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Hey, uh, just so you guys know, this morning, um, last week we prayed for, um. I keep calling them baby Ethan. He is a baby. But, um, the Pennington family, they were here. They came down for Easter. Their child had a surgery up in children’s primary. Complications in that. And the kid had to go to the PICU and was, um, in a medically induced coma for a whole week. And the doctors were concerned that they would not be able to get the kid off the respirator. It was a pretty, precarious situation. Didn’t give all the details out. We didn’t want to make the family worried, but it was a little bit touch and go for a little while for the child. Anyway, we prayed for him last week here right after the service and the family went up to the hospital right after church and for the first time when they got there, the kid’s eyes were open and he was alert. So thank you guys for praying for that family there. Very much appreciated it. And within a couple of days, they had released him from the hospital. And now they’re back up in Idaho. And Lord willing, that family wants to come down and join our church family. It’s great when you pray for someone and then something miraculous happens like that. And and then they get to come and join us afterwards, right? It’s like we just draw them in like magnets.
Once you come in, you cannot escape. It’s just so you give God a hand for that. That’s that’s that’s what I want to happen when I pray. Um, pray for myself. Right. I’m still waiting on that Mercedes. Yeah. Well, we’ve been studying a series right around the time of Easter. We’ve just been specifically focusing on Jesus, his nature, and our desire to follow him as people. And one of the interesting things about Jesus was he was extreme. It’s as if he’s trying to speak to a religious world and wake them up of their need for God in their lives. Jesus made such crazy, extreme statements as love your enemies and even pray for your enemies. I won’t even ask because most of us don’t even pray for our friends, let alone our enemies. But Jesus tells us to pray for them. In fact, Jesus goes on to say, if if someone comes to you a stranger, and asks for your coat, don’t just give him your coat, give them your shirt also. Go for a tan that day, I guess. Jesus was asked, how many times should we forgive? And his response was 70 times seven. Meaning every time someone offends you, forgive. He told us his people to make sure this is very important, timely for this point of year. But pay your taxes. Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. How about this one? If your eye causes you to sin, pull it out.
And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Come back next week with both hands and both eyes, okay? I think sometimes we try to read the extreme statements of Jesus and attempt to dumb it down. But Jesus’s teaching style was a confrontational, in-your-face. Understand me for who I am. Let me make this extreme statement in order to wake you up. That way, you can begin to understand the significance of who I am as a person. In fact, you know, I think that these statements are so extreme that Jesus made that attests to the validity that Christ actually made them. You can’t make this kind of thing up, especially if you’re trying to start a spiritual movement in this world. Think about it. If you wanted to start a movement, would you start by telling people you need to pay your taxes? We say revolt against the government and let’s go beat up our enemies together, right? That would start a movement. Remember the the Wall Street, uh, Occupy Wall Street movement? How quickly that gained momentum around the world. Most of it were college students being paid by their parents to do what they were doing by corporate America. But but nonetheless, it was a movement that gained momentum because it was against something in which people could jump on and join along. Jesus was one who desired to wake us up from his shocking statements.
If you got a Bible with you this morning, I’m going to encourage you to turn to John chapter six, because we’re going to look at one such statement in our idea of who Christ is as we desire to follow him. If you want, you can grab a Bible from the front of your seat before you. It’s on page 75 and the Bibles that we have in our pews, and you can follow along. But let me set the backdrop to John chapter six. In the first 15 verses of John six, we have Jesus feeding 5000 people. And we know the way that he did that was miraculous. But we take apart the miraculous for just a moment and think about this. Jesus fed 5000 people. Even if you had enough food to feed 5000 people, how amazing would it be just to perform the miracle of feeding 5000 people? You ever watch the family around Thanksgiving? Mom’s in charge of that. How frantic does she get as the hour draws near to the time when everyone is supposed to eat and nothing is ready, and we’re talking a dinner party for 20. Jesus fed 5000 people. And. And what adds to the miracle of Jesus doing this is that we’re talking about a time in life when there was no refrigeration. Feeding people and food was a big deal. You think about cooking. It didn’t happen in your Maytag oven. It took place over a fire.
