We are continuing our study in John chapter 6 this morning for our communion service this last Sunday of the month. And this morning we come to a very important text, a sad text really, in the context of a great tragedy, the tragedy of false apostles, false disciples, professors, but not possessors of faith in Jesus Christ. 

And we have seen the great miracles that Jesus performed at this time, including the feeding of the 5,000, where he showed that he is God, the Messiah, that he has creative power to make food for about 20,000 people from a little boy's lunch, abundance, until all were completely filled, and then still 12 baskets of food left over. 

We will see this morning in the first part of our text that Jesus also exercises authority over nature, over the sea and storms, and when we are in him, we need not fear. These events work toward the intent of John in his gospel to show us that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and John urges us to believe in him, to place our faith in him alone. 

These signs show us who Jesus is, indisputably, undeniably. But these signs are not an end in themselves, in the purpose of Jesus. And we're going to see today that Jesus' words are what really matter. His message of truth, of the gospel, of salvation through faith in him alone, is the heart of the issue, and also the offense that causes most to walk away, as the road is broad and is filled with those who cannot accept the hard sayings of Jesus. 

And there's a tremendous lesson here for us in the church concerning our purpose, concerning the privilege that we've been given by God to live for him, to take his message to the world, to be his ambassadors. And it teaches us about his method, the way he has prescribed for men to be saved, and how we as believers are used by God for this great purpose. 

We see that Jesus is clear and to the point that he does not attempt to make the message acceptable to carnal men but calls them to repent and believe him, just as we see the apostles do as they continue the work that Jesus began in the book of Acts. We've been studying the book of Acts on Thursday nights, and I just wanted to have you look at the first two sermons that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and a few days later. 

In these events, we see signs as well, and the crowd is gathered by these amazing events. The word of God is not complete at this point. They did not have the New Testament scriptures to affirm what they preached. So Mark 16 and Hebrews 2 tell us that God was working with the apostles in this time of transition with signs and wonders to affirm what they preached was from him, was a true message they could trust. 

Let's look at Acts 2 and verse 22. I just want you to observe Peter's preaching. Acts 2:22, “Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God through miracles, wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. 

Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says concerning him, ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand, that I might not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence.’ 

Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 

Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.’ Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 

Well, God was working with Peter with signs and wonders for the purpose of affirming the message he preached that day. But the message is the important part—a clear, indicting, piercing message that says cut them to the heart. And they asked in response, “What shall we do?” That's the point, my friends. 

Vance Havner said, “What you win them with, you win them too.” There must be a clear message of sin and need for a Savior, and a call to repent and believe that Savior, the only Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, turn over a page to Acts 3, verse 12. This is Peter's sermon after they'd healed the lame man in the temple. The crowd is gathered. They have their attention fixed on Peter. The lame man is hanging on Peter and James. 

And Peter takes this opportunity to make the gospel clear. Verse 12 of Acts 3, he says, “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. 

But you denied the Holy One and the Just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did your rulers. 

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and be converted.” Those words mean change your thinking about Jesus and turn around. Go the other way. They were on a road of self-righteousness, works-righteousness, as Romans 9:30 says. They were seeking righteousness through the works of the law. They did not find it because they did not seek it by faith. 

He says, “Turn around, that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” I just want you to notice the method that God has prescribed, that Jesus exemplifies in our text in John 6 this morning, places like John 8, Matthew 23, so many other places. 

When we have the opportunity, we must make the gospel clear. We must choose to trust God and his word, his gospel truth, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. And as we will see in our text this morning, when the hard message comes, when we tell men that they are sinners, that they cannot save themselves by their religion and works and self-righteousness, when we offer them the gospel, salvation by grace through faith in Jesus, and attempt to persuade them, implore them to turn from their religion and turn to Jesus, many, if not most, will walk away. 

This is the reality that Jesus made so clear when he said, “Broad is the road that leads to destruction, and narrow the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it.” But my brother, my sister in Christ, they can never find it without a clear message. And that is our job. That is the example we have from Jesus, from Peter and Paul, and all the apostles and disciples of Christ. 

