messiah would be born as a regular man but remain completely hidden, anonymous, and unknown even to himself until a sudden public manifestation. Malachi 3:1 says, “…the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple;…” Taking this verse literally led people to expect a sudden, miraculous descent from heaven.
2. During the centuries leading up to Christ, non-biblical Jewish texts (such as 2^nd Esdras and 2^nd Baruch) grew highly popular. These texts frequently described the Messiah as a hidden, mystical figure kept secret by God until the absolute end of days, reinforcing the idea that his earthly background would be a total mystery.

B. They just pass quick judgment and say, he can't be the Christ. Self-imposed barriers often occur if we are not careful and we can’t think past them. Jesus is doing things that clearly reveals He is the Messiah, but they’re unable to see it and unwilling to believe it. They have a preconceived notion about Him that the Scriptures don't uphold. I suspect that is true in the religious world today. We have ideas and notions about what Christianity is supposed to be, the way God is supposed to be, how God is supposed to act, and what He's to do in our lives. Unfortunately, we often don’t get past those preconceived ideas, and they can prevent us from growing in our faith.
C. They quickly turn away from him in verse 27. We see how Jesus responds in verse 28. “You know me and you know where I come from.” Indeed, this is what they believe. Jesus continues though; “But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.”

1. He's just called them lawbreakers. He says, the one who sent me is true, (which is the father), and you don't know him. You have the law of Moses, and you do not know God at all.
2. Verse 29. “I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” It's evident you don't know the father, because if you knew the father, you would know me. We have seen this before and John is bringing it forward again. The only way to know the father is to come to the son. If you don't know the son and you do not come to the son, then you absolutely do not know the father.
3. There is no way to come to God, to have salvation, to have true faith and belief unless you come to Jesus. Jesus makes it clear in verse 29. I know him. I've come from him. Is there any plainer way of saying I've come from heaven? Alright, you think you know where I've come from? I know the father, He sent me and I've come to do His will.
4. We notice verse 30 has a connecting word. It might be; so, then, therefore, or at this. “So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.”[ESV] They will not listen.
5. Verse 31 is interesting because there are many people who begin to kind of get it. “Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”” He's done a lot, maybe He's the Messiah. Look at all the things that He's done to prove himself.

D. Verse 32. “The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.” The crowd is listening to Him, the religious leaders are not, and they continue their stubborn rejection. We run into the same today, those who have their minds so fixed that they will not listen. Do you see the patience of Jesus though?

1. Jesus here in verse 33 continues to work with them. “Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.”” He has been telling them He has been sent by the One they do not know, and He is going back to Him. He is spelling it out. Then He adds “…Where I am you cannot come”
2. What do they do? They wonder where He is going. Why as humans, do we not want to listen to God and what He says? I suggest this is an enormous reason for unbelief; we don't truly want to hear what God has to say.
3. We've all experienced that. Approach someone with Acts 2:38 and see what happens. Often you will get the deflection… that doesn't mean what it says. “…Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…” Hmmm, sounds simple enough to me, not rocket science. Why is it so hard to understand? Because people don't want to understand. They have self-imposed barriers. I don't want to hear that.
4. If we are not careful, we may find the same attitude in us. When we read things in God's Word and it does not jive with our way of thinking, we can so easily dismiss it and not want to learn what God is trying to teach us. This prevents us from seeing Jesus as the bread of life, it prevents us from growing in our faith, it is keeping us from truly seeing who Jesus is and giving our life completely to Him.
5. We may find we do not fully believe and give our life to Him. I submit it is easy to do, to enjoy coming together, reading God's Word, being with each other, a great group of Christians here, and yet not allow the radical life change from God's Word to happen. What's keeping us from seeing Jesus as He claims to be the all-satisfying God?

III. If Anyone Thirsts, Let Him Come To Me and Drink – We are at verse 37. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

A. The symbolism behind the Feast of Tabernacles goes beyond just living in tents. Each day a priest would lead a musical procession down to the Pool of Siloam to fill a golden pitcher with "living water" fed by the Gihon Spring. Remember that pool, the pool where people hoped to be healed? Interesting that should feature here.

1. The crowd would march back to the Temple Mount through the Water Gate, blowing shofars, waving palm branches, and singing Isaiah 12:3: "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”.
2. The priest would then pour the water into a silver basin on the west side of the altar alongside a wine offering, symbolizing a prayer for physical rain and the spiritual outpouring of the Holy Spirit. An ancient Jewish saying noted that "he who has not seen the joy of the drawing of water at the Feast of Tabernacles does not know what joy is"
3. On the eighth day, no water was poured, leaving a conspicuous absence that symbolized the end of the festival and a complete dependence on God's future provision, the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Messianic age.
4. Thinking back, we recall that this feast has the overtones of the Exodus, coming out of slavery in Egypt, and how God has blessed them. The time when they would be living in tents hoping for the Promised Land. We recall that in the last study, it wasn't just simply a historical reminder, but it was also a hope to the future how God would pour out His blessings upon all the people.
5. Prophets like Ezekiel brought this promise forward many times. We read in Ezekiel chapters 40-48 of water flowing from the temple and it gets deeper and deeper and begins to stream all over. There is a picture of that with the Feast of Tabernacles.
6. They're pouring out the water on the altar remembering how God gave them water in the wilderness but at the same time thinking about this messianic overtone of when the Messiah comes, then the Spirit's going to be poured out on all flesh and it's going to be a renewal of God's blessings and covenant to the people. Along with that were often prayers for the rain to come upon the land.

B. This is the scene where “Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”” Jesus is claiming to be the fulfillment of all the symbolism and hope found in the Feast of Tabernacles.

1. When you go without God, your soul gets thirsty, it gets hungry. We were made to be with God. We often do not recognize what we are thirsting and hungering for and try to fill the need with the physical. Just as your body was made for water and food, so your soul was made for God. This is such an important truth that John brings it around again. We recall this from John 4 with the Samaritan woman and the living waters He tells her about, and in John 6 with the bread of life. He is trying to get people to understand—you need God.
2. Unfortunately, people do not grasp this. Jeremiah 2:12-13 – “Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Rather than going to God who was promised to satisfy, we go to broken cisterns. We go to things in the world that do not satisfy.
3. We go to our sins, we go to our weaknesses, and we go to our flesh. We seek worldly answers. If I just had more comfort, if I just had more money, if I just had this, that, and whatever and we believe that this would be the thing that will make us happy.

IV. Out of His Heart Will Flow Rivers of Living Water – John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

A. There is a picture of our soul finding all that it needs over and over again when we believe in Jesus. Where from? It is flowing from within us, flowing from our heart.

1. Jesus is calling for true belief, true saving faith, a radical change of the heart. Not about simply meeting certain expectations or doing certain things. A new birth, complete change, and the result is a new life. It is the fulfillment of what the prophets said, God was going to put a new heart in His people. There would be a new covenant, and God would write His laws on their hearts.
2. John interjects in verse 39 “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Those who are believers in Christ Jesus they are the ones that are going to receive this Spirit. I think that fits Acts 2:38 right on the nose. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
3. Paul writes of this in Titus 3:4-6 - “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior”

V. Same Dead Hearts – After this offer, notice the same responses from the people. John 7:40-52 – “40. When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41. Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42. Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43. So there was a division among the people over him. 44. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46. The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47. The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48. Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49. But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50. Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51. “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52. They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.””

A. Some perk up and think that Jesus is the prophet that Moses spoke about who was to come. Some recognize Jesus to be the Christ. but some find yet another reason to reject him, so they try to arrest Him.
B. I want to note one thing in verse 52 where they say, “Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” Remarkable, because Jonah came from Galilee, 2^nd Kings 14.

CONCLUSION: Coming to Jesus is not merely changing some external habits. It is not - now you come to church and stop swearing. Coming to Jesus and drinking is to see Jesus as the satisfaction of your thirst. Coming to Jesus is opening your heart to His teaching, letting His words change your mind, your heart, your values, your attitude, your personality, your thinking, and your way of life. Coming to Jesus is to make our will to do the will of God. Coming to Jesus is to seek God’s glory, not our own. Look at what Jesus is offering. Jesus will perpetually and continually quench your thirst. Jesus is the answer for your life. Open your heart to Him and let Him be your everything.

# ???
Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman

Where Can I Hide?
Jonah 1

A MINISTER started out one summer day to visit some of the members of his church that he had not seen for awhile. As he approached one of the houses, he noticed that the TV was on and it appeared that someone was home.
But, even though he knocked on the door several times no one came to the door to acknowledge him. At this point, he thought he would be clever and leave a note on the door that stated just one verse, Revelation 3:20 which says,
“Here I am!
I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

After putting the note on the door, the minister, feeling very pleased with himself, smiled and left to visit other members.
He returned to that first house later in the day to see if they got his note, and was surprised see a new note hanging on the door.
As he got closer, he noticed this new note had the verse Genesis 3:10 written on it which says,
“I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

Our sermon this morning is for anyone who has tried to slip into the shadows, convinced that secrecy will protect them from judgment, shame, or the consequences of their choices.
God’s response is not a cold searchlight but a steady pursuit that calls us back into the light.

The first instance of hiding occurs in the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
We Know that God certainly knew the answer to this question!

After disobeying God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve realized their nakedness and hid from God among the trees out of shame and fear This act symbolizes the broken relationship between humanity and God due to sin and highlights the natural human response to guilt.

Moses attempted to hide indirectly after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Fearing Pharaoh’s wrath, he hid the body in the sand and fled to Midian (Exodus 2:14-15).
11 Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his fellow Hebrews and looked at their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his fellow Hebrews.
12 So he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no one around, he struck and killed the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand.
13 Now he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, “Why are you striking your companion?”
14 But he said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known!”
15 When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

While this was more about escaping human justice, it also reflects a moment of fear and avoidance before God called him to lead Israel, showing that hiding can precede divine preparation and transformation.

Then there is Jonah who represents a different form of hiding — attempting to escape God’s calling. God commanded him to go to Nineveh to preach repentance, but Jonah fled in the opposite direction, boarding a ship to avoid fulfilling God’s mission. His story illustrates that one cannot truly escape God’s presence or purpose, as God pursued him through the storm and the great fish.

Jonah 1
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to God.

Now drop down to verse 10
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Verse 15
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

This led Jonah to come to this realization we find in Jonah 2
7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

The result is found in Jonah 3
1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Verse 6
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything.  Let them not feed or drink water,
8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

These narratives convey that while humans may attempt to hide from God due to fear, guilt, or disobedience, BUT God’s omnipresence ensures that hiding is ultimately futile (Proverbs 15:3).
"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good"

These stories also emphasize the importance of confronting sin, accepting responsibility, and responding to God’s calling rather than avoiding it.

Psalm 139 reminds us that God knows our paths and our resting places.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

I would like to make 3 POINTS about MAN’s ATTEMPT to HIDE from GOD:
#1) Human attempts to hide are always partial.
We can close doors, change routines, and craft stories, but nothing we do removes us from God’s sight.
     • The first humans tried to hide among the trees;
     • Jonah boarded a ship;
     • the prodigal son left home.
In each of these cases, the attempt to disappear only deepened the need for God’s intervention.
Hiding may delay consequences, but it cannot erase the reality of what has been done or the longing in our souls for reconciliation.

Point #2) God’s Pursuit Is Tender, God does not play hide-and-seek to shame us;
He seeks to restore us.

We need to realize that when Adam and Eve hid, God called.
When the prodigal returned, the father ran.
God’s pursuit meets us where we are — often in our mess — and offers a way back through grace.

Point #3) Being found by God often brings conviction, not condemnation.
Conviction is the Spirit’s gentle, persistent light showing us what needs to change. Confession is the honest response that opens the door to forgiveness. Hiding keeps us in isolation; confession brings us into community and into the transforming presence of God.
The path from hiding to healing runs through truth spoken aloud and repentance lived out.

If you are trying to hide today, know that God already knows.
You are not beyond His reach. Start with a single honest prayer:  tell God the truth.
Let the church be a place where light replaces shame.
May we be the safe place where someone can open up and step into the light.

Please bow with me in prayer at this time
Lord, you see us.
You see the corners we avoid,
the stories we tell ourselves,
the ways we try to disappear.
Meet us in our hiding places.
Give us courage to speak the truth,
humility to receive your forgiveness,
and strength to walk in the freedom you offer.
Turn our shame into testimony
and our hiding into honest fellowship.
It is in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

May we live with the assurance that nothing can separate us from God’s presence.
May we walk in the light of His love, confess what needs confessing, and live in the freedom of a God who pursues, forgives, and restores.

