The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Doubts

Episode Date: July 19, 2020

What do you do with doubts and unanswered questions? You pick them up and follow after Jesus because He is the only one that offers eternal life.

Amen and amen. How we doing church? Everybody good? So good to see you. I want to welcome everybody online and all of our campuses and really on demand because people are just kind of watching

all week now. So if you got your Bibles, like I said in the video, grab them. We're going to be in John chapter 6 as we start this brand new series and we're not really studying all of the Apostle Peter's life.

We're just looking at four episodes. And we're going to try to learn these lessons from Peter because I don't know about you, but oftentimes when I'm studying the scriptures and I look into the, life of Peter, see some of the things he says, it makes me feel a whole lot better about me and my own discipleship. Because Peter was the epic loudmouth. He was always going to talk first,

he was always going to talk most. Occasionally he nails it. And my daddy would say, you know, even a blind squirrel can find an acorn every once in a while. But most of the time, he said some really dumb stuff. Now, Peter, his original name was Simon. Jesus is going to change his name. He was a fisherman from the town of Bessata. Apparently he moves to Copernum. He was married. In fact, Jesus healed his mother-in-law, and he asked him to do that, so he was a godly man. He had a house.

You can visit it. He was in this fishing business with Daddy Zebedee, the father of James and John. Peter's brother, Andrew, or Peter was his brother Andrews one more. When Andrew bumped into Jesus, Andrew was actually a follower, a disciple of John the Baptist, and then John the Baptist points to Jesus, says, Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the entire world. And then Andrew goes to Peter and says, hey man, you've got to come and see. I think we've bumped into the Messiah. And then one day, on the sea of Galilee, after a day of fishing, Jesus comes to these brothers and says,

come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And by faith, Peter drops his nets and begins to follow after Jesus. and again, he was running his mouth all the time. Peter is the guy that on the mountain of transfiguration, when Jesus is talking with Elijah and Moses, who had somehow appeared out of eternity and they're on this mountain when Jesus' face is glowing like lightning or like the sun, and Peter steps up,

and he says, it is good that we are here. Peter often thought it was all about him. Peter is the same guy that shortly after nailing it in the book of Matthew at Sessori of Philippi when he says you are the Christ, the son of a living God, and Jesus calls him. Rocky, Jesus says upon this public declaration, I'm going to build my church. And on the same page after Jesus rolls out the gospel that he's going to die and be resurrected on the third day, the Bible says that Peter rebukes him, says, come here, not on my watch, Jesus. and Jesus says, get behind me, Satan.

This is the kind of disciple that we're talking about. So if your discipleship is kind of marked by a little up and a little down, then hopefully what you'll find over these four weeks is there's still hope for you and me too. That we are all still in process. Amen? Now, today we're going to talk about doubts. What do you do when God doesn't make sense? Now let me ask you, have you ever had a time when God clearly came through for you?

Like a prayer was answered, a blessing was received, that maybe it was in a worship service, and you were just overwhelmed with his presence, and you had no doubt whatsoever. I mean, you just had one of those experiences where you were like, I mean, you knew that he's a good, good father, that's just who he is, and you knew that you were loved by him. that's just who you are and there was no doubt and your friend would be like, they ain't no God, and they'd be like, what do you mean? And you ain't got no mama. I mean, what are you talking about? Like, I believe, like I know, I know, I know. You ever have one of those? I hope so, sometimes. This was me last week. I don't know what happened. I'm, you know, everything's different now.

And so, Grinchie and I, I've been getting up in the morning at our house and we put bird feeders. This is how you know I'm getting old, okay? We put bird feeders in my backyard. You laugh all you want, but oh, you 1825, this is your future. All right, you can be looking at birds. You're going to be Googling how to get all the birds out there, and you all, but I do, man, I love it. I don't know why, but. So I got up, sitting in my back porch area, watching the birds, eating the bird feeders. And I'm reading First Kings right now in my own devotional time, which isn't like the most devotional book in the Bible.

And the chapters I read were about the building of the temple and then the building of Solomon's house and I don't I can't explain it I was just overwhelmed with this sense that man you spend your life building the house of the Lord and he will take care of you in your house that's just kind of the sense I had I just sense his presence there and I was listening to Jeff Moore he anybody remember Jeff Moore in the distance anybody okay I see that hand praise God okay well he's my buddy he's my hunting buddy now and he's kind of like the David Hasselhoff of Christian music he's still rocking and rolling all over the world it's crazy all right like really big in in Canada, and I was listening to one of his songs called The Next Thing, and it just,

man, I am just sitting on my back porch crying a good cry. You ever get a good cry? Like, it's just like the Spirit of God, it's just flushing and flushing some junk in you out, and it's that moment where I'm like, oh, it's so good. You see, it's easy to trust God with a belly full of blessing, amen? Easy. In fact, it doesn't even require trust. That you ever been on the other side of that?

