True or False
Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:39
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNot all who call themselves disciples really are, for there are key differences between true and false disciples of Jesus Christ.
Files
Notes
Transcript
Key Texts:
Key Texts:
REFLECTION: 1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
WORSHIP READING: John 6:60-71
MEMORY: Matthew 6:1-2
1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
BENEDICTION: Romans 11:36
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
-----
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes it is really hard to tell the difference between what is AUTHENTIC and what is FAKE.
There are so many imposters / posers out there...
Most have a tipping point or a breaking point before they finally give up the charade
We’ll meet some fakers in today’s text.
ILLUSTRATION: TREES
Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Hypocrisy
In any great forest you will find many huge trees. They tower above other trees and appear to be the very picture of strength and maturity. However, loggers will sometimes not even bother to cut down these huge trees. At first one wonders, “Why leave them? After all, a tree that big must contain twice or thrice the amount of lumber as a smaller tree.”
The reason is simple. Huge trees are often rotten on the inside. They are the hollow trees that children’s picture books show raccoons living in. And they are the trees that are often blown over in a strong windstorm because, while they appear to be the picture of strength, in fact their hollowness makes them weak.
This is the essence of hypocrisy—appearing strong on the outside but hollow and rotten on the inside.
TRANSITION
TRANSITION
In what started out as teaching on the Bread of Life...Jesus seems to be doing all He can to drive away as many people as He can from His ministry.
He must have missed some of the popular books on leadership and success in ministry.
He evidently didn’t pray the prayer of Jabez here - this is NOT a successful “enlargement” campaign, here. (Alan Carr ->) Jesus is running an exemplary “ensmallment” campaign!
There were over 5,000 people with Him, listening to Him speak when we opened John 6.
When we close He only has 12 men with Him and one of them is not even saved.
What’s up with that?
People like things.
People like Jesus when He gives them things.
People like things from Jesus.
The masses REJECT submitting to Christ’s rule and reign as King and Master of their lives - BUT...
He is LORD, He is LORD
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Every knee shall bow; Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD!
When Jesus issues a strong call to commitment; He knows exactly how the crowd will respond - not just the crowd, but EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL IMAGE-BEARER.
He knows who is in it for what they can get for their flesh.
He lays down the gauntlet and calls for everyone of those followers to commit to Him and to Him alone.
This morning, we will see this this play out in our text:
CHRIST’S CALL CLARIFIES!
He will make plain His mission and His ministry for those who would follow Him.
CHRIST’S CALL PURIFIES!
He will purify the ranks of His disciples - that means weeding out most of those who are not genuine in their faith or commitment.
THIS MORNING, WE’LL SPEND QUITE A BIT OF TIME IN OBSERVATION & INTERPRETATION…THEN I’ll close with a few thoughts on applying this text to us today.
WHAT DID JESUS SAY?
WHAT DID JESUS SAY?
What did Jesus say that caused SO MANY to walk away? What was so offensive?
Our reading this morning started in verse 60.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
What did Jesus say?
Well it started when He talked about being the bread of life.
(v26-27) You all are seeking a sign / more stuff - not me.
(v27) You think your best life is NOW…not forever with me
(v28) The first work you need to be concerned about…is the opposite of work - Do you believe in me?
(v35) I’m better than anything your fathers had in the wilderness. I’m better than manna.
(v37) Everyone that the Father has appointed for salvation will be mine…forever!
(v44) You cannot come to me UNLESS the Father draws you to me!
(v45) You cannot be properly taught, unless I am the center of your life and learning
(v51) I am the Messiah, you’ve been searching for. But the only way for all of my sheep to come to me…I must suffer and die.
That’s a lot!
Many of us in this room hear that and we say, “Yes, sure, right…what’s the big deal?”
But many don’t say that.
There are lots of people in our churches, serving in positions of influence, that ARE NOT WALKING WITH JESUS - following Him as a Disciple…they are simply hanging out with the folks that walk with Jesus.
WE WELCOME THAT…to a degree...
We long for those who DON’T KNOW JESUS as Savior and Lord to come on Sundays and (hopefully) hear CHRIST EXALTED in our worship.
Through our prayers and singing and preaching and reading and fellowship together. When we celebrate believers’ baptism and take the Lord’s Supper together, our prayer and hope is that every person in this room is drawn BY THE FATHER to the LORD Jesus Christ.
There’s room in the pews for those who don’t yet know the LORD, but our time together on Sundays IS a family time. It’s NOT designed primarily for those who don’t know Jesus, but for those who LOVE Jesus and long to spend eternity with Him.
But, this group of “disciples” is a nuanced group of people mentioned here in our text.
This passage focuses on a large group of men who’ve taken the title of disciple without any of the realities of BEING a disciple.
The whole New Testament fleshes this out well, but our text this morning gets us to thinking about who is for real and who is not.
There are key differences between true and false disciples of Jesus Christ.
What is a disciple of Jesus?
We discover in the book of John that a disciple is someone who believes on Jesus and continues to follow him.
But here, we find some who are called disciples for a time eventually stop following Christ, and the lesson we’re supposed to learn is that some who call themselves Christians are not.
Some who appear to follow Jesus for a while eventually reveal themselves to be false disciples when they turn from following him.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
John 6:66 is a haunting text.
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
It’s on the level of Matthew 7:21-23.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
These are people that the are checking all the boxes externally.
