Deo Gloria
Lenten Sermon for March 4, 2020
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: John 6:66-68
Theme: The Warrior Rejected by Many Followers
Every day, somewhere, couples get divorced. We remember all the happy moments of that wedding day when two people declared their love for each other and put rings on each other’s fingers. They made so many promises: to care for each other when they were sick, when they were poor, when things went badly and when things went well. They said they would love and cherish each other till the day they died.
So what happened to those days and that loving commitment to each other? What does it take to break up a married couple? How many disagreements and arguments? How much disgust over such things as personal bad habits, too much alcohol, fits of anger and rage, drugs, gambling, pornography, physical or mental abuse, child abuse, or unfaithfulness? What causes the “Wow” to turn to “Ugh”? As a pastor, I’ve seen my share of divorces over the years. It’s always tragic and heartbreaking when someone breaks the marriage and walks away.
Jesus inspired lots of excitement when he began his ministry. There was a definite “Wow” with many of the people. Yet tonight we hear about the “Ugh,” when many turned their backs on Jesus and walked away.
It was during his last year of ministry. For two years crowds had been following him, watching him perform amazing miracles, listening to his captivating parables and sermons. In fact, he had just fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two small fish, yet another astounding miracle. It was then that the people began to think that they should make Jesus their king. In fact, John tells us that they were even going to come and make him king by force. He was the kind of king they were looking for: a king who had miraculous powers, a king who could heal the sick and raise the dead, a king who could provide them with all the food they wanted and more.
It’s sad how warped their expectations for a Savior had become. Many had abandoned God’s beautiful promises of a Savior from sin and death and instead were looking for a political Messiah, someone who could rescue them from the hated Romans and make Israel a free and prosperous nation once again.
Jesus resisted their efforts to make him king and withdrew from them. The next day the crowd caught up with him and had lots of questions. Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to bread. That’s when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”(6:35).
Whoa! The people certainly had bread on their minds, but the bread Jesus intended to give them was very different from what they expected. He told them that he had come from his Father in heaven. He told them that he was the bread from heaven, and that all who “ate” this bread, that is, who took him in by faith, would live forever. He would raise them up on the Last Day. Unfortunately, his words were not very palatable to the people. If you had been there, I think you would have felt the enthusiasm go out of the crowd, like when the visiting team kicks a winning field goal as time expires on the clock. Many turned around and headed home. They weren’t interested in a Savior like that.
But it wasn’t just the people in the crowd who walked away. Jesus had a group of disciples with him too, people he was training to spread the good news of the gospel there in Galilee and beyond. But Jesus’ words about being bread from heaven where difficult to understand. How could he possibly give them eternal life? John tells us, “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’”(v. 60) And that brings us to the first verse of our text: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him”(v. 66).
It was discouraging to say the least. Here he was, the Savior of the world, the one who had come to defeat their greatest enemies: Satan, sin and death; the one who would offer his life on the battlefield of Calvary for them and their sins. Here he was, preparing for that momentous battle, the battle of his lifetime, the battle of the century, the battle of eternity, the battle for the salvation of people’s souls, and at the same time preparing his troops to carry on afterward, and now some of them leave. Sadly they didn’t believe that Jesus had the authority or power to give them eternal life, so they rejected him. The “Wow” had turned to “Ugh” and many turned away.
Sadly, the same thing happens today, doesn’t it? Satan still hates Jesus and he does everything he can to oppose him, everything he can to fight against him and lead people to turn away from him. He deceives people who are lost and leads them even deeper in their separation from God by establishing numerous false religions such as Islam and Hinduism and Mormonism and atheism and materialism and so many more—all of them offering some sort of path to God or substitute for God, but all of them leading directly to hell.
Satan has made inroads into the Christian church too, spreading all kinds of false teachings, attacking the Bible, using critics of Christianity in the media and in universities and in politics to damage and destroy people’s faith. Satan is the ultimate terrorist, one who is cornered and knows he’s going to die, but one who’s going to take as many as he can with him.
Even here in our own church we have members who in years past enthusiastically promised right here at the front of this church that they would remain faithful to Jesus and his Word, even if they had to die for him. And yet, something has happened, hasn’t it? Something has taken away their joy of being in God’s house and their confirmation vows lie broken.
Perhaps you know someone like that, someone who is slipping in their faith or perhaps has lost his faith. They need our love, our encouragement, and our prayers. You see, we all struggle at times with doubt. We too may struggle to understand something Jesus tells us in his Word, but that isn’t the time to turn away from Jesus. That’s the time to dive in even deeper and get even closer, to let him remove our doubts and strengthen our faith.
As Jesus watched many of his disciples walk away, he turned to his 12 closest disciples and asked them an important question, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”(v. 67) Was there emotion in his voice? Did they hesitate? Did they want to see how many others would stay before they gave their answer? No. Peter answered for them all: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”(v. 68) I love Peter here because he is so right on: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
When God created the world, he simply spoke, “Let there be…” and there was light, dirt, stars, galaxies, lions, butterflies—a world and a universe full of life and beauty. That’s the incredible power God has in his words!
I’m holding in my hands and you are holding on your phone God’s own love story toward us—his words of life, his words of forgiveness, his words of salvation. Those words have tremendous power. As Paul states in the book of Romans, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ”(10:17).
Only God knows how many believing Christians there are in the world. But I do know this: Every single one of them did absolutely nothing to create saving faith in their hearts. Everyone—you and I included—everyone came to faith by only one very powerful means, by only one path. It doesn’t matter if it was spoken or read or received in physical form in the waters of Holy Baptism. That very powerful means is the Word of God! That’s what brought you and me to faith in Jesus as our Savior, the one who gave his life on the cross so that we might have forgiveness for our sins and peace for our souls, and the one who rose again on the third day so that we might have the sure hope of eternal life in heaven. He did it all. He paid for it all. And he gives it all to us freely through his Word. So do you see why Jesus fought so hard against false teachers?
“Watch out!” he warned. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves”(Mt 7:15). They opposed Jesus back in his day and they continue to do so today, luring people to turn their backs on Jesus. They have lots of opinions and lots of theories, but they do not have the words of eternal life. There is only one source for that, and Peter had it right: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Peter and the other disciples were blessed and did not want to lose what Jesus had given them. We are blessed as well. As we sit here in God’s house this evening, we are blessed to know that God is our dear Father and we are his dear children. We are blessed to know Jesus as our great warrior, the one who by his death and resurrection defeated our enemies and rescued us from sin and death. We are blessed to know Jesus as the Bread of life, the one who satisfies our tired and hungry souls with his love and forgiveness, and when this life is over, will give us what no one else can: unending life in heaven. So I invite you to join me this evening in echoing Peter’s words. I know the devil is constantly after us, trying to deceive us, trying to get us to turn our backs on Jesus too, but like Peter it’s time to respond with a clear and confident answer. So please, say it with me: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?” Amen.