Easter Sunday - Three Responses to Jesus

It's great to be with all of you this morning.

If you have a Bible, let's open up to John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

If you don't, that's just fine.

All of the words that we're going to be looking at are in the bulletin.

Let me pray for us one more time.

Father, hear our prayers.

Draw near, speak to us.

You say that your word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, that it pierces even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and the attitudes and the intentions of our hearts.

I pray for all of us here this morning that we would experience it that way.

That there would be a piercing, there would be a conviction.

There would be an encouragement.

We ask, Lord Jesus, that you would, in a sense, step forth from the pages of Scripture this morning and show us your glory.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.

History tells us, and the Bible tells us, that there was a man named Jesus that lived roughly 2,000 years ago in Israel.

And the Bible has four different eyewitness accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

We're going to look at a few different passages from the Gospel of John this morning.

And really what we're going to look at is three different people, three different groups of people, and the way they responded to Jesus.

So John chapter 6 is where we'll start.

John 6 · chapter mention

Let me set the stage here.

Jesus did a lot of miracles.

There's only one miracle that all four gospel writers in the New Testament record, and it's called the feeding of the 5,000.

Probably most of us have heard of it.

Jesus was known as a teacher, as a miracle worker.

Crowds would follow him, and at one point he was in a pretty desolate place.

Lots of people had followed.

The day started to turn dark, and you didn't have a public down the street that you go get a sandwich.

And the disciples, the 12 kind of most committed followers to Jesus, said, Tell the crowds to go home.

And Jesus, this is my layman's translation, said, No, I got a better idea.

There was one little boy that was well prepared.

He had five little barley loaves and a couple of sardines, and Jesus said, May I have your lunch?

He prayed over it and multiplied it so there was enough food to feed thousands.

Now, we call it the feeding the five thousand, but back then they typically only counted the adult men.

So in reality, you probably had maybe as many as 20,000 people there when you add up all the women and children that would have been in attendance.

And then Jesus starts teaching.

And it's a long chapter, there's a lot of teaching.

You can go back and read it later if you want to, but it is some of the hardest, and by that I mean hardest to understand, and then even if you understand it, hardest to receive of his teaching.

I mean, it's almost like he's trying to run the crowds off.

And we're going to pick up right at the end when it tells us that most of the people that were following him, even people that had been called disciples, followers, pupils, learners, left.

Now we don't know for sure, but you're talking about multiple thousands that shrunk really quickly, down to at best, maybe a few hundred left.

And it's highly likely that everybody left except for the twelve.

And let's look at this account.

John chapter 6, starting in verse 65, Jesus speaking.

John 6 · chapter mention

And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.

So part of what he was teaching on is if anybody's going to truly have a relationship with God, truly be saved, truly be forgiven, God has to initiate the process.

People have to respond, but God has to initiate.

And that can still be a hard thing to understand and accept and appreciate today.

Look at verse 66.

After this, many of his disciples turn back and no longer walk with him.

And I want you to notice this Jesus is not a needy Savior.

He's not lonely and desperate for friends.

I mean, imagine if this was you, and for once in your life you had 20,000 people that thought you were the man.

They hung on every word.

In fact, if you read early in this chapter, they were ready to take him and make him king by force.

And he had to stop them.

And then, if basically 98% of your followers just left, said, This is crazy talk.

How would you have treated the 12 who chose to stay?

I think you'd be hyper nice.

Now's a nice time to start doing some of that washing of the feet stuff, right?

Not Jesus.

Look at what he says, verse 67.

So Jesus said to the 12, Do you want to go away as well?

Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

Now, what's going on here?

John Wesley said that Jesus with his words drove away the proud and the careless.

Another author named Matthew Henry said, Lightly come, lightly go.

And here's what he means if you lightly come to Jesus, if you kind of haphazardly come to Jesus on a whim, it's highly likely that at some point you're going to haphazardly leave Jesus.