You ever just, the doubts come rushing in, and you pray and you pray and you pray, and it's not only like God doesn't answer, it's like your prayer doesn't even make it out of the room. You feel like your prayer just bounces off your ceiling and comes right back down on you. Or even worse, you feel like you're just sitting in there by yourself. Like, is anybody listening?

Am I all alone here? I mean, is this is what's going on? And you try to, you've got some serious theological questions. And you try to ask your Christian friends from your disciple group. And honestly, what you find out is they don't know. And they just dodge all your questions with some kind of little kitsy bumper sticker thing. Well, what do you do when the doubts come creeping in? Can we just testify anybody ever have some doubts?

Yeah. Me too. Me too. There are times where in my prayer times, I feel like if I open my eyes real fast, I'll see the Lord. And then there are other times where I'm like, are we just making this up? I mean, I'm going to be honest. I can remember I was in high school and we had this foreign exchange student come in, and she was real cute. And my ministry in high school was the lead cute girls to Jesus.

And so I took her out to dinner. And that's the whole story. I didn't have no money. She ordered like the filet. And I was like, I'll just have a salad. Anyway, that's not the point. She was from West Berlin. She had absolutely no understanding of the Bible whatsoever,

and I got saved at camp, and I was going to lead her to Christ at dinner that night. And so I'm trying to tell her about Jesus, and she's like, I've kind of heard of him, but I don't get it. And so then I had to back up and kind of keep backing up. And she didn't know the difference in the Old Testament

and the New Testament, so she was just like, can you just tell me beginning the end, the whole thing? And I don't remember sitting there. It's like a 17-year-old, be like, okay, so in the beginning there was nothing. and then God created light, and there was still nothing, but you could see it. And then he made some people, and they were naked, and that was cool. And then there was like a snake, and then they ate, and there was an ark,

and there's a temple, and the dead lambs everywhere. And then Jesus came, and he died on the cross. He resurrected on the third day, and then he went to heaven, and he's coming back on a horse. And I remember thinking, I sound like a crazy man. This is, and she says to me, this is what you believe? I went, yeah, I do, I do. You want to come? I mean, that was it, right?

So what do you do? What do you do when it doesn't make sense? I mean, it's one thing to trust God after he feeds 5,000 and he walks on water. You see a miracle and your belly's full of blessing, but what do you do when it doesn't make sense? That's what John 6 is all about, the second half of it. We're going to pick it up in verse 22.

We're going to read like 50 verses. so this might be a lock-in. All right, here we go. On the next day, so this is right after two big miracles, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat with its disciples, but that his disciples had gone away along.

Other boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and they went to Copernium, seeking Jesus. Now, again, at this point, their bellies are full, Jesus just walked on water, everything is lovely, no faith required. Honestly, what's happening here, it's just consumerism and convenience. Like, it doesn't take a lot of trust in God when God decides to do all the things that you wanted him to do anyway. That's where they are so far.

Verse 25. Now when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? And Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life,

which the son of man will give you, for on him God the Father, has set his seal. In other words, Jesus is saying, don't follow me to make much of you. That's not what it means

to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. And what you're actually doing right now is you were just following me for you, and what you can get out of it. Instead of following me for me.

And essentially what Jesus is going to get into when he starts talking about having your belly's full is that your desires are temporary, and my desire for you is eternal. C.S. Lewis is famous for saying, our problem is not that our desires are too big. Our problem is that we are satisfied with so little

that you and I can be like children making mud pies in the streets of the ghetto while our parents offer to us a holiday at the beach and we are satisfied with just playing in the mud. This is what Jesus has said. that you are seeking after the temporary, another miracle, another sign, and what my desire for you is eternal. And so they reply to them. Then they say to him, what must we do? By the way, that's the foundation of every religion. What must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus answered

them, this is the work of God. And they're all ready for this, that you, you're going. believe in him who he has sent. In other words, what Jesus is saying is, what you do is to believe in what I will do. Now for us, it's past tense because it is finished. It has been done. And what we are to do, to be doing the works of God, is that we are to believe in him and his finished work on the cross. Now, there's a big difference between believe that and believe in. The Greek word is Pistuo, I honestly wish it wasn't translated, believe in our English Bibles because almost every Southerner, he goes, of course I believe in God. Like I believe in NASCAR and college football, you know. But that's not what he's talking about here. My three favorite illustrations to use is when my dad would

take me to the pool when I was a kid and he would get in the water of the Dillon County public pool, and I would get on the diving board and he would invite me to jump into the pool. And I couldn't swim. to Pistuo does it mean to acknowledge that that's my father? Yep, there he is. With the magnumpeye mustache and the cool part, that's him. I'm still not believing in him. I'm still believing in me. I'm going to stay here on the diving board.

