Jesus Unfiltered - Follow - Jesus, Miracles, and You, Part 2

If you could do a do-over, you know, like when you were a kid, if you could do a do-over in your life, what would it be? A business decision that went south? A poor choice during those times in college?

Maybe addiction that you just can't kick? If you long for a do-over, there's hope. Jesus has a word for you today. Stay with me. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Have you ever thought, God, I really need a miracle? Well, in just a minute, Chip will suggest that a miracle may not be the best solution to your problems. As he picks up in our study in the Gospel of John, Chip reminds us that God knows everything and His goodness never changes, so we can completely trust the plans He has for us. So with that context, let's join Chip for the second half of his talk, Jesus Miracles and You. He begins in John chapter 6, verse 26. And Jesus is now going to give a message that is filled with grace but with truth to say to thousands of people that are searching for Him. But really, their search isn't so much about Him. What He said is, you're really searching for what you want for you and you think I can be sort of your means to get that.

And He's going to draw a line that will just begin a new relationship with following where He says, I won't be used because you're wrong. The bread of this world, no matter what it is, no matter what you could put in a little box and say, if I had that or if I was married or if my kids would do this or if I went public or if we had so much money or if we could find that second house or if, if, if, if, then, then, then. He's just saying, that is a bankrupt worldview.

I'm generous and I'm kind and I'm loving, but seek first My kingdom and My righteousness and I'll take care of those things. And so I want to walk you through now. You'll notice in your notes, each time we're learning to study the Bible, I've kind of given you the structure of the passage. It's a bit long.

Some of it has some very interesting phrases that made a lot of sense to them, but it's a little hard for our ears. And so I want you to jump back in with me in the text. And the people now have heard that materialism or using Jesus is not an option and He's made this outrageous claim. Look at, He says, the work of God is to believe in the one He has sent. He says, I'm the answer.

It's me. It's about relationship. It's not about stuff. And so notice now the people ask for proof of Jesus' claims.

These are outrageous claims. Verse 30, so they ask Him, well, what miraculous sign will You give us that we may see it and believe in You? As though feeding 5,000 yesterday wasn't a very good one.

But aren't we that way? I could, I could give you people's names who God supernaturally healed their kids in ICU and they promised they'd walk with Jesus forever and ever and ever and they're so far from God. We so quickly forget God's miracles. God's acts will never sustain you, only His ways.

It's knowing Him who He really is that sustains. Our forefathers ate the manna, Jesus said, in the desert. It's written He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

He's speaking here. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, it wasn't Moses who's given you the bread from heaven, but it was my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God, listen to this, is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, speaking to Himself. Six times in this passage you'll say, He who comes down from heaven.

He wants them to know, that was then. God was showing you that He's your provider. I want you to know, it wasn't Moses who gave you the bread, my Father gave you the bread.

He's the provider. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry. And he who believes in me will never be thirsty. No matter what you get, no matter what you achieve, no matter who you marry, you'll have hunger.

It won't satisfy you, you'll need the next thing. He says, that won't be true of me. But as I told you, you have seen me but you still don't believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. Then whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. For I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should not lose none of them that He has given me.

But raise them up on the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks at the Son and believes in Him, shall have eternal life. And I will raise Him up in the last day.

As you look at your notes, just look at the structure. The miracle requested is, you make this outrageous name, give us a miracle. The explanation is, the miracle I'm giving is better than Moses. His was manna, bread, I am the true bread of God, eternal life. Jesus clarifies that and then notice in your notes the promise made. I am the bread of life.

Translation, only in relationship with me will your deepest needs ever be fully satisfied. And then He gives another explanation just in case they didn't get it. I'm the bread of life, it's the Father's will, it's open, you can have it. Do you hear the grace? They're missing the point. In the next section, the people resist His invitation. Look at verse 41. At this, the Jews begin to grumble about this. He says, I'm the bread of life that came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He say, I came down from heaven? In other words, they're questioning His identity. All the miracles say, this is who He is. But their logic and their person, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a second.

You know, I know Mary, I know Joseph. You know, they don't have the virgin birth and all that stuff in their mind. And they're, the miracles say this, but what about that? Part of it is their hearts aren't open. But by the way, people's lack of response to the truth of God is almost always a moral issue and not the intellectual issue.

They're disregarding the facts. They don't understand it all, but they reject Him. Verse 43 through 51, Jesus repeats His offer. They reject Him, then notice, here's grace.

Picking up in verse 43, stop grumbling among yourselves, Jesus said. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets. They'll all be taught of God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me.

This is radical. If you really believe in the Father, you would come to Me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God. Only He who has seen the Father.

