Signs // Fan or True Follower

We're going to be in John, chapter 6 this morning, john, chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention John 6 · chapter mention

Happy Memorial Day weekend.

So thankful for all those soldiers that gave their life so we can have the freedom.

Yeah, we can clap it up for them, and I know in our church many of you not many of you, but there are some in our church that your family members have paid the ultimate price.

So we just want to honor your loved one that passed away.

We just want to take a moment and just say thank you for allowing your loved one to serve our country and we just we don't take that lightly.

So it's so good to see you guys.

It is Memorial Day.

I remember growing up there was all kinds of different three-day weekends and I didn't really understand what was Memorial Day, what was Labor Day, what was these?

All I knew is I got a day off from school.

You know what I'm saying?

I got a day off from school.

How many of you know if you got a day off from school, that's a good day?

How many adults in the room know if you get a day off from work that's a good day?

Yeah, come on, man, I got some clapping in the room.

I remember growing up how do I say this about school?

It wasn't my favorite, in fact, my favorite subject at school.

You ready for this Lunch break?

Here's why.

Here's why, here's why.

So on lunch break we would play all kinds of cool games in the schoolyard.

You guys remember those games you'd play.

So one game we would play is we would play tetherball.

Believe it or not, a short guy like myself, I'd be jumping.

You know tetherball, we'd play tetherball.

We'd play kickball.

So I'd get way back.

You know what I mean.

Like you know, it'd go all the way back to the pitcher, back to the pitcher.

But then, like my all-time favorite game, four square, four square, I think.

Do we have a picture of four square up?

I don't know if we got a picture.

Yes, now, this is why we have a picture of four square, because I've been told that this generation does not play Foursquare.

National travesty.

Let's go on record right now, in front of God and everybody else, and say this was the greatest schoolyard game ever.

Yes, man, come on, we're clapping.

We haven't even gotten to the message.

There's like some next generation here.

They're like I have no idea.

Why are four people around a square and where are their cell phones at Like come on, you know, think about fourth square.

It's fourth square.

You had these clear separations.

You had A square, b square, c square and D square.

So you had these clear lines that separated this square from that square.

So you had these clear lines that separated this square from that square and everybody wanted to get to A square.

I bring this up because there were times where Jesus would be teaching and he would draw a clear line in the sand of who were his true followers and who were not.

His followers were his true followers and who were not his followers.

And just like playing four square, it's really clear like you're an A square, you're not an A square.

Jesus would draw lines and say you're a follower of me and you're not a follower of me.

We've been in this series called Signs and we've been looking at the different miracles, the different signs that Jesus did in the book of John.

So let's catch up a little bit.

Let's look at some of the signs we've looked at.

We've looked at turning water into wine.

For some of y'all, that one was your favorite of all of the signs.

But healing the nobleman's son, healing the layman at the pool of Bethesda, feeding of the 5,000, which I would have loved to have seen that and then walking on water.

And we get to John, chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

We've been in here.

He had just fed the 5,000 people he had just walked on water.

Man, I can't even imagine walking on the water.

And then what Jesus does is he spends a decent amount of time in the rest of John, chapter 6 just teaching people.

John 6 · chapter mention

So the people that he had just fed, the people that were aware that he was walking on water, he stops and he teaches the crowd of people.

What does he teach them about?

He says that he is the bread of life.

Now, this is what those people would understand.

Bread was their source of sustenance, their source of survival.

The only way that they could live was through bread.

Jesus said I am the bread of life, in other words, I am the source of all meaning, of all identity.

And he tells them by saying I am.

He's saying I am the Messiah, I'm Lord.

They weren't comfortable with all that.

Jesus, the one that's like the buffet maker that's feeding them, they like that.

But the one that is the source of all meaning and worth and Lord, they're like I don't know about that.

He goes on, he talks about eating his bread and drinking his blood.

He's talking about the fact that he's going to die.

He talks about the fact that believing in him is like partaking in his blood and his body.

Man, they're just all this stuff.

This is just a lot for everybody to take in.

So, at the end of John chapter 6, these people that used to be like, yeah, jesus, let's go, we want to be around you.

John 6 · chapter mention

After he spends this time teaching about who he actually is and what it means to follow him, a lot of these people, they peaced out and what Jesus was doing.

He was drawing this clear line in the sand.

And in a world where all these people were like following him and he was like a celebrity, jesus wasn't really concerned with having a massive crowd of fans, a massive crowd of people around him.