I think in the history of the world, never before other than in stories that account for in Scripture will you ever find a group of 5000 people being fed at one time? Because it takes a miracle of God at the time period in which it existed to do so? Jesus, after feeding the 5000 people, he crosses over to the of the of the Sea of Galilee into the town of Capernaum. It tells us at this point in his ministry it had reached an all time high, and people are just pursuing Jesus like crazy. You think about this food is a big deal. You would wake up in the day and you would think consciously how you’re going to get dinner ready, because there was no easy to bake all ready made. Just throw it in the oven, heat it up. Stouffer’s lasagna. Right? I mean, you had to cut the green bean, process the green bean, and then cook the green bean. There was a lot involved with this. And this group of people saw Jesus come up. He has no problem at all feeding 5000. They’re thinking, let’s just keep telling this guy, hey, Jesus, you forgot dessert. What about that? Jesus tells us in verse 26 that when he gets to the other side of the town of, into Capernaum, he talks to the people and said, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
Jesus poses an interesting question for the people here, leading to an interesting question, I should say. What’s your heart motive? And following after Jesus. Why do you think I’m so significant? When I was younger and I started my spiritual journey, sometimes I pictured church like I had to come to church in order that God would maybe be happy with me. Um, sometimes I came to church because it made me feel good inside, like I did a great deed that day, as if that’s just what good people do. And Jesus kind of poses the same question. They’ve been having church on hillsides and masses have been following him, and he looks at the group of people who realized they have just been fed. It says in verse 15 that after that feast, they literally wanted to make him king. Feed the people and you become king, right In verse 26, Jesus just simply wants to discover their heart motive. Why are you following me? It’s because you think that you get something from doing that. And what is my value to you? It goes on and says in verse 27, do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him the father God has set his seal. And Jesus is saying to them, I fed you.
Big deal, big deal. You got food. It just filled your bellies for a little while. But let me tell you what I have to offer. It’s much more in this life than just filling your bellies, than just temporarily satisfying yourself or making you feel good because you came to church and they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. Saying, Jesus is telling the people that he has this food to give them that can satisfy much more than the food that they just ate. Like as if there’s this meal they can eat and it’s going to fill them up for the rest of their lives. And they say to him, okay, magic man, bring it on. And Jesus response comes to him in verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Extreme statements are about to take place from Jesus’s mouth, and all of a sudden these people begin to realize. This man’s got some crazy talk right here. Jesus refers to himself as this bread, first of all. Not a food substance that’s going to satisfy our soul, not spiritually. An act in which we can do. But it’s you yourself, Jesus, that satisfies our soul.
How in the world, Jesus, are we going to put you in us when you’re standing before us? It says in verse 38, he. He then blows their minds when he says to them, I’ve come down out of heaven. Never had a Jewish mind conceived of anything like this. According to the Jewish mind, we were born on earth, and when we died, we would go somewhere for the rest of eternity. And Jesus is sharing with the people that that my home existed before this place. I’ve come down out of heaven and this blows the mind of the people. And Jesus does begin to understand and teach these people how he alone can satisfy their soul. But the Jews didn’t understand. The disciples began to grow skeptical. My disciples, we don’t simply just mean the 12. We mean all who were following Jesus. At this point. Disciple is a follower says, therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. They were saying, is not this the Jesus, the Son of Joseph? We know this guy whose father and mother we know who who does. How does he say, I have come down out of heaven? The point that he wants to draw for these disciples who are following him is that Jesus’s desire for our lives is to give us so much more than a temporary fix.
