Where Else Would We Go?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Good morning Valley Church Clinton!
If you have your Bible, go ahead and get it open to John chapter 6, we’ll be focusing on verses 59-69 today, but we’ll also be exploring the context leading up to that.
Let’s pray to kick off our first service.
So, my father-in-law isn’t here today, but his name is Doug Miller, and we’ve had our fair share of trips and adventures over the years.
One such adventure was a tradition that went on for many years, and I really have no idea why we kept doing this, but Doug’s family has a cabin in the Brown County forest here in Indiana, and nearly every year we used to park and hike to that cabin.
Now, I know that seems fairly normal. But, the cabin had a driveway and plenty of room, many acres actually, to park. What the cabin didn’t have was any electricity. So, for some reason, we would park miles away and then we would trek across what seems like the rocky mountains, to this cabin, with all our packs in tow, only to be greeted by a dark, either hot or cold cabin filled with snakes.
Not only that, but we would also start the hike at night. Again, why? No idea, I was just there for the fun of it. Later, it would affectionately be called the yearly “hell hike”.
Well, this one year, it was also raining. So dark, carrying our bags, rain. For fun?
Anyway, as we’re going, Doug is trying out this new GPS feature on his phone, and about 10 guys are following him blindly. There’s no checking on Doug, it’s literally 10 sheep just following our guide into the dark forest.
Suddenly, Dougs phone gets a single drop of water on it, and the phone goes dark. Pitch black in Brown County, raining, no map.
So, we all just kept following Doug. What other choice did we have? I had not a clue how to get back to the vehicles, nor any idea how to get to shelter.
Eventually, Doug got us to the cabin, and it ended up being a great time.
But, for a while, I had to make a choice. Do I turn back, and try to find the way out to my car? Do I leave the group and renegade to the cabin?
Or, do I keep following my leader, trusting that he knew where the cabin was, by heart? In reality, that was my only choice. I saw Doug, and said “where else would I go? You know the way.
And that’s the regular tension we see in the story of Jesus when He teaches. What Jesus says isn’t always easy, but his disciples know its true. In fact, many disciples abandon Jesus because they try to find their own way forward, or they try to eject and find safety in themselves, back tracking to find the way home.
So, let’s get into our passage today, John 6:59-69, and I’m going to read this for us. If you could all please stand for the reading of God’s word.
59 He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?” 61 Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.) 65 He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.” 66 From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Thank you, please be seated.
Okay, so, we see this watershed moment in Jesus’ ministry play out. Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, the local place of worship for the Jews, their church essentially. This was regular - Jesus and Paul alike usually started in the synagogue in any given town.
Now, in the synagogue, it wasn’t like our church service, okay? It was less structured kind of, because really anyone could come up and speak, as long as they were in good standing with the local elders.
So Jesus, being a traveling rabbi, it would have been normal for him to speak, read the scrolls aloud, lead the prayers, etc.
But what Jesus has done is causing quite the stir. Because any reader can quickly deduce that Jesus’ followers changed their mind about him. They decided Jesus was either crazy, a liar, or a heretic.
Let me read John 6:66 again:
66 From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.
Now, when it says disciples, it doesn’t mean the 12 apostles. Jesus had many followers at this time from many different places. We’re not sure how many disciples Jesus had, but in Luke, we’re given the number of at least 70 or 72. Long story short, there was a crowd around Jesus. He was quite popular.
So, in this moment, we see most of those disciples leaving Jesus, because they say “this teaching is hard, who can accept it?”
And that word “hard” in the Greek is scleeros, which mean.
to causing an adverse reaction because of being hard or harsh, unpleasant
So, the teaching wasn’t necessarily difficult to understand, it was a hard pill to swallow. It was borderline offensive.
So what was this teaching that made them leave? Well, let’s back up a little bit and look at something called “The Bread of Life Discourse” that happens before this moment. Because a lot of the reason the disciples left for are the same reasons we use for not following Jesus today.
The first reason they left is
Jesus Questions Motives
Jesus Questions Motives
Just to give you an idea of where we are in the story in John chapter 6, Jesus and the disciples just met the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus healed a man that was disabled for 38 years, then fed a crowd of 5,000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, and had to divy out takeout containers for the leftovers.
Then, Jesus gets to the other side of the sea where he’s traveling, in Capernaum, and all the disciples are frantically looking for him. Picture a very chaotic scene.
Then, very calmly, Jesus looks up at them and says
26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Sheesh, kind of harsh. Jesus accuses the crowd of “followers” that they aren’t looking for Jesus because of friendship, or caring about him. They’re looking for Jesus because they want something.
The crowd saw this incredible miracle where Jesus seemed to multiply food, and they wanted to harness that power. They saw the signs, but missed the person performing the signs. They’re motivations were selfish. They failed to see that the sign pointed to Jesus.
