THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
Good morning, Life Fellowship. I want to thank you for your gracious prayers for
me last week as I shared with you that I was breaking a twenty day fast. I had hoped to
keep going for forty days, but unfortunately because of some health conditions that came
up in the midst of it, I had to break it after twenty days. So it was a sad week for me from
that standpoint because I had so desired to continue on. I bumped into someone who told
me today that they are going on a forty day fast, and I told them I was praising God for
them, but that I was also jealous. I just wanted to know the Lord more. But now I am
once again enjoying my food.
I talked to some people after church last week, and told them that our guests either
thought that I loved this place or that I was crazy. And sure enough I heard that one
statement was made that I was a little bit insane. He thought it was weird that anyone
would fast for twenty days. But I will tell you why. I fast so that I can starve my flesh to
spend more time with God. And so for twenty days, three times a day instead of eating
food I was spending time in prayer and in the Bible. That is what God gave me the
privilege to do. And had His grace allowed my physical health to be good, I would have
gladly gone twenty more days.
I was so blessed last week at a meeting when my dad stood up before a bunch of
leaders and asked them to finish my forty day fast. He asked ten people to commit to two
days each. And ten people signed up for two days each so for the next twenty days,
people will be fasting and praying. And this morning someone felt called to start a forty
day fast. So I am very grateful that you are taking the Lord seriously at Life Fellowship.
Fasting is a very important part of the spiritual life. It is a way we die to ourselves. It is a
way we give up what our flesh desires so that our spirits can experience what we need the
most, and that is God.
Please turn in your Bibles to John Chapter 6. The title of my message is ‘The
Response.’ And what I am referring to is the response to Jesus’ message from the
synagogue in Capernaum. Jesus laid out a sermon that took me three weeks to unpack.
And now what we are going to look at today is how the disciples responded to His
sermon.
How do we respond when we listen to messages? Every sermon you hear is an
opportunity to respond to Jesus. In fact at the end of the message today, you will respond
to Jesus. You will respond by following what His word says, or you will respond by not
responding, you will respond by rejecting His words. And in today’s passage you are
going to see pseudo disciples who respond by basically ditching Jesus. They reject His
words. And you will see authentic disciples who embrace Jesus’ words, who welcome
His words. So today you have an opportunity to respond. And that’s why we come to
church. We don’t just show up at church for the sake of showing up at church. We
Page 1 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
come to respond. That’s why we have a worship time on the back of my message. Why?
So that we can respond in worship to what God did in our hearts during the sermon.
And so Jesus lays out a message in Capernaum. And we know in His message
from the synagogue that this was a very clear, articulate message of what the gospel was.
But they scratched their heads and thought cannibalism? “If anyone would eat of my
flesh, you will live forever,” Jesus said. “I am the bread that has come down from
Heaven. Eat of me and you will live forever.” And what Jesus was trying to say was we
need to find our ultimate nourishment, our ultimate satisfaction in Him. What He was
trying to teach them was they should have no others, but that He should be their ultimate.
And these people were coming to Jesus to use Him. They were using Him for
miracles in their lives, and they were using Him because He fed them food. And they
were thinking this was great. As long as He will feed me fish and bread, I will stick
around. And what happens when Jesus clearly unpacks the gospel? We are going to see
today in our passage in John Chapter 6.
And by the way, at last we will get through John Chapter 6. It is going to happen.
As Charles Spurgeon once said, “By perseverance, the snail reached the ark.” So I know
it has taken a few months, but we are going to get through chapter 6. There has been
lots of meat in here. And I hope by the end of today’s message you will respond by
wanting to walk more closely with Jesus.
Verse 60, “When many of His disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard thing.
Who can listen to it?” Now which disciples is He talking about here? John is talking
about the false disciples in this context, the pseudo disciples. And what happened was
Jesus laid out His message, and some of the false disciples got together and they started
talking about the message. And they began saying that this message was a hard thing.
They thought they couldn’t retain this message. And so they were saying, “This is a
hard thing.”
What do we mean by a hard saying? It comes from the Greek word sclerosis.
