[0:00] Jesus said, the spirit gives life, the flesh is no help at all. Father, we do want your spirit to speak now. The words I speak are no help at all unless you are at work.
[0:12] So please would you speak as we hear the words of Jesus read to us. And then as I try to explain them, please speak by your spirit to each of our hearts and draw us to Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.
[0:24] Now, I don't know if there's a there's a phrase that I don't know if you've heard it. You're sometimes at watermark, maybe a prayer meetings. Twenty five in twenty twenty five.
[0:36] Does that ring a bell? Yes, some people. Twenty five in twenty twenty five. Yeah, so twenty five.
[0:47] That's what we wanted at the start of the year. This year we wanted to see like twenty five people become Christians and get baptized. Something like that. Right. So we thought twenty twenty five. Twenty five is a great number.
[0:58] Well, we have three months left and we're not even halfway. And I don't know what you think about it. The truth is actually, you know, it's not that easy for people to become Christians.
[1:10] There aren't you know, it's not like amazing revival in Hong Kong. For many people, it seems to be an objection even. Right. Maybe you're here. You're looking into Christianity. Christianity. But, you know, if this really was real, if this really was so amazing, why don't we see millions and millions of people in Hong Kong coming to believe that?
[1:29] Right. How can it be true if so few people respond? I don't know if you feel that sometimes. I mean, many of us, we love more people to believe, not because we want to have more numbers here. We think this is amazing news.
[1:41] This is the best news ever. This is wonderful. And so we'd love people to receive this. And yet that's not happening. I don't know what people need. Do you think maybe I wish there were more miracles today?
[1:54] I wish there just was more evidence, you know, maybe a better preacher. I mean, that would help definitely. But you know what I mean, right? What can we do? Well, I think today will be helpful because we're doing the second part of this long chapter.
[2:08] And I guess we'll have a few guests here who weren't here last week, visitors. It's great to have you. But yeah, where are we? So this is in the Gospel of John, John chapter 6.
[2:21] And this has been quite a momentous occasion because just now, Jesus, well, the day before what we hear, Jesus did this amazing miracle. It's so famous. It's in every single Gospel.
[2:32] That's the only one, actually. It's in every Gospel where Jesus fed 5,000 people plus their families. So 5,000 men plus their families from just one lunch.
[2:44] I don't know what you would have thought, right? If all of you, you know, maybe one of you has some sandwiches and all of us could eat from that just because Jesus did this amazing miracle, right? That was amazing.
[2:55] And people recognize it, right? They want to make him king. When he then goes away, they all run after him. The next day, they find him on the other side of the lake. Oh, Jesus, right? They love him.
[3:06] And Jesus then wants to explain what it means. We started looking at that a little bit last week because, well, it's a special time. In 6, verse 4, it says it's the Passover.
[3:20] The Passover is one of many times that they remember the exodus from Egypt. The exodus from Egypt, I mean, if you have read the Bible, hopefully you've come across that. Maybe you haven't.
[3:32] Maybe you've seen The Prince of Egypt, that movie from the late 90s. Yeah, a wonderful story of how God's people, the Israelites, they were slaves in Egypt, but God rescued them.
[3:44] And he brought them through the desert. And, you know, walking millions of people in the desert, how would they survive? He gave them bread miraculously. And now, well, this miracle just happened.
[3:56] And Jesus says, well, actually, that's about me, right? This is a picture of what I've come to do. I've come to rescue you from slavery. I've come to bring you home. I'm the bread of life, the thing that's going to get you to the promised land.
[4:08] And if you believe in me, you will have eternal life. Well, I think you would expect revival, right? Because, you know, here's the best preacher who ever lived. And they've just had this amazing miracle.
[4:20] And they're all hyped about what Jesus can do. And so, well, I'm sure we're going to get thousands of people baptized. Well, let's read as we continue in this chapter. So, Margo and Iris will come up and read John chapter 6 for us.
[4:39] Good morning, Watermark. The scripture reading today comes from John chapter 6, verses 35 to 71. If you're using the church Bible, you can turn to page 838.
[4:50] Starting in verse 35, we read, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[5:07] But I said to you that you have sinned me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
[5:18] For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
[5:33] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
[5:43] So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, It's not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.
[5:57] How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
[6:11] 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. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God.
[6:24] He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.
[6:35] 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.
[6:47] 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 his flesh to eat?
[7:03] 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.
[7:17] 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.
