Seeking Jesus, Finding Truth - Part 2

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

Let's pray together.

Father, we uh we want you to know we want to use everything at our disposal in worship uh just to remind you that Lord we depend on you.

We don't want to just come in the name of tradition, we want to come uh because of intimacy, we don't want to come because of familiarity, we want to come because we want to grow in our in our knowledge of it, in our experience of it, and our intimate relating to you today.

And so, Lord, as we just say, come into the room and do what only you can do.

Lord, our hope is not in the preacher, our hope is not in an experience, our hope is in God alone.

We say with the psalmist, I will lift up my eyes to the heels.

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord.

And so, Lord, we look to you now.

Holy Spirit, illuminate the scripture.

Jesus said, When you come and you're here now, Holy Spirit, you would lead us into all truth.

And so lead us into the truth today, regardless of how good it is, how liberating it is, and the difference it makes in our lives, Lord.

We want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So help us, God.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

John chapter 6, and if you're our guest, I want to say welcome.

John 6 · chapter mention

Uh, we're preaching through the Gospel of John.

Uh and we're we're we we preach expositorily here.

We go through books of the Bible, we do New Testament and then Old Testament.

Right now we're going to the Gospel of John because it tells the story of the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Uh and last week we started uh uh in uh I preached a sermon called Seeking Jesus and Finding Truth.

And what we mean by that is there's these people in John chapter 6, Jesus feeds the 5,000.

John 6 · chapter mention

And the people are like, that was awesome.

We want you to be king.

You can do stuff for us.

And Jesus says, I don't want to be made king by force.

And so he withdraws from them.

I don't have time to preach this this morning, but write this down.

When God knows that you want to work him and not worship him, he moves away from you.

He he just that grieves the Spirit of God when you come to him with some agenda.

You know, hey Jesus, what's up?

You know what would be good.

He just withdraws.

He just kind of says, you know what?

I'm gonna leave you here as a prisoner of your own devices.

Amen.

Anyone love the eagles?

No?

Anyway, I'll keep going.

Uh and so what he it's the way it says, you can read it yourself.

He goes up on a mountainside, tells his disciples, hey, you guys go home, I'll catch up.

They get in the only boat they came in, head back home across the lake, and Jesus comes walking on the water to them.

We talked about a couple weeks ago.

And then last week we talked about how Jesus comes to the people.

They get up the next day and they're like, Where's Jesus and the disciples?

I mean, that was great last night.

He gave us, you know, something to eat, and there were basketfuls left over.

That was supper, but it's breakfast time.

We need God to do something else if we're gonna keep believing in him.

So they go seeking Jesus, the text says, and they find some truths that they find very disconcerting.

Look at me, beloved.

You cannot seek Jesus without coming into contact with some truths.

And by the way, Jesus is not going to conform himself to your intellectual willingness.

He's not gonna conform to what you're willing to believe.

You're gonna have to repent and have your mind changed, okay?

Because the Bible says, as my friend Creepy demonstrated earlier, if we're called to love God without our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

If you only love God out of your strength, you are the most worn-out, tired Christian anybody knows.

But I want to pick up where we left off last week, and we'll we'll the second part of the sermon, seeking Jesus and finding truth.

Verse 41, the Bible says this.

So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

They said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How does he now say, I've come down from heaven?

Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves.

Uh 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 that they will all be taught by God.

Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

Uh, not that anyone has the uh has seen the Father, except he who is from God, uh, he has seen the Father.

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

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 is my flesh.

The Jews then disputed among themselves.

They've gone from grumbling to disputing now.

They disputed among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

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.

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 blood is true drink.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I am him.

As the living 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 the fathers ate and died.

Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

And Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum.

Now let me just stop and acknowledge the obvious.

Unless you understand the context and the character of what is being said, you're going to think two things.

Jesus is a cannibal or Jesus is talking about communion.

And neither one is true.

So I want you to listen very carefully this morning because the Bible engages your mind, not just your emotions.

Emotions are a part of it, but it engages our mind.

Here's some more truths that we run into.

When these people come after Jesus, they come seeking Jesus, they kind of experience three truths this morning.

The first one is in verse 41 and 42.

They experience this truth that Jesus teaches through the familiar.

He teaches through the familiar.

You say, What do you mean?

He starts with what's familiar to them.

If you look back in verse 30 or 31, they're the people that brought up the whole manna in the wilderness thing.

And they were kind of saying to Jesus, hey, this is what Moses did back in the wilderness.