The word hard is not talking about hard like in a hard surface. Nor is it talking about
hard as in hard to understand. It is talking about hard from the standpoint of harsh or
offensive. And so when Jesus spoke to them from Capernaum in the synagogue, they
pulled away and they thought this was a harsh sermon they had just heard. This is an
offensive sermon we have just listened to.
They wanted gospel light. They wanted their ears tickled. They wanted the
cookies down on their own shelf. But Jesus is not interested in scratching their backs.
He is interested in calling them to the purpose for which they were created. And so it
was a hard saying. It was harsh. It was offensive. But what was offensive? I mean it
didn’t seem like a hard message, did it? All they had to do was believe. Right?
Page 2 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
As Augustine said, “Crede et manducast; believe, and thou hast eaten.” That’s
all they had to do was believe and they would have eaten of His flesh. They would have
eaten of His sacrifice. In other words, Jesus was saying that He had to die for them. He
was telling them to believe on His sacrifice and they would live forever.
So when He said to them that all they had to do was believe, why was it harsh?
Why was it offensive? It was because of the reason that Jesus had to die. Religious
people are self-righteous. Religious people think that they have something to offer to
God, but Jesus wanted them to realize that they were shot through with sin, that they were
so completely corrupt that He had to die on their behalf, that He had to be a sacrifice on
their behalf. So He was saying as He foreshadowed, “the word that became flesh,” was
going to die.
And what He is saying was He was going to die because of sin. He was letting
them know that they were sinful. And they didn’t like that message and they found it
offensive. You mean to tell me that I need a Savior. You mean to tell me that you are
going to die and I have to eat your flesh to get right. Jesus was offering them a new and
radical identity, a true sense of self. And Pharisees and religious people tend to look for a
sense of self around their moral behavior and around their good deeds. And Jesus said
just believe.
In I Corinthians Chapter 1 and verse 18 listen to what it says. “For the word of
the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God.” So Jesus understood that. And some of these people are talking it over
and they are thinking that His message is foolish. And when you look at I Corinthians
Chapter 1 and verse 18 that is exactly what we know the Bible is saying. The gospel is
foolishness to those who are perishing. This is a hard thing.
This is actually the first of several of Jesus’ so called ‘hard sayings’ statements.
F.F. Bruce wrote a book called ‘The Hard Sayings of Jesus.’ Jesus had statements that
were hard to grapple. “If anybody would come after me, they must deny themselves,
take up their cross, and follow me.” That is a hard thing. “If anyone is going to follow
me, they must hate their mother and their brother and sisters.” What? That is a hard
saying.
Now lest you think I am being literal on that, Jesus was not saying that you had to
literally hate them, because He commanded us to honor our parents. But what He was
saying is your love for Him should be so sold out, your loyalties to Him should be so
singular, that it appears as though you love others less. This is a hard saying.
“It is harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, than it is for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle.” That is a hard saying. Jesus made statements
that were difficult to swallow. And sadly with today’s Christianity, we take difficult
Page 3 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
statements and we take away the pain of them and try to make them digestible. But the
beauty of the gospel, when the Holy Spirit is sovereignly working, they are digestible
when God’s grace works.
Verse 61, “But Jesus knowing in Himself that His disciples were grumbling
about this said to them, Do you take offense at this?” The gospel creates grumblers.
Truth creates grumblers. Religious people will always grumble about the gospel. They
do not want to recognize and admit how deeply sinful and desperate their condition is
without God. And it says that Jesus knew that they were offended, “knowing in
Himself.”
We know that Jesus is all knowing. We know that with Nathaniel Jesus knew
what He was thinking before He even showed up. And so Jesus is all knowing. And I
started thinking about this as I was doing my message prep, and I thought, man, I would
hate that. How would you as a pastor like to finish every sermon as Jesus did and know
what everyone thought about it, to know every single thought? I mean, I would not like
that. Jesus would be up preaching and He would be able to look out in the audience and
go, Brad, you are thinking about the Daytona 500 right now. You are not thinking about
the message. He would be able to look out and He would know exactly what people were
thinking. Chris, I know that those cheddar cheese biscuits from Red Lobster are
sounding real good right now, but come back to me, Chris.