Many of us will remember the great Britney Spears.

Years ago, took a trip to Las Vegas with a buddy and on a whim decided to get married.

And I think it was 55 hours later, decided, let's just cancel that wedding.

If, in a sense, you pledge your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ in a haphazard, whimsical way, because you had an emotional moment one day in church and the sunlight came through the stained glass windows and made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

It's highly likely when the going gets tough, when you start trying to take Jesus serious, read his words, and maybe you realize, oh, he says, quit sleeping with your girlfriend.

And you're like, well, let's come on now.

I didn't sign up for all that.

Easy come, easy go.

Man named Frank Barker, he's the guy that founded Briarwood Presbyterian Church years ago in Cahaba Heights.

He had a saying that he used to say that I love faith that fizzles before the finish was false from the first.

The Bible never talks about losing your salvation.

If you really have it, you can't lose it.

The Bible does talk often about, do you really have it?

Did you ever really have it?

John wrote another letter, 1 John, and in there, chapter 2, verse 19, he says this.

They went out from us, meaning people left the church, left Christianity.

They went out from us because they were never really of us.

They were false from the first.

They were fake disciples like these people were.

Now, notice though what Peter says.

And let me kind of give you, again, my personal this is the Olin translation.

All right, you can't buy this in stores, it wouldn't be worth it.

But here's essentially what Peter's saying.

Hey, Jesus, we gotta be honest, you sound a little crazy to us too.

We don't understand everything that you're saying.

And even some of the stuff that you are saying that we understand, we don't know if we really like it that much.

You know, it's Mark Twain, I think, that said, it's not the stuff in the Bible that I don't understand that bothers me.

It's the stuff in the Bible that I do understand that bothers me.

And Peter's saying, But, Jesus, we have tasted and seen something so good, so glorious, so real in you that even if we don't understand everything, even if we don't like everything, we're hitching our wagon to you.

Because you know what?

Where else will we go?

I've got a good friend that I went to Sanford with.

We were in Bible studies and mission trips, all that kind of stuff together.

He graduated, he went to seminary, he went to a great seminary.

He is very smart, very intellectual, very academic, very well read.

I mean, he'll read St.

Augustine and then read Nietzsche.

And he later left the faith.

And we still talk a lot.

We actually were texting yesterday.

And he likes to criticize Christianity, and he's good at it because he's read all the original sources.

But one of the things I'll ask him sometimes when he's criticizing Christianity, he's like, Well, what do you believe in?

You know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

But see, here's the thing Peter realizes if you're gonna leave Jesus, you better have something better to commit to.

And can I or anyone prove to anyone else 100% solid evidence Jesus Christ, I can't do it.

I think you can prove it beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt.

But 100% prove that there's a place for faith.

It's not a leap into the dark, it's a leap into the light.

But here's the thing: every single human being, whether you consciously realize it or not, you're betting your eternal soul on something.

And I texted my buddy yesterday.

We were kind of texting back and forth, and he kind of made a little funny comment.

And I just said, here's the bottom line, man.

I'm betting my soul on Jesus.

What are you betting on?

He didn't respond.

One author said this, speaking of the disciples, they dimly understood as yet the full meaning of his teachings.

Yet they felt in their own deepest hearts that these teachings were the true satisfaction and life of their own hearts.

You ever felt that?

This is it?

This is it.

John Calvin said, the twelve did not at once comprehend all that Christ had taught, yet it is enough that according to the capacity of their faith, they acknowledge him to be the author of salvation and submit themselves to him in all things.

Maybe a great illustration would be when I was dating my wife, I was in love.

I could make you a list of great things.

There was at least one or two things I didn't like that much.

And I knew I was smart enough to know there's probably a lot that I don't know yet.

And 27 years later, in I can say, there have been some discoveries.

Some good, some not so fun.

And she could say the same about me times a trillion.

But I made a decision to say, hey, I'm all in.

