Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : September 14, 2003
Feast on the Bread of Life
Pentecost 14
"No guts; no glory." That is a popular saying in our culture. It means that if you don't have the stomach for sticking with something when times are tough, you also won't reap the rewards when things get better. A runner might think of it when she's running every day, going through pain and sweat and injury -- it will all be worth it if she can bring home the trophy at the end of the season. A soldier might think of it on the battlefield, knowing he has to take out an enemy stronghold -- it will all be worth it if he survives and keeps others from dying. His glory is that he did what he was trained to do in protecting all the freedoms we enjoy in the U.S.
"No guts; no glory" can take on a spiritual dimension as well. Some people don't have the stomach for the words of the Bible -- they don't like to hear that they are completely sinful; or even that Jesus paid for their sins and that believing in him is the only way to heaven; that every Christian gives up their sinful thinking and their sinful ways and lives for God, not for themselves. Some people have no guts for that message; if so, they will have no glory in heaven because of it.
That is what happened in the words of Scripture before us. Jesus' words made many people turn away and never come back. Now Jesus invites you to Feast on the Bread of Life. As Jesus places the feast of his Word before us will we be among those who find God's Word hard to swallow, or among those who those who find God's Word hard to put down and keep coming back for more?
We find Jesus at the height of his popularity. He had just fed the 5000, and people wanted more of the same. But as they continued to follow him, they began to hear what his message was. Jesus presented them with a message that many of them found hard to swallow --that he was the Bread of Life and that by believing in him they have life. That didn't sit well at all with some. They were upset at the apparent narrow-mindedness and conceit of this peasant from Nazareth who claimed that everyone must believe in him in order to get to heaven. They said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" They left and never came back.
There are those who are still leaving the Savior's side and never coming back. For some, the teachings of the Bible are just too hard to swallow. They like to hear God's Word -- until it tells them something they don't like to hear. They think: "Who is God to tell me that I can't have sex outside of marriage?" "Who is God to say that homosexuality is a sin? What an unloving thing to say!" "Who is God to say that I can't drink as much as I want?" "Who is God to say that I should get into my Bible more than on Sundays? I'll do it when I want."
Even though that is the attitude of unbelievers, sadly, don't our lives show that kind of thinking from time to time? It's easy for us to live according to God's will when it suits us, but when God puts our lives in a bad light, we get defensive. We try to explain away those passages that convict us of sin, or we only listen to the portions of the Bible that we agree with and our lifestyle agrees with. Like any TV show that upsets or irritates us, we turn God off.
When people didn't like Jesus' words and started turning him off, do we see Jesus running after them, saying, "Don't leave. I'll change my message. I'll make it more like what you want to hear"? No. Jesus told them they were sinners who had rebelled against God. And many of them, like the Pharisees, left because they didn't want to hear about how bad they were and how much they had gone against God's will and how much they needed a Savior. Others left when Jesus said, "Believe in me as your Savior and your sins will be forgiven." They couldn't swallow that this nobody from Nazareth was the Savior.
The more thing change; the more they stay the same. Today, when Jesus tells us that he alone is the bread from heaven that gives eternal life to dead souls, some don't want to hear that. "How narrow-minded and arrogant to think that!" People don't want to hear: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) The current trend seems to be to determine what people want to hear and then deliver it. Keep the service light and the sermon short, and above all, don't bring up anything controversial like sin or hell or blood and death on a cross. Please! Those words are just too hard to hear on a pleasant Sunday morning -- or any other time, for that matter.
Have we begun to follow that trend -- the fewer words in the sermon, the better? The sooner church is over, the better? The less talk about sins, the better? The less talk about Jesus before a meeting, the better? People were not willing to listen to Jesus anymore, so he asked his 12 disciples: "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Brothers and sisters, that is exactly what we need to ask ourselves this morning. We have the Feast of Eternal Life before us. Have we heard all the words from Jesus that we need to hear? Do we not want to hear more of God's Word because we find some of God's Word hard to swallow? Or instead will we find God's Word hard to put down and keep coming back for more?
May we respond the way Peter did in our text: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." After listening to John's description of all these people leaving Jesus, Peter's words are refreshing. He took to heart what Jesus had said to the crowd: "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. "Our sinful flesh wants to tell us to listen only to what we want to hear in God's word. But Jesus says, 'Don't listen to your flesh, your ideas; listen to the Spirit. The Spirit gives life... The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.' Only by listening to Jesus' words, when they tell us how often we've violated God's law, are we ready to hear the words that tell us Jesus has taken care of everything in order to give us life forever, not the death we deserve.
His words are Spirit. What a comfort that is for us! It means that will never have to wonder whether or not the Holy Spirit is present and active among us. We don't need people rolling in the aisles or speaking in tongues or having visions of bleeding crucifixes. We don't even need to feel uplifted or even feel anything in particular. All we need are for Jesus' words to be preached and heard. And where that happens, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit is present and active.
His words are life. Each of us was called out of spiritual death into spiritual life by the Spirit working through His words. Jesus' words create faith and feed faith. Because of the faith they bring, those words will carry us through all the chaos and doubt and sin of our lives. They will even carry us past death. His words will take us to the grave and through the grave to the resurrection. His words raise us from death, to live a new and holy life before God right now, and to live eternally with God forever. Only Jesus' words give this.
I laughed at the story of a man who bought a prize hunting dog to track bear. The first time he took the dog out, no sooner had they entered the woods than he picked up a bear's scent. And the dog was off. Suddenly he stopped and sniffed and took off in another direction. He caught the scent of a deer which had crossed the bear's path. After awhile he was chasing a rabbit which had crossed the deer's path. Finally the man caught up to his dog, barking and growling and snarling at the hole of a field mouse.
Sometimes that happens to Christians. We want to keep Jesus first in our lives. We start with high resolve. Then our attention is diverted to things of lesser importance...making money, buying things, having fun in forms forbidden by God. One pursuit leads to another until we have strayed far from our original intent and purpose. That's why Jesus says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world...The world and all its desires pass away. But the man who does the will of god lives forever."
How do we live forever? Believing in Jesus. It will show as we follow his will in our lives. Knowing that Jesus has the words of eternal life and has given them to us through faith, there is no other place to go for the answers to life and death, heaven and hell, pain and sorrow and hurt, except to him who loved us enough to die for us. Trust him. Listen as he states and restates his forgiving love for you. Then tell him you love him and show it by your life of willing obedience to his will.
When his Word says, "Keep the marriage bed pure" by not having sex outside of marriage, follow that word, repent of the times you've abused God's gift of sex. See his cross and open tomb to know you're forgiven. Leave that sin behind you and see how much God blesses you when you follow his will. When God's word says, "Drunkards will not enter the kingdom of heaven," repent of the times you've followed your own desire instead of God's word. When God says, "I want you to be more than a 'Sunday Christian'," repent of the times you have been just that. See his cross and open tomb to know you're forgiven. Leave those sins behind you and see how much God blesses you when you follow his will.
No guts; no glory. Do you have the guts be a follower of Jesus and one who can't get enough of his word? Not many people in Jesus' day had the guts. But by God's grace and power, you have those guts -- it's called faith. Through that faith glory awaits you, as the Psalmist said, (Psalm 73:24) "Lord, You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory."
Feast on the Bread of Life -- Jesus Christ and his words. May our attitude toward God's Word be the same as the Apostle Peter's: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Amen.
