John 6 - Albert Mohler

- Well, good morning. And thank you for that very gracious welcome. And I want to tell you, you encourage me. One of the great signs of God's favor in this generation is the emergence of and the reform of in some cases, the recovery of, the planting of gospel churches. And just to be with you this morning, to have been here last night, to sing with you, and just to see the warm, sweet, kind, firm, unwavering faith that is represented in this congregation, it just gives me great hope. It's wonderful to be here with Kyle and the team, and wonderful to be here with you, and it is our great privilege to turn together in God's word to John chapter six. So we're going to turn to John chapter six. I am glad to be here in Winston-Salem, and to be here with a vibrant congregation of Christians. We should never take for granted that we get to sing the kind of things that we have sung here today. It's a recovery of the celebration of the one true and living God, and the power of the gospel. And just to be able to sing together, we cry holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Isaiah six, of course. It's just a very, very sweet thing. But the Texas morning I want us to look to is, Isaiah six is John chapter six.

And as you are thinking about John chapter six, I want to remind you that you already remember a lot of this passage. And for the sake of time, we're not going to read together the opening passage here in John chapter six, which is about the feeding of the 5,000. And I can remember that from the time, just as a boy, little tiny thing. I heard the story of the feeding of the 5,000, and I can still remember the picture of the 12 bushelfools of food left over. And then you come to know the story better, and it's the crowd surrounding Jesus, and the crowd has been growing. The gospel of John helps us to understand that. And Jesus is before them, and they're listening to him teach there close to the sea of Galilee. And they're so massive in size, as you look at the crowd. And this is, they're unwilling to leave Jesus, they want to hear him speak. And there's a necessity to feed them. And you know the story will just summarize it by saying, Jesus took one little boy's meal of just a few loaves and a few fishes, and multiplied it such that everyone ate, and not only did everyone eat, but everyone was entirely filled, and not only were they filled,

but there were 12 bushelfools of food left over. Okay, let me just say, you don't have to be a specialist in Old Testament theology to see what is being done here. This is the sign that Jesus is the Messiah. This is exactly what the children of Israel were told to look for in a Messiah. It's going to be an age of super abundance. Super abundance is everybody eats, and everybody eats to the full, and there are still 12 bushelfools representing the 12 tribes of Israel left over. You know, you don't have to have a secret decoder ring to figure this out. But what's amazing to us is not that the crowd got it, but that so many didn't. Now, you'd like to think that if we were watching what took place there in this miracle, that's what a miracle is. A miracle is something that can't be explained by natural phenomena. It can't be explained by natural causes. Fish and loaves don't multiply themselves. This was the power of one, the only one who could, in his own power, multiply the loaves and the fishes the way that he did, such that they were such a super abundance. And that miracle is just close to it. John's word for miracle is signs.

And this will come up even in the passages we're going to read it. You know, these signs, well, they're signs. What are they pointing to? They're pointing to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, except this kind of miracle also points to something else. And we're not going to give ourselves credit for figuring this out, all right? It's because this is made clear later in the text. This miracle also reveals that Jesus is the creator of the world. Because as John begins his gospel, remember he says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God, all things were made through him, This is the divine logos through whom the Father created the cosmos. And so when Jesus took those fishes and those loaves and multiplied them, He made the fishes. He'd made the wheat. He is as the agent of creation, the divine logos. He is able to do this. And we can see this because we have the entirety of Scripture. It's clear the crowd didn't see it for what it was. The next day, Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee with His disciples. And there He performs another miracle. This one is walking on the water. And again, the message they were to get is, again, this is the divine logos who has created the world. This is the very Son of God through whom all of creation was made. And He is the Messiah, come to save His people from their sins.

All right, so we get to this passage which begins in verse 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. Other boats on Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 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. All right, so we're told here this is a crowd. It doesn't appear to be quite the same size as the crowd yesterday with the feeding of the 5000, but some who were there, many who were there, still described as a crowd, they wanted to find Jesus because they wanted to hear Him teach again, and evidently they wanted to see another miracle. So notice what happens. The text tells us here, beginning in verse 25. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" It's like, wow, this is a surprise. Funny how we just bump into each other again. Well, you already know that they went seeking Him. They went all the way across the Sea of Galilee just to get to Him. Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs as miracles, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 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 said is sealed." It's an amazing statement. Jesus says, "Look, you know, cut the nonsense. I know why you're here and I'm going to name it. You're not even here because you want to see a supernatural miracle. You're just here because you're hungry."

