John 6:66-68: Keeping Your Faith Strong to the End

INTRODUCTION

One of the leading industries of my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, is Jayhawk Box Factory. They make corrugated cardboard boxes and ship them all over the country.

On every truck that leaves the factory is written in bold letters: “Jayhawk Boxes— Carry the Load to the End of the Road.”

I take that as a parable of faithfulness. I think about my faith: can “I carry the load to the end of the road”?

Will I be faithful to the end? Or will I maybe drop out of the faith journey as I have seen others do?

The Christian life is not a sprint. It is a Marathon race. It is a long, and sometimes hard, slog.

The story is told of a famous Christian leader who was approached by someone who wanted to write his biography. He refused to have his biography written while he was still alive. He said, “I have seen too many men fall out on the last lap of the race.”

Let me read a few lines from John’s gospel about some disciples of Jesus who dropped out early on. This is John 6:66-68:

After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?”

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.”

I. All of the five gospels tell the story of how Jesus fed 5,000 men, plus women and children, with five small loaves of barley bread and two small fishes. But only John tells what happened next.

A. People were mighty impressed—so much so that they decided then and there to make Jesus king.

But then Jesus explained the meaning of his miracle. He pointed to himself as the Bread of Life. He told the crowd that he himself was the source of life and to be connected to Jesus by faith and obedience was to share his life.

As we take nourishing bread into our bodies and it sustains life, so we take Jesus into our lives and he gives us the life of God—the life eternal.

This was a hard saying. Many of his hearers were turned off by Jesus’s claims.

Many had followed Jesus with a misunderstanding. This wasn’t what they had bargained for. They had joined the Jesus movement with the understanding that would he would take over the world.

The Old Testament contained prophecies that someday God would send his Messiah to rule over all the earth. He would subjugate the world to the rule of the God of Israel. All the kings of the earth would bring tribute to Jerusalem.

This was what they thought Jesus intended to do for them. The Messiah would oust the Romans, and establish the Jewish nation as rulers of the world, and so fulfill Israel’s destiny.

But Jesus didn’t buy into this vision. He talked about a new birth, faith as obedience to God. He called his followers to deny themselves, to take up their crosses and follow him—even to death.

This vision was much too harsh—too difficult—not at all what they expected.

So they dropped out.

Probably there was never again so great a multitude following Jesus.

B. Jesus had prepared his faithful disciples for this disappointment.

He warned his disciples that many would appear to believe and get excited about the salvation Jesus offered—and then drop out.

He compared the gospel to seed that a farmer cast on the ground.

Some of the seed would fall on the pathways and be trodden underfoot. This would be like those who heard the gospel but weren’t interested.

Some of the seed would be cast on thin soil underlain with rock. The tender plants would spring up and flourish, and then, when the hot sun beat down on it, they would wither away. These, Jesus said, represented those who would eagerly receive the gospel but would lose interest when trouble came—and drop out.

Other seed would fall on soil full of weeds. The seed would germinate and struggle for a while, but then the young plants would perish, smothered by the thorny weeds. These, Jesus said, would be like believers that go on for a while as disciples—good church members—but would finally be distracted by pleasures, cares, and the riches of the world. And they would drop out.

C. A friend learned that we conduct church services at Village Ridge and he asked, “Have you had any conversions?”

I told him, “No, I can’t point to any, but the people who come to our services are mostly people who are already serious about their faith.”

I told my friend that my main concern in conducting church services is to help believers hold onto their faith to the end of their lives on earth.

II. I am saddened that so many who in times past used to be church goers—and maybe were even serious about their faith lose interest later in life.

A. I know people who were active in church—who maybe even served as deacons or elders or Sunday school teachers, but have lost their connection with their old churches, and with that, they seem to have lost interest in living out their faith.

The Bible warns us of the danger of drifting away from God.

This is what we read in Hebrews 2:1: “We must pay the closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it.”

It’s possible to just drift away from God.