So Jesus knew what they were thinking. I wouldn’t want to know that. Imagine
me just meeting all the guests after church as they are walking by. They might say hey, I
really appreciated your message today, Pastor. And I would think, no, you didn’t. So I
would not like knowing every thought you have. I kind of like that you can keep your
thoughts to yourself. Frankly, I hear enough of people’s thoughts out loud; let alone
having to know what they are thinking.
So Jesus knows that these people are grumbling and that they are offended by His
message. Verse 62, “Well then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending to
where He was before.” He is saying if you have a hard time swallowing and digesting
my incarnation that the word became flesh, you are going to have a harder time when you
understand that not only have I come in the flesh, but I am going to die and I am going to
rise from the dead and ascend back to the place where I was before I came here to begin
with. And so right here in this one verse He uses this divine title as He refers to Himself
as the Son of man. Then He says “What if you were to see the Son of man ascending.”
In other words He is not going to stay dead, He is going to ascend. There is going to be a
resurrection that will happen. And then He says “Ascending to where He was before.”
In other words, before He came in the flesh, He was. And that is true about Him. Jesus
eternally existed as God and He took on flesh and became a human. He assumed a
human nature while retaining divinity, while remaining divine.
Page 4 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
Verse 63, “Jesus said, It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is of no avail. The
words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and there are some who do not believe.”
Interestingly enough, with Jesus He says the flesh is of no avail, it is the Spirit that gives
life. Religious people always want to muster something up in their flesh. They always
want to exert their way into favor with God. And here in this moment, Jesus is saying
your flesh will not help you in getting a new identity. Your flesh will not help you
become saved. Your flesh will not get you eternal life. You need something greater.
You need the Spirit to give you life. It is the Spirit that must work.
And in this message that Jesus gave here in this passage we start seeing that all of
God is involved in your salvation. Who is all of God? The Trinity. We know in John
Chapter 6 and verse 44 Jesus said, “No one came to me unless the Father who sent me
draws them.” And so we see that the Father draws those who will believe to Himself.
But then we know that the Son has to die on the cross for our salvation. And so the Son
plays the role of being our redeemer as He dies on our behalf. And then we see with the
third person in the Trinity that the flesh is of no help, that it is the Spirit that gives life.
If you are a Christian in this room, I want you to understand a very profound
statement right here. And it is this: That all of who God was, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit was involved in your salvation. We are so utterly and completely and totally
alienated from God, we are so morally corrupt; we are so sinful that it took all of God to
bring us to redemption. It took the Father drawing us to the Son who died for us and then
it took the Spirit giving us life. If you are a Christian, you have been touched by the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Glory to God! All of God was involved in your
salvation.
And so He says that the flesh is of no avail. And if you have ever studied Ezekiel
Chapter 37, the story about the valley of dried bones, you will remember that Ezekiel is
out in the middle of the valley and God says to prophesy to the bones that they may live.
Now imagine that. You are taking a stroll and you see this graveyard and God says,
Ezekiel, I am going to put some flesh on these bones and it is no longer going to be a
graveyard. This place is coming back to life. Now I would be a little weirded out about
now and I would probably be asking God if He was sure. But what does Ezekiel do? He
follows God and God begins to do His work.
The valley of dried bones is a great picture of us in our depravity. We are like dry
bones spiritually. There is nothing in and of yourself that you can do to earn your
salvation. The flesh is of no avail. It takes a sovereign work of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit in your life. And that is what allows you to turn around and give Him maximum
and supreme glory for His work in your salvation.
Page 5 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
Even in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John Chapter 3 it shows
Nicodemus as this religious Pharisee, and as he is hanging out with Jesus, he doesn’t get
that his flesh wouldn’t help out a whole lot. And Jesus said to him in Chapter 3 and
verse 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
Spirit.” Just as you had nothing to do with your physical birth, you had nothing to do
with your spiritual birth. You may say but didn’t I have to believe? Absolutely. But
even the fact that you believed was God’s Spirit working in your life. You never would
have been convicted of your sin had it not been for the Holy Spirit who convicts the
world of sin, righteousness and judgment. You wouldn’t even have been bothered unless
God in His benevolence showed you how holy and pure and righteous He is. You would
not have seen your need for Him without it, your most desperate need for Him.