And then this phrase again, I tell you the truth, literally it's the phrase amen, amen, or verily, verily, or bold, bold, listen up, third time He's used it. He who believes in Me has everlasting life. We're not talking about stuff. We're not talking about religion.

And then He's going to describe, so what's it mean to believe in Him? I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the man in the desert and they died. But here's the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Listen carefully.

If a man eats, it's Aries tense, point in time, makes a specific decision. If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And He's speaking about dying on a cross to pay for your sin and My sin and the sins of the whole world. Now, you're going to have to be, He's offering grace again.

Now watch very carefully. All through the book of John, people whose hearts are hard, who don't want to hear the truth, they initially hear things at the surface level instead of the deep level. Nicodemus, remember? He heard, you must be born again. Well, I can't get back in my mother's womb. Nicodemus, you're not getting it, okay? Samaritan woman, would you like water that satisfies? Oh, sure, so I'll never have to come back here.

Surface, no, no, no. I'm talking about relationship with me. Watch what happens now in the text as the people take him at surface value and miss the point. Jesus now amplifies the condition of His offer.

Here's the condition. Verse 52, then the Jews begin to argue sharply among themselves. How can this man give his flesh to eat?

Little too literal, guys. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, or amen, amen, or verily, verily, 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 him up on the last day. For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink. And whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. 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. Our forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.

He said this while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? Not hard to understand.

This word means it's hard to swallow. The implications are too grave. And I'll explain what he means by eat My flesh and drink My blood in just a minute. But they're realizing that this belief, this, oh, I believe in Jesus and feed Me and make My life work out, and being a spiritual consumer, he said, no, no, no, no, no.

This is about intimate relationship. Everyone has bread. You have bread, I have bread. And you need to ask, what bread are you chasing? See, bread is the sustenance of life. Bread is what delivers. You get up to earn bread.

You work for bread. It's what matters. It's why you work. It's what you do. It's what you think about. It's what you dream about. It's where your strategy comes from.

It's what your goals are all about. And it is either about things that are temporal or it's Him. And what he's saying is following Me isn't like intellectually believing something about Me, having some religious activities, and it's sort of like here's the pie of your life and Jesus is the slice. He said eating My flesh and drinking My blood is I am your life. That everything in your life revolves around Me and our relationships and out of our relationship your time and priorities and money and relationships and all of life flow. Because I'm God and I'm your Savior and I came and I am the only one that you will be ever satisfied with.

And so following goes up. In the words of the Apostle Paul, he would later say I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives within me and this life I now live.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved Me and gave Himself for me. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll get back to the second volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series titled Follow in just a minute. But first, if this teaching has ministered to you, consider becoming a monthly partner. Your regular financial support goes a long way to help us encourage pastors, create resources, and share Jesus with today's youth.

Visit livingontheedge.org to learn how to support us. Well, with that, here again is Chip. Later on he'll describe what this means in terms of eating his flesh and drinking his blood and he'll just use a simple word. It'll be abide.

It'll be stay connected. He's talking about just as the Father and I have life and unity with one another and my life and his, in the same way he's going to say followers of me are not some sort of I do things for them or they believe a set of principles or they follow a formula. But it's the same kind of relationship I and them and them and me that I have with the Father. That's what he's talking about when he says eat my flesh and drink my blood. He's talking about intimate relationship. Aware of this, the disciples were grumbling about this and Jesus said to them, does this offend you?

Obviously so. And he's saying, you know, six times I've talked about the Son of Man coming down and he kind of says, are you ready for this one? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

What if you get to see at the right hand of the Father? And now he gives interpretation that he's not being literal with eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Verse 63, the Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing.

The words I've spoken to you are Spirit and they are life. Yet some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning which one of them did not believe and who would betray him. And he went on to say, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him. The condition here if you want to jot it down is to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

And can I just say like on the front, that's a pretty strong, gross, I wonder what's going on statement, right? I mean doesn't that sound like sort of spiritual cannibalism or something? What it meant then, notice this is written in 90 A.D., the church has been in existence for roughly about 30 years. A New Testament Christian would read this and remember that passage and now they have the benefit of taking the Lord's Supper as they gather and they would very clearly know, oh, this is, he was predicting, his body would die for us and there would be his blood shed for the new covenant. If I was a Greek Gentile and I read this, I would think of the mystery religions where in the mystery religions they had a number of different things they did and sort of these wild exercises, but part of their exercise is they would offer food to a God and believe that the God, and I can't go into all the background, but that the God would actually partake of the food, digest it and then they would eat the food when they leave and believe that the God had taken up residence in them.

