Pastor Ralph Douglas West - The Great Confession - John 6:66-69

1:34 Amen. I know you feel better now that you joined your voice with the choir this morning. John chapter 6 beginning at verse 66. If you are superstitious, Are you one of those people That listen to the wrong folk You're going to leave and say Pastor Wes But said 666 If you don't find a human That is because You don't need to know the great confession John 6.

2:33 Verse 6 to 6. Now you have to pay attention to this sermon. Got to give you attention so whoever came with you today and they're trying to talk to you, you tell them, not today.

2:56 Because I have to hear this one very seriously. This will determine whether you are mature, growing, or immature in Christ. You need to know that today. Now you need to know that. From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. You don't want to leave too, do you? Jesus asked the church without walls. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

3:55 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. This is the Word of God. You may be seated. The Great Confession. in every discipline of life there's a turning point where things go forward or they regress and go backwards this is a catalytic moment in the life of Jesus with his disciples a critical moment a point of turning we're in John chapter 6 Let's go. If I keep referring to that, it's because I know that there may be people who are here this morning and who are listening who have never read the Gospel of John or they are new in the faith. So those of you who are old church heads, be patient with me as I'm patient with those who are on a new journey learning about God.

5:00 this is a critical moment a turning point in the life of Jesus with his disciples in chapter six and it's so full that you could preach a beautiful series of messages from it and like the other chapters in John the writer is trying to get us to do one thing that we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John 6 opens with the feeding of the 5,000 this is the miracle that is recorded in the four gospels and it's a reason for that because that miracle speaks directly to the human needs of the people that witnessed that miracle that particular day that miracle in fact is louder and more pronounced in that day than even the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

6:06 Primarily because the majority of the people that were at that miracle, 5,000, not counting the women, not counting the children, so it's safe to say 15, 18,000 people are there. And they see Jesus and his reputation as the bread king persists.

6:31 You might recall that there was a situation in the wilderness where Jesus goes for 40 days and he's tested and tempted. And one of the temptations was for Jesus to take a shortcut by turning stone into bread. And Jesus recited the scripture, man should not live by bread alone. You ever notice when you read the Bible how big food is in the Bible? Yeah. It's real big. and so in this story this outdoor picnic is the miracle that's been preserved those of you who have raised sons in fact know that the miracle may not be the multiplication of the fish and bread it might be that the son kept his lunch after school and that's a miracle within itself Thank you.

7:32 From his hands, the lad's hands, to our Lord's hand, little became much. And it always does when you put it in the master's hands. the people that witnessed the feeding of the multitude also were arrested because in that day most people went to bed with annoying pain of hunger food deserts where there was never enough financial resources and the economy was always against the ordinary people everyday people suffered you don't have to be a road scholar to understand that look at the price increase of food in our local markets I guess it doesn't affect you but it's a big issue in our house we're always talking about how expensive things are getting and then the next statement is how in the world will poor people make it but when you got a full belly, it really don't matter how other people make it because you can afford it, but they can't.

8:57 Nine million children went to bed last night in America and they were hungry. On the level of just children, that's one out of eight went to bed in the richest nation in the world. where we can spend money on bombs and building walls to keep people out, but we cannot give to people that need to be fed. We don't just have a bread problem, we got an ethical problem, a moral problem, which when we vote need to be one of the things that's on the agenda. Do the people that say they want to represent us, do they really care for poor people, marginal people? Do they care for those who are the have-nots of society? that ought to be one of the things that motivate the way that we go about selecting these people and that was the scene.

10:00 And so the people were so moved by the feeding that one of the records says that this way of the miracle that there was baskets of food left over. and so the feeding story but something happens after the dispersing of the outdoor congregation jesus takes a water walk and meets his disciples and then they put him in the boat and they carry the capernaum this is important now as we study because look what's about to happen. Look at verse 24. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus, listen to these words now, nor his disciples were there, they got into a boat and went to Capernaum to search for Jesus.

