Are You Going To Leave?

Tim Ross | June 27, 2021

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Transcription

I'm so grateful to be with you all and so honored to be able to share the word of God in front of my spiritual father and mama. I'm grateful that they decided to swoop in and be here. I wish I had times for more formalities, but I have a lot of scripture to read, so get your Bibles. I want you to go to the gospel according to Saint John chapter number six, the gospel according to Saint John chapter number six. We are concluding our series for the month of June on Discipleship 101. I feel like there have been some people that have become better disciples of Jesus. You've drawn closer to Jesus.

You've received some calibration from scripture, talking about Jesus and you're ready to go out and be a better disciple overall. Is there anybody besides me? It's good. We're just going to end strong. This is not like one of those messages is going to end up here, it's going to end right there, and I'm aiming straight for your heart on this one. I'm reading 49 verses straight and you're going to deal with it. For some of you all just been slacking on your devotion, this is your catch-up. Gospel according to Saint John chapter number six, starting at the 22nd verse, I would try to read it with as much inflection and excitement as I can so that you do not get bored, but I need you to hear Jesus's tone as we read this.

Just to give you some backdrop, he has just fed at least 5,000 men, not including women and children. He has walked on the water and now he is on the other side of the lake. Picking up from the 22nd verse, let's go. The next day, I just wanted to set your mind. The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. Several boats from Tiberius landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into their boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him.

They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" Jesus replied, "I'll tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you not because you understood the miraculous signs." Can we just pause? Good morning to you too, Jesus. We just traversed the other side of the lake and this is how you greet us? We're happy to see you too. Don't be so concerned about perishable things like food, spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the son of man can give you, for God the Father, has given me the seal of his approval. They replied, "We want to perform God's works too, what should we do?"

Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you, believe in the one he has sent." They answered, "Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe, what can you do?" Can we pause? What's with the amnesia? Didn't they just get fed a free lunch yesterday that they didn't know where they came from? They didn't see any food trucks. There was no fish fries, just food and bread just kept coming. How quickly we can forget God's miracles? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness. The scripture say, "Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat." Jesus said, "I'll tell you the truth, Moses didn't give you bread from heaven, my Father did." Uh-oh.

Now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. "Sir," they said, "give us this bread every day." Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty, but you haven't believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me not to do my own will. This is the will of God that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day. Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven?" They said, "Isn't this Jesus the son of Joseph? We know his daddy and his mama. How can he say, 'I came down from heaven'?" Jesus replied, "Stop complaining about what I said."

I just got to walk that one off real quick. "I didn't know you were listening, Jesus." For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent him draws them to me, and at the last day, I will raise them up. As it is written in the scriptures, they will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has ever seen the Father, only I who was sent from God have seen him.

I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life, yes. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, anyone who eats this bread will live forever. This bread which I will offer so the world may live is my flesh.

Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They asked. Jesus said again, let's count, "I tell you the truth unless you eat my flesh, eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you, but anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me. In the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven, and anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did even though they ate the manna but will live forever."

He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Many of his disciples said, "This is hard to understand. This man just told us to eat him. This is hard to understand. I usually track with point one of every message but this one's hard, when point one is, 'Eat me.' I try to track with my pastor but wow, when the second point is 'drink me'. I'm not sure I'm sticking around for the third point."

How can anyone accept it? Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining so he said to them, "Does this offend you?" [laughs] Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? The spirit alone gives eternal life, human effort accomplishes nothing. The very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life, but some of you do not believe," for Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn't believe, and he knew who would betray him. Then he said, "That is why I said that people can't come to me unless the Father gives them to me."

At this point, many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the 12 and asked, "Are you also going to leave?" Simon Peter replied, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe and we know you are the holy one of God." Is this not the most amazing response? Check Jesus's answer to this.

Then Jesus said, "I chose the 12 of you but one is a devil." Sir, you are having a grumpy day. You are lion and lamb, and today, you are more lion than you are lamb. He was speaking of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot. One of the 12 who would later betray him. Ladies and gentlemen, you survived 49 verses you should give yourselves a hand.

Verse number 67 is what I'm intrigued by. Then, Jesus turned to the 12 and ask, "Are you also going to leave?" This is the question that I think my assignment is to end this discipleship series on, are you going to leave? Are you going to leave? Bow your heads, let's pray over the words, shall we? "Holy Spirit, please help us not to leave. Amen."

I want you to imagine what it must be like to have devoted your life to Jesus Christ, made the type of commitment that literally alters everything you say, everywhere you go, and all the things that you do. Imagine being so committed to Jesus that no matter where you wind up with him, you never choose to leave him.

Over the last month, we've talked about Matthew's perspective, Mark's perspective, Luke's perspective, and now we get a glimpse into John's perspective. The beloved disciple, the one who lived the longest, and the one who had a perspective on all three and a half years of his earthly ministry recorded in scripture, not just the last year. Amazing miracles has happened since he's been on this journey with Jesus, adventures have exploded all around him in this particular chapter. After this miraculous feeding of over 5,000 people, they get on a boat, and when a storm breaks out, Jesus shows himself faithful to them by walking up to them on the water. Then those that were enamored by the miracles and wanted Jesus to be their king, have this back and forth dialogue with him that we just read that seems absolutely crazy from their standpoint that they can't see that he is already showed himself to be the Messiah.

