Many Of His Disciples No Longer Walked With Him. John 6:59- 71. Will you also go away?
Before Jesus resurrected Jarius' daughter in Mark 5. He kicked all the unbelievers out of the room. Unbelief disqualifies you from experiencing the supernatural and hinders the flow of God’s manifestation in your life. With that being recognized, this is not a season to have unbelievers around you when it comes to accomplishing goals and fulfilling purpose. No offense, all love, but unbelievers and doubters got to go. We are winning over here. If you don’t believe, don’t show up. Mark. 9:22-23. You have doubters, dream killers, and the faithless. Father help their unbelief. Stay connected to God.
Father, today we stand in victory and call everything into submission through the authority of Jesus Christ. Illness must flee; circumstances must flee and lack must flee. There’s nothing too hard for You to end. Father help our unbelief.
I love this analogy
When GOD wanted to create the fish, HE spoke to the sea, when GOD wanted to create the trees, HE spoke to the earth but when GOD wanted to create Man, HE spoke to Himself. Then GOD said, “Let US make Man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
If you take a fish out of the water, it will die and when you take a tree off the ground, it will also die. Similarly, when Man is disconnected from GOD, he dies. GOD is our natural environment. We were created to live in HIS presence. We must be connected to HIM because only in HIM there is Life.
Remember...We recall that water without fish is still water, but fish without water is nothing. The soil without a tree is still soil, but the tree without soil is still nothing. GOD without Man is still GOD but Man without GOD is Nothing. STAY CONNECTED TO God.
John 6:59-71: He said these things while He was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. When many of His disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" But Jesus, being aware that His disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And He said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted by the Father." Because of this many of His disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him. So, Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil." (He was speaking of Judas son Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray Him).
Mark 6:4-6: …Then Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household is a prophet without honor.” So, He could not perform any miracles there, except to lay His hands on a few of the sick and heal them. And He was amazed at their unbelief. And He went around from village to village, teaching the people.…
Mark 4: 18-19 – 20. Beyond your imagination, above what you are asking because He is not limited, The Word of God Is A Dream Fulfiller. Nourish Your Dream with The Word of God. Feed that dream with nutrient which is God’ word, you are nurturing and cultivating. When you get into God’s presence you get to see the depth of it. God is looking for you to seek Him out, feed on the word of God, one idea that can bring you out of all the lack into wealth.
Mark 29: 3-4 All things are possible to him who believes. Do Not Let People Kill Your Dream, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
When you make up in your mind that I am going to walk in my dreams and the desires and the visions that God has given me, that is when the enemy looks to see who he may devour, that is the point where it seems like everything has broken loose. See, it is not until you make up in your mind that you are going to live out your dream that is when the enemy comes in like a flood. See you can have a dream, but it is when you plan to live out that dream, is when the enemy tries to destroy it. The devil does not want you to be successful in fulfilling your destiny, the expected end that God has for you.
Everything could be simply fine in your relationship with someone, a friend, a brother or a sister or a close relative, and sometimes even your own spouse. Then suddenly, they just turn left. Things began to fall apart. The devil will use the ones that are close to you so he can kill your dream, kill your future, kill your desire, and your ambitions.
But I am here to tell you today to watch out for dream killers. Watch Out for Ones When You Say That God Has Called You to Something and They Say How You Are Going to Do That? Watch out for the dream killer. Watch out for the one that you share your ambitions with. And they laugh in your face. Watch out for dream killers. Watch out for the ones that cannot see your vision. Watch out for the ones that do not support you. Watch out for the one, when you say you are going back to get that degree. They say you are too old. Or you are just not smart enough. Watch out for the dream killer. Father, help their unbelief.
WATCH THIS: people do not have to be the only dream killers, emotions can be dream killers, attitudes can be dream killers. What do you mean J.P.? So-n-so hurt my feelings and I am not going back there anymore. That is a dream killer; remember the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations.