Jesus said it is the Spirit that gives life. And we need to understand that. We
need more of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need the Holy Spirit desperately. Don’t
think that what was begun with the Spirit, your salvation, is all done. We need to finish
with the Spirit. The Spirit works in our lives. Jesus said, “But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.” And so we want
more of the Spirit in our lives. We want the Holy Spirit to be magnified. And we need to
honor the Holy Spirit more. We don’t have to be scared of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit does work mysteriously, it is one of the signs that He shows up at times. And yes,
you can always have people doing some funky stuff, but the Holy Spirit when He shows
up and acts; there were all sorts of power going on. Souls were getting saved, lives were
being changed, Christians were getting bold, and they were getting prioritized. They
were selling their possessions and they were caring for the poor.
We need the Holy Spirit still as Christians in our lives. And if you do not know
Jesus, you will not be saved apart from the Spirit giving you life. Jesus said, “These
words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” Helping us to understand that
phrase, D. A. Carson writes, “One cannot feed on Christ without feeding on Christ’s
words. For truly believing Jesus cannot be separated from truly believing Jesus’ words.”
And Jesus said, “Feast on me.” And what they weren’t accepting were His words. They
rejected His words. We cannot be saved apart from receiving the words that Jesus says.
We have to receive those words. We have to believe those words.
Jeremiah Chapter 15 and verse 16 says, “When your words came to me I ate
them, for they were my joy and my heart’s delight.” Do you delight in hearing the word
of God? Is it your joy? Is it your heart’s delight? Do you long to hear it? It is one of
the reasons we preach verse by verse, and we go through books of the Bible, at Life
Fellowship. It would be very easy week after week to tickle your ears, to go to the easier
sections of Scripture. But I believe what can happen is a pastor can hide behind all of his
Biblical doubts by skipping portions of Scripture that he doesn’t really believe, in the
Page 6 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
name of topical preaching. I believe we need to go through books of the Bible; we need
to see what all of God’s word has to say to test the preacher as well. Does he really
believe the Bible? When he comes to these portions, does he believe it is legit? And I
want to tell you right now, I believe in every word of the Bible. I believe no matter what
book we are in, no matter what passage, no matter what verse, there is always something
worthy to say in God’s word.
And so I hope that you will be hungry for truth, and willing to trust God’s word
because what happens is when you won’t walk through that a lot times it is because the
culture might not like that section of Scripture. So they think we don’t have to do that,
we will just come up with a new preaching method. But we are bound to share what
God’s word says. Now I am not saying there is not a place for topical preaching. If I was
doing a series on the Holy Spirit, I wouldn’t do that through a book. I would do
systematic theology and teach you about the Holy Spirit, because that is the way to do
that. But what I am saying is we can’t shrink back on Jesus’ words. “The words I have
spoken to you are Spirit and life.”
Martin Luther was in a debate with Erasmus back around the Reformation era.
And Erasmus was this individual who believed that there was this small island of
righteousness still preserved in humanity. Martin Luther of course believed in the
sovereignty of God, and he totally believed that we were completely depraved as humans,
that there was nothing we could do in and of ourselves to be saved. And he was in this
debate with Erasmus because he understood that Erasmus believed that there was this
little small island of righteousness left. In other words we are not totally depraved; there
is enough goodness in us to at least choose God.
Man, if we can’t make good decisions in other areas of our life, how in the world
can we make the most important decision to choose a holy, sovereign God? We can’t!
We are so depraved it takes God’s work even in that. And so Luther ended up speaking
to Erasmus in light of verse 63, “for the flesh is of no good purpose.” Luther was
debating Erasmus, and still Erasmus’ viewpoint is all over the church today where you
have people thinking we are not totally depraved. And we don’t really recognize how
sinful we are and Jesus is showing us that in this passage.
Verse 64, “But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from
the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray
Him.” He is referring to Judas, and we will get to that. Now understand something.
They are offended by the gospel. They are offended by how depraved Jesus is saying
they are. They are offended that Jesus would have to die. They are offended by His
words. And now Jesus is really going to lay out sovereignty in our salvation.
