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Have you ever had one of those days when your brain is running in a different time Zone than your body? Boy Howdy, am I ever having one of those today. It’s like my body is here in Buckie and my brain is somewhere over the Atlantic. Heck maybe even the Pacific. I am totally out of sync. I have no idea why, but that’s the way today is going. We could have a very interesting time today….
Part of my problem is related to diet. I’m trying to cut out my addiction to bread and sugar. I haven’t had any since last Thursday, and today I’m feeling it. I’m not going to bore you with the details of my diet plan, but I am convinced that white bread and white sugar are really bad for us. I know they are for me. And I don’t like wholemeal bread. Blech. Yuck. Nasty! So it’s go without. I am thinking about rye flour bread. But not for a couple more weeks at least. And the sugar has got to go. Adios, Sianara, see ya, bye bye.
What’s worse is, I’ve brought in some lettuce and stuff to make some salads. Salad is my least favorite food. But I need it for volume. Because, I.get.hungry! I’d rather have white chocolate, but you see why that’s a problem, right?
Enough of my problems. Let’s move along. As some of you know, I’m a Christian Minister here in Buckie. I serve at the Church of Christ at the corner of West Church and Pringle Streets. We’d love to have you stop by for a visit some Sunday. We meet at 11 a.m. And 6:20 p.m. Totally different services. Sunday mornings are more traditional type church services. Very casual, but if you’re familiar with church services, you’ll know what to expect. Sunday night’s I’ve been going through a series I’ve called Game of Thrones. We’ve had a ton of fun looking at history and the Bible, and Faith. It is completely different that traditional as we’ve looked at how God has worked through history, both inside and outside the Bible. Anyway, I think you’d like it. And I want to take this chance to invite you to drop in and visit, if you don’t have a Church home already.
That’s all the commercial I can do. I’d love to have you stop in, but I’m tickled to death to have you listen in here. Remember you can get this show on Stitcher. Stitcher is a website if you’ve got a home computer or laptop, and it’s an app for your smartphone, you can get it free via google play or the itunes store. Obviously, you can click on the link on the webpage http://www.radiofreebuckie, but I want you to know you can find it other places.
Today I want to us to look at what happened to Jesus right after he feeds the multitudes. If you remember, we’re in John chapter 6. That’s the fourth book of the New Testament, Mt, Mk, Lk, John. And then Chapter 6.
Right after he feeds this huge crowd, of likely 20000 people or more. Remember its 5000 men, not counting women and children. But right after, the people want to make Jesus their king. Now, those must have been some tasty fish sandwiches. The crowd is so impressed with Jesus’ power that they want to force him to become king.
But Jesus runs off and hides from them. He doesn’t want an earthly kingdom. He has zero interest. So he disappears.
That night, his disciples can’t find him, so they decide to go home. I find that really odd.. But I see a lot of people do that, when Jesus doesn’t do things they way they want on the timetable they’ve got, they just leave.
When they got in their boat and started across the lake a terrible storm came up and their short trip, took all night. This was like sailing from Buckie to Lossiemouth. But it takes them hours and hours. The wind is high, the waves are choppy. I get seasick just thinking about it.
But just about morning, they see Jesus walking by, walking on the water. Now anyway you slice it, that’s odd. It’s especially hard on your mind if you’ve ever been in the water. You know, it’s not easy to walk on. But here is Jesus doing it. The disciples are terrified. One of the Gospel writers says they thought they were seeing a ghost. I thinks that’s funny. They found it easier to believe in a ghost than that a human could walk on the water. It’s just another testimony that Jesus is God. He’s not an ordinary man.
He was going to walk right past them. He climbs in the boat just as thIney reach where they’re going.
In less than 24 hours, these disciples have seen Jesus feed 20000 people with 5 loaves and two fish, and they’ve seen him walk across the lake on the water. I think they’ve got a lot to think about.
I love reading the reaction of the people who had returned. John says that when they never saw Jesus come out of hiding, they got into boats and crossed the lake. Now they see him and go, “Huh? How’d you get here? It’s magic.”
Jesus is a bit frustrated and tells them they only tried to make him king and only wonder about how he got across the lake because he fed them. He gets exactly to the point. And what’s weird is they ask him what sign he will do to show his authority. What Sign? Less than 24 hours before he fed them with 5 loaves and two fish. What more do they need?
But there are so many people who are just interested in Christianity for a side show. As long as cool things are happening, everything is good. But when Jesus asks us for faith, we ask him to prove himself. Amazing aren’t we.
Then we read something pretty weird. Jesus tells them that he is the real food and drink. That unless they eat his flesh and drink his blood they have nothing to do with him. Now we know he was prophesying about the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, Communion. But we have the whole Bible and 2000 years of teaching in our favor. To them it just sounds weird and hard.
It reminds me of Abraham. God had promised to give him enough offspring to be comapred to the stars in the sky or sand on the seashore. And he promised it through a son, Isaac. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. Then when Isaac is roughly 20 years old, God asks Abraham to take him to an altar and sacrifice him. That had to sound so weird to Moses. It didn’t sound like God, asking for human sacrifice. It didn’t make sense how God would keep his promise if Isaac was dead. It didn’t make any sense at all. But Abraham trusted God. If God asked him to do it, he was going to obey him. That’s it. And of course, God spared Isaac.
In this case, John tells us that the people left Jesus by the thousands. They didn’t ask any questions. They just thought it sounded weird so they left. Oh my gosh, that sounds like us. When we don’t understand something God says, rather than ask, or figure it out, we just walk away. How sad.
Jesus was sad. He watched the people go, and he turned to his disciples and asked, “Are you going, too?” And Simon Peter has a great answer, “To whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Man, Peter really got it. He saw past the feeding of the multitude, and even the whole walking on water thing. He realized that Jesus had the words of eternal life. Eternal life. That’s worth the hard stuff. That’s worth sticking around for. That’s worth everything.
Man I love this chapter. It’s a lot to think about. I want you to go back and read chapter 6 of the Book of John again for yourself. If you don’t have a Bible, you can get a free one with an app for your phone, or you can go to Bible Gateway.com and read it on your laptop or desktop. If you need a real Bible, write me at radiofreebuckie@gmail.com and ask for one and I’ll see that you get one.
Think about all Jesus has done in this chapter to prove he is God. Think about Peter’s answer that Jesus is the one with the words for eternal life. And think about how sad it was for all those people to walk away from Him… By the way, they left for good. Wow.
It’s a lot to think about. And that’s all I’ve got. So have a great week. I’ll talk to you next time. Can’t wait. But for now…I’m out.
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