And again, this goes back to the Jewish misconception of the Messiah, the Christ. See, they thought Jesus going to bring back the kingdom. Their messiah would rule, have an army, bring wealth to Israel.
But Jesus was a poor rabbi with flakey disciples.
The thing is, Israel has always had ulterior motives regarding God.
35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer. 36 But they deceived him with their mouths, they lied to him with their tongues, 37 their hearts were insincere toward him, and they were unfaithful to his covenant.
And Jesus is accusing this crowd of the same thing. But it’s the same trap we fall in to in the 21st century.
Think about it - when do we most often go to God? When we need something. Or, when we’ve tried to do everything in our own power, yet we come up short.
We look at God as an ATM at times, right? Swipe our card, punch in our pin, and hope we’ve deposited enough in our faith account to withdraw what we need.
Sometimes we even try to deceive him with ur loyalty.
But God’s grace doesn’t work like that. And any good God gives us, whether by signs, or gifts, it’s all out of abundant grace and mercy.
Any blessing we get should draw us to the loving arms of our Lord. But instead, we see it, and want more. We start anticipating it. We expect gifts in abundance. Suddenly the the gift of Jesus’ death isn’t enough, we also need comfort. We need more money. We need the best in our friend group. We need a bigger house, the new car. We need more entertainment.
And suddenly we forget about Jesus. We forget about God. Our pursuit becomes the things he gives us, and we forget about the giver completley.
See, we don’t like it when people question our motives. We immediately get defensive. But, we all have those selfish desires. And the crowd Jesus is talking to feels the same way.
They get defensive. After all, many are Jews who are “in”. But, we tend to get the most defensive about the truths we hide in ourselves, right?
Okay, so Jesus questions their motives, which they dont like.
Then, Jesus claims to be something called
The Bread of Life
The Bread of Life
This title has quite a backstory in the Old Testament. Essentially, when the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness after being freed from Egypt, God provides them with food called manna which sustains their journey.
So after that loves and fishes miracle, gluten must really be on the mind, because the crowd is very confused about Jesus saying he’s sent from God, so they ask for yet another sign, like the manna in the wilderness situation.
Essentially, they say “are you going to give us the bread like Moses did in the wilderness”.
And Jesus has yet another sharp correction. Be sure to pay attention when Jesus says “truly I tell you”.
32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Jesus says no no no, Moses didn’t give you that bread, God did. But that bread, according to Jesus, is just a placeholder, because God will send someone that will function much like the manna - this person will save the lives of the people.
And of course, the disciples want this bread of eternal life. Give us this bread, sir.
Then the mic drop moment. I am the bread of life.
Wow. After all that, Jesus claims to be the one. He’s the one that holds eternal life. He is the creator. He, after all this, is the one who gave the Israelites the manna.
Jesus claims to be the life-susainer. No one will hunger or thirst again with him. Jesus alone claims to be an equal with the Father.
And the Jews hate this. They say “we know his family, we know Mary and Joseph. Yet he claims to have this heavenly father?”
Jesus is the giver and sustainer of life. But like the crowd, we oftentimes don’t believe that with all our hearts.
And this is evident because we try to find life in ourselves. We try to quench our thirst and hunger by going to anyone but Jesus.
Listen to this invitation from God in Isaiah 55.
1 “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! 2 Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.
Don’t we do this all the time. God gives us the actual way to eternal life, but we fill ourselves with food that doesn’t satisfy. We fill ourselves, our schedule, our houses, our families, with things that look great in the moment, yet we find ourselves looking for the next metaphorical meal day after day after day.
We have to start accepting that Jesus is the only source of true goodness. He created it, and gives it. We need to seek the bread of life.
And this leads to another bold claim by Jesus, that He descended from heaven.
Jesus Came From Heaven
Jesus Came From Heaven
Now, according to the Jews, God was the most high. He sat on the throne in heaven, he was untouchable. And that’s mostly true.
But no one expected God Himself, the Messiah, to step down off His throne into humanity.
That’s why they say How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
This is a tough teaching that will ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus’ death. It’s so hard to believe a God would love the world so much that He Himself would step into the weakness of humanity, understand our condition, understand that we actually hated him, and subject himself to a cross and death.
That teaching was, frankly, impossible for them to accept. The problem is they trusted their Scriptures, their law, or at least their interpretation of the law. They trusted in Moses. They trusted in rabbi “insert name here”.
What they failed to do was trust in anything or anyone that actually came from heaven, someone who has actually been in full contact with the Father.
And the voices we have in our lives work the same way. But none of those voices came from heaven. Not one person in your life has descended from a throne to scoop you up, kicking and screaming, to show you the way to eternal life. Not a single person.
But accepting that means we have to accept our own humility. We have to actually do what Jesus says, which is to take up our crosses and follow him. We have to descend off our own throne and wash feet. But we don’t want to.