It is not until I step off of the diving board into his arms and receive that invitation. That's the kind of belief. Believe in and believe that. They're different. Like, I believe that. My second illustration I like to use. I believe that there is a college football team down in Gainesville. And even their Savior comes to our church.

But even with his influence, I do not believe in that team at all. Or a third illustration I like to use is that the way Jesus uses this word believe or Pistuo is that you are believing in your chair right now. And the way I know that is because you have shifted the weight of you onto the chair, and you are trusting that the chair will hold you up. Even if you can't remember shifting your weight, even if you have an engineering degree and you know all things about chairs, or if you know nothing about a chair but you decided to sit on it, then you have believed in the chair. I currently am not believing in a chair because I am holding up my weight. This is what Jesus is saying. What should you do? This is what you do.

You put your trust, your faith, your belief in the finished work of Jesus. And so they said to him, then what sign do you do? That we may see and believe you. What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Now here's the thing. when you are chasing signs and wonders, or another way to say this, is when you are chasing favorable

circumstances, it will never be enough. They just had 12 baskets full left over the previous day. And the crazy thing about feeding our appetites is that they're never fully and finally satisfied. They come back stronger and stronger and stronger. And when we search for circumstantial blessings, it will never be enough. but when you trust, when you Pestuo, when you believe in Jesus, he is always enough no matter what the circumstances are. This is what Jesus is getting at. And I think, just a little bit of conjecture on my part,

maybe Jesus is over it right now because he's going to dial up the preaching intensity to attend. You see, they're using the Old Testament to try to press Jesus. If you are who you say you are, then what are you going to do for us? Because Moses gave our first. father's manna from heaven. So how about you, Jesus? What can you give us? Again, the day after he just did

the miracle. And so here's what Jesus says. Jesus says to them truly, truly, I say to you. And in John, when he says truly, truly, he's like, buckle up buttercup, because I'm about to get all up in your business. That's a paraphrase. Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. He's saying, what you think you need is only a shadow of the actual meat. Like you think it's a physical itch that you need to scratch, but in reality you have an eternal itch that only the God of the universe can scratch.

And he says in verse 33, For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. You see, the crazy thing about us as humans is we can get so fixated on the temporary and think that the things this world has to offer is what we actually need.

Rich Mullen says, the stuff of earth competes for the allegiance that I owe only to the giver of all good things. I've been into some 80s worship this week. I don't know what's going on with me, but... Yeah, the stuff of earth competes for the allegiance that I owe only to the giver of all good things. So here is the Son of God,

the author of Life and Life, eternal and life abundant. And they're like, hmm, maybe I can get some more bread that we are so focused on the temporary things. And so they say, give us this bread always. And then Jesus says to them, I am the bread of life. And whoever comes to me shall not hunger

and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Now, when he says this phrase right here, I am the bread of life. The Jewish leaders here, they lost their, mind. And here's why. It's hard to even, it's hard to even convey it in English really well. In Exodus chapter 3, Moses is tending his sheep. Actually, it's his father-in-law sheep. He had a little rough go at it, okay? He killed a guy. He's on the run. Didn't want to get caught. So, I don't know what your past is, but you were never disqualified from being used of God. Amen? And so Moses

is working for his father-in-law of all people, right? And he's walking around and a bush catches on fire, and he sees it, and he's like, that's crazy. And then it doesn't even. And then it doesn't even burn up. So it's just the eternal flame, all right? And so he's like, I'm going to go check this out. And as he walks up to it, the bush talks to him out loud. Moses, Moses, take off your sandals because you're standing on holy ground. By the way, Moses has been walking around that same ground for 40 years. And I always think Moses is thinking, did it just become holy ground? Has it been holy ground? I missed it for 40 years. Like, have you been trying to get my attention? And I haven't been paying attention what's going on here? And God Almighty,

speaks to Moses through the burning bush and says, Moses, I want to, I need you, I don't need you, I am going to choose you to do for me what I want you to do. You're going to go to Pharaoh's house and say, let my people go. And then he asked this question, all right, Lord, after a lot of back and forth, if they ask me who sent me, who should I say sent me? And God gives him his name. In Hebrew, it's called the tetragram. It's just four letters. And it's just, We pronounce it Yahweh. Actually, some people pronounce it haya, like a karate chop, all right? But in Hebrew, what is supposed to sound like is an inhale and an exhale.