I'll take the good and maybe even the bad, I'm all in.

And that's a good picture of what salvation is like.

There may be things about Christ that we don't like, we don't understand, we commit.

Now let's look at the second response, flip over to chapter four and go down to verse, I mean, excuse me, chapter seven and go down to verse 44.

And let me set the context just a little bit, a little bit later, after the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus is in Jerusalem at a great festival, a great religious feast, and he's teaching.

And Jesus' main opponents when he was on planet earth were the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees, and they hated Jesus.

And here's the main reason they hated Jesus.

Up until that point, they had been the famous ones, they had been the biblical experts.

If you had a question about the Old Testament, you came to them and they would interpret it, and they were respected.

And now you got this poor carpenter, unofficial rabbi, and the crowds are flocking to him and asking him all the questions, and half the time he's contradicting them.

They're losing their place of power.

So they they had temple police, they sent their temple guards, arrest him, shut him down, shut him up.

Let's pick up chapter 7, verse 44.

Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

And the officers then came to the chief priest and Pharisees, who said to them, Why did you not bring him?

And the officers answered, No one ever spoke like this man.

Even his enemies, when they really listen to his words for just a second, I mean, set the scene.

It's like these temple guards, they go out, again, crowds, thousands probably around him.

They got to get close enough.

They're kind of jostling.

They don't want to start a riot.

So they're probably trying to kind of listen.

Let's stage our moment, let's find the right time, looking around.

But the closer they get, the more they start to listen, they start to be in awe.

And they finally realize there is no way we're gonna arrest this dude.

And it's like they come up, come back to their bosses, kind of dumbfounded, stupefied, awe-struck.

And you can imagine the bosses are like, where's the guy you're supposed to arrest?

Boss, you should have heard nobody talks like this guy.

I mean, the rest of the passage is almost funny.

They're just infuriated.

Let me try to give you a modern-day example.

Some of you will remember.

2012 SEC Championship.

This was Georgia's year.

I grew up in Georgia, Georgia fan.

Mark Rick had a great team.

This was going to be our year.

SEC Championship, playing Alabama, just had to win this game, on to the national championship.

And I think we would have certainly, I think it was going to be Notre Dame.

We'd have beat them.

Mark Rick would probably still be the coach at Georgia today if this had gone differently.

It was a great game, back and forth.

And in the last minutes, Georgia lost.

And I remember sitting in a restaurant with my wife and a few friends watching the game.

And I think I said out loud, Saban is a better coach.

And I think I honestly, probably in my heart, what I really thought and felt was he's the greatest coach of all time.

But you know what?

I didn't switch allegiances.

I didn't go out and buy any crimson that day.

I still cheered for Georgia, kind of, for better or worse.

But I was at least an objective enough human being to look at the wisdom and the genius of Saban what he was doing and saying, he's the best.

Listen, all my kids have gone to Auburn.

I care less about who you like for football.

Why am I telling this story?

There's a lot of people in Birmingham, Alabama, and there's probably a lot of people sitting right now in this congregation who in your heart of hearts would say, Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is the risen Savior.

I have a level of respect and awe for him.

But you know, these temple guards are probably the exact same men that a few days later the bosses said, We got a better plan.

We got a betrayer.

Jesus is alone.

He didn't have the crowds anymore at night.

Go arrest him.

And they said, okay.

And they did, and they brought him to his death.

It's not enough to respect Jesus.

It's not enough to like Jesus.

It has to be a sellout kind of love.

I had lunch with a guy a couple weeks ago, first time I'd ever met him.

We were talking, and I asked him, I said, Hey, you know, he kind of knew I was a pastor or something.

So I said, give me your story.

Tell me your story.

And so essentially he was giving me his spiritual resume.

He was talking to me about the church that he goes to, what service he goes to, where he sits, how he likes to worship, how he likes to listen, the things that he's learned, the different classes that he goes to, what he's learning, what he's applying, the different small groups, the people, on and on and on.