What do you have?

What you got?

Why should we believe in you?

Because we had this incredible experience.

And Jesus, by the way, is not threatened by your insecurities.

He's not threatened by what you don't know and what you bluff and act like, I got this all together.

Let me question Jesus, you know, prove yourself.

Because that's basically what they said.

They said, hey, in the wilderness, Moses fed us with manna.

What are you gonna do?

Here's the language they use.

What sign can you perform?

Dance, monkey.

Do something to make us feel good about believing in you.

Otherwise, we're not gonna believe.

Jesus doesn't bite on that.

He looks at them and he teaches through the familiar.

He says to them, This, he says, Hey, that was great.

The man in the wilderness, that was great.

But I am the bread that has come down from heaven.

And they were like, no way.

That's why he starts in verse 41.

How can this guy talk about he's the bread that comes down from heaven?

I mean, and they begin to attack Jesus.

They said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

And now, and does he now say, I have come down from heaven?

I mean, dude, we know where we know your parents, we know where you live.

You grew up in a trailer park, dude.

Don't get all cocky with us.

And Jesus says, I am the bread that's come down from heaven.

What he's trying to do, and by the way, he does it with them, he does it with you and I.

He's teaching through the familiar.

It's why many of you in this room, how many in this room like country music?

Could I see your hand?

You admit to it in public.

Yes, yes.

I love co I love me some country music.

How many in this room say, I'm not particularly fond of country music.

Could I see your hand?

We will beat you up after church.

I mean, it's in the South Parking lot.

Yes.

But here's the thing.

Every once in a while, even if you're not a fan of country music, you hear something on the radio, country music, and you kind of go, oh.

And the reason you go, oh, is because it appeals to the familiar.

Let me demonstrate.

You say, I'm I'm curious to see how you're going to demonstrate this.

This happened about four or five years ago.

A bunch of songwriters in Nashville are getting together for a writing session.

Apparently, you schedule these things with other people.

You get together to write songs.

And so they got together to write songs.

Well, when they got there, they all realized, man, we've all had a bad day.

And one of the guys is like, oh, and the girl, her name is Ashley, she said, let's not even think about writing anything today.

We've all had such a horrible day.

And they said, Hey, somebody go over there to that convenience store, get a six-pack, and we'll just sit around and each have one or two, and then we'll write tomorrow.

And so they're sitting down, having an adult beverage, like people in Nashville do.

Amen?

We don't live in Nashville, so we don't do that.

So they're all sitting there, and one of the guys, one of the writers, kind of said, This was a bad day.

But the worst day I've ever happened happened in a little town called Delonega.

And they said, What?

And they said, Oh yeah.

Uh any of y'all know where Delonega, Georgia is?

Anybody?

Anybody?

Thank you.

There's a hand back there.

Are there others?

The buses will wait.

Nobody looking but me and the preacher.

Uh Delonega, Georgia is about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta.

The guy said I was driving down the highway, and my car began to break down.

He goes, dude, I was panicking.

I was praying to get to the next exit.

Got to the exit, coasted off the highway, coasted into the parking lot, and it was a bar called the Crimson Moon.

That was over there, and it was like a gas station over here.

So I went to the gas station, called a tow truck.

The guy said, dude, it'll be a while before I can get there.

And so he said, I just go here in this Crimson Moon bar.

Walked into this bar, and Sean Mullins was on the stage performing.

Anybody know who Sean Mullins is?

Yes, I see one out there.

Do you people live lives?

Do you just tell them read your Bible all day?

Get a life, losers.

So he walks in.

Sean Mullins, his car's breaking down in the middle of nowhere.

Sean Mullins is the guy that sang the song.

Everything is gonna be alright.

Raga bye.

And he was like, this is like no coincidence.

This guy's singing this song.

What is he doing out here in the middle of nowhere?

So they're in the writing session, and there's a girl sitting in a circle.

Her name is Ashley McBride.

And the guy says, Yeah, you know, the craziest thing, I sat there at that bar for like three hours waiting for the tow truck to show up.

He told me to be like an hour liar.

Uh but while I'm waiting, I'm kind of enjoying.

Hey, this is Sean Mules.

I remember this song.

He looks over, there's a blonde-haired girl looking at him.

And they begin to kind of look back and forth at each other, calling, hey, hey, hey, hey.

And they got to talk and they realized they didn't have a lot in common.

They got to hanging out, they dated for three years, and now they're married.