What he wanted was a committed group of followers, a group of people that loved him, a group of people that obeyed him, followers that centered their lives on him.

So he draws a line in the sand between true followers and those that we could say are just fans or those that the really smart theologians would say were fake disciples of him.

So let's pick it up In John chapter 6,.

John 6 · chapter mention

If you're ready for it, would you say amen?

Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, what did they hear?

His teaching.

This is who I am.

This is what it means to follow me.

They said this teaching is hard.

Who can accept it?

Now, when it says the word disciple here, that does not mean a true follower.

A disciple here is a learner, somebody that would be connected to a rabbi.

So a rabbi would be a teacher of the Jewish law in the synagogue, in the temple, and there would be different rabbis that would be teaching things.

And what a disciple of this rabbi would be is they would be learning from this person, they would be connected to this person.

So there are many, many rabbis in this culture and they had lots of different disciples.

They were called disciples because they were learning from this rabbi.

So what Jesus at this point is?

He had a lot of people that were connected to him.

He had a lot of people that were learning from him.

Masses of people are following him around.

Jesus had gone viral and these people are like who can accept what you're saying?

Who can actually believe that you are the Messiah, that you're the source of life, that you're the only way to joy, that you're the way to abundant life.

That's what the Messiah was going to give these people.

They say who can accept this?

Well, here's the truth.

Anybody can, actually Anybody can.

It's like somebody today in the culture and they hear about Jesus and they hear that Jesus is the only way.

It's not like Buddha, it's not Muhammad, it's not like New Age philosophy, it's not all this stuff, it's only Jesus.

And that person can say who can actually believe that?

Who can actually accept that?

Anybody can.

But what it is is.

It's culturally different than what everybody else is doing.

And when Jesus was saying here that I'm the Messiah, I'm Lord, all this crowds are like who can actually accept that?

Because they were so connected to the law and they were so connected thinking that the Messiah is going to be the one that's going to set up a new government and take over those Romans.

Because the Roman Empire, they're morons.

We don't like those dudes, the idea that Jesus was not going to come and set up a kingdom on earth immediately.

They were like nah, like who believes that?

And because of this verse, number 61, jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples they were grumbling about this his people that were connected to him.

He asked them does this offend you?

Then?

What if you were to observe the Son of man, that's himself Jesus?

He called himself the Son of man, ascending to where he was before.

Just a year after this event happened here, jesus would be ascending back to heaven to be with his Father on the Mount of Olives.

He ascended on the Mount of Olives up to heaven.

Verse number 63,.

The spirit is the one who gives life.

The flesh doesn't help at all.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life, our spirit and our life.

I wish I had more time to dig into this, but the Holy Spirit is the one that can awaken us spiritually.

It is only the Holy Spirit, it is not your flesh, it is not your self-will that says I need to be a better person, so I should start doing the church thing.

It is not me preaching a message.

I have no power to do anything.

It is only the Holy Spirit that can awaken us.

It's not our sinful nature.

Our willpower has no power to do this.

The Spirit gives life Verse 64,.

But there are many among you who don't believe.

Okay, you're a disciple, you're connected, you're a learner, but you don't truly believe.

What does that mean?

Believing means I believe that you are the Messiah.

You are the Son of God.

You are the only way.

I am truly following you.

You are the center of my life.

There are some of you amongst the crowd who don't believe.

There are some of you amongst the crowd who don't believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.

You guys remember who's the one that's going to betray him.

Somebody tell me Judas.

Judas is here in this crowd.

Judas.

He tells a crowd of people who, at the moment, it's really popular to be around Jesus.

At the moment, that's what everybody's doing.

Like, if everybody's doing it like, I'm gonna do it too.

Like let's follow everybody around.

And Jesus tells a crowd of people hey, hey, some of you you don't believe, just tell him the truth, jesus, I love it.

Some of you you don't believe.

He said verse 65, he said this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it's granted to him by the Father.

God.

The Father is the one who draws people to his son, jesus.

Not even the miracles by themselves can draw people to Jesus, because all of these people.

They saw the miracles of Jesus and many of them, they still didn't believe.

And verse 66, from that moment, many of his disciples, those who were connected with him, those that were around him, many of his disciples what are those next two words?

They turned back and no longer accompanied him.

We're not doing it, jesus.

Yeah, when you were blessing and you were feeding us and you were giving us what we wanted, we were with you.

When it was convenient, we're with you.

But now, now it's hard.

This isn't what we signed up for Now.

Hold on, up for now, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Weren't, weren't this crowd of people?

