John 6:41-71- Are You Offended? -Audio

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If you are like me, you have had a number of gym memberships in the past.

Believe it or not, I have actually done some working out.

That is not obvious from my physique.

This looks all natural.

and just great genetics.

That's what you're thinking.

I know.

No, I actually have done some working out.

It just has been a minute.

But when you get the membership, if you've ever been to the gym, you get the membership, you're excited, right?

And you're like, I'm going to be healthy.

I'm going to get fit.

I'm going to get smaller clothes.

I'm going to fit back into the clothes that I've been saving for when I get smaller again.

Mine are from the 70s.

That's how old...

That's how long it's been.

I'm going to feel great, right?

And I would probably say to my wife, Tiffany, I'm going to come here five days a week and work out and use the facilities and even like the tanning bed and the water chair.

They got all kinds of weird stuff in there, right?

And it's like, that's what the hell the people are doing.

I'm going to do all that stuff, right?

And I'm just very, very excited, but not long after reality sets in.

Spoiler alert, in case you thought something different or you have bad eyesight.

I did not use the gym five days a week or even one day a week.

I don't know that I've been to the gym in the last year.

I don't think I got rid of my Planet Fitness when they started letting guys in the girls' locker room.

Different issue, let's not do that another time.

But it's hard to change your lifestyle.

And there's a lot more to it than just like showing up at the gym.

You got to lift the heavy weights, right?

You can't eat any food that tastes good.

You know how this goes, right?

Now they're going to shot.

Apparently you just take the shot and I don't know how that all works, but I'm not recommending that by the way.

I don't know.

But you know, you got to drink lots of water.

I don't mind it if it's in one of these, but out of the sink, what are we doing?

Right?

It's 2025.

Why does it taste like that?

Am I wrong?

Okay.

Anyway, it feels like we've gone to the moon like 50 years ago.

We can't make water not taste like.

So anyway, but that's what you have to do, right?

There's all this stuff you have to do.

So I did what good Americans do.

I paid for my gym membership for months and sometimes years and kept saying, I'll start Monday, right?

Doesn't happen.

Or if I do start Monday, I don't make it Tuesday.

And so the truth is, and this is the truth, obviously I don't really care about health as much as I sometimes think I do.

Sometimes I think that I really care about it, but it's easy to figure out that I don't care about it as much because I haven't been willing to pay the price

to do the stuff that I need to do.

Now, I'm not saying that's a good thing.

In fact, taking care of yourself is important.

Being a good steward of your body is important, and it can be a real sin issue, and it has been a sin issue in my life sometimes, stuff that I've had to deal with the Lord with, so don't get me on that.

At the same time, I don't need you to send me emails about your jazzercise class.

I'm not showing up, okay?

My leotard's in the shop, and it's not coming back out, okay?

I do have pictures, though.

No, I don't have any.

It's not.

Welcome to Acts Church, by the way.

If you're new, we love you.

The point is sometimes we say we want something, but when it comes time to do the work, to go through difficult things, we fade out, right?

We fade out.

We do not stay strong.

We walk away from things that are difficult sometimes.

Listen to what Jesus says in the book of Luke.

You can turn there if you want.

This is going to be Luke 14.

I'm going to read kind of a longer section, so if you want to find it in your paper Bibles.

And if you were born in the 2000s, that's what we used to use all the time, believe it or not.

We only had paper back when I was a youngster.

We didn't have the little pocket computer thing.

Okay, it says, now great multitudes went with him.

This is verse 25, is where we're starting.

Now great multitudes went with him.

So people are following him.

We're going to see that in John today, so just pay attention to this.

And he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Just so you know, bear your cross means die.

That's what the cross was a symbol of.

For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?

Anybody start a project that's still sitting in your garage or your woodshed?

You don't have to raise your hands.

I already know because I know my garage, right?

does not count the cost whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.

Excuse me, sorry.

Still got the stuff coming up.

Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able, with 10,000 men...

to meet him who comes against him with 20,000, or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for conditions of peace.

So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, for the garbage.

The men throw it out.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Jesus lays out what it looks like to follow him.

And by the way, it's not about hating in the sense that you're thinking.

It's about where is your priority?

Jesus accepts no rivals, no rivals.

Not your kids, not your wife, not your husband,

Not your friends, not your job, not your money, not your sexuality, not nothing.

He will accept no rivals.

He has to be first.

In fact, he says you've got to die to yourself.

Take up your cross daily.

That's what that means.

And follow him.

That's what he says.

Forsake all that you have to come to him.

The church...

is here to help you to understand both that that is a complicated and difficult thing and that it's a powerful and glorious thing for you.

What the church is not here to do is to pretend like it's not a thing.

It is a thing.

It is difficult.

And the church does not exist primarily to nurse babies.

That's not what we're here primarily for.

The church is here to make men and women of God strong, mature, walking in faith.

1 Corinthians 13, 11 says, When I was a child, I spoke as a child.

I understood as a child.

I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

We know a family, my wife and I,

who has a son who was still in diapers at five years old.

They wouldn't even let him go to school anymore because the parents wouldn't make him get out of diapers.

