Belief: Displayed and Explained

Thank you for your singing. If you open up your Bibles to John chapter 6, please. if you remember we are we're kind of seeing the fallout of the bread of life discourse from Jesus, the sermon that he gave, that he is the true God from heaven who came to bring bread to the earth, to the world, that he must be ate. And we're seeing the fallout, and we saw last week in verses 60 through 65, the display of unbelief from the large crowd who no longer followed him, for they were offended at his word. and we also saw Jesus explain unbelief and that it's because they do not have the spirit working in them to receive that word, which is why it's offensive.

So if you remember, we concluded that man is totally and fully responsible to display belief, but yet we also know that it's only by God's power of choosing and allowing us by his spirit to do so. So we must rely upon him for a proper display of belief. And we're going to see the same structure now as we look forward, the same structure of the display of belief this time, instead of unbelief from the 12 disciples, and the same structure that it is only by the powerful work of God that such a display of belief can be had.

So let us pray to our God, and we'll read the text and pray to our God. In John chapter 6, verse 66. after this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him so jesus said to the 12 do you want to go away as well simon peter answered him 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 and jesus answered them did i not choose you, the twelve. And yet one of you is a devil, for he spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Let us pray. Oh Father, I pray that you would have your word open up to us in a way in which we can understand and respond. Lord, you call on us to display belief in Jesus Christ each day of our life. And Lord, we know that of our own power, we will fail miserably. We will make excuses. We will murmur and complain.

We will do anything but believe upon Christ. We will be like the large crowd that abandoned him because of taking offense at him. But Lord, we're so thankful that it is your power that enables proper and true belief. It is your electing and choosing love that gives us a spirit so that we can display belief properly even in the hard circumstances. So I pray, God, that we would read what happens here with the 12 disciples, and we'd be encouraged to display belief as well.

And we'd rely upon your great power to enable this very thing. Thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy, found only in Jesus and by the Spirit. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Well, garden season is upon us just a little bit. Some of you probably are already getting your garden together and ready and planned to get it ready for the great hope and desire to have an abundant harvest in a month or two or three.

And in order to have a harvest from a garden, you must plan, you must work at it, you must know what you're doing a little bit and plan accordingly. In other words, you cannot just willy-nilly go at it and expect to have a good harvest. You must manipulate, so to speak, certain environments and circumstances in order to receive that desired harvest. In other words, you cannot put full sun plants under a large oak tree and expect it to do well.

You can't, if you fail to put corn seeds and rose, you can't expect it to do well. And if you don't build a trellis for your cucumber plants, you cannot expect a large harvest. We must plan accordingly and we must work at it. We must know what we're doing. We must make sure the circumstances for those plants are as conducive for a healthy and good harvest.

This morning, we kind of see an interesting thing, circumstance from the disciples of Jesus, which makes us wonder if Jesus would be a good gardener. You see, Jesus is wanting a harvest of believers. He wants a harvest of people who believe upon him. And we see that circumstances are allowed here, are revealed, are shown, that would not really be conducive for that harvest of believing.

We see that there is a circumstance in which it doesn't look like there would be believers. It doesn't look like there would be people who would display belief. And yet, if you remember, because belief is a thing of God's power, Jesus allows these circumstances to be negative, to not be conducive to belief, and yet he works belief despite it. What we're going to see this morning is we're going to see an environment that does not look like it would produce belief, yet belief is had in these disciples, not because of their own display of power but because it a display of the power of God to give to belief despite negative circumstances And we going to really be challenged by this Because as we were challenged last week to make sure we are not displaying unbelief and we are doing it by the power of God, it's the same thing here.

It's that there's times in our life, circumstances that happen, in which it does not seem like God is allowing a circumstance that's conducive for proper belief. Bad circumstances, terrible circumstances, circumstances that make us murmur, complain. annoyed and we think how can this help me to believe and yet we'll see this morning that God allows those circumstances so that we would display belief revealing his power to enable belief even in unexpected circumstances so let us see that this morning before we look at the actual display of belief from the 12 disciples in contrast to the crowd let us look at the unlikely circumstances that lead up to this display of belief from the twelve. Look again at verse 66.