God’s desire for us is to offer eternal solutions, and Jesus has made this statement to these people about the appropriateness of who he is in their lives. And here they are with a lack of understanding. It’s time for the shocking statement. He looks at the group and says, you know what? You aren’t. You aren’t getting this. You aren’t understanding. And as I’m communicating to to you the significance of who I am in your life, it’s not about just coming to church. It’s not about just a good deed. It’s about him. And Jesus says to them, truly, truly, this means listen up. This is like the Amen. You know, sometimes we pray and we say Amen at the end of our prayers, which means let it. It means let it be. So if you didn’t ever know that, let it be so. This prayer that I just prayed, let it be so. Jesus is saying to these people, listen, I’m about to tell you something, and it’s it’s way true. All right. You got that? I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. You didn’t know today that you’re going to come to church and get a verse for Twilight fans, right? This is the vampire verse of the Bible. Jesus is saying, eat my flesh and drink my blood. You have no life in yourselves.
He eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. You guys may laugh about that vampire thing, but I know some of you are going to use it and I will raise him up on the last day. This is like spooky verse. Jesus is saying, listen, the importance of me is I’m going to give you eternal life. This is not just a duration of life, of living forever. It’s also a quality of life. When Jesus gives you eternal life, it starts the moment that you trust in him. You’ll live for all of eternity in relationship with him. He’s saying, you need to eat me. You need to drink me because I’m about to give you this life that will last forever. And it will be this quality of life that you’ll enjoy. It says, I will raise him up on the last day. As your body dies, Jesus will bring it life. In verse 55, for my flesh is true, true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. And Jesus, in his last statement in verse 55, points out to us his goal that we abide in him and he abides in us. So the reason we come to worship on a Sunday isn’t so that we make God feel happy that he has us as his wonderful followers, right? The reason that we come is that we know that our soul needs satisfied with Christ alone.
We do me a favor. We pop the air down. Lower air conditioner turned down. Sorry. Jesus alone satisfies the soul. And we come here as a part of his community because our desire is to yearn and seek his face above and beyond anything else. As Jesus spoke in hyperbole here, we don’t literally eat and drink the blood of Christ, but what our desire is, is to pursue him in such a way that we want to be that close to God. And I like the disciples, good old disciples. They always give us the wonderful things to say. I like how they say the dumb things before we have opportunity to say it. That way we don’t ever have to worry about making those statements because someone else did. And they say in verse 60, they give the understatement of the year. Therefore many of his disciples went and they said they heard this as a difficult statement and said, who can listen to it? Hmm. This is challenging. It means it means who can accept it or who can follow it. In the Greek in verse 61, it goes and says, But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this and said to them, does this cause you to stumble? And as a result, it tells us many of his disciples withdrew. Were not walking with him anymore. Passage of Scripture reveals to us what the desires of their hearts were.
And I could imagine if you were one of the 12 disciples sitting with Jesus in this moment, how you could perceive what’s taking place. Jesus makes his statement. The crowd gets a little bothered, flustered by it, not understanding what it means. The crowd was significant to Jesus’s followers. Understand at this point in Jesus’s ministry, the Pharisees hate him, but the people love him. And the crowd sort of works as a buffer between the Pharisees and Jesus. And as long as they persuade the masses that the group of the disciples, the 12 that are following Jesus and Jesus himself, is going to be protected from any harm that could come their way. But the moment they lose the crowd, their life is in danger. You can imagine if you’re one of the disciples and you’re starting to listen to Jesus and you’re going, oh, no, he’s he’s making one of those wild statements again. It’s like as if you want to just call a timeout. Hold on a second. Crowd. All these people follow us. Let’s huddle together. You get all the disciples and you huddle together. You be like, Jesus. Listen, I want you to tell one of those stories that make him feel happy. Pray for them. Talk to them about forgiveness. Share one of those stories they don’t even understand. But whatever you’re saying, don’t. Don’t continue with it. It tells us in verse 66, because Jesus makes this outlandish statement about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, that the magnitude of his ministry never reached that pinnacle again.
