Title: Why People Follow Jesus
Text: John 6:35, 47-54, 60-69
Introduction:
1. Some because they like what he said
Luke 6:20-23 "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you, and insult you, and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man, Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven"
2. Some because they like what they saw
MIRACLES
John 2:9 - Changed water to wine
Luke 5:6 - Caused a miraculous catch of fish
Luke 4:35 - Delivered a demoniac in the synagogue
Matthew 8:3 - Cleansed the lepers
Luke 7:11 - Raised the widows son
Mt 8:26 Calmed the Storm
- walked on water
Mt 9:27 Caused the Blind to see
Mt 14 - Feed the 5000
Mk 7:34- Healed the deaf and the dumb
John 11 - Raised Lazarus from the dead
3. Others because he had what they needed for their lives
God is not so intrested in the quanity of disciples
as He is the quality of disciples
*Have you ever heard of evangelistic mathematics
that is a mathematics used by some ministers
It goes like this:
+ we have 45 people who are members
+ we have 65 on Sunday morning
that means we have about 100 in attendance
Why do that.
Because numbers are important to people.........
But God is concerned about quality.
In Judges 7 this truth is displayed.
Gideon summoned the men of Isreal to Battle against the Midianites, 32.000 answered the call.
But the Lord told Gideon that 32.000 was too many.
Gideon would have to "Down-size" his army
So Gideon sent home 22.000 men, but the Lord said 10.000 was still too many for him to work with.
So Gideon tested his men until he whitled the number down to 300
And that is the number that God used 300 quality men
(could 300 be better then 32.000)
Here in John Chapter six God is calling together men and women who will be his followers.
And there are 100’s upon 100’s who have answered the call.
They have come because he is a really good preacher
They have come because he is doing things that others cannot do.
But on this day, in John chapter 6
Jesus is preaching this spiritual message
a message that can be understood if you have been called by God to be his disciple.
He Says things like
"I am the bread of Life"
"You must eat of My flesh, and Drink of my Blood"
And many of the people
began to say
Hey this teaching is too difficult
where are the miracles
where is the prosperity teaching
when is he going to overthrow the government.
And after it was all through the multitudes had departed, but the quality followers remained
Jesus says to them arent you going to leave too
they said.........
"Lord to whom shall we go? You have the word of Life, we believe and know that you are the holy one of God".
Why are you a follower of JESUS?
Is it because of His claims and promises
Is it because of His signs and wonders
Or is it because He is the only source to fill the need of your life
PRAYER
this morning I want us to notice the charectoristics of those who deserted Jesus
I. They take offense at Difficult truth.
John 6:60 "This is a hard saying, who can accept it".
This statement implies that those who will desert Christ are those who do not want to be bothered by the difficult teachings of the Bible.
I have a series of books called the hard sayings
they are things like
-God draws us to salvation, yet he gives us a free will.
-One mans sin means my death
-submit to government laws
-women should be silent in the church
-wives submit to their husbands
-Do not be yoked together with unbelievers
These are people who say man thats too hard
I cant follow that.
Give me a teaching on love
and if you won’t I will find someone who will
They are like those described in II Timothhy 4:3 "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear".
A second reason disciples desert Christ, and leave the church is because
II. They trust in symbols
When they see Christ’s teaching, all they see is religion, and since religion will not satisfy they grow disillusioned.
It is not because the message of the gospel is not clear
it is that the disciple has a purely linear perspective
they look at the teachings of Christ from a human point of view instead of opening their hearts to receive it by faith.
they are those who are trying to be good, or work their way to heaven.
There are churches all across this country who emphasize
symbols -- they do this through
sacraments
baptisms
caticisms
ceremonial prayers
and ritual music
there is no Spirit
there is no life
there is no power
in those churches
and their people are dissilusioned
Jesus had a number of people like this following him.
we know this because
When Jesus spoke these words
"I tell you the truth that unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you" John 6:53
The disciples Jesus were speaking to grew dissilusioned
They said "How can this man give us his flesh to eat". 6:52.
In their minds thay were good people, they wanted to follow Jesus, they liked what he said, and they really liked his miracles, but there was no way they were going to become cannibals.
A FOLLOWER WHO DOES NOT ACCEPT THE WORDS OF CHRIST BY FAITH
WILL LOOK AT WHAT HE SAYS AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT, BUT THE FACT IS
spiritual truth is spiritually discerned
and these disciples were disillusioned because all they could see was the face value
the symbolism
and not the intent.
III. a third reason people desert Jesus is because they really don’t believe.
They Don’t want to trust Him
John 6:64 "yet there are some of you who do not beleive, for Jesus had know 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 him".
WHEN PEOPLE OBEY THE TRUTH THAT THEY KNOW,
THEN THEY WILL BE OPEN TO BE TOUGHT MORE TRUTH.
BUT WHEN PEOPLE RESIST THE TRUTH,
THEY WILL LOSE THEIR CAPACITY TO SEE AND HEAR THE TRUTH ANYMORE.
Jesus knew that many of his disciple were resisting the truth he was trying to teach them.
they did not believe therefore God could not enable them to draw any closer to Christ.
and they turned away.
"all those who come to Gopd must beliecve that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that ernestly seek him."
but they turned away
All three kinds of disciple exist in every church
those who
1. take offense at difficult truth
2. those who trust in symbols
3. those who really don’t want to believe
but then there is a fourth kind of disciple
Those who follows Christ because He has the words of Life
Those who follow Christ because he has what we need.
those who are willing to go all the way with God no matter what the consequence
Those who recognise that there is no other source, nothing that can satisfy those who can say
"To whom shall we Go? You have the words of LIFE"
CONCLUSION
What kind of disciple are you?
God is not intrested in having a bunch of peopel.
He does want quality disciples
