Sermon Nov 27th - Proclaim

Good morning. I'm Randy Miller and I'm reading the scripture today. And the scripture is John 641 through 71 is found on page 93 of the New Testament of the Pew Bible and I'll be reading from the NIV of the Bible. At this the Jews that are began to Grumble about him because he said I am the bread that came down from heaven and they said is this not Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know how can I say I came down from heaven stop grumbling amongst ourselves. Jesus answered. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the prophets. They will all be taught by God everyone who is heard the father and learn from him comes to me. No one has seen the father except the one Who is from God only he had seen the father very truly. I tell you the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life your ancestors ate the man in the wilderness and yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven which anyone make me and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever and this bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. Then the Jews began to argue sharply amongst themselves and how can this man? Give us his flesh to eat. And Jesus said to them very truly. I tell you unless you eat the Flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life and you whoever eats my flesh and drinks. My blood has eternal life and I will raise them up at the last day for my flash is real food and my blood is real drink and whoever eats my flesh and drink my blood remains in me and I in them just as the living father sent me and I live because of the father. So the one who feeds on me will live because of me, this is the bread that came down from heaven your ancestors a mana and die, but whoever feeds on this broad Brad will live forever. He said this while teaching in the synagogue of capernum on hearing this many of his disciples said, this is hard teaching who can accept it and aware that his Disciples were grumbling about this. Jesus said to them does this offend you then? What if you see the son of man Ascend to where he was before the spirit gives life the flesh counts for nothing the words I have spoken to you that you full of the spirit and life yet. There are some of you who do not believe for Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him and he went on to say this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the father has enabled them. From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. You do not want to leave to do you Jesus ask the 12 and Simon Peter answer Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God and then Jesus replied have I not chosen you the twelve yet. One of you is a devil. He meant Judas the son of Simon up the scarritt who threw one of the 12 was later to betray him the word of God for the people of God.

It was a long when it's going to probably be the longest passage that we do on a during the sermon series, but and there's a lot here and we'll be able to deal with all of it that I wanted to keep the whole situation in context and it was really the only way I could do it the videos like 5 minutes. Usually I shoot for 2 or less two minutes or less. So so grab your popcorn I guess and you might as well because this Thursday, are you ready for it? Thanksgiving ready to be thankful. I just want to say I'm thankful for the band again, but honors you did great singing. I don't know if you knew that John.

