Untitled Sermon (9)

I had this question that popped into my head a few weeks ago as I was laying in bed trying to sleep, as all life-altering thoughts seem to appear. This question hit me fairly hard the more I let it sink in, and that is: If everyone around me that had faith in Jesus abandoned their faith, would I give mine up too? I’m talking about people who may have helped you with your relationship with Jesus. People who have poured into you, encouraged you, taught you, if these Christians in your life were to one day walk away from the faith and tell you they don’t believe in God, would this cause you to leave the faith as well?

This question is important for us to ask because if we overlook these kind of topics regarding our relationship with Jesus, how can we truly evaluate where we stand with Him? To put it personally for myself; if my parents, who have raised me up to seek after Jesus were to stop believing in Him, if my Youth Pastor who has poured into me, and encouraged me in my walk with Christ denied the faith, if all the counselors, teachers, professors, and pastors who have intentionally helped me grow to know Christ more were to stop believing and tell me Jesus wasn’t real, would that be enough to shake me from my faith and leave God.

After I thought about it, examining in my head a life without God, I came to the conclusion that there isn’t a way I could. And my reasoning is not one that I boast in, but rather take assurance. It’s simply because my faith has become my own, rooted in Christ alone. No one else could alter that for me because I have experienced personally the presence and love of God, I have read the Word, and I have sought after Him through prayer, and I conclude that I have tasted and seen that God is good, and that He is God.

So what is faith truly that we are supposedly placing in God? Hebrews 11:1 says it’s “the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Faith isn’t just acknowledgment, but it drives us through life as it takes our own independence off of us and initiates the ability to trust in others, or in this case, God. To put it simply, When I put my faith in something or someone, I’m entrusting my life and spirit into that something or someone, and I’m willing to receive the outcome that comes with it. We have a hope for whatever we put our faith in, and we act on that hope even when we cannot see the journey, or even the destination in certain cases.

In John 6, we learn about a dialogue between Jesus and the crowd of people from the feeding of the 5,000 that had gone looking for Him. In this dialogue, we learn that the crowd sought after Jesus to see more miraculous signs. Jesus tells them not to spend time seeking after things that are temporary; that perish, but rather eternal life, which can be found through Him. But the people wanted to perform God’s works too, and they asked how they could just as He did. Jesus gives us two key points we need to understand.

The only work God wants from us is to believe in Jesus.

He doesn’t expect us to go around performing miracles left and right to demonstrate our faith. Rather, He just wants our faith and trust to be in Him. When our faith is grounded in Christ, our lives are no longer our own; we submit ourselves to God. When we place our faith in God, we give Him the open door to have His way in our lives, and thus He receives our obedience, our submission, and our lives to do what He wants to accomplish. Through placing our faith in Him, we develop a relationship that takes the weight off of ourselves to do everything on our own, and instead, we now fully depend on God for everything that will sustain us; and God won’t just give us the bare minimum to keep going, but He will bless us beyond measure with everything we need and more to live a fulfilled life in Him.

But we must understand what putting our faith in Jesus looks like, because a problem modern-day Christianity faces is the misconception of what faith in Christ is, and through this, we have many who claim to follow Jesus but have no fruit to show for it. Our next key point will help clarify this.

2. Jesus is the true Bread of Life from Heaven.

After Jesus told the crowd to believe and place their faith in Him, we come to understand what this looks like. We’re going to read John 6:30-36 to see Jesus’ answer:

30 They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do?

31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven.

33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

36 But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me.

Jesus tells the people that the bread the Israelites ate in Exodus was temporary bread that they needed to eat every day, but Jesus is the true bread of life, and that whoever comes to Him and believes will never hunger or thirst again. But the crowd doesn’t believe in Him even though they see Him. To dissect this:

When we are presented with bread in life, we have the ability to acknowledge that it is bread, and that it’s real, but we also have the choice to consume it, and let it sustain us. This is the difference between acknowledging Christ, and believing in Him. Many people in this day and age acknowledge the bread, they understand that it can be consumed, but don’t consume it. They know it is there and it functions as bread, but they choose to live with only that knowledge. Jesus is making the point that people will acknowledge that He is the Son of God, but they will live only with that being knowledge. Like bread, we must take Jesus in and let Him sustain us. We can’t simply acknowledge the bread, but we must believe that it will do what it is meant to do. It’s not enough that we acknowledge Jesus, we must receive Him into our lives and believe that He will do what He has come to do, which is be our Lord and Savior. The term Lord in definition means “one having power and authority over others.” So to accept Jesus as our LORD and Savior means not only do we know He has come to save us from sin, but that we allow Him to have authority and power over our lives. When Jesus says those who believe in Him will never hunger or thirst again, He means that we won’t need to depend on anything or anyone else because He alone will sustain us. Believing in Jesus means that I now entrust my life into His hands, and accept Him into my heart so He can do what He came to do; to sustain me in every way. And just as bread can keep us living when we consume it, Jesus will give us life eternally when we consume Him.

