Spiritual Gridlock
Scripture: John 6:25-70
If I wanted to hear the pitter-patter of little feet, I'd put shoes on my cat.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either, Just leave me alone.
When I'm feeling down, I like to whistle. It make the neighbor's dog run to the end of his chain and gag himself.
It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, and fewer still to ignore someone completely.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire. . . .
That’s not the way that it goes is it? The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
How long does it take to get to _____________? You name it. The variables are many. Depends on whether or not it is possible to drive legally 10 mph over the speed limit. Some people think it is. Others drive 10 mph under. Like the woodland snail who was run over by the turtle while crossing the hiking path. Interviewed in the hospital by the Hiking Way Patrol Squirrel, the snail gave this comment, “I didn’t see a thing, it all happened so fast.
I guess as important as anything it would depend on how far away from ___________ you are when you start.
Some people find their way to God quickly. They are fortunate enough for a variety of factors to have begun the journey, closer to the destination. Others who have similar advantage just don’t want to go and like the children of Israel they turn a short journey into a long one. Two and ½ months should have taken the enslaved Israelites across the desert to the Promised Land. But they came to an impasse, a gridlock and, unwilling to trust God they turned away and died homeless in the sands.
Where does the journey begin? Most of us are on the spiritual journey long before we realize it. The way to God for many is a process of eliminating all the alternatives.
Today’s’ scripture lesson is a similar journey that began on a hillside with Jesus feeding the multitude. It follows to the opposite shore of Galilee with Jesus leading the multitude and today we see them at the turning point, with Jesus weeding the multitude. He takes curious, the crowd, the consumers and challenges them to become the committed.
The fact that those who would have coerced Christ into political power and a secular agenda had now followed him to the other side of the lake, is proof of the fact that:
1. You can follow Him without believing in Him.
22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
Jesus the Bread of Life
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” [1]
I have read recently today there are more unsaved people attending church regularly than perhaps ever before. In a sense they are following Christ. Something brings them each week. This is wonderful in my estimation because ti would indicate to me that they are on that journey, in their first steps.
It’s good that you are here today and that you are “listening” to hear God’s voice in your life. I am hoping that as you listen you will be aware that you could spend a lifetime in the house of God and not know God. If you dress right, put a little in the offering plate, keep a low profile no one is likely to bother you too much. Most will assume that you have received Christ. That’s okay, sort of. The danger is that after a while you will begin to assume that just because you’ve been around that you are okay.
Nope, you can follow Christ without believing in Him. Ask Judas. He saw the whole thing from beginning to end and he never believed. He sold him out in the end for thirty pieces of silver.
Where are you today in the journey. Perhaps you are following him. Regularly you find yourself in church but you don’t know a fraction of the stories that the preacher refers to. You accept that the Bible is God’s word on one hand but not a book that influences your life in any measurable way. You’re not crazy about praying so you don’t unless you’re sick or in trouble. But if God were the unfamiliar face in an elevator, you’d stare at the numbers before you’d make conversation..
þ Curious. There were people who came to see Jesus just out of curiosity. They heard what was going on and wanted to see. These people don’t hang on long. Curiosity is quickly satisfied and if people are to move beyond this stage, they must decide relatively quickly. We are told that in the average church regardless of size, 10% attrition annually is normal. Much of that is simply people who come for a while and determine that what we are is not what they are looking for.
þ Crowd. That’s the next step. If a person stays long enough they can melt into the crowd. In some ways this step provides a greater degree of anonymity than the curious. We are more likely to recognize visitors than those who disappear into the woodwork. Not only that, it’s too easy to get lost in the crowd. There are 10 small group leaders lost in the crowd. There’s a Best Years Fellowship Leader lost in the crowd. We’re thankful for the leadership that Paul Inman has given to this group over the last 4 years or so but now it’s time for someone else to step up to the plate. But we can’t find them because they are lost in the crowd. There’s a person who is willing to take charge of the tape ministry, lost in the crowd. There’s a Sunday School teacher for Jr. boys lost in the crowd. There’s a leader for our drama team lost in the crowd. These are extremely qualified people but we can’t find them. It’s almost as though they like being lost and don’t want to be found.
þ Consumers The longer that people hang on without taking “belief-steps” the more entitled they feel. They believe that just because they have “been around” they are entitled. They become consumers. They could tell you everything that is wrong with the church. They grow fat in the stands watching and labeling the efforts of the overworked. They stuff their spiritual faces like armchair athletes. They know the game from a distance but fail to understand that playing the game is a different experience than watching the game. No one has ever made the hockey hall of fame because they showed up at the game. No perfect player has ever made it to the hall of heroes. Jesus had his consumers.
“I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.