I don't know if you know this, parents, that's not cute.

It's not cute when you're five and six and seven years old and you just, he doesn't want to.

I don't care what he wants to do.

It stinks.

Right?

It's not okay.

Now, if you have some sort of issue or something, that's different.

But a normal kid who could be potty trained, who just doesn't feel like it, I'd rather just have you wipe me.

Right?

It's not cute.

And I want you to have that sort of in your mind because it's also not cute when Christians have been following Jesus for years and years and are basically still like that little kid in diapers.

Where's the milk?

Where's the milk?

I can't handle meat.

It hurts my tummy, right?

It's too difficult.

The scripture is clear on this issue.

Men and women of God need to be mature.

Mature.

Hebrews 5, 12 through 14 says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you, again, the first principles of

of the oracles of God, of the sayings, of the scripture, right?

The first principles, the simple stuff.

And you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

But solid food belongs to those who are mature, of full age.

That is, those who by reason of use, of practice, have their senses exercised.

to discern both good and evil.

Have you ever been around a believer and a question comes up that's really a simple one from a biblical perspective and they struggle with it?

Like, should we do this or should we do that?

And you're like, that's first principle stuff.

How long have you been a Christian?

Oh, I've been going to church for 15 years.

And they're not answering the basic questions.

They're finger painting still.

And it's time to get serious.

right?

The fact is that the writer to the Hebrews, the writer of the book of Hebrews, was dealing with that in the early church.

And by the way, we've always dealt with it.

The church has always dealt with the fact that some of us choose to sit in diapers and drink milk when we should be becoming strong men and women and eating meat, solid food.

It doesn't say meat.

Some of you are like, well, I'm a vegan.

Well, that's a different problem, but that's...

It doesn't have to be me.

Look, solid food.

Solid food is for the mature.

Now, I've been immature.

I've been that person.

So I'm not preaching at you.

I'm preaching at me.

I've been that person before where I was in the Lord a long time and still acted like a baby.

But we can't be like that, especially now.

Here at the end of the end of the age, you need solid food.

If you have been in Christ for years, you should not be asking for milk.

Let me just get a, but shouldn't it just be simple?

Shouldn't we just go and hear a message that just makes us feel good, and it's simple, it's really easy to understand?

No.

Do you think the book is this long because it's simple?

God loves you.

One page.

There you go.

Here's a few pictures.

No.

As C.S.

Lewis says, those...

Those who can't read for books made for grownups shouldn't talk about them.

This is hard.

There's people who spend their entire lives.

There are books written on small little passages of what's in it.

This is complicated.

You got to work, right?

The gym's open, but I'm not there because I don't want to do the work.

You know why?

Because it hurts.

And you know what's good?

In that burger, right?

You got to pay to play on that too.

Apparently the lines are like 4,000, I don't know.

I think, who went this week to the new In-N-Out?

Okay, Kaylee's the only one.

The rest of you were smart.

All right.

That's crazy.

It looks like Disneyland, but no Mickey Mouse, okay?

Just, they're good burgers, but let's be, and I love In-N-Out, just so you know, but let's be real.

There are other good burgers that you don't have to wait two hours for.

Anyway, don't get me on that issue.

The point is, you gotta pay to play.

If I wanna work out, I gotta pay to play.

If I wanna be a Christ follower, I gotta pay to play.

I gotta do the work.

I gotta get serious.

Scripture in Hebrews says that they had become dull of hearing.

It's not necessarily that they were never mature or never maturing.

They might have been, but at some point, they became dull of hearing.

And they started saying, just give us milk.

We just want the easy.

Let's make this easy.

And I think there's a lot of Christians who do that now.

And I think there's a lot of pastors and churches.

I don't know this.

It's possible.

I really don't pay that much attention to what other churches are doing.

But it's possible that a lot of churches have decided to cater to the dull of hearing.

Who say, we want milk.

And they're so concerned about having the people show up that they just give them milk instead of giving them stuff that's hard.

Because I can tell you from experience, when I preach the word, which we try to do every week, some people leave.

They don't like it.

And that makes me sad.

But it doesn't change the fact that I'm going to preach the word of God.

right?

You can come in here and say, can't you make it easier?

Can't you make it in the answers?

No, we got to be mature.

And I'm telling you this for a reason, okay?

Because we're going to get into continuing the book of John here, and you're going to see what happens when people are immature and don't have the strength.

You're going to see what happens to them.

I just want to tell you, it is hard to live in a sinful world as a saint of God.

Get a tattoo if you need to, right?

Put this on your arm.

That's right, that's right.

It's hard to live in a sinful world as a saint of God.

Remember it.

If anyone has told you something different about Christianity, you know, come to Christ and it's all just skip.

Is that skipping?

Is that what skipping looks like?

I don't know.

Hopscotch?

Erase that video.

Look, it's not skipping.

It's hard to live in a sinful world as a saint of God.

It's hard to be holy among the unholy.

It's not easy.

It's not always fun.

It's not always safe.

And here's the thing.

In case you were wondering, Jesus did not promise easy, fun, and safe.

You will search the scriptures in vain, as Dr. David likes to say, for the word fun.