And this lady, here's what I mean when I say that Jesus starts with the familiar and then he kind of connects with them.

He teaches to the familiar.

This lady, Ashley McBride, takes out a pen after he tells her story and begins to write these words.

This is the song called A Little Dive Bar and Delanaga.

And this is what it sounds like.

Tell me, you may think I don't like country music.

Tell me if you've never been in any of these places.

To the bag packed, first love leaver, the heart cracked, double down dreamer, the homesick for grass that's greener, and a slice of mama's peach pie.

You gotta have mama in a country song.

To the flat broke, couch cushion, gas money, the worker bee that ain't getting no honey, missing someone all the while running, gunning for the brighter lights.

And then she just rolls into the course.

Here's to the breakups that didn't break us.

The breakdown, wrong turn that takes you to a little dive bar in Delanaga.

Hear a song from a band that saves you.

Man, it's hitting rock bottom.

Smoke them if you got them.

Nothing's going right.

Making the best of the worst day kind of night.

Let me ask you a question.

Did any of you hear a phrase in there that you can relate to, you've experienced?

If so, would you raise your hand?

Hold it up a little higher.

Leave your hand up for a second.

Okay?

If you don't have your hand up, the next verse starts with this.

We've all got a number we don't want a drunk dial and a good friend we haven't seen in a while.

Have you ever made a drunk dial?

I'm just kidding, put your hand down.

Y'all are like, well, we're gonna get personal.

Yeah, maybe, maybe.

That's the great thing.

I'm just gonna like, I was like, when I heard that song, it's I've kind of been kind of here on the radio.

I didn't start paying attention to it till this week.

I was like, yes, that captures the whole scope of human experience.

I texted the s, I sent a YouTube link to the song to a friend of mine.

I don't think dudes send other dudes music, but I was like, dude, this is this is the kind of people that Jesus that understood and get it.

Why do I say that?

I say all that to just kind of make this point.

Jesus teaches through the familiar.

He starts with familiar.

They bring up the bread in the wilderness, and he's like, hey, here's the deal.

You're talking about an experience, but I'm talking about a relationship.

You and don't miss this.

We'll come back to this at the end.

Look at me.

What they want to do is they want to keep God as a distant memory in the past, an experience they had in the past, and he wants to be an ever-present reality in the present.

And human nature always wants to keep God at a distance, under a controlled kind of a, hey, yeah, this is what he did.

He provided, now leave us alone.

Jesus is going to go on to talk about what it means to know, to be in a relationship with him with such intimate detail that it makes everybody around him uncomfortable.

He talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

They're like, ah, no, thank you.

But he starts by teaching through the familiar.

See, unless you you you get that fix in your head, he takes this experience because the New Testament feels full the Old Testament, okay?

Jesus says, Hey, I didn't come to Boston Law.

I came to fulfill it.

He's like, You talking about man in the wilderness?

Hey, that was just a little foreshadowing of what is to come.

And what is to come is me.

And the people are like, Ah, you're Mary and Joseph's son.

Come on, dude.

We went to third grade together.

We had the same homeroom teacher.

Who do you think you are?

I think I am the bread that has come down from heaven.

The second truth we see is this is that God initiates the relationship.

God initiates the relationship.

Now they're talking about an experience, but Jesus is talking about a relationship.

And then he goes on in verse 43.

Hear these words.

He says, This.

He says, Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

By the way, let me stop right there.

When he says, do not grumble among yourselves, and then later on down there, it says that uh verse 52, they begin to dispute among themselves.

The English language is not thick enough and heavy enough to carry the weight of what is happening.

These men are going at each other.

They are having this radical disagreement.

How many in this room have more than one child?

Anybody?

How many of you have ever been driving down the road and your kids just get off the reservation in the back of the van and you're like, don't make me pull this car over?

You ever done that?

See, I grew up with an old school dad.

We were driving.

We'd go to our family reunion every two years in West Texas, a little town called Childress.

And we'd get in that woody panel station wagon.

It was a country squire.

It was green, had woody panel on the side, and a luggage rack on top.

I had two older brothers and two stepsisters.

There was five of us in the back of that thing.

My dad drove, my stepmom wrote shotgun, and my dad was all business, okay?

One one particular trip, me and my brother were going at it, the two stepsisters were going at it.

My oldest brother tried to correct them.

You're not advice of us.

And so the five of us are just fighting among ourselves.

Between the five of us, we had 18 fights going on.

And my dad grabbed the mirror.