“What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?[2]
34 “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.” [3]
You can’t make a world changer out of a consumer. You can’t solve problems with people whose commitment is only to identify them. You see critics falsely assume that people who are involved don’t see that there are problems. They think that those who put their shoulders to the wheels of spiritual advancement and progress and work to build the ministry of a local church are oblivious to the deficiencies that exist in any local fellowship. Those who work diligently and faithfully beyond their disagreements or criticisms are spiritually mature folk. Those who want to take their toys and go home are not gifted or wise but disadvantaged and disengaged from spiritual reality.
You may be in one of these stages or categories. You are in process and that is good but the point is simply that none of these are stopping places. People stall at some of them for years and never recover. Stalling at any of these points is dangerous in my opinion for no
2. You can believe in Him without receiving Him.
This is neither new or profound. James said:
19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. [4]
On the other hand we know the greatest promise of the Word:
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.[5]
But there seems to be this distance between belief and meaningful relationship with God.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he powerb to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.[6]
I think that one of the difficult aspects of church life today is that we have done most everything short of receiving Christ.
We follow in one fashion or another, we believe but we have never received. Because our generation is largely illiterate of biblical truth, we fall easily for anything closely resembling it. In North America we are fiercely committed to our own lifestyles and ease and convenience and we have subtly succumbed to the self-styled, self-interpreted gospel. In the name of Christian liberty we have refused to be accountable to anyone else in this world. While it is true that no one but God will judge us, it is not true that we can act independently of a faith-relationship with others in the Body of Christ. Christian liberty in the hands of a person who has no regard for his identity as it relates to the Body is not Christian liberty. It is nothing more than selfishness.
While we say that we believe we quickly choose our own way over God’s way. When it’s a toss up between God’s Will or our own, we choose our own good as the highest.
Now we still believe in His existence and even that He ought to be Lord of our lives but only when it fits or when it’s convenient or congruent with our own wishes and desires. That’s why people call themselves Christians on one hand but are sometimes nasty and sometimes unkind and sometimes unforgiving and sometimes judgmental and sometimes bitter.
This kind of belief may get you on the membership role of a church. It could get you a leadership position. But there is no way that this sort of “believer” is going to make it through the gates of God’s heaven when it is the pattern of their living. Do you wonder why life never changes for you? You pray and pray, read and read and it’s all gobbledy gook. You’ve looked for answers more than you’ve looked for the answer. You’re looking for truths and missing the Truth.
You can believe in Him without receiving Him but:
3. But you can’t receive Him without turning your life over to Him.
God forgive you of all your past because he has paid the price but He won’t redeem your future until you take your hands off. If you let go of your past but hang on to your future you will be a powerless anemic Christian. You see when he died on Calvary he didn’t shed His blood for your past alone but for your future as well. What you have done with your past you will do with your future unless someone else is in charge. It’s not hard to ask God to pick up the pieces of the past but to allow Him to make whatever he wants to make of the future is another thing isn’t it?
And what does God do to bring us to the place where he asks us to loosen our grip and trust Him. He brings us to a place of spiritual gridlock. A place where you make a decision that leads you onward to a better place, a greater fuller understanding. To a “hard teaching” the scripture says.
53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 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. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” [7]
You may be at the same point today with the scripture and even with this message. It might make you mad. It might make you want to walk away and never come back. But you know a person can’t walk away from a place they have never been. I don’t want to suggest that your faith may be flawed in order to create uncertainty. But I do know this. If what you have is not working then you have the wrong thing or you’re at spiritual gridlock. There is some area of your life – some hard teaching that He has brought you to and you have never moved beyond it. You have been unwilling to loosen your grip on your future. He’s forgiven you of your past but you’ve never let Him redeem your future. And he paid the full price for your past and your future all at once. There comes a time when we have to step ahead and burn the bridges that allow us to retreat too easily.
66 /From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” [8]/
Until you come to the place where you break spiritual gridlock, you’ll never find the riches of Christ. You’ll be an impoverished heir, entitled to the fortunes of your Father but never laying rightful claim. Never coming forward to claim what He has for you.
Stepping forward can be a difficult thing. Closing the chapters of the past and embracing the future. I went to Grand Manan this past week with Gary Page riding shotgun. Just needed to check the house out. I went in that cold home. It was different. My Dad is gone forever. Gary said to me that I’d need to take a few days and “listen to the ghosts”. It’s not a spooky thing, just a reminder that the way forward is to close the books and sometimes in order to do that, you have to listen and handle things that once were full of life but now are only memories.
Maybe you need to listen today as well. In order to step ahead in your life there needs to come a break with the past and a release to God in “offering” form of the future. Can you hear the ghosts? Can you hear the Lord today?
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jn 6:22). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jn 6:30). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jn 6:34). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jas 2:19). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
f Or his only begotten Son
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jn 3:16). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
b power: or, the right, or, privilege
[6]The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (Jn 1:12-13). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[7]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jn 6:53). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[8]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jn 6:66). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.