[7:29] 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 because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
[7:45] 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. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capanium.
[8:00] When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do you take offense at this?
[8:15] Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
[8:29] And there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him. And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.
[8:46] After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
[9:01] You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you, the twelve?
[9:13] And yet one of you is a devil. He spoke of Jesus, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. This is the word of God. All right.
[9:29] Yeah, great. Good button works. So, I don't know what you thought. All right. It's really not what we'd expect. Here's a crowd, and they start to grumble about what Jesus says.
[9:42] Jesus talks some more, and they start disputing, and when Jesus is finished, verse 16, man, this is a hard saying, right? Who can endure it? And then, ultimately, verse 66, many of his disciples walked away, and no longer followed him.
[9:57] They had thousands of people, and now, well, I don't know, twenty, thirty? I have no idea, but a lot less. And I don't know if it's a big shock to you, right? It's so surprising how few people believe.
[10:10] And we're not just talking about, I don't know, the Pharisees, the religious leaders. Of course, they always don't like Jesus, but it says these are disciples, right? People who started following him, who, yeah, who followed Jesus, and yet they gave up.
[10:25] Well, what is going on? That is the topic for basically today, the next few chapters. There's actually quite a lot of that in these chapters of John, and today will be one part of it that, yeah, I think is something we should listen to that will be helpful in many ways.
[10:41] Now, how will I divide it up? I'll just basically go through it and then make a few applications. I'll just divide it by the paragraphs here, the three times that basically there's a negative response from the people leading to this wholesale rejection.
[10:58] But there's a few hard sayings from Jesus that they struggle with. So, yeah, hard saying number one, Jesus is from heaven. That's what it says, right? So he says, well, I'm the bread from heaven in verse 41.
[11:10] 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 have come down from heaven?
[11:26] Right? They really struggle with it. He says he's come down from heaven, from God. Now, isn't this just an honest question? You know, because here's this guy, he just looks like a normal, you know, Middle Eastern male, 30 years old, and he says he's from heaven.
[11:42] Of course, that's hard to believe. Actually, I don't think this is a very honest question. I mean, John says they're grumbling. I don't know if you know the word grumbling. It's a Bible word and actually, it's a Bible word that we hear a lot in, well, those stories of the Exodus back in the Old Testament, right?
[12:00] All those people brought out of Egypt, what are they known for? Well, they're grumbling. They complain. They don't believe God. They don't trust him and actually, as a result, they all die in the desert.
[12:10] Grumbling already says this is not good, but, I mean, do these guys know Jesus is special? They do, right? Yesterday, they were with thousands of people in the desert and they got their free lunch out of nothing, created out of five loaves of bread, right?
[12:31] Surely, I mean, they wanted to make Jesus king. They said he's the prophet, right? They run to the other side of the lake to be with him. They know Jesus is special. Why are they now complaining?
[12:42] Well, I don't know. Exactly. John doesn't tell us that much, but you can see that there is maybe a kind of pride at work, right? Because now Jesus says, actually, I'm not one of you.
[12:53] I'm very different. I don't know how to illustrate it. Maybe imagine a football team, right? Somewhere, some town, they have their local football team and the team is not doing well, right?
[13:04] They're losing every game. But then they discover a young man on the street of that town who actually is really good at football and they hire him and now they're winning all the games, right?
[13:15] And, I mean, they will really love this new player. It would be very different if maybe, I don't know, they hire someone from Brazil, right, to pay a few million dollars and would they like that person?
[13:28] No, they won't. Why not? Because he's not one of us, right? Actually, this, you know, the local player is one of us and, you know, hey, we're the Jews, we're God's people, we're, here's our prophet, rather than actually, no, I haven't come from here.
[13:43] I've come from somewhere else to save you. I don't know if that is what it is but they were not happy, right? And even though they've seen this amazing miracle, they have amazing evidence for Jesus, actually, they struggle.
[13:58] Jesus isn't faced, Jesus keeps repeating, no, I'm the bread of life, you really need me, I'm, I've come to rescue you, right? I'm really from heaven, I'm from the father, I mean, that's why I can take you there, why can I take you there?
[14:09] Well, that's where I'm from, right? That's what he says in verse, yeah, no one has seen the father except he who comes from the father. But, yeah, but then he starts talking about, okay, this bread of life, this bread that you need, I'm sure you've heard that, right?