I'm so grieved that this is not the method of the evangelical church today in America. We've been so influenced by the ways and means of the world, of the culture, that we have abandoned the method that God has given to us, the method of Jesus, the apostolic method we see in the book of Acts, and now we are trusting in the wisdom and power of men in the world rather than God. 

This is nothing new. It has just become so much more pervasive in the church. And in my Christian life, I was just thinking, when I read Jesus' words in our text in verses 26 and 27, when he said, “You seek me not because of the signs, not to know who I am, but because your belly was filled. Labor not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to everlasting life.” It just kind of caused me to reflect on my Christian life over the last 25 years or so. 

I've seen the gurus of the church growth movement move the convictions of the believers in the church from the power of the gospel of Christ preached to the marketing and psychological methods of men and from expository preaching of the scripture and an abiding relationship with Jesus as the power and preparation to go out and do the work of ministry to self-help, man-centered, consumer-driven philosophies of men. 

And for many so-called evangelical churches, I'm afraid Ichabod has been written over that place. The glory has departed. The power is gone because we've left the means that God has prescribed. So this is just a reminder, I think, for us. This is the message of our text this morning as we see that even Jesus, even in the context of the amazing miracles he did and great crowds, and when he preached the truth, when he made the message clear, even for the very Son of God in the flesh right before them, they said, “These sayings are hard.” And they walked with him no more. 

Let's look at our text in John 6:16. Now, when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over to the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat, and they were afraid. 

But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going. On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there except that one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone. 

However, other boats had come from Tiberias near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people, therefore, saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 

And these are the verses I really want to hone in on in our text this morning, verse 26 and 27. Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.” 

Then they said to him, “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.” I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, authority over nature. Second, their God is their belly. Third, an eternal admonition. Fourth, walking away. And fifth, will you go too? 

Well, first we see in our text, Jesus exercises his authority over nature in a most amazing miracle, just for the 12. This is a story. He sends them in the boat. The storm comes up on the sea. They're rowing all night. The details in the other Gospels tell us that it's nearing morning and Jesus comes to them. They hadn't made it far. And immediately, when he comes into the boat, they're at the shore on the other side. 

This account, again, works toward the very purpose of John in his Gospel to show us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that we might believe in him. Most of these men were fishermen. They had spent a great deal of their lives on that very sea, fishing for a living. And I'm sure they'd been in many storms, had some difficult, frightening moments out there. I think of the years that I ran a charter boat on Lake Superior, and that lake has sent so many ships and boats to the icy depths. It can get really ugly very quickly on Lake Superior. 

And there were those times when we were caught in a storm miles from the harbor and a couple of times when I wasn't sure that we would make it back. So these were experienced men in these kind of events. But this is especially bad. And at night, and they rowed all night and hadn't really made it very far. And at this point, they were fearing for their lives that had come to that point. And Jesus comes to them. And it very simply says, fear not, for I'm with you. It is I. Do not be afraid. 

And they welcomed him to the boat. And immediately, they were at the other shore. The storm was over. The danger had passed. They, in a moment, passed from certain death in the midst of the sea to calm safety at the other shore when Jesus came. This is quite a miracle and another impressive display of the power of Jesus, that he is God, that he is who he claims to be, that he rules over nature, that he has creative power as he created the bread and the fish. 

The point in the flow of our text is that there was no doubt in all of these events, these undeniable amazements, miracles that Jesus performed, there was no doubt who He is. And the proper response would be worship, would be to seek the spiritual truth, the life and salvation that only He could give, but this is not the response of the crowd of these carnal men, these religious Jews. 

In verse 26, Jesus answers them when they come to Him. “How'd you get here?” He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” In this, Jesus finds their true motive for following Him. We talked before in the feeding of the 5,000 how difficult it was to produce your own food in that time. It wasn't like you just went to Walmart and bought food; it was a labor, it was a struggle daily for many. So this was kind of a big deal that He could provide food. 