In fact, as Jesus went through on the rest of his life, he would never have that number of people following him to the point that he goes to the cross and even the father turns his back on Christ. This was a pinnacle moment for Christ, but it revealed something about the people who were following Jesus that when the going got tough, they weren’t interested in following Christ anymore. Jesus makes an interesting statement after he sees the magnitude of the people that walk away. He looks at Peter and asks him a question. He says, so he said to the 12, you don’t. You don’t want to go away also, do you? Can think in a moment picturing this idea of feeding 5000 thousands upon thousands of people following you. You make a crazy statement at the. For the moment, you felt like a rock star. You could imagine these disciples looking at Jesus thinking, yeah, we’re famous. Thousands of people everywhere. Who cares? 10,000. Jesus can feed him. Let’s do this. And all of a sudden, Jesus makes one statement. Everyone turns their back and walks away. And you watch the crowd go. Friends, family. All of a sudden following Jesus isn’t so cool anymore. Jesus turns to the 12 disciples and he asks them the question.
This is like a I got you moment. This is like revealing your heart and speaking to the the people that Jesus was closest with. And Simon Peter answered him. It’s as if he perceives in his own heart everything that Jesus has taught them, everything that Jesus has been to them up to this point. And he responds in verse 68, Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Amen. To be honest and just say, when it comes to following Jesus, it’s not always easy and it’s not always convenient. But the reason I follow Jesus, the reason that we should follow Jesus, isn’t because of what we get from him. It’s because he’s worth it. Amen. John 16 and verse 33 tells us Jesus was open about it. You were going to have tribulation in this world. Even his own followers didn’t even understand him. And he reminds us that in this world, it’s never going to be easy. But in 1633 he also tells us that. But it’s okay because I have overcome the world. It may not play out with us for a little while in our pursuit of Jesus. It may not always be convenient, but in the end you win. And what’s this all about? Why do we exist in this world? Why are we here? Jesus said in this passage that he would abide in us and that we would abide in him.
Life is all about that relationship with Jesus. Experiencing that eternal, eternal life that he offers for us. I liken John if we were to stay in the book of John in chapter 21 tells a story of the life of Peter, who just made this confession about Jesus. It was after the crucifixion had taken place, after Jesus’s resurrection had taken place. Peter had just given up. He watched Jesus die. Remember that Peter had denied Jesus three times. He was ashamed to say he was a Jesus follower, and he just lived in guilt because of that. And he walked away and said, forget it, I’m going fishing. In John chapter 21, it tells us after Jesus’s resurrection, Jesus showed up on the shore of Peter before the the Sea of Galilee as he was out on a boat fishing, and Peter saw that it was Jesus. And he jumps out of his boat, and he swims to shore, and he and he runs up to Jesus. He’s so excited to see him again. And Jesus starts by asking him a question and their conversation. Since after Peter had denied Jesus while he hung on the cross, he comes back to him and says, Peter, do you love me more than these? Jesus asked the question three times, as if Peter had denied Jesus three times a few days before.
Now Jesus is asking him that that pointed question three times. Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? I love the way Jesus phrases it because he actually says, Peter, do you love me more than these? I think in that moment he’s referring to the fish that Peter is catching in the Sea of Galilee. Peter had left Jesus to go back fishing. And I think what Jesus is attempting to do by asking Peter, if you love me more than these, is that he’s trying to get Peter to recall a time when Peter left the fishing industry to follow after Jesus. He sang to Peter. Peter, do you remember that time when you had no idea who I was? You just knew the Messiah was coming? I walked along the shores and I said, follow me. And you gave up everything to love me and to pursue me. And Peter, sitting in that moment. And Jesus is recalling one more time, Peter, do you love me? It’s as if somewhere along the way, Peter had lost track of what life with Jesus was all about. And he looks at Peter and says, do you see? Once again, you’ve left me for these things in this world that you’ve come to place before me. But, Peter, I’m asking you one more time. Do you love me more than these? Jesus makes an outlandish statement to us in this passage of Scripture.