Finally, the crowd didn’t like that Jesus claimed to hold eternal life.
Jesus Holds Eternal Life
Jesus Holds Eternal Life
47 “Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone 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. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Then it says “at that, the Jews argued”. Essentially, at that statement, the Jews lost their minds.
First of all, Jesus says “eat my flesh, drink my blood”. In Jewish law, drinking any kind of blood was strictly taboo and forbidden.
So that was the first offensive thing that would have absolutely confused all of them.
But, after saying this, Jesus again claims to be the one sent by the Father, the bread of life, and whoever eats that bread will gain eternal life.
Do you see why they’re having a hard time understanding? See, we have the benefit of having the entire Bible revealed to us. We’re used to saying Jesus shed his blood, and his body was broken.
But the Jews weren’t. They were used to sacrificing animals to atone. They had very specific rituals with the animals flesh and blood.
What Jesus is saying is all that - all the blood you’ve had to shed in those animals, all the flesh you’ve sacrificed - I am the final sacrifice. All that was leading to me, Jesus, who is standing before you right now.
Id like to think that all these teachings made sense, seeing Jesus hanging by this wrists and feet on a cross.
And that blood, that flesh broken, just like the crowd, is our only hope for eternal life, even today.
So, those are the reasons the crowd was upset. And Jesus knew even his own followers couldn’t take this teaching.
Jesus knew many didn’t really believe. He knew this teaching wouldn’t go over well.
But He spoke truth. He stood on the foundation of the Father.
Many disciples jumped ship at this point.
66 From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.
They were done. Washed their hands of this crazy rabbi and his blood, and left.
Again, this is no different in our day. Because the fact of the matter is
The Majority will Desert Jesus
The Majority will Desert Jesus
The teaching will get tough.
If you follow Jesus today, your motivations will be questioned. In fact, we should be questioning our hearts all the time. But, that leads to defensives. It causes our hearts to become hard.
We don’t like the fact that God is trying to replace our motives and heart with new creations, we delude ourselves into thinking we’re pure
Then we try to find that replacement in our lives. Money, doom scrolling, over scheduling, idols. We forget that Jesus is the bread of life. It’s so much easier in the moment to chase that high, yet never be truly satisfied.
We realize that doesn’t work so well, so we try to find the answer in secular studies. We try to fix our own problem, but instead of running to Jesus, the only one from heaven, we run to anyone else. Because we’re embarrassed. We don’t want to step into the light.
Finally, we find ourselves on the road to death. We get closer and closer, death creeping up on us. We try to lie to ourselves, that death isn’t real, and eternal life is a nice thought, but who really knows what happens after you die, right?
We jump out of the saviors arms. And He sadly watches us run the other way.
The reality is this
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
There are so many people on the road to destruction that assume it’s the road to life.
After all this, Jesus turns to his core group, the 12 disciples, and asks “aren’t you going to leave me to?”
I know Jesus is all-knowing, and I’m not sure what he gave up to be human, but the text almost reads as if Jesus doesn’t know.
He looks up at His only friends, “you’re gonna go too, right?”
Then, Peter says
68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Where else would we go? Who else has eternal life? No one.
This is the mentality we need as a church, and as followers of Christ.
Let me tell you, you’re going to want to bail. You’re going to come across teaching you don’t understand or like. There will be times when you don’t want to humble yourself.
There will be times of doubt. Of worry. Of unanswered prayers. Of silence from God.
But listen to me.
You must persevere.
You must persevere.
Because every single other path you may take leads to death and destruction. Satan is going to pave a road of gold for you, but at the end, it’ll be death behind an empty curtain.
The question remains, why am I a Christian? Why am I following Jesus? Why am I at this church? Why did we even plant this church in Clinton?
And the answer is, and will always be, because what else would we do? What else can I do with my life other than proclaim the bread of life? The giver of life? The one who holds all power and authority.
And it sounds like this, described by Jesus, these are his invites:
Abide in me, and I in you.
I am the vine, you are the branch.
I have called you friends.
Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, I will give you rest.
I am the gate, I am the bread of life, I am the way truth and life.
If anyone is thirsty, come and drink.
My sheep hear my voice and follow me.
Those are the invites of Jesus, the one true God who wants you. So, Where else would we go?
If you haven’t placed your faith in Christ, do it today. Wrestle with the tension. Because there is no other person that descended from heaven and took your punishment.
If you are in Christ, we are going to enter a time of communion.
During this time, when you’re ready, come up and get the elements from the table. You can partake whenever you’re ready. When everyone has come up, we’ll enter a time of worship where you can take the elements, stand and sing, sit and meditate - whatever you need to do.
But remember the body broken, and the blood spilled. For you. As you eat and drink, enter into community with the church, confess your sin to Jesus, and ask for forgiveness. Use this time to focus on our Lord, Jesus Christ.
This time is yours.