I'm not saying you should never have fun.

I love having fun.

Fun is fun.

Right?

Well, that's tautology.

Love is love.

Whatever.

You know, right?

I enjoy fun.

But that is not what Christ following is all about.

Jesus is not up there thinking, I just want them to have fun all the time.

Now, there will come a time when we're no longer in this sinful world, when we're no longer breathing sinful air, and it will be joy, much better than fun.

Joy, just unending.

But right now, there's a lot of things that are difficult.

He did not promise easy, fun, and safe.

In fact, the contrary.

Luke 9, 23 through 27.

He said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

Whoever desires to save his life, who's all about himself or herself, will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

It is in dying to ourselves and giving ourselves up that we actually find life because you can only find life in Jesus Christ.

It does not exist anywhere else.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost?

How many people in this world think to themselves,

If I could just have, or if I could just be, and then you fill in the blank.

Every kid I've met from the age of three to the age of about 30 wants to be a YouTube star.

That's what they want.

What are you going to do with your life?

Be a YouTube star.

No, you're not.

You're not.

We can't all be YouTube stars.

Who's going to watch it at that point, right?

Um, they want to be a YouTube star or people want to be, people have always wanted to be a famous actor or a famous athlete or a famous this or a famous that or really rich.

I want to have a billion dollars.

I want to do what they think that if they had, that's the goal.

They're trying to save this life.

They want stuff.

They think that if they, if I just had that car, I want the house.

I want that, that girl, that guy, this thing, that thing, then I would be satisfied.

Content.

That is a lie from hell.

None of that will ever make you content.

In fact, in order to find contentment, you have to say, I give all that up.

I'm willing to have none of that.

I'm willing to do whatever the Lord says to do.

I put myself 100, he's Lord.

I put myself 100% in his hands.

I submit to him 100%.

If he tells me to go and live in Africa and be a missionary and have nothing and no air conditioning,

I'll do that because I'm going to follow him.

It's only then that you could ever enjoy those other things that life has for us.

It's only then.

See, there's somebody out there who's really unhappy.

I can hear it.

It's probably a Christ follower.

It's difficult, I'm telling you.

No, listen.

For those of you online, there's a baby crying.

That's why I'm saying that.

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his father's and of the holy angels.

That is sobering.

How many times have you basically been ashamed of him?

You're at work.

Something comes up about the Lord.

You feel like I should say something.

I should mention that I'm a Christ follower.

I should mention that that kind of dictates to me that the teachings have said to me that this is true or that's true, and you don't.

You don't bring up the name of Jesus.

Why?

Because you think it might embarrass you, which is to say you're ashamed of him.

I've been there.

I've done it.

Repented.

Nice thing.

Wonderful thing.

The blessed thing.

So if we confess our sins, he's faithful just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's 1 John 1.9.

So then he won't be ashamed because he's forgiven you.

He's forgotten about it.

But if you live a life where you're just ashamed of Jesus, what are you saying?

I want what's easy.

I don't want to do what's difficult.

Even back then,

You had to stand up to follow Jesus.

And you still do increasingly more and more today.

There was a time in this country, you know, years and years ago where kind of everybody went to church.

Kind of everybody was a Christian.

That ain't the case anymore.

Certainly not here and not many places.

You got to stand up.

You can't be ashamed of that.

But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.

And they went on to have the transfiguration of Christ later in that passage, which is where they saw the kingdom of God.

But he says, deny yourself.

He says, take up your cross daily and follow me.

I want you to have that context in mind.

Have that context in mind.

Because that's what Jesus said.

That's what he said.

Don't keep living like an unbeliever.

do what you want, to have as much fun as possible and retire so that you can sow to yourself for the rest of your life and just never have to worry about anyone or anything.

That's not from the Bible.

You will not find that in here.

He says, deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.

This is not new, by the way, that people had a hard time.

The Jews in the first century that Jesus was teaching

Had a hard time with things that were difficult, with sayings, teachings that were difficult.

A really hard time.

We've been in the book of John, as some of you know, for quite a while.

Again, there are Bibles in front.

If you don't have a Bible, it's yours.

Take one of those Bibles home with you.

It's our gift to you.

But if you want to use one of those, you can do that.

We just read about Jesus feeding the 5,000 last week.

We think that that possibly took place in Bethsaida.

Here's a map for you.

I love maps.

Um, so you can see that's Bethsaida there.

Okay.

We think that's where the feeding the 5,000 happened because in Luke 9, he talks about this same event and he says it happened to Bethsaida.

And then we had them get in the boat, if you remember, and travel.

The blue thing is water.

Travel across the Sea of Galilee.

I don't know if you know how to read a map.

Okay.

I don't know.

Um, you guys went to school in Vancouver.

So, um, across the...

Sea of Galilee to Capernaum.

So that's where he is now.

At the end of what we read last week, he was in Capernaum and the people had come to him and he was talking about being the bread of life who had come down from heaven.

Remember, that's what he had been talking about.

Now.

They had said, we're just going to go back for a second into what we did last week, a couple of those verses, just to remind you.

I'm just going to read through these.