10:57 That line sounds like a throwaway, doesn't it? A kind of editorial connection. Those of you that right. This sounds like just a transitional statement, but it's loaded. Why did they go looking for Jesus? They had just finished the outdoor picnic. Jesus is traveling to the next place. He's walked the water. And when they saw that Jesus was no longer where they were looking for him, they went looking for him. That's good. It sounds so religious and spiritual. We went looking for Jesus. Why? They wanted him to do again what he had already done. They'd had one outdoor picnic. They were looking for the next free lunch. and they asked a question when you read this story they actually asked that great line here when did you get here verse 25 and Jesus is about to do something that nobody that's trying to build a reputation ought to ever do he's about to undo his own popularity let me say it again He is about to cancel his own popularity.

12:27 verse 26 very truly I tell you you're looking for me not because you saw the signs that I performed but because you ate some wonder bread and got full I mean, if you're living in a food desert, then yeah. But Jesus was saying, but you're missing my real reason for coming. And if Jesus would just stop there, he would keep a crowd.

13:12 But he keeps on talking. here's an observation that we often overlook in the life of Jesus we remember when he started out as a young charismatic healer and preacher and teacher crowds gathered around him every way he went crowds were around him

13:39 but this is the turning point in his ministry that when he says what he's about to say the crowds thin out I always marvel at the people who talk about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And they get to this whole idea of the crowds that followed him. They did. But like Jesus, he's a preacher. He just talked too much. I mean, long as he was talking about civil rights and integration and sit-ins and church-ins, long as he was that. but he starts talking in the last year of his ministry and he starts talking about three evils, three evils.

14:41 And the three evils speaks to The center of power He says poverty Poverty Because when you talk about poverty You talk about economics You talk about equality You talk about morality And that got him in trouble and of course he talks about the issue of race as being a manufactured ideology of white people who constructed it to keep black people in that place and always to lord it over them to be supreme over the poor, the black and the brown, and even the poor whites. but what got him in real trouble is when he started talking about the Vietnam War because when you talk about war you're talking about money you're talking about power you're talking about empire and America is empire and so when you threaten the empire you got to get out of here and it wasn't long before it was gone He didn't die for the sanitation workers.

16:00 That was a good place to be. But he died because of the three evils that he addressed in America. And if he would have just been quiet, he still would have been popular. Everybody love King now. But it was only about 13% of black people in America that really supported it.

16:27 Churches right here in this city boast about when King came here to this city, but only three or four pastors walked with him. we love dead heroes that's why I serve a living Christ I'm serious and if Jesus would have just stopped there everything been fine but he said now the only reason why you're following me is not because of the sign that I pointed that I'm pointing for you to believe.

17:09 You're following me out of curiosity, superficiality, and materiality. And so you're following me with a misplaced motive. not who I am but what I can do for you and all you want me really to do for you is to give you more bread, more money, a bigger house, more clothes, more status, more prestige, but I didn't come here just for that. Those are fringe benefits. I have come that you might have life and that you have life abundantly. I am the bread of that when you eat of me, you hunger not after that anymore. I'm the living water.

18:02 I slake your thirst whether you don't have to drink at the polluted pools anymore. I have come that you know what real life is about. And so here Jesus says, this is what I want you to do then. verse 53 There you go again Verily truly I tell you And now listen to this Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man Stop Now you know When you heard that like I did and drink his blood. You say, is this a remake of some vampire eating flesh and drinking blood?

19:10 The first word comes to mind, we're accountable. And if you think that way, you're right in Bible country. That's what the people were assuming. And Jesus says, you know that I'm not. and they knew the Aramaic that he was using and the stuff that makes up the conversation that he was creating. We need help. They didn't. They knew he was not talking about actual.

19:38 He was talking about metaphorical imagination. You want to have fun and scare people this week, tell them, say, yeah, I went to church Sunday and we ate Jesus flesh and drink his blood. I shouldn't say things like that. I carry on too bad sometimes. you know what Jesus was getting to don't you yeah you know when you eat bread what do you do you digest it when you digest it what does it do it incorporates it assimilates when you masticate it it gets into you it nourishes you and that's what Jesus was saying He says, you know me by my word.

20:32 Take my word into you so much until you incorporate my life into your life and your life into my life. That you become me and I become you. I live inside of you. I'm going somewhere. Verse 60. They did just how y'all looking at me now.

21:03 Listen to what he said. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, now keep in mind that there are more disciples than the 12. A disciple is a follower of Christ. So there were many people that followed Christ. And so what did he say? On hearing it, many of the people at the Church Without Walls said, I ain't coming next Sunday. This is a hard teacher.