When my dad went dirty hairy on you, he meant business.

My dad grabbed the mirror and said, I'll tell you what, don't make me pull this car over.

You'll wish to God and his son Jesus I hadn't.

And I just remember I looked at my brother and I went, um.

That lasted about two minutes, and then it was kind of like, Oh, he's touching me! He's touching me, he's not on his prophecy.

And the next thing I knew, whoa! That thing was swerving over, and a big hand reached in there and got me by the ankle and just drug me over my two brothers out on the side, because traffic was coming there.

My dad just grabbed me first and just whipped his belt off, and I heard a cobra come.

That belt was coming out.

Wow, wow.

My dad, when he whipped you, it was not a little tap.

It was to inflict pain upon you.

I thought a hive of bees that got me in my pants.

And I was just like, and so he threw me on the ground.

I'm over there in the dirt.

Next he grabs my brother by the shirt.

Buttons come flying off.

My dad just whips him in a frenzy, throws him down, grabs one of the sisters.

He, hey, he's an equal opportunity punisher.

He's whipping a kid.

And about that time, an 18-wheel truck comes by, and the guy gives my dad a honk of encouragement.

And my dad whipped, he whipped all five of us.

My stepmom never moved.

She just sat there in the car, just smoking a cigarette.

Here's how you know you're a redneck.

After my dad did all that, he was all breathless.

He walked around to the back.

We're all sitting in the dirt.

He hits it, puts the key in there to open up the, to make the glass on the very back come down, reaches in his cooler and gets a middle or high life, takes a lid off, and says, Now, I tell you what, pulls this cigarette, lights him up a Salem, and I tell you what, I'm gonna have this cigarette and we're gonna go back on the road.

Don't we have any problems?

And he's like, All right, that's about enough.

Y'all quit crying.

You ever try to quit crying?

He's putting that belt back on like he's had a workout, like he's done Pilates or something.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, you want me to buckle this or take it back off?

So in my mind, I'm thinking, we get the children's, I'm telling grandma on you.

My grandma Dawson smoked Paul Malls.

You gotta remember Paul Malls?

That gold pack we got there, the children's.

I hopped out of the back of that, I climbed out that back window out of the rumble seat.

I ran in there.

Hey, baby, how was your trip?

Daddy whipped us all on the side of the road.

You probably deserved it.

Now run along.

You've invalidated my true feelings.

That was before political correctness ruined America.

Hey, by the way, this is free.

Political correctness used to be how you distinguish yourself.

You don't distinguish yourself that anymore.

Because everyone's non-thinking, overly feeling people that are ruled by what they think and feel as if that's the standard for everybody.

I wish y'all could see your faith.

Could you wind that back and say it slower?

No.

No.

Here's my point.

The Bible says they grumbled among themselves.

Y'all just think they're like, mm-hmm.

No.

Dudes were coming to blows over this because some of the people in the religious establishment were looking at Jesus and kind of going, I think he's right.

And if he's right, what does that mean for us?

We're wrong.

And they were like, ah, oh, we'll get to what they were like in just a minute.

Here's the thing: God initiates a relationship.

Look at verse 41.

So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven.

They said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How does he now say, I've come down from heaven?

Verse 43, Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

Hear that again.

This is Jesus.

Stop saying, Well, the Bible says, No, Jesus says the Bible records what God says.

And so some people they think, well, I think the Bible speaks with the authority of God.

But some people try to parse it up and say, Well, that's what the Bible says.

The Bible's written by a bunch of men.

No, this is red letter, hot out of the mouth of God concarni, God with flesh on him.

He says, Do not grumble among yourselves.

Hey guys, stop stop dragging people out of the station wagon and beating them.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And I will raise him up on the last day.

And I say, God initiates a relationship.

It's that word draw.

The word draw is a Greek word helko.

H-E-L-K-O, and it means to draw by inward power.

Lead or impale.

Hear that again.

It means to draw by inward power.

Lead or impale.

To draw by inward power.

Now, uh people have been emailing me questions.

I meant what I said.

When we finished chapter 6 in a couple weeks, uh I'll spend the last 10, 15 minutes of the service answering questions people have emailed me.

I had dinner with a friend last Sunday night, and he's like, okay, now tell me something.

Because I believe man has a free will.

And you know, how does God not violate his free will?

And by I said, I don't reconcile friends much less lovers.

What does that mean?

Uh the sovereignty of God and salvation and the free will of man, those that they're on speaking terms.

Just say it plainly.