So this is what had happened so that you know to be set up for what we're about to read.

It says, therefore they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you?

What work will you do?

Remember, they have just seen him take the bread and the fish and feed 5,000 men plus women and children.

That's why they followed him to Capernaum.

They did that because they had seen that.

And now they're saying, what sign will you do?

Well, I don't know.

How about feeding 5,000 of you yesterday?

Anyway, they say, our fathers ate the man in the desert.

As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Then Jesus said to them, Moses, surely I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always.

And Jesus said to them,

I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Jesus is teaching a profound spiritual truth, a real truth represented by analogy to hunger and thirst and that kind of thing, and about nourishment, but it's spiritual.

He, Jesus, is saying, I'm the one who gives you life, who gives you nourishment.

It's him that we feed on.

He's the source of our life.

This is the teaching that he's giving them.

But I said to you, this is verse 36, that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out.

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus is saying to them something that we have a hard time, I think, hearing.

And maybe even a more difficult time expressing when asked as Christ followers.

Sometimes people will ask you things like, so are you saying that if I don't follow your Jesus, I'll go to hell?

There is an answer to that question.

The answer is yes.

It's not like, yeah, you sinner.

No, it's what I'm saying to you is please follow Jesus.

Because, yes, I'm not saying Jesus said this.

And he tells these people, you've seen and you don't believe.

We like to think that, man, if they could just see him.

What if they saw him doing miracles, healing people, gazing at demons.

They see the lame walking, the blind seeing.

He's feeding 5,000.

He's turning water into wine.

If they would just see all that, then, of course, they would believe.

It's not true.

It's not true.

It's not true.

These people saw that and he says, you've seen me and you don't believe.

We saw this with the rich man and Lazarus.

The Lazarus that was the beggar that was outside the house of the rich man.

Poor, eating scraps that fell from the table and the dogs would lick his sores.

This guy's in bad shape.

But he loves God.

Meanwhile, the rich man doesn't.

And then they both die.

And there's the rich man in torment again.

And Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom.

He's in paradise.

And the rich man says to Lazarus, come down and dip your finger in water and touch my tongue.

Because to him, apparently Lazarus is just still a servant, something lesser than him, even though he's sitting there at hell.

And then he says, well, if he can't do that, send him to my brothers.

Because if somebody rose from the dead, then they would believe.

And Jesus tells a story and he says, if they did not believe the scripture,

They will not believe even if someone rises from the dead.

You are going to see this theme over and over and over in Jesus' teaching.

He will keep saying the scripture, the scripture, the scripture.

It talks about me.

I'm from the Father.

If you could hear from God, if you understood what God was saying, you would know who I was.

That's what's going to keep happening.

Some people don't want to understand just so that you know.

Some people suppress the truth in righteousness.

So the scripture says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against men who suppress the truth in righteousness.

An unrighteousness, not unrighteous, an unrighteousness.

Some people don't want to understand.

Some people have hard hearts and they do not want him even when they have seen him and know he is from God.

Nicodemus said in chapter three, we saw, hey, we know the Sanhedrin, the Jews, the leaders, we know you're from God.

Nobody could do the things you do unless they're from God.

Yet these are the same people who later kill him.

So you could even know he's from God and you can still be so hard hearted and you need to understand that there are people like that.

Do not buy into the idea that everybody, if they just had enough, if you could just, you could just tell them enough, you could just explain it enough, they would come to know Jesus.

There are some people who will not.

They will not have this man as king over them.

Remember that Jesus had just fed the 5,000 men plus women and children.

And this was their reaction first.

Basically the day before.

Verse 15, 615.

Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he departed again to the mountain by himself alone.

And now we're here, give us a sign.

Yesterday, they're gonna go make him king.

Today, they're like, yeah, give us a sign.

Moses did this, et cetera.

They're being difficult basically the next day.

The Jews, this is, we're starting verse 41 now.

This is the new stuff from today.

The Jews then complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

So he said this stuff, and the next thing that happens is the Jews are complaining, grumbling.

They're grumbling about Jesus because he said, I was the bread that came down from heaven.

Why?

Because he's saying he's God.

That's why.

That's what that means.

No one comes down from heaven except for God.

So they don't like that.

And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven?

Will you put that map back up there for a second?

I want to show you guys something so you can understand.

So this is Galilee, okay?

You can see here in red, it says Nazareth.

That's where Jesus grew up.

Cana, that's where he made water into wine.

So this region...

is, you know, these people know each other.

They've heard of each other and so on.

So he's like, hey, wait a second.

Don't we know this guy?

Isn't he the son of Joseph and Mary?

That's what they're saying.

Then how is it?

He says, I've come down from heaven.

They're offended.

They're offended when Jesus tells them who he really is.

He tells them he's God, that he came down from heaven.

And they're like, well, didn't that young one grow up around here?

Don't we know his parents?

I say that because they kind of would have been like people from the deep south.

They're fishermen.

They kind of had an accent.

Here's the thing.

They knew lots of people who grew up around there, and they knew their parents.

But how many of them had turned water into wine, had healed the sick, and who had fed 5,000?