It was this idea that your whole life, your whole life would be focused around the relationship with this God and if you were a good Jew and you heard someone say, eat my flesh and drink my blood, you were repulsed. And Jesus was saying to them, the words I've given you, their spirit and their life, they're not here, you don't go back into the womb, they're not here, it's not that you have a bucket, you don't have to draw a Samaritan woman. What I'm talking about is that intellectually agreeing that I'm the savior of the world and trying to use me for what I can give you is not following me. A genuine follower, I am your life. When you make a decision you ask me, I'll, remember the miracle, I'll provide for you. Miracle in the sea, I'll protect you. I care about you.

I don't want you to talk to me just when your kids are in ICU or your finances go upside down or when you get laid off. I want to be at the very heart and the fabric. In fact, if the apostle Paul was explaining to us in our day, what's it mean now? What's it mean now to eat his flesh and drink his blood?

Are you ready? He would say, I urge you therefore my brothers in view of God's great mercy to offer your body point in time as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual service of worship. This is what it means to be a follower. And in the everyday life, don't be conformed any longer to this world, the bread of this life, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that your life, how you actually live or your lifestyle could prove or test or demonstrate to you and to others what God's will is really like, that which is good, acceptable and well-pleasing or perfect. That's what it means to be a follower.

That's what he's saying. He says, I don't want part of you, I want all of you because I'm giving all of myself to you. As you turn the page, you'll notice there's two very vivid responses.

Those who saw the miracles, the disciples, the Jews, the crowds, the multitudes, he brought them to a crossroads. He's asking, do you really believe I'm God? Do you really believe I'm the way?

Do you understand the cost? Do you understand the implications? These multitudes, I mean, you're a rock star when you're working my life out for me my way. The disciples of convenience, you can write the word, they defect. Notice verse 66, from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Oh, you know, I wanted to follow you, but I didn't want to be a fanatic. I mean, I don't want to believe in God, I don't want to believe in Jesus, but I mean, my whole life revolving around this relationship, I think that's a bit much. I think I'll do life my way. Notice the text, Jesus with tender compassion says, do you want to leave?

You do not want to leave too, do you? He says it to Peter, to the disciples. He asked the 12, Simon Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, we believe and know that you are the holy one of God. We believe and know, it's in the perfect tense, what that means is literally a very clear translation of it, we have already believed at a prior point in time and we have absolutely settled and know in our hearts that you are the holy one of God. Earlier, he uses the word, eat my flesh, drink my blood and it's a tense of the verb that is at a point in time. Later, he says, if you continue to feed on me, he's talking about, it's a different word for eat and it's a word for nourishing or eating or continuing and it's in the present tense, it means we keep on building and developing our relationship with him. And so what he says is, I want you to follow me and this miracle is I want you to know that what's your need? I am the bread of life but I fed you bread, what's going on in your life?

Would you invite me into where you have a need? And then he says, you know, I don't know what's going on in your life but would you invite me into the storms and the difficulties? That miracle is to let you know, I will enter in, I will help you, I will rescue you, I will either take you out of it or I will take you through it or in some cases you are so precious I will take you unto myself. The very end of this passage says then Jesus said, have I not chosen you the twelve yet one of you is a devil? And he meant this because Judas Iscariot who is one of the twelve would later betray him. The point is you can be exposed to all the truth, you can see all kind of miracles but the issue of the heart of being a follower really begins with surrender.

And I just would ask, where are you? As I read this chapter, the paragraph, it was truth and grace, truth and grace, truth and grace and I just marked it all the way through. At the very end, parallel passage, I will end because I feel it would be disingenuous not to let Jesus close our time. In Mark chapter 8 in this setting Jesus would say to the crowds and the disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. If you are going to follow, deny yourself, not your agenda, mine, cross instrument of death. And then he gives the reason, it's gracious, it's kind, it's hard but it's kind. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses himself for me in the gospel will save it. I mean if you want to control your life, you want your agenda, you do your thing, you want your temporal bread, you'll lose your life. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? I mean he goes just, it's illogical. We all know people.

Literally I'll just tell you this, for whatever reason I've ended up, I've got relationships with lots of people that have a big B by their name as in billionaire. And I will tell you Christian or not, the saddest, most difficult, painful things I've ever seen in all my life is either people in places like Haiti where there's devastating, devastating poverty or I sat around kitchen tables with some of the richest people in the world and I will tell you the emptiness of a life when you could do anything, have anything and you know you've been to a marriage or two, you're absolutely empty, you're emotional, you're addicted to this, you've tried this, you've done that, you can fly anywhere, you can eat anything and you're absolutely empty because you've lost your soul. And Jesus please don't go there. His final words, ones that I think we should heed, he says, if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his father's glory and the holy angels. I just, can I just be pastoral just for a moment? I think we've gotten to where we're so fearful of either what people think or the implications of our life that unlike the apostle Paul, I don't think the average follower says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And we will have to be bold and loving and winsome and show people that whatever their caricature of Christianity is wrong and we'll need to love in powerful, powerful ways. But we will have to be bold and unashamed.