Seeking The Glory of The Father
John 7:1-19

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. We're starting John 7 today. We're going to talk about seeking the glory of the Father. John's Gospel has been written so that we may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I think by now we have observed that John is not writing simply to say, I hope you believe in Jesus. He is using these events to invoke true belief in contrast to false belief.

There are many people who think they believe, who think they have a faith in Christ. To help us recognize the situation John has been teaching us what false belief looks like in contrast to true belief. We will see that again in this chapter where John shows us two states of unbelief, two situations of unbelief. At the same time, he is showing us the great faith of Christ and how that is seen in our true faith. John begins in this chapter with telling us that things are going south for the ministry of Jesus in terms of His reception in Jerusalem.

I. Evidence of Unbelief — Self-glorification. We will begin by reading John 7:1-5. “1. After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. 3. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5. For not even his brothers believed in him.”

A. We notice in verse 1 that Jewish leaders have great hostility toward Jesus. We've seen that back in chapter 5 and we will note it again as we move through this chapter. What we are seeing is aggressive hostility, aggressive unbelief against Jesus. He can't even go to Judea now without persecution and an attempt on His life.
B. In verse 2 we are told the Jewish Feast of Booths was at hand, and His brothers told Him He should go to Judea and show the mighty works He was doing. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. We have two backdrops then, aggressive hostility and The Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles.

1. Remember chapter 6 was set in the tone of the Passover feast and that colored our understanding about John’s writing in that chapter. We should now use the Feast of Tabernacles as the lens through which we look at this text. The Feast of Tabernacles is an eight-day feast, and what every family did was build a temporary structure, what we would probably think as a tent.
2. If you had a home that had access to the roof, which is typical, you might erect it on the roof. All of the male Jews would be coming to Jerusalem for this event. This is one of the three events where all the male Jews were to come to Jerusalem. The purpose was to remind them how they lived in the wilderness after being slaves in Egypt. How God had delivered them through the Exodus, through the Red Sea, how they'd come to Mount Sinai, and how they had dwelled in tents for those 40 years until they came into the promised land.
3. It also had an association with the harvest. It was in the fall after all the harvest was done. This was a time of reaping of all that they had planted. It marks the conclusion of the agricultural year, functioning as both a thanksgiving for the fall harvest and a spiritual reminder of the past. A remembrance of how they were nothing, they were in the desert in tents, had been slaves in Egypt, but God brought them to victory, to the promised land.
4. It was also a time of hope when the Messiah was going to come and fulfill the great promises to Israel. There were messianic overtones to the Feast of Tabernacles at this time. They're not just simply dwelling in tents and remembering the past, it was also a time of hope for the future, just as when they were in tents in the wilderness, they were hoping for the promised land, now they are in their tents waiting in hope for the Messiah who will liberate them and usher in the glorious kingdom.

C. That's why the brothers say what they say in verses 3 and 4. You need to go to Judea for the Feast of Tabernacles. Perhaps they thought it was the best time to prove Himself. Everybody's hoping for a Messiah. This is what we're looking forward to as we're in these tents and thinking about the hope of Israel to come. They suggested this now is the time to show Himself. Everybody's thinking about Messiah. Everybody's thinking about the kingdom.

1. His brothers are saying, “If you're the Messiah and you're doing the works of the Messiah, show everybody that you are the Messiah. There’s no better time than this.” It sounds like the brothers have great belief, right? Notice verse 5 though, and how John's couching all this. “For not even his brothers believed in him.”
2. That is staggering. I would expect that Mary would have told those boys about their older brother, yet, His brothers do not believe. They are not saying these things because they believe He truly is the Messiah, that He is the Christ who's come to save. There's a bit of mockery here perhaps. Go to Jerusalem and show yourself. Let's get this started.
3. What we are seeing is a type of unbelief. We are told in verse 1, about one form of unbelief – aggressive. If He goes to Jerusalem, the Jews are trying to kill Him. Here is passive unbelief. The brothers are not trying to get Him killed. They just don't believe anything He has to say. They're not believers. They're not going to follow Him. They're just kind of neutral to Him.
4. If you really are who you say you are, you ought to show it. Signs are a theme in John's Gospel. Show us a sign so that we'll believe. Everybody wants signs.

D. I think it's important for us to recognize that unbelief is not just simply being antagonistic to Christ. Unbelief is also not fully giving your life to Christ. There's no middle ground. If you are not fully believing in Christ, fully devoted to him, fully following him, you are in unbelief. We like to create a neutral middle ground, don’t we? I'm not against Christ, but I'm not dedicated to Him either. I'm just kind of alright with Him.

1. So are the brothers. The brothers are kind of alright with Him too. We have seen in chapter 1, the world does not believe. We see that Jesus has come to His own people, the Jews, and they do not believe. He has talked to His disciples and in chapter 6, many of them do not believe and they're leaving. We're seeing now that even His own family doesn't believe.
2. Most people do not believe, is what John wants us to see. John is showing us that unbelief is not simply being aggressively against Christ. It also is just simply not being for Christ passionately and devoutly.

II. Evidence of Unbelief — The World Does Not Hate Us. Look at the next few verses John 7:6-13 – “6. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9. After saying this, he remained in Galilee. 10. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11. The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12. And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” 13. Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.”

A. The first thing we see is how Jesus responds to His brothers who were saying essentially; “you need to put your power on display. Capitalize on the moment. Show yourself.” Reminds us of the temptations that Satan gave to Jesus. What His brothers are doing is trying to get Jesus to prove who He is in a way that they can comprehend. Show them who you are. Bring glory to yourself.
B. Jesus responds, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.” In due time, Jesus would reveal Himself in Jerusalem, by means of His death and resurrection; but that would have to await for the time appointed by the Father. The true Passover Lamb would be sacrificed on Passover, not at the Feast of Tabernacles.

1. Jesus is saying that my purpose and my time is not for me, but to bring glory to the Father. That is powerful considering He's God. Think about that answer. It's not about when it's good for me. It's not my time because I'm on the Father's timetable. I'm on the Father's schedule. I'm not on my schedule. He's committed to the Father's will.
2. He's not about bringing attention to Himself because that's a symptom of unbelief. What a picture that is for us. Unfortunately, with us it is often about bringing glory to ourselves. Jesus is teaching us with a powerful example.

C. Then He says in verse 6, but your time is always here. Jesus says in verse 7. "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil."

1. In this picture of unbelief, we first see unbelief is all about me, not about the glory of God. Second, we see if the world doesn't hate us, that also is a picture of unbelief. He tells His brothers you can go to Jerusalem whenever you want. Your time is always there. You can do whatever you feel like, for the world doesn’t hate you.
2. What is being implied there? The world hates Me - because I'm testifying about the ways and the teachings of God and telling the world that its deeds are evil. What's implied? You're not. That's why you can safely go to Jerusalem. I must go on God's schedule not on My own schedule. The world hates me because I'm taking a stand and declaring that its works are evil. That's a powerful declaration to us because the scriptures repeatedly tell us we should expect the world to respond negatively to us.
3. We should not be surprised at that. I'm not sure why we keep being surprised. We do though. We keep being surprised that the world doesn't like what we're teaching, and they don't like the way we're living. They don't like the way we act either. Don't be surprised.
4. He's saying, brothers, the problem is you don't believe in Me. You'll do whatever you want to do. The world doesn't hate you. If you believed in Me, you would take a stand for the Word of God and declare that the world's deeds are evil.

D. We should also realize that this doesn't mean we're seeking persecution. It doesn't mean that we are intentionally inflammatory. It doesn't mean that we are caustic in our words. However, it does mean that we are going to teach the truth of God's word no matter the scenario, no matter the lack of political correctness or niceties that come with that. No, we're not seeking to generate anger or stir up wrath, yet we are going to tell people the way God says it.

1. If we fit in with the world, if we fit in with its teachings, with its thinking, with its words, Jesus says there's something wrong. There is absolutely something wrong.
2. Jesus says “the world hates me”. Why? “Because I take a stand against the world”. That is what we're called to do as well. We are to reflect the glory of God. To show people what is wrong with the world and what the teachings of Christ are. Representing Christ is going to bring about all kinds of hostility. Don't be surprised if the world hates you. They killed our Lord.
3. It's not going to go any better for us. I think, why am I getting such a negative reaction? Am I the only one? I just get mystified. Why is it that nobody likes what I'm saying? Why don't they like to hear messages of morality and virtue from God's word? Because the world hates that. Don't be surprised.
4. However, if we begin to mold our lives, mold our words, and mold our teachings to fit in with the ways of the world, we are exhibiting unbelief. We are showing we do not believe in the power of the word of God and what He has told us to do. Instead, we are going to adjust it.
5. I quickly turn away from speakers that try to “modernize” the word of God, bring it into the 21st century, and make it apply to today’s culture. God's word is timeless. We are to conform our words, our lives, and our thinking to the word of God. God is not outdated. We are out of place, and we need to get in line with His teachings.

E. Jesus is telling them, if you act like the world and speak like the world, no one is going to give you a problem based on your morality or lifestyle or words. However, when we speak like the very oracles of God, as Peter commands us to, and we take on a devotion toward God, try to model our lives on Christ and seek the glory of the Father -- there will be a reaction. People will not like it. We should expect that.

1. I would do a double check on myself if negativity doesn't happen though. We need to check if we're actually modeling our words and our lives to what Christ has taught us. We can say and believe we love Christ, but when we get in with the world with its pressures, we might mask that. Peter illustrated that for us during Jesus’ “trial”. That should not happen. We must always be representing Christ in all that we do.

III. Evidence of True Belief - That leads us to John 7:14-18. “14. About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16. So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”

A. In the middle of the feast, Jesus goes into the temple and begins teaching. The Jews marveled, and I note a few things here. John uses the term “The Jews” to indicate religious leaders. The phrase “This man …” has the intention to place Jesus on a lower level than the rabbis and priests. Recall in John 3:2 Nicodemus having a higher opinion of Christ, referred to Him as "Rabbi". I also note the bigotry of their question that said in effect, "How could he know anything if he did not learn it from us?"

1. They can't believe how He teaches. He doesn't teach like everybody else. He teaches as if He possesses authority. What the teachers did back then is they would either quote Scripture or quote rabbis and say, rabbis so and so said this, and that's why I have this position. Jesus doesn't have to do that. When He speaks it is the authoritative word of God. Nobody can do that, and they're blown away by that. He doesn't have to cite anything. He's just teaching like He's God. No kidding, that's the whole point. He is God.
2. Jesus then says in verse 16, "My teaching is not mine, but he who sent me." Again, Jesus is turning things back to the Father. By this, Jesus claimed that His own words were the words of God. It was this quality of identifying His teachings as God's teachings that infuriated the leaders.

B. Verse 17 – “If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” He gives them a test.

1. If you really want to do the will of God, you will recognize that it is God's will, and not my own, that I am proclaiming. You would see My authority coming from God. If you truly had the belief that God wants you to have, if you had true faith, your will in your life would not be your own will, it would be the Father's will. Your care and your concern would be exclusively to do God's will.
2. The source of knowing God's will is the Bible; reason, intelligence, experience, obedience, and love are some of the instruments by which true wisdom can be won from its sacred pages. Even more important than those instruments, is the human will - DESIRING to know the truth. Many accept blindly whatever teaching they received as a child without ever striving to know if it was really God's will that they learned.
3. I want us to see why that's so valuable. Being a disciple of Jesus is not about embracing certain ideas alone. It's not just saying, I shouldn't think this anymore, I should think like that, or I shouldn't believe that way anymore but this way. I need to pray more. Those things are good but that's not the entire scope of being a disciple. Discipleship is about converting our will so that it reflects the will of the father.
4. That is a powerful picture to us because we want life to be all about us. I think the human heart problem is we want our own will. We want to do what we want to do. Since we are empowered to run our own lives, go the direction that we want to go, we will live how we want to live, and we will speak how we want to speak. I want to have certain things, certain results and so I will take certain actions.

C. Jesus says, True believers do not do that. The will of true followers is the will of the Father. In fact, verse 18 amplifies it. “The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory;…” People think it is all about me. My own power, my own will, my own comfort, my own desire, whatever is good for me, whatever works for me.

1. Jesus is saying that you are seeking the wrong thing, and that is a picture of unbelief. See how Jesus describes Himself in verse 18. “…but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”
2. We are inclined to seek our own glory. I want people to pay attention to me. I want respect. I want honor. I want people to think of me as something.
3. Jesus does not do that; He is directing all glory and all attention to the Father. What brings glory to the Father is the purpose of life. That is what should be our intention, and that is what will create in us the will to do the Father's will.
4. We are sinning because we are not seeking the glory of the Father. I am doing what I want to do. I am looking out for myself. I am looking out for my glory and that sends us down the wrong path. When I am seeking the glory of the Father, concerned about His will, that becomes guardrails in the road of life that I need to keep me on the right track. Discipleship, faith, true saving belief in Jesus Christ, is to seek the glory of the Father alone. Let me put it this way, we should love to see God glorified.
5. If Jesus, who as God deserved every ounce of honor, could have accepted the glory but deflected it to the Father, how much more we as servants should be seeking the glory of God?

