Sermon by Dr. Jeffrey Jeremiah
April 24, 2005

"Objection!"
John 6:41-51

An excellent statement that sums up who we are and what our commitments are as believers in Jesus Christ is the words found in the upper right-hand corner of your bulletin: "In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity." Those wise words were written more than 1,500 years ago by the great church father Augustine. Something else he wrote that is timeless wisdom is this: "Lord, you created us for Yourself. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." That is, until we find our rest in God, our hearts are in turmoil, difficulty, and struggle. In John 6:35 Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty." In those words, He’s saying, "Here’s the remedy to the restlessness of your heart, the turmoil of your soul. The remedy is Me. As you come to Me, as you place your trust, your life in My hands, I will satisfy the deepest needs and longings of your heart. You need never again be restless, hungry, thirsty in here." You will find "rest for your soul." Jesus says, "Come, come to Me and this will be yours!" But the reality is that many do not come. I’m sure we all know someone who objects, who resists, who even rejects Jesus Christ. What are we to make of this? How are we to respond as those who have found that rest, have had that hunger satisfied, that thirst quenched? I want to try to answer these questions in three points today.

First, the objections to Jesus Christ. There are three main ones. The first is found in our passage. Notice the protest of the Jewish leaders in verse 42. They didn’t respond to Jesus by saying, "There are four reasons why we cannot agree with you, and why we consider your views to be wrong." They didn’t do that, did they? Instead, they attacked Jesus personally, in effect saying, "Don’t listen to Him. He’s a nobody from the hill country of Galilee, you know, Nazareth, out there in the sticks. Check out His education, His teaching credentials. He’s the son of a carpenter, for Pete’s sake! What does He know?" The timelessness of this objection is seen in the fact that it was just raised again in the last month. The Newsweek cover story of March 28 was entitled, "How Jesus Became the Christ." It attempts to answer this question: "How did the Jesus of history, whom many in His own time saw as a failed prophet, come to be viewed by billions as the Christ of faith?" There’s an assumption behind that question. The assumption is that Jesus was a man, a Jewish teacher from Galilee who was arrested, tried, and executed as a common criminal. Some of His followers claimed He was raised from the dead. Others who followed Him, over time, created and attached to this man Jesus all that we know today as Christ and Christianity. Here is a modern form of this objection raised by the Jewish leaders in our passage: "Don’t listen to Him, He’s a nobody." Of course, this isn’t the only objection to Jesus. Others resist what Jesus did. If I could summarize three statements of what He did: He came to give, to give His life as a ransom for His people. He came to pour out His blood for the forgiveness of our sins. He came to die, to die on a cross for us. People object to what He did. And they object to what He said. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through Me." In Matthew 25:46 He said that those who do not believe in Him will "go away to eternal punishment." In this age of pluralism and tolerance these words are simply unacceptable because they’re "narrow," "exclusive," and "unloving." These are the three main objections to Jesus Christ, but they don’t tell us why. Why do people object to Jesus Christ?

That’s our second point. The basis of these objections is this: The good news of Jesus Christ, His offer of inner hunger and thirst satisfied, His offer of eternal life, is preceded by this bad news: Without Jesus Christ, we are under the domination and condemnation of sin. In sin, we are all hopeless and helpless and in need, in need of a Savior. Let me ask you, who wants to be called a "sinner"? I mean, aren’t we all basically good people? Who wants to be called "hopeless" and "helpless" and "in need"? That’s the language of losers! The "bad news" is offensive to our sense of self-sufficiency, independence, and pride. Even if, deep down inside we know it’s true, that we are sinners and hopeless and helpless and in need, and even if we’re willing to admit it to ourselves, to have someone point the finger and say these things about us – that’s unacceptable! By His life, by His words, and by what He did, Jesus says those very things about you, about me, about all of us! And so men, women, boys, and girls object, and because they won’t admit what is true deep down inside, they’re left restless, hungering and thirsting in here as they go through life. What is the response to these objections? It is always tempting, in the face of opposition, to de-emphasize or even to delete the "bad news" part of the good news. One conclusion I’ve drawn from my reading and study on my leave is that this is a growing problem in the American evangelical church. I’ve read of churches who, in an effort to draw people in, don’t present or say or do anything that will "scare them off." "Keep it positive and upbeat. Make sure people leave a service with a smile on their face." Jesus certainly had the opportunity to "water down" what He said, make it more acceptable to His audience. But He doesn’t do that. In verses 43 through 51 He repeats what He said earlier but He does so with even sharper language. In verse 37 Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me will come to me." No one can come unless the Father has given that person to the Son. Now, in verse 44, Jesus states the same truth this way: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." The person who comes to Jesus is drawn to Jesus by the power of God. The Greek word translated "draws" speaks of a power that always accomplishes its purpose, that is always successful. When He says it’s only by God’s gracious power that anyone is saved, Jesus strikes another blow to our sense of self-sufficiency and pride. In verse 35 Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." In verse 51 He says, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever." And then these words, which speak to His death on the cross, "This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Please realize that Jesus Christ without the cross is of no value, no use to us. We can look to and learn from and admire Jesus’ example, to the way He lived His life. But His life alone doesn’t help, because we can’t live it. It was perfect, sinless. Because His life is the standard God requires of us, His life condemns our life. His life without His death on the cross is of no value, no use to us. But Jesus went to the cross, and there He died for our sin. In His resurrection God the Father confirmed and announced to the whole world that the opportunity for forgiveness and salvation and eternal life has come. The glory of the good news is this: In sin, I am hopeless, helpless, lost, and in need. I’m a sinner BUT (and what an incredible, wonderful, glorious BUT): In Jesus Christ, for what He did on the cross of Calvary for me, I am no longer a lost and helpless and hopeless sinner. No, I am a forgiven sinner. And in that forgiveness is salvation and eternal life and reconciliation with God whereby I enter into a love relationship with Him. He calls Himself my father. I’m His precious, loved child. And the Spirit of Jesus Christ comes into my life and lives in me. And because of His presence, peace, love, hope, joy rule in my heart and soul! To say you’re a Christian is to say "Yes, I am a sinner, but I am a sinner forgiven, and that makes all the difference in the world, and in my life!" Objections to Jesus, when they come to you, are an opportunity for you to share the "hope that you have" in Him (I Peter 3:15).