Sermon Tone Analysis

When I was in middle school, I was (and I guess still am) a bit of an omni-vert - I liked to be around people, but I also liked to be alone.

In my neighborhood Aaron and Steve were my closest friends.

We would play football at Steve’s house and I would skate with Aaron.

Then, around our 8th grade year, Brett moved to the neighborhood.

He loved football (it didn’t hurt that he was from Texas and was tall) - he also loved skating, basketball, and break dancing, of all things.

So Brett and I hit it off.

We would play football and basketball, skate and put out cardboard to breakdance in his driveway.

I wish I could say I was any good at any of those - but I wasn’t, certainly not break dancing.

Brett and I would do homework together while listening to his favorite artist, Prince (when he was known as Prince).

All in all, it was fun to be around Brett.

In some ways, we looked forward to going to high school together to play football, until I decided to go a different route.

There are so many things I loved about Brett - he was a good friend.

But there was one thing that often bothered me - he seemed to show contempt toward his parents.

You see, he was an only child.

So, he got all the love and could not deflect any of the discipline.

He resented the chores his mom assigned to him.

He resented having to make beds and clean the kitchen.

His mom was looking out for the best in his life.

He would do it, but would grumble the whole time.

There are so many times when our moms truly do want what’s best for us, but it is often demonstrated in tough love - discipline, chores, completing tasks, cleaning rooms, etc.

If we step back, we can take a good look and be grateful for all that our mom’s and dad’s challenge us to do - because we know it’s for our good.

Mom’s thank you for the tough love and the fun love.

But what about Jesus?

How do we respond when Jesus says hard things or calls us to do the difficult things?

Do we resent him?

Do we obey him and grumble?

Do we obey and follow - even if we don’t like it?

Today, we get a glimpse into the way that people respond to Jesus.

You see, I think there are fair weather fans (or groupies) and there are true followers.

There are some who like the idea of Jesus and others who truly believe.

The question is - which one are you?

Which one am I? How will we respond when things get challenging?

Today, we’re continuing our study in the book of John.

We’re picking up where we left of last week.

Let’s consider a little background.

It was near the passover - a big feast for the Jews.

Jesus had just fed 5000+ people ample food with only 5 loaves and 2 fish.

He then walked on water

He engaged the crowd in conversation.

And then - he laid down the gauntlet.

He said some things that really challenged people to consider who he is - why he came

He then continued

As we mentioned last week, these words could be taken...

literally - which would mean cannibalism - certainly not helpful or practical - and frankly gross

metaphorically - which would point to the Lord’s supper - which is inconsistent with the overall message of the book of John (belief)

spiritually - which would mean He’s saying these words, but meaning something else, spiritually speaking - he’s talking about faith.

I’m not going to lie - Jesus’ words here are hard and tough.

There are a lot of difficult and challenging things in the Bible.

Because we live in a fallen and sinful world, we don’t understand the ways of God.

As He says in Isaiah

So when the holiness of God runs counter to our fallenness, what will we do?

Or to say it another way...

When believing gets tough...

Faith has its fair share of challenges.

As we’ve already seen, Jesus said some difficult things (John 6:53-58).

He has said challenging things at other times as well.

For example...

The cross was a means of execution.

The whole idea would be offensive - and yet this is the attitude and lifestyle that Jesus called his people to.

Saving and losing seem to be completely mixed up in Jesus words.

And yet he is talking about a bigger perspective, an eternal one.

Even today, our faith faces challenges.

God has a way of doing things.

He has standards.

But the world looks at His standards and scoffs.

Morality - our world wants sex without commitment, with whomever.

God’s standard is that sex is to be reserved for a husband and wife within the covenant of marriage.

Will we seek to live out God’s standards in a loving and compassionate way or will we scoff at his design and endorse all that the world desires?

Salvation - Our world would say that all roads lead to God or to some form of salvation - maybe through self actualization, maybe through rationalizing sin into personal preferences.

And yet scripture is clear -

Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.”

His Sovereignty and Our Volition - When we look at the challenges that are in the world - the ravages of war, the despicable nature of human trafficking, violence, addiction - some would look at that and state that a Sovereign, Loving God would not allow that violence and depravity in the world.

Scripture would tell us that the problems in the world are a result of our human sinful condition.

Out of love, God grants us a will to choose to follow and obey him.

As a result, our world gets to face the reality of consequences when we rebel against his ways.

goodness of God amidst difficult and disturbing situations - death of a loved one, terminal illness, prosperity of the wicked.

The question is what will we do when believing gets tough?

What will we do with the life of faith challenges our preferences, desires, temptation?

As we see in this passage - when believing gets tough...

...the fair-weather fans get going… (John 6:60-66)

Notice that John uses the word “disciples” - that word essentially means followers.

It doesn’t refer to the twelve, or as they are later known, the apostles - as we’ll see in a minute.

Instead, these are likely the people who had been fed by Jesus.

They saw the signs.

They were beginning to understand that Jesus was something special.

But they wanted a political leader and a miracle worker.

They didn’t realize they needed a Savior.

His talk of eating flesh and drinking blood was truly offensive.

His plan to act as a suffering servant rather than a conquering King was a disappointment.

They were ready to walk.

Jesus even talked of His divinity...John 6:62 could not assuage their questions

So, there are two ways that we can look at this.

There are a couple ways that John uses this “ascending” or “lifting” language.

Lifted up - In John 3:14 - Jesus refers to Moses lifting up a serpent as a means of healing for the people of Israel - and equating that to himself that he would be lifted up so that whoever looks in belief would have eternal life.

Later in the book, Jesus talks about being lifted up - and implying the elevation of the cross - John 12:32.

Carson notes that if Jesus is talking about this kind of ascension, then it would be scandalous to his audience.

Another way of thinking about ascending is...

Ascending to heaven - referring to his divinity.