John was not moving his lips in so someone else is actually singing that and we knew it wasn't Laura unless she really got a much deeper voice. So I thought it was great job. Thank you so much for sharing this morning on our worship is that when Thanksgiving comes around this Thursday? You can truly be thankful and grateful, you know, sometimes we come to it in our hearts aren't really in it. I'm hoping that your heart is because no matter what you're facing no matter whether you're you're you're facing something that you rather not or whether things aren't going the way you want them to or whether you're facing an unalome future and kind of a fearful Future No this the Jesus is walking with you through it all and he is with you and like the song says he's never let you down up to this point and he will see you through it and that my friends is something to truly be thankful for now. I don't know what you all are doing for Thanksgiving. I know something. Let's get together and celebrate that the three F's yo family food and football. I hope you put the 4th F in there a face and being grateful tell me if you have transitions that you do every single year. You know, it's you just kind of know my family. I think we're still trying to figure this out. We got a kid in Seattle all we've got the kid teaching of North we've got a couple of kids in college. I'm still not sure when people are coming home and when they're going to be there, but I figure around Thanksgiving time will will have the whole house filled with people. So we're still trying to figure out archery Traditions my wife's family. It doesn't matter whether it's Thanksgiving Christmas anytime they get together. There's one tradition they have and that is they always play cards doesn't matter every time they get together play card any other families like that. Nice to see there like I don't like card. I don't like playing card. I'm not sure either watch football or a movie or read a book anything other than play cards, but I do have to share I did play cards a few months ago. It was a card game. Some of you might know this called Phase 10. I'm not going to play the rules because they can get a little bit complex. I'm a little embarrassed to share this because in the end I was it was one of my jerky or moments, you know, Kevin is okay their passwords that jerky moment. It was in fact, it was a really jerky moment. I don't know why people are playing cards and they asked and I said sure off but I think I was just want to surprise people, you know, sometimes it's like I don't think you know me sometimes I do things to surprise you. And so they're like wow, you know, he's playing cards. This is a miracle. Yeah, and so and and the first two hands I had like zero points. I was like the first hour you have to add up your cards at the end of the hand if you still have cards and I was out. In fact this the second third round. I think I only had like under five points and I'm rethinking this whole car thing. You know. What this is this because this is kind of a fun time, you know, everyone else is struggling and then I had one of those bad hands, you know, but it wasn't as bad as some of the other hands and so I still doing alright and then the next and was still a little struggle and then the hand after that. Yo, they big deal the card. So I had I think what is a 12 cards? Okay, 12 card see if 12 cars and so you have to organize we have to go in a certain order and everything and they're going around and people are playing their turn and I'm pretty sure is a person to my left. All right, so I have not played yet the person to my left. She puts down a card. She picks up a card and she says I'm out. Yes, it's like any other three wild cards cuz the wild cards are very poor. I'm thinking it's like I've got like three thousand points in my hand. It's like you got to be kidding me know I'm speechless I'm speechless I couldn't believe it and it came to me and they say how many points do you have there? I said I have zero because I quit and I did I literally quit I I threw down the card I said I hear this is a card game not a math problem and I just had way too many cards. I had a lot of the high point car because I can skip your butt your Lovins and 12 is like I couldn't believe it. And so that was really the last time I played cards so he been a card game going you might want to look somewhere else. Have you ever been that frustrated? Have you ever been so frustrated or upset that you just quit that you gave up that you said no more. Well, I think you might be able to maybe identify with me but maybe identify with this scripture a little bit because what we're looking at today is an account when many of Jesus disciples cuz he had more than 12 at this point. He had quite a following he just fed the multitude and so he had quite a following but many of them chose to give up on Jesus and soul. I invite you to pray with me and then we'll take a look at our scripture father a lead and guide us as we look at your word may truly be an inspiration to us. Give us some guidance and some directives and father help us to allow the scripture to be a light and lamp to our path in your name. We pray. Amen. And like I said, this this this is a little long, but we'll make it through. Well, I wanted to start with what I think it is perhaps one of the saddest verses in the Bible and it's very easy for me to remember because it's John 6:66 and it's the verse where we learn that many of his disciples. Again. He had the following at that point so many disciples that many of them ended up stepping back and no longer went about with him and John tells us it was because of this and you look back a little bit further and we learned that when they heard it they said the teaching this teaching is difficult who can accept it. And what teaching was at? Well, it's the teaching about him being the bread of life and we see that all the way back into last week where he said I am the bread of life those who love me will never be hungry those who are those who come to me will never be hungry hungry and those who believe in me will never be thirsty and right away. They started grumbling just like their ancestors did in the wilderness and said is this not Jesus the son of Joseph we know it. You know his mom, how can he say he comes down from heaven? They they weren't getting it and Jesus says something very important verse 45 and later and later sermons. He will kind of reiterate this a little bit. He says the profits from Isaiah and he says they shall be taught by God. Then he says everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me those who are open and receptive to God those who who want God to be leading them and guiding them and and and they're open to what God want. He says, those are the ones who come to me and he says I tell you the truth Whoever what? Bullies bullies, I'm not going to do it this our first hour. I said you remember what I said about belief last week in the paper like yeah. I know what it is. I know all the answers last week. I mentioned the belief is hard is tough business and we try to make it easy that you come to church you say a prayer you go on your way, but there's more to it than that. It's about reorient your life around Jesus around God his will and his way and he says those who believe Whoever has eternal life. He says, I'm the bread of life and then he starts comparing the two. He said the bread your your ancestors ate in the wilderness. What what did they do? They died. Yeah, he says they died. But I am the living bread that came down from heaven who eats of this bread. Will what? Yeah, live live forever and along with this. I'm sure Jesus is also talking about the fact that he came to give life. And to give it a bundle only like he says in John 10:10. He says the bread that I give that I will give for The Life Of The World Is My Flesh and so we have this comparison between the two different kinds of bread. But those listening to Jesus just keep wanting to look at it in a physical way and a physical manner. We see Nicodemus did that when Jesus says You must be born again. We see that the woman did it when they talked about the Living Water. We see it once again here, but Jesus is talking about a different kind of bread. Can you tell them then they start arguing and they say that how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And so Jesus actually doubles down on this instead of trying to make things a little better maybe a little bit easier to can I say it I forgot to say this first hour, Make the teacher teaching a little easier to stomach see what I did there. Actually someone in a commentary wrote that I'm thinking. Okay, that's good. That's good. Because we do use those phrases right stomach the teaching you're going to eat your words. We use this the same metaphor, but they're not getting it but Jesus double down on it and says unless you eat the Flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life in you. Yo did the people listening they were thinking this is like a horror flick, you know, how in the world are we going to do this? But Jesus is talking about this other dimension of Life bit deeper dimension of life. And then he sent this is the bread that came down from heaven not like that with your ancestors ate and died. He's trying to give them some Clues you need to be open to God you need to be receptive to him. He says it's not like what they a date and it died but the one who eats this bread will live forever. You know, I look at this passage, you know, we're not yammering back for the bread at the man. I end up the Wilderness like what they were asking we're not asking for that. He said you would Jesus do they confuse loaves you don't remember that's how it all started. He fed them with a few loads and some fishes and they wanted him to do it again. I guess a little bit like our song do it again Lord make Your fetus again and he's trying to tell them that they're missing the point. But the question is do we miss the point and a question I have in my mind is what do I Feast on one of those bread from heaven then the ancestors? That's what they wanted to Feast on but what do we Feast on? I think pretty evident what we Feast on. We Feast at the table of of power of pleasure of prestige of possessions. We want to Feast on security and safety and comfort. There's so many things that we Feast on and we Feast on a bite by kind of Orion in our life for that really orchestrating our lives so that we can can end up getting these things that we think are so important. The question is what do we Feast on because Jesus is inviting us to Feast on him.