Let me end with one thought then.

CONCLUSION:
How can we do this? How can we develop and increase our love for the Father's glory? If you reflect upon it for a minute, how do you develop a love for anything in life? How do you increase your love for anything? Be involved. To develop an appreciation for something, you learn about its details, practice it, and look for what makes it unique. This turns unfamiliar things into favorites.

One suggestion I found gives some steps you can follow to start appreciating something new:

• Learn a little bit about it. Find out how it works or why it was made. It is hard to care about something you do not understand.
• Look for the tiny details. Notice the unique parts.
• Give it time. Your brain needs time to get used to new things.
• Notice the effort. Think about the work that went into it. This helps you value something.
• Keep an open mind. Stop comparing it to things you already know. Let it be its own thing.

That's how we develop a love for the glory of the Father. Spend time gazing upon His goodness. Study how good He is and spend time with others who are doing that. It helps to be in a class with other people. Don’t be involved in isolation.

That's what we're doing. We are coming together and appreciating the glory of the Father and we are studying it. When you expose yourself to it, and allow that exposure to your heart, you'll see transformation. God's word is powerful. You will find a love that seeks the glory of the Father. Not our own glory, not somebody else's glory.

The invitation is to come to Jesus and see the glory of the Father and give Him the honor and the praise that He deserves. You do that with a life of full submission and full of love for His son, Jesus Christ. He sent His son to reveal the will of the Father. No one has ever seen the Father, but His Son was sent so that we could see God.

To appreciate that, and let it soak that in, dwell on Him, and read about Him. It will change your life. When you recognize that you need to have true belief, true faith, then turn away from a life of sin, away from a life of self-glory. Now is a time to live for God and take the steps to receive God's grace. Take that walk with him.

Now you have true belief. Now you can turn away from your sins. Now truly confess that Jesus is the son of God, and He will be the Lord of your life, and you will obey him. Be immersed in water to have your sins washed away.

Enter into that relationship so you can have the great hope of being with the Father in heaven eternally. What a great hope and motivation that we have, to go home and be with our God.

Won't you come now..

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Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman

Responding to The Bread of Life
John 6:60-71

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. A quick review of where we are in John 6.
We're at a point in John's Gospel where we have been reading of the light coming into the world, light revealing itself to darkness, and darkness not receiving it, not comprehending it, and rejecting it. That has been the thesis of John's Gospel. As we saw in chapter 1, He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. We have seen that illustrated throughout this section in John 6. After the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, the people seek Him with only selfish motivation, the physical motivation of having their bellies filled.

At this point many disciples are turning away from Jesus, and it is not just the hard-hearted people that are rejecting Him. Even disciples who have been following Jesus are turning away. Why are these disciples turning away? What has happened to cause them to turn from following Jesus? We are going to look at John 6:60-71 and consider why these disciples are leaving and the warning for us.

John 6:60-71. “60. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62. Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65. And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66.After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69. and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70. Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71. He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.”[ESV] We will look at this final scene in the chapter that spends time on the bread of life, and we're going to notice two aspects.

I. Reaction of the False Disciples - The first aspect that we're going to notice is the reaction of the false disciples. We have seen in this story how there is a mirror to the wilderness wandering.

A. Jesus made the parallel that - I am the true bread that has come down from heaven. I am the one who gives you true life. Those who were in the wilderness, ate the manna and they died in the wilderness. Another parallel that is just as strong is the reaction of the people. Grumbling. There has been disputing and grumbling.

1. We saw in verse 41, the Jews are grumbling about what Jesus said, that He is the bread of life that has come down from heaven. It happens again in verse 61. Jesus knows within Himself that His disciples are also grumbling. They say in verse 60. “This is a hard saying and who can listen to it?”
2. What they are saying is not… Jesus just said something that I do not comprehend. -- What they're saying is what Jesus just taught is unacceptable. We do not receive what He has just told us. The reason why we know that is because of Jesus' response to it. He says, “Do you take offense at this?”
3. They understood exactly what Jesus is saying. The problem is they don't like what He's saying. Do you take offense at this? Is this a problem for you? Is this too difficult for you to recognize and accept Me as the bread of life?

B. Recognize what Jesus is doing here. Jesus has been, throughout this chapter, underlining what the true call of discipleship looks like. Jesus has repeatedly shown that you are not able to casually seek Him to simply consume the blessings that He has to offer.

1. That's how this all started. These people have come looking for Jesus because they want Him to feed them again. Jesus simply will not cave into that because their motive, their heart is wrong. They are not seeking Him for the right reason.
2. He is showing that being a disciple is not simply just looking for Jesus and enjoying His blessings. True discipleship is not about obeying the part of what Jesus is saying that you like, and then disregarding and ignoring the things He says that you don't like.
3. Jesus has said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you're not going to inherit eternal life. You're not going to be part of the kingdom of God. You're not going to be raised up on the last day. He has taught that our lives are to be consumed with Christ, that we are to eat, drink, breathe, live Christ, that everything about us is all about Christ. People say that's too much. What you have called for us to do is unacceptable. Jesus is showing that true discipleship is not about obeying the laws we like and disregarding the laws that we don't like.
4. It seems to me that many people today think that is the way Christianity is. Find the church where you like the rules they keep, the preaching is easy, and then go there, and you'll be happy. If you don't like what they say, that's OK too. Just find someplace else where they have what you like. That is not how discipleship works. You don't get to pick and choose how you follow Him. We are seeing in this that discipleship is not just saying you're a follower.

C. These people seem to be disciples. The text even calls them disciples. How long have they been following Jesus? We don't know, but here they are simply different than the rest of the group. They are not unbelievers. They are not of the world. They have been following him. They've been listening to him. They have seen the miracles.

1. Yet, we see that simply saying that we are a follower and belonging to a group of disciples does not make us a disciple. What Jesus says here is going to thin the herd in a hurry as many turn away. Jesus is looking for faith. He's looking for trust, obedience, love, and service. Even in the face of challenging teachings and the difficult concepts that He would give.
2. In the scriptures we sometimes highlight the things that are important to us. We tend to focus on the things that are easy for us. However to talk about things that are difficult and zero in on texts that give us trouble, that point out our sins, that is hard. Both Mark and I find we profit the most when we work on lessons that are more difficult.
3. Also, it's important for us to recognize that Jesus is calling us to have Him as the only answer. He is the bread of life, even when what He says is not popular, is seemingly unacceptable, and is very difficult to obey. There's a lot of things that Jesus tells us to do that are very difficult. Things like forsaking your father and your mother, putting Christ first and leaving all else behind. Very difficult things, and yet this is the call for true disciples.

D. Here is the picture of disciples who do not accept what Jesus is saying. With Jesus response in verse 61, John clues us in with some interesting information. “But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?” I recall that in John 2:23-25 we read; many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people. He knows they're not true disciples. This is another group where He knows what is in their hearts, and He does not entrust Himself to them.

1. Jesus does not simplify His message. He does not water down His teaching to make sure that these disciples don't leave. The message is the message. The results of that message are what they are. I love how He says it at verse 62, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” You think it's hard to consider Jesus as the bread of life, how about Him being the eternal divine God? Watching Him return to the very place where He belongs, and sitting down on the throne that He deserves, and taking up the glory that is rightly due to Him. He makes it more difficult. Rather than simplifying the message, He is trying to break through our spiritual dullness.
2. In verse 63 Jesus explains why His disciples are turning away from Him. He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Here's the reason why you're turning away from me. You don't understand what it means to be a disciple. The flesh is of no help at all in this matter. It is about the Spirit who gives life. We recall earlier in this chapter that He's expressed this idea twice. In John 6:28. “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” What are the works that we need to be doing? Here's the work of God, believe in Him whom He sent, believe in Jesus.
3. Then again in verse 44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Now He gives a similar statement. The Spirit is what gives life. The flesh is of no help at all. He's trying to help them see what they are lacking, and I believe He is referencing Ezekiel 36.

E. If you put a marker in John 6 and turn to Ezekiel 36, I’m going to look at a couple of verses, but I think the whole paragraph is important.

1. The context in Ezekiel 36 is a declaration of the wickedness of the people. You can look back to verse 17, where He speaks of how they've defiled the land with their sins and their wicked ways. God says, now because of your sins, here's what I'm going to do. It is not because you are good people deserving of anything, but for My own sake. You see that in verse 21.
2. Then continue reading at verse 22 and I’m not going to read this entire text because of time constraints.
3. In verse 22-23 God begins with; this isn't about you. This is about God. God's name must be vindicated, and God's holiness must be seen. You've desecrated My name with your sins, and I'm going to act for My namesake and not for you.
4. Continue to read the powerful message Ezekiel gives in verses 24-32.

F. Thinking about what Jesus is doing in John and what is here in Ezekiel, we see the concept of the spirit being put within people. An extremely rare concept in the Old Testament. Note the message, particularly from verses Ezekiel 36:27-28 where God says, I'm going to put a new heart in these people. There's going to be a new heart and a new spirit within them.

1. We also notice in verse 27, that God says He would cause His people to walk in His statues. What God is going to do is put His laws in their hearts and cause them to obey Him. This is going lead to a whole new, different kind of people, not like the people that He's dealing with in Ezekiel.
2. God is going to do something resulting in a new heart in these people, a new spirit will be within them, His laws will be on their hearts, and it will cause them to walk in His ways. Think about that along with what we're reading in John 6. The Scriptures indicate many times that we're not going to find life by simply willing the flesh to “do” the law.
3. Why do we have the idea that if we tried a little harder, we'd be able to obey all the laws of God? The Old Testament has given us a record of how that doesn't work. Part of what the law of Moses does is show we can't keep it perfectly. We should, but we don't. Hebrews 8:7-8. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” What was the fault? “For he finds fault with them…” verse 8. The problem is us. The problem is we don't do it.

a) The problem is we listen to our flesh. Our flesh does not want to do the will of God. Our flesh wants to do the will of the world, the will of Satan, the will of sin. We have a problem. We come to Christ and then say; isn't it wonderful that Christ has saved us? Now perfectly obey the law.
b) That's a great ideal, something to strive for, but it's not going to happen. It didn't happen before, and it's not going to happen now. Something radical must take place that goes beyond just saying, okay, today I'm going to obey the law of God.
c) If that's all that is needed, then why are we failing so much and so often? Because we have a flesh problem. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Paul in the book of Romans talks about the war that goes on within us and the issues that stand before us. I think this is exactly what it means in verse 63 when it says, it is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help at all. It's recognizing where we stand. We need God's intervention.

G. Jesus is talking to Jews who are coming from the law of Moses who think that they are good, righteous, moral people. They're doing A-OK, and they don't need a Savior. But they are not ok. They, and we, need God to intervene. What Jesus is teaching here is valuable. He says it is the Spirit who gives life. Think about what Ezekiel said. What is going to happen? I'm going to have a new group of people in this new covenant.

1. These people are going to have a heart that is responsive to the laws of God. They are going to listen to what God has to say so that God will be able to etch His laws onto their heart. These people in the old covenant haven't done that. They have not been listening to God. They have not been responsive to God and their sins are filled to the uttermost.
2. Imagine if you were there in the days of the law of Moses and under that covenant, how is that going to happen? What is God going to do that's going to radically change everything so that we will obey? So that we will have His law on our hearts and we will follow Him? Verse 63 gives the answer. “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” That is a powerful statement.
3. Jesus says, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” my words are spirit and life. Christ was going to come and teach the ways of God and exemplify the laws and ways of God and act in such a way so that we will be compelled to want to follow Him. It's the essence of the cross.

H. Every week we look at the cross and think about what He's done. We remember, and that is such a massive motivation. It's no longer we'll do the law because God said to do the law. That's pretty hard. Just do it. Okay, but I fail constantly.