And so Jesus confronts them with the fact that they're not there by accident, and nor are they there because they're following Him in faith at this point. Notice what happens in verse 28. Then they said to Him, "What must we do to be doing the works of God?" In other words, all of biblical religion, as you might say in the Old Testament, what does that come down to, to work the works of Him who sent Me, Jesus said? And they said, "Well, what works are we supposed to do?" Jesus turns this back into faith. This is the work of God that you believe in Him, and He is sent. So they said to Him, "Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?" Jesus says, "This is the classic text in which we are saved by faith and not by works." They're saying, "What do we do? The works works of God." And Jesus says, "Well, the only thing you're really called to is to believe. It's faith." And He makes that very clear. And He goes back to the Word, "Believe that you believe in Him whom He has set." John 3, 16, just go a few chapters back, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, the whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." It's going to be crucial to keep that thought in mind. But it's clear they're looking for bread, they're looking for a miracle, and then they come back to Him, and this is so insolent. What sign do you do that we may see and believe you? These are the people who were there for the feeding of the 5,000 yesterday. And now they dare to say to Jesus, "What are you going to do to prove that your words are true?" Do you know people who demand a sign never see it when it comes? And by the way, if your faith is in signs, if you're looking for this kind of faith, then it's only going to be so good as evidently while you're experiencing, because the day later, All right, they also go on, by the way, to suggest what he should do.

They go back to the bread. Our father's ate the manna and the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave 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. They said to him, give us this bread always. 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. The gospel of John, the fourth gospel, includes several statements made by Jesus in which he says, I am. I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the light of the world, seven of those statements. And we know those statements, and they have the ring of the familiar to us, but we need to recognize what's going on here. Remember that in the Old Testament, when Moses is called, and remember how he was called, God called Moses from the bush that burned, but was not consumed, we call it the burning bush. And remember, he hears the voice of God coming from the burning bush, and he receives the commission to be the leader who will help indeed, will lead God's people from captivity to Pharaoh in Egypt into the land of promise, or to the land of promise.

But then Moses, at their turning point, in that call with the burning bush, he says, who shall I say, sip me? What shall I say is your name? And you remember how God answered him? God answered him by saying, my name is I am. I am that I am. It's an amazing thing. I need you to stick with me for a moment, but I've got to misuse the English language to make the point, okay? Only God am. All right, if you don't remember anything else, just remember from this first part of this passage. God says, I am, and nobody else am. Theologically, that means that you and I are contingent being. Contingent being means there was a time when we were not, and there will be a time when we are not. It means that we didn't create ourselves. It means we can't preserve ourselves. We can't hold ourselves together. We are contingent. God is uncreated. God simply am. And that's why he names himself, I am. He is the only, the only being who am. All the rest of us only exist because of him. We only breathe right now because of him. We only exist in a cosmos right now

because he made this cosmos. That's the theater of his glory. So when Jesus says, and you see this in the Gospel of John in particular, when Jesus describes himself and he says, I am. Nobody's gonna miss the point. Nobody hearing him would be unclear. He is saying, I am God. I am, that would be blasphemy. If it's not true, then here's the thing. God the Father am. God the Son am. I am. All right, so here he says, I am the bread of life. Now you think, okay, this is two days apart. So yesterday was the feeding of the 5,000, the multiplication of the loaves. Get it, get it, get it. Now this day he says, you come looking for bread. Well, I'm gonna tell you this. Here's the great, wonderful, infinitely powerful good news. I am the bread of life. I didn't come here to feed you yesterday. I came in order that you would feed on me forever and live forever. It's the most amazing thing. I think we've all had the experience of eating a meal and you said, I will never eat again. And you meant it when you said it, you weren't lying. As a matter of fact, if someone had brought you more to eat,