I said, okay, here's the way I'll say it.

God does it.

You act like God grabs you against your will and makes you do something you don't want to do.

That's when he says he draws, that's not what he's talking about.

God acts upon your will in such a way, he doesn't violate your free will, he acts upon it with such efficacy that you now want something that you by nature never would want.

You say, What do you mean?

That's what he draws.

Now, sometimes preachers kind of temper and they go, Well, you know, Jesus is a gentleman.

I wouldn't go that far.

Because he will get up in your business.

We make it sound like, oh, Jesus, you know, he's God.

He doesn't need to be a gentleman, he's not a respecter of persons, but he draws.

He draws.

That's what he does.

I'll give you a great example out of my own life.

My own wife, the first time we spent time together just as friends, went to lunch.

She went back and told her roommate, I never want to spend another five minutes with that man the rest of my life.

Yes.

Because somebody asked me a question after the first service, and I told them that.

They said, This whole drawing thing.

I said, Yeah.

My wife was like utterly disgusted with me.

She's like, he never shut up.

I went back and told my roommate, he's like, How was I?

She doesn't talk very much.

So I had to do most of the talking, and I'm okay with that.

She's like, Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

And I said to him, I said, How does a woman move from that to we just celebrate 20?

25 years together in January.

I drew her.

And the guy says, Please don't do this.

Yeah.

It's the same thing.

But the Bible doesn't just say, look at look at it again in verse 44.

No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

The Bible doesn't just say something like that and leave it, although that's very simple.

He goes on to tell you how God draws him.

He says in verse 45, it is written in the prophets, and they'll all be taught by God.

Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

What does that mean?

What it means is simply this is it uh uh four things.

I lost my training of thought.

Sorry.

How does God draw four ways?

First of all, it involves teaching.

It involves teaching.

That's how he draws.

He said, hey, everyone right there in the Bible, they will all be taught by God.

Uh anytime someone stands up with the Bible and they open the Bible and they have the courage, the moral courage to say what it actually says, you have a capacity to be taught by God.

You should never just take it at face value, be like the Bereans, take it to the Word, and make sure what I say or anybody else says lines up with the Bible.

Okay?

He says, hey, how does God draw?

Through teaching.

Secondly, through hearing.

Through hearing.

You say, what do you mean?

One of the best things going on in our church right now is we have men groups that are forming, uh, and they're not reading a book about every man's battle, but all that that's good.

We're for good books, but we don't put anything above the Bible.

And so Travis, our connections pastor, has started these groups with men, and they just get together and read the Bible.

And I say they read the Bible.

I mean they read like 20 chapters a week.

Uh like they were some of them reading the book of Ephesians, which has got like six chapters.

And when they come, they say, Hey, have you done your reading?

It sounds like a lot, but the chapters aren't that long, and you get exposed.

Uh C.S.

Lewis says, uh, reading the Bible is like it's it's not memorizing facts and information as much as it is being steeped in a personality.

Uh hot tea, when you put the teabag in there and you pour water on it, that's set, let it set for four minutes, that's steeping.

Uh the water becomes tea because the uh uh the water releases the flavors and the essence that's in the in the dried tea leaves.

And so when you read the Bible, C.S.

Lewis has said, hey, that's what begins to happen.

You begin to take on the character of God because you're being steeped in his personality.

Uh I have two friends in two different men's groups that have been started here at our church.

Um, and one of them I was talking today, and he uh he said, Yeah, my wife and I, we just got into a big rarr.

And she said some things, and I was like, Oh, really?

And I was like, and then I realized they're reading the book of Ephesians, and he said, Then I realized the Bible says I gotta treat her like Jesus treats his bride, the church, and so I couldn't yell back at her.

And so instead I was just gracious and compassionate.

Some of you women are kind of like, I'm signing my husband up right now for that group.

Another friend of mine called me the other day.

I said, Man, how's it going?

He goes, Man, I know what's going on.

I feel like I'm losing my mind.

I'm changing.

I said, Well, what do you attribute that to?

This group I'm in.

And here's the deal, all we're doing is reading the Bible and realize I've not really read the Bible my entire life.

He goes, I don't want to be the person I've been.

Oh, oh, absolutely.

So when the Bible comes along and says, how does God draw people through teaching, through hearing?

By the way, it's not just men only.

So if you want to be in one of those groups, you just email Travis, Travis at Grandparkway.org.

If you're a lady, you're like, hey, I want to be in a group like that.