Page 7 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
Look at verse 65, “And He said, This is why I told you that no one can come to
me unless it is granted him by the Father.” Religious people do not understand how
hopeless, how helpless they are without God. And if you are here today and you don’t
know Jesus Christ, you must get to begging God for salvation. Cry out to Him to work in
your heart. Ask Him to save you. And you know what will happen when you ask God to
save you and He does save you? You will look back and know that even the fact that you
went to Him begging, even that you went to Him recognizing that you needed Him, you
will know in your heart of hearts the Holy Spirit set it up so that you were brought to this
church today.
Had it not been for the Holy Spirit putting these things in my life, had it not been
for the Holy Spirit showing me that I had a sin issue, I never would have even called out
to God. I wouldn’t have been interested in God. And so what I love about this is God
gets all the glory. He gets every ounce of glory. He even gets the glory for the belief that
we place in Him, because He helps us in that as well.
So now how do these people respond? Well, religious people don’t like sovereign
grace. They don’t like it when God works in their life in this way, so let’s look in verse
66. “After this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.”
They split on Jesus. They thought this was enough, they are done with this. They don’t
like His words so they decide to leave. And they walk away from Jesus in that moment.
This is what I would call one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible. They reject
Jesus’s words and they just walk away.
Now you need to understand something. Jesus would not have been featured in
Outreach Magazine today for having one of the fastest growing churches in the country.
Okay? You would not have seen this headline, ‘Jesus preached the gospel and He lost
His crowd.’ Or ‘He laid out the truth and He lost His following.’ But this is amazing. I
have stepped back and thought how we have grown more than ever in the history of our
church through John 6, and in this passage Jesus lost more people than ever. Jesus lost
His following. And what happens is many of the evangelism books you will read today,
and many of the methods that you will learn, they are all about how to tickle people’s
ears to keep the crowds around. But Jesus wanted the real deal. He wanted people who
really were serious about Him, who really wanted to walk with Him. And so He could
lay the gospel out and ask if they really believed it. Did they really want it?
Here is what you need to understand. When Jesus showed up at the end of the
year review with the elders, they wouldn’t have given Him a pay raise. They would have
said the church has shrunk this year under your leadership, Jesus. That message you
preached on you being the bread of life, you really blew it, man. We have twelve left in
the church and I will tell you what, you are going on probation this year and you are not
getting a raise. In fact you are getting a pay cut and if you don’t produce more results by
Page 8 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
next year you are fired. That is how corporate America is today. That is how we
evaluate. So elders if the church shrinks this year don’t cut my pay. The gospel is being
preached.
But seriously, that is what happened here. And Jesus wasn’t featured in a
magazine article that said ‘Truth sometimes reduces the numbers.’ But do you know
what Jesus got? He got authentic followers for the most part. We will learn about Judas
later. And I could stand up week after week and tickle your ears. And we might be able
to grow faster if I just skipped certain stuff. But I would be deceiving my audience,
because if I talked about Heaven and not hell, if I talked about forgiveness and not sin, if
I talked about mercy and not repentance, you are getting a false gospel. You are not
getting the real gospel. And don’t buy into this seeker sensitive culture so much so that
you start getting worried when the truth is taught. Trust in the sovereignty of God. Trust
that God’s word will do its work.
Does that make sense? Does it? Because I don’t want to pander to you. And
Jesus didn’t want to pander to His audience. He laid out the truth and that is our
responsibility. And sometimes people don’t like the truth, because it is hard to digest.
Because the gospel tells us that we are totally and completely depraved. Now imagine
you all showing up at your workplaces this week casting your big vision meeting. All of
the staff is going to be there. And then imagine being done with your presentation and all
but a few walk out. How are you going to feel? What is going to be going through your
mind? Don’t you kind of wonder what Jesus was experiencing? How did He deal with
it?
Well, let’s look at verse 67. “So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go
away as well?” Can you imagine the security you have to have to say that? “Do you
want to go away as well?” Jesus was so confident in His words. How do you say a
statement like that? How do you watch your following go away and then look at the
remaining ones and say do you want to go too?
You do it when you believe what John Chapter 6 and verse 44 says. You do it
when you believe in the sovereignty of God. Jesus knew that no one could come to Him
unless the Father who sent Him draws them. So Jesus was able to trust God. He was
able to realize these people were ditching Him, they were walking off. And He was able
to stay strong because He had a trust in the sovereignty of God.