Amongst this crowd of people, there were true believers.

We're going to see this.

There were true believers, there were true followers of him.

So, this crowd, these disciples, these fake disciples, these fans that were around jesus, they were around true followers.

They were around people that truly believed.

They were around the teachings of Jesus.

They heard the teachings of Jesus, they were familiar with them.

It's almost like they had this business agreement with Jesus, though here was the terms of the business agreement Jesus, you do for me what I want you to do for me, how I want you to do it for me and I'm good and I'm here around.

But now the terms of the deal are.

They're not working Because, jesus, now you're telling me that you're the Messiah, you're the Son of God.

Now you're forcing me to put my faith and trust in you.

You have me at this decision point.

And though I was around true followers, the business agreement is off.

I'm a fan, but I'm not a true follower.

And in verse 67, jesus asks a question that is striking.

That is striking.

Jesus said to the 12, these are the 12 apostles.

You don't want to go away too, do you guys?

This is tense.

This is tense.

It is no longer popular to follow jesus, it is no longer popular to believe.

Now what's popular is to recant is are you guys going to go away too?

What was going through Jesus' mind at this moment?

These are 12 that he called one by one, by one.

At this point.

He had spent a couple years with them, he had poured his life into them, he had prayed for them, he had walked with them.

Now everybody else is forsaking.

He looks, looks at 12.

He says, hey, are you also going to go away too?

And verse 68, look what Peter says.

Simon Peter answered Lord, to whom will we go?

Come on, peter, that's what I'm talking about, bro.

You have the words of eternal life.

Y'all.

We give Peter a lot of flack because he was a professional putting his foot in his mouth.

But if we won't give him some flack, can we just give him some credit and some love here?

Like you know how hard this was, like this was not easy for him to do this.

And what does Peter do?

Peter stands up and says yeah, the masses can walk away, but not us.

We are going to follow.

And what Peter shows here is Peter shows the heart of a spiritual leader.

Peter has courage, peter has conviction.

Peter does the right thing, even though it's a hard thing.

And you know what spiritual leaders do Spiritual leaders have courage, they have conviction, they're faithful to the right thing, even when it's the hard thing.

That's what spiritual leaders do.

And can I just say what our world and what our nation and what our city and what we are lacking today is spiritual leaders.

That is what we're lacking.

Listen, we don't need another social media influencer, we don't need another piece of technology.

We don't need another this or that.

This is what we need.

We need men and women of character and integrity, that will stand up for what's right, that will live with conviction, that will have courage, that will do the right thing even when it's the hard thing to do.

Because spiritual leaders are the ones that make a difference in communities, in churches, in families, in the lives of people.

And God, raise up spiritual leaders here.

Raise up spiritual leaders here because they will make a difference.

Because, by the way, peter Peter right here, it wasn't that he was perfect.

He messed up royally in like about 10 months from after this.

Come on, man Peter was with, like respectfully, he was with like a teenage, like middle school girl, and she's like are you one of his followers?

He's like, uh, I didn't meet.

No, like bro, like she's like 14.

Like it's not that big of a deal.

He messed up.

He wasn't perfect.

It's not that spiritual leaders are perfect, but spiritual leaders have courage, conviction and, by the way, they repent when they mess up, because he repents it.

And then, and then, like six months after that, he's preaching at Pentecost and 3,000 people trust Christ as Savior, which is Memorial Day.

So I'm just going to have fun for a second.

We have a God that can redeem brokenness and we have a God, that you have your mistakes and you have your mess ups and things like that.

If you will come humbly before God, god can work in that situation, god can work through that and God can work in that.

And you might say, man, like, you don't understand, nate, I've done this.

You don't understand, nate, this is my past.

You don't understand.

You don't understand the God that we serve.

And if you will humble yourself, he can turn a dude that denied Jesus in front of a 14-year-old girl to somebody that's preaching at Pentecost and 3,000 people get saved and literally it's the start of a worldwide movement.

Can somebody say amen?

Hey guys, it's not free service today, so I can let a little bit more go.

Okay, but we still have the 1115 service.

Verse 69, let's pick it up.

Peter says this he says we have come to believe.

This is why he says we won't go away.

We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

You're the Messiah, like we're understanding.

You are who you say that you are.

And, guys, when you understand that Jesus is who he says that he is, it changes things.

Understand that Jesus is who he says that he is, it changes things, not this like religious-y thing, like we're in a church and we sing some cool songs and my life goes on just like everybody else in the world.