B. Here are some reasons I have known why people drift away or turn away from God.

People are disappointed with God. Sometimes they have prayed earnestly, and God has not obliged them by answering their prayers. I have a friend whose wife left him. He prayed that she would return, and when she didn’t, he gave up on God.

Sometimes other interests take the place of God in a life—a hobby, or making money, or some pleasure. Gradually God becomes less and less real. God gets crowded out.

Sometimes people become so weary with life that nothing seems to matter any more. Physical weakness or constant pain can wear people down and cause them give up.

Sometimes people become disappointed with other Christians. They are stumbled by people who claim to be believers, but do not live loving, righteous lives. People say, “Well, if he’s a Christian, I want nothing to do with religion.”

Sometimes, I’m afraid, people lose their hold on Christ because they have a sense of false security. They say, “I’ve been baptized. I’ve been a church member. I used to go to Sunday school and church. So I’m all right with God.” And they don’t realize that they aren’t trusting in Jesus but only in their Christian heritage.

These people remind me of the miser who put all of his gold into a bag and tied it up securely. Every night he would take out his bag and hug it and think about how rich he was—and be happy.

One night thieves crept into his house, took all the gold out of his bag and replaced it with rocks. Every night the miser would take out his bag and hug it and think about how rich he was—and be happy.

It is possible to hold onto the form of religion and be satisfied—not realizing that we have lost the reality of faith.

CONCLUSION

In 2 Corinthians 13:5, St. Paul writes,

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Keep your faith alive by prayer. Pray for yourself. Pray for your friends. Pray for your neighbors. Pray for those who irritate you. And especially, pray for those who you know are struggling with hard battles.

Pray when you go to bed, when you get up, during the day. Make a list of things and people to pray for, and pray through it each day.

And make sure to thank God for the good things. Psychologists tell us that gratitude is an important way to greater happiness in life. Thankfulness also helps us keep connected to God.

Don’t dwell on what you have lost, but on what you still have.

Read something from the Bible every day—especially the stories of Jesus and the letters in the New Testament. Read the Psalms and mark your favorite parts, and go back to them over and over.

Some people read devotional booklets—a page a day. Prayer books and hymn books are also good.

Find something to do for someone, something to give, someone to help. Put your faith to work.

Read Christian books. If you can find a TV program that inspires you, watch it.

Some people hang a picture or a cross or a crucifix or a Bible verse on the wall to remind them always that God is always with them and that they are always with God.

Make use of opportunities for Christian fellowship. Come to our church services, to the hymn sings, to Bible studies as they are available. Talk about your faith with others who believe.

CONCLUSION

When many of Jesus’s disciples drew back and no longer followed him, Jesus asked his twelve disciples: “Will you also go away?” And Peter answered, “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 told his would-be disciples to count the cost of following him. Peter counted the cost of following, but he also counted the cost of leaving. And he decided there was no comparison. He would follow the one who had the words of eternal life.

A pastor lost his wife suddenly. And after her death he preached an unusually personal sermon. He admitted that he did not understand this life of ours. But still less could he understand how people facing loss could abandon faith. “Abandon it for what?!” He said. “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.”

Troubles may make us want to give up on God. But our troubles can also make us cling even tighter to him. Because in that dark valley God is all we have. We have nothing else!

Our pastor told about a man who was very ill. He had a chair put by his bed and imagined that Jesus was in that chair with him. That chair reminded him that Jesus was always with him.

So day after day he would glance at that chair and remember that Jesus was with him all the time.

One night he slipped away to glory, and they found him in the morning with his hand resting on that chair.

One of my favorite hymns is a translation of an old Latin hymn from the Middle Ages by St. Bernard of Clairvaux:

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered

Was all for sinners’ gain;

Mine, mine was the transgression,

But thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall my Savior!

‘Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favor,

Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What Language can I borrow

To thank thee dearest Friend,

For this thy dying sorrow,

Thy pity without end?

O make me thine for ever;

And should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never

Outlive my love to thee