A lot of good stuff.

It's great.

And near the end of the lunch, I said, Well, let me ask you a couple questions that a friend asked me years ago, and it really made me think.

He said, Okay.

So here's the first one.

He said, if you were to die tonight on the scale of one to ten, how sure are you that you'd go to heaven?

Like 10 being 100% sure, zero being going to the other place.

And I really appreciated this guy's honesty.

He wasn't trying to blow smoke.

He said, I honestly have no clue.

Do you realize how terrifying that is?

If you're in charge of Sunday lunch today, and so you're going to do the crock pot thing at home and you're sitting here right now thinking, did I plug it in or not?

Who cares?

One of the great things about this church is we get out before all the other churches in town, you know?

So if you get home and the crock pot isn't plugged in, go to the summit.

Take your pick.

If you say I'm a 9.5, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go to heaven when I die.

That's not very assuring to me.

And asked him a second question.

I said, if you die tonight, you're standing before God, and he said to you, Why should I let you into heaven?

And he said, I got no clue.

Again, I appreciate the honesty, but it's terrifying.

And let me just say this somebody told me after the last service that he heard another preacher, a guy named Sinclair Ferguson, say, Here's the right answer.

If God was to say to you, Why should I let you into heaven?

And it's not about just getting the words right, it has to be the reality of your heart and your life.

But if you can honestly say, because I've trusted in Jesus Christ, your son, and I'm just as righteous as he is by faith alone, that's the only right answer.

It's not about your spiritual resume, it's not about your good works.

Now let's look at one more.

Flip to chapter nine, two chapters to the right, chapter nine.

A little bit later, Jesus healed a blind man, blind since birth, and everybody's really excited about it.

And again, the Pharisees are mad about it because Jesus' fame is just skyrocketing.

And they have not been able to shut down Jesus.

So they're like, well, let's shut down the blind man.

So they basically bring him on trial.

Like, why did you get healed?

And they're interrogating the poor guy.

I'm actually going to start in verse 24, John chapter 9, verse 24.

John 9:24

So again, this is the religious leaders.

So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, Give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner.

So they're basically trying to say, you know, gee, who knows what happened?

I guess God did a miracle, but this Jesus fellow, we know he's just a sinful guy like everybody else.

And I want us to notice how the blind man responds.

I actually saw a blind person last week in a very crowded food court type area.

And the woman was walking and had one of those long walking stick canes to make sure she didn't run.

And she was guiding herself through this very crowded, busy, bustling area.

And I just had the thought, you know, blind people have to be very attentive to evidence.

One sense has been shut down, so their other senses probably are more aware, alive, alert.

So think about this blind man who has learned how to live his life and make decisions based on facts, based on evidence.

And look at his response.

John chapter 9, verse 25.

John 9:25

He answered, Whether he is a sinner, I do not know.

One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see.

You see, I love this.

Is this guy at this point a true follower of Christ?

He absolutely is not.

But he's in process.

Some of you may be in process today.

And he's going about the process the right way.

He's like, you ask me, is the man Jesus a sinner?

Yes or no?

I don't know.

I can't speak to that.

I've had a very brief interaction with him.

I have not had enough evidence to tell you, yes, he is a sinner.

No, he's not a sinner.

I don't know.

I hold open either possibility.

I'll have to have further evidence.

But I'll tell you what I do know.

I was blind, and now I see.

Hard to argue with that.

This guy does come to saving faith later.

Sometimes God can be working in our hearts.

Just like Jesus worked in this man's life to heal him.

And we can't explain it, but we know it's happening, we know it's real.

So if you're in process like this blind man, once blind, I'm glad you're here.

And I just say, evaluate Jesus based on the evidence, based on the eyewitness testimonies, and not just based on your personal preferences.

Judge Jesus, but judge Jesus based on the evidence.

Now, did you notice that there's actually a fourth group?