After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with Jesus. You see, again, Jesus gave the bread of life discourse, the sermon, and he talked about how he is truly God, bred from heaven, come down to earth, and he talked about how you needed to consume him completely. and we saw how despite this large crowd's enthusiasm to go to Jesus, to have Jesus, so to speak, to receive bread from his hand, we now see that they are completely offended at Jesus' teaching, at his words, and now they are leaving. So as impressive as it would have been for the thousands to be coming near to Jesus and to be surrounding him, now they are all fleeing or they are walking away. they are going back to their former life.

They are not believing. And this would be devastating, humanly speaking, if you put yourself in the shoes of the 12 disciples who's about to display great belief, despite these circumstances, this would be devastating to those 12 disciples. Imagine being around Jesus at the beginning in which all these crowds are coming. It'd be exciting. And now they're leaving.

It'd be devastating. Especially whenever you understand that the coming Messiah, the hope, what they were expecting was that the Messiah would bring great unity to Israel and conquer her enemies, just like in the heyday of David and Solomon. And so here is this Messiah that they want to make king, and now all of a sudden they are running away from him, no longer that great movement that looks like that was going to take place.

You see, Jesus was in such a great circumstance for a moment. All he had to do was just simply receive it. Remember, they were pursuing him. They were following him. They wanted to make him king. They wanted to steal him, take him away to Jerusalem, and take the throne, take Israel.

And all Jesus had to do was just receive it. But Jesus seems to be allergic to such success. Remember, he made them go away when they started to talk about making him king. And when they found him the next day, he preached a very offensive sermon to them, which led them now to going back to what they were doing before. And what's interesting is instead of doing something about this terrible mass exodus, Jesus reacts in this way in verse 67.

He says to the 12, do you want to go away as well? You see, such a terrible circumstance, and what Jesus is doing is he's putting a spotlight on it, and he's telling his 12 disciples, do you want to do the same thing? You see, anyone that doesn't have great power at their disposal would do anything else but to put a spotlight on this great tragedy and ask his disciples to respond and believe.

Anyone would perhaps ignore it, act like the crowd never existed, just put it under the blanket and just move on, don't ever talk about them again. You might downplay it. Who needs them? Who needs that crowd? They were just dead weight anyways. Come on, 12.

We got it. Or maybe you would chase after them and promise to change your message. Promise not to mention he is God anymore. Promise not to tell them that they need to consume him anymore. Maybe even get a focus group together to really get what it is that this crowd wanted to appease them. Anything to win this crowd back.

Anything to change this circumstance to be better. But instead, Jesus puts a spotlight on the thousands leaving him, and then he asks the 12 disciples, do you want to go away as well? See, the only reason why someone would act this way, meaning Jesus, is because either they are really dumb or they are really in control. It would be like seeing my garden in the worst place possible, to see all the circumstances not coming together, not having a trellis for my climbing plants, I think that's what you call them, and not having my sweet corns and rose, and just seeing a terrible situation, I'm either really dumb, or I can manipulate that garden in supernatural ways to make something beautiful come forth from a very bad situation.

And what we're seeing from Jesus here is he's either really dumb, God forbid I say such a thing without being serious, or he's in complete control and wants to do a great display, a work of display of belief in these disciples. Jesus, by displaying these terrible circumstances, is working to reveal the great work of God in people to believe despite negative circumstances. Now it's important to look at, to note this question from Jesus.

Jesus asking, do you want to go away as well? It's not a genuine inquiry from Jesus. It's not like Jesus is seeing this going on and he's really anxious and he sees the twelve not leaving right away and he saying are you going to go away too Please say no Like he really worried here He already said in verse 67 or he already said in verse 64 John already said that he knows everyone who actually believes in him.