No, no, no.

When you understand that Jesus is who he says that he is, it causes you to make a decision and it changes your life.

Jesus replied to them didn't I choose you, the 12, yet one of you is a devil.

Speaking of Judas, he was referring to Judas, verse 71, simon Iscariot's son, one of the 12, because he was going to betray him.

This here is a sobering story because it shows that it is very possible for us to be fans of Jesus and not true followers of him.

Even Paul wrote to the people at Corinth.

In 2 Corinthians he says test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.

Examine yourselves.

Or do yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?

So Paul says we need to look at ourselves and ask ourselves Christ is in you?

So Paul says we need to look at ourselves and ask ourselves is our faith truly in Christ alone for our salvation?

Are we a true follower?

Is there evidence in my life of salvation?

Not that we're perfect, but is there fruit in my life?

And what Jesus does here is.

Jesus draws a line in the sand in this text.

These were people that believed in God.

These were people that knew some things about Jesus.

These were people that heard him teach like live and in person guys, and they were just fans Like a lot of times sometimes we're like man.

If I just saw Jesus in real life, if I just saw Jesus do a miracle, it would be easy for me to believe.

Not necessarily do a miracle.

It would be easy for me to believe.

Not necessarily.

These were not true followers of Jesus.

They were fake disciples.

It's been called.

Now I want to bring up some distinctions that you see in the book of John between fans and true followers.

Fans of Jesus have no spiritual fruit in their life.

Followers of Jesus have no spiritual fruit in their life.

Followers of Jesus have spiritual fruit in their life.

Fans of Jesus they just have no desire for anything spiritual.

They're like why?

Why is this?

Why?

Maybe it's because we've never truly believed and trusted in Christ.

Fans of Jesus come to Jesus primarily for blessings.

True followers follow because of who he is.

Fans of Jesus are with him when it's popular.

True followers follow when it's unpopular.

Fans of Jesus come to Jesus primarily for blessings.

True followers follow because of who he is.

Followers or fans of Jesus make Jesus a part of their lives.

True followers make Jesus the center of their lives.

Fans of Jesus expect Jesus to follow their agenda.

Followers of Jesus surrender and follow his agenda.

It's so possible and easy to be a fan and not a true follower, and that's for me as a pastor.

It's easy to want the blessings and forget about the person.

When I was in college, something surprised me.

I had a friend that was training to be a preacher and man, he could preach.

He's good, he's real good.

He grew up in a good family.

He knew a lot about the Bible.

We could go back and forth and debate theology.

He had a good family.

You'd be like that's a good dude and he was a good dude.

And we, you'd be like that's a good dude and he was a good dude, and we did something we did every single day.

We went to chapel and what chapel was was basically like a church service right where we had like music, worship, music, and then we would have teaching, and it was great.

We did this every day.

But this day was different.

This day there was a guy speaking at chapel and his name was Kurt Skelly, and Kurt Skelly was teaching a message in chapel that I'll never forget.

He taught a message out of Matthew, chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

And what he talked about is he says that he called the message Christian pretender I guess almost 20 years ago and I still remember it and he talked about how there are people that can know a lot about Jesus and even do things for Jesus but aren't true followers of Jesus.

They aren't believers in him.

And at the end that Bible college service and it was a strong message he called people who've never truly believed in Jesus to come forward, give their lives to Christ, trust Him as their Lord and Savior.

And there was many people that came forward and my friend was one of them.

And after chapel, like we went to him, we were like we were stoked for him.

We're like, dude, like you just became a follower of Jesus, like you just trusted Christ this is amazing.

Like we like cheer this on, dude, like I love this.

And then we also, naturally, were like can you help us understand?

Like we thought that you were a follower of Jesus, like we thought, if you went to class with us, like you like preach sermons and stuff like that, like help us understand man.

And he said he said, man, when I was a little kid one time he said I prayed this prayer and I spent my whole life thinking, because I prayed a prayer, that I was good, that was a follower of Jesus.

He said, if I'm honest, my heart was hardened Like I really wasn't a follower.

I was just thinking that I prayed this prayer that I'm, that I'm good.

And he said today is the day where I realized, like, actually I'm not good, like I'm a sinner in need of God's grace.

And today is like the first day of my life I've ever truly repented, turned from my sin and trusted Jesus to be my Savior.

Now he's the Lord of my life.

And we were like that is beautiful, bro, like we love that.

And my friend on that day embraced something.

He embraced what true followers of Jesus embrace.