it would have been not a gift, but a curse. All right, and you just make a promise to yourself. I'm never gonna eat again. And you forget that when you're looking in the refrigerator three hours later. Okay, that's contingent being. That's just where we are. Jesus makes very clear, we are to feed on him. Jesus says, "You need to recognize there's a more basic hunger. That's the hunger to be right with the Father. It's the hunger that your sins would be forgiven. It's a hunger for everlasting life. I am the bread of life. He who feeds on me will live forever." Well, all right, so they got it, right? No, they don't get it. They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Well, that's what he's just done. 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. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe." Now, let's just be honest. We'd like to think that if we were in the position of those who were there, when Jesus performed this miracle that we would see it, we would understand it, we would draw the right truth from this unmistakable, unmissable truth. We would think that this is the Messiah, the very Son of God, but it's clear the crowd didn't get it. That's one of the most amazing things. The crowd is still a crowd, and the crowd even the next day wants to find Jesus, but they're not getting it. It's not because he's not telling them. I mean, nothing can be more explicit than what Jesus says right here. And he says it over and over again, "Listen to me clearly, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I have said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe." All right. What follows in this passage, let's just hear it. Beginning in verse 37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, 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. 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." So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven?'" Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." All right, here we have one of the most remarkable passages about how the gospel works, and it's really important because we're headed later in the text to another mind-bending truth, but we need not to rush over this. Maybe the best way to consider this is that there are two statements here, and we should see them as two necessary, absolutely eternally important principles. The first one is in verse 37. Notice this, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out." All, how many? All the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. The other principle mirrors it. It's found in verse 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." Verse 37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me." Verse 44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." Okay, it turns out to be a phenomenally beautiful picture of the gospel and how we come to faith in Christ. All right, the first, in verse 37, "All the Father gives me will come to me." All right, so let me ask you a question, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, how did you become a Christian? How did you become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? How did you come to hear the gospel and believe in him? It is because the Father gave you to his son. It's one of the most beautiful pictures, and it comes up again and again in the New Testament. Believers are those who are given to Christ by the Father. "All the Father gives me will come to me." And this is such a perfectly clear sentence. That means all means all. All the Father gives me will. He will never lose, for he loses none of his own. But the next principle is just as important, no one can come to me unless the Father draws him. That really helps us. That really helps us. Now, for one thing, I'm speaking to Christians, first of all. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a believer because the Father gave you to his own Son, okay? The second thing I just want to remind you of is that you had nothing to do with it. The Father gave you to the Son, and you could not even have responded in belief and faith in the Son if the Father hadn't

drawn you. So salvation comes down according to John chapter 6. Salvation comes down to the fact that the Father gives us to the Son, but none of us can come to the Son unless the Father draws us to the Son. And the ones the Father gives and draws, the Son saves to the uttermost. That's a new testament term. In other words, he keeps us, he can't lose us. All the Father gives me will come to me, and he later says, "I lose not one of them." I will never lose one of them. And that's the assurance that comes in the perseverance of believers. It's because of the faithfulness of Christ. We have the fact that the Father has given us to the Son, and we can't stop that. We can't fall away from that. Not if we are genuinely Christ. We are Christ. Because of the Father, we're Christ forever. That turns out to be really important. And as we shall see, it's going to come back up in this very passage. But at this point, Jesus is saying this to this massive crowd, "All the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, all by no means cast out. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him." Notice what comes next. Jesus speaks so bluntly. 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, not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God, he's seen the Father, speaking of himself there. Truly, truly, I say to you, "Hiver believes has eternal life." I am the bread of life. He says it again. I am the bread of life. Your Father's ate the manna and the wilderness, and they die. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. 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. Now, this is pointing to what we will know as substitutionary atonement. This is making very clear that Jesus dies on the cross in our place. We sing this. He will shed his blood and give his flesh for our salvation. And he will describe salvation as in this passage, eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And there were people who were repulsed by that. And Jesus said, "Well, if that repulses you, then you don't understand the gospel." Because that is the essence of the gospel. That's why when we have the Lord's Supper, when he was a congregation observed the Lord's Supper, and you have the cup and the bread, and it says, we are proclaiming the death of Christ and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ until he comes. Salvation means the Father has given us to the Son, and the Father draws us to the Son. We are kept by the power of the Son, and we are saved. Our sins are forgiven because of the

