Sermon on John 6:66-68
Theme: The Warrior Rejected by Many Followers
Date Preached: March 25, 2020

Despite the fact that most of the sports world has shut down, the NFL decided to continue on with free agency in preparation for next year’s season. Free agency gives teams a chance to hire players whose contracts have run out in order to make their team better. It also gives players a chance to make some serious money as they leave for a new team. However, when a fan-favorite player decides he is going to leave one team and go to another for more cash, it can be upsetting to many of the fans of the player’s previous team.
Online, you can find angry rants of fans who are displeased with a player for leaving and the comments something they say during the process of moving on. Some go so far as to get rid of memorabilia featuring that player or burning their jersey. They are not a fan of that player anymore because of what the player said or did.
Tonight, we see Jesus lose a lot of fans/followers. He didn’t have a jersey to burn, but many no longer wanted to be his disciple. Why? Well, let’s take a look. 
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:66-68)
Our text takes place during Jesus’ last year of ministry. For two years, crowds regularly followed him, eagerly watching and listening. Social distancing would have been a problem because he had literally thousands of people around him. Jesus just fed 5,000 men, not counting the women and children who were there, with five loaves of bread and two fish. The people loved it! This is a guy they could get behind! This is the guy we want to be our king. He can cure our illnesses. He can turn water into wine. He can multiply food to feed the masses. These Israelites knew God had promised a Savior, and Jesus was starting to look like exactly what they had hoped for.
But their expectation of someone to provide food and health was not the purpose of the Savior. The religious leaders had directed the attention of the people to look for a Savior from physical hardship. They were looking for someone to rescue them from the Romans who were occupying their nation. How did this twisted picture of a Savior happen? An enemy had been at work! He had attacked the Scriptures. Satan had convinced the spiritual leaders with a lie to reject Jesus. Many others would choose to do the same. 
Jesus resisted their efforts to make him a king and withdrew from them. The next day, the crowd found Jesus and had many questions. Considering the miracle Jesus did, the conversation turned, naturally, to bread. That’s when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).
Wow! Bread that will never make you hungry if you eat it! Sounds great! But the bread the people had on their minds and the bread Jesus was offering was very different. He told them he had come from his Father in heaven. He was the bread from heaven, and all who “ate” the bread from heaven, that is, who received him by faith, would live forever. He would raise them up on the Last Day. 
But that is where they stopped listening. “Whoa, whoa, whoa…that’s not what I want.” “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’” (John 6:60). It is not that this was hard to understand. It was just hard for them to accept. Jesus was teaching them that they couldn’t save themselves and he was their only option. He didn’t look like anything special. He looked like an ordinary man. Jesus didn’t teach of earthly triumph and successes. He wasn’t speaking about having a good time on earth, but taking up a cross. They were told they were sinners who could not save themselves no matter how much they did. The only way they could come to the Father was through Jesus. That’s not what they wanted to hear. So, they left. “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66).
Which seems kind of incredible. These were people who had walked all those miles with Jesus, had slept on the ground many nights, had eaten with him, had seen his many miracles. Jesus is the most fascinating person who has ever walked on the face of the earth. When he spoke, it was with a kind of authority that no one had ever heard before! 
This was the Savior of the world who had come to offer his perfect life in exchange for our sin at the battle on Calvary. He’s getting ready for that battle and has been preparing the troops to carry on. And some of them leave. Satan had grabbed hold of their hearts.
This is not something that just happened back then, is it? Satan is still battling for hearts today. This enemy encourages people to stray further in their separation from God by establishing many false religions. He has also worked inside the Christian Church to produce false doctrines and to cause rifts in relationships between members of churches. Many members who once enthusiastically promised they would remain faithful to Jesus and his Word, even to the point of death, have lost interest. Doubts or questions choked out their faith. Or, maybe it was the busyness of life that just pushed Christ to the backburner. The devil attacks on multiple fronts to pull Christians away from God.
But what about you? “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (vs 67) We all want to say “No, of course not!” But how often do our actions, words, and thoughts tell a different story. Do you find yourself questioning certain teachings and doctrines of Scripture? Do you get upset with God for something he allowed to happen in your life? Do you take your sins seriously or do you write them off as just a part of everyday life? “It was just a little mistake, but everyone has those, right? It’s not a big deal. There are much bigger sins out there. Everyone has their character flaws.” 
	We have too often turned our backs on Christ and his Gospel. Instead we have played “Follow the Leader” with the sinful world and went down a pathway filled with empty promises of happiness. But really, it’s a path that leads to destruction. Our sins are a problem that we could never fix. No matter how much we try or the good we do, it cannot remove the stain of sin.
Peter’s answer points to the one who can “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (vs 68) He confesses that he cannot save himself. He knows there is no one else who can fix this problem. There is no one else that can make me clean. We only have one option when it comes to salvation. We lift our eyes to our Savior, Jesus.
	Peter goes on to confess, “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:69) While many couldn’t believe that Jesus was from God, Peter calls him the “Holy One.” Holy One means that he was one set apart by God for a specific purpose – to save you. Holy also meant that he was 100% God because God is holy. Yet, it also attests to the fact that Jesus as 100% man never sinned.
Jesus, though he was tempted and tried, didn’t follow the ways of the world. He fought and won the battle with temptation. He blazed a perfect trail. A trail that led to the cross. On that cross he sacrificed his holy, blameless life in order to make you holy.  With his death, our guilt and shame are removed. He restored our relationship with our Heavenly Father that sin had broken. He made us right with God. 
Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” The words Jesus is speaking were the Gospel message. He was telling us that he is the only way to hope, forgiveness, and eternal life. Through the hearing of this Gospel message the Holy Spirit created faith in your heart. This faith makes us no longer desire to follow the world, but instead we want to follow Christ. We realize that nothing or no one is able to give us the wonderful blessings that Jesus has given freely to us.
Through the eyes of faith, we see the foolishness of abandoning Christ. He is our only source of life. So even when a teaching is difficult for us, we believe it because we know the source from where it came. When he allows challenges in our lives, we trust he will give us the strength needed and will accomplish his perfect will through it. 
There are two paths set before us today. The path of the sinful world and the path of the Gospel. One leads to destruction and the other to life. You can only walk towards one and you must turn your back to the other. Jesus words come to you today and ask you to evaluate your reasons for following him, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (vs 67)  Through faith given to us by the Holy Spirit we gladly turn our backs to the world, turn our eyes to Christ, and we exclaim with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (vs 68)
-	Amen