The Words Worth Hearing

When I was a little boy, my mum and my neighbour's mum had a devilish pact that when their sons misbehaved, the disciplining would go for both partners in crime. And each mum had open jurisdiction on the bottom of their neighbour's child. And that would have been great for me to have known personally if mum could have just divulged that bit of information to me at the time. Because I was strutting around my neighbour's house like I owned the place, like I had diplomatic immunity. A horrible truth suddenly befell me when, during a moment of throwing rocks at their prized ostriches, we were swooped upon by my neighbour's mum.

Led back into the house, which felt to me at the time like a long walk to the executioner's block. We got into the house where we were sent to the bathroom. And it's a weird thing, why the bathroom? It was always the bathroom. Maybe a place of cleansing.

Or maybe in the bathroom, you could never hear anyone scream. In any case, as we stood in the bathroom, my friend's mum went to retrieve a thick leather strap off the wall, supported by a very sturdy wooden handle. From the outset, you could see that this utensil was made for one purpose only: to make naughty boys nice again. Thankfully, my friend's mum relented at the last minute and told me to go and wait outside. Without hesitation, and not sparing a single thought for my poor friend, I briskly stepped outside and was met by the sound of a loud crack of leather slapping against a bare, naked bum.

And as the mum walked back up the hall, placed the leather strap back on that wall, I swear I could see a little piece of hide go up there with it. But as it hung there against that wall, I knew the real reason for this leather strap. It had embossed, it had written on it the words in Afrikaans, which means ears. The leather utensil was used to put ears on little boys. Now many people here may know of something similar, maybe a wooden spoon or a thong, but I am very aware that there are some of us who very quickly learnt to listen with our own ears, who avoided the use or the need of an external set of ears.

Today, we're looking at the story of Jesus' disciples and how they were asked the question: whose voice will you listen to? Whose voice will you listen to? We're going to read of that story in John chapter six. And we're reading from verse 60 through to verse 70. John chapter six, verse 60.

When many of his disciples, Jesus' disciples, heard it, the thing that he had just said, they said, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offence at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life.

The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it would be, and who it was who would betray him. And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."

After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, "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." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve?

And yet one of you is a devil." He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. This is the word of God. In the context, hundreds of people had followed Jesus. Hundreds had come to listen to Jesus teach in the synagogue of Capernaum, where they were.

It was only a few days earlier that he had fed five thousand people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. Word had started spreading quickly about a powerful miracle worker travelling the countryside, and people came from all corners to come and see him. People had come to listen to him speak because they had heard that he had wonderful insights, talks about God and a new kingdom that was coming. Many others had come hoping that he would heal them of their ailments. And still, as Jesus would say as well, many came to him simply because they thought they could get a feed.

Jesus points out earlier in this same chapter, verse 26. He said, "You are seeking me not because you saw the signs that I do, but because you ate your fill of the loaves of bread." So Jesus began teaching these people who were coming out to him what it meant, what the miracle of the feeding of five thousand people meant. It was a sign. It wasn't a show of power just for the sake of it. It was a sign pointing to something beyond the miracle.

You see, Jesus fed five thousand people, and he knew that they would be hungry again. And when they came back to him later and expected another round of food, Jesus began explaining to them that they needed a bread of life, that they needed bread sent from heaven, bread that would satisfy their hunger for eternity. Now, to this strange teaching, the people said, "Lord, can we have this bread? A bread that makes you full for ever." Jesus responded, "I am that bread.

He who comes to me will never go hungry again." What an interesting thing to say, they thought to themselves. Jesus didn't finish there. He told them, "This bread is my flesh. You must eat my flesh, drink my blood, and then you will live for ever."

On hearing this, verse 60 says, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept this?" What happens when Jesus had said this? What happens when people realise the difficulty of this sort of teaching? People leave.

People do what most people do. It gets difficult and we bail. Verse 66: "After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." Now picture it. Amidst thousands of people that had come to see Jesus, they're rolling up their picnic blankets, pulling down their umbrellas, taking their picnic baskets, and they're walking out. And Jesus is there with his close group of disciples, the twelve.

They're sitting there perhaps as people are literally walking past them. Jesus turns to them and asks them, "What about you? Will you leave also?" Now, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that this is a test, obviously. It's a question so that Jesus can investigate the motivation of these last remaining disciples.

But we cannot underestimate how significant this point was in the lives of these men, who had now been following Jesus for quite some time. It is a make or break moment. Question is: is Jesus just another crazy person? Is he just a travelling magician like all these others that have come through Galilee, through Judea in the time? And Peter, as he always was, is the first cab off the rank.

And he answers Jesus. And it seems he answers Jesus on behalf of the twelve because through their silence, we assume that they are all agreeing with Peter. But this morning, I want us to spend some time looking at Peter's response because through Peter's words, God is wanting to tell us why Jesus is worth listening to, why Jesus is worth following. Let's have a look at his statements.

The first statement is actually not a statement. It's a question, a rhetorical question. Point number one: "Lord, to whom shall we go?" Peter is starting to show that he has a growing understanding of who Jesus was, who Jesus had begun revealing himself as. The response "to whom shall we go" was saying, "We don't think there's anywhere else we'd rather be." It's a statement of priority.