[14:27] It's the bread that we saw on the screen. Actually, there's something more specific, this bread that you need is my flesh, right? End of verse 51, the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
[14:41] Now, this sounds very weird and they thought it was, sounds very weird, right? The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus doesn't back down, of course, he repeats it so often, right?
[14:56] verse 53, 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.
[15:15] Is the mic okay? Seems to be fading in and out. Okay. Sorry, I have a very old shaped head and that's why.
[15:28] Maybe this, is this better? Yeah, okay, let's try this. I will raise him up verse 55, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
[15:41] I mean, you can't miss it, right? He keeps talking about his flesh and blood. Now, what is this? I think if you've been around Christian things, you know for a while, he's talking about his death.
[15:52] I mean, when you see flesh and blood, I don't know what kind of movies you watch, but you know, when you see flesh and blood, people die, right? He says, he's going to die. That's actually not a weird thing for him to say because remember the festival that it was, right?
[16:09] This is, John said, this is the Passover time and what do they remember at the Passover? Well, how did they actually come out of Egypt? How did God rescue the people from slavery?
[16:20] Well, God said he would punish the Egyptians. He would send a plague and every firstborn son would die, kind of repayment for what the Egyptians had done in the past.
[16:32] But how would people be protected, right? If every firstborn son in every house is going to die, how would the Israelite families be protected? And God said, well, you need to take a lamb and you kill that lamb and you put the blood kind of on the doorpost and around the door and then God would pass over.
[16:51] That's why it's called Passover. He would pass over that house because basically there was already a death in the house. Someone had already died, something, and so the firstborn son did not have to die.
[17:04] That was the idea, right? Every firstborn son would die. Again, if you've seen the movie, if you've read the story, you probably know that. And they didn't just put the blood there.
[17:14] What did they do? They then had to eat the flesh. They had to kind of roast the lamb and eat the flesh. So eating flesh at Passover would have made a lot of sense to them because it makes it personal, right?
[17:27] Okay, here's this rescue. God is going to rescue us but I need to make it personal. I need to eat it. I need to receive it. So I think that is just what Jesus is saying. Plus, he's the Passover lamb.
[17:40] And actually, chapter 1 already said that he was the lamb of God, right? He takes away the sins of the world. But, you know, if that is what he says, it does have certain implications, right?
[17:53] If he talks about, okay, my flesh and my blood as a Passover lamb, well, for example, that does mean that his death probably has to do with sin, right?
[18:05] Because when God came to bring that plague, it was judgment, right? Sin is a Bible word. If you don't know it, it's about our rejection of God, the way we just live our own way, even though God made us.
[18:19] And, yeah, if God is our loving maker who made us, we, you know, we, we, we, we, you know, it's wrong to walk away from him. If it's wrong to reject him. And so we face death. Death is the punishment for sin.
[18:29] And, you know, that's why all those people in the desert died. They, not because of old age, but they were judged because they grumbled and didn't believe and rejected God, right? But Jesus says, I can give you life.
[18:42] The manna is just bread, right? Bread can't save you, but I can, because I will die in your place, right? Just like the lamb died in place of the firstborn son, I'm going to die for you in your place.
[18:57] And then you don't need to face judgment for the things you've done wrong. That's basically the point, right? So, again, it's believing in my death on the cross, as John will go on to say in the future.
[19:13] Before we have to think about it more, I know when you heard this chapter, some of you will think, hey, isn't this communion or something? you know, because he talks about eating my flesh and drinking my blood.
[19:24] I know there's people here from a Catholic background, and, you know, you've probably always heard, hey, you need, you know, communion.
[19:34] That is where you really get saved because that is what Jesus says here. Just, I want to speak to that for a minute. I don't think that that's the case. I mean, first of all, Jesus talks about his flesh, not his body, right?
[19:47] What's the official warning? This is my body broken for you. I mean, why would he use a different word? It doesn't really help his point. And also, as you heard, they're not actually having any food, right?
[19:58] I mean, if he really says, okay, it is about this, why doesn't he serve it? Actually, the bread was the day before. And his whole speech is about, it's not about bread, right? It doesn't make any sense.
[20:10] Actually, if you take these two verses, maybe you can see what he means. So, verse 40 says, this is the will of my father. Verse 40, next picture, yeah.
[20:23] this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. And then verse 54, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
[20:35] And I will raise him up on the last day. So, how do you get eternal life and be raised up? I think the two verses are just saying the same thing, right? Eating my flesh is a metaphor.