And you know what that does is it allows me as a pastor to go and preach God’s
word, and I can know, God, that you are going to work and do something. And I can
trust you with the results. We don’t have to do gimmicks. We don’t have to come up
with shady methods. We don’t have to get desperate. We just have to be faithful. We
Page 9 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
just have to be loyal. And we just have to present His word and trust God that He will
bring people.
We are not growing because of this cross station here. We are not growing
because we have some cool lights up here. We are not growing because I am wearing
jeans today obviously. We are in the South and people would probably I would wear a
suit and tie. We are growing as a church because God wants to grow the church. Jesus
builds His church. He is building this church. He is bringing people. If people are
coming because of the jeans I’m wearing, or because we have cool lighting, then they are
coming for the wrong reasons. We come for the gospel, because we need Jesus, because
we need God desperately in our lives. Are you with me? This is serious stuff.
So Jesus asked the remaining if they wanted to go away as well. He wasn’t like
some car dealer. Ever go a car dealer? When my wife and I have bought a car in the
past, I know that feeling when we are parking our car and I look in my rear view mirror
and think oh no, here he comes. You know that feeling, right? Here he comes. And then
I will get out and he will say how much do you want to spend on a car payment. Don’t
ever, ever say that to me. I have known in the past if I am buying a car that I have three
areas we have to deal with, trade in value, interest rate value and dropping the purchase
price down. It is not about how much I can afford, because if I say $500 he will say
check out this 1914 Pinto we have here, it really runs well. You don’t share that. But
what happens is you pick a car out, you say what you want, then you go sit in the little
office with the guy, and what he does is he comes back and says he has talked to his
general manager and this is the best deal that we can do for you. This is the best that we
can do. At that point I look at my wife, and I say it’s time. And what that means is it is
time for us get up and show that we are not interested. So we get up and we begin to
walk off and as we are walking what do they do? They change their game plan. They go
wait a second, wait a second. My general manager may feel led to change the price so we
need to sit down and talk with this a little more. And they change the price, they change
the deal. In other words they didn’t shoot me straight the first time.
Jesus wasn’t a car dealer. Jesus wasn’t like that. He lays out the gospel very
clearly. He wasn’t just saying this is the deal and then letting them walk off and as they
walk off, go just kidding. Come back. I am not really the bread of life. I didn’t really
mean eat my flesh. You want more fish and chips, we will bring it on. No, that is not
what Jesus did. He kept it out there. He kept the gospel right where it was.
Would you be able to say that in your visions meeting? So confident when you
are done. Jesus’ followers left and he asked the others if they wanted to leave also. Our
business performance culture is so messed up the way we understand God. We have
religious people trying to perform for God, trying to please God, because they think they
Page 10 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
are going to get an end of the year review and God is going to give them extra blessings
based on this and that.
But God doesn’t operate like a businessman. God is God. God offers something
so much greater than bonuses. He offers grace. He offers grace to us. He is a gracious
God. He doesn’t accept us based on our resume. He accepts us based on our sinfulness,
and our filthiness, and He loves us just the way we are. He doesn’t love you because you
have had your quiet time every day this week. He loves you because you are rotten
through and through, and He loves you enough that He was willing to die for you. You
have nothing to prove to a God like that. I am completely rotten to the core left to
myself. Yet I am loved more by Him than everyone else combined. If you were to take
every person you have ever felt loved by in your life and stack them up, it would be but a
grain of sand compared to the love He has for you. And those that love you don’t know
your heart like God does. It is amazing.
Jesus didn’t have to die for you; He was glad to die for you, as Keller talked
about. “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” And he did it knowing that
His Father would be ultimately glorified in that. So He says, “Do you want to go away
as well?” Of course Simon Peter speaks up first. How many of you today are like Simon
Peter, noisy thinkers? I guess I am the only one. My wife said to me this past week you
know honey, just about once every message I can count on you to say one kind of an ‘oh
no’ statement. Just an ‘oh no’ statement once every message. And that is me. I am a
Simon Peter. The church just has to be able to love me through it. Say it like they do in
the South, ‘bless his heart,’ which really means ‘stupid idiot.’ We know what that means.
