Believe and live
Believe Again: Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 45:30
0 ratings
· 9 viewsYou have a purpose because God knows you and created you for a purpose. Until you find out who you are and begin to live the life that God has given you, you are just surviving - wandering around in existence without really living. To live is to follow Jesus and let His life flow through us.
Files
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Our theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”
It time to begin again to do the things that we stopped doing.
In this series called, “Believe Again” John calls us back to a living and vital relationship to God first, and then through God to others.
You may have already believed the gospel, but it is time to believe again.
We began with “Believe in Jesus”
Jesus came to be like us, so that we could become like Him.
Then we talked about believing in spiritual reality.
We are seated with Christ in heavenly places which means that we live in both realities.
Last week we said that Jesus is the Savior.
We l see Jesus interacting with people and as these people encounter Jesus the Savior, they make the choice to receive Him, to believe him and to respond to Him.
Believing must lead to transformation.
What does transformation produce? - Life!
It makes sense, because Jesus is the Word who was also the Creator.
When Disney released The Lion King in 1994 we all became aware of the great circle of life. Death leads to life and life leads to death. Our atoms come from the ground and then they go to the ground and help sustain future life, just as our life is sustained from that of the past.
The meaning promoted by the movie is to recognize the greater purpose of life and to find our place in it. Simba needed to recognize that his father had lived and served his purpose and it was time for him to do that same.
Of course, the movie talks about nature in terms that really belong to God.
Life has meaning because God gives it meaning.
You have a purpose because God knows you and created you for a purpose.
Until you find out who you are and begin to live the life that God has given you, you are just surviving - wandering around in existence without really living.
Just as in life, we are born, we grow up and eventually find our purpose and calling.
It is the same with spiritual maturity.
We first learn to depend on God.
Then we learn how to work with God in carrying out His work.
This leads to close fellowship, communion with God and with others.
Maturity then, is when God’s initiation and our response become an almost automatic cycle where is difficult to distinguish what is God’s part and what is our part.
To live is to follow Jesus and let His life flow through us.
Jesus takes care of you.
Jesus takes care of you.
1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
John chapter six opens with two stories of Jesus meeting the needs of people.
Jesus feeds the five thousand and then Jesus comes to his disciples walking on the water.
John says it was Passover time, marking the second year of Jesus ministry.
But instead of heading for Jerusalem, Jesus is heading away from the action, but the people are still following him.
Commentators point out that the imagery here is reminiscent of Israel coming out of Egypt and meeting with God in the wilderness.
Jesus is on a mountain teaching the people - like God meeting with Moses and Israel on Mount Sinai.
Jesus miraculously feeds the people with bread that he multiplies - just like God giving the people manna in the wilderness.
Jesus then walks on water showing mastery over the forces of nature - Just as Moses parted the Red Sea so that they could escape the Egyptians.
What do we learn from all of this? - God takes care of His people.
The first thing that any child learns when they come into the world is basic trust- simply resting in the fact that they are loved and cared for.
How does God care for us?
He multiplies your provision.
He multiplies your provision.
5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
Jesus and his disciple think they are getting away from the crowd, but from their hillside perch, they can see the crowds coming toward them, following the shoreline.
In Middle-Eastern culture, even today, it is rude to refuse guests.
You must immediately offer them a beverage and begin preparing food to eat.
Some traditions state that you must allow them to stay up to three days, even if they are strangers.
So they see the people coming and they are starting to weigh their options.
Send someone out immediately to buy food.
Or examine what you have and start with that.
Have you ever been in the situation where you know that what you have is never going to be enough?
Even if they could buy food, it a lot of money!
A denarii is roughly equivalent to a day’s wages.
It would take someone the better part of a year to pay for this party!
Jesus told them to be seated.
That’s what you tell you guests when you want them to relax and enjoy your hospitality.
Jesus gives thanks for what they have - five barley loaves and two small fish- and God multiplies it.
The other gospels say that Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes.
John says that he gave thanks.
The Greek word for giving thanks is eucharisto.
It likely that John chose this word because its going to tie together some of the other things that John will be sharing.
One other thing that I want to mention is the numbers that appear in this story.
Five thousand men is significant because five is the number in the Bible which symbolizes God grace.
There are five sacrifices, five books of Moses.
Five human senses, five fingers and toes.
It is a picture of God’s response to our human frailty.
Five thousand would mean “abundant grace.”
In this story, seven became twelve.
Seven is the number of completion.
You get it by adding three (the divine number) and four (the number of earth and nature).
It begins with completion - heaven and earth coming together.
Twelve is the number of God’s government.
You get it by multiplying three and four.
When heaven comes together with earth it moves from addition to multiplication.