These people in our text are following Jesus from place to place.
They’ve probably cheered with the rest of the crowd when Jesus healed the lame man and made the blind man see.
As they tasted the bread he had created from a small boy’s lunch—I’m sure they thought...all of our problems might be solved by this Jesus!.
They had pushed forward with the surging crowd, desiring to make him their king.
But now they turn from him, and with shoulders slumped and heads bowed low, they slink away, their sandals kicking up small clouds of dust.
They looked like real disciples.
They acted like genuine believers,
but when Jesus drew the hardline between RELIGION and TOTAL SURRENDER TO HIM,
when he clarified between the activity of the religious and the heart of his disciples
they stopped following Him.
In that moment it became clear that they were fakes.
FAKE DISCIPLES (or False Converts) come to Jesus for all sorts of reasons…except the one that matters most!
In our text this morning, they were coming to Jesus for miracles (v2), to have their bellies filled (13-14, 34) for political power (15).
This is not the gospel. This a false gospel. It’s still being peddled today.
“Come to Jesus for health, wealth, and success.”
Joyce Meyer said, “Who would want to get in on something where you’re miserable, poor, broke and ugly and you just have to muddle through until you get to heaven? I believe God wants to give us nice things.”
This is a warped view of God and an invitation to be a faker.
True disciples are drawn to Jesus BY GOD THE FATHER, NOT THE PROMISE OF STUFF. Their eyes can see...
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I want you to understand something this morning...
THERE IS AN ETERNAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TRUE DISCIPLE AND A FALSE CONVERT.
When Jesus preached, He was CLARIFYING the cost of following Him and He was PURIFYING the ranks of His followers.
If we could draw a picture on a whiteboard of what “DISCIPLED DAN” or “DISCIPLED DONNA” looks like...
if we could sit down and say, what are some of the identifying marks of a disciple?
If we have someone loved and shepherded well, what is the outcome of that?
Of all the things WE might come up with, I believe the text today offers us at least 2 monumental, non-negotiable fruits.
GENUNE DISCIPLES
1. COMMIT TO FOLLOWING JESUS
1. COMMIT TO FOLLOWING JESUS
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Fake Disciples see God as a cosmic bellhop to get stuff from. That’s why they bolt when the going gets tough…they signed up for something different!
Jesus was claiming to be God. He was alerting them to His office of Eternal King and Lord, when He said, “I am the bread of life...”
The majority of the crowd said…yeah, I’m out! You’re talking about dying…if you die, who is going to feed us?”
Jesus asks if he’s offended them in verse 61.
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
The word translated “offend” is skandalizo.
means to “give up believing” or to “fall away.”
Listen, eventually all the fakers will find a reason to check out.
The strange “anti-church-growth” thing here is that Jesus seems to be offering them the excuse they were looking for:
“I know you guys are looking for a reason to leave; is this it?”
Being a disciple is more than saying the right words or being part of a group. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is making a commitment to follow him with all your life for the rest of your life.
If the Father has drawn you to the Son, you will love Jesus, not just his gifts. You will desire him, not just his works. John Piper writes,
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there? (God Is the Gospel, 15)
GENUINE DISCIPLES ARE COMMITTED TO FOLLOWING JESUS - BECAUSE HE IS ENOUGH!
GENIUNE DISCIPLES ALSO...
2. CONFESS FAITH IN JESUS
2. CONFESS FAITH IN JESUS
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Look at this remarkable confession...
It acknowledges WHO Jesus is!
It reveals TOTAL TRUST in Him!
Who is Jesus? “Who is Jesus to you?”
If your answer doesn’t match a biblical description, it reveals that you may not have the Jesus of the Bible.
When you catch a glimpse of Jesus - when you know that you are being drawn to Jesus by God, the Father…your response will look something like Isaiah’s.
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
You won’t puff up with Pride in the presence of God…you will be humbled that He let you live once you’ve been drawn to Christ.
What will you do with Jesus?
I’ll trust Him completely...
…not just for eternity with Him.
…spend time with Him in His Word, in prayer, in fellowship with His bride.
There is NO Prenup here...
In our culture, we love adding “but just in case” onto the end of many of our major decisions.
The prenuptial agreement is the ultimate “but just in case.”
A person stands in front of another person, pledging everything, but with certain things already withheld, just in case.
A TRUE DISCIPLE - one who is all in, committed, and ready to confess their faith - rejects the phrase “but just in case.”
A biblical Christian depends completely, totally, solely on Jesus for his or her salvation.
Like Peter, with clear eyes and resolute will, we proclaim to Jesus, “To whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
In her book Smoke on the Mountain, Joy Davidman, comments on the first commandment by turning it around.
The commandment states: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me...”
The positive inverse: “Thou shalt have me.”
Jesus says,
He is the bread of life that came down from Heaven. (v51)
If you will have him, you will live forever (v51)
He gave His life to secure it.
He alone, can nourish you daily…when all the material things run out.
What will make Heaven, heaven for the True Disciple? THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!
Are you checking Him out?
Are you going through the motions…faking it…holding out for better stuff?
Are you stretched with one foot in Biblical Christianity and anything else “just in case”?
What this crowd wanted, Jesus would NOT give; what Jesus offered, they rejected.
Do you know who Jesus is? Do you trust Him completely?
Does your life “confess” that to ghose