GMC
17th February, 2013
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
John 6:41-71
Main Idea: Follow Jesus all the way
Objectives: a. To challenge the congregation to be a disciple of Jesus and follow Him every day.
b. To teach the congregation to follow Jesus in every detail of our life.
A. Introduction
- The more I understand the word of God, the teaching of Jesus, the more I want to follow Him all the way. The more needs and problems I see in my family, church members’ families, society, Malaysia and in the world, the more I see the urgency of helping people to follow Jesus. I see a lot of Christians do not have joy, under bondages of pride, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, selfishness, superstition; immobilized by bad health and remained defeated and sad. I see how our society is so corrupted, unjust, the poor getting poorer and the richer getting richer and how we become richer at the expense of the poor. I see how people in Vietnam, in some parts of Africa who die of hunger that are not reported. I see how at the international stage big powers are bullying the small countries; how civil wars, political differences resulted in killing hundreds and thousands of innocent people.
- As you see the sin in yourself, in others, in the society and in the world, do you see the urgency for ourselves and as many people in this world to follow; to overcome our problems and to meet the needs by following Jesus?
- The more we are not following Jesus, the more the Church needs to do mission.
- What is at stake for you and me as disciples of Jesus is really, are we following Jesus or not?
- In verse 66 today, the writer John, wrote, “From this many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”
B. Following Jesus
- The Greek word for ‘followed’ is peripateo, it means to walk at large (especially as proof of ability); figuratively, to live, deport oneself, follow as a companion or votary (a regular worshipper of a particular god, holy person or religion). In the context of verse 66, it means no longer walking after, no longer worship Jesus; no longer a companion of Jesus.
- Verse 66 says many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer followed him. The disciples in Greek is mathetes, a learner, pupil. The Greek for ‘turned’ is aperchomai, it means to go off (i.e., depart); figuratively, come, depart, go (aside, away, back out), pass away, be past. These pupils of Jesus who followed (peripateo) Him for some time, now, they decided to aperchomai (back out). They worshipped Jesus for a while and they backed out, probably, they never come back anymore.
- Why many of Jesus’disciples aperchomai (back out) and not peripateo (followed) Him anymore? It has to do with the dispute about Jesus’ claim of His divinity.
- In my last preaching I emphasize Jesus as the bread of life, and in verse 40, Jesus says, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Anyone who believes in Him has eternal life and Jesus has the power to raise people from death. Jesus claimed that He was sent by God and He was divine, God.
- The writer John is portraying Jesus as the one sent by God and all this readers (especially the Jews) are challenged to make up their mind whether to follow Jesus or not; whether they wanted to follow Jesus or not. Many of Jesus disputed about His divinity, about Him to be the bread of life coming down from heaven. They could not accept Jesus as bread of heaven. They could not accept the divinity of Jesus as He was.
-In verses 42, They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, "I came down from heaven'?" And then, in verse 52, they said again, “ Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
- This was especially so after Jesus taught in verse 51 He was the flesh which He gave for the life of the world.
- In the whole passage Jesus claimed His divinity as the bread of life; He could give eternal life; His relationship with God the Father.
- In verses 41 and 48, He highlighted again He is the bread of life. In verse 44, He claimed that people who came to Him were actually drawn by His Father who sent Him and He had the power to raise them from death in the last day, end time. He also claimed in verse 46, He has seen the Father. Take of His intimate relationship with His Father. In verse 47, He claims that those who believe Him have everlasting life. In verses 53 and 54, He claimed that only those who eat His flesh and drink His blood have eternal life and He will raise them up in the last day. And He went on to keep emphasizing on the need to eat His flesh and drink His blood.
- Jesus even asked in verse 61 if His such teaching offended His disciples. And He said in verses 63 and 64 there were disciples who did not believe though His words are spirit and life. And Jesus foresaw in verse 64 there would be disciples who would betray Him.
- Eventually, Jesus confronted His most inner circle disciples, the Twelve, if they wanted to leave Him or not in verse 67. In verses 68 and 69, Simon Peter, answered on behalf of the Twelve, recognizing Jesus to be the words of eternal life and He is the Holy One of God, affirming the divinity of Jesus. To this, in verse 70, Jesus still insisted one them would betray Him and He is the devil.
- Brothers and sisters, with all honesty, as we face Jesus; and Jesus knew all His disciples then, their HEART, inside out; which disciple would back out, aperchomai and not peripateo (followed) Him; and it is the same for today, He knows us inside out, He knows which one of us would back out and not follow Him.
C. Applications on Following Jesus
- Some of us may not turn away from Jesus not in the sense of the totally disappearing from sight of Jesus like some of Jesus’ disciples in verse 66. We may not turn away from Jesus because of Jesus’ divinity issue.
- In my own experience with myself, with other fellow disciples of Jesus, we back out, aperchomai and not peripateo (followed) Him because of pride. With all my personal relationship with Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, the word of God, let me define pride to you. It is the greatest sin of mankind, it is the devil inside us which we have to deal with all the time. It comes out every now and then to cause havoc in our life.
- What is pride actually? It is the putting yourself in the highest position in your life, it is the ego I who submits his willpower to himself and follow what is not true. A person who has pride in his or her life, he or she is blind to the truths or the word of God; or he or she may be having half truth. One of the most clear sign of a proud person is this: I am right, you are wrong. He himself or she herself could actually be wrong, but he or she could not see it. Today, in the name of Jesus I want to teach it and preach it, to help you to discern how you know you have been proud. How you sense it in your life? How you realize you have the sin of pride.
- The answer lies with the word joy. With all honesty, you know the word of God is the joy of the Lord is my strength, right? When you have pride, you are not more doing or serving Jesus’ will, God’s will, obeying Jesus’ teaching, YOUR SERVE YOUR OWN WILL, there is no more God’s will in your life, you suffer the consequences of your sin of pride, you only get frustration, anger, condemnation, complaint, unforgivenss, bitterness, and confusion.
- When you have pride, there is no more word of God in your life, no wonder you do not follow Christ at that moment.
- The moment you realize your pride, you repent, you submit yourself to Yesus, your will to Jesus, you say I choose to forgive, to tell the truth, to love, to be considerate, to be honest, to respect others, to be responsible for my sin of anger and awaiting God’s discipline, to be responsible for my wrong, for my carelessness, for my mistakes, you emphasize God’s word, His truth, Jesus’ teaching, Jesus takes over your will power, you will have peace and joy.
- When you choose to follow Jesus’ word, joy comes. Do you have joy now?
- When I participated in a recent deliverance I see clearly with my own eyes, how a Christian who is well versed with the word of God and not submit His life to Jesus but he submitted his will and life to the demons, how he was demon possessed.
- We have to encourage him to proclaim to the demons inside him that he belongs to Jesus and submit His life/ will to Jesus, and he did it and we see with our eyes, how demon left him one by one. He submit his life/ will to the demons by singing the unknown anti-Christ songs in foreign languages, spending lots of time on computer and internet games and video shows that are violent and demonic.
D. Conclusion
- Will you submit your life/ will to Jesus and obey His teaching and do His will, and experience joy and peace? And follow Jesus and not back out.