But what does Peter say? “You have words of eternal life, to whom shall we go?
In other words, if you have found Jesus you have reached your destination. They have
reached their destination. There is nowhere else to go. I remember when I was in
seminary in Dallas how this verse right here really began to help me as I was plagued
with doubts. I was taking a class on the gospels with Dwight Pentecost and we were
taking the gospels side by side. And as I was looking at the verses, I started noticing
apparent contradictions. Notice I use the word ‘apparent.’
And I started to struggle with doubt. I was coming home at night, and here I was
preparing for the ministry, and I am feeling uneasy about how to reconcile certain
portions of God’s word. And what God did was He ended up bringing me through that as
I learned Bible study methods. And I learned oh, I can answer this statement like this.
And oh, that’s true, I didn’t think about that. And I just fell in love with finding answers.
That’s why I got my doctorate in apologetics so that I can get more answers. And God
brought me through that. And I really believe in His word.
Page 11 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
And do you know what He used? This verse right here with Peter when he said,
“To whom shall we go?” I stepped back and thought where am I going to go? To Islam?
I am going to have questions about the goodness of Allah. Where am I going to go?
Joseph Smith? I don’t believe the book of Mormons. Archeologists can’t even find one
location that is written in the book of Mormons. Where am I going to go? Am I going to
go to Hinduism? I am not going to serve some fly. What am I going to do with my life?
Where am I going to go? Am I going to go to Oprah? She only has a year left. Where
am I going to go? I am not going to Richard Dawkins and his Atheism. No, I am going
to go to Jesus!
No matter what you believe, folks, there is no such thing as airtight. You are
going to have questions about your beliefs. You are going to wonder because God has
not revealed Himself exhaustively, but efficiently. And what He has given to us is
sufficient to walk by faith with Him. And if you are going to be a Muslim, you are going
to wonder about the goodness of Allah. If you are going to be in Atheism, you are going
to go well, did this stuff really come in here by accident, by happenstance. If you are
going to be a Mormon, you are going to go really, did this stuff not come until a hundred
and fifty years ago. Really? Is that the way it worked?
And when I look at Christianity and Jesus in light of everything else, I go where
else am I going to go? This stands supremely tall against anything else and I believe it
with all of my heart, soul, strength and mind, by faith. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have
questions. It doesn’t mean that I have everything figured out. It means that I trust God
by faith. Where else are we to go?
Verse 69 Peter says, “And we have believed and have come to know that you are
the holy one of God.” What a great statement. So Peter says you are the holy one of
God, we have come to know that, and how does Jesus respond? Does He hand out a gold
star like we would for a great answer in Sunday school? No, he doesn’t do that. He
doesn’t say great job on your belief. I knew you had it in you, Peter. No, what does He
say? “Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you?” I mean lest you think, Peter, you
got prideful in this moment, lest you think it was about your choice. They are walking
off, lest you think it is about you. “Did I not choose you?” Remember that day when
you were out there in search of sea bass, and there I was and I caught you. I came fishing
for you. “Did I not choose you?”
I can’t help but wonder if Jesus reminded Peter in that statement right there to
help him to always remember to stay humble, or for him to realize that he is not sticking
with Jesus because of something good in him. It is because of sovereign grace. I thought
in my mediations this week on Scripture in the upper room when Jesus said, “One of you
is going to betray me.” And Peter says he would never betray him. Perhaps Peter
thought back on this moment. And he would remember another time when everyone was
Page 12 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
betraying Jesus by walking away, and he stood by His side and thought he would never
do that. Maybe he got a little puffed up and let this go to his head and perhaps it was this
portion of Scripture that played into the upper room where he said he would never walk
away. And then later that night, he did.
So Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is
a devil. He spoke of Judas, the son of Simeon Iscariot, for he one of the twelve was
going to betray Him.” So what is the difference here? Judas, unlike the other eleven,
was chosen to be a disciple. He was chosen to follow Jesus. But the others were chosen
unto eternal life. Judas obviously wasn’t. It was in order that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled. The Scriptures that said he would abandon Jesus, that said he would betray Him
for thirty pieces of silver.