If you remember, look at verse 64, but there are some of you, Jesus says, who do not believe. And then John writes in his gospel as commentary, Jesus knew from the beginning who those were and who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And even after the twelve reveal their belief, in verse 70, he says, did I not choose you, the twelve?

You see, this question from Jesus is not him in anxiety, wondering, are you going to go away too? As if he's not in control, not powerful in this situation. Instead, this question from Jesus is for the benefit of the twelve to display their belief in Jesus, despite the bad circumstances surrounding them. This question is not for Jesus' benefit, for he is in total control of the situation.

This question is for the benefit of the disciples, to cause them to display their belief in Jesus in response and despite the terrible circumstances surrounding them. God will, and this is application for us already, ordain and set up terrible circumstances in our lives, in your life, to bring out the beautiful fruit of belief despite the hardship. Do you get what I'm saying there?

Now, if God wasn't in control, he would do everything he can to make sure that garden is put in order in perfect circumstances. But because God is in complete control and wants to display his power to cause belief in you despite the hardship, the terrible circumstances, he will ordain hardships in your life so that your belief would be revealed there and would be all the more glorious. Whether it is the bad circumstances of everyone abandoning Jesus around you and now you look like a sore thumb or just bad circumstances in general, God will allow disarray so that your display of belief by his power would glorify his name and be good for your soul.

We see this from Paul. With everyone around him abandoning Jesus, yet he proclaims and professes and displays belief in God, which glorifies him and is good for Paul. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 1 real quick as we see this. Paul's writing to Timothy before he dies and he tells his protege in verse 8 of chapter 1 of 2nd Timothy do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me his prisoner but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God and he says in verse 15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.

And so we see that Paul is dealing with suffering and people abandoning him and presumably abandoning Jesus. Yeah, he says, do not be ashamed for the suffering of the gospel or the power of God. In 2 Timothy, look at chapter 4, verses 16 through 18. He says, looked at his circumstances, looked at people abandoning Jesus around him, not coming to his aid, and were to respond with murmuring, complaining, and disbelief.

But because Paul responded with belief, it was all the more glorified because of that negative circumstances. See, we look at Paul as such a hero in the faith as we should for his strong and wonderful belief in Christ, and it was revealed whenever he had the worst of circumstances around him when he had people leaving Jesus and abandoning him. And such a belief empowered by God, glorified God, and it's a marvel to behold.

I think in our own circumstances, it's interesting to see kids growing up in the church and they'll have these Christian friends around them and then all of a sudden they'll start dropping like flies. I pray one day all of a sudden there'll be a revival in which people will just be joining the teenagers as they come instead of dropping but we just live in this age where you can have these Christian friends around you from middle school high school and all of a sudden they start dropping like flies and what we need to ask our kids is are you going to leave him too or is your belief in Christ going to be manifested in that situation in a glorious way despite the hardship there are times in which god will allow hardship in your life so that you would display belief in him it'd be that much more palatable and we talked about how whether it's people abandoning christ like in particular in this text or just hardships in general he maybe you're not going through a situation in which there's people dropping like flies not believing in jesus but he will allow and does allow hardships so that you will display belief in him and glorify him. We think of just that general hardships.

We think of Job himself. What a great example he is to us in Scripture. Whenever Job experienced such great hardships, yet he displayed belief. Go to Job chapter 1. Let's look at that. Job 1. here is God allowing hardships in Job life to display that belief In verses 8-12 of Job 1, And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, or blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him? and his house and all that he has on every side. You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. Stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you into your face. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand.

Only against him do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. And we see we don't have time to go through all the text, but we see then Satan does everything that he's commanded to do from God. He takes away all Job's physical possessions, right? He loses everything. He loses his wealth.

He loses his children. But yet in verses 20, look at verses 20 through 22, Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground in worship. And he said, Naked I come from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

What makes that so wonderful and powerful is because Job lost everything, everything, the worst of circumstances, yet his display of belief has shined forth through that. God will allow us to go through hardships, difficulties, so that his powerful work of belief will be manifested in us as we display it. See, it's a beautiful thing to see true belief from people in Christ.