Yahweh. And it's translated in English, either I am that I am, or my favorite is, I be what I be. And God's name in English, his covenant name, would be I am. Which, by the way, makes a whole lot of sense when you get to heaven and you find out that the elders and the angels surround his throne and they constantly sing who was and is and is to come. Because there is no past and future for the great I am. He is the eternal present. That's just what his name is. It's not like he's been and going to be.

He just am. He is, he be. And he says, you tell them I am sent me. All right. Everybody listening knows the Moses story. Seven times in the book of John, Jesus is going to make an I am statement. But don't get lost on what he says he is,

like I am the Red of Life, and I am the resurrection in a life, and I am the way the truth in the life are seven of them. But when he says this, what they hear is Yahweh, the bread of life. this is why they're freaking out. And so Jesus says to them, I am the bread of life, and whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. In other words, Jesus is saying, Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything. If you get all that this world has to offer and you miss Jesus, you lose everything. And if you lose everything but you get Jesus, you have everything. He says, but I said to you that you have seen me and yet you don't believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. By the way, that's unconditional election and irresistible grace for you, Calvinist. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. That's perseverance of the saints.

In other words, by the way, that sentence right there is why a bunch of you are here and why a bunch of you are tuning in. Like some of you are online, you just think you're bored and you've got nothing to do, and little do you know right now that the empirical evidence that you're going to watch, You watched last week, you're watching this week, you're going to watch next week. It's because God Almighty is drawing you in. Good luck. For I have come down, this is very important, that Jesus came on a rescue mission.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father. that everyone who looks on the sun and believes Pestuo is that word in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. This is Jesus' gospel invitation to this big old crowd. He's saying for everyone who believes, everyone who believes, trusts that when Jesus dies on the cross,

when he is lifted up, did that count it for them, for everyone who does that. will be saved. It's an illusion back to numbers when Moses got the people out into the, and they're wandering around in the wilderness, and they get all snake bitten one day, and everybody has poison running through their veins, and Moses says to God, what are we going to do about this? And so God says, you take a fiery or a bronze serpent and you lift it up, and anyone who looks at the bronze serpent high and lifted up, they will be saved, not from the outside end by their works, but from the inside out. Jesus talks about this in John chapter 3, and he alludes to it here again, that every single one of us, we are all snake-bitten, that we have the venom of poison running through our veins.

And this is not an outside end problem. You can't just rub ointment on it to make it better. Something has to happen from the inside out, and what has to happen is that we have to trust that Jesus is the cure. This is what he's talking about. So here's the gospel invitation. Now, I think the reason he's laying out what faith is, first of all is to counter the consumerism that's happening. That he's like, hey, hey, hey, quit chasing after the temporary bread.

I am the bread of life. And I also think he's going to lay this foundation of faith in him, and it's going to set us up for how do we handle doubts in a minute. So verse 41. So the Jews, now when you read this, you can't think like, just think religious people. Honestly, in our context, it would be church people. The people that have been in church the longest. So the religious people, they grumbled about him. Because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

And they said, is this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? You see, the reason they grumble about Jesus is because he does not fit in their religious box. Because he did not come to be another religious leader. He came on a rescue mission, to redeem, and to start a revolution that will be defined by love. And they don't get it. And they're like, how did he ain't a bread of life? I know where he's from.

He's from nowhere. He's from Nazareth. That'd be like being from Palacca. You'd be like, who, what? And Jesus, answer them, do not grumble among yourself. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

Here's what he's saying. to these religious people. You cannot simultaneously say that you love the father and reject the son, because the father and the son are one. You can't say, I love God, but I ain't into Jesus. Jesus says it doesn't work that way. Verse 46, not that anyone has seen the father

except he who is from God, he has seen the father. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. There's the gospel in one sentence. Whoever puts their trust, not in their own works, works of Jesus on the cross, you have eternal life. And then he says, I am the bread of life.

Jesus says, you want a sign? I got your son. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world. I think there was a dramatic pause there for effect, and he says, is my flesh. So he's going to double down on this whole bread of life analogy. Okay? And you can imagine the people are looking at him saying, what are you saying?