1. What is going to be the transforming act that would cause me to want to obey God's law? Christ is. His love, His death, His resurrection, and in particular what Jesus is highlighting here, His words. Ezekiel says God's going to put His spirit in His people. How's God going to put His spirit in His people? Magically? Mystically? No. Jesus gives a clear answer. By His teachings. My words are spirit and life.
2. Never underestimate the power of the words of Christ. We need to let the words of Jesus rest in our heart. Meditate on them, focus on them, so that we will desire Him and want to consume our lives with Him. This is the means that God has given. We know that when you tell people - what you need to do is read your Bible more, that usually is turn-off. But it is the answer to; What do I need to have deeper faith? What do I need to do to draw closer to God? What do I need to do to feel like I'm in His graces? What do I need to do to experience His mercy? What do I need to do to be part of His grace? What do I need to do to experience the Kingdom of God? – His words are spirit and life.
3. People don't often like that answer. We want magic pills or a list of, do this, say this, act like that, and it will all be easier. Throughout this chapter, God is underlining over and over again the way that you belong to Christ, have a relationship with the Father and participate in His Kingdom, is to consume the bread of life and that life comes through His Word. That is how God writes on your hearts.

I. The more you learn about Him and grasp His love, listening to what He has to say, the more you will be compelled to follow Him. It will no longer be simply; there's the rules I've got to keep the rules. Rule keeping does not work with human beings very well.

1. What's going to change? God is going to display His immense love through His Son on the cross and reveal the amazing message of grace to radically change people's lives to desire Him and follow Him. If we do not have this love to consume him, then it shows that we are merely practicing external righteousness which does not give life. Jesus and His words alone give life.
2. False disciples of Jesus do not cling to God’s word. They do not recognize how wonderful it is to consume Christ. If we do not respond to the bread of life by desiring him, consuming him, and having His law in our heart, then we are not true disciples but false. The words of Jesus are the vehicle of the transformation of the heart from stone to flesh that gives us life and spirit.
3. If we're not desiring God, not consuming Him, and if our life is not wrapped up in Him, desiring His laws, desiring to learn about Him and consume all that He has to say, it is an enormous red flag for discipleship. We may think and say we are a follower of Him but simply practicing external righteousness, without the heart that seeks Him and desires Him and loves Him - will not bring us life. We cannot turn what Christ has done for us into simply saying, if I do X, Y, and Z, I'm A-OK.

J. That's what this is about and Jesus highlights this in John 6:65-64.

1. First reading verse 65. “And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”” He said that in verse 44. It's not going to be possible for us to come to Christ unless the Father does something. Then shows how are we drawn by the Father to Christ. They will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
2. We need God to give us a solution, and that is Christ, in Christ's sacrifice, and in His words. It is the Word of God that does it. Look at verse 64. “But there are some of you who do not believe…” John then explains; “For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.” Judas. What made Judas different from the rest of the apostles? Why talk about him right now? We are talking about false and true disciples.
3. Judas heard the teachings of Christ, just like the other 11. He saw the miracles of Christ. How could Judas do what he did? He was right there.
4. He did not allow himself to be taught by God. There is a way to hear the message of Christ, hear His words, and yet it will do absolutely nothing to our lives. It can just be words on a page, and it doesn't penetrate the heart. Think of the parable of the different types of soil.
5. The Word of God is seed that's being cast everywhere, and it in those who are the good soil where it begins to sprout and grow and bring in the fruit. Judas listened, He's seen, but he hasn't been taught by God. He hasn't allowed it to become transformative to him, and the point in verse 66 is the same. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

K. A grave warning to us. Is consuming Christ too much to ask? The disciples that leave say; Who can listen to this? It's too difficult. Who can receive what He's just taught? The answer is… many cannot. This is a serious challenge. What they wanted, Jesus was not going to give. They wanted things to be easy. They wanted the physical. What Jesus is willing to offer, they won't receive. He wants to give them life, and they will not take it.

II. Reaction of True Disciples – The second aspect we look at is the reaction of the true disciples. Verse 67, “So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”” Imagine watching this throng of disciples all just quitting and walking away. I wonder what the twelve felt like as they watched this enormous crowd just dwindle down.

A. Jesus is asking, has My call for discipleship been too difficult for you too? I love Peter's response. Verse 68. “… “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.””
B. Peter's answer. Where are we going to find eternal life but in you? Who are we going to turn to but you? It doesn't matter how challenging Jesus is. There's nowhere else to go. What a great statement that Peter makes. He understands exactly where he stands. I know they're all leaving Lord, but you have the words of life. Where else are we going to go? Your words give life transformation. Your words give us hope. Where are we going to turn? – We must believe that truth. There is nowhere else to go but Christ.

CONCLUSION:
We are looking at the distinction between the false disciples and the true disciples. What can we do to see Jesus as the bread of life and let God write His law on our hearts?
First - we need more prayer. Pray to God for a softening of your heart. Prayer is so important to the Christian walk. Pray to God the words a father declared to Jesus. “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Tell God your weaknesses and your struggles.

Second - what we've seen throughout this chapter is read the Word of God, but don't just read the Word of God. Read it with purpose. Read it with great intention. Take just a few verses, read them and think about them. Meditate on them. Pray about them. I suggest that is important to letting the Word of God into your heart. It is so easy to treat the Bible like a novel. Read it as fast as you can. Don't do that. Slow down.

Pick a Gospel and read through it slowly. Read a few verses and think about what is being said there. Don't just read over it, let it soak in. What does that mean? What is happening here? What is God trying to teach you? These are the things that God has given us for greater faith. Give yourself more time in prayer and give yourself more time in God's Word. You will deepen your faith.

His words bring us to faith, and His words help us grow. May we see that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through a knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

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Reference Sermon: Brent Kercheville

Back to The Garden — Forever
Revelation. 22:1-5

What do you think about when you think about heaven?
I read the story of a little girl who was outside with her dad one night. The only lights were the dazzling stars in the sky. And she turned to her dad and said “If this the wrong side of heaven, and it’s so beautiful, what do you think the right side of heaven will look like?”

Now the book of Revelation tries to paint a picture of the beauty of heaven, it speaks of streets paved with gold, and gates and walls of precious stones and jewels. And the point of all that imagery was to help us understand that – heaven is going to be one of the coolest places you’ve ever seen.

Today, numerous songs we sing declare that same excitement: One of those songs is “I'm satisfied with
just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold.
But in that city where the ransomed will shine.
I want a gold one that's silver lined.
(Chorus) I've got a mansion just over the hilltop,
in that bright land where we'll never grow old.
And some day yonder we will never more wander,
but walk on streets that are purest gold.”

When we hear songs like that - there’s something about the music and the words of those songs that declares:
HEAVEN IS A PLACE TO GET EXCITED ABOUT.

Revelation 22:1–5 reveals the end of the story — and it looks strikingly like the beginning. God restores what was lost in Eden, but greater, eternal, and unbreakable. Humanity is healed, creation is renewed, and God dwells with His people face to face.

1 “The river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
     • The river is a symbol of God’s life-giving presence
     • In Eden, a river watered the garden; here, it flows from God Himself
     • No barriers, no distance, no drought — pure, unfiltered life

2 “On each side of the river stood the tree of life… yielding fruit every month.”
     • Humanity was banished from the tree in Genesis
     • Now the tree is accessible, abundant, and eternal
     • Its fruit never runs out; its leaves bring healing to the nations
God doesn’t just forgive — He heals. He doesn’t just restore — He multiplies.

3 “No longer will there be any curse.”
     • The curse of Genesis 3 is fully reversed
     • No more decay, division, disease, or death
     • The world is finally as God intended
We live in a world still groaning, but Revelation promises the curse has an expiration date.

4 “They will see His face.”
     • The deepest longing of the human soul is fulfilled
     • No veil, no temple, no separation
     • God’s name on our foreheads means identity, belonging, and ownership
Heaven is not about a place — it’s about a Person.

5 “And they will reign for ever and ever.”
     • Humanity’s original calling (Genesis 1:26–28) is restored
     • Not passive existence, but active partnership with God
     • Eternal purpose, eternal joy, eternal authority
God doesn’t just save us from something — He saves us for something.

Revelation 22:1–5 is God’s final promise:
The story ends in life, not loss.
In healing, not hurt.
In glory, not grief.
Eden is not just restored — it is perfected.

A little 6-yr-old girl came home from VBS one day and excitedly said: “Mom, God’s so neat, and heaven’s so great. Could me and Gloria go there for a sleep-over on Saturday?”
That little girl understood what heaven’s all about – GOD’S NEAT… AND HEAVEN’S GONNA BE GREAT.
Now there are some people who don’t believe that. They say they believe Heaven will be boring, monotonous, and dreary.

A popular Irish Playwright named George Bernard Shaw, observed, “Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven…”

Revelation 19:1-7 tells us “After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just” …
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great." Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready…”

People pay good money to go to concerts where things like that happen. Concerts where people are just jumping up and down with excitement.
I mean - that kind of thing is not boring… UNLESS you don’t like the music, or unless you don’t like who’s onstage.
There are many in the world today who aren’t going to like the music in heaven – because it’s all about Jesus and worshipping God. And they won’t like who’s onstage - because that would be Jesus. So, of course they’re going to be bored.
They’ll be bored out of their minds.

But, there’s going to be a lot more than singing & rejoicing going on in heaven.
Revelation 22:5 says that “(We) will see his face, and his name will be on (our) foreheads. And night will be no more. (We) will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be (our) light, and (we) will reign forever and ever.”
We’re going to REIGN, and that means we’re going to be doing SOMETHING. I don’t know what exactly WHAT we’ll be doing, but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be enjoyable.

Back in the book of Genesis, we read that “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:15-16

WHAT’S THAT SAYING?
It’s saying that God gave Adam and Eve work to do.
And God gave them the Garden of Eden … which was THEIR place to look after and to take care of.
In that Garden, they REIGNED as King and Queen.
Now, is that what’s going to happen in Heaven?
I don’t know. But I DO know this:
when God gave Adam and Eve a place to reign… it wasn’t boring. It was a time of joy and pleasure.
And when Jesus returns God promises we will REIGN, and that will be a time of joy and pleasure.

ILLUS: Randy Alcorn — wrote a book called Heaven … and he wrote “Our belief that Heaven will be boring betrays a heresy — that God is boring.
There’s no greater nonsense.
Our desire for pleasure and the experience of joy come directly from God’s hand. He made our taste buds, our adrenaline, our nerve endings, etc. which convey pleasure to our brains.
Likewise, our imaginations and our capacity for joy and excitement were made by the very God we accuse of being boring. Are we so arrogant as to imagine that human beings came up with the idea of having FUN?”
OF COURSE NOT!

There’s an old hymn that says “Heaven is WONDERFUL place, filled with glory and grace. I’m gonna see my Savior’s face, cause heaven is a wonderful place.”
And heaven’s going to be a wonderful place… partly because of what’s NOT going to be there; and partly because of what WILL be there!
So, what’s NOT going to be there in heaven?

Well, Revelation gives us a list.
Revelations 21:3-5
“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

We can keep a list of things he know WON’T be in heaven.
In heaven “there’ll be no more cancer. No more divorce.
No more rejection or loneliness. No more depression.
No more wheelchairs or pacemakers.
No more radiation or chemotherapy.
No more crosses along the side of the road.
No more child abuse. No more rape.
No more funeral homes or orphanages or nursing homes.
No more treatment centers. No more Pink slips or foreclosures. No more quarantines or face masks or social distancing.”
That’s a lot of stuff that’s NOT going to be going on in heaven.

Now, there’s going to be ONE thing in heaven that will make it all worthwhile.
BACK TO VERSES 3-5 of our TEXT
“The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
There will be no more night.
They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.”

What’s going to be there in heaven? GOD!
The one thing that will make everything worthwhile in heaven will be God. He will be there waiting for us, and He’ll make EVERYTHING new!
Jesus said “Let not your hearts be troubled.” But why would we be troubled? Because this is a hard world… and it hurts to live here. But then Jesus goes on to say:
“Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3

What Jesus was saying was this: I’m coming back for you.
And when I come, I’ll have a place prepared JUST FOR YOU.
One of the main themes of Revelation is this: God’s coming back. And He’s coming back for you.
And when He comes back you’re going to have everything you didn’t have on earth.

CLOSE: The story is told of the days when doctors visited their patients at home. It was obvious the patient didn’t have long to live and as the doctor was about to leave, the sick man called out to him: "Doctor, I am afraid to die.
Can you tell me what lies on the other side?"
The doctor was very quiet for a moment and then said, "I don’t know."
"You do not know?
You are a Christian and you do not know what is on the other side?"
The doctor’s hand was on the doorknob… and on the other side of the door there was the sound of scratching and whining. It was the doctor’s dog which he had brought with him. And as he opened the door the dog leaped into the room and jumped up on him…
and eagerly licked his face.
Suddenly the Doctor realized how to answer the man’s question.
"Did you see what my dog just did?
He’s never been in this room before.
He didn’t know what was inside. He just knew that I was here … and that was enough. When the door opened, he pushed through – excited that I was here.
Now, I know very little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough. And when the door opens, I’m going in.”