Beware of The Dream Killer. Spirit of offense is to kill the mighty works of God, get offended every time somebody open their mouth you will never see dreams fulfilled; guard your heart against the spirit of offense, recognize or perceive offense is a trap of the devil to steal your dream. Jesus became a man to feel what you feel, He felt what you felt. He was offended daily, but Jesus knew His destiny. He knew His purpose.
The cares of this world will try to come in and steal your dream. You must know whose voice you are going to listen to too; the devil will tell you there is never an opportune time to step out. You cannot let the pressures of this life and world get you off your dream. Faith staggers are not at the promise of God, do not question God, His promise is to stagger not. Stop trying to figure out when God is going to do it and do not think that it is up to you alone to fulfill your dream, God is able to perform it. The Word of God is eternal. God does not break promises. He is a Promise Keeper. He is faithful to His promise. The Word of God is a Dream Fulfiller.
The teaching on the Bread of Life churns-up a variety of emotions. Anger, among those who take umbrage at Jesus claim to be the bread of life come down from heaven, and the implicit claim that He has come from God. At the same time, they are delighted at the confusion his teaching causes among His disciples. As one claim follows another that confusion grows as they try to cope with the startling disclosure that: “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh."
This is followed by the revelation: “Those who eat My flesh and drink My blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink.” Jesus is not only talking about His greatest gift to us, but He also reveals who He is by saying: “I will raise them up on the last day”. If, indeed, they accept that He is the bread of life come down from heaven they are now being asked to feed on His flesh and blood. There is shock, disillusionment, an inability to understand. Many are scandalized. It is crunch-time for His closest disciples. They understand what He says, but many are unable to cope with it.
An angry murmuring begins. Shocked by His words, Jesus says nothing to make what He has said more palatable. The more the murmuring, the more insistently He repeats: “My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” No compromise.
If His enemies rejoice at the confusion, there is sadness in the hearts of many who have been loyal disciples. There is hesitation in the minds of many. His words are offensive. Eat His flesh, drink His blood! He enters their confusion and asks them to trust Him. “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Trust is a gift from the Father. “I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted by the Father."
The result of Jesus teaching is: “many of His disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him.” They cannot stomach His teaching, a moment of sorrow for Him and for many of them. He has failed to carry them with Him.
He turns to the twelve and asks: "Do you also wish to go away?" No sentimentality. Stay or go. The choice is yours. You are free. Peter answers, for them all; “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God." Peter’s act of faith, he speaks for all but one does not believe. 5. If Christ lost followers for affirming these truths, so will we.
How many of you have ever been told something that you found hard to believe? Perhaps it was so difficult to believe that no matter what the proof offered to support it, or no matter how credible the person telling you the information, you simply refused to accept it. I am confident that most of us have had this type of experience. It is in our nature to question what is hard for us to understand whether it is concerning earthly matters or spiritual matters.
We see a prime example of this concerning spiritual matters. We read in our Bible the Savior telling the people and his disciples that if they eat His flesh and drink His blood they will be raised on the last day and receive the gift of eternal life. The people in the synagogue had difficulty in accepting this teaching from our Savior, because the words of Jesus were hard to understand. Jesus compared Himself to the Manna that their fathers had eaten for 40 years in the wilderness. He called Himself the Living Bread from heaven. This was too much for the stiff-necked people of Israel to grasp, so they grumbled against Jesus.
John records for us the reaction of the Lord’s disciples. As difficult as it was for the common Jew to accept Jesus’ teaching, so also His disciples struggled with these words of life. Recently, the disciples were witnesses to the feeding of the 5000. For the past three years, they had seen Jesus heal the sick and the raise the dead, give sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf. These miracles showed that He had the power to do things only God could do. They listened to His teachings, and they knew that His words were God’s words. However, there were some on this occasion that refused to accept His words. They failed to realize that GOD’S WORD HAS ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. For some it brings eternal death, and for others it brings eternal life.