The bread of life is his flesh, verse 52. And so then the Jews, the religious people, they didn't dispute it among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Now they are thoroughly confused. Now don't read ahead. But what do you think Jesus is going to do right here? It seems like if he's the head of a ministry that's going really good, by the way, right? I mean, he just started, what, a year ago?

And he's got probably 20,000 people cruising with him now. And he's got miracles happening, and he's walking on water. And people are like, what do you mean? How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So does he clear up the confusion? No, he doubles down on this seemingly crazy talk. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man

and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And I bet at one point, I bet the disciples were taking notes and one of them went, mm, wait, what? What did he say? Did you get flesh and blood? Hold on. I don't remember this when we got invited to come and see. I don't remember this when he said, drop your nets and follow after me. What did he say? And maybe one of the other disciples was like, hold on just a second. I'm sure he'll explain it. Like he's, you know, it's probably just an analogy, like when he's a, you know, scattering seed and he's a light and he's a city. Just give it a second. It'll all make sense. And they're like, okay, okay, they got the nose back out. And Jesus doesn't explain it. He makes it worse. Everybody's like, did he just say we got to eat his flesh and drink his blood?

By the way, in Jewish law, you couldn't drink any blood, and you couldn't even eat a steak medium rare because you had to drain all the blood out of it. So therefore, by the way, anybody that eats a steak beyond medium well, that's an Old Testament steak. You need to believe the gospel and eat it with the blood in it because Jesus has set us free from those laws. Amen? Sorry. So what's he going to say? Here's what he said.

Whoever feeds on my flesh. Like to eat, it's like just take a bite, right? Taste this. And he's like, no, no, no, no. Not just take a bite. Whoever feeds on my flesh. Every time I read this whole next section, all I can think of is the walking dead.

Listen, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my body is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I and him as the living thing. Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread of the Father's ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Copernum. And everybody's just sitting there with their mouths wide up. I bet the disciples are like Jesus, you have totally gone overbole. on your illustration. Okay? All this feeding on your flesh.

And I'm telling you, everybody there is like, what is he talking about? Now, this is something that's just true. It's not easy, but it's just true. If you really follow Jesus long enough, and I'm not talking about just go to church and listen to some Christian music

when it's convenient and that kind of thing. I'm talking about if you really follow Jesus, at some point, he is going to go too far in your life and completely disrupted. He just is. It's going to be your plans. Look, I was going to go to med school.

And he went, no, got all in there and messed me up. Now look at what we do, all right? It's going to be your money because you thought it was all yours. And the more you think it is all yours, the more he's going to mess you up when he gets all, I mean, what business is it of Jesus to get up in your bank account? Well, if he's your Lord, he's going to say, well, that's all my business.

He's going to get up in your relationships. You're going to find him just creeping around your bedroom, telling you what you can and can't do. He's going to tell you who you have to forgive, and you know they don't deserve it. And you're like, hold on now, Jesus. I'm cool with going to heaven because I believe in you. But what is all this jacking around with my life

and the way I want to live stuff? You follow him long enough, and he will go too far, and just pay attention to this. Surrender and submission are not a reality until you disagree and don't like it. Up to that point, it's just convenient that God is doing the things you would hope he was going to do in your life. But what do you do the moment he asked you to do what you don't want to do? This is what they're doing here. Now look what happens next. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard.

saying, who can listen to it. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, he said to them, do you take offense at this? And they were like, uh, yeah. And I'm sure they're like, can you explain this? Well, he kind of does. But you've got to be on the other side of the resurrection for it to make any sense. He says, then what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before?

It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh, he's talking about your flesh, my flesh, is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life, 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. And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my father. Verse 66. And after this, many of his disciples turned back. and no longer walk with him.

You see, a lot of people sitting there thought, this is not what we signed up for. We signed up for the miraculous feeding. We signed up to hear lessons, okay? But this is too much. I don't understand. So I'm out. You see, they didn't want Jesus.

They wanted full bellies. They wanted their needs met. They wanted to know, Jesus, what can you do for me? What they wanted was understanding and to be comfortable. And I'm just going to tell you, if you want to be comfortable, don't be a Jesus follower. He never promises it. Actually, he does. When you're dead, you will be so comfortable forever and ever and ever.

But from here to there, it is war. It is war. Now, imagine what the 12 were thinking. These guys over here taking notes. He was like, okay, yeah, I didn't just eat my flesh. I got feed on my flesh and drink. He said it 11 times. What is he doing?

And I can imagine, this is not in the Bible, I'm all making all this up. I can imagine the disciples having a little private conversation. I'm like, Peter, would you go talk to him? I mean, I think the rabbi is tired or something. And by the way, look, man, we are losing our market. Everybody's leaving. I mean, we were up to like 20,000 and they just leaving. Maybe we should just call a timeout.