It is even more beautiful to see it in a circumstance where, humanly speaking, the opposite should be happening. This displays the power of God in our belief. And this is what's going on here in our text in John chapter 6. The people are leaving. It would be a confusing and hard time for the 12 disciples. And instead of Jesus trying to say, look away, or who needs them, whatever, he puts a spotlight right on it and says, are you going to go away as well?

And it's all to build up, it's all to show the power of God to display a response of belief in the 12 in this situation. And let's look at that belief displayed by the 12. Look at verses 68 through 69 now. Simon Peter answered him, 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.

You see that same kind of thing going on. It's this horrible situation, and then all of a sudden this great display of confession of faith. in Jesus, a belief in Jesus, despite that situation. In John's gospel, you get these great moments of confession of faith or belief in Jesus. One of the ones that we'll see at the end of the gospel is when Thomas, Doubting Thomas we call him, sees Jesus and he touches his wounds as he said, I'll only believe if I touch his wounds.

And then he touches it and he says, my Lord and my God. And here's another great confession of belief from the disciples in a terrible circumstances that we get from Peter, which represents the 12. And we'll see this confession or display of belief in three ways. Nowhere else to go. What Jesus provides and who Jesus is. So let's look at that first aspect of this display of belief from Peter.

In verse 68, he says, Lord, to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? That's the first display of belief. There is nowhere else to go. The disciples, it's interesting that he says that because if you read that, Lord, we have nowhere else to go, you might conclude that, well, maybe Peter didn't have much going on for him. Maybe the disciples were just dirt poor.

They literally would just starve somewhere in an alley and they just literally had nowhere else to go. But that's not what's being said here. We can get from the scriptures that the 12, at least some of them, Peter and James and John, had somewhere else to go. Just like that large crowd had somewhere else to go in disbelief, that's where they went. These disciples could go somewhere, humanly speaking.

John and James, two disciples of Jesus, their father had hired workers. I don't know if you ever noticed that. but they left their father's business of fishing, and his father had hired workers. And so that usually denotes that they had some kind of money and some kind of business going on that was lucrative. We see in Mark 1, 16 through 20, when Jesus calls them out, Jesus tells them, follow me and I'll make you become fishers of men.

And they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending their nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat, and the hired servants followed him. And so it goes to show you that they had some kind of business to return to that was lucrative, that was someplace to be at.

Where we think of later on in the Gospel of John, I don't know if you ever noticed this, but John knew the high priest. In John 18, 15, Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard so that he could watch his trial. But the point here is that John could get in to see what was going on with the trial of Jesus because he knew the high priest.

And typically, if you know someone who is a high priest, one in authority, that's because you have some sort of wealth or position. So there's reason to believe that John, James, they had somewhere to go. Or if you remember Peter, whenever Jesus says that you must, he tells a rich person to just get rid of everything and follow him. Remember what Peter says?

He says, see, we have left everything to follow you, Jesus. So in Peter's mind, there was stuff that he left behind to follow Jesus. And so here, this situation in which everyone's leaving, their movement's gone, forget about it. You've got to believe there's something in their mind thinking we could go back to that. In fact, they're kind of close to their hometown.

Maybe they see some of the people that they used to hang around with, that they fished with, that they had business together with. They're going back to it. Maybe I should go back too. And so when he says, Lord, to whom shall we go? It's not to say that they had literally nothing else to go to, but it's a manifestation of a belief in them in which it cuts off any other avenue to go to as compared to what Jesus provides.