What we see in this motive is that their God is their belly; they want someone to feed them, to care for them, to do tricks for them, to entertain them. And my friends, this is not the purpose of God in the person of Jesus Christ, and it's not the purpose of the either. I want you to pay close attention here and think this through with me. This is so important for understanding. 

They were not interested in Him. They were not interested in who He is, in coming to know Him, to serve and worship Him. They were interested in their own carnal desires; their focus and interest was in meeting their needs. How profoundly sad and tragic. Jesus offers Himself; He offers salvation; He offers eternal life; He offers an abundant life of fruit, fulfillment, eternal purpose, glory to God, eternal life beginning today and lasting forever in sweet fellowship with Him. This is what is available to us in Jesus Christ. But they wanted breakfast. 

They sought Him because He'd filled their belly the day before. They wanted a sign to entertain them. What sign will you do? Someone to tickle their fancy, scratch their itch. How shallow, how temporal, superficial, and inconsequential are these things? And I fear that this is by the pressure of the world, the culture, by the choices that the Evangelical Church has made, the direction we have gone. 

This is the place that we have come to in the church in America by and large. The mantra of the church today is, “What can Jesus do for me?” And the message that masquerades as a gospel coming from much of the church is Jesus wants to serve you. Jesus will make your life better. Jesus wants to meet your needs. And I was just thinking back on this because this was a battle we fought years ago. 

This philosophy that has invaded the church was born largely out of the wisdom of a man named Peter Drucker, who became the mentor of two very influential men in the church over the past 30 years, Rick Warren and Bill Hybels. My wife said, “I wonder how many in the church are aware of that?” I said, “I think most. I think most people are aware of that.” 

Peter Drucker has been called the father of modern management. He was a marketing and business management guru, and it was his philosophies that shaped the purpose-driven, market-driven church. At the core of this was the lie that became the truth in the church. I'll give you a couple quotes here from Rick Warren. He said, “When a thing grows weak and out of date, it’s obviously soon going to disappear. That's also true of churches. If a church cannot change, it will eventually die.” 

Clearly, change in both liturgy and structure is inevitable, and this change will probably be radical if not total. The forms the church assumed in the past inevitably must die. Now, these men building off the mind of a carnal, secular man, Peter Drucker, who himself affirmed that he was not a Christian, applied these thoughts not only to the form of the church but the way we do church. 

The liberal theologians have been moving us from gospel power to social justice for years, but men like Warren and Hybels became Bible-believing liberals. They had a fine doctrinal statement to pull out if needed, but they practically denied it with every action and method they employed. Drucker said, “What the customer buys and considers value is never a product; it is always utility. That is, what a product or service does for the customer. Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it, it's what the client or customer gets out of it.” 

Now, this may be fine if you're selling widgets to carnal men, but this is not how God designed the church nor the method he prescribed for the church to reach the world. Have you ever heard a Christian say, “You know, when I go to church I just don't get that much out of it?” Well, sometimes this may be the fault of the church, but most often it is the philosophy that took root in the church growth movement of meeting the needs of people as our primary purpose and method for winning the lost. 

The influence of this movement in the evangelical church is really inestimable. It has touched the thinking of nearly every believer in America and around the world. At one point, Saddleback Church had affiliation with over 400,000 churches worldwide in 162 countries. The church in California had over 100,000 names on its rolls, which doesn't mean they were going to church, but sometime had been there, but more insidious was Warren's pastors toolbox that boasted 120,000 pastors a week who downloaded their sermons or materials from that website and preached them from the pulpits of our churches. 

This thinking has infiltrated the church and changed the entire form and method of how we do church and how we think about evangelism. Listen to the words of a man named Steinkamp who wrote this: he said, “Bible-believing liberals believe that the culture needs to return to its historic tradition. They think the church needs to abandon hers. While maintaining that the flag should be proudly displayed, they fear that a cross in church might offend seekers.” 