Patience and Kindness

John 8:1-20

Good morning, I hope everybody's enjoying the weather. It's starting to get hot, so I should take advantage of it. It's been a cold June, and it's been annoying.

Over the spring, I had the opportunity to work with 6th graders in a math class at Eisenhower Intermediate School near Toledo, Ohio. This was one of my placements. During that time, I was told to make a lesson and instruct it with these students. I grouped them up and had them go through various activities. At one of these activities, there was a group of 6. They were all working on a problem.

The problem required them to get a tape measure, write down all their different heights, and find the answer to the question doing that. There was this one group of about 6 students, who was getting really heated. They were arguing, going back and forth about how to get the answer.

I tried not to step in unless it seemed like I really needed or they asked me a question. The arguments go on for a few minutes.

They ask Professor, Mr. Allen, will you come and help us out? I come over, and there's are two different camps that have different ideas on how to solve this question. I come over, and I see all of them are wrong. Not one of them is on the right track. They all are missing the mark and failing to answer the question right. I helped them out. That's just a good point that we are not just like those children.

We, as people, often are wrong. We will bicker and argue, do this and that, and we will often still not be close to the mark. Today, this sermon will be going over John 8:1-20 specifically.

If you'd like to turn to there, that is where the bulk of this sermon will be. To start, I will read verses 1-4.

Now, early in the morning, He came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. And He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading this passage was when Jesus was with the woman at the well in John 4. This was the Samaritan woman He had shown grace when He was talking to her, and it was very out of place because she was a Samaritan. He's not supposed to be seen with her, yet He was with her.

In verses John 4:16-18, it says, I have no husband, she replied. Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.

What you have just said is quite true. This shows that Jesus, before this point in the Bible, had already dealt with adulterous women, women who were with men that were not their husband. He had already shown how He was going to act with these kind of women before. When He was with the woman at the well, He showed patience, kindness. He was not quick to condemn her. He merely pointed out her sin. And here in John 8, a group of men had brought Him a woman in a similar position.

Moving on, verses 5-6 say, Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. What do you say? This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stopped, stooped down, and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

From what I can find, this is likely referencing Deuteronomy 17:1-7. What the Jews are telling Him is Moses' law.

That says, and it is told you, and you if hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you shall bring out your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses. He shall not be put to death on the testimony of one. The hands of the witness shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil among you.

This shows what the old law commanded. You have more than one witness to put to death people that do these types of sins, adultery, idol worship, the old law was ruthless and clear. Destroy the sin from your society. That is why God flooded the world, or just why He decimated Sodom and Gomorrah for their transgressions, so should His people destroy the sin.

Let's move on. Verses 8 through 9 say, so when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground, Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

None of them threw stones. Why? In Deuteronomy it's very clear we should be stoning these people. They should be killed for their transgressions.

Let's quickly look at Matthew 7:1-5. When all the time there is a plank in your own, you hypocrite. First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from others.

This is not too dissimilar to those children who were bickering and arguing and calling each other names because they thought they were right and their other classmates were wrong. Are we, like those little kids when we were pointing our fingers at our fellow man. How horrible of you to commit this sin. How awful of you to do this thing. That same finger could be turned around and pointed at you.

In Romans 3:23 it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That is all. It is very clear. All of us have fallen short. Imagine one day the Cleveland Browns called you and asked you if you wanted to be their new GM. Or a restaurant asked you to come in and be their chef. I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to run either of those things. I'm not qualified to do that. How am I qualified to do those things when I have no idea? None of us have any idea on how to go through life in a pure and perfect way by ourselves.

Let’s move on again, to verses 10-11, when Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.

Jesus did the same thing here that He did with the woman at the well.

He didn't deny her sin. He didn't say this didn't happen or you're not wrong for doing this thing, but He showed patience. He showed understanding. He showed that though you may have done this, there is hope for you yet. There is salvation. He asked her to go and commit no more sin.

I want to focus on something she said too. No one, Lord. She is acknowledging who He is. That is something many of the Jews that were coming to Him would not do as we will see later in this very chapter. They question Him and who He is, but this sinner, this adulterer, is the one that is clearly showing that she believes who He says He is. She believes what He says.

Let's look at John 3:16-21 real quick. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Jesus did not come down here to stone each and every one of us for the sins we have committed. He has not come down here to set us afire and call in a great flood to wipe us all away. He has come here to save us. He has come here to wash away our sins in His blood. He has come here to take our punishment for us so that we might be saved and offer us the gift of life. When Jesus came to the earth, that old law, that old creed that stood, that told people to stone the adulterers was done.

All have sinned. If people don't come to him, they will be condemned regardless. Why would you want to rush it? Why do it now when you could give those people time and they could be saved?

Moving on to verse 12. Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.

Verse 13 says, the Pharisees therefore said to him, you bear witness of yourself. Your witness is not true. He bears witness of himself. He's the one saying these things. He's the one saying I am the son of God. How can we just believe your word? How can we take your word for truth and fact? How can we trust you? Back in the Deuteronomy, it said do not convict someone with one witness. You need two or three. Jesus is not just one person. At this point in His life, He had already committed dozens of miracles. He had already turned water into wine. He had already healed many individuals.

Let's look to see how Jesus answered in verses 14 through 18. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. You judged according to the flesh. I judged no one. And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself and the Father who sent me bears witness to me. It's not just His word. It's not just His eyes that bear witness. As He says Himself, His Father bears witness as well.

Let's look back at verse 15. You judged according to the flesh. You judged based off your own earthly beliefs, based off your own earthly impulses. You were letting the flesh guide you, not the spirit, not the soul. Jesus said, I judged no one. I did not judge by the flesh, yet if I do judge, my judgment is true. Because He is with the Father. Jesus has made it clear at this point that He is the Son of God.

Moving on again, in verses 19 it says, then they said to Him, Where is your Father? Jesus answered you know neither me nor my Father. If you have known me, you have known my Father also. I wonder what Jesus felt at this moment. Do you think He was annoyed or confused by the question? Was He just tired of their constant redundancy because they keep asking the same thing over and over again. This isn't the first time He's been questioned like this. I'm quite sure this isn't the first time that these very people have asked this question.

Was it not made clear that He was the Son of God before this? When He had turned water into wine, when He had healed the lame? Were the miracles He performed in the Father's name not enough to satisfy?

Whenever I read passages like this one, I just think of all the Christmas movies I watched as a kid with Santa Claus. Where people would be like, Oh Santa, why don't you just show yourself to the world? Then everyone would believe in you. Then all their problems would be fixed. They would always respond with seeing is not the same as believing.

Many of these people that questioned Jesus in that time got to see these miracles, see His works firsthand. They bore witness to His greatness and who He was, yet they did not believe. They were the ones to cast the stones. I guess that just tells me that I must be diligent. Because if people who were there in that day could not overcome their own flesh, could not let go of their own earthly desires for the Lord that was standing right in front of them, how easy of a time will I as a sinner with just the Bible in front of me have as well? How diligent do I need to be to properly follow the Lord my God? Even the apostles struggled at points. Very much so.

Moving back to verse 20 says, These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as He taught in the temple, and no one laid hands on him, for His hour had not come yet.

I want to look at Joshua 1:9 real quick. It says, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For your Lord, your God, will be with you wherever you go. Jesus and the Lord will be with you as you go through life. Jesus knew He was safe here. He could keep on preaching, keep on saying His word, keep on professing the Lord's commands. He knew He'd be safe because He knew that the Lord was with Him and that it was not His time.

He knew He still had time on this earth. Do not be afraid as we go through life. Do not be afraid as we go through trials and tribulations.

We can be assured that God is with us. We may not be capable of making the right decision.

We may get into arguments. We may point each other and say, We are right. We have the answer. We have the solution. Then God will come around like I did to those sixth graders and say, No, you're both wrong. But with God in our ear, with God on our side, we have a guide and an advisor greater than any other. We will be wrong. If we listen to His word, to His testament, to His guidance, we can be confident that He will point us in the right direction. We can be confident that He will witness it all. When the time comes for us to stand before judgment, Jesus will stand with us proclaiming that we proclaimed His name.

I ask, If you have not come to the Lord in baptism, why wait any longer? He has already given you so much time, more than many others. Thankfully, this is not the day where if they found you guilty of a certain sin, they would stone you. You have more time than that. You have more time to come to him.

If you have not been baptized for the remission of your sins, I ask that you do not wait, that you come to the Lord. If you wait too long, it may be too late.

Feed On My Flesh
John 6:48-59

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. John chapter 6. John has told us that his purpose in writing has been to instill true saving belief in the reader. We left off last time in John 6:47 where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”[ESV] This is what John wants the reader to see.

John is also teaching us what false faith looks like. Our observation has included various people in encounters with Jesus, the Samaritan woman, Nicodemus and the paralyzed man at the pool.

Jesus is now in the synagogue at Capernaum. The crowds have come across the Sea of Galilee to be fed just like they had been fed miraculously the day before with the miracle that fed the 5000. Jesus tells them that He is the bread of life who has come down from heaven and the reason they do not come to Jesus is because the Father has not drawn them (6:44). In John 6:47-52 we're in the middle of this story as Jesus is having this discussion, and He has an audience that is full of unbelief. They are disputing against Him because of describing Himself as, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” For Him to have come down from heaven as the bread of life means He's the son of God. He is the Messiah.

I. Continuing Unbelief (John 6:48-52) – “48. I am the bread of life. 49. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”” Let's stop there. This first section shows us the problem of continuing unbelief.

A. They still are not listening to what Jesus is saying as He continues to try to teach them. He's trying to bring them into a spiritual understanding, trying to get them to understand that the ultimate problem is their spiritual death. Notice how He words that in verse 51 – “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” Obviously, He is not talking about physical life here.

1. If you will see Me as the bread of life, if you will understand who I am, you will have spiritual life, eternal life. You will live forever if you comprehend this.
2. He's trying to show them the superiority of who He is as “the bread of life” in contrast to what the Israelites received in the wilderness under Moses. Those people all died.

B. Let’s think about the wilderness for a moment. Why did the fathers who ate manna in the wilderness die? Obviously, they were going to die physically anyway. I don't care if they ate the manna in the wilderness or not, everybody is going to die at one point or another. Why they died in the wilderness is what Jesus is driving at.

1. I’m sure you remember the story. Read with me Hebrews 3:16-19, “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
2. When we read the story of them in the wilderness what is the thing that we read about them doing over and over? They are complaining and grumbling.

a) They come to the Red Sea and complain - Moses, you took us the wrong way. We are all going to die out here. Then the miracle of the Red Sea.
b) What are we going to eat? We are in the middle of nowhere. Here comes the manna.
c) We are sick and tired of eating mana, here comes the quail. There is no water.

3. They are complaining constantly, why? Because they are filled with unbelief. They don't believe that God is going to provide what they need. Unbelief is why they are grumbling. We can make a couple of observations here.

II. Grumbling is a symptom of continuing unbelief – Back in verse 41, what are the people doing about Jesus? It says “So the Jews grumbled about Him…” Why are they grumbling? They are grumbling because of their unbelief.

A. John 6:36. “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” John in his gospel continues to use imagery from Israel’s history recorded in the Old Testament to show Jesus is the Son of God. Here we see Israel is acting toward Jesus the exact same way it acted toward God when they were in the wilderness in the days of Moses.

1. The people are persisting in unbelief as seen in their grumbling and… the result will be the same. They will miss out on the life the Father is offering through Jesus.
2. Grumbling is symptomatic of unbelief because it shows that we do not have faith in God. It shows that we do not believe that God will provide, do not believe that God has our best interests at heart and that God is not paying attention to our circumstances. That is what we are saying to God when we grumble and complain.

B. Verse 51 sums up the message. Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven. Jesus has said this more then once but now He is going to be very direct about what it means for Him to be the living bread. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Jesus is going to give His body as the means of life for the world. This throws the crowd completely out of sorts.
C. Verse 52. “The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”” Every time Jesus gives a declaration in this chapter the response is; you've got to be kidding me. Here they do it again. How can He say that we're supposed to eat His flesh? Again, we are seeing the author showing us the lack of spiritual depth in this audience. Repeatedly throughout these six chapters we are observing people whose minds and hearts are in darkness, do not care about God and cannot receive what God is teaching because they're blinded by the world.
D. They're unwilling to think through what Jesus is saying. Jesus shows this in so many places.

1. We see that when we study the parables. Remember when the disciples come up to Jesus and say why do you always tell these parables? His response is “I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
2. Parables acted as a sort of spiritual filter. People with calloused hearts and preconceived notions could hear the literal story and dismiss it, while the humble would be drawn in and seek for deeper meaning. I'm seeing who is going to try to learn and understand what I'm saying.