[20:47] It's a metaphor for believing because, again, that's what the Passover symbolized, right? When you take it, the flesh, you're saying, yes, I need this. You're trusting God.
[20:57] Again, lamb chops can't save you. It's just, right? It's not about the flesh. It is about the symbolic action that expresses your faith. Again, same with communion.
[21:09] You know, the little wafer and the juice can't give you anything. It's just, you express your faith in Jesus' death. That's what you do. Okay? So, this chapter is not about communion.
[21:20] This chapter and communion are both about the cross, if that makes sense. But, with that aside, what do people think of this?
[21:30] They think it's a really hard saying, right? Verse 60, when many of his disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? Right?
[21:41] And I think, why is it so hard? Because of all these assumptions, right? Because the Passover means that you deserve judgment. that you've done wrong and that you're going to die and you can't do anything about it.
[21:54] That's why Jesus had to come and do something. Right? You can't save yourself. The lamb needs to die in your place. And maybe that's very humbling. Right? he says, without this you have no life in you.
[22:07] It's difficult to hear, right? You have no life. You have nothing if you don't without me. Rescue, yeah, he's offering a rescue, but you need to accept that you need rescue.
[22:20] I don't know, silly example, we had a typhoon last week. And actually, to me, that sounded in some ways quite exciting. because we have this river near our house and the water level would rise by four meters and flood all the cycling paths.
[22:36] I think that would be really cool to see. So, maybe, what will I do? Shall I build a hut next to the riverbank and just go and see what it's like? I'd love to see that, right?
[22:47] Well, my guess is if I would do that, I think the police would come and knock on the hut and tell me, hey, we want to bring you to a shelter. Now, in a way, it's a nice offer, but it's a bit humbling, right?
[23:02] Because they are thinking that my hut will not withstand a T10. They are having doubts about my superior engineering skills, right? If I'm proud of what I've done and they tell me, actually, come, you need help, I don't want to hear that.
[23:19] So, if I'm humble and accept, yeah, accepting rescue means you need to be humble. You need to accept that, actually, I need help, I can't save myself, I'm in trouble. And if you don't want to accept that, yeah, then it's offensive, because that is how people respond, right?
[23:38] Again, the result, yeah, is this mass departure, right? Because then what happens after he's talking about his death and the cross, well, many of his disciples leave him, verse 60, that is a hard saying.
[23:52] Jesus says, well, are you offended by this, right? Verse 61, do you take offense at this? He says, it's going to get even worse, right? He's just said he's going to die. Actually, he's going to die a criminal's death on the cross by the Romans.
[24:05] It's going to get even worse. But, you know, it's the only way. Verse 63, it's the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life.
[24:18] And flesh here doesn't mean flesh as in Jesus' flesh. Flesh means human effort, often in the Bible. And so, human effort is no help at all.
[24:29] You can't save yourself, he's saying, right? The only way is through this message that I'm preaching to you, right? that's how you can have spiritual life, but you can't help yourself.
[24:41] There's nothing you can do by your human efforts. You need me. But they don't believe it. And so, verse 66, many of them walk away, and they turn back and no longer walk with him.
[24:53] They decisively reject Jesus. Only a few remain, including his 12 closest followers. And why? Well, they know what Jesus came to bring, right?
[25:04] He asked them, hey, do you also want to leave? Verse 68, Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Why do we want eternal life?
[25:15] And where can we find it? Only in you. That's what they believe. And that's what they hold on to. And that's why they stay with Jesus. But now, what should we do with this?
[25:26] I hope you can see, basically, yeah, it's the negative end to this speech, right? This great, the first big gospel explanation in John, and yet, yeah, so many people go away.
[25:40] Well, I want to put a few questions on the screen. I guess the first one, I mean, that's what Jesus' question, right? So we have to ask it, will you believe? Will you believe? Jesus is offering eternal life, right?
[25:52] Don't miss this. We can focus on the bad reaction, but look what Jesus says, you can have eternal life. There's no other way, you can't help yourself, but I've come to rescue you, I've come down from heaven, and I'm going to die for you.
[26:05] And for us now, he has done that, right? Such a huge effort. I mean, he wouldn't do that if it wasn't necessary. So if you are here, do you believe what he says?
[26:17] Do you believe that actually you need Jesus? That, yeah, well, then there is a wonderful offer here, that you can have eternal life.
[26:27] You just have to come to him, you just have to rely on what he did on the cross, on his death, and you can be forgiven, you can be back with God, you can have eternal life that starts now in your new relationship and then, yeah, raised up on the last day, that will last forever, right?