I once sat in a meeting with elders at another church when that statement was made. One elder wanted to put a cross up. The pastor said, “We can't do that; we might offend the seekers.” The old-line liberals consider the gospel irrational; Bible-believing liberals consider it irrelevant. The old-line liberals criticize the gospel; Bible-believing liberals are trying to give it a makeover. The old-line liberals tried to deconstruct the gospel; Bible-believing liberals are trying to reinvent it and make it relevant. 

Jesus captured the very essence of this whole thing 2,000 years ago when he said, “Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” It's not Jesus they seek; it's their own belly. If I want to sell chickens and pork chops on my farm, then marketing methods where the customer is the center of my purpose, where the needs of my consumer reign as king, may be a good method for selling meat. 

And in the megachurches of our land, this methodology will draw a crowd. The mantras give them what they want. This is precisely what Bill Hybels and Rick Warren did; they gave surveys to their communities. They went out and surveyed the lost people to see what they wanted in a church, and then they designed those churches to meet the felt needs of their consumers, and guess what, they came in droves. And a crowd draws a crowd. 

This is what was going on with Jesus in John 6. And if you include God, particularly a God whose soul desires to heal your sickness, fill your belly, entertain you, and scratch your itch, and meet your needs, fulfill your desires, then you'll have a big crowd. Jesus had a crowd of 25,000 on this day who followed him into the wilderness and across the sea and up the mountain. Why? Not because they sought salvation. 

Not because they wanted to worship the Lord, to serve him, to glorify him. Not because they knew their sin and their need and were desperate for salvation his way, the only way. No, they came like they come to fill the great arenas in the megachurches today, because they seek to meet their needs. And here's the tragic truth. As soon as you begin to speak the hard truths of sin and salvation and discipleship and holiness and self-sacrificial love and service to others, a life of worship and glory to God, those arenas will sit empty. 

And that's why they never say these hard things. And my brothers and sisters, this thinking has so affected the minds of pastors across this land that it touches almost every church, and our churches have become social clubs, and self-help centers, and pastors are administrators of programs. And everyone is running around busying themselves in temporal carnal endeavors that do nothing to meet the eternal needs of men. 

We do well to take the heart of the words of one of the songs of a famous singer named Ray Brown of Irwin Township. It's all about Jesus; it's not about me. I'm afraid George Barna has become more influential than Jesus Christ in the modern churches. He said this: “It is critical that we keep in mind a fundamental principle of communication.” Listen to this: “The audience, not the message, is sovereign. Our message has to be adapted to the needs of the audience.” 

People today are presented as unsatisfied, unable, needy, restless, longing, wounded, and fearful, but never sinful. This is a gospel without sin. A gospel without sin satisfies sinners, but it doesn't save them. A gospel without sin requires a Jesus who is merely sympathetic, not our substitute on the cross. A gospel without sin is a gospel where Christ crucified is unnecessary. 

Jesus gives us a strong admonition in verse 27, but it's a promise, my friends, it is good news. “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.” And he continues in the rest of this chapter to tell them that he is the bread of life, that they must believe him, that is eat of this bread, feed on him as it were. 

They need salvation because they are sinners, carnal men who sought their own desires and needs, not Jesus. And Jesus told them, “You better come to me; you better labor for the food that is eternal; you better believe in order to escape the wrath of God for your sins.” And what happened? Look at verse 60, John 6:60. 

“Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying. Who can understand it?’ When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, ‘Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life, but there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. And he said, ‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by the Father.’” 

From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. How many? I don't know; this is a massive crowd. The next verse says, “Then Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ But Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ Will you go away too? That's a question for you and for me as well today. Will we go away too if we speak the hard words of truth? 

I mean this is not our normal kind of expository preaching like we're going through the book of Galatians, our communion service, and we're kind of taking this principle out, but when we go through the word verse by verse we don't get to skip anything. Sometimes I've come to this pulpit and thought, “My goodness, I've got to say these words, you know.” Will we go away too if we hear the hard words, the truth, the doctrines of the Word of God? False professors will. 