E. Jesus does not explain Himself here in a way that makes this scene simpler. Verse 53. “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 you.”” Did that make it easier to understand?

1. Watch how it keeps going. “54. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59. Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.”
2. Did Jesus make it easier to understand? He just made it even harder and more challenging. They are continuing to take it at surface level, not thinking, not receiving, not listening to what Jesus is saying. Which leads us to our second observation.

III. Lack of spiritual seeking and spiritual depth - Our first observation was grumbling, complaining is symptomatic of continuing unbelief. A lack of spiritual seeking and a lack of spiritual depth - is also a symptom of continuing unbelief. The inability to want to dig in and try to figure out what Jesus is saying.

A. Sometimes people need the sledgehammer of the word of God to knock us out of this shallow, physical, material existence and perception and to open our eyes to something far bigger. Life is busy and at times intense, and focused on that, we are not seeing the greater thing. We're not seeing the spiritual plane. We're not listening to the word of God with spiritual ears and spiritual hearts.
B. We take scripture on the basic level of just the words and do not see what it is telling us, (often more plainly than we think), as an aggregate. God did not make His word so hard that people can not understand it, but it can be challenging.

1. Nicodemus, you must be born again. How can I go back into my mother's womb? Come on now Nicodemus, get off the physical plane here. Come up to the spiritual level and think this through.
2. Woman at the well. Wouldn't it be great to not ever have to take a bucket and go to get water out of the well? Come on lady, come on up to the spiritual level. We are talking about the fountain of living water.

C. There is an important lesson here before we continue. We learn that the goal is not to dumb down the scriptures and oversimplify everything God said. God’s word is challenging not because God makes things hard but because our hearts are spiritually dull. When we hear things that are hard or confusing, we should not give up but dig deeper. We should not want sermons dumbed down to watery mush.
D. We don’t want our Bible classes to be plain and basic. Jesus never did that. He never dumbed down God’s teaching. I know there are times when the teaching feels like it is over our heads. Don’t let that be discouraging but awe-inspiring and fill you with a desire to learn it. That is why I really like our type of bible class where everyone is involved and can ask questions about anything.

IV. What True Belief Looks Like (John 6:53-59) - Let's look at what Jesus means by all this because in this final section from verses 53 to 59, Jesus is now explaining what true belief looks like.

A. He's done it in a way that on the surface looks complicated. “… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” What do you mean by that? Far from modifying the startling metaphor Jesus had adopted, He extended and restated it dogmatically.

1. Taken literally, the passage would be cannibalistic and repulsive, therefore requiring a spiritual understanding of it.
2. What He's doing is showing symptoms of continuing unbelief. You're grumbling and complaining and you lack spiritual depth and insight when I'm trying to teach you these things.

B. Over the years many well-respected commentators have voiced differing views about these verses. One popular opinion is that Jesus is talking about the Lord’s Supper. We can quickly see why this would be an attractive interpretation. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood sounds very much like the memorial of the Lord’s Supper where we take the bread to remember Christ’s body and take the fruit of the vine to remember Christ’s blood that was shed to establish the new covenant. Others say that is not the case.
C. Let’s look at this idea for a moment. Jesus in these verses is referring to bread and saying I am the bread of life.

1. In Hebrew “bread” has two meanings. First a food composed of flour mixed with water and baked and second meaning is food of any kind. What does food do? It sustains life. We can readily see that He is comparing Himself as the bread of life with something we all know, food to support physical life. After all, they came to Him looking for more food as with the feeding of the 5000.
2. He also tells them to seek the food that endures for eternal life, and He says the Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The implication is this has something to do with the spiritual. Jesus is metaphorically comparing the food we take into our bodies which the body then uses to support physical life with Himself as spiritual food which supports our spiritual life unto eternity. Simplistically, and I think more accurately stated, we need food for physical life, and we need Christ for spiritual life.

D. Next, we see Jesus is using the idea for how we take in physical food to describe our need to take Him in. How do we take in spiritual food? To start with Peter writes in 1^st Peter 2:2, “like a newborn baby, desire the pure milk of the word. Nourished by it, you will grow into salvation,”. The Hebrews writer in Hebrews 5:13-14 says, “Everyone who lives on milk is not used to the word of righteousness, because they are babies. But solid food is for the mature, whose senses are trained by practice to distinguish between good and evil.”
E. Next let’s look at the Lord’s Supper. Jesus instituted this with His followers, “Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take and eat. This is my body.” He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from this, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many so that their sins may be forgiven.” (Matthew 26:26f) And with the command “Do this in remembrance of me”.
F. In the 6th chapter of John Jesus is using the Metaphor of taking in food for physical sustenance to taking in Him for spiritual sustenance. In the Lord’s Supper Jesus is instituting for His followers, an ordinance to remember His sacrifice and death. You might say the first illustrates a need and the second is a reminder of what is accomplished by fulfilling that need.
G. He says in verse 53, “… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” The subject is still eating, still food and it is a spiritual subject. True faith is a life that is completely consumed by Christ. That's what He's simply expressing.
H. In verse 40, Jesus said that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. Same construction when then He says here, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Are these two different ideas? Not at all.

1. It is a metaphorical reference to the soul-saving benefit procured on behalf of the human family by Christ's atoning death on the cross and the shedding of His blood. The eating and drinking refer to the soul's proper appropriation of that benefit.
2. If you understood who I am, you would consume me. You would just eat, drink, breathe and live everything about Jesus because He is the one who will give you eternal life.

V. True Food - That's what verse 55 continues with. “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” Jesus is truly what you need. He is what you need for living now. He is what you need for eternal life. He is what your soul needs. He is everything you need. He is that true food and for Jesus to say I'm the true food means there's no other food that's of any value or usefulness.

A. I thought about it like this, what would happen to us if all we ever ate were donuts? I mean besides the smile on our face that is. If all you ever ate were donuts, is that true food? It's food, but it is incomplete, and things are not likely to go well for you. It might be delicious and you might enjoy it, but your health is likely to suffer and, in the end, shorten your life. Yet, it is food.

1. There are all kinds of things in this world that are food. Jesus says I'm the true food. If you immerse yourself in all those other foods and all those other things that this world has to offer and you engage in that in this life, you might think you're satisfied just like eating donuts.
2. Eating donuts makes me happy and comfortable. I have joy from that, but it's not true food. Sooner or later, it's going to kill you. You're going down the wrong path.
3. Jesus comes along and says He is the bread of life that comes down from heaven. He says I'm the true food. There is nothing else but me. I'm the only thing that will satisfy your life. I'm the only thing that will give you life. I'm the only thing that will spare you from the disaster to come. Consume me. Follow me.

B. He is telling them to be immersed in Him. Eat, Drink, Live, and Breathe Jesus.

1. That's what true belief looks like. Verse 56 continues that. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them.” This is a great picture. It shows you are in a relationship.
2. Jesus told them earlier that the reason they could not believe was because the father had not drawn them, they had not been taught of God. They have not learned. We talked about that last week.

C. You have no relationship with me. You think you're close, but you're far away. You haven't been taught by me. Now apply what we see in these verses. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood, whoever eats, drinks, breathes, lives Christ, abides in Christ and Christ abides in them. This teaches us that the life of Christ is not about externals.

1. We cannot point to something in our life and say, I was baptized on X date and since I'm baptized, therefore I'm saved and I'm fine and I'm good. No. Your life must be consumed with Christ. That's what true saving faith looks like. Breathe Christ. Live Christ. That is the picture of what a true disciple looks like.

D. The message that He wants them to understand is they think they have a relationship with God. They think that they have true saving faith, but they do not because they do not see Jesus as the all-satisfying God who provides all that you need for life and godliness.

1. Instead, they are consumed by the things of this world. Therefore, Jesus says, feed on my flesh and drink my blood so that you can abide in me. If you do that you have a relationship with the father.
2. There's a relationship with Jesus when we are consumed by Christ. Notice verse 57 amplifies that. It gives the explanation perfectly. “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father,…” Stop right there in this parallel. How does Jesus live because of the father? What He's saying is my life is completely consumed in the will of my father. I live because of my father. Everything I do is about my father. What my father says, what my father wills, my father's purpose, I live for that. I live because of that.
3. Apply that to us and that's what He's telling us as well. Our life is to be consumed in Christ.
4. Think back to chapter 4. They are in Samaria and the disciples have gone away into the city to buy food. Remember when the disciples come back and they're bringing Him food and Jesus says I've already eaten. They ask each other, who brought Him food? Notice the spiritual boldness that John points out repeatedly. Jesus says some amazing words here, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”
5. That's how Christ lives. That's how we live and everything about our life is completely about Christ. That we live and we are consumed in Him and our joy and satisfaction are found in Christ alone.

CONCLUSION:
That's what true saving faith looks like. A couple thoughts from verse 53 where He says, “… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Unless we are consuming Christ we have no life. We have nothing to stand on by ourselves. The only way we can possibly have life, the only hope that we have of life, is to be consumed with Christ. It is not our righteousness; it is not our goodness that gives us life.

When we attach ourselves to a relationship with Jesus, everything changes. We need the bread of life. We're dead in our sins. We are in the misery of our sins, but complaining and grumbling shows unbelief. We need to look at our lives and be cautious about this.

All the terrible difficulties that sometimes we complain about are really nothing. Or as Paul said, they're nothing to be compared with the glory that's to be revealed to us. Do we believe that God will carry us through? Do we truly believe that God is with us? Do we believe that He will carry us home? Of course, He will.

Second, lacking spiritual depth reveals our unbelief as well. Faith is all about a life consumed in Christ. Faith is all about obedience to him, loving Him, consumed by Him, because He is more precious than anything. He is true food. We must open our eyes and recognize there is nothing else more valuable, more useful, or more important than Jesus. He is your life.

We're singing an invitation song. Those who have come to Jesus as well as those who have not, take stock of your life. Do you see Him as the all-satisfying God? Do you see Him as your bread of life?

The world tells us there's all kinds of good food. God says, my son is true life. He is true bread. He is true food. Eat, breathe, and live Jesus Christ. Lift up your eyes from the things of this world.

Pray to God to say, I need to see you as all-satisfying. I need to see you as the bread of life. Read His word and see how good the Lord is. Start moving toward a deeper relationship with Him. To stop remaining on the present level that we may be spiritually.

If you have not seen Jesus as the all-satisfying bread of life, we invite you to turn away from your sins. Be immersed in water to have your sins washed away and begin that walk with Him. A walk that gives you eternal life. A walk that gives you hope and life that you do not have otherwise.

Whatever your need we invite you to come while we stand and while we sing.

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Reference: Brent Kercheville

They Will All Be Taught by God
John 6:41-47

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. We are in the midst of a study of the sixth chapter of John’s gospel. Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum telling the people that He is the bread of life. Jesus has come to give life, but the people have come to Jesus for the wrong reason. They have come for free food. They have come for what He will do for them, and not because of who Jesus.

They are so consumed in their physical desires that they cannot see their spiritual needs. They do not recognize their spiritual hunger and are blind to the offer Jesus is making.

In verse 40 Jesus has made a tremendous statement and an amazing offer. “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Whoever will come to Jesus will never be cast out, will not be lost, and will be raised up on the last day. Let’s notice the people’s response to this amazing offer.

I. The People Complain – John 6:41-42 “So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?””

A. Verse 41 tells us the Jews grumbled. Here is Jesus saying I'm going to give you everything you need and they just start complaining because He said I am the bread that came down from heaven. We know His father Joseph so how can He can say I've come down from heaven? They reject that idea. They do not believe and we have seen this before in John's gospel, people will not believe.
B. The light has come into the world. The Life has come into the world. I am the bread of life, and their response is in unbelief. They don’t want to believe who this Jesus is and what He is offering.

II. Drawn By The Father – John 6:43-44. Jesus answer to this I think is quite amazing and I submit to you quite challenging. I ask for you to bear with me as we go through this response that Jesus gives, verse 43, “Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.” Jesus did not answer their grumbling by performing some kind of miracle. He could do something to deal with this unbelief. Instead, He says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”

A. There is a challenge in what Jesus just said. I'm going to read that again. I want the challenge of what Jesus said to sink in. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. That was a very big statement, and He continues, and I will raise him up on the last day.

1. This phrase has caused all kinds of writings and divisions. Take a moment and recognize that we just cannot pass these words off. We cannot come across a scripture that doesn’t fit easily into our mind’s view and just simply pass it off.
2. There is an answer here that we need to look at. Look at it as a challenge to our understanding. Jesus is saying something very bold to these people. He's telling them, you can't come to me on your own. The Father has to draw you in. Our problem is what He's trying to explain to them.
3. What is at stake? He is trying to get them to grasp where their unbelief comes from. I know in my own study when I find something like this I have a tendency to kind of whiz over those statements and pay attention to other parts of the sentences.