The power of God is displayed here in that Jesus asked them if they would leave at the most unattractive time to be his disciple. And the display of true belief is found in saying that even with this hardship, there is no other place they would rather be. and then it's true for every true believer everyone who has the spirit of god working in them because remember this belief business is a power of god displayed by the spirit being in us anyone who's a true believer with the spirit of god working in them their worst day as a believer is better than their best day as a non-believer and so whenever they consider with the spirit working in them this is terrible but yet it is so much better to be with jesus this is a display of the spirit working true belief in these disciples which is manifested all the more because of the hardship that's surrounding them and this is exactly how we need to consider our lives god again doesn't make sure that everything is perfect in your life like a garden in order for you to then display the fruit of belief he will allow hardships difficulties things in which you're tempted to murmur and complain If God wants me to believe, why does he allow this? It's so that then the powerful work of belief he does in you by the Spirit would be manifested in that situation.

And that has to jazz you up. Or when you're in that moment, you're going to be crushed and you're going to leave like the crowd. Why was it better to be with Jesus? Why would their display of belief begin with saying, we have nowhere else to go? It's because of what he says next. What Jesus provides and who Jesus is, is better than anything else they could have, even in that hard time.

Look at the rest of what this confession of belief, these two aspects in verses 68 and 69. Lord, to whom shall we go? And here it is. This is what Jesus can provide, which makes him so much better. you have the words of eternal life that what you have they not going to get there that anywhere else and this is who Jesus is He says and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God Jesus has the words of life i he is the bread of life And Jesus is God, i.e. he's the bread that came down from heaven.

And the reason why I'm saying that is notice that that was the main point of Jesus' sermon, the bread of life discourse. I am the bread that came down from heaven, i.e. I am the Holy One of God, and I provide bread to the world, or I have the words of eternal life. So notice the two major things of his bread of life sermon was the offense that caused the crowd to leave because they didn't have the Holy Spirit working in them.

And the same two major points that was the offense that caused disbelief and the display of it is the same two things that attracted the true believers with the spirit working in them to stay. Even so much to say, where else are we going to get that? Where the others say, I will get anything but that. And so we see here a great display of contrast between unbelief and being offended by the words of Jesus that he is true God from heaven to provide bread to the world to be consumed they are offended and yet here the 12 displaying true belief with the spirit working in them it is what attracts them to Jesus to say we don't want to go anywhere else for you have the words of life and are the holy one of God this is echoing what jesus said about unbelief in verse 63 he says it is a spirit who gives life the flesh is no help at all the words that i have spoken to you is spirit and life and that's what he's saying that's why you're leaving right now and now they're saying you're the one that has this and so we're staying i is so it shows that the spirit is working in them for life this is where they're, not even to not be offended, but to say, we're not going anywhere else because we want that comes from.

Where the crowd displayed unbelief by being offended, disciples here display belief that overcome even the hardship of everyone leaving. And Jesus explains why in this way, in verse 70. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the twelve? See, again, remember last week we talked about the display of unbelief and then the explaining of unbelief. The reason why they left is because they were not granted the Spirit, so it overcomes their natural unbelief.

Well, here Jesus is explaining their belief. And notice he doesn't say, you guys are so smart. You guys are much better than that crowd. That's the only reason why, is because you're so much better. God made you extra special. But what does he say?

The reason why they could have a belief that overcomes such a hard circumstance is not because of their power, but because Jesus says, I chose you. Or how we explain unbelief is that the Father gives the Son of people, gives them the Spirit. It's the same concept, right? The Father gave Jesus these people, gave them the Spirit to understand. They were chosen so that they could understand.

So the explanation of true belief is the same explanation of unbelief. It because they were chosen to believe So the only reason why believers can display belief in Christ despite the circumstances that surround them, which would amount to the opposite, humanly speaking, is because they have been chosen by God and given the spirit of power to enable belief. And this is what we need to understand is a whole purpose for our life is that God wants to show a awesome power of display of belief in your life and so that amounts to allowing things that are difficult so that you would reveal that in belief how much better better is it that as you go through circumstances instead of complaining and being annoyed you would say oh God just let the world see my belief instead.

This reveals God's power and it is good for your soul. And this is what Jesus is saying here. Did I not choose you, the twelve? That's why you are believing despite the circumstances. And here now we have these last words from Jesus and it really stands as a warning for us. It really stands as a warning.