Numbers may not be important to our modern intellectual mindset, but they were important to John and to the way that the early church interpreted these stories and part of the story that John is telling is reflected in the numbers.
Jesus, (the connector of heaven and earth 3+4=7) is multiplying God’s response to human frailty (abundant grace) and establishing God’s government (3 x 4+12).
Does that mean that these numbers are figurative and not literal.
No I think we have every reason to believe that John is telling exactly what he saw happen.
But he is also writing many years later with the benefit of hindsight - and he sees in that this story is part of a much bigger story that God is unfolding.
God is multiplying the provision of His grace.
We can look at Jesus walking on water the same way.
He is with you in the storm.
He is with you in the storm.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
Wow that was fast - other gospel writers tell the story in much more detail.
John focuses all of his attention on the moment that Jesus comes to them - and that they receive Him into the boat.
What is he saying? - Watch for Jesus to come to you in your darkest moment and when He does, don’t hesitate to take him into your boat -it will make all the difference!
Jesus is with you in the storm - he is Lord even over nature.
Yes, all of that is true, but there is more.
When Jesus comes to them, what does he say?
“It is I” - in the Greek it is simply the words “I am!”
Don’t be afraid - “I am!”
If you remember the story of Moses and the burning bush, this should sound familiar.
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
Remember how we said that Jesus is God, and knowing that changes everything.
That is how John tells the story about Jesus coming to them on the water.
They are in darkness - like most people are in spiritual darkness.
They are being blown about by wind and waves - like all of the spiritual forces of evil and chaos at work in the world.
When you have come to the end of your own effort and are terrified - that’s when you see Jesus coming to you.
And Jesus announces that He is “I am.”
He is greater than the darkness.
He is greater than the storm.
He is greater than our own efforts.
He is God and receiving Him as such brings and end to the struggle.
He protects His people.
He protects His people.
22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
The people wanted God to protect them, just as a child expects to be sheltered and cared for by a parent.
Israel made a covenant with God in the wilderness and God protected them and provided for them.
Jesus is in the wilderness feeding the people, teaching them and miraculously crossing the sea.
What could be better than this?
Is Jesus more powerful than the Roman army?
Or they could do like some of the Jewish extremists and hide out in caves in the wilderness and Jesus could provide for them there.
They could create their own utopia, just depending on Jesus for everything.
Come to Jesus and get free food - free everything!
Wouldn’t it be nice to just rely on God’s supernatural provision and protection.
Sometimes we are tempted to isolate as Christians and just enjoy the benefits of God’s goodness for ourselves.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just worship God all day without having to think about work or the world around us.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be like kids again and not have any responsibilities or have to grow up?
Yeah, it doesn’t work like that...
We participate with Jesus in His work.
We participate with Jesus in His work.
26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Our work is to believe.
Our work is to believe.
The problem with the utopian idea is that life is not just about us, there is a much bigger purpose - God is restoring the world.
There is much work to do, and Jesus is not our babysitter - He is our Master.
There is work to do - and we get to do it with Him.
OK, so what do we do?
I remember when I was working in carpentry, sometimes I would do projects at home in my workshop. The kids would come out and want to help. Of course they would want to do something, but I knew I would have to undo anything that they might potentially do.
“You can help by watching,” I would say. Well they didn’t have much patience for that. But if they did take the time to watch what I was doing they might eventually learn enough to begin to do it themselves.
Jesus makes a similar statement that may seem off putting.
If you want to help, then believe.
Why believe?
Because that what Israel failed to do.
They complained and wanted to go back.
They rebelled and gave Moses (and God) a hard time.
Sure, they were God’s people, but they didn’t act like it much of the time.
Do you see where this is going?
Believing changes the way that we live.
Believing changes the way that we live.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
My first ministry assignment was as a missionary in Denmark. Denmark is considered a Christian country. 98% of the population claim to be part of the state religion which is Evangelical Lutheran. According to 1992 statistics, which were recent when I was there, less than 2% of them attend church.
I would often engage in conversations about faith by saying that I believe in a “living faith”. Everyone has faith in Denmark, the Queen is a Christian and so are they. “But what is a living faith?” They would ask.
“Does your faith make a difference in the way that you live?” I would say.
To which may would reply, “Is it supposed to?”
Yes, believing absolutely changes that way that you live.
You are not going to want the same things that you used to want.
That “hunger” that you have is something only God can fill.
You are going to find that things that used to be satisfying for a little while just don’t do it anymore.
Jesus is the Bread of life.
He is the source of life and the giver of life.
He is the One who sustains us.
Bread is something that you have every day, several times a day.
It’s a staple food.
It what keeps you going - sustaining your energy levels.
So take what we have just learned about Jesus.