Interested in one idea for us as people? Why do you follow Jesus? Is it because you think that you get something from him, or because you realize that he is worth it? As Peter says, he stopped in the moment. He examined all the other things in life that he could pursue in verse 68. And he stood there and he thought, man, everyone’s leaving. What in the world am I going to do? This is going to be inconvenient. The Pharisees hate him. They could kill him. They could take our lives as well. But man, Jesus, he’s worth it. Amen. Because Jesus has the words of eternal life. I like the way Jesus said it in John six, in verse 28. The crowd said to him, what shall we do so that we may work the works of God in this passage of Scripture? God, what? What is it so important? What religious deed can we do today to make you happy with us or satisfied with us? And Jesus says this. He answered them, this is the work of God, not religion at all. But you believe in him who he has sent, that the passion of your heart. Just be focused on Jesus. Jesus is always the answer. I guess if we left with one idea today of what this whole sermon was about, we could say it in two words um, eat Jesus.
Matter of fact, if you’re here for an Alpine Bible Church for any amount of time, that’s the theme of our church, Eat Jesus. We have two focuses that we like to think about when we look at Christ, and the significance of our life here at church. The first is this. This cries out throughout all of Scripture. I just selected some and pulled it, pulled it out and put it on here for us to look at together. But as Jesus tells us to eat him in this passage of Scripture, the disciples continue to say the same thing throughout the rest of the Bible. You ask the question, why am I here on earth? The answer to that question is simple it’s a relationship with Jesus. Life is all about relationships, and it starts with your relationship with God. And the theme of that idea is carried throughout the rest of the Bible. It says in first John 512, we see we’ve seen this quite a bit in the last few weeks. He who has the son has life. You get life by eating Jesus. Romans 829 tells us he has also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Meaning God’s goal for us is as we eat Jesus is to look like Jesus. You know, you’ve heard the phrase you are what you eat, right? Consumed by Jesus and now reflect Jesus. Galatians 220 Paul cries out, I have been crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live, but Christ lives within me.
Paul eight Jesus, it says, Christ is in me, right? Philippians 310 I like this how Paul says this, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Paul’s statement stating the desire of his heart in this passage of Scripture, and it says that I may know him. Paul, what is your goal in life? I just want to know Jesus. It’s more than just an intellectual knowledge that he’s talking about here. It’s an intimacy. It’s an experiential lifestyle of living your life in light of everything that Jesus is in this world. I like these last two phrases, these last two verses. I got to tell you this week as I was studying the sermon, my mind was exploding throughout the Bible. I was trying to put this all this down on paper and it was hard for me to get because this theme is throughout all of Scripture and it’s the focus of us as a church. It’s the desire of our hearts. It’s what we want to be about as a community here, he says in John 17 three. This is eternal life, and this is what life is going to be about as you live forever. This is eternal life that you may know him. Living forever is about being in the presence of Jesus and enjoying his company. And I got to tell you, this verse for me has continued to work miracles in my heart.
Because here’s what happens as a pastor or someone who just desires to do ministry, is that you tend to make the focus about ministry and you forget it’s about Jesus. You know what happens to a Christian when that starts to take place? They get burned out because they’ve taken the focus away from the joy of Jesus and just loving him. They can’t. They don’t. They don’t even like going to church anymore. The moment that we lose perspective of what living forever is all about is the moment we’re robbed of our joy and experience our relationship with Jesus. This is a good verse for us to stop and in our hearts. Just ponder and pause for just a moment. I tell you, as a church family, when the weather starts to warm up. It’s warm here today. I’m not sure why the air conditioner is not working the way it should apologize for that. Um, but as the weather starts to warm up, we do a tremendous amount of outreach all summer long. I mean, it’s like states now look at each other in May and we say, see you in August. It runs that that high, high pace. But I remember every year when we get to this point of ministry and it warms up outside, that I just need to pause and let this verse seep into my heart, my life, what I’m about as a person.
It’s about experiencing that relationship with Jesus. Eternal life is about knowing him. I come to church when we practice till 10 or 11 at night for music on Wednesdays. Not because I like to be here that late, but to remind myself because it’s about him. We go out, we set booths up all summer long in different parks throughout the northern Utah county. It’s because we desire to know him and for others to know him. And Jesus said in Mark chapter 12 and verse 30, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You see Jesus answering the question, God, what is the greatest commandment we can do? And Jesus says, through all this area of us as individuals, loving with everything that we are, take all that you are and pour it into Jesus. Love him with everything that you are, everything that you’ve got, everything that you’ve been given up I love as a church. We’ve got those books out front, the know and grow. To me, that gets me excited. Not that we even have to use them. I just get excited that they’re there. Here’s why. It’s because it gives us the opportunity as people to take those books and say, you know what, I love Jesus. I want to be a part of what Jesus is doing, and I want to encourage other people as well to do it.