Can you imagine arguing back and forth with Jesus after church in the synagogue about who he is, but when he says that he is the man that comes down from heaven, that it completely goes over your head? As he begins to zero in on what it is he wants you to know, things start to get awkward. I want your signs. I want your miracles. I want to hear what you have to say. Please tell me whatever you want me to do. We will do it. He says, "Okay, you're going to have to eat my flesh, and you're going to have to drink my blood." There are times in our lives, ladies and gentlemen, where Jesus hits us with a hard saying or we go through a hard trial, and he refuses to explain himself. Anybody beside me ever been on this journey with Jesus and got to a season of your life where you asked for clarity, and he refused to give it to you.

Anybody had the Lord tell you to do something, and you were like, "You cannot be talking to me. You know who I was when you called me, sir, you know, that's not what I do. You need to call my sister, Shelly, because she's sweeter than I am. She got saved in youth group when I was 11, I was clubbing until I was 32, sir. You can't be talking to me." He gives them a hard saying and refuses to elaborate. He makes them wrestle with it. Makes them wrestle with the feelings they have about what he has said. He overhears their disgust, their repulsiveness, their confusion about what he is saying. Does he literally mean he wants us to eat him? This is not biblical. This is not. I gave up my life for you but, sir, eating you seems a bit excessive, drinking you. I'm not going to be able to do this. He just sits there, refusing to elaborate, refusing to clear himself up. No preacher in America would leave this much tension in a room.

We would disclaim four, five times. Now stay with me now. Hey, I'm about to give you a point, but hey, before you leave, don't leave, don't leave, don't leave. I'm going to break it down. Just stay to the ink. I promise I'll fix it. I'll put [unintelligible 00:15:58]. Jesus is unlike American preachers.

Jesus tosses out a grenade and lets it blow up. He just smiles at you. Praise the Lord. What are you going to do with what I just said?

He says, they all turn around and like, what does he mean by that? Then he says it again five times. You're talking about being obnoxious? Point number one is eat my flesh. Point number two is drink my blood. Just want to reiterate point number one is eat my flesh and point number two is drink my blood. I don't know if you heard me, but point number one is eat my flesh, point number two, gulp it down. Point number one is you have to chew me up, completely digest me. Point number two, you're going to have to drink my blood.

The more he says it, the more repulsed they get. Can you imagine some people in the audience like, "Mm."

I have a very vivid imagination. I see everything people say and sometimes people describe stuff and I'm like, "Mm-mm, no, no, that's--" and the conversation is over. I didn't think you we going to say what you just said and now I'm repulsed. He leaves them with the weight and the sobriety of his words, didn't have the nerve to say, "Does what I said offend you?" How easily offended are you by Jesus's words? How easily are we offended by the hard sayings that he chooses to bring our way to see and to vet how far we are willing to go in our relationship with him? All of his disciples are standing around, the 12 that he chose, plus this extended amount of disciples that he has gathered all along the way. Like two weeks ago, when we had all of these platforms filled with people that were making a decision for Jesus, here it is just a few short days later, Jesus is now vetting their intentions of how far they're going to really go with them. He says these words and leaves them to contemplate what to do next.

In the confusion and the murmuring, in the discussions that are taking place, he says, "If this is offensive to you, then how is it going to look when I am taken up into heaven" To which I would have replied, "That part sounds cool. It's this eating you part that I have, you ascending, I'm all for that. Let me go with you. but this part?" Then it says many of his disciples walked away, just experienced a miracle, just got revelation. Now that they've been hit with a hard saying without even the decency to say goodbye, they turn around and they walk away.

What's amazing to me about this episode, ladies and gentlemen, is Jesus's response to those that are leaving. Nothing. I have never seen a leader more secure with themselves as Jesus was in this passage because after amassing so many disciples and people that wanted to follow him, it's this hard saying that gets them to walk away and he doesn't even bother trying to chase after them. He lets them walk. As they all begin to walk away, he turns to his original 12 and says, "Are you also going to leave?" Do you know how gangster this is?

I don't know too many pastors in America that would let half the church get up and walk out and go, "Do y'all want to join them?" Jesus let's all these people walk away and there's a revelation that you have to get in this moment because we love to sing worship songs like Reckless Love.

Oh, the overwhelming never-ending reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the 99

I couldn't earn it and

I don't deserve it

Here's what you must understand about that song. It is accurate if you're talking about someone who was lost. It is inaccurate if it's discussing someone who has left. I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that Jesus will always leave the 99 to go after who is lost, but he will never leave the 99 to go after who left

If you leave Jesus, you need to come back to him. He's not going to chase after you. The story of the prodigal son supports this fact. When the prodigal son took his inheritance and walked out the door, his daddy did not chase him. He did not send a rescue crew after him. He waited on the porch, he knows where I live. If you leave, this is the address you need to come back to if you come back to your senses, but I'm not coming there after you because I didn't leave you, you left me. Jesus sees all of these disciples walk away and then he turns to his original 12 and he says, "Do y'all want to join them?" Peter gives this incredible answer, this is the answer that you need to have if you're going to answer the same question, "Are you going to leave?" because I promise you there'll be enough things that happen in your life that will give you the temptation to go do something else. To go live a completely different way.

