John 6: 35-36
Al Ngu, Oct 17, 2022
Last Sunday I preached on the crowds came to follow Jesus to other side of the lake after seeing him performed miracles of feeding 5000 men with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. They were following and in fact wanted to make him king of Israel to deliver them from the Roman rule and oppression. However, Jesus said to them, you have seen me and still you do not believe.
John 6:35–36 (NIV)
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.
This is interesting, what does Jesus mean exactly? If they didn’t believe, why did they pursue Jesus across the Sea of Galilee on a boat all the way to see him? They were ready to make him king!
John 6:14–15 (NIV)
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
So why did Jesus say that they don’t believe him?
Well, the reason is they believed in Jesus’ power to heal, and his power to preform sign of multiplying food for them, they just didn’t have faith to believe he is the Son of God , the Messiah of the world! You see they got everything going, but they lacked the most important ingredient! No use just to believe in his power to heal, multiply, but not believing him as the Son of God! The savior of the world. That’s why Jesus said to those who prophesy in his name, that he never knew them!
Matt 7: 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
What a shocking and sad statement for Jesus. Even those who prophesized and cast out demons are not accepted into the Kingdom of God!!
Then you ask, then who will?
The answer is that you must believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Son of God from heaven and savior of the world. That’s the single most important thing. Faith in him. Not just what he can do for you, but who He really is.
Many today missed that. They loved the signs and wonders, but their hearts never believed to put their faith in him. Some takes Jesus as a convenient name to practice their religion per se, but their hearts are far away from him. Like Jesus said, “they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me.”
Some take Jesus as a front, to sort of take a liberal theology from the bible, and taking Jesus as the one who teaches “love your neighbor, feed the poor, help the homeless, and the migrants”, but they don’t take Jesus as the Holy one of God! They want all the goodies of Jesus, but not the divinity of Jesus. Why? Because it will mean they will have to submit to the lordship of Jesus, and they don’t want to. They want to hang on to their way of life, which is continually sinful before the eyes of God. What about those who fight against the sexuality as given and created in the image of God? They call themselves as Christians, but they want to twist the bible to their advantage and agenda. This is highly dangerous, and causes heresy, and definitely a heavy judgement of God coming!
There are also others who view Jesus as a faraway divine figure, who is only mild and meek and gentle, and they have no intension of knowing deeper the will of God and heartbeat of Christ for us. Righteousness and holiness and justice are literally the foundation of the throne of God. Many young people only want the justice, example, racism is loathed and condemned, that’s using the justice of God. But not righteousness and holiness. They are conveniently put them aside, so they can continue to live their lives deviant from the scripture and do what they like.
The day will come soon, when they meet Jesus, he will say “I never knew you.”
We must therefore have the faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and not just what he can do. Everything he does flows from the faith in him as the Messiah, the Son of God.
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