sacrifice of the Son, full atonement for sin. Okay, he said a second time, "I am the bread of life, just the summary in this." I am to get our attention. But then notice what happens in the text. Verse 52, "The Jews then disputed them on themselves, saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Ha, ha. The gospel is presented to them, and they don't like it.'" 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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living father "so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me." This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the Father's ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. Notice the repetition in this passage. Jesus three times will say, "I'm the bread of life. "He who feeds on me will live forever." And then repeatedly he has to say, "You're so concerned with bread that is to say physical bread, "which is the bread that you eat that's made out of wheat, "and then you dare to ask for a miracle. "You challenge me a miracle." And then when I tell you on the bread of life, you say, "What kind of evidence do you have?" Well, this is the evidence. By the way, yesterday was the evidence and the feeding of the 5,000, but that was evidence you could see and evidence you ate and you still didn't believe it. And they keep talking about manna and the wilderness,

and Jesus says, "You know who's the interesting thing "about the manna and the wilderness? "Your father's ate it and died." In other words, the manna and the wilderness kept them alive long enough to reach the land of promise, but the manna did not give them eternal life. The bread of life gives us eternal life, or to state it even more accurately, the father, through the son, through the bread of life, gives us the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins, the bread and the cup. Body and the blood together explain the sacrifice and substitution of Jesus on the cross, accomplishing our atonement with God. And you'll notice how Jesus is inviting people to believe. I'm the bread of life. He who believes in me will never die, and still they resist. Now, when you reach the end of that paragraph, when it says Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum, we're to have the sequence very much in our mind. Yesterday was about the feeding of the 5,000. Today you have some in the crowd who have gone to track and to seek after Jesus, and they went all the way around the lake and then acted like they were surprised when they found Jesus. And then they ask him for another miracle, and he points to the bread of life,

and they say, "Well, what authority do you say this?" It's just one form of confusion to another, and then it comes down to the end of these things after Jesus is three times said, "I'm the bread of life," after he has called them repeatedly to believe in him, after he's explained the gospel in terms of God giving us to Christ as a gift. Then John just helps us to know, well, that just comes to an end. Jesus said these things in the synagogue at Capernaum, and then the scene shifts, but the text doesn't end. This is where we are headed. The scene shifts look at verse 60. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying. "Who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? "Then what if you were to see the son of man ascending "to where he was before? "It is the spirit who gives life. "The flesh is no help at all." The words that I have spoken to your spirit in life, but there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning, who those were who do not believe, and who it was who would betray him. And he said, "This is why I told you, "this is why I told you that no one can come to me

"unless it is granted him by the Father." After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. King James, many of his disciples walked with him no more. Wow. I often think, I often hear. I don't just think they think this. I hear Christians say, "I wish I had been there." Wow. Better be careful. Who would you have been? Because many are now walking with Christ no more. They were drawn because of the power of Jesus' teaching. They were drawn because of the reports of his miracles. They were drawn in order to see this incredible miracle, the feeding of the 5,000 with the super abundance and the bushels left over. And now they come across Jesus because they seek after him and then they demand another sign. Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." He three times says this. He offers them the salvation. Jesus understands exactly how the gospel works. He is trying to teach his own. This is how the gospel works. How do you explain how the truth can be declared and the vast majority of people say that's sort of interesting and walk away? How can there be those who are like mildly invested and committed, but when difficulty comes, they walk away? And again, this is the parable of the sower and the soils right from the gospel of Matthew. Jesus has repeatedly in different ways told us this is what we should expect.