It's a little cheeky, a little cheeky to say, wait a second, he's saying these things as if he was just like a normal dude.

This was not a normal dude, right?

So when you feed 5,000 and say, I came down from heaven, you may know that I live with those people over there.

Of course, Joseph was not his father.

He was his adopted father.

His father's God, right?

He did come down from heaven.

But they're offended when he tells them who he is.

Jesus therefore answered and said to them, do not murmur or stop grumbling.

among yourselves.

Do not murmur among yourselves.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Stop murmuring.

Don't even bother, because you're not going to understand any of this.

No one's coming to me unless the Father draws them.

You can argue about whatever you want.

You can complain.

You can grow up, but just knock it off, because you're not going to come to me unless the Father draws you.

And this is something you need to understand.

The Father draws.

The Father draws.

If you're sitting there, I don't believe this stuff and I don't, you know, whatever and so on.

Let's just knock it off.

Don't bother.

Because the Father draws.

And you're not going to get it unless the Father draws you.

That's just the reality.

That's just the truth.

If you're here or you're listening to this and you don't yet follow Jesus, maybe somebody brought you here.

Maybe the sermon popped up on YouTube.

in your feed.

Father may be drawing you today.

That may be the reality.

He may be drawing you to himself.

I highly recommend that you listen.

When he draws, don't make excuses.

Don't start grumbling.

Don't start saying, well, I don't really understand it all.

Listen, if he's drawing you, that is a spiritual reality that

He's asking you to trust him.

These people are grumbling because they do not honor Jesus Christ.

They're unwilling to hear him.

They're unwilling to be taught by him because they're proud and stubborn.

It's like when you put crabs, you can put crabs in a bucket.

You don't have to put a lid on it because if one tries to get out, the other ones will grab the crab and bring it back in.

You ever been, have you ever seen this?

They won't get out because the other ones will keep bringing them back in.

So these Galileans like, well, he can't be better than us.

He's not just better than you.

He's God.

And he's proving it.

Well, I know his parents.

Well, okay.

Obviously one of them, you don't know very well.

That's God.

Do not turn away the loving embrace of your good father in heaven.

submit yourself to Christ and believe on him.

Believe that God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and he will raise you up the last day.

That's what he's saying.

The Father draws them.

They come to me.

I'm raising them up the last day.

That's the reality.

Not because they're so good, but because he's so good.

He's saying, because I'm good, because I'm righteous, I'll do this.

Verse 45, it is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God.

Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father...

comes to me.

This is more powerful than I think it looks like on a first read.

This is extremely powerful because it tells you something.

He makes it clear.

If you had learned from the Father, you would come to Jesus Christ.

Now, if you're out there, you're hearing this, you're following another religion or another quote-unquote road or another teacher or whatever it is, whether it's self-help or Eastern religious practices or some false version of Christianity.

If you knew the Father, had heard from the Father, understood the truth from the Father, you would come to Jesus.

If you're not coming to Jesus, you're not hearing from God.

That is not God you're hearing from.

If you're following some practice and you don't come to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him, if you're not drawn to him, if you don't come to him, you are not hearing from God.

If you have a different Jesus, this is the issue we have with a number of people who call themselves Christians, whether it's Jehovah's Witnesses, whether it's Mormons, whether it's progressive Christians, they make a fake Jesus.

a false Jesus, and that's who they're drawn to.

If they were hearing from God, they would be drawn to the real Jesus.

How do I know he's the real Jesus?

Because he rose from the dead, because he did the miracles, because he said he was God.

Where do I find all that?

In the word of God.

If they believe things that go against this, they have not heard from God, or they would be drawn to the Jesus of the Bible.

He made himself clear.

Not a false Jesus, okay?

And there's a lot of false Jesuses that people preach out there.

But the real Jesus who speaks truth and gives life and asks for you to observe all that he has commanded.

If your Jesus that you're following doesn't ask people to observe all that he's commanded, if he's an anything goes Jesus, that's not Jesus.

You're not hearing from God.

That's not God you're hearing from.

That's your own heart, that's your own self, that's some influence, demonic influence, whatever it is, it's not God.

If you hear from God, you will be drawn to Jesus.

Not as a good teacher, not as a whatever, but as the God of the universe.

Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

So if you talk about Jesus as a good teacher who's all about love,

meaning there's nothing that anyone does that actually dishonors him or goes against his law, then you do not know Jesus and you have not come to him.

Please be honest with yourself.

There is one Jesus.

He has revealed himself to us in his word, the scripture.

If you reject this, you reject him.

If you do not come to him, you have not heard from the father.

You have not listened to the father.

You have not learned from the father.

You do not get to define Jesus.

He tells us who he is.

He defines himself.

Just like these people did not get to define him.

Oh, well, he's just the son of Joseph and Mary.

No, he's not.

He's the son of God and the son of man.

He's Mary's son because he's all human.

He's all man.

He's also God's son and he's all God.

They don't get to choose to find him a different way so that they could then reject him, which was the whole point of what they were doing.

No, he's much more than the son of Mary and Joseph.

He's God.

He's the judge of the world.

He's fully God and fully man.

He died for your sins.