21:33 Who can accept this? where did he say it he said it at the church where I was how do I know because it's right here look at verse 59 he said these teachings in the synagogue of Capernaum at the sanctuary of Houston Thank you. Now the little room where Jesus said this in the synagogue, it didn't look like this space. It wasn't spacious for those of you gone there and you sat there. Then you know it's just a small room where the elders gathered and Jesus sat there and you could hardly get into the room because of his very presence. But when they heard it, this is what they said.

22:28 No more. no more I want the Jesus that's just healing everybody and I want the Jesus that's giving me bread when I'm hungry but I don't want this Jesus that's telling me that I have to take his life into my life and his life integrates into my life בא� Jesus must have felt like a captain on a ship that had gone as far as he could go. And when he had gone that far that the mates on the ship start abandoning it, it becomes mutiny. He must have felt like a general going to battle.

23:28 And when they saw the opposition in front of them, they began, that is the soldiers, to retreat and run in the other direction. Thank you. you think I'm making it up look what he said this is a hard saying aware that his disciples, here we go, were grumbling about this. Jesus wanted to know one thing. Did this offend you? I know you used to be nice. cotton candy and I'm going to tell you I like cotton candy too I wish every Sunday I could give you nothing but sugar only problem is sugar will rotten your teeth out and you won't be able to eat nothing of substance Jesus, you read it.

24:33 He said, does this offend you? the most dangerous group of people are the religionists then and now especially when you talk about these ultra conservative Christians who believe that they have a monopoly on God This is the group that are confused whether the cross and American flag are equal, whether the Constitution and the Bible are the same. They ain't the same. The cross supersedes everything else, and the Word of God transcends even the Constitution. It's that group, that conservative group back in the 60s.

25:37 When folk joined in, they were confused like these disciples. Because what the disciples wanted to know at this level, when they grumbled, is one question. Does God really act like this? The danger of being a Christian for a long time is that you start arrogantly believing that you know as much as God knows. And you know all the ways in which God will act. I was asked this question in an academic arena. Do you believe, Pastor West, that God supernaturally healed? I was asked that question at a university setting. the question was derived from now you've been to college you've been to seminary, you've been to the divinity school, you've been to the religion department, you teach at Baylor, at Duke, and you believe that God can heal?

26:59 I said, yes, he can. And I don't ever want to know so much that I've erased the supernatural reality of God out of the equation of life. If God can call the world into existence, he can raise you up when you are down. I'm trying to finish it up. everything rests in that one line when they grumbled about this and Jesus said, does this offend you? This is the critical moment. This is the moment because how you handle that determines whether John is going to help us understand Bethlehem.

27:56 The incarnation of Jesus. The flight to Egypt with Mary and Joseph. The baptism in God saying, my beloved son, the wilderness temptation. All of that is resting on this right here. Does this offend you? you waiting for me to tell you how to have your best life this is your best life this is how you have it i'm looking at some of your physical demeanors which really speaks loud and when you've been in a church like this that long you pick up on people's disposition I ain't even gonna point over here that some of you whose disposition, I don't want to hear it.

28:54 I know you don't. Because it's all up in your work, in your career, in your life. And we want God, all I want God to do for me is give me some bread. And once he feed me, go back to where you come from. But when you take Christ into you, he gets all involved in all of your life, in all of your affairs. I'm trying to sit down. I got three minutes.

29:25 So let me wrap it up now. Let me wrap it up. does this offend you that's what that's what he asked now go to verse 66 i i had to say all of that to get to this last two minutes and 40 seconds Now listen at the language again now. From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. And then Jesus asked The twelve, the inner circle, because they was grumbling with everybody else. Do you also want to leave me?

30:24 I mean I met you in a little tin building on the corner of Bengal and Pamela you want to leave me I stood with you when your wife died and you had to raise your children. Do you want to leave me?

30:51 I carried you through when your husband died. Do you really want to leave me when your son was killed? Do you really want to leave me when your son and your daughter died by their own hand? Are you sure you want to leave me? when you didn't know how you was gonna pay next month's nothing and I took care of you are you sure you want to leave me preach best to wear and Peter jumped into the conversation and Peter ain't always the best person to open his mouth but a broke clock is right twice a day and Pete got it right this time Pete wanted to know one thing Lord to whom shall we go where we gonna go It was.