[26:45] You just need to pray and come to him, and Jesus says you really need it. Please do that if you're not, yeah, if that's you, but yet, at the same time, this chapter would ask us, well, if not, why not?
[27:01] Because this chapter is about people who don't believe, and it's not because they lacked a miracle, they had this amazing miracle, right? It's not that they've never met Jesus. I hear other people say that, yeah, if I could just meet Jesus personally, then I'll believe.
[27:16] These people, they met Jesus personally. It didn't help, right? No, the problem was not Jesus, the problem was not the miracle, it's the message, right?
[27:29] People don't want to believe this, and I think because it's just a hard message, it's offensive because of what it says about us, right? That's what they struggle with, and we're going to see more of that in the coming two chapters.
[27:43] Although one surprise that you may have if you're thinking about this, the surprising thing here is that Jesus' audience, right? Because if there's one place you would expect a result, well, these are Old Testament Jews, right?
[27:58] They are God's historic people. I mean, don't they know this? I mean, if I go here to, you know, I'm going to stand out at Wong Chuk Hang Station and I'm going to tell people Jesus is the bread of life.
[28:09] You need to eat his flesh and then you'll be raised on the last day. People will look at me very, like, what are you talking about, right? Because people have no idea.
[28:20] But these people, they knew, right? They know the Bible, they know about sin, they know about judgment, they know about sacrifices, they know about the Exodus, they've been celebrating it since they were born, like every day, every month, right?
[28:33] Big festivals every year. And yet, these people are not interested in Jesus' offer. How can it be? How can people with so much background, you know, maybe some of us, right?
[28:45] You know, some of us grow up in church, and so much background, and yet, people don't believe. That's surprising, right? Now, again, that's going to come up more and more, you know, I want to have it in our minds, hey, what's going on?
[29:00] So that the next few weeks, we can look at that more. I guess there's some hints you can see. Maybe you picked it up in the reading. Ultimately, that's because people are saved by God's work, right?
[29:11] Verse 44, Jesus says, well, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Verse 65, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it's granted to him by the Father.
[29:22] God needs to be at work. God needs to be at work, and otherwise people can't believe, is what it says. That's a big topic behind their predestination. I'm not going to go into that.
[29:32] Again, we're going to see more over the coming weeks, although if there's something you struggle with, please come and talk to me. I'd love to help you. The interesting thing, though, is that it means Jesus is not worried.
[29:44] He had 15,000 people there, now he's got 12, and yet he's not worried. He doesn't panic. He says, I'm working with my father, and I trust him.
[29:55] I guess that's something we can do as well. Maybe, I hope this place will be filled with people from Wong Chukang. Maybe it won't. We should trust God with that. But I think this is not just about other people.
[30:10] I think the interesting thing is he shifts from the Jews to the disciples, when many of his disciples heard it. After this, many of his disciples turned back.
[30:23] So these are people who were following him. These were not people who reject him, who haven't. They're people who follow Jesus.
[30:34] They've seen Jesus, but now they walk away. Maybe the equivalent would be people who come to church, and they're part of the church, and they would say they're a Christian, and yet at some point they walk away.
[30:47] So maybe this is more challenging for us. Jesus has this good question that I think this chapter would raise. He asks, do you take offense at this?
[30:58] Do we find this offensive? Again, if someone asks if you need help, it kind of applies that you look like you need help. Is that something you struggle with?
[31:10] When Jesus says, well, your efforts helped nothing. We've rejected God, we face death, and the only one who can do something about it is me. I have to come down from heaven, and I have to die for you.
[31:22] That's the only way you can have any hope. In a way, that's so depressing, right? But do you say, yes, absolutely, that's me? Or actually, do you find it just too much?
[31:34] And maybe you're a youth here, and every time it's about Jesus, every time in youth, and you get a bit sick of all the talk about sin, and judgment, and Jesus, right? Well, maybe in your CG, it's always about Jesus, and you get kind of fed up with it, right?
[31:50] I mean, that's a good question. What do we think of all this talk? Is that something that we can't get enough of? Or actually, you know, hey, man, I've got other things in my life.
[32:00] Can we talk about my job? You know, that's a lot more relevant than all this stuff about sin. Well, this chapter would ask us a very good question then, actually. You know, are we here for the rescue?