God raised him from the dead.

That's who he is.

You don't get to tell God who he is.

He tells you who you are.

That's one of the primary things that has to happen in a life of

of a human being who comes to follow Christ is to understand that I don't get to tell God who he is, how he should act, what he should do.

He tells me who I am, how I should act, and what I should do.

It's no longer me that lives, but Christ in me.

It's no longer me who's in charge, but him who's in charge.

You are his creation.

He loves you.

He died for you so that you could live

No longer in sin and darkness.

No longer accepting everyone else's sin and darkness because you don't have the courage to speak truth.

He loves you and died for you and rose again so you could have life in him, through him, with him forever.

Forever.

Romans 10, nine through 10 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with a heart one believes unto righteousness and with a mouth confession is made unto salvation.

That's it.

If you don't know Jesus and you feel the drawing of the Father towards Jesus, all you have to do is confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.

That's it.

That's it.

That's it.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

That's it.

It's not hard because you're not doing anything.

He did it all.

By grace, through faith, that's the gift of God, not of yourselves.

So no one can boast about it.

I did not do something to save myself.

Are you kidding me?

I couldn't save anything.

He saved me.

And all I had to do

was accept that salvation that he had for me.

By confessing with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believing my heart that God raised him from the dead.

That's it.

I did nothing.

He did it all.

He drew me and I came.

Next, verse 46, John 6, 46.

Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God.

He has seen the Father.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life.

Very important verse.

Very simple.

Jesus makes this, salvation is very simple.

If you believe in him, believe that he's the son of God, so that he is the one that you serve, you have everlasting life.

I am the bread of life, he says again.

Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and are dead.

So what's implied there?

It wasn't the bread of life, was it?

Because they're dead.

They're dead.

They ate that bread and are dead.

That was just physical bread.

It gave some sustenance while they were out in the desert.

It was a miracle of God, but it wasn't the bread of life.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die.

He's talking about eternal life.

He's talking about himself.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.

Those who are suggesting out there that Jesus wasn't really talking about himself as God, you need to learn how to read.

If you came to me and said, I'm giving my flesh for the life of the world,

I would be like, okay.

Are you okay?

Right?

But Jesus says this, and in a believable way.

This is why we do communion.

To remember the sacrifice of his flesh, his blood, poured out, his body broken.

We're going to do that this morning, and we're going to remember it.

We're going to take part in it symbolically.

It's his flesh and his blood symbolically understanding that as we partake, as we abide in him and partake of him, that's how we have life.

He is our nourishment.

The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

To which it's just like, he must have just been like,

Face palm.

Do you really think I was going to start cutting parts of myself off and handing them to you?

Who's hungry?

He's obviously talking spiritually.

And once again, they're allowing themselves to stumble and get offended because they refuse to hear what he's actually saying.

Then Jesus said to them, Most certainly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is food indeed, is true food.

And my blood is drink indeed, true drink.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

So they're grumbling, they're quarreling.

He actually didn't go back and explain.

Come on, guys, I'm talking about spiritual realities.

He just doubled down.

It's like, okay, I'll make it more clear.

You're going to eat my flesh, you're going to drink my blood, or you're going to hell.

You're going to find your nourishment in me, or you're not going to have me.

You're going to abide in me.

We're going to see this again, right?

John 15.

The vine, the branches, he who abides in Christ, right?

We're going to see that again.

This is fundamental, and he uses multiple analogies.

This is one of them.

About abiding in him.

Nourishment for real life.

Abiding in Christ.

Receiving from the fountain.

We talk about living waters in the fountain.

It never ends.

It keeps flowing.

And here's the thing.

You know in your heart that what Jesus is talking about here is true.

That you were made for eternal life.

You were not made to die.

Why do we hate death?

Why aren't we just like, yeah, death.

Death.

No, we're broken by it.

We grieve over it.

Why?

If it's completely normal, why do we grieve over it?

Because it's not normal.

It's not normal.

It's not what you were made for.

You were not made for it.

It's unnatural.

It's the result of sin.

It is not who you're made to be.

And just so that you know, it's not who I am anymore.

And if you're in Christ, it's not who you are anymore.

Because Jesus Christ has saved us.

He saved me because the Father loves me.

The Holy Spirit lives in me and empowers me.

I'm not going to die.

I'm not going to die.

My body, yeah, it's going to pass away at some point.

Or I'll get raptured.

Either way, it's going away.

My body's going away.

My spirit's not going to die.

I'm in him forever at this point.

I'm already spiritually alive.

That can't change.

I will get a new body, right?

Probably a little different than the one I have now.

I'm just guessing.

I mean, I look pretty good, but I'm guessing.

Maybe a little younger and...

thinner, but we, you know, we're going to get a new body, but I'm never going to stop living.

A thousand solar systems, suns can come and go, right?

They can come, they could die.

And we're not talking about the first day, the first second of the great adventure that is being with God for eternity.

That's what you were made for.

And somewhere deep inside you, you know, it's true.

You know that you grieve death because you are made for life.

And here he is saying, life is in me.

You will only have life, literally being alive.

But also, there's another part of it, nourishment.