He is God - the “I am”
He is the complete person who multiplied God’s abundant grace and established God’s government.
You believe that? OK, now believe it every day!
Let it sink in … and change you.
Live in both the physical and the spiritual worlds and let it prepare you for the day when spiritual reality totally permeates our physical reality.
We live according to what we consume.
We live according to what we consume.
43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one 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. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
I say this all the time to people whom I counsel.
We are divided beings - there is the flesh and the spirit.
You will always have both to some degree.
But whatever you feed will grow.
Feed the flesh and the flesh will dominate and your spirit will be weak.
Feed the spirit and the flesh will still be there, but it won’t control you because you are spiritually strong.
If you want to be spiritually strong, then feed on Jesus.
We are going to take communion at the end of this service - and that is literally (meaning figuratively) what we are doing when we take communion.
But it is also what we doing daily in our relationship with Him.
You are in you Bible , not just to read it, but to learn from it.
You are praying, not just once in a while or once a day.
You have an ongoing conversation with Holy Spirit about anything and everything.
Your worship is not just background music, you’re having church in the car on your way to work.
Jesus is not just a name you call on in crisis, He’s your daily bread.
If you think I’m exaggerating, listen to what he says next...
Following Jesus is a total commitment.
Following Jesus is a total commitment.
53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
I don’t know what you think that means - but I believe what is implied is total commitment.
Literally (figuratively) it is taking Christ internally.
It is becoming One with Christ.
Yes, it’s a metaphor, but it conveys reality.
How do we do total commitment?
Following when we don’t understand.
Following when we don’t understand.
If you think that eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood is gross, just consider what it would sound like to a first century Jew.
Yes, that’s cannibalism, but a Jew is not allowed anywhere near a dead body.
And they were not allowed to drink blood, even the blood of animals.
Animals used for meat needed to be slaughtered in such a way that all of the blood was drained out before it could be used for cooking.
What Jesus is saying is utterly offensive on every level.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Jesus connects earthly reality with spiritual reality.
There is much about both that we do not understand, but especially spiritual reality.
Can you accept that there are things that you still do not understand?
Remember. He’s God and you’re not!
Does it have to all make sense to you before you will accept it as truth?
Does everything that God asks you to do have to have a rational explanation?
Is there any room in you mind for mystery or intuition?
Can you just know something without knowing why?
Remember, God initiates and we respond.
When God initiates in a way that we don’t understand, the appropriate response is to engage, ask questions and learn.
It may be a test, just to see if you are listening, and following.
Following when we want to turn back.
Following when we want to turn back.
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
What do you do when following Jesus gets really hard?
When God asks something of you and you are like, “anything but that.”
You know it’s a test, right?
God is good, but His tests can be really hard.
He wouldn’t bring you to it if He couldn’t see you through it.
Some people give up at a certain point.
If that how its going to be, then I’m out.
God seems unfair because life is unfair, but He is not unjust.
Nobody can blame you for quitting, but you hang on anyway.
I’ve been there - I couldn’t give up.
I know enough to know that there’s is so much that I don’t know.
I don’t know what God is doing, but I know that he is God - and that’s enough.
I’m like Peter - where else am I going to go?
Your words don’t need to make sense to me - they have life!
They have already awakened something in me that is beyond what I know and understand.
I don’t know everything, but what I know makes me want to go “all in.”
Following as a matter of choice.
Following as a matter of choice.
70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
I know this is a really weird note to end on, but John is making a point by contrasting Peter’s confession with knowing that Judas would betray him.
Both stayed with Jesus at this critical time in his ministry when many were leaving.
Both were going to face another time of great testing.
Both seem very much to believe, but only one will be found to have really been changed.
There are just twelve disciples left - same as the number of the tribes of Israel.
They are to become the twelve Apostles, the beginning of God’s new government…except one will not.
Following Jesus is a choice that we make daily.
God chooses us and then we choose him.
There is a healthy tension there between what is our part and what is God’s part.
It takes both parts.
God’s part is constant, ours is the variable.
That is why it is a choice that we need to keep making regularly.
Communion
Communion
As our response today, it seemed good that we celebrate the Lord’s table - communion - or eucharist “giving thanks.”
53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
As we pass out the communion elements, let us consider the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.
Song
John does not record the eucharist part of the last supper, he only records the footwashing part. But he records more of the conversation and especially Jesus’ words on that night than any of the other gospel writers. Consider the words of Jesus to his disciples as we consider His sacrifice for us.
As we consider the Lord’s body broken for us.
As we consider the Lord’s body broken for us.
16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” 17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” 18 So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
As we consider the Lord’s blood shed for us.
As we consider the Lord’s blood shed for us.
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
As we depart.
As we depart.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.