You know, Peter, could you step up there and be like, all right, Jesus, timeout? Hey, guys, hold on. I'm so sorry. He is so tired because he walked here on water last night. and I'm sure you're hungry, so if you're just in the back, we've got 12 baskets full of leftovers from the miraculous feeding yesterday, so why don't y'all have a little bit of that? And I can imagine, you know, in their minds, they're like,

Jesus, what are you doing? What's with the crazy, eat the flesh, drink the blood stuff? This ain't going good at all. Jesus, why don't you, here, get back on message, okay? Tell another story about like a dad and a kid that runs off and is terrible and comes home in part A, or do a miracle. Like, let's go find a dead person. Let's bring them back.

They love that. Or make fun of the Pharisees. That pulls better than everything else. Like, when you dig on the religious leaders, it makes all of us feel so much better. Why don't you do that? In 67. So none of that happened. I just made all that up.

But that's what I'd be thinking. So Jesus said to the 12, all that was set up for this part. Jesus says to the 12th, these are like the main guys. do you want to go away as well he sees people leaving because they don't understand what he's talking about and he looks at him and he goes so do you want to leave too and the reason he asked is because why because they were like I think we're going to walk away but there's people that walk away from Jesus all the time for all kind of different reasons have you ever been there have you ever felt like you need God to explain himself. I mean, you don't understand what's going on. And I'm not

talking about little goofy stuff. And I'm not talking about like a sermon you didn't understand. I'm talking about somebody you loved died and you prayed your face off and they died. And you say, God, I don't, why not? Or you lost a child. Or you can't get pregnant. Or you're still single. And you tell everybody at church, no, Jesus is enough. but every service you come to, you've got to like six of them, just looking around all the time. And yet when you get home, you just feel alone where they don't want to be married anymore.

Or you've got a prodigal son or your parents let you down. Where it goes on and on and on, right? Man, I have been protected in my life for sure, but there's a few spots. Right when I got saved, my parents got divorced. and you know for those of us that are older and it wasn't pretty and when you're a teenager and you're the people that are supposed to act right ain't acting right towards each other and the collateral damage is everything and i just beg god could you put them back together

another time many of you know this story there was a 15 year old girl 10 years ago at 1122 that got saved. Four weeks later, she's in Wollsons with a brain disease. And I walk into the hospital room, me and Pastor Ben Williams, walk into the hospital room and meet her family, who are now like family to us. And, man, I had it all figured out. I had it all figured out. All right, Lord, how about this? Okay? How about I roll in, pray you just get her up out the bed for the sake of this family. And the thousands of kids that are watching this will point to you, give you all the glory, everybody gets saved, boom, what's up? My plan sounds perfect, right? And you could do it.

I know you could do it. You healed a lady in the book of John. You didn't even know you did it. You're healing people by accident. How about, let's do this one on purpose. Come on, God. Four days later, she died. And you think, could you explain yourself? Could you explain yourself? A friend of mine just this past year, lost his 14-year-old son. I got a 14-year-old son. tragic accident. I don't get it. I've told you this before. My brother and sister-in-law, they were scared to death to have a baby because something might go wrong. She's 36 weeks pregnant,

doesn't feel him moving. Goes through the doctor, no heartbeat. She has to deliver him, and he ain't alive. And I'm like, could you explain yourself? Please? These parents, they're going to be awesome, man, they love you. They just want to raise a kid up into your church, right? Make a disciple. Help me understand how the least fit humans on the planet are the most fertile. It's true. And the people seemingly that would be awesome oftentimes have the hardest time. God, what are you doing? I thought we had a little close call the other day, okay? I'm supposed to be in Jamaica right now. And so since all that got messed up, we decided to get a beat, a little place at the beach this week for a couple days. And was it last night?

Last night. Reagan ordered some fettuccini Alfredo room serves. And Gretchen and I are about to go meet some friends for dinner. We're just sitting on the couch, having a devotion. Actually, we were watching the office, but don't think less of us. And Reagan's just eating. And y'all, she turns around and she's choking, like real choking, not like cough choking. and she's just panicky, okay?