Continuing to receive from God.

right?

These symbols are living water, flowing, welling up to eternal life, right?

The bread of life that he gives his life, the drink, the blood, right?

The life.

He's giving this nourishment to you so that not only your life, but your life is coming from him constantly.

Not because you're a cannibal, literally eating Jesus and drinking his blood.

Obviously, there's rules about that kind of thing.

You're not supposed to do that.

Right?

So obviously that's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about the reality of finding your nourishment in Christ always.

He set us free onto everlasting life and we have that because we abide in him.

Verse 57, as a living father sent me and I live because of the father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me.

We see living, live, live, right?

Where is life?

Jesus, that light was the life of man.

Right from the beginning of this book of John, that life was the light of man.

And the light shines in the darkness.

The darkness could not overcome it.

Your life is in him.

He created you.

You are only breathing right this second because he's maintaining you in existence.

That's the reality.

Right now, it could all go away and he would be just to do it.

But it's him who gives you life.

Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, including your life.

This is why issues like abortion, this is why issues like euthanasia and things like that, why Christians get so worked up about this, because life is from God.

We do not take life from the innocent because it's from God.

Your life, the living Father lives.

Jesus, the living son.

And so we who feed on him will have life because of him.

This is the bread which came down from heaven.

Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead.

He who eats this bread will live forever.

These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

So he's at Capernaum, you remember, they come there.

Now he's teaching all these things in the synagogue.

Now, you can probably guess that

But that is a difficult sermon that he gave.

And people are like, whoa.

I mean, he's saying he's God.

He's saying everlasting life only comes through him.

He's saying that if you don't abide in him, you're dead.

He's made himself God and the savior of the world.

And they have to deal with that.

So we'll see how people react.

What happens when the teaching is difficult?

What happens when you don't get it and you have to trust the Lord completely?

Well, let's see.

Verse 60.

Therefore, many of disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying.

Who could understand it?

When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained or grumbled about this, he said to them, does this offend you?

Does this make you stumble?

This teaching that I've given, are you offended now?

Now here's a question to ask yourself.

How many of Jesus' teachings offend you?

How many of his teachings cause you to stumble?

The real teachings of Jesus Christ cause the world, the worldly, the unbeliever to stumble a lot.

They hate the truth.

That's why they make a false Jesus.

Jesus is my homeboy.

Jesus would never fill in the blank whatever thing they don't want to do or don't think you should do.

But when the real Jesus, the real Bible, when people have to actually engage with this, with the scripture, let it push up against them, they hate the teachings of Jesus.

So many of them cause them to stumble.

They don't want him to be king.

They don't want him to, they don't want to observe what he's commanded about their finances, about their relationships, about the love they're supposed to have for God and for their neighbor, about their sexuality, right?

Whatever it happens to be.

But their honesty, they don't want any of that.

It offends them.

It causes them to stumble.

So the question is for us, do we still have things that the scripture says that cause us to stumble, that offend us?

He tells us to be holy as he is holy.

He tells us we're not in charge.

He testifies that he is God and has all honor and power and authority.

Now the implied thing is that you then are not God and do not have all power and honor and authority because that belongs to him.

Are you offended?

Yeah, we are.

You can be like, no, I believe everything and I never had a problem.

No, we have a problem.

This is our sin problem.

We want to be in charge.

We want to do what we want to do.

That's the flesh fighting against the spirit.

We get offended.

Sometimes we will even make excuses for Jesus with people.

They'll be like, well, you guys believe X, Y, Z. And we go, well, it was a different time.

Or whatever we say, I don't know.

People make excuses for Jesus.

Don't make excuses for Jesus.

He can speak for himself.

He says what he says.

If it offends you, it offends you.

Things here, they offend me, they push up against me, and then they change and transform me.

It's got to start with the offense, and then it changes.

The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.

Right?

Dividing.

Transforming.

Jesus says this in verse 16.

What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before?

Remember, they're complaining.

He says, on the bread which came down from heaven, they're complaining, they're concerned, they're whatever.

So if he ascends to heaven, well, that would prove that he came down from heaven, right?

John 3, 12-13.

If I have told you earthly things, you do not believe.

How will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven.

He's told them that, right?

So he says, now, okay, you're having a hard time with this.

Do I need to ascend to heaven to prove it to you?

By the way, they will see that.

They will see him ascend to heaven.

After he rises from the dead, he does literally, physically ascend into heaven in front of them, proving back to this exact point.

I told you I came down from heaven.

Now I've died.

Now I've risen from the dead.

And now I'm ascending back to heaven.

Do you get it yet?

Have I proven it yet?

Further proof that Jesus is who he says he is.

Verse 63, it is a spirit who gives life.

The flesh profits nothing.

The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.

So now the clarification comes if they didn't get it before, which they should have.

I'm not talking to you about flesh.

I'm not talking to you about literally eating, drinking blood and eating people's bodies, eating my body.

This is spiritual reality.

It's spirit where your life is.

Your body is given life by your spirit.

It's what enlivens you, okay?

When you die, if you die in this physical body, you're not dead.

If you're in Christ, well, either way, you're not dead yet.