You probably won't have a megachurch. There are a few exceptions, but those who want the words of eternal life, those who want to labor not for the temporal but the eternal, they will come. They will seek Jesus to know Him, to learn of Him, and they will grow and be equipped if the focus of the church is on Him, centered on His truth, His Word, the hard sayings that change us from sinners to saints and conform us to the likeness of Christ and prepare and equip us to go out into our communities and do the work of ministry. 

Did you know that I am not yet who I ought to be in my sanctification in my confirmation to Christ? The other night in Bible study, Ray said, “This book of Acts is much clearer than the first time we went through it,” and we got to talking and we figured out it was 23 years ago the first time we went through it. We're growing, we're maturing by the grace of God, but we have not arrived, and because there are things in my life and thinking that are yet to be conformed to the likeness of Christ and in yours as well, then we need to be offended at those points. 

We need the hard sayings that renew our minds to the truth that change us in those areas. Coming to salvation is hard for the sinner, and sometimes becoming like Christ is hard for the saint. But these things are accomplished only through the Word of God, the truth about Jesus, and we must labor for these things, eternal things, not just for bread to fill belly this morning. Many walked away because that is how it is in the world when you tell the truth, even if you are Jesus. 

Will you walk away too? Only Jesus, only God's Word has the truth, the words of eternal life, and only churches who preach and teach that word as their focus, who exalt Jesus and point people to Him, not to themselves, not to the temporal carnal things, but the eternal things will see growth and fruit for the glory of God. 

Don't ask what Jesus, I was going to give you a little JFK here, don’t ask what Jesus can do for you. Right? Don't let your church be one that makes Jesus a servant to man and his carnal needs. Don't labor for the food which perishes, but choose the greater thing. Choose the eternal bread that Jesus will give that will fill you, the food that endures to everlasting life. 

This is the promise for all who will come to Him through faith alone by God's grace and the power of the gospel, and this principle, this admonition is the same for the Christian life. We read Colossians 3, I'll read a couple verses again: “Since you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, for you died.” That old man who you were in Adam, when you believe Jesus, when you turn from your self-righteousness and religion and you turn to Jesus in faith, that old man was crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin, that’s this body controlled by indwelling sin, might be rendered powerless. 

You died; your life is hidden with Christ and God, and when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. We need to every day look to the eternal; we need to look to Jesus to seek to know Him. We need to remember what He did for us; that’s why we have communion every month, to remember, to proclaim His death until He comes. 

We come to this place, we come to His Word, we come to the Lord's table, not to meet our carnal temporal needs, but to know Him, and then to go out and make Him known by preaching the clear gospel of salvation from our sins, from the wrath of God through faith alone, in the one-time substitutionary death of Christ on the cross, His burial, and resurrection. 

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus. Sanctification comes by the truth, the Word of God. We don't need the ways and means of the world of men; we need the power of the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ in us as we speak the truth and shine the light into this dark world, imploring men to be reconciled to God. 

My friends, this is our privilege, this is our calling and our commission. I just want you to remember that the message is the method. The message is the method. We don't need a 12-step method; we don't need a coffee bar and a rock band; we need the gospel truth, the simplicity that is in Christ. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for the gospel, for the plan that you designed in eternity past for Jesus to come and be born in the flesh, a man to live a sinless life and die in our place for our sins, a substitute to take the wrath that I deserved. Thank you, Lord, for loving us that way, so much that you gave your only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him, faith is the means by which we are imputed your righteousness and made fit for heaven. 

Thank you for the regenerative work you do for everyone who believes that you crucify us with Christ, that we've died to sin, we've died to the law, we're no longer under the fear of death, and now you've given us a purpose as you've come to make your home in us and you empower us through your Spirit and Jesus lives in and through us as we walk by faith. The life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Thank you for the privilege to be your ambassadors; thank you for giving us the words of reconciliation that we might bring that good news to every creature and encourage them to believe you, that they might have eternal life. Thank you, Father, for your grace. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.