B. I also notice that in my own studies, and you might too, when reading a verse you've known all your life, you might miss particular details because you're used to hearing a certain point.

1. For example, Acts 2:38, one you probably know very well. “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off,…” Don't just end the sentence there. Keep looking, “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.””
2. It's the same thing Jesus just said here in John 6. You can't come to me unless the father draws you to me. Peter describes it in his sermon, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.
3. Galatians 1:6 says, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel"
4. 1^st Corinthians 1:2 says – “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:” and in verse 9 “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
5. We have been studying Jude. How does Jude begin? “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:” There are statements that are being made here, that we have been called by God. Christ comes to these people who are in unbelief and says, I don't want you to grumble. I want you to recognize there is a problem.

C. The problem is you can't come to Me unless the father draws you. What does that mean? How are we drawn? What does that look like? What is He trying to teach them?

1. There are those who use this sovereign act of God’s calling, to suppose that God draws some and not others. Doing that however would be to suppose that God is partial and unjust (see Acts 10:34). The murmurers in this passage had rejected the teaching of God relative to the lowliness of the Messiah, thus denying God's drawing of them unto Himself. The fact of rejection by some does not nullify the promise; the ones who respond will still be raised up on the last day. What is important for us to do in our study is to not stop studying here in verse 44 and build our doctrine. This whole chapter must be considered because it is one conversation with the Jews who saw the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.

III. How Are We Drawn? – He's explaining what this means in verse 45. “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— then he gives this almost parenthetical comment—not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.”

A. We might put it this way; Understand what I mean, “taught by God” is not talking about God directly teaching you. No one has seen the father. I'm not talking about that kind of teaching, but only those who have been taught by the father can come to Christ.
B. In verse 44 Jesus makes this important declaration. Nobody comes to Christ unless the father draws him. When you look at the next verse what He is saying is; The people who come to Christ, are those who have heard and learned from the father. In other words, everybody who does come to Christ will have learned from God, have been taught by God. Jesus then quotes the prophets.

1. He uses Isaiah 54:13 as His proof text. “All your children shall be taught by the Lord,…” They will all be taught of God. The point is; He is saying that being taught by God is how a person is drawn by the father to Christ.
2. What does that look like? What exactly does that mean? Those who have heard and learned from the Father come to Christ. Hearing and learning from the Father is how the Father draws us to Christ, and how we come to salvation.

C. Listen to 2^nd Thessalonians 2:13-14. “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, (Notice that same kind of language) through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you (How?) through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1. Paul says I give thanks always about you because you have been taught by God. How did that happen? He called you through our gospel. We proclaimed the gospel to you and that is how you were drawn by the father. That is how you came to faith.
2. Think of that familiar verse, Romans 10:17. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Faith only comes one way. Through the hearing of the word of God. That's the only way faith comes. Mark talked about hearing recently and quoted “He who has ears to hear, let them hear” meaning to listen not just as to sound but for the meaning. In Matthew 15:10 when Jesus was teaching a multitude, He said “Hear and understand:”

D. These Jews believe that they are part of God's family, that they are in a covenant relationship with God, and Jesus is telling them, there is a problem. You haven't been taught by God. You have not been drawn by the father. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. No one in this room came to faith without the word of God. Nobody.

1. You can't have faith in Christ without the word of God. That's the way the world wants to have it though. If you just go up on a mountain somewhere and meditate for a while, you can know all you need to know about God and you'd be on your way to spiritual salvation and enlightenment. No, you won't.
2. If you would just do these exercises, if you do this, that or whatever, then you would have spiritual enlightenment. If you'd watch this or that TV personality enough, then you'd have all the enlightenment that you could possibly need.
3. Jesus said, nobody comes to Me unless the father draws him. Paul worded it by saying; It’s the gospel that called you. He would write to the Romans, Your faith came by hearing the word of Christ. That's how your faith came. You had to know the word of God. I think that's very important to understanding what verses 44 and 45 are saying.

E. Jesus words make quite a comment about these people’s knowledge of the scriptures. You are not coming to me because you have not been taught by the father. To say that to a Jew is a very big deal. Having somebody tell you haven't been taught by God at all, is quite insulting and quite challenging.

1. We can put these two sentences side by side and see clearly what Jesus is saying.
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (6:44).
“Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (6:45).
2. Therefore, being taught by God is how the Father draws us to Christ. Hearing and learning from the Father is how the Father draws us. This is also what the rest of the scriptures teach.

F. By the way, this is exactly Jesus’ point in John 5:46 – “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”” You are the people of God. You were given the oracles of God. You should know scriptures. You were given all those things, and you haven't been taught by God.

1. Did they know the law? Did they have it memorized? Did they have the scrolls? Did they have the teachings? Did they recite the law? Did they read it in the synagogue on a regular basis? Did they worship and offer sacrifices?
2. All this yet Jesus says, you haven't been drawn by the father, you haven't been taught of God. Why? Because you haven't learned from the father. That is why you don't come to me. It's why you can't see Me as the savior, why you can't see Me as the bread of life.

G. God revealed His will, nature, and commandments to humanity by speaking through chosen prophets. This is exactly what Jesus is trying to get across. This is really the message. God, even in the scriptures, as He spoke in the prophets, said, this is the way I'm going to bring people to myself. Imagine if God had not done that. If God had not revealed one word to humanity, would we be able to come to the father? No. God had to intervene. That's the issue. He's trying to tell these people you're not okay. You're not right with God. In fact, you're far away from God.
H. I’d like to look now at Jeremiah 31 where through the prophet God tells of the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31:31, where Jeremiah writes, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.”

I. He says, new covenant, not like the law of Moses. Here's what this covenant is going to look like. Verse 33, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.””
J. What does it mean that God himself would put His law within them and write His law on their hearts? You will be taught by God. You will hear and learn from the Father. Think of what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…” He is describing the ability of the word of God to penetrate the complex inward nature of man, to convict him of sin, to expose his hidden motives, and to judge the very nature of life itself.

1. Paul says in 1^st Thessalonians 4:9, “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,” – The word of God is living and active.
2. God is drawing people to Christ through these words because this is where the power lies. These are the words of the father that are given to bring life and those who do not know these words will not find life. They will not come to the son. How have those Thessalonians been taught by God? Paul preached to them. He proclaimed to them the word of God.

K. Let me ask the question the other way so that we can see what Jesus is doing with these Jews. If Paul had not proclaimed the gospel to the Thessalonians would they have been loving one another as God commanded? To put it another way, do you of your own nature without knowing anything about God, love one another like you're supposed to? No. You love because God showed you how. This is His revelation to the world. Here's what love looks like. Here's how we're supposed to live. Here's what we're supposed to do.

1. On our own we don't do that. Even though we have the word of God, do we do exactly what He says? No, we still don't and if He had not revealed it to us, we certainly wouldn't have.
2. Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” We've all separated ourselves from God. There's none righteous no, not one. We've all walked away from God.
3. Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;” If God did not intervene first, we are utterly lost.

L. Growing up I heard the idea that if I was really good and did right, that's what got God to love me. Everything was OK. God loved me because I loved Him first. No. God loved me first and intervened and revealed His will and sent His son. It is because of those things that I come to faith, and how I come to know God. That's how I have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

1. Remember in Luke 18: how the ruler comes up to Jesus and says; “Good Teacher…” “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God”
2. When we don't see our sinfulness, when we don't see that we are far away from God, then we will never come to him. This is what Jesus was dealing with. You say you've come down from heaven. You're offering salvation and forgiveness of sins and life. They don't see that they need that.

M. He doesn't have to do a miracle to prove that He is the bread of life that comes from heaven. Jesus' argument is simply this. If you know the Scriptures properly and it is written on your heart the way it ought to be, you would know who I am and you would see me as the bread of life.

1. Peter in 1^st Peter 1:23 writes, “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, (how?) through the living and abiding word of God;”
2. That is how you find salvation. That is how you are taught by God. That is how you hear and learn from the Father.
3. Peter goes on, “for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls," No one likes to hear that, "but the word of the Lord remains forever.” Now look at the end, "And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” How did you come to faith? The word of God. The word of God was preached to you.

N. This tells us something so important about the nature of the word of God, and it gives us a responsibility to proclaim it. People are not going to wake up in their homes today, and out of the blue say; I believe in Jesus and I'm going to go to church and I'm going to follow Him with all my heart. They must hear the word of God.

1. We have a great responsibility before us to understand the power of God's word, to see what it does, because this is God's means of revelation to save the world. It's not going to come in a dream, it's not going to come in a vision, nor will you hear some kind of whisper in your ear. You're not going to see something or think something out of the blue. We are all taught by God because He has revealed Himself and that revelation brings us to faith.
2. Jesus is telling them don't grumble because the problem is you don't know the scriptures. He is not the problem; their problem is not knowing the scriptures beyond just the words.

CONCLUSION:
As I spent more time in John’s gospel, I saw it would be easy to read of the people Jesus met and think, “Wow! How did they miss that?” Then I realized we could memorize this book, come on Sunday and worship and still not be taught of God. There is a way to come every Sunday, sit in the pew, read the Bible every day, pray every day, try to be moral and right and still not be taught by God. That was their problem.

They knew the law but were not taught by God. Jesus is trying to teach them, when you believe you will have eternal life, and that is going to come from the knowledge of the scriptures. That saving faith is generated from knowing His word.

A preacher put it this way;
“I learned the scriptures from my youth, and I could quote to you every verse, but I had not been taught by God. These words were not yet written on my heart. They were not put within me. They were words on a page that did not have strength that I had not given it yet. It is not just merely academic knowledge. The Jews certainly had that.”

Consider: were the Jews ignorant of the scriptures? Of course not. They could quote the Torah. They knew the law of God. While they were worshiping God, offering their sacrifices, and reciting the law in the synagogue, they were not taught of God. Many today worship the same way. They attend, they participate, and they contribute.

God is drawing you through the scriptures to His Son. Why should you read the Bible? Reading and listening to the scriptures, gaining the knowledge they offer is how God’s law is written onto our hearts. If the Father is not drawing you to Christ, then you are wandering away. Will you listen to God’s drawing you to Him and receive Jesus as the bread of life, becoming your only pursuit?

Hear His words, listen to His calling. Listen to the great hope. Let us not be like these people who heard the great message of salvation and forgiveness of sins and eternal life and pursue false satisfaction saying to Him, Jesus I want a meal today, what are you going to do for me physically? I see Jesus shaking His head and saying, I am giving you the food to live an eternal life.

Take your eyes off the physical and come to the bread of life. Turn away from your sins and be immersed in water to enter that relationship with Him. Won't you come while we stand and sing.

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Reference: Brent Kercheville

The Bread of Life
John 6:30-40

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. A quick review of where we are in John 6. On the previous day Jesus performed an amazing miracle, the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, the feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, and at least 5,000 men were there.

The next day, these people who were on the east side of Galilee, came back in the morning wanting to be fed, and did not find Jesus there. They cross the Sea of Galilee, find Jesus in the synagogue in Capernaum, and they say basically, hey, we want to eat some more, perform some more signs for us.

Jesus, in verse 26, identified that the reason that they had come was not because they understood who Jesus was, it's not because they understood the meaning of the sign that Jesus is the Savior, that He is the Messiah, come to redeem the world.

They've only come for what Jesus will give them, and that is physical bread. They've come for breakfast and they want it free. It was on the basis of this that Jesus enters into a discussion with them. He told them not to put their effort or their labor into the food that perishes, but to labor for eternal life… labor for that food. He calls on them to believe in verse 29, saying that, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

What Jesus is calling for them to do, is to recognize that God has accomplished a great work, He has accomplished their salvation, and by necessity they are to then put their faith in the one whom God has sent—Jesus. That is where we pick up the story now, and we'll find that Jesus and this crowd have a lot more to say about these things. John 6:30.

I. Demanding Christ’s Service – Let’s start with John 6:30-31, “So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”” I think we can see what they are doing in this fascinating question and statement to Jesus.

A. What sign do you do so that we may believe you? We need a sign so that we may see for ourselves and know who you are and believe you. I suspect any of us who have read the story would think that what they had seen the day before was a really big sign! Five loaves and two fish, feeding thousands and thousands of people. This makes me think of Bill Engvall’s book, “Here’s Your Sign”.
B. What they are asking for, and what we see in what they're saying, is something more. It is not simply that they did not remember what happened yesterday. Remember what the people have observed in him. In John 6:14 they recognized this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. This is the one that Moses prophesied about. There would be one like him, that would rise and deliver the people.