You got to stand at the coffee shop, you got to stand at youth sport time, you got to stand in this carpool, you got to stand at work. And you got to know that there is a living God who will do miracles and we're living in a season of history, he will intervene in supernatural ways because whenever there's a lull, whenever there's a time in history where people are drifting far from God, he will choose to intervene because you know what? He's going to authenticate his word. He's going to authenticate his teaching. He's going to authenticate his heart. He's going to reveal his power. But he's going to do it through regular people like us who are unashamed.

I don't mean bossy. I don't mean praise the Lordy. I don't mean preachy.

I mean unashamed and passionately loving people who realize you haven't thrown your brains in the trash and you can say intellectually, I don't know what you're basing your life on and I don't know what bread you're going after but I believe that Jesus is the son of the living God. He's my savior. He's the Lord. He's the creator of the universe.

And guess what? I'm an actually intelligent person. I've evaluated the facts. I'm his follower. I'm not just a believer. I'm his follower.

You will be absolutely shocked, absolutely shocked of people that you think that never would be open, that are waiting for one person they respect like you to be public and unashamed. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and the message you just heard, Jesus, Miracles, and You, is from the second volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series, Follow. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. When Jesus called his disciples, he used two simple words, follow me. So what does it look like to follow Jesus today? Well, join us as we uncover the answer as Chip opens his Bible to a section in the Gospel of John. Learn what chapters six through 10 tell us about being content, humble, bold, and in awe of Christ's power, and how all of those ideas tie into our decision to follow Jesus.

You're not going to want to miss a single program. Well, before we go any further, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, is with me now to share a quick word. Thanks so much, Dave. If you've been listening to Living on the Edge for a while, you may have heard me talk about BIO. The B is for Before God, the I for In Community, and the O for On Mission. Here at Living on the Edge, we have about a million folks who listen each week like you are right now. We've got hundreds of thousands who use our small group studies, read the book, and go to the website every year. And for many, the teaching and the resources we provide through Living on the Edge, it helps them understand what it really means to come before God and to meet Him and experience Him. For others, it's kind of their lifeline to doing life in community. But there's a relatively smaller group of people who step up and say, I'm all in. We want to be on mission with you, and we want to make this ministry happen.

Here's what I'm asking. Nearly all that we do at Living on the Edge is only possible through the financial partnerships of folks like you. Will you help? Will you pray about becoming a partner with Living on the Edge financially? Would you stand in agreement with us on our mission as we pursue in this day and age to help Christians really live like Christians? Thank you for doing whatever God leads you to do. Thanks, Chip. Well, as you prayerfully consider your role with this ministry, I want to remind you that every gift is significant. When you partner with Living on the Edge, you multiply our efforts and resources in amazing ways. Give a gift today by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. With that, here again is Chip to share a really important final word. We learned in today's passage that you can be exposed to the truth. I mean, hear the truth directly right from the mouth of Jesus. You can see him heal people, feed 5,000, raise people from the dead.

But the issue is always the heart. We don't come as consumers. We don't use God. He is the King and the Lord of the universe. He's the Savior of the world.

And even as you hear my voice right now, He is speaking to you to say, I love you. I've died in your place. I rose from the dead. Your sins are forgiven. But what you must do is believe on the work that He has done in your place. The Gospel is clear that you and me and everyone in all the world fall short of being perfect, of measuring up to the glory and the perfection of God, and therefore were alienated from Him, were His enemies, were not His friend. Jesus came and died in our place, paid the price, hung upon the cross. Your sin, my sin, the sins of all the world were placed upon Him.

He absorbed them and covered them. The good news is you are already forgiven. Will you turn from your sin and receive it?

It's a very simple proposition. Lord Jesus, I'm honest and real with you right now. My life isn't what it needs to be. I turn away from my sin. I trust in you only. Lord Jesus, come into my life.

I believe you died in my place and rose from the dead. And now I want you to be my Lord and my Savior, and I want to follow you today. If you prayed that with me in your heart, you need to text or call the greatest Christian you know, then go to our website, and we have some information there to help you begin to grow in your new relationship with Christ.

Thanks, Chip. Well, if you prayed to receive Christ, we do have a free resource we'd like to put in your hands that was created specifically for new believers. This tool will help you understand what it means to trust in Jesus and what to do next. Request this free resource by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org, then clicking the New Believers button. That's LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. Let us help you get started in your faith journey. For Chip and the entire team here, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time.