Hey, nothing against Priscilla Shire, nothing against Beth Moore, but they all pale in comparison to an intimate reading and reflection on God's word.

So if you're like, hey, ladies, I like to be in that.

Email our women's pastor Marcy at Grand Parkway and say, hey, I would like I'd be interested in something like that getting started.

This is because I want to be steeped in a personality, and we'll set that up and make that happen.

Uh when it comes to hearing, now let me just say this before I go any further.

There's two types of listening.

Uh, there's what I call listening for discovery.

Uh these people are always open to the truth because you want to grow, and because of that, they're often enlightened.

They they learn stuff, they have an aha moment, like, oh wow, I don't think I ever realized that.

Uh and they're teachable.

That's listening for discovery, listening for reinforcement.

These people are always open to agreement.

What do you mean?

They're open to anything that agrees with what they already believe.

And they're so they're open to agreement, they're often offended, and they're typically defensive.

Everything's got to flow in.

They haven't had a they haven't learned much new.

Uh they're internet scholars, they go research every little thing, and they usually got authors or preachers that they quote a lot to back up their point of view.

They're not winsome and free.

They're not like, oh, they couldn't learn from a child because that'd be way off way too offensive.

The third way that God draws is through learning.

Through learning.

It's what he says right here in the passage.

Look at it.

Verse 45, it's written in the prophets.

That's a reference to Isaiah, I think, 54, 13.

He says, 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.

They'll be taught, they'll hear, uh, and they'll learn.

This is why we practice expository preaching because it exposes us to the whole counsel of God's word, not just the latest cultural hot button or issue of the day.

You get this well-rounded spiritual diet.

And so learning takes place, all right?

And then the Bible says this uh they hear, they heard, and they've learned from the Father.

They all those, all those that experience that, they come to me.

They come to me.

Now, how do people that are by nature not just not Christians, but they're God's enemies, how do they end up coming to Him?

Because He draws them.

So if you're in this room this morning and you've not yet come to the point in your life where you said you acknowledge your sin before God and you said, God, I I want to live my life built around you, not around me.

And but you're like, I still want to come to church, that's evidence that God's drawing you.

That He's not giving up on you.

That He is, I would use an even more intimate word, He is wooing you.

He is calling you to Himself, okay?

So when Jesus says up here in verse 43 that, hey, no one can know the Father except those that my father draws, he said, uh, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

That's not an offensive statement.

That's actually a very reassuring statement.

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

So if you have even the slightest inkling towards God, or this sense of, ugh, when you sin, that very well could be God just kind of saying, let me give you an example.

Uh, when I was in high school, I was asked to speak at a student group here recently, and I walked in and I thought, how do I make this make sense to these 16-year-old people that are like, who's this loser?

Uh and so I said, Hey, I'm here tonight because I asked a girl out my senior year in high school.

And they were like, What?

Uh, yes, I was in Mrs.

Scudder's English class my senior year, and I asked Jennifer Russell out on a date, and she said, No.

And I said, What's up?

And she said, Oh, I'd love to.

I think you're hilarious.

Uh, but I won't go out with you because you're not a Christian.

And I was like, opened my mouth to say something, and nothing came out.

And I was like, And she smiled and she said, You know, if you knew Jesus, you wouldn't live like you do.

No shame, no condemnation, no religious literature.

Here, read this book so you're not going to hell.

She stood there and smiled, and she goes, I'll pray for you whenever you come to mind.

I so wanted to be around her because she was talking about a reality that I knew, I thought maybe existed, but I'd never experienced anybody like this.

Uh and so from we were acquaintances, we were kind of friends, but we began to hang out, and she would say things to me like this, Neil, you're the life of the party, but what are you gonna do when the party's over?

I didn't want to smoke weed that weekend.

I was like, I don't want that.

I want to be around her, not for the sake of dating her, because she would not date, not me.

She said, I'm saving myself from my husband, and I have no obligation towards you.

Why are you hating on me?

Why do I tell you about that?

Look at me.

Are you aware this morning, and this may be your big takeaway, and that'd be okay.

Are you aware this morning that every interaction someone has with you could be the thing that God uses, one of the things that God uses to draw them to himself?

So that means every date you go on, students, that means every business transaction you have, every relational encounter that someone has with you, that could be one of the little steps in the process that God uses to draw that person to himself.

And so it put it puts huge significance.

Teachers, here at the end of the year when you're kind of like, here comes June, July, and August.

Goodbye, kids.