It's a statement of comparison. At one point, there had been many disciples, but now there were only a few disciples left. Why? Because these disciples thought that there were other answers. They thought that there were other lords to go and follow, other teachers, other philosophies.

They thought to themselves, "This teaching on eating his flesh is difficult. It seems bizarre. This cannot be the one that I am looking for. I need a lord. I need a saviour who I can relate to.

I need a lord who operates at my level. Hard teachings, high expectations, these things are too much for me. I'll wait for someone else to follow." What the apostle John in his account of Jesus' life here in the Gospel of John writes is that there is the reality of few true disciples. And there is a reality of true Christians and false Christians.

True believers and false believers. People who truly understand what it means to say that they follow Christ or people who see in Christ some sort of benefit. But when his demands get too high, his teaching becomes hard, well, then the wheels start coming off very quickly. So when Jesus asked the twelve, "Will you leave me too now?" Peter has to ask himself, "Has there been a reason?

Has there been a reason in my following of Christ up until this point where Jesus hasn't proved himself to be faithful to his words?" And surely on reflection, Peter realises that there wasn't. See, many people have forsaken Christ. Many people will continue to forsake Christ. We might even have some of them in our family.

This morning, you may be sitting here having been one of those people. Whatever the circumstance, we are asked to judge for ourselves what the reason is for us not to surrender ourselves to the following of Christ every day. Ask yourself: those days when you and your heart simply trusted in Jesus, with simple faith, trusted in Jesus. Were you anxious?

When you went to him in prayer? When you heard him in his word speak to you, did you not find him generous and compassionate? Hasn't a simple faith in him given you more peace than any self-absorbed pop psychology from the latest book or the latest Instagram influencer? The preacher Charles Spurgeon once wrote, "Who exchanges gold for dross? Who exchanges gold for the rubbish that falls off gold when you melt it down?"

He says, "We will not reject the sun until we have found a better light, nor leave our Lord until a brighter love shall appear. Why will we exchange our old and faithful king for a new and false pretender?" This is why Peter says, "To whom would we go? Who else offers us what you have offered us?" Of all the potential lords and the masters to put our trust in, Peter concludes that he could think of nothing and no one.

He cannot think of a single situation that could arise where it would make it necessary for him to abandon ship and serve a new captain. There is, for Peter, only one lord, one saviour, and that is Jesus Christ. Where else could we go to receive what you have to offer us? Well, the next question then, obviously, is what does he offer? What is he offering Peter, that Peter should have this sort of statement of faith?

Well, it leads us to the next statement. Number two: "You have the words of eternal life." If you read the Gospel of John, you'll notice that there are some familiar words and themes that come through, and it's not just in the Gospel of John, but also in his letters that he writes. The concept of life is a key theme for John. The noun life, zoe, in Greek, occurs 36 times in the Gospel, which is a significant amount.

That's a significant percentage. Guess how many times in chapter six alone the word is used? Life. Twelve times. Twelve out of thirty-six.

That is a full third of the occurrences in this one chapter. So after Peter has heard Jesus teaching, saying things like, "I am the bread of life," or "the one who believes in me will receive everlasting life," or "whoever eats my flesh drinks my blood will have eternal life," Peter's thinking, "I think he's offering life." So what does Jesus mean when he talks about giving people life? Well, the Gospel of John again states that Jesus can offer life because he is the author of life.

He is the origin of it. The Gospel account begins famously with the words of John 1:1, this idea of the divine word being the creator of all of existence, of all of life. This word becomes flesh. He enters our world. And then this Jesus, who created life, begins his ministry in order to renew and restore life in people.

You could say, for John, this was Jesus' main purpose: to give life. In John 10:28, for example, Jesus says that he has come to give his sheep eternal life. John 14:6, famously, he says that he himself is the substance of life. "I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the life."

He calls himself in John 6:35, the bread of life. John 8:12, he is the light of life. John 4:10, he grants living water. His words give life because they are, he says, spirit and life. The thing that people don't understand when they walk away from Christ, the thing that people don't understand when they hear about Christ through our appeals to them perhaps, or when they've been here in this church for many years and they walk away.

When they think this Christ following thing is not for me, it's often that they think of Jesus as giving us something that is a long, long way away, something in the future. This eternal life idea of heaven. It's so vague. It's so ethereal.

It is so intangible. And my life is so real. My anxieties feel so close. But here's the truth. The life that Jesus gives is a life now.

When Jesus speaks about life, he doesn't relate to it as life after death. Jesus wants to give life now. And by putting trust in Jesus, you experience life that no one else can offer you. Jesus heals broken hearts. Jesus heals anxieties about my life and the future.

Jesus conquers depression and addiction, but more than that, he challenges us to think about what we think life really is. If you think life is about self realisation, if you think that life is about working really hard so that you can enjoy retirement at the end, I want to ask you: are you really living? Peter is saying that everything Jesus taught about himself, about the world and about us, all of those words are filled with life-giving power. "You have the words of eternal life." In other words, a life without Jesus is no life at all.