And anybody can just take one walk out, meet with somebody for some coffee or whatever it is that you drink, and just discuss Christ and His beauty in our lives. God tells us, church if if we forgotten. Because if we’re not pursuing with the right reasons, if we’re just going through the motions, what God wants to do is speak to your heart. And the response from that is that Jesus begins to change your life. This is why Jesus said, after he told us the greatest commandment in the world, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and mind, he gives the next response. The second is this you shall love the neighbor. Your neighbor as yourself. God isn’t just interested what and what he wants to do in your world. He’s interested in what he wants to do in and through you in this world. See, God didn’t just come to this world to save you so that you could be selfish in your relationship with him. God came in this world to work into your heart. That way you may go out and to make disciples. Can I get you to think for a minute outside the walls of the church and say, it’s great that we do ministry in the church. We need to do things in ministering to the body of Christ.
But if you were to pick up the Bible today and begin to read it through beginning to end, you would understand that what God has called you into this world is a mission. God’s got a plan and a purpose for our lives to be lived out wherever we go. We have the tendency of people to kind of view God as a as a private God and the rest of our lives as a, as a public life. You know what I mean? Do you believe in Jesus as Lord? Yeah, I just I believe in Jesus as Lord. But that’s just my opinion. You’re entitled to whatever you want, which people are entitled to, whatever you want. But that gives a perspective. You know, I believe he is Lord, but that’s okay with me. But if it doesn’t work for you, that’s okay with you. I’ll just continue with what I believe and I’ll keep this a part of my private life. But then there’s a public part of my life that I want to introduce everyone else to, and Jesus will just keep in the closet. But what Jesus has called us to is to live in mission. And as we love him with all our hearts, he begins to change our lives from the inside out. And we don’t live our lives so that God loves us. We live our lives because God loves us.
And so it says in Matthew 14, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Ephesians 210 for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. This is given the idea that Jesus comes into your world and saves you. He transforms you from the inside out. He renews you in his spirit. And it says, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. I like how Jesus says this in John 15. This is another Jesus verse. I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him. He bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do what? You know we get burnt out in serving Jesus. It’s because we’re not allowing Christ the time to speak to our hearts, and we’ve lost perspective of who he is and giving him rightful position. And the reason that we do the things that we do. It says when Jesus isn’t abiding in us, we can do nothing. I mean, the reason I likely feel burnt out is because I’ve lost perspective, and I really am now feeling like I’m doing it on my strength rather than Christ’s. And I’m really doing it because I feel like I have to, rather than because Jesus loves me and I’m just enjoying his presence. Jesus came before his disciples and asked them the simple question. That’s why in the world are you following me? Where is your heart and who I am? Just stop and ask this morning.
This is an important part for us to pause in as people, because of the idea of the summer ministry and outreach that we’re about to engage in. Booths. Vacation Bible Schools, discipleship camps all summer long provides an opportunity for us to get burnt out. What’s significant for us to recognize is that what God created us for in this world is relationships more than anything, what God wants for you is you to experience the joy of knowing him. And from that joy in knowing him, let it pour forth into this world. And if you’re feeling dry right now, the response is just simply spend time with Jesus. Don’t worry about what you have to do or what you need to get done. Just recognize that eternal life is about knowing him. Someone comes up this summer and asked you, what’s your church about? You can say to them, it’s about relationships. We’re all about relationships. And the first is this. This is eternal life, that you may know him. And as crazy as this sounds, it’s biblical. You need to eat Jesus. And so the question we ask is, Does Jesus have your heart? And is it evident by your life? Jesus shared this entire message with one simple point for us, and that is that we simply focus on consuming him as he’s made himself available to us.