By the way, I don't want a coffee mug with an apple on it full of pencils.

I want a gift card to Papa Cita so I can self-medicate and forget all you fools.

Sorry, did I say that out loud?

No.

It puts everyday interactions in the big backdrop of what God is doing to redeem humanity.

Here's the last truth that we see uh in the text this morning.

And it's simply this that Jesus is better.

That Jesus is better.

You say, What do you mean?

Let me just give you a summary of some of the high points, and then I want to read what I'm summarizing to you this morning.

When I say Jesus is better, again, they want to talk about manna in the wilderness, and Jesus says, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

And they're like, dude, we know who you are.

Hush.

They can't see the forest for the trees.

They can't see that Jesus is better because of what they prefer.

It's just like us.

We prefer certain things, and our parents and our boss and our friends can say to us, hey man, that's not good.

Matter of fact, that's wrong.

Matter of fact, that is sin.

I don't, I don't care.

Feels good right now.

You forget, just like they did, that Jesus is better.

And so when you get to this part where Jesus talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, you're like, well, that's creepy.

I don't know.

Man, the Bible is crazy.

It doesn't make any sense.

No, he is talking about this intimate assimilation of you into him and him into you, where there's an impossible of separating those two.

So if you start reading about verse 48, just let me remind you, Jesus takes a familiar concept and he interprets it for them.

He sets it in its proper place in this story that God has been telling since the Exodus, since he fed a manna in the wilderness.

Look at me, beloved.

When God gave them bread in the wilderness, he knew all along, by the way, Jesus is gonna come.

And the first of the seven I am statements in the book of John is gonna be I am the bread of life.

I am the bread.

I'm the bread that came down from heaven.

Why?

Because God starts and Jesus teaches through something familiar.

That's why they're disputing and grumbling among themselves.

That's why they're fighting in the dirt on the side of the religious highway, is because some of them are kind of going, I think he's right.

Here's what they miss: God is telling a story that's bigger than their favorite spiritual experience.

They just keep wanting to go back.

Oh, but manna.

What about that?

And Jesus says, What about this?

And they can't see it, therefore they don't get it.

Verse 51 uses two phrases, talks about he came down.

He says, I'm the living bread that came down from heaven, talking about the incarnation.

If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread that I give him for the life of the world is my flesh.

Some denominations take that verse out of context, try to make it about communion.

Here's why it cannot be about communion, because the phrase came down, talking about the incarnation and just a simple word eats.

They're both in the aorist tense in the Greek, which refers to a one-time completed action, not this ongoing thing.

Jesus comes down once, and Jesus said, Whoever eats this flesh, in other words, whoever puts their faith in me, not in some past religious spiritual experience.

And you get to verse 53.

And eating and drinking, by the way, keep this in mind, Jews were forbidden to eat anything that still had blood in it.

They couldn't have a steak the way my wife eats it.

It's just like, dude, cook that thing.

No, it was against them because that was that that was one of the dietary laws.

So eating and drinking Christ's flesh and blood is a very graphic way of saying that people must take Christ into their innermost being.

All through John, you see this emphasis on abiding in Christ.

And this is another way of doing that.

And what Jesus is saying is, hey, to know me is to intimately integrate him and his truth into every fiber of your being, such that there can be no separation, delineation, or alteration to him and everything he says.

And in these words, in verse 47 to 58, we recognize a powerful and vivid metaphor that represents coming to him, believing in him, and appropriating him by faith.

So having said all that, let me practice what I preach.

And I'll close this morning just by reading.

Ask yourself, beloved, look at me.

Ask yourself Hey, do I know God this way?

Is this the way I think about God?

Do I think about Jesus intimately or do I think about Jesus historically?

Because as a past experience, yeah, when I was nine, I prayed the prayer, and well, you know, hee hee.

That's not very threatening.

To think about Jesus this integrated is very threatening.

Hear the word of God.

John chapter 6, starting verse 47.

John 6 · chapter mention

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate the man 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.

They 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 is my flesh.

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us flesh to eat?

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.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks on my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last days.

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living father sent me, and I live, 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 the fathers ate and died.

Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

Why is that?

Because Jesus is better.

That's why.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guests, uh what we like to do is teach the Bible and give people some space just to think about what we've what we've heard this morning.

So, right now, we'll just take some time.

Just relax.

Lindsay will come and she'll just play on the piano, just to give you some soul space to kind of ask yourself a couple questions.

Number one, what really stood out to me this morning?