But all that to get to the next part of the passage. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12. So just keep in mind, like concentric circles, you've got this bigger group of those who call themselves as disciples, and that just means they're being taught by him. But inside that group in which many indeed most will fall away, you have the ones the Father has given him in particular, the 12th, and as you know, everything's now headed in the gospel of John towards the cross and toward the empty tomb. But at this point, you have the distinction between this larger crown and the disciples. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? Seriously, this isn't just a crowd. This isn't just to say the phenomenal believers who are following Jesus as he teaches synagogue by synagogue, setting by setting. These are the ones that Jesus called unto himself. These are his own. And Jesus says, are you leaving too? Do you also want to go away? Isn't that astounding? Again, I want to be honest, I'd rather, I think, by grace read of it than be there being asked this. What does the church say when Jesus asked, do you also want to go away? What does the believing church say? What do Christians say? When Jesus asked us, do you also want to go away? Notice how Peter answers and it is Peter. And Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and come to know that you are the holy one of God. Wow. Can you imagine Jesus asking you? Do you also want to go away? Because where I'm headed here is to say that's exactly what Jesus is always asking his church until he comes to claim his church. He's continually asking, do you also want to go away? What is the right, wonderful, faithful, Christian response? Is it, I would never fall away? Is it, no Jesus, we're with you? Well, do you notice the power of Peter's first response? Lord, we got nowhere else to go.

Okay, so far as I know, no one's put that into a major praise song. You know, hallelujah, we got nowhere else to go. You know, you know, we are out of options and we are down to this. Oh, we got Jesus. But you know, there's something that glorifies God in that. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let me look at you. We got nowhere else to go. We got nowhere else to go. It's Christ or nothing. It's Christ or hell. It's Christ or meaningless in the universe, meaninglessness that just adds to more meaninglessness. We got nowhere else to go without Jesus. We're just not saved. Without Jesus, we got no hope. And so even though I don't know that it's ever been made into a hymn or into a praise chorus, frankly, this is the first thing Peter says, and Peter here is being basically honored as he is in Matthew chapter 16 as the voice of faith. This doesn't sound quite like Matthew 16 that weren't the Christ, the Son of the Living God. But in this setting, so many people have walked away. [BLANK_AUDIO] Lord, to whom will we go? We got no one to go. We got no one to go to. We got nowhere else to go. And then notice that he continues. It's not just that we got nowhere to go, Lord, to whom shall we go. He also goes on and says, "You have the words of eternal life." Now, Jesus has just spoken some of those words. He just spoken some of those words by saying, "I am the bread of life. He who feeds on me will never hunger, and he who drinks my blood will never thirst."

The one who will not feed on me has no life in him at all. So the words that lead to eternal life, that's what Jesus has been talking about. How are we made right with God? How do we find our sins are forgiven? What must we do to work the works of God? This is what I was asked. And this is where Jesus says, "You don't work the works of God, I do." You're not going to earn your salvation. There's nothing you can do. All it is necessary. I will do. I am the bread of life. Peter says you have the words of eternal life. And then notice how he concludes. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. That's another way of putting the Messiah. Peter says, "Lord, we know who you are." And we got nowhere else to go. And there's another reason why Peter rightly says, "We got nowhere else to go." And that's because Jesus said, "The Father has given you to me, and all the Father gives me will come to me, and I will keep them forever." We got nowhere else to go. It's a beautiful picture of the gospel. And if you are a believer,

I pray that this will help settle in your heart, the reality of what it means, that God to his glory has given you for reasons that have nothing to do with who you are, but everything to do with his glory. It has nothing to do with the righteousness in you. It has everything to do with what will bring him greatest glory. He has given you to his son. And thus you are given the gift of eternal life, and your sins are forgiven. And you are incorporated into the body of Christ. Now, of course, the sign, the demonstration, that has happened is that you confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord. You believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. Salvation becomes manifest in the fact that the one who was not drawn to Christ is now drawn to Christ. And if you were not drawn to Christ, and you are now, or at some point, as you know in your own testimony, you were drawn to Christ, and you are being held by him now, it was nothing good in you that led you to be drawn to Christ. It's all by grace. But what grace it is. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ is Savior, I want to tell you, there is no salvation but by the bread of life. And the picture of the gospel in this passage

