Discipel Zijn - 2

Fan or Follower? part two Daniel Boyd October 16, 2016 In the coming months we will investigate the various aspects of discipleship. Not every Sunday - I’ll interrupt myself along the way - but as we consider in which ways we can step out with our faith, it is going to be increasingly clear that discipleship plays a vital role. Either yours or the person that you are reaching out to. It’s the last command Christ left with His disciples: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV) This morning we return to John 6 in order to consider in more detail the content of what Jesus was saying to His disciples. I love bread. I remember the first time I made my own bread from scratch. It was a class outing to the openlucht museum and we were pretending to live a long, long time ago. We were instructed on the mixing of flour, water, oil, and salt and then baked it in a stone oven. Hot, fresh bread. Yum. My favorite smell is still walking into a bakery and breathing in all the different “bready” smells. Have you noticed that once we start talking about food, you can’t stop thinking about it? Essentially this is where the crowd is at. Ever since yesterday, the feeding of the 5000, it’s all they can think or talk about. “We’ll never go hungry again!” “I wouldn’t need to work quite so hard to make ends meet” “Jesus just stood there breaking bread for more than two hours!” “Did you see it?” The next morning Jesus is gone and the people go looking for him. By the time they find him, they’re starving again. “Give us some more bread!” worldly or spiritual? Jesus knows this and calls them on it in verse 26. He calls them to spiritual insight in verse 27. Then follows a cycle of conversations between Jesus and the crowd. Jesus confronts the crowd 26-27they ask for a sign 28-31 Jesus uncovers their need 32-33they ask for physical bread 34 Jesus points to Himself 35-40they respond with unbelief 41-42 Jesus points to Himself 43-51they respond with arguments 52 Jesus points to Himself 53-58they respond by walking away 66 Jesus tries to remove their attention from the physical and onto the spiritual, but they’re not listening. I don’t know if Jesus grows impatient as he repeats Himself with growing intensity in this text, but he certainly becomes more direct. He starts by making a point about their spiritual need and they respond by asking for proof… Moses gave our ancestors manna. Can you do that? Jesus points out that God the Father gave them that bread and that there is an eternal bread, that has already come down from the Father. “Ooooo, give us that!” And Jesus says He is that bread, that came down from the Father like manna. Jesus explains what He means by bread in verses 36-40. He is talking about faith. What do we do with bread? We eat it, consume it, take it in - and that is exactly what faith is about: appropriating the Son as our greatest spiritual need. The Jews are disappointed and frustrated and start to turn on Christ. “This is Joseph’s kid… He came down from above?” Jesus again brings it back to faith. I’m the bread. I’m going to give my life for salvation. Verse 51 Now the Jews start aguing and Jesus brings His point home in a shocking way. “Eat me!” This is offensive to them (verse 60-61), but it finally gets them to stop thinking physical. This can’t be taken literally. Jesus wants them to understand that He is the only thing that will satisfy. Focusing on the Son The problem the crowd was facing is problem we face at times. Jesus is trying to get us to think about spiritual things and we are more concerned with physical things. Jesus desires for us to simply have faith in him. “I’m the bread” - “I’m all you need”. You know, we miss the boat on this sometimes, because we become entirely focused on a good thing Christ does for us. Like freeing from the power of sin. And then I do it again. We confess. Then we do it again. We end up getting in this cycle where our relationship with Christ is entirely focused on the battle… save me from lying. Save me from gossip. Save me from pornography. And we can’t break the cycle. Our relationship with Christ isn’t about Christ anymore, it’s about getting free from this sin. Jesus says: I’m the bread. Look at me. I’m all you need. Not for anything… you just need me. And when we don’t get it… just eat me! I’m the only thing on the menu. Is that why you’re following?