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Rethrone Part 4

Week 4
Text: John 6:60–69
Topic(s): Discipleship, Salvation, Eternal Life, Perseverance
Big Idea of the Message: Jesus challenges his followers to decide: Will they follow him, or walk away?
Application Point: We must make the choice to either follow Jesus wholeheartedly or walk away; true life can only be found through Christ 

Talking Points:

  1. This passage follows Jesus’s teaching about him being the Bread of Life.The disciples, interpreting his statement literally, were really confused (v. 60). How do you eat his flesh and drink his blood (v. 56–57)? Gross. It seems like Jesus just says things to scare people away sometimes, but he likely wanted to move people from a place of following a leader who rises to some sort of political power to a place of true belief in Jesus, the Messiah. Knowing that the people who were following him are worked up about what he said, Jesus challenges them (v. 61). He asks them what they will think when he ascends, possibly alluding to the cross or his ascension. They were looking for a better life in the here-and-now world, but Jesus was talking about the more important Spirit-given life (vv. 62– 63). Even though many followed Jesus, they didn’t actually believe he was the Christ (v. 64). Faith isn’t a matter of merely convincing someone with facts and evidence. There are facts and evidence, but ultimately, faith is a miracle, rooted in God’s movement in our lives (v. 65). Many were not willing to truly believe and instead abandoned ship (v. 66). “Jesus lost ‘many of His’ followers because of the Bread of Life discourse (cf. v. 60). His explanation to them following the discourse did not change their minds. He had made no concessions. They had understood Him correctly the first time. The Greek phrase ek toutou can mean ‘from this time’ or ‘for this reason.’ Both meanings fit here. [A. B. Bruce writes,] ‘The sermon on the bread of life produced decisive effects. It converted popular enthusiasm for Jesus into disgust; like a fan, it separated true from false disciples; and like a winnowing breeze, it blew the chaff away, leaving a small residuum of wheat behind’” (Thomas L. Constable, Notes on John [2020], 199, https://planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/pdf/john.pdf).

  2. Have you ever started something and then realized it was way harder than you thought it would be? In this clip from Superstore, Cheyenne gives her coworker a tattoo and messes it up in a big way

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kiLP2ouoDk). (Note: this clip does contain a bleeped swear word.) Jesus doesn’t want us to be surprised by the challenges of walking with him. He’s fair enough to tell us what to expect.

  1. Jesus now directly asks “the twelve” if they want to leave as well(v.67).Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (v. 68). They recognize Jesus for who he is. He is the God-man, “the Holy One of God” (v. 69). Jesus asks us the same questions he asks the disciples; do we want to leave him, in light of what it really means to be his follower? The Spirit enables the miracle of belief, but we must willingly choose to make Jesus Lord in our lives.

  2. The reality is that many things Jesus taught were hard sayings (see y.60).How can living for Jesus seem so hard when he also told us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:30)? Life in general and life in Christ in particular are not only easy or only difficult. We all will face trials and hardship, and we all will experience great joys and happiness. We can take seriously God’s call to follow him and recognize that our own strength cannot sustain our faith, while also knowing life is full of little joys and good gifts from our Father in heaven. Our walk with Christ is sustained by the Holy Spirit within us. When we are full of life in the Spirit, we can live faithfully, whatever the circumstances.

  3. Walking in the Spirit doesn’t mean we will never doubt or be tempted to walk away like those who left Jesus that day. Christians are not immune to the pain and sorrow that living in this broken world will bring. We are not immune to the temptations that come our way. This article highlights several prominent believers who struggled with doubt: https://relevantmagazine.com/god/7- prominent-christian-thinkers-who-wrestled-doubt/.

  4. Sho Barak a shares a response to Kanye We stand the publicity that surrounded his Jesus-centric album and conversion. One very meaningful point he makes is that it doesn’t matter who a person is socially—his prayer remains the same for them: that “they fall more in love with God than the culture that surrounds them.” When we are faced with the decision to either walk away or follow God, it has to be grounded in who God is, instead of who his followers are. God’s people (even the famous ones) might be a little weird, a little hypocritical, and a little broken, but Jesus is not. He offers us life. What will we do with that offer? 

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