When you don’t understand

September 25, 2016

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Sunday service, Detlef Stegen, 25 Sep 2016

John 6:60-67
60 When many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This is a difficult statement. Who can accept it?”

61 But Jesus, knowing within himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you?

62 What if you saw the Son of Man going up to the place where he was before?

63 It’s the Spirit who gives life; the flesh accomplishes nothing. The words that I’ve spoken to you are spirit and life.

64 But there are some among you who don’t believe…”—because Jesus knew from the beginning those who weren’t believing, as well as the one who would betray him.

65 So he said, “That’s why I told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father.”

66 As a result, many of his disciples turned back and no longer associated with him.

67 So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You don’t want to leave, too, do you?”

Why did the disciples see it as a hard saying?
We read in the same chapter John 6:53 – 58
53 So Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves.

54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I’ll raise him to life on the last day,

55 because my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink.

56 The person who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will also live because of me.

58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not the kind that your ancestors ate. They died, but the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

This word was too difficult for them to swallow. Eating human flesh and drinking human blood is clearly contrary to God’s Word. Neither the Jews nor His disciples could take it. It caused them to grumble. This sin of grumbling is a terrible sin among believers. It sets in very easily. It’s also a sin that Jesus picks up quickly in his followers. Even before you speak murmuring words, God knows you’re already murmuring in your heart.

Has God come to you in ways you do not understand? We need a spiritual mind to understand what Jesus says. Because they didn’t have a spiritual mind they didn’t understand what He was saying.

If God sends someone along your way and you don’t weigh it spiritually you will start to murmur in your heart, fail to understand what God is after, and take offence. And because of that, you will start to live a carnal life, and blame others for your shortcoming.

In verse 65 Jesus said, “no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father”.

Maybe someone spoke to you about your children, and you rejected it as a hard saying. God wanted to draw near to you and draw you to Himself. But now, because you’ve rejected it, your testimony fades away, your walls start to crumble, and God’s glory has departed from your life. Now you’re decorating yourself with worldly things to imitate God’s glory.

It’s good that we examine our lives in this manner, lest it happens to us as we read that many turned away and no longer followed Him.

They were right, it’s clearly wrong to eat human flesh and drink human blood! But He was speaking spiritually and they weren’t tuned in (John 6:63). If we fail to allow the Lord’s Spirit to enlighten us, we’ll fail to hear His voice. We will find ourselves in the same position as the children of Israel, who were saved from Egypt, but when it got difficult in the wilderness they started murmuring and accusing Moses. May the Lord keep us from pointing fingers to others.
God is still righteous and if we murmur it awakens His wrath and anger.
God got to a point where He swore that not one of those who were saved out of Egypt will enter the promised land (Num 14:21-24; Ps 95:11; Heb 3:11). And they had to travel in the wilderness for forty years until all that generation had died. Only Joshua and Caleb entered, who were not part of the murmurers.

Today He gives us the choice as He gave to the disciples, whether we want to go away or follow Him and understand what He says through His Spirit.

This is a wonderful time in which we live. God is working among us, maybe as never before! Are your eyes open to see it?

God wants you to take up your position in your family, just like Nehemiah did with his family and his nation who were in exile. He recognised God’s time and went to the king to request that the walls of Jerusalem be rebuilt. When Nehemiah heard the state of his people it moved him to action. When Jesus shows you your state or the state of your family, what does it do to you? How do you react when Jesus knocks on your door? Are the gates in place to protect and sift what should enter and exit your life and your family, or have they been burned down?

Nehemiah was in tune with God and knew when it was God’s time. When you’re in tune with God then you can also pray prayers you haven’t prayed before and they will be heard. Then you can truly pray in faith.

The first thing Nehemiah did when he realised the state they were in, was to pray for mercy, for himself, his family and his nation. He prayed for himself and his brethren, confessing their sins and asking for mercy.

Nehemiah 1

1 In this document, I, Hacaliah’s son Nehemiah, recount what occurred during the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. In the month of Chislev, while I was in Shushan at the palace,

2 Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with some men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, about those who had survived the Babylonian captivity, and about Jerusalem.

3 They told me, “The survivors of the captivity there in the province are living in great distress and shame. Furthermore, the Jerusalem wall remains broken down and its gates have been burned by fire.”

Nehemiah’s Prayer

4 When I heard this, I sat down and cried, mourning for a number of days while I fasted and prayed in the presence of the God of Heaven.

5 I said, “Please, LORD, God of Heaven, the great and fearsome God who keeps the covenant, showing gracious love to those who love you and keep your commands,

6 please turn your attention to observe carefully and listen to the prayer of your servant today that I am presenting to you day and night on behalf of your servants, the Israelis. “I confess the sins that we Israelis have committed against you. Both I and my father’s house have sinned.

7 We have abandoned you by not keeping your commands, your ceremonies, and your judgments that you proscribed to your servant Moses.

8 Please remember what you spoke in commanding your servant Moses. You said, ‘If you rebel, I will scatter you among the nations

9 but if you return to me, keeping my commands and doing them, even if your exiled people are in the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to establish my Name.’

10 These are your servants as well as your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

11 “And now, Lord, I ask you to listen to the prayer of your servant—and to the prayers of your servants who delight in revering your Name. I ask you, please prosper your servant today by granting him to receive favor from this man.” Now I was the king’s senior security advisor.

Nehemiah 2:1-3

Nehemiah’s Conversation with the King

1 It came about in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, during the month of Nissan, the king was about to drink some wine that I was preparing for him. Now I had never looked troubled in his presence.

2 The king asked me, “Why do you look so troubled, since you’re not ill? This cannot be anything else but troubles of the heart.” Then I was filled with fear.

This was a wise king who could discern and take note of those around him, who served him. Can you discern when the devil wants to enter the life of your child? And can you act against such evil that the life of your child is not destroyed?

3 I replied to the king, “May the king live forever. Why shouldn’t I be troubled, since the city where my ancestral sepulchers are located lies waste, with its gates burned by fire?”

From one step to the next Nehemiah relied on the Lord. And God used this heathen king to instruct Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. If it pleases God to use you as a vessel, will you respond in kind, that He can use you? Sometimes He asks you difficult things and you wonder how you can ever accomplish that. Jesus said that it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:24; Mark 10:25). Maybe you’re not rich in material possessions but you’re rich in yourself, your abilities and accomplishments.

Do you understand God’s call? When Jesus came to save His people from their sins, He first sent John the Baptist to preach, “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt 3:1-2). And that was also Jesus’ first message (Matt 4:17). When Jesus comes He will show you the walls that is burned down that must be repaired. As they repaired the walls, they were one and stood together. Are you also one with God’s children?