He embraced what Peter embraced in this text and their lives are changed.

Peter says, lord, to whom will we go?

What did he realize?

He realized he needed Jesus.

Followers of Jesus, they embrace their need for Jesus.

He says where else will we go?

Like, where are we going to go?

Like, we need you, else will we go?

Like, where are we going to go?

Like we need you.

They embrace that Jesus has the answers.

Peter says where else are we going to go?

Why does he say that?

He's like we can't look for answers anywhere because you have them.

Like you have the answers and you live in a world.

Right now we live in a world where I'm going to use this word intentionally we are being indoctrinated and we are being discipled.

That tells us that our answers are found in political systems, that our answers are found in new age things.

You need to go to the psychic or tarot cards or spirits or this or that, because that's where the answers are.

Followers of Jesus understand that Jesus is the answer and because Jesus is the answer, I got great news.

Jesus has the answers.

That's what they understand and because of this, what they do is they censor their lives on Jesus, is they center their lives on Jesus?

He says in this text whom will we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

So we're not going to go anywhere.

We're here and we're not going to be on the fringes either.

We are going to be following you, right next to you.

It's kind of like this kind of give a little silly illustration how many of you guys in the room you guys are animal lovers?

Animal lovers, okay, animal lovers.

How many of you love dogs?

Okay, that's good.

How many of you love cats?

Don't raise your hand and embarrass yourself.

Just kidding.

I was told oh, this is funny, this is funny, okay.

Somebody told me the first Sunday they came here I made a cat joke and they almost never came back.

I didn't make one there, but I almost did.

I guess I kind of did.

Anyways, okay, dog lovers, right.

So I love dogs and about a year and a half ago I had to do the terrible thing, man, that if you've had a dog for a long time, you know you got to put them down.

So I put my dog down, had to put Ranger down, and he's such a good dog, and think about Ranger.

Dogs are so loyal, right?

Ranger was a German Shepherd, so he was like extra, extra loyal.

It seemed like to me, I mean everywhere I went he was like on my hip and I mean everywhere I went.

So I'm like I go to the bathroom, so I go in the bathroom, and he's like following me in the bathroom and I'm like Ranger, like just outside, go.

He looks at me like why are you telling me to go?

So then he'll go outside.

I close the door, I'm going to the bathroom and he's starting to whine.

Can a dude just get some personal space?

He followed me around and everywhere I would go, I'll leave the house and he'd be right there.

I'd come back, he'd be right there and he got.

I think I was getting older and he was getting arthritis and he could barely climb up the stairs.

So I'd go up the stairs and he'd be down there and I would have like a full-on conversation with him.

You know, dog people know, and I'd be like Ranger, just stay here for a little bit, because I'm just gonna go upstairs and I gotta go do something.

I'll be come right back down and then I'd be like just give me like two minutes, like he has a sense of time or something right, but just give me two minutes.

So I go up the stairs I try to be fast because I knew he's coming I go and now I would hear something Like bro, this dog is like slowly walking up the stairs, get this.

He'd walk like four stairs, he would just sit there and his arthritis would recover or whatever, and then he'd try to walk like three or four more stairs.

I'm like, bro, I'm like you're going to make me cry, dude.

He's like always with me.

You know why he did that?

Because I was his master and I would like to think the reason why he did that is because he knew how much I loved him, because I'd been with him through everything when he was a puppy.

He was a crazy puppy.

I was like training him, you know.

He's like tearing up shoes and stuff.

Y'all know what I feel about shoes.

I'm like don't tear up my shoe, but I still love him.

You know, tear up my shoe, you know, and I gave him baths.

Let me tell y'all.

Tear my shoe, you know, and I gave him baths.

Let me tell y'all.

That was inexperience.

I fed him.

He was a hundred pound dog, like that boy could eat.

That had to be like a line item in my monthly budget.

Okay, I did all this stuff for him.

I was with him.

His response I'm with you.

His response I'm with you, I'm following you.

It's hard and it's difficult and I can barely move up these stairs and it hurts, but I'm still doing it.

And, friends, when you see how much the Lord has done for you, the only logical thing is to follow him.

That's it.

You're in the room.

Maybe you're not yet a believer in Christ.

Can I just say today's the day Turn from your sin, put your faith in him as the Messiah, trust him as the Lord of your life.

Maybe some of you have already done that, but you're kind of drifted a little bit.

You're just drifted a little bit.

Can I just say he loves you.

Come back, true follower or fan Guys, let's be true followers of him.

Let's bow our heads.