is that salvation comes to the one who feeds on Christ. Christ is the only Savior. Christ is the only sinless one. Christ is the one who died on the cross to pay the full penalty of our sin. God raised him on the third day, vindicating his accomplished atonement. Salvation comes, but how do you know salvation has come to you? It is because you know you are being drawn to Christ. It's because the Lord is appearing in your heart because the Father has given you to his son. All the Father gives me will come to me. And if you are experiencing that, which is the fact that increasingly you become to know the gravity of your sin. And then you are being drawn to the wondrous work of Christ. That's what salvation looks like. That's what becoming a Christian looks like. It looks like Peter saying we've had nowhere else to go. You have the words of eternal life. And beyond this, we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. This question, do you also want to go away? I want to tell you how it's being asked and how it's not being asked. It's not being asked as if those who have come to saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ will ever finally leave him. We're held by the power of God. We're kept by the grace of God.

of God. (coughing) It needs to be understood in the context of this passage because what's happened? Jesus is speaking of himself with clarity. He is describing himself, identifying himself as the bread of ice, and they're people who just don't want to hear it. They say literally in this passage, they say in verse 60, this is a hard saying who can listen to it. I want us to feel the power of that question in the year 2024 in Christchurch. We need to hear the question, do you also want to go away? And so I want to just change the scene a little bit and tell you, this is how I think this is shaking out. Even in a city like Winston-Salem, you drive by an awful lot of buildings that once had vibrant churches, congregations, and them, no more. And at some point, they departed the faith. They abandoned the faith once for all delivered to the saints. They gave themselves, maybe it was because they needed their, they thought they wanted an updated theology. You know what? Jesus slams the door on an updated theology. The New Testament describes the gospel as the faith once for all delivered to the saints. You know, the social pressure on Christianity

is not just not particularly new. The first great threat in terms of social pressure on the Christian church came from the Roman Empire. So it's right in the New Testament and you see it. You see it where Paul says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing your mind." This is where Jesus speaks of his own as the children of light in the midst of the children of darkness. But here's the thing, we've lost a lot of churches. We've lost a lot of seminaries. We've lost a lot of denominations. We've lost a lot, there were a lot of churches. Go to Europe and look at the empty giant church buildings and ask yourself, how did that happen? It's not because people held too tenaciously to the faith. It's because they just walked away. And sometimes they walked away fast. Sometimes they walked away slowly. You know, I just feel that in the year 2024 with a secularizing culture around us and quite frankly with some very ominous signs all around us. I mean, there are people losing their jobs simply because they can't walk away. We got nowhere else to go, brothers and sisters. There's only one gospel. This is God's word and errant and infallible.

This is God's gift to us, but you know what? We got nowhere else to go. In the moral teachings of Christianity and the definition of marriage in Christianity. In Genesis one, male and female created he/them. We got nowhere to go, brothers and sisters. And don't believe for a moment, it's not gonna cost us. And don't believe for a moment that it's not gonna be tricky trying to figure out exactly how we remain faithful in the midst of all of this. I don't know, it just seems to me that this is a very good time for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to hear Christ Himself ask, do you also want to go away? And I think it's a really, really good time for us to hear what Peter said, Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have come to know and to believe that you are the holy one of God. But you know what, brothers and sisters? It's not enough to know what Peter said. What's demanded of us is that we say it. Lord, we got nowhere else to go and we're not trying to go anywhere else. We're with you. And by the way, we're with you because it's not of anything good in us, but because the Father gave us to you. And Father, to the praise of your name, those you've given to the Son,

the Son will keep safe and secure forever. But you know, we are left in this world for a reason, for God's glory, for the preaching of the gospel, for the raising of Godly children, for the shining of light in the midst of darkness until Jesus comes, we're left here for a reason. As Christ's faithful Church, let's hear that question. Let's never stop hearing that question. Do you also want to go away? And let's never stop with great joy in everlasting thankfulness saying, Let's pray. Father, we are just so thankful for all you've given us in your word. Father, thank you for helping us buy the scriptures to go to that moment when Jesus said, do you also want to go away? And Father, we pray that you will give your church the faith of our brother Peter and the candor and the humility and the joy. Lord, we are nowhere to go and we're going nowhere else. May it be to the praise of your everlasting name. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]