At this point in the ministry of our Savior, many disciples had gathered around Him. We have become accustomed to thinking only of just 12 disciples, but there were many more. Luke records for us in His Gospel how Jesus sent out 72 disciples with instructions to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is near. Jesus told them that there would be some who would accept God’s word and its eternal consequences and there would be some who would not. For the ones who did not accept God’s word, their unbelief brings eternal death. Our Savior said, "But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ I tell you; it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town" (Luke 10:10-12). Jesus warned his followers that they would encounter people in towns and villages that would not listen to them. You would think as the disciples listened to Jesus’ words that He was the bread of life, they would have believed what Jesus told them. However, John tells us in our lesson, "On hearing it, many of His disciples said, "This is hard teaching. Who can accept it?” (John 6:60).
There are teachings in the Bible that are very difficult to understand. But where there are difficult teachings there are also explanations. Jesus in love for His disciples explained to them just what His words meant. He was speaking of spiritual things, and they must be heard with spiritual ears and not with ears of the flesh. Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life" (John 6:63). The words Jesus spoke were filled with the Holy Spirit and give eternal life. Jesus told his disciples that they needed to understand them through faith and not through the flesh, which by its nature is hostile to God.
But as some of Jesus’ disciples did not accept His words, so today there are some Christians who do not accept them either. They find the words of God to be objectionable, offensive, and impossible to accept. Are we any different from the disciples? God tell us exactly what He expects in the relationship between husband and wife and many of us refuse to accept these words. We push the word of God aside and try to explain it to ourselves as having been written for a people who lived 2000 years ago. We say, "Times are different now. Surely, God did not mean that for us today." Instead of trusting the word of God as the truth and using it as the guiding principle in our lives, we try to go our own way; a way that may lead to death and eternal destruction. In the Book of Proverbs God tells us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death" (Proverbs 16:25). Sometimes we do not live according to the statement: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it!"
We confess that the Bible is God’s inspired word, but when we read something that goes against our human reason or something we do not like, we simply refuse to believe it. Satan uses our stubborn human reason as a weapon against us. The Devil is very good at creating doubt in our minds when we struggle with what God has told us. He used the very same tactic with Eve in the garden and he used it on the Jews that Jesus was preaching to in the synagogue. The Jews grumbled and said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) Their sinful human reason got in the way of the life-giving words of Jesus, and so it was for the disciples. God’s word has eternal consequences. For some it brings eternal death. We can see this by the actions of those disciples who turned back and no longer followed Jesus.
So where do we fit into this picture? We all have turned our back on Jesus at one time or another. We say we believe what God says, but do we live like it? What about the times we fail to come to church because we have "other plans?" We know that God tells us to put Him first above all things, yet we cannot take one hour of our precious time to worship the Lord. How often have we been out with friends and family and heard someone take the Lord’s name in vain and we simply allow it to go without any rebuke from us? How often do we misuse the Lord’s name instead of using it in prayer or praise for what He has done for us?
We have all made bad choices in our life. Nevertheless, for the disciples who no longer followed Jesus, their decision brought them the consequences of eternal death. This was more than a bad choice. It was spiritual suicide. They turned and walked away from the only one who could repair the damaged relationship with God that their sins have brought on them. But for the disciples that remained, for the ones who hung on His every word as a drowning man hangs on to a life preserver, these words bring eternal life.
People say we should be more tolerant of others and be more diverse. They say we all worship the same God. We just have many different ways of getting to heaven. However, we believe in the Triune God and that all other gods are idols. We believe the words of our Savior when He says there is only one way to heaven. Jesus tells us, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) and He reminds us of this fact in the inspirational reading today. Lord Help their unbelief. There is only one way!!
Remember This: Before Jesus resurrected Jarius' daughter in Mark 5. He kicked all the unbelievers out of the room. Unbelief disqualifies you from experiencing the supernatural and hinders the flow of God’s manifestation in your life. With that being recognized, this is not a season to have unbelievers around you when it comes to accomplishing goals and fulfilling purpose. No offense, all love, but unbelievers and doubters got to go. We are winning over here. If you don’t believe, don’t show up. Mark. 9:22-23. You have doubters, dream killers, and the faithless. Father help their unbelief. Stay connected to God.
J.P. Olson
www.journeyintotheword.com