And we've seen in our culture. We see enough stories to know that the folks who Feast on these things at Summit at some point these things actually destroy them. We have novels like that. We have stories like that. We see it on Twitter. We see it all these places lazy folks that this is what is so important to them and it literally consumes them and destroys them. The Jeeps offers us a completely different way, but it's not necessarily an easy way because belief is a tough business. And so it makes sense that they said this teaching is difficult who can accept it. I think the disciples these disciples got it. I don't think they are misunderstanding Jesus teaching. I think they understood exactly what Jesus was saying. He said I am the one I am the one you have to Feast on I am the only one that we even have issues with adenine and they say who can accept it and then we're back to the status of Earth one of the saddest verses in the Bible that because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went out with him. You know, it's interest me. The Greek word that John uses for turn back is I sound extremely interesting. I looked up to see what the literal word the literal Greek word was cuz translators will translate it differently depending on you know, that there's a translation but the literal for the literal Greek word.

Is this they went away to what lies behind? I read that thing all my goodness cuz we know people who've done that. The finally moving in a good direction to town hope and they found purpose and something happens. Maybe things don't go the way they wanted to maybe something gets in the way and they turn back to what lies behind and we say why why are you doing that? And it's exactly what these disciples were doing. And I have to hand it to Jesus. You know, I had people talk to me from time to time that will come in. And if so, you know, we're not going to to come to the church anymore those or never conversations you want. There's always reasons and then everyone has a reasons and they need to go where God is calling them to go. But I really have to hand it to Jesus because the question that he asked next I learned when I was raising kids that if you don't want to know the answer to a question, you don't ask a question because you might get an answer that you don't want and so you just okay. I'm not going to ask him where they were last night because I'm afraid they're going to tell me and then then it's a thing then it's a thing. Do I have to hand it to Jesus? Cuz this is a courageous question that he asked. He says he looks at the 12 and he says are you guys going to leave to? Can you imagine that? The curry because the 12 leave. It's not core if those committed folks leave.

Trial of what Peter says is Peter got it. Peter really got it. He said

there's nowhere else.

All these other things that lay behind they're going to end up in death in one way or the other. You are the Holy One Of God, you were the one with the words of eternal life. You are the only one. There's no way we could go back no matter what your teaching is because we have come to believe and like I said believe is tough business, isn't it easy they feasted on Jesus. Peter was feasting on Jesus and he knew that that Jesus was the one that would bring wife and life eternal. So, how do we Feast on Jesus? I think we Feast on Jesus when we spend time in his word that makes sense spend time reading scripture study trying to understand that's feasting on Jesus. We Feast on Jesus when we come together like this and we we worship and we we don't just go through the motions, but rather we engaged with the song and we lift up and we sing like what the scripture said earlier with with. Joyfulness and with Thanksgiving. religious writing it in and sending it in but we are completely and totally engaged worshipping the only one who is worthy of our worship with Feast on him when we will just pray on the run or multi-task pray and prayer into the the the the crevices of our lies, but the other we We taught her that Focus time that we can spend with him and we can be in a receptive and listening posture. Not just giving him our once in our needs but listening to what he wants from us. We Feast on Jesus when we serve others both inside these walls and outside. We Feast on Jesus when we share others the story of of our relationship with Jesus, especially to those who who don't have that relationship and don't know that he's inviting them to life and life abundant and forgiveness. My prayer is that you would Feast on Jesus. But somehow some way that he would become the core of Who You Are. Because he is the only one that gives life. That you would fixed on him. Because the only one with the words of life. is Jesus what's join together in prayer? Father help us to Feast on you. Help us to find that life that you came to give to be part of who we are and help us to not just hang on to it, but also be be light bearers and hope Bringers in the world. And as we do so may we discover what life really is? It's in your name. We pray amen.

We do have opportunity.