Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Far Will You Go to Follow Jesus? | The Gospels | John 6:41-71

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

How far are you willing to go to follow Jesus? What happens when his teachings become difficult? And what keeps people from walking away when faith becomes costly? In today's episode, Patrick shares how John 6:41-71 challenges us to surrender all, trusting that Jesus alone has the words of eternal life. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 6:41-71

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. How far will you go to follow Jesus? Ada Scripnikova was an ordinary, unremarkable person. Like most children born in the Soviet Union, she was born to atheist parents. She'd never attended a church in her life. She'd never seen a Bible.

But in her 20s, she moved to Leningrad, and all of that changed. She met Christians. She read a Bible. and eventually she gave her life to Christ. Now, this was in the 1960s when the Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev launched a wave of anti-religious persecution. He actually boasted that he would soon show the last Christian in Russia on television. But in 1961, at the age of 26, Ada read Jesus' command to share the gospel with all people. And of course, she knew this was illegal and dangerous, but Ada knew she had a choice, submit to Christ or submit to Khrushchev.

She chose Jesus. On New Year's Eve of that year, she walked the streets of Leningrad, handing out small cards she typed herself. And on each one was a message, a message so simple and inoffensive to our ears, it almost sounds quaint. This is what she wrote.

You today are seeking happiness. You think you will find it in the new year. But happiness is found in God alone. Only he can give us true joy. As a result of that message, she was arrested shortly after and interrogated and then fired from her job. Local papers mocked her as Holy Ada,

and everyone expected the pressure to break her. How could a simple secretary resist the Soviet system? Ada responded to the article by writing a letter to the newspaper's editor. She said this. You write that religion is the opium of the people. But I have seen what your atheism produces. Drunkenness, broken families, despair, imprisons full of people who have nothing to live for.

I have found in Christ something you have not been able to give anyone a reason not to despair. This began a long string of imprisonments, interrogations, and then releases, all designed to terrify Ada into submission. She never broke, though. At her final court case, which determined whether she'd be sent to a labor camp where most Russians died, the judge asked her why she simply wouldn't recant her faith. Didn't she understand the consequences? She explained to the judge, because I am not afraid of you. I was afraid once. I am not afraid anymore. What can you do to me that God has not already permitted for some purpose I do not yet understand? Her judge sentenced her to lifetime in a labor camp, and of course this horrified her

parents, but she wrote to her mother, Mama, don't weep for me. I am where I'm supposed to be. The Lord is teaching me things here that I cannot have learned in freedom. Now, Ada's story is obviously tragic and difficult, but I always find it convicting because Ada did what so many of us are afraid to do. Follow Jesus when things get challenging, when his teachings or commands rub up against our personal interests and desires. And if you've ever felt this way, you aren't alone. John 6 records a story found in no other gospels. Let me set the scene. Jesus is at the height of his ministry. He's drawing massive crowds from the region of Galilee. His disciples must have been over the moon at the time. They were at the right hand of the Jewish people's hottest new rabbi. But I get the sense that Jesus

felt different because what he did next was shocking. He gave the crowds a teaching so offensive and challenging that they abandoned him. Let's read the passage together, John 6, verse 53. Jesus said to them, very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day, for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them, just as the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died,

but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. He said this while teaching at the synagogue in Copernum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, this is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "'Does this offend you?' "'Then what if you see the son of man ascend to where he was before? "'The spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. "'The words I have spoken to you, they are full of spirit and life. "'Yet there are some of you who do not believe.

"'For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. "'He went on to say, "'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the father has enabled them. From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. So just imagine the scene in a modern setting. Jesus is preaching a sermon to a packed out arena. They're standing room only. But rather than giving them what they want, he tells them something that no one wants to hear.

He says, I'm the only true source of life. There is no life apart from me. There is no salvation apart from me. Unless he partake in my life and my death, you cannot be saved. As he speaks, people begin to trickle out one by one. some irritated, some offended, until only 12 people are left in the room. It highlights the reality that many will call themselves followers of Jesus, but few will stick with him when the challenges to surrender their life, their all, their everything to him, get serious. After the sermon,

Jesus turned to the remaining disciples and asked, are you also going to leave? There must have been a long pause. I can imagine more than a few of them were frustrated with Jesus for blowing his big moment, but finally Peter responds Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Peter and the disciples surrender to Jesus. They would go to a labor camp for Jesus. They would lose their jobs for Jesus.

They would give up their reputations for Jesus. Why? Because they believe one fundamental thing about him. He and he alone has the words of life. Jesus is not a huckster. He's not a sham. He promises life. everlasting, life overflowing, blessing and joy in the presence of God. And his disciples believe that he

can deliver on those remarkable promises while the world with all of its fraudulent offers cannot compare. And this sits at the heart of Jesus' call to surrender everything to him. That call is so audacious and outrageous and enormous that it immediately reveals the truth in our heart. Do we actually trust him? Or do we not? I don't know what Jesus is calling you to surrender today. but there's probably something. You know what it is. It's sitting at the edge of your mind. You don't want to think it or say it because to do so would be to give it up.

And in that moment, you're faced with the question he proposed to his disciples. Are you also going to leave? Don't leave. Surrender all to him because he has the words of life.