Wanna Follow Jesus?

14th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/26/18
John 6:60-69


Wanna Follow Jesus?
I. Then know what he teaches.
II. Then confess what you believe.


Like it or not, we all have our expectations regarding almost every aspect of our lives. Permit just a couple examples.

You’re planning to take a trip. You make travel arrangements. You reserve a hotel. You purchase tickets to enjoy various forms of entertainment. You check the weather forecast for the location you’re planning to visit. You do some figuring in your head about your planned expenses. All of those are your expectations. But then reality occurs minute by minute as you take your trip as planned. Your airline flight was delayed, then cancelled. When you finally arrived, exhausted, in your hotel room, it had the unmistakable odor of dirty sweat socks. Traffic was a nightmare and you arrived 30 minutes late at the entertainment venue. And the trip’s budget? You blew through it in the first two days. None of it was as you expected.

Or, you’re about to begin a new employment situation. You had a good idea of what the position entailed. You looked forward to leaving behind some toxic situations at your former place of employment. And, for the first week or two, things went as expected, for the most part. But then, slowly, you began noticing things that didn’t thrill you, to say the least. The names of some of your fellow-employees had changed, but the same foul, cut-throat attitudes were beginning to emerge. Your employment honeymoon was over. Not what you expected.

One of the reasons you’re here this morning is that, I imagine, you consider yourself to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You would readily admit to anyone who asked that you’re a Christian. But what are your expectations as you do just that? What do you expect that life will be? What is the basis for your expectations? What you want? Or, what Jesus says? At times there’s a wide chasm between those two.

And that’s nothing new. Jesus dealt with it already during the days of his earthly ministry. It was the issue in front of him on this day as related to us in John’s Gospel. Crowds of people wanted to follow Jesus, but only so far, only if it met their own expectations. So Jesus used this opportunity to give them a spiritual reality check.

And he does the same for you and me this morning. You wanna follow Jesus? If so, then what does that mean? Let’s see as we listen to our Savior’s words.

Part I.

Are you a choosy person? Most of us are, at least to one degree or another. Rather than being expected to eat what’s placed in front of us, no matter what that is, we like the smorgasbord approach. We choose the food items we like in the portions that suit us, and we leave the rest behind. And that’s OK. In fact, in many cases that’s a healthy course of action.

But do you know people who take the same approach to their spiritual lives? Even in their Christian lives? You probably do. They choose to follow this teaching, but not that one. They’re OK with Jesus saying this, but not that.

That’s exactly what confronted Jesus as John informs us here at the close of John 6. Jesus had just finished delivering his discourse on the Bread of Life in which he encouraged sinful people to place their trust in him as the Son of God and their Savior from sin.

What you might not know without having the entire chapter in front of you, is that he spoke those words to two groups of very different people. The first group was those who were hostile to everything Jesus said and did. They were already of the mindset that Jesus could not be the promised Messiah. Instead, they viewed him as an imposter and a blasphemer.

The other group was far more gracious towards Jesus, but only to a point. This group of people wanted to follow Jesus. In fact, many of them had made their way around the Sea of Galilee to hear Jesus preach. I imagine quite a few of them had been on the receiving end of Jesus’ miracle of feeding 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. These were the people who wanted to take Jesus and make him their king—their Bread King—by force. Had Jesus accommodated their intentions for him, they would have followed him to the ends of the earth.

But listen again to what happened. “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’” The word translated “hard” here doesn’t mean “difficult,” as in difficult to understand. It means “objectionable or offensive.” So, what did this group of would-be followers of Jesus find so objectionable? Jesus had just told them that he was the Bread of Life that had come down from heaven. He insisted that believing this truth was necessary for eternal life. But that bread was more than they were willing to swallow.