Judgment is coming and you're going one place or another.

But you're not dead.

You're still alive.

This body just is done until he gives you a new body.

Right?

Because the spirit is life.

And the words he's speaking are spirit.

They are life.

If you understand them and go, yes, Lord, you gave your body and your blood so that I could have life in you.

And I'm figuratively feeding on you.

by learning your word, by trusting you, by taking what you have for me, and I'm living through it.

And then we remember all that in communion.

That's what's going on.

We understand that.

It's a mystery.

It's powerful that we are constantly being enlivened by Christ.

The woman at the well, if you'll remember, he says, I'll give you living water.

And she goes, oh, give it to me so I don't have to keep coming back to this well.

Right?

Again, same thing.

So twice we've seen these metaphors, these symbols that Jesus is using.

He's saying, no, no, no.

If you drink from me, you'll never be thirsty.

You'll have eternal life.

And that's what it's like.

When we are, right now and for eternity, we are constantly receiving from Jesus life.

It's coming from him.

And the more that we abide in him, the more life we have, the more growth we have.

If you feel like you're fading, if you feel like your spiritual life is not healthy, you're probably not abiding in him.

analyze your life and figure out, hey, am I eating his flesh and drinking his blood?

Am I taking the fountain of living water?

Am I being nourished by the Lord?

Because I need to do that to be fruitful.

If I'm starting to see not fruitfulness, it's probably because I'm not abiding in him.

Something to be thinking about very seriously.

Jesus is offering real life, true life,

Not the life of your sinful, broken body.

That's going to be remade.

But the life of the Spirit.

Verse 64.

But there are some of you who do not believe.

He's talking to his disciples.

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him.

So this group of people, these are people who are following Jesus.

Now we know it's not just the 12, right?

There are other disciples who are following Jesus at this point.

but he has the 12, which are specifically his disciples.

And he said, therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it's been granted to him by my father.

From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

What happens?

I asked at the beginning, what happens when you're offended?

What happens when it's difficult, right?

Working out that first time, maybe.

Second time, I'm sore.

Don't want to show up.

Come to Jesus and say, man, I want forgiveness of sins.

I want to be in heaven.

I want whatever.

And then we go, okay, and now it's time to take the next step.

Now it's time to go from milk to solid food.

And we go, too much.

Maybe we don't walk away.

Actually, you can sort of interpret this as went to the back.

So those of you on the back row, no, I'm just kidding.

That's not what they're talking about.

You could just kind of fade away, right?

It's too hard.

It's too hard.

Then he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

That's what he said, right?

And they're struggling.

It says, then Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go away?

But Simon Peter answered him, and this is the answer that we should all give.

Whenever we can't understand, whenever it's difficult,

whenever we just have to trust without being able to see or understand, this is what we could all say.

Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

That is the answer.

Kind of like when Peter, the same guy, the end of this book, if we get there before the Lord comes back, the end of the book of John, he says, hey, is John gonna, because he tells Peter, you're gonna die.

He goes, is John going to stay and be alive until you return?

And he goes, what is that to you?

You follow me.

That's what he says to Peter.

And that's what he says to me too sometimes.

When I go, I don't understand that.

What about this?

What about that?

What is that to you?

You follow me.

Peter here says it just how it needs to be said.

Whom shall we go?

To whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?

Judas is who he's talking about.

Judas is scary.

He's going to betray him.

He chose them.

to be his disciples.

They have come to believe and to know that he is the Christ.

And so when it's hard and difficult, instead of grumbling and arguing and struggling and going away, they just go, I'm gonna trust you.

And that's where we have to be.

You're not gonna understand everything.

You're not gonna understand everything.

But you need to follow him.

It's gonna be hard sometimes, but you need to follow him.

I want to be serious with you.

I will tell you that there are times in following Christ where you do want to give up.

I'm not going to pretend like it's easy.

There are times when, I mean, if it wasn't for him giving me the strength literally moment by moment, it's too hard.

But here's the good news.

Matthew 11, 27 through 30.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him, which he's willed to reveal him to us.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle, I am meek,

and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Like the oxen on a yoke, we get to yoke ourselves to Christ.

He's doing all the pulling.

We trust him, we give it to him, and he does make what is impossible without him much, much, much easier.

In 1 Peter 5, 6, and 7, we read this.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you.

And he does.

I do want you to understand that it's hard.

I do want you to understand that these people who saw the miracle still walked away.

And you probably haven't seen 5,000 get fed by five loaves and two fishes.

Okay?

So I know it's hard.

But let me encourage you.

Come to him.

His yoke is easy.

His burden is light.

He cares for you.

And you can do it.

Do not walk away.

You are not alone.

That's why you have the body of Christ here.

Join a life group if you're not in one.

Have the people that are helping you walk through this.

If the Lord is drawing you, if the Father is drawing you to him, do not forget what I said, Romans 10, 9 through 10.

If you confess through your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the people the Father is drawing, please come to him and receive rest.

For the believer, if you're struggling, wanting milk and not solid food, stop.

If you're offended, stop grumbling, being offended.

Follow him wherever he teaches you to go.