What really stood out?

Secondly, what do I want to think further about after I leave here this morning?

Third question I want to give you to think about is what do I do with what I heard this morning?

Let's think about those three things for just a moment.

Father, we're mindful this morning that you use the internal witness of the Holy Spirit and the external witness of creation and created beings.

People who love us enough to tell us the truth.

People who love us enough to say, No, I won't go out with you because I have some convictions and beliefs that I will not compromise just to be somebody in high school.

My goal in life is not to peak in high school.

And that is the fragrant aroma of Christ to high school seniors like me who at the time were perishing.

And God, I pray that we would begin to unleash the fragrant aroma of King Jesus in our high schools, in our middle schools, where we work in our neighborhood.

Holy Spirit, we want to be part of what draws people to you, God.

So remind us that every interaction matters.

Let us be intentional, winsome, and free.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being part of our service.

Hopefully, you've had an opportunity to reach up on the back of the row in front of you on one of those chairs and pull out one of those cards.

It's our guest restoration card.

We'd love to have a record of your visit.

So if you would, if you haven't filled it out yet, just fill it out and then drop it in one of these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.

That's where we receive our offering as well.

So we don't ask that of you guests.

It is a privilege of the people of this church to support the ministry and the vision of this church.

And so if today is the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you do that as well.

We've been talking a lot about the marriage conference.

This is the last Sunday.

We'll talk about it because it is this coming Friday and Saturday.

Many of you have asked me, what is Dan uh like?

What is Dan Allender like?

And I've used this one word over and over.

And oh, actually, it's a phrase.

I said he is eccentric and he is brilliant.

Uh and I think it's a great combination.

We have a short video just to give you a little taste from Dan about the things he'll talk about at the conference this weekend.

Well, the Intimate Mystery Conference really is for folks who have a sense of something dear about their marriage.

They love their spouse, and yet they would also admit that there's complications, conflict, but they know there's something difficult about love.

And so how we hold together true love but also true honesty uh is the context of can we tell the truth about the nature of our own heart and our own marriage in a way in which if the truth sets us free, then can we tell the truth uh deep enough and long enough for the truth to actually free us?

Well, I think a lot of couples end up in a marriage conference already with a sense of I'm gonna hear things I don't want to have to hear.

And I know it should be spending more time, praying more, talking more, being less defensive.

So already there's kind of that that elbowing.

So a lot of times in the very first portion of the conference, you'll see the people there who want to be there and the people who don't want to be there.

But often what happens is when you begin to kind of open the eyes to what's true of all marriages and all conflict and all heartache, and yet also the pathways God has for redemption, for true change in our marriage.

Uh, I've seen the person who is elbowed uh begin not to elbow back, but begin to get that look on their face of oh yeah, this is true of me, and this is true of you, and this is true of us.

There's that when you start to get an overall landscape of what life could be, how it is, but how it one day could be.

I've never seen a marriage not grow if two people are open to the process of naming the truth and engaging their own heart humbly enough to be able to deal with what brought about the heartache.

So it it's for anybody who's open to doing the kind of work of that honesty and hope.

Again, uh the conference is this coming Friday night and Saturday.

Uh it's not too late to register.

We have over uh over 300 people registered for the conference.

There's still room.

Uh, I would love for you to be a part of that.

If you have any questions, you can ask any of us.

Let me remind you of one thing that's taking place right now in the fellowship hall, right after the service, is that uh we have we've partnered one of our missional relationships is with an organization called the Landing.

Uh the Landing is strategically located overall 59 and Bissinet, uh, and they exist uh to fight human trafficking in all its forms, not just sex trafficking, but also labor labor trafficking.

Uh and they're one of our missional partnerships.

So when you give to this church, a portion of that goes to help support them on a monthly basis.

But also, their executive director, Natasha, is here in our service this morning.

She's going to be leading an informational meeting that begins at 11:30 in the fellowship hall, which is located right behind me.

So if you go out these doors, you just go down and you just come turn in the doors there, and it'll be right there.

It's a great opportunity for you to see and hear how you can get involved.

If you're looking for a place to plug in, volunteer, make a difference, and love on some people that have not been loved on in a long time.

This is a great thing for you.

I highly encourage you to be a part of that meeting, okay?

Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Because your God is the gracious, winsome God of the universe who draws people.

You don't have to drive every conversation, you don't have to control every intellectual idea.

You can be free and available and full.

Depart now and be those things to the glory of God and to the pleasure of the people around you.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.