8-18-24 Sermon
Heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your gift of creation and for establishing life on this planet we call earth. We thank You for revealing Your will for our life, through the words of holy scripture. But most importantly, we thank You for the gift of life, given to all who believe that Christ has redeemed us from our sin, and offers us the hope of new life in Your heavenly kingdom. In Christ’s name we thank You. Amen.
There was a man who got a very simple job packing oranges. He was told: “Just put the big oranges in the green box, the medium-sized oranges in the white box, and the smallest oranges in the yellow box.” An hour later, the new employee told his new boss, ’’I quit.” “Why?” asked the boss in amazement. “I cannot take the pressure making all these high management decisions,” he replied.
Decisions are part of life—whether we like it or not. Some decisions are easy and can be made in a split-second –others take longer. Some decisions need to be made to protect our lives— or the lives of others.
In the gospel lesson, people had a chance to receive the salvation of God but were offended because Jesus said that He was the Living Bread from heaven, and if anyone ate his flesh they would live.
That offended people. They were willing to settle for a materialistic miracle–the free bread. But when Jesus talked about being the Bread of life and offering heaven to them, they walked away. They were offended at the idea that God would come down from heaven and be one of us. They had a hard time believing another human being could offer the gift of eternal life. They were offended at the free offer of salvation & many of them walked away.
So Jesus asked the 12 disciples “Do you also wish to go away?” And good old Simon Peter answered for them by saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God!”
Peter hasn’t always received great reviews. He was often impulsive, hot-tempered man. Peter didn’t understand all that Jesus was saying about flesh and blood either, but Peter had faith in Jesus. Peter wasn’t just a fair-weather friend. LORD, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
And later when Peter addressed the council of Jewish leaders, he said: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people except the name of Jesus. Peter’s proclamation could have had him stoned to death.
Now Peter could have claimed his identity as a Jew, one of God’s chosen people, a descendant of Abraham as a way of salvation.
He could have pointed to animal sacrifices at the temple as a way to forgiveness.
He could have hoped that his good deeds outweighed the bad ones so he could have been considered righteous, as many people still do today, but he didn’t. He went all in for Jesus. He didn’t hold anything back and neither can we!
When it comes to eternity, we can’t claim self-righteousness. We don’t follow new age philosophies.
When it comes to eternal life, we look only to Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
We know and believe that Jesus suffered and died for every one of our sins once and for all and we claim His promise that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have the gift of eternal life.
But it’s when we’re asked to invest our entire life in Jesus, we start stammering—we become hesitant. So which of Jesus’ teachings offend you?
Are we offended when we are told to love our enemies?
What about giving our possessions to those who are in need? We take offense, because how do we know if they are deserving?
When Jesus says, “Go and sin no more” — we know sin is deadly, but how dare Jesus expect us to change our lifestyle?
We are offended when Jesus commands us to love people we don’t like. To love others the way Jesus loved us means I must take abuse from people and still pray that God the Father will forgive them. I’m not sure I like that one very much. Loving one another as Christ loved us means I don’t get my way all the time. It means I have to put the needs of others at the level of my own. It means that I will build up someone instead of criticizing.
Loving one another the way the LORD loved us means that I have to change. But I don’t want to change. Whether we admit it or not, we too, find the words of Jesus hard to listen to. So the bottom line is this: are you willing to turn away from the words of eternal life?
In all the decisions we are called to make, the most important one has to do with our relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus asked the disciples whom they would follow. All of us must answer the same question. What is our life going to be about?
Each one of us must decide how much control Jesus is going to have if any at all.
But Jesus calls His followers to take the difficult path. Will you follow Jesus when it calls for sacrifice, service, love, involvement? Will you partner with Him in all areas of your life?
Apart from Christ we can be fooled into living only for the moment and of making no preparation for the world to come. Eternal life means more than living for satisfaction now. It means a destiny beyond the grave. It means hope in the face of death.
Joshua said, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
What do you say? All glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and forever will be. Amen