That's why Peter says, "Where else would we go to?" If we want life, there's only one place to find it. You have those words. You have that power. Where else could we go?

Who else can give this but you? And that is why he puts his trust finally in Jesus in this last statement. Our third and final point, where he says, "We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." So Peter rejects, firstly, the idea of exchanging the Lord with anything less that this world may offer us. Why exchange gold for dross?

In him, we find words that lead to true life. But how can we be sure that we will receive that life? It may be true that it is contained in Christ. He may have the words of life, but how can we be sure that we may have it? It's helpful to understand what this title, the Holy One of God, is referring to.

It has a rich background in the Old Testament, where people were given a title, Holy One of God, as being someone that was set apart for holy purposes, consecrated to the work of God. Priests, prophets were holy ones of God, set apart for that work. And very specifically, the holy work of God is summed up the most powerfully in the Messiah who was to come, God's special deliverer and saviour of his people. And that is really what Peter is referring to here. Not simply another priest, not simply another prophet.

He is the Holy One of God, not a holy one of God. Peter's version of this sort of confession we find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the same scenario here where Peter is recorded as saying, "You are the Christ. You are the anointed one who was meant to come." But more so than the object of that faith, that he is saying you, "I believe that you are the Holy One. I believe that you are the sent Messiah."

I want us to focus on the verbs that Peter uses here. He says, "I believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." Now, ask the question: why use two words to say that? If you make a statement of belief, maybe you can simply say, "I believe," or "I know." Why use two?

It's a bit redundant. But there is a subtle difference between this believing and this knowing. And this is where the original language conveys a deeper nuance. In order to believe in the way that this Greek word was used, it doesn't simply convey a spiritual assent, a spiritual belief in something that is ethereal, otherworldly, invisible, difficult to grasp. It's not that sort of belief or faith in a religious sense.

The idea has the word of the nuance of confidence or trust in it. To say, "I believe in the Holy One of God," "I trust that you are," is to say "I have confidence in. My trust is in the fact that you are the Holy One." In other words, Peter is saying that despite all of these people having left Jesus, he is still confident that Jesus is the saviour sent to the world. Belief, as a Christian, is not simply a vague, vibey sort of thing.

It's a trust. It's a confidence. Secondly, the phrase "we know" carries the sense of knowledge that is learned or acquired. It is an experiential knowledge. It's not simply head knowledge.

It's a knowledge that you've learned through experience. You know not to touch the hot stove, not to place your hand on it. Why? Because one time you did and it was very, very painful. You know not to do that.

And Peter is saying here, "I know that you are the saviour, this messiah sent for us because I have experienced it." He was there when people were healed miraculously. He was there when five thousand people were fed. He heard the heart-moving teaching of Jesus. And so as I wrap up, I want to say to us, it would be a hopeless thing for me to say to you this morning that you need to place your trust in Jesus.

You need to believe in a concept that we were lost creatures needing saving from a terrible reality. It would be a hopeless thing if I told you to believe these things by some cold, clinical, intellectual agreement. Because not even Peter came to that conclusion in that way. Jesus Christ in his word this morning is telling us that we can find him in the same sort of way, that we may know that he is the saviour in some way through experiential knowledge.

And in some way, he is worthy of our confidence. Even as Jesus speaks of himself as the bread of life, who invites us to come and eat, to come and absorb what he is teaching, to receive everlasting nourishment for hungry souls, he is calling himself the bread which has been sent from heaven. He is, and the language is very similar. He is, he says, like the manna that was sent into the desert by God for the Israelites.

The bread from heaven. Jesus says, "I am the bread that has been sent to you." And this is the great and assuring thing for us this morning. We don't go out and find that bread. That bread has been sent to us.

He is the bread of life that comes to us. And this morning, it has come to you through his word. All that you must do is sit there with the twelve, believe it with confidence, know it with genuine experience and faith. And he will be the Holy One that you've always needed. Let's pray.

Oh, there are many more things that I could tell about who you are. We could talk more of the content of your teaching. We could talk more of the exact meaning of your death and your resurrection. But this is the one thing we simply need to hear this morning: that if we are searching for life, we will only find it in you. And for a naughty little boy many, many years ago who needed an external object to teach him how to listen.

We thank you, Lord God, that through the Holy Spirit that is at work in our hearts right now, you've caused our ears to hear. And so for those of us who are listening, Lord, who are moved and who need to hear that a life can be received simply through this believing that Jesus is the Holy One of God, Lord, I pray that you will affirm that in their hearts. May they receive the peace that only you can give. Thank you, Lord, that you have not made us climb mountains or descend into valleys or search the deepest, darkest caves or read the biggest books to find out the mystery of God.

You came to us, the bread of life that came from heaven. So, Lord, even as we are encouraged again to take up and eat, help us to do so with great confidence and great trust that we are indeed the ones invited by you, that we indeed have ears to hear and therefore, Lord, we have wills to receive, to eat and to have life. Thank you for this truth. Thank you for this confidence. In Jesus' name. Amen.