Why? Why did they “choke” on this teaching? By and large these people were willing to admit that Jesus was a fabulous teacher or rabbi. They couldn’t deny that he had miraculous power. Some of their previous prophets—Moses, Elijah, and Elisha—had performed miracles, too. None of them claimed to be from heaven. But Jesus did, and the implications of that statement drove them away. You see, in claiming to have come from heaven, Jesus was claiming to be true God. You and I have no problem with that. In fact, we embrace that truth. But these people refused it. They refused because, if Jesus is God, then they had to listen to, accept, believe and follow everything Jesus taught. And that would mean a dramatic change in their lives. They would have to submit everything in their lives to Jesus. That was a choice they refused to make. They did not want to embrace the teachings of Jesus.

How about you? Wanna follow Jesus? Then know what Jesus teaches.

Less than a minute ago I stated, “We embrace the truth that Jesus is true God.” And in your heart you nodded in agreement with me. In fact, that truth is the very bedrock of the Christian faith. We’re thrilled to know and believe that Jesus is true God, to know what he teaches. Until it’s not comfortable or expedient. What do I mean? In 30 years of ministry, not a day goes by when I don’t hear, “What shouldn’t I? Wouldn’t this be the loving thing to do? I know that, but this seems better at the moment. I want to be happy and for others to like me, so this is what I think I’ll do.” And you know where those voices come from? Right in here. How about for you? Do you know what I’m saying? Truth is, we want the smorgasbord approach. “Jesus, I’ll have one of these and two of those, but I don’t like that over there. And this one here is too difficult to chew.” We decide to do what’s easy, what’s expedient, what will help us here and now. As true God, everything that Jesus said is the truth for us to hear, believe, accept and do. But we don’t. At times we even won’t. But Jesus always did. He always embraced the truth because he knows we don’t and can’t. That’s what his death on the cross was all about. He covered all our sins. And that’s the truth about Jesus we cling to by faith. Wanna follow Jesus? Then know what Jesus teaches.

Part II.

Life is full of defining moments. What defining moments have there been in your life? Education moments. Marriage moments. Decisive moments with your career.

Our text from John 6 describes a defining moment of epic proportions for 12 of these people in front of Jesus and for Christianity in general. Listen to it once again, “’You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’”

What Jesus was asking for was a confession of him. And that’s exactly what he received. And what a confession it was! Peter was spot on. First, he proclaimed that, in a world full of spiritual speakers, only Jesus speaks the words which give eternal life. The implication was that other spiritual words are empty hopes and dreams, lies and deceptions. But the words of Jesus are divine truth and they impart eternal life to those who believe them.

That first part of Peter’s confession flowed from the second. These disciples knew and believed that Jesus was the Son of God. That’s the truth the other group of Jewish disciples couldn’t and wouldn’t stomach. It’s still the truth our world refuses to acknowledge. In spite of all the testimony, in spite of all the miracles including his own resurrection from the dead, in spite of fulfilling every letter of biblical prophecy, the world refuses to swallow the truth that Jesus is true God. But by God’s grace you know and believe it. By God’s power and grace you confess it.

Wanna follow Jesus? Then confess what you believe.

Are you impressed with Peter’s confession of Jesus for the group of twelve? I hope so because it’s the only confession that saves the sinner from hell. But as great as it was, consider this: about 12 months later this confession would come from these same lips, “I don’t know the man.” Not once. Not twice. But three times. I mention that by way of showing just how difficult it is to confess Jesus consistently. I don’t think a single one of us would berate Peter for his failings. That’s because we’ve done the same. Maybe not in the same way, but how often have we given the impression that we don’t know Jesus by what we said or did? Once a month? Once a week? More times every day than we can count? And we wanna follow Jesus??

Indeed we do. Because we know that the words of Jesus give eternal life. They announce our forgiveness through his sufferings and death. He died for me. He died for you. And he rose again to assure us that he is true God and our victor over sin and hell. He gives us eternal life.

Wanna follow Jesus? We certainly do! Then let our daily prayer be, “Help me follow you today, Lord Jesus!” Amen.