1. What the people are saying is that Moses gave the people food to eat every day for 40 years. Moses provided manna every day. If Jesus is the new deliverer and savior of the people, then at least He could feed them every day with bread like Moses did.
2. It can even be argued that they would expect something greater than what Moses did since He claims to be the Son of God. If you are the new Moses, then you should at least do this for us. That is the implication behind them saying we want to see a sign. John is showing us their thinking. If you are just like Moses, then every day we can come out here and you will give us food.

C. Jesus' response to this is interesting. John 6:32-33. “Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.””

1. This is an interesting response because it corrects and contrasts with what they said. They said in verse 31, quoting the scripture, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
2. Jesus responds to that with a number of statements in this sentence that defy the understanding of these people. He tells them Moses didn't give you bread. Yet, that's not the whole point. You will notice there's a changing of tenses. “… it was not Moses who gave you the bread…”, but then He doesn't say, the father gave you bread. That's was not the point.
3. He says, “but my father, present tense, gives you the true bread from heaven.” The implication is not to say, it wasn't Moses, it was God. The implication is; what you received then wasn't the true bread at all. The father is giving you that bread now.
4. The father gives you the true bread. What Moses gave you wasn't the real bread. That was only for your physical need. The father is offering you the real bread, the true bread that you ought to be looking for. It is the bread that sustains the soul, provides spiritual growth and leads to eternal life.
5. Jesus drives that very carefully and says in verse 33, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” I see another implied contrast here. The manna was not for the world, that manna was for the people of Israel, and was not the true sustenance. The father is going to give you true bread and it will not be only for you as the physical bread in the wilderness was. It will be for the whole world.

D. There is something subtle in what Jesus says, and it seems the audience misses it. Notice in verse 33 that the bread of God “… is he who comes down from heaven…” Jesus speaks about Himself and declares that He gives life to the world. Jesus is offering something far greater and far superior to what was given in the wilderness… Himself. Notice the people completely miss this.

II. I Am The Bread of Life – John 6:34, “They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”” As we read that, we see they don’t get it. We should not be surprised though because throughout this gospel we have seen the spiritual blindness of people that Jesus has encountered.

A. It's almost as if they didn't hear that part. What they heard was the bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life. That sounds great! Bread comes down and gives us life! Sir, give us this bread always.

1. John continues to paint these audiences in spiritual blindness, darkened in the heart. We saw this with the Samaritan woman in 4:15. Jesus speaks of the living water, then she says to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or need to come and draw water.
2. Notice the parallel. 4:15, Sir, give me this water. 6:34, Sir, give us this bread. They are simply not understanding what Jesus is offering.
3. There is a consistent theme in this gospel. The people are spiritually blind and so consumed by pursuing their physical desires, wants and needs that they fail to recognize what is being offered to them.
4. The crowd wants this bread every day so that they can be physically fed by doing nothing. Are people like that today? Something for nothing? Something for minimum effort? Certainly. Advertisers know it, politicians know it. - Satan knows it.

B. Jesus is trying to get their minds on a spiritual plane. Stop laboring for the food that perishes. Stop worrying about your physical desires. Stop concerning yourselves with materialistic pursuits. Don't pursue Jesus for what He can give you. Pursue Him for who He is. Labor for the food that leads to eternal life. Here Jesus gets blunt, just as He did with the Samaritan woman, and He gets to the point.

III. Believing – Verse 35, “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” What a beautiful picture that He's trying to get them to understand.

A. He's trying to help them understand what Jesus offers them. He says, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. I think we can recognize those statements are parallel. He is describing the answers to needs, spiritual needs, and He's offering them true satisfaction of those needs. If you will come to Me not for what I will give you, but for who I am, the bread of life, you will never hunger and thirst again after righteousness.

1. This is the same concept as with the woman at the well in chapter 4. John wants us to think about that concept again. When you come to Jesus, all that your soul, spirit and mind yearn for, require, need, look for, clamor for—will be completely satisfied.
2. He will fill what you truly need so that you won't look everywhere else in the world for it. Jesus says in verse 35, I am the bread of life. He doesn't say, I give the bread. He says, I am the bread. This is the first of seven “I am” statements in this gospel.

B. Jesus is your bread - Jesus is communicating; I am not the giver of bread to satisfy your whims, physical needs and desires, not your genie in the bottle for whatever you need. He has been sent by God from heaven. He parallels the manna. Just as God rained down manna in the wilderness in the days of Moses, now the father has sent His Son to be the bread of life. Those who truly believe and will come to Him understand who He is.

1. The implications of this “I am” statement are far reaching and we must come to Jesus with our eyes open recognizing Him. He is the place where thirst is quenched, and where hunger is filled.
2. We do not come to Him to satisfy all our desires. We've already seen that in the last lesson. It is not, I need this or that and I have these desires and there’s God; He can give me all the happiness and all the joy of life that I want. Fill up my wallet and give me good health and I'll serve you.
3. Think about this, when are you comfortable? When you're not hungry, and you're not thirsty. When you're hungry, or thirsty, you do something about it don’t you? Otherwise, you're uncomfortable. You address those needs, so you are no longer hungry or thirsty.
4. Jesus uses that picture. Until you come to Jesus as the bread of life, as the fountain of living water, you will never be satisfied. You'll always be in discomfort. Seeking something and looking in philosophy, astrology, fortune telling, other people and a myriad of places that never satisfy. You're not going to find what you're looking for because only He can satisfy. Nothing else in life can.

C. We could say we were built to find our satisfaction in God. That's how we were created. We were created to find our satisfaction in God and Satan uses this lack of satisfaction as an opportunity to lead us to try to find that satisfaction elsewhere. You will be happy and have a good life if you will just do this.

1. If you made a lot of money. If you only had more power, if you had a promotion, if you were married, if you had children, if you lived in a different place. All the things that we hear in our ears that we need and would satisfy us. The point is, there is nothing that compares to Jesus. He's the only thing that satisfies.
2. Let me make a silly illustration. Let’s say you feel hungry. Should you go out to the garage and try to eat a tire or go to the refrigerator and eat some food? Obviously, you eat the food. All right, if you want true satisfaction, you go to the only source, Christ. If you go anywhere else, it doesn't make any sense. It won't work. It won't satisfy.

D. That's what He wants them to see. They've come to Him on the physical plane looking for other things to satisfy them. He's telling us that we cannot live for the bread of this world. It's not true bread.

1. Look at Isaiah 55:1-3, “1. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.”
2. Isaiah poses this in the form of a question. Why would we take these other avenues looking for satisfaction? Why go elsewhere when Christ is the one who satisfies? He is the one that offers the true bread of life for He is the true bread. Why would we labor for that which does not satisfy? It is an amazing concept; what Jesus wants them to understand is that nothing else is really bread but him. The world offers no satisfaction and any satisfaction they claim is a lie. That should be pretty life changing.

E. Deuteronomy 8:2-3, Moses explains about their hunger in the wilderness, “… the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

1. Sound familiar? It should. In Matthew 4:4 when Satan tried to use Jesus’ hunger as a weapon it says, “But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” This highlights that there is more to human existence than simply fulfilling basic, material needs. It means we stop seeking peripheral things, no longer focus on the physical, the things that we see with our eyes or think that we need for our flesh. Solomon finally figured that out didn’t he. Ecclesiastes 12.
2. John 6:36 is staggering. “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” How often does this happen! Jesus says, I'm standing right here in front of you and I'm willing to give you the very life that you need, yet you do not believe even though you've seen me. They see Jesus, but they don't really see Him for who He is.
3. That crowd has witnessed God at work. They've seen the divine revealer right there in their midst, but rather than having their faith aroused and seeking Him because of who He is, all that has been aroused is curiosity, their appetites, desires and political ambitions to make Him king over Judea.
4. There's a world of people who see Jesus that do not see Jesus. There is a world of people that have heard of Jesus, recognize Jesus, sit in pews every Sunday believing that they believe in Jesus, but they do not believe in Jesus because they do not see Him as the bread of life.

IV. Receiving Life – We continue with verses 37-40. “37. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.””

A. That’s a great finale. Here's what we look at today. At John 3:35 we were told – “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;…” Now Jesus says in 6:37; “. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Then in verse 39 He says; “this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”

1. He's driving at a point here to His audience, a very important point. If you belong to the father, if you truly belong to God, then you will come to Jesus. Here you are in the audience of people who have come to Him simply seeking physical bread.
2. Conversely, since you won't come to Jesus, you don't belong to the father because the father has given all to Jesus. Refusing to come to Jesus proves you do not belong to the father. He gives them this warning: these Jews could not claim any allegiance or any life in God because they were not coming to Jesus as the bread of life.

B. We see a great hope given in verse 37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” He goes on to emphasize this point in the next few verses.

1. The son isn't driving anybody away. Those who will come to Him as the bread of life and see Him for who He really is, He does not cast away. He has come to do the father’s will, and it is God’s will that He lose nothing of all that God has given Him but raise it up on the last day.
2. This has been, I submit to you, the primary message of this miracle. This miracle of the loaves and the fish is that Jesus is the bread of life and those who come to Him will not be lost. Remember John records this strange command when He tells His disciples to go gather all the fragments so none may be lost.
3. There is a great confidence for those who have come to Jesus, He will never cast them out. There will not be any concern, nor should anyone fret about their salvation if they understand what this is saying.

C. I think that leads to the final question; who has been given to Jesus? He is very clear, verse 37, All that the Father gives me… refers to all who shall be saved, none being excluded, so long as they truly come to Christ, that is the thrust of the second clause. Significantly, this verse makes no reference to faith like the previous verse; but this does not exclude faith, the verses are supplementary to each other. One must believe and come to Jesus to be saved. Coming to Jesus is equivalent to entering His kingdom; and entering requires one be born of water and of the spirit (John 3:5). Therefore, coming to Jesus means being born again. No subjective experience can be substituted for the new birth. "Coming" is something that one does, not something that he thinks, believes, or feels.
D. Notice that verses 39 and 40 are parallel statements. For example, verse 39, And this is the will of him who sent me… Who sent Jesus? The father.
Verse 40, For this is the will of my Father…
Verse 39, …but raise it up on the last day.
Verse 40, … I will raise him up on the last day

1. These two verses are in concert with one another and verse 40 explains verse 39.
2. What Jesus is describing for them, trying to get them to recognize is… who are truly in the kingdom, who truly belong to Jesus, who will endure to the end? Who are the ones that are going to hear the words of salvation? Who are the ones that will not be cast out?
3. The answer is; those who see Jesus as the bread of life, those who come to Him and do not look for their satisfaction in the world, do not labor for the food that perishes, but labor for the bread that leads to eternal life.

E. We notice this next phrasing in verse 40, …everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him… and that takes us back to John 3:14-15. “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” You must look to Him in faith. You must fully believe in Him.

1. We wonder, hadn't these people come to him? They've crossed the sea, they have traveled far to come to Jesus. Haven't they come to Him? Jesus' answer is no. John has expressed this before.
2. In chapter 3 Nicodemus has come to Jesus, but he hasn't come to Jesus. These people have come to Jesus, but they have not come to Jesus as the bread of life. They have not come to Him in faith. They do not see him as the way to eternal life. He's just Jesus. What will He do for me? That's what Nicodemus did, that is what the Samaritan woman asked. That's the response of the crowd.

CONCLUSION: As you go through this week, think about the implications of what it means for Jesus to be your bread. What should that look like in our lives if He is truly the bread that will give us eternal life?

What does that mean I will do? What does that change in how I think and how I live? If He is the one who gives all satisfaction, what does that change for me as I go about my day? How does that change my attitude, how I handle trials? How does that change how I deal with difficulties and distress? How does that change how I deal with the people of the world? How does that change my pursuits in life?

Will I pursue God above all else? Will I see life in His words? Jesus says, I'm that life. I'm the bread of life. Find your satisfaction in me.

All that has been offered in the physical realm does not satisfy. It does not give life. God has sent down His son as bread, bread that you can respond to. You can receive life if you will put your faith in Him, if you will look to Him, come to Him, receive Him, believe in Him and put your very life in His hands, believing that He is the son of God. Knowing therefore that He is your everything that nothing else in this life matters. The only thing that matters, the only thing that gives true joy is the pursuit of Jesus with all your heart.

That is the call that Jesus is making to the crowd. It's the call that He made to the Samaritan woman. If you knew who I was, you'd be asking me for that living water and I'd give it to you. It's the same call He gave to Nicodemus. You need to be born again. You need radical transformation. Jesus’ call is still ringing. We invite you to come while we stand and while we sing.

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Reference: Brent Kercheville