I have seen people that have proclaimed Jesus and said, "I am sold out to him," and had life hit them in such a horrific way. Had God request them to do something or to go through something that was so inconvenient they've chosen to walk away. I want to remind you with the remaining moments that I have left through Peter's words how you can be a disciple that doesn't go away when times get hard.

The first thing he says in verse number 68 is, "To whom would we go?" I love Peter's answer because what he is implying very strongly by this answer is I don't have a plan B. I gave my life to you and I am sold out to you to the point that I gave all of my other plans away. If you did say something crazy like eat my flesh and drink my blood, I have no idea what you mean by that, but where else am I going to go? I mean, at the end of the day, sir, if you think I need to eat your flesh, sounds difficult, but I'm about that life. I'm not leaving my relationship with you just because I don't understand what you said. I'm not relinquishing my relationship with you because the season I'm in is inconvenient for me. I am not leaving my relationship with you when times get hard. I will never relieve my relationship with you even in the darkest storms of my life. I don't care what is going on in and around me. I don't have a plan B.

Second thing he says is you have the words of eternal life. Not only do I not have a plan B, but there's no one else that speaks to me the way you do. Sure, you rebuked me, but you also loved me. You corrected me, but you also kept me. You put me in some scary situations, but you also gave me the strength to overcome every weaknesses I had. You have the only words that give eternal life. There's nowhere else that I want to be and there's no other voice I want speaking to me.

I'll never forget in 2004 when my brother died in a car accident. That was my hard saying. That was my hard season. I had never gone through anything as devastating as that. I remember being upset with the Lord. Here's what I found out about God during that time. He's not petty. I cried and I yelled and I blamed God. I'm like, "What are you even doing? I'm out here preaching for you and this is the thanks I get?"

I do a full-blown tantrum. God said, "Are you going to leave?" I mean, no.

Just saying. Sir, oh. It's just alone. You know what I'm saying? Like, "Uh." You're all sovereign and stuff and you know the stuff that I don't. I just don't like the fact because I like to know stuff a little bit. This is painful. I'm not sure I even want to preach for you anymore. You're going to leave? No, but you understand why I want to.

You have the words to eternal life. There's no one else that's going to give me better words than you can give me. There's nobody else that's going to guide my life the way you do. There's nobody that's going to speak to the very depths of my soul like you. You have the words to eternal life, and I need those words in my life.

The last thing he says, which is so demonstrative and strong, is we believe and we know you are the holy one of God. We believe and we know. The belief is faith. The we know is trust.

If you are going to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ that is able to withstand the vicissitudes of life, then you need to understand and know that there are going to be seasons where you have to exert faith and seasons when you have trust, and they are not the same. Faith is what you have when you don't know. Trust is what you have when you do know. Faith is what you exercise when you have no idea what's going to happen. Trust is when you stand on when you have empirical data that the same God that delivered me last year is the same God that would deliver me this year is the same God that will deliver me next year.

I've seen your faithfulness. I've seen your signs and wonders. I know what you're capable of. That's trust. How many of you know he will never let you get so far in your relationship that all you have is trust? There will be a hard saying. There will be a hard situation. There will be a hard circumstance. There will be a hard season where you have to place your faith back in him like you just met him. I've never been this way before, Lord. I have no idea what you are doing but I have faith. The sobering question, are you going to leave is a question that if you don't give yourself permission to answer then I submit to you that you might have a little bit of pride in thinking that you could never leave. Have you considered my servant, Joe? There's always going to be a situation or circumstance that tries your faith. This last message, I just want to encourage you all that you can pass the test by having the same perspective Peter had. Where else can we go? I do not have a plan B. You are the one that literally has the words to eternal life.

Lastly, we believe, and we know that you are the holy one of God.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your four-week series on Discipleship 101. It has been my pleasure and my honor to serve you for the month of June.

Sit down. You know I have to ask a question. Bow your heads, close your eyes. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? While you may not believe that there's any investigating that may have to happen in your heart, there could be a hard saying or something hard that God wants you to do that you may be apprehensive to peek into. I believe that every single person who has made a commitment to be a follower of Jesus Christ and become a disciple has good days and bad days, ups and downs, bright skies and storms.

It's not either-or, it's always both-and. On the days that it's the hardest and the seasons that it's the coldest, we must be reassured why we are with him lest we face the temptation like so many of his disciples past and present to walk away from him when times get hard. Holy Spirit, I pray that every single person under the sound of my voice that has committed to being a disciple of Jesus Christ can answer this question resolutely. Are we going to leave? May our hearts and our mouths respond with a resounding no for we are here to stay. In Jesus's name, amen.