And so I pop up and I grab her, Gretchen gets behind her and is giving her to the Heimlich six times, seven, it ain't coming. As my family talks about it, we think it was about 20 seconds. My thought was, Lord, please don't make me prove that I believe this sermon that I've been working on all week right now. That's the thought I was having. As I reach in her mouth, Fetuccini-A-Fredo goes down,

And she was like, I'm okay. And then she cried, Gretchen cried, and I cried. You ever been there? Come on, man. If you've lived life, then you've been in some place where it just doesn't make sense. Now, here's the crazy thing about what's happening in John chapter 6. The crazy thing about John chapter 6

is Jesus could have just explained it to everybody in a minute. Jesus could have just went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on. You don't have to eat my flesh, okay? in a few weeks, I'm going to institute the Lord's Supper. What you do as Passover is going to be a thing we do at church forever. And what I'm actually talking about is the gospel. Okay? I'm not saying you've got to bite into my forearm.

I'm talking about some Welch's grape juice or, you know, if you're Episcopalian, the leaded stuff. But it's just that. And it's like, it's not like flesh, flesh. It's like a little Jesus, like a little cracker that gets stuck in the roof of your mouth. It's going to be awesome. Trust me. Give it a few months, this will all make sense. Because on this side of the resurrection, we know what he's talking about.

He's actually talking about the gospel. And communion, the Lord's Supper, is given to us so that we can remember the gospel. That's what it is. And he decides to explain zero. Zero. Now, the crazy thing is, is on the other side of the resurrection, all of this makes sense.

Just like one day, on the other side of eternity, all of our pain and answer questions will make sense in light of Romans 828 for God is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. But until then, I'm just telling you, sometimes it don't make sense.

So he looks at the 12. You want to leave two? Because I think they wanted to leave. Now, here's where we get to the loud mouth. Peter speaks up first, of course. and he nails it. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. And if I could add commentary to what Peter is thinking, and I have no idea what you're talking about right now. I don't understand what this eating the flesh and drinking the blood stuff.

it's about. What are you doing? I don't understand why you're killing our ministry. It was going so good. But I've looked around at all the other options and leave you. Yeah, we thought about it. But where are we going to go? Well, we're just going to drink our sorrows away? That don't work. We're going to put our trust in some kind of other relationship. Instead of putting our trust in the holy one, the sinless one, we're going to put our trust in some other sinful people and watch them let us down. What, are we going to put our trust in our career and try to make much of ourselves? Are we going to try to put our trust in our own brains and try to explain all the things that God decided? He wasn't going to explain to us.

You see, here's the thing. To walk away from you, Jesus, we got to turn and walk to someone or something else. And you alone offer eternal life. I've been doing this for a long time, 20-something years. And I've seen a whole bunch of people for a whole bunch of reasons. that used to walk with Jesus, walk away from him. And you know what I find over and over and over and over? None of their questions get answered.

They just walk away from the loving arms of a heavenly father that would love them enough to send a perfect Savior to die on the cross for them, and they walk into a trap that lets them mount over and over and over. And those who believed in Jesus always come back. They just come back with a bunch of scars. and they come back with a bunch of regrets, and they come back with a bunch of pain. You see, you've been down that road before.

You have. And when God doesn't act the way you think he ought to act, and when we, because we have doubts and we have unanswered questions and what about, you've been down that road before, and you know where it ends up and you don't want to go down it anymore. So what do you do?

What do you do with doubts, unanswered questions, you pick them up and you follow after Jesus because he's the only one that offers eternal life. That's what faith is. That's just what faith is. So if you've got doubts, I've got good news, you can make your great disciple. Exhibit A. The disciples doubted the resurrection at first. It's kind of the whole thing. And yet what they continuously did is they picked up their doubts, they picked up their unanswered questions. When they couldn't figure out what science says about this, there are answers to all these things. very smart people have been studying it for thousands of years.

But what it comes down to is simply this, putting your faith and trust in Jesus. Because if you do this long enough, if you pick up your doubts and you pick up your unanswered questions and you follow after Jesus, one day they all go away. Not next Tuesday when you find an explanation on YouTube, but when you get to heaven, no more doubts. No more.

Now we see dimly. Then we will see clearly. We will know in full. We will see somehow in our glorified states, we will understand how God used our pain, our unanswered questions, our doubt, the toughest time in our lives for his own glory. And until then, we just say it is well. Toby Mack from D.C. talk. This is a 90s Christian theme sermon, okay? I know most of you don't know who he is. That's probably okay. Jesus freak. He's a Jesus freak. they lost their son this past year, October 2019.

It's 20 years old. He was found dead at their house. A day later, on social media, he puts like a tribute to his kid. And he ends it with these words. My wife and I would want the world to know this, that we don't follow God because we have some under the table deal with him

like we'll follow you if you bless us. We follow God because we love him. It is our honor. He is the God of the hills and the valleys, and he is beautiful above all things. When your doubts rush in, you don't look to your circumstances, you look to the cross.