And so you can have even in leadership those who are Judas-like. Just because
you are a church leader doesn’t mean that you are legit. Matthew Chapter 7 and verse 21
says, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but
only he who does the will of my God who is in Heaven. Other disciples will say, Did we
not prophesize in your name, Jesus? Did we not cast out demons in your name?”
Here you have a picture of people that looked like they were doing all the right external
actions, but their hearts rejected the gospel. Judas never came to see how deeply
depraved he was. Judas was a self-centered man, and even in his suicide he was just
trying to escape his own bad feelings of guilt by taking his life, whereas Peter repented
and ran with his guilt to Jesus and experienced forgiveness.
Are you a Judas in this room this morning? Are you the real deal? Do you really
believe Jesus words? How are you responding to the gospel? I want to close with a story
that one of my best friends told me this past week. His name is Jonathan and he was
visiting me last Monday night from Arkansas. And he told me about how he had
offended this person. He started feeling troubled about the offense so he decided to ask
for forgiveness. And the guy said to him, I am not going to forgive you. I am never
going to forgive you. It is not even an option. Jonathan was troubled by the harsh words
of this individual when he said he wouldn’t forgive him. So Jonathan started to find out
what it was that this man enjoyed and he learned that he liked fine cigars. There is
nothing like a good cigar to try to pay someone off, right? So he went and got a fine
cigar and a hundred dollar gift certificate to a nice restaurant. And he wrote a little card
and took everything to this gentleman’s office. The man wasn’t there so he left it with
his secretary and asked her to please give it to this individual. Later on the guy came to
his office, opened up the card, saw the letter and the gift card and the very expensive
cigar. Jonathan would later get a message from someone saying hey, that guy wants you
to know it is as if nothing ever happened.
Page 13 of 14 pages
2/14/2010
THE RESPONSE – More Than a Man Series
Here is the difference between the guy that Jonathan offended and Jesus. There
was a payoff for that guy. Jonathan’s words were not enough. He couldn’t just say I’m
sorry, I’ve sinned against you. A sorry was not enough. He would have been alienated in
that relationship forever. What it took for Jonathan to be forgiven was some good works.
It took a fine tasting cigar, and a good dinner and a card. The difference between that
man and Jesus is Jesus doesn’t ask you to bring Him a gift. He gave Himself up as the
gift. He died for us. We are the ones that offended Him, yet He died for us. Amazing!
We weren’t interested in Him, yet He comes and pursues us. We weren’t even thinking
about Him yet He writes us a love letter and it goes like this: “For God so loved the
world that He gave us His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not
perish but has everlasting life.”
How do you respond to Jesus’ words? In belief. It is grace, folks. He has bought
your steak dinner. He became the steak, the flesh on the cross. Jesus said to them, “Your
flesh is of no avail.” Wait a second; if flesh is no avail, His sermon was all about His
flesh was what they needed. Yes, that is exactly right. Their flesh wouldn’t cut it; Jesus’
flesh, His sacrifice on the cross was what they needed. And it is what we need in this
room right now. You need grace. And God freely offers it.
You ask what must you do to be saved? “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.” Have you called on the name of the Lord? Do you believe in your heart
that Jesus had to die for your sins? Do you believe that He rose from the grave on your
behalf? Have you admitted that? Have you called out to Him? I am going to pray right
now and I am going to give you an opportunity to call on the name of the Lord. There is
no magic prayer in the Bible; it is calling on the name of the Lord. It is recognizing what
He did for you. Let’s pray.
God, I pray that people will respond here today. I need the gospel every day in
my life. As I said last week the gospel is a process. It is what we need to remember
every single day in our lives, that you saved us, and that in and of ourselves we are
helpless. If you are here today and you want to be forgiven of your sins, if you believe
you have sinned, let’s not make it difficult. Let’s not get religious, just respond to Jesus’
words by repeating after me: Dear Jesus, I am a sinner and I confess that to you. Forgive
me for my sins. Thank you for dying on my behalf. Thank you that you rose from the
grave. I surrender my life to you right now, Jesus, by turning from and by repenting of
my sins. And by faith I simply believe in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual
words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew
and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases.
Page 14 of 14 pages
2/14/2010