God’s will is that when we believe in Jesus, and place our faith in Him, we will live in eternity with Him when Jesus comes again. As followers of Christ, we cannot get stuck in the ideology that just acknowledging Christ’s existence is it for our lives, and we have the green card for heaven no matter what we do in this life. We must believe in Jesus Christ. Believing in Him will change our heart posture to desire the life God has for us, and thus we give Lordship of our life and will to God to pursue His plans for us. God doesn’t want you to do anything first in order to believe in Him. If you come to Him as you are, and place your faith in Him, He will renew you in His likeness, giving you a new heart after Him and eternal life in Him.

We see later after more dialogue, the crowd becomes confused, offended, and disappointed in Jesus’ answer. Their narrative was that Jesus needed to prove Himself through more miracles, and they only cared about what God could do for them, but not that Jesus wanted them to place their faith in Him. Let’s jump to John 6:66-69 to finish our reading:

66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.

67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.

69 We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”

The disciples decided to stay with Jesus even when everyone else left. This exemplifies true faith in Christ. Jesus’ teaching didn’t sound appealing to the people’s ideology. The concept of giving up our own way and placing our faith, trust, and life in God’s hands is unattractive to our world because we’re taught that we have to be independent and live our lives. But true, fulfilling life is found when it’s in God’s hands. The disciples didn’t always get it right. In fact, they end up abandoning Jesus before ultimately seeing Him risen and lay their life completely in His hands, but at this point, there was dedication. Through this passage, I want to point out 3 types of Christians we see in the world today.

The acknowledging Christian

Were going to use the example of a fence to demonstrate these: one side is Jesus’s, the other is the world’s. The acknowledging Christian is what so many professed believers fall under today. They are stuck on the world’s side of the fence, looking into Jesus’s side, being fully convinced that they will reap the benefits of Jesus’s side while still being on the world’s. Many are ignorant that they haven’t placed their faith in Jesus and truly believe, but others believe it’s just a one and done proclamation and they go on living their life their way because they haven’t truly experienced the Spirit of God with love and conviction.

2. The on-the fence Christian

This can be also known as comfortable Christianity. This is the Christian who has placed their faith in Jesus, and desires a relationship with Him, but in all honesty, they are too afraid to fully commit to God’s will and fully surrender themselves. It’s like they’re sitting on the fence, facing Jesus’s side, but they are too overwhelmed with fear and doubt to take the leap off into the battlefield. This is where the disciples were at first in John 6. They are too afraid to commit for many different possible reasons: fears, doubts, questions, worries, past trauma. And because of this, they don’t experience the fullness of Christ in this life, and the plans He has for their lives.

Some of us have to be honest and see that this is us, and if it is, I have a question for you. What is it that you’re afraid of fully surrendering to God in order to experience the fullness of life He offers? What is preventing you from putting all your faith in Jesus?

3. The all-in Christian

This is the Christians that have experienced the love of God and fully committed their faith and life to Him. The Spirit reigns entirely within them and gives them the boldness and confidence to step out of their comfort-zone to accomplish the plans God has for them in their life. These Christians have hopped off the fence into Jesus’ side and embrace any and everything they face through God’s strength. To be honest, it’s difficult to get to this place. Fully surrendering to God, putting all our faith in Him, and submitting to His will is not easy because our nature drives us to be dependent on ourselves. We believe we know the best decision for our lives but God asks for us to submit our plans and desires to Him so that His perfect and pleasing plans may be fulfilled in our lives. This is the faith of those who have consumed the bread of life, and have been satisfied.

The disciples eventually reached this point in their faith, and we see that based on how they were willing to die for their faith in Christ.

Peter was crucified upside-down for His faith in Jesus

James was stoned and clubbed to death for preaching the Gospel in Damascus

We even know that Stephen and others who followed Christ died for their faith in Him through Acts and other historical documents.

The reality is many have died for their faith in Christ because they couldn’t see life without Jesus. And that’s our challenge. We could ask the question, would you abandon your faith if everyone else did, but to go further, would you die for your faith in Christ? I’m not saying this has to be everyone’s destiny. But our faith in Christ shouldn’t be altered based on whether it’s safe to follow Him or not. Our faith not only has to be rooted in Christ, but it has to be our own. We need the encouragement and leadership of others who are experienced and knowledgeable of God’s Word to help grow in our faith and relationship with God, but at some point our faith has to be founded in Christ alone, not in our parents, pastors, friends, or mentors. We do this by spending our own time with God; in His Word, studying it, worshiping Him, praying, dwelling in His presence, and letting our relationship with Him go past the church walls and into our everyday life and activities. At our jobs, during entertainment, when we’re with friends or family, any and everywhere. What can we take away from this?

Ask yourself the question in your own time, is my faith grounded in Christ alone?

Challenge yourself with the possibility that others would deny or abandon Him, and be honest with where you would stand after.

Develop an independent relationship with Jesus through your own prayer time, Bible study, and private worship.

Ask God what it would take to be all in for Him? If you find yourself struggling with that idea, ask yourself why? Talk to someone who you look up to for guidance on fully surrendering to Christ.