And so the way we're going to close is we are going to remember the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. hopefully you picked up your elements on the way in for those of you worshiping at home if you would grab those elements whatever they are this is a part of what jesus was talking about in john 6 now when he says unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part with me he did not mean unless you take communion you have no part with me he means unless you receive the gospel so for those of you that are new here with us and you've got your corona cups there in front of you so nobody

else touches them and all of that there's a little film on the top that is incredibly difficult to open and especially if you have my eyes so start now and it'll sound like the rustling of angels wings as we try to get these things open okay and even with this man I'm just going to tell you I don't love the little individual cup things you know and it's just a reminder once again that it's not our works of how we do communion that matters. What we're remembering is Christ's finished work on the cross. And so on the night that he was betrayed, his disciples have gathered around him,

and he takes the bread, and he broke it. And he said, this is my body broken for you. And he's talking about when he goes to the cross, the wrath of God would be poured out on him, and his body would be broken. broken for the forgiveness of our sin. And he says, and as often as you do this, as often as you come together and as often as we celebrate

the gospel and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we remember this. We remember that Christ's brokenness should have been our brokenness. And this is like you break bread in order to serve it, and you put bread in your mouth, and you grind it up and you chew it up, it to work in your body, then Jesus, the Lamb of God, the perfect holy one, son of God, he was sent here, came on a rescue mission, he was broken and ground up on the cross of Jesus Christ

to receive what you and I deserve. And then he says, you don't ever forget that. You see, because if you forget it, then you'll quit looking at the cross and you'll start looking at your circumstances. And when your circumstances don't go right, then you'll be tempted to say, God, do you even care? But when you remember the broken body of Christ on the cross, then you will remember that God demonstrated his love for us and this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That's what we're remembering. And so as often as you eat of this, you do so in remembrance of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then he keeps going. Again, Jesus didn't explain this either, by the way, in the moment. I don't think any of this makes any sense to any of the disciples until after the resurrection of Jesus, and then it all makes sense. The cross, the trial, the flogging, the death of the Son of God,

they thought, what are you doing God? And little did they know that God didn't decide to explain himself there, but he proved himself with the empty tune. And Jesus holds up the cup and says, this is the cup of the new covenant. The old covenant was based on the law. The new covenant is the reality that none of us can obey the law.

So Jesus came and obeyed every comma and period and punctuation mark of every single point of the law. And he lived a perfect life. He was sinless in every way, though he was tempted, just like every single one of us. And then God made him,

who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. And when his blood was poured out for anyone who would believe that that counted for them, then that blood pours over us and washes all of our sin away and washes us white as snow.

And we get a new name and we get a new identity and we get a new future. And that is good news. And that is the new covenant. covenant of grace. Not because we deserved it, but because God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to pour his blood for us. And anyone who believes would be saved. And he says, and as often as you drink of this cup of mine, you do so in remembrance of me. Now in the New Testament, the Bible says that when the church would gather to celebrate communion, they would examine themselves, they would

give thanks, and then they would leave singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. and so would you please stand I'm going to pray and then we're going to sing our good and grace is Heavenly Father God I pray for every man-woman student that is a part of this worship experience

at any time when God it seems like everything is out of control when it seems like you aren't doing what we wanted you to do God when we're walking through pain when we have questions that we can't figure out,

Lord, would you root us in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Like Peter, may we just pick up our questions? May we pick up our doubts? May we pick up our confusion? And may we just follow after Jesus. And God, we thank you that the faith to do that comes from you. So we don't have to muster it up on our own,

but that you are the giver of faith. And God, we ask, even if it's just a mustard seed size, fate, that's enough to move mountains. And God, for those that are walking in the middle of it right now, and they're checking the door thinking, maybe I do walk away, maybe because they felt mistreated or misunderstood or whatever it may be, God, I pray that they would look around at the options and understand to walk away from you is to walk towards something else, and you were the only one that offers eternal life. And God, I thank you that you still have the whole world in your hand. For those folks, God, I pray that.

that the Holy Spirit of God will give us a peace that transcends understanding and that we could say it is well, it is well with our soul. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, we pray, we bring, and we sing. So I would encourage you to lean in at the heart level, to make this song a prayer to God. And if you're struggling right now,

and if you're in a place where Jesus could rightfully say you don't want to leave two, do you? Then you would pick up your doubts, you'd pick up your circumstances, you'd pick up your questions, and you would once again take a faith step towards him, that it may be well with our soul. Let's respond.