Wednesday, August 17, 2016

August 18, 2016

"Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." John 6:53-66

How many followers do you have on your Facebook account? That is important to serious Facebook involved people. The followers you have the more important you feel and the more popular your Facebook posts are considered to be.

One of the worst things that could happen to a person who take his Facebook page seriously. To be unfollowed indicates you have fallen out of favor with one of your followers or they have been offended by something you posted.

No one wants to be unfollowed and everyone wants more followers not fewer. In our story of Jesus we will consider on Sunday, Jesus was about to be unfollowed by a good number of His followers.

Why did these followers decide they must unfollow Jesus?

They come around or over the lake seeking to get something from Jesus but Jesus refused to give them what they wanted and instead, asked something from them! And what He asked was hard (and a little weird) as you can read in the Scripture above.

So what did he mean by this hard saying? Here are the clues:
  • "How do you labor for the food that endures to eternal life? Believe in me!" (v. 27, 29)
  • “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me [in faith] shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (v. 35)
  • “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.” (v. 40)
  • “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” (v. 47)
For Jesus eating is believing; drinking is believing. He promises eternal life to those who believe in him. Believe what?
Believe that his death—the breaking of his body and spilling of his blood—pays in full the penalty for our sin and that his perfect righteousness is freely given to us in exchange for our unrighteousness.
From this moment on, this is what following would mean for these who were seeking Him.
They had to reconsider their commitment to Jesus. Would they follow Him or would they unfollow?
According to the rest of Chapter 6, many of them unfollowed Jesus.
Have you ever been tempted to unfollow Jesus?
Perhaps you are at that point this morning.
Perhaps the price seems too high.
Maybe the pain is just too great.
In the next several posts I want to share some questions you can ask yourself before you choose to unfollow Jesus.