He says in verses 70 and 71, and yet one of you is a devil. and he spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot for he one of the twelve was going to betray him you see you had this great crowd leaving displaying unbelief not the spirit working in them right and they go and then the twelve stay and it's the display of the spirit working in them yet Jesus says there's one of you despite the fact that all of you stayed there's one of you the spirit is not working in and you will ultimately leave and you will ultimately deny or you will betray me. And really, we see in those Gospels, Judas is brought up a lot. Have you ever noticed that?

Read through the Gospels, and Judas is brought up a lot. And as soon as his name is brought up, it's like right away they say, the one who betrayed him. The one who betrayed him. And we see also in Scriptures that the apostles dealt with falling away often. We think that falling away only happens in our time. Falling away happened at their time too.

And so Judas stands as like a reminder to us that salvation is a power from God in us that allows it, and yet there's a human responsibility component in which you must rely upon the power of God for salvation lest you be lost forever. That although God is, again, completely sovereign, as we talked about in salvation, it's by his power alone that's manifested in our salvation, don't you dare think for a moment that you are not to grab hold of, with everything you have, that salvation that he offers. Lest you become like Judas.

Lest you become like one of the unbelievers that had belief for a moment. The power of God for salvation is not meant for us to be lazy or to presume upon the kindness of God. It's meant for us to rely upon him as we pursue him all the days of our life. And so here Jesus is saying, I chose you, the twelve, yet there's one of you who's a devil. And that creates humility in us.

I don't think it should create in us now a certain feeling of every single moment of our lives, am I actually saved? Am I actually chosen? In which you're constantly doubting your salvation. I don't think that's the point of these texts where it's all of a sudden, bam, there's Judas. I think the point of it is it supposed to always be drawn us to say I want to grab hold of Jesus with all my might for he is a powerful Savior So as a master gardener, God is not concerned about making circumstances perfect in order to get the harvest of belief from his people, like we are over our gardens.

He is powerful in enabling belief in the hardest of circumstances. In fact, he will allow hard circumstances in your life and enable you to display a belief in Christ that glorify his name so that at the end of your life, you will not be so much concerned with how many bad circumstances God allowed you to go through, but your only concern is, did I display belief in those circumstances? It is the Spirit's good pleasure to enable this impossible task in your life.

So let us rely upon the Father through Christ and by the Spirit for such a powerful display of belief to be revealed in your life today. May you see everything that you go through today as potential to display the glories of Christ's powerful work of belief in you. And may you rely upon his powerful work to do so. Let us pray. Oh God, thank you for the display of belief and unbelief right before our eyes. and lord what i'm always i always marvel at the fact that we are not slaves of our circumstances lord we can try to convince ourselves that we are so that when bad circumstances come we act like now all we can do is sin and complain but lord you call us to a higher calling and that calling is a powerfully revealed belief even in those circumstances so I pray God that we would see the great confession of faith from Peter here and we would resolve within ourselves that no one else has what Jesus has no one else can provide salvation like Jesus provides no one else has came down from the Father as true God and given up his body to be given for salvation like Jesus has and so even in those moments where we want to disobey Jesus and sin because we're frustrated.

Help us, Lord, to have this same determination within our hearts. Where else shall we go? Let Christ, Lord, be so beautiful in our eyes that to go anywhere else, even in the hardest of circumstances, is deplorable to us. Lord, we know that's only possible when the Spirit opens up our hearts and minds to see the beauty of Jesus. So, Lord, would you help us, by your power, to believe in Christ today?

Would you help those who are unbelievers before me? Would you help them to open their eyes and hearts to receive the gospel? Would you cause them to see that they are in need to act and act now, but let their actions be found in the power that you provide in your spirit? And would you help the suffering saints, would you help them to see that their greatest benefit that they have from the Spirit in these circumstances is a power from above to display Christ despite the hardship.

And may that encourage them and strengthen them to walk in salvation that Christ has provided. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.