[32:13] Because Jesus, in a way, he says, that's what I've come to do. These people, they came for the wrong thing, right? They saw the healings and thought, yeah, I want that. And they followed Jesus, and they got bread.
[32:26] Yes, I want that. But then Jesus says, well, it's not about the healings, it's not about the bread, they're just that point to me and I've come, but the real thing is the rescue.
[32:38] But they wanted something else, and that is why they thought they don't need rescue, we want this other thing. They just need a bread. And so, yeah, if you know you need rescue, if you come here because you want Jesus rescue, then I guess you will want this teaching.
[32:56] Well, if you want something else, right? I think people come to Watermark for all kinds of reasons, people become Christians for all kinds of reasons, like community, right? Such a wonderful, loving atmosphere here.
[33:06] It's great, right? To have coffee afterwards, such a buzz, it's wonderful, community, right? Lots of young adults with whom you can hang out, it's great. Except Jesus says, that's nice, but that's not why I've come.
[33:20] I mean, of course, we're all still sinners, right? And you might be disappointed, but Jesus says, that's not what I've come to do. Ultimately, I'm here to rescue you. So if you come here for the community, yeah, and you have CG, hey, come on, can we hang out?
[33:34] But no, we're talking about sin and about Jesus again. Well, yeah, that's not the reason. Maybe people come here for meaning or purpose or a feeling of peace. Maybe you come here, I want to be a better person and Jesus is such an inspiring example, so I want to learn about Jesus and how to follow him.
[33:53] Now, Jesus is an inspiring example and he does want you to follow him, but it doesn't start there, right? Jesus says, I've come here because you don't need an example, you need me to die for you.
[34:07] And people find that sometimes hard to accept, right? If they, I come here to learn to be a good person, well, Jesus says, you can't be a good person, you're not. So if you struggle with Jesus' message, yeah, I think that's worth, what are we looking for?
[34:23] And just to say, it's okay to struggle and don't pretend that's, oh, I love this message, right? people who say to me, oh, nice sermon, when actually, actually I don't like Jesus' teaching.
[34:36] That's okay, it's much better to be honest about it, that's much more helpful. But think reflecting, you know, what do I want from Jesus? Why am I here?
[34:46] Do I want him to rescue me, or are there these other things that I actually, I want more? Because that shows you think you need those more than this. Although finally I would ask, you know, if that's what you think you need, are you sure?
[35:02] Are you sure that you don't need to be rescued? Because, you know, maybe Jesus knows things that we don't. I'm so confident often in my own knowledge, but, you know, I haven't seen God.
[35:15] Right? how do I know his standards? How do I know what he's going to do? Jesus says, I've come from him. I can tell you about him. And so maybe it would be good to be humble and take his word for it.
[35:29] Especially, again, Jesus didn't just come to bring a message, right? If Jesus was just all talk but no action, can we believe him? Well, maybe not. But actually he didn't just speak, right?
[35:41] He says, I'm going to die for you, and he actually did it. If he went to all that trouble, would he be lying? Would he be saying, you know, you really need my death, that's the only way, when it wasn't the only way?
[35:55] Why would he then go to the cross? No. I hope we can see from Jesus, he must be telling the truth and that means we are in trouble and it means that he came for us.
[36:06] If you see Jesus and you really realize he's come to rescue you, to die in such a way that shows an amazing love, right? It's incredible what he was willing to do, to come down from heaven, to die for us, even though, well, if we are really such people, we don't deserve it.
[36:26] I'm saying we're going to get so frustrated with people and yet Jesus keeps loving them, Jesus keeps loving us. So, yeah, if you see that, come to him. Admit your need, admit you need a rescue, and if you want a rescue, yeah, come to him, rely on his death and receive eternal life.
[36:45] Why don't we pray together? Father, thank you that you tell us the truth, even if truth is sometimes hard to hear, that we need rescue, that we have no life in ourselves, that only through Jesus we can actually be saved.
[37:14] Father, help us search our hearts, many of us are rejoicing, we love to hear this because we know Jesus' love and we know we need him so much.
[37:24] There's others of us who are still thinking, still struggling. Father, open our eyes, would we see Jesus and therefore would we accept what he has to say to us, or that each of us have eternal life.
[37:37] Again, we see people walk away, ultimately we don't want that, we want many people to hear this good news, and not die, but have eternal life. No one wants death, everyone wants life, but we need to know where to find it, and it's in Jesus.
[37:53] So we pray this in his name. Amen.