They show up in a couple of these accounts, the religious leaders.

And they had just rejected Jesus outright.

They had already Made up their mind.

They hated him.

I hope you're not like them.

And if you're here this morning, unless a family member just basically broke your arm and made you come, that's probably not you.

But highly likely there could be some that are more like those temple guards that are kind of like, yeah, I like Jesus, man.

Jesus is cool.

You know, I respect Jesus.

I'm down with that.

I'm cool to show up and do this a couple times a year.

Not enough.

Don't be non-committal.

He's worth betting your life and your soul on.

And so I if you're here and you're like the blind man, I'm so glad you're here.

If you're still evaluating, if you honestly say, I just don't know, good.

Listen, I'm not asking, the Bible's not asking for emotional, irrational decision.

Evaluate the evidence.

And he said, you know, a lot of people interpret the Bible different ways.

In fact, even a lot of professing Christians interpret the Bible different ways.

So how do you know who to trust?

Great question.

A couple of different things that can help you, but I said, here's the main thing.

You got to read the words of Jesus for yourself.

You've got to read them, think about them, process them, and then even prayerfully, Lord Jesus, if you're real, if you're God, if you're sitting on a throne up there, make yourself known to me through your word.

So here would be my homework assignment if you choose to accept it.

For the rest of the month of April, take the Gospel of John, 21 chapters, read a chapter a day.

And evaluate Jesus.

Take him at face value at his words.

And if you're here and you're like, listen, I got a lot of problems in my life.

I got a lot of questions still, but one thing I know for sure is by God's grace, I'm in Christ.

Praise the Lord.

I challenge you, find a friend, find a coworker, find a neighbor, and ask them to read the Gospel of John with you.

Maybe just a chapter a week.

Get together, have a lunch or coffee, talk about it.

Let's look at one more passage.

We'll be done.

John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

Let's look at Jesus' words about himself.

John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

And we're going to start in verse 14.

Jesus speaking.

I know my own, and my own know me.

Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.

So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my Father.

If you noticed when Alan prayed earlier, he quoted this passage.

He and I didn't coordinate.

You're not here by accidents this morning.

God drew you, God ordained you to be here.

What is Jesus saying here?

He's saying a lot.

Let me just be very brief and to the point.

He's saying, Me and my father are totally aligned in this thing.

My father loves people.

My father loves sinners.

My father likes to go out and get sinners and save them and bring them in.

But because my father is also holy, sinners have sin that has a price that must be taken care of.

It must be paid for.

And it can only be paid in blood.

And so the Father sent me to be the good shepherd of souls and lay down my life and die for sinners and then to shepherd their souls into heaven.

And because I love my father and I'm just like my father, I do it.

When those guards come to arrest me in the garden, they're not getting me.

I'm letting them take me.

I am laying down my life.

I have all authority, I have all power, but I'm laying down my life because I love people, because I love souls, because I love sinners.

And oh, by the way, I have so much power, even after I've died, I'll take my life back up again whenever I want.

I'm gonna conquer death, hell, and grave for my people for all eternity.

That any that would trust in me, that would bet on me, would be saved, will be forgiven, will be secure.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your words.

Thank you for your life, thank you for your death, thank you for your resurrection, thank you for your ascension, thank you that you're sitting on a throne in heaven, that you intercede for your people, you pray for us.

Lord, I pray, God, any that are hearing this that haven't fully trusted in Christ yet, that they would do so, that you would draw them.

Lord, I pray that some would take up the charge, the challenge, and just read the Gospel of John prayerfully.

That you would step forth from the pages of Scripture and show them your glory and they'd be saved.

And Lord, I pray for all of us that are already in you.

We'd be passionate to tell others.

And it would come not from some mere duty, but it would come from an overflow of delight.

That daily, as we open the scriptures, there would be a sense of grandeur and glory and love and adoration.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

We pray all this in your name.

Amen.