We serve and worship a great and mighty King, don’t we? Well, this morning as we’re headed toward Easter and we’re beginning to think about Jesus and what he’s done for us on the cross and through his resurrection, we’re thinking about what we’re going to teach on, what we’re going to talk about this weekend. And I started thinking about the life of Jesus. And it made me think about this, and you can finish this phrase for me. We’re all familiar with this: you can’t judge a book by its cover, right? I was thinking, in our culture today it’s probably more like you can’t judge a movie by its poster, right? You know, you’re scrolling through trying to find something to watch, and you’re looking at all the posters, and you get that one image, and then you decide if you’re going to spend two hours watching this thing.

Well, I was thinking about that as it relates to Jesus, because of this: there are a lot of people that maybe come to church two times a year, and if they were to look at the poster or the cover of the book about Jesus, all they know is Christmas and Easter, right? They only have that little bit of the picture, but what’s all the rest about? And then I was thinking, for many people, depending on the church you grew up in, there’s a chance that you may have recited before this thing called the Apostles’ Creed, right? It’s kind of a statement of faith about what we believe. And there’s this line as it talks about Jesus that says, “born of the Virgin Mary,” and then the next line is “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” So his birth, and then his death. What about everything in between that? Because you have four Gospels, four books in our Bible that tell the story of Jesus. But what was his life all about?

And this morning, that’s the question I want us to answer. What was the life and ministry of Jesus about? Everything that happened between his birth and before he went to the cross — what’s it all about? And we’re going to get kind of an overview of that. But our key text is going to be John chapter 6. So if you want to take your Bibles and turn there — I’m going to invite up some new friends. This is Justin and his wife Jessica, and they’re going to share with us from John chapter 6. They’re going to read a couple passages out of there for us, and then we’re going to spend some time walking through it together.

Justin: John 6:1–15. After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because he saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration. Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them.” Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up: “There is a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. The men alone numbered about 5,000. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward, he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.

After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by people who had eaten from the five barley loaves. When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely he is the prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself. And I’ll be reading John 6:25–35.

They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.” They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while journeying through the wilderness. The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give them the bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Awesome. Thank you, guys. Justin just got baptized a couple weeks ago, and they are plugged in and serving. Thank you, guys. Yeah — they are plugged in and serving, and that’s what this life as a believer is all about. You give your life to Jesus, and then you start following him. You surrender to him, and you start serving and living for him. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. And so exciting to have you guys open God’s Word and share it with us this morning.

Well, I’m going to pray for us, and then we’re going to dig into today’s message. Father, we thank you, God, because you’re good, and God, you are at work in people’s lives, and you are moving and doing all kinds of things. Lord, it’s exciting to see. You’re doing something new in our church, Lord. We just see it. And Father, we just ask that you would continue to be at work today, Lord — that as we spend time in your Word, as we hear the Scriptures read and as we talk about some things, Father, would we be open to whatever your Spirit wants to do in our lives? God, would you be at work, and would we be responsive? So Lord, be with us this morning. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, this morning we’re dealing with a passage that is fairly familiar — the feeding of the 5,000. It occurs in all four Gospels. And really, what we’re talking about this morning — I’m not going to dive into that text and explain that text necessarily. We’re going to see this text as highlighting some things that are true about the ministry and life of Jesus across all four Gospels, when you look at all the things that Jesus did during those three years of his earthly ministry. So we’re just going to be highlighting some ways that this passage kind of deals with those things. But there are really three things that we’re going to see that I think Jesus’s life and ministry were all about. And this is not comprehensive — there’s more — but these are three things that I think really rise to the surface. So, again, what was the point of Jesus’s life and ministry between his birth and before he went to the cross?

Jesus Lived to Reveal

The first thing I think we see is that Jesus lived to reveal. He lived to reveal things. Jesus came to earth to reveal to us some truths that we would not understand apart from God. Particularly, we see him revealing three things. We see him revealing the kingdom of God — what the kingdom of God is like. We see him revealing his identity — sharing about who he is. And we see him revealing the Father — showing us what God is like.

So let’s take a look at the very first one, which is the kingdom of God. Jesus spent time teaching. He was constantly teaching. Even in this passage, later in the story, verse 59 says that Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. So Jesus was taking constant opportunities to teach and to share about the kingdom. He was proclaiming something unique, something new, something different. And he did so as an incredible teacher, using incredible stories and images to help people get a picture of what the kingdom of heaven was all about. The best teachers always incorporate great stories and illustrations and examples.

I’m always working on that, and I’m not good at it. But I’ve had some great teachers. I think about when I was in elementary school, in fourth grade. I had a great teacher. His name was Mr. H. I remember going in for the day when you meet your teacher for the first time. We walk into the classroom; there’s just stuff on the walls, things everywhere that you’re looking at and taking in. And then we look up, and right as you walk through the door, there’s something on the ceiling. And we’re looking at it, and it’s like, that kind of looks like vomit. And we go, “What is that?” And he goes, “Oh, well, that’s throw up.” And let me tell you, when you’re a fourth grader, that’s like the best thing ever, right? He instantly won over everybody. But that’s what a good teacher does — they’re always doing different things, goofy things, silly things, stories.

And that’s what Jesus did. As Jesus revealed the kingdom of God, he did so with incredible stories and illustrations. Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, and he just described it like a man who went into a field and he found this buried treasure, and so he buries it, he sells everything that he has so that he can buy this field, because he recognizes how valuable this is. That’s what the kingdom of God is like. So Jesus is teaching, and he’s sharing about the kingdom. He’s telling people to seek first the kingdom of God, to go after it. He told people to repent and change their ways because the kingdom of heaven is at hand — it’s here. So Jesus was constantly teaching. He was sharing how to live in the kingdom — how to love others and pray for our enemies and live together in unity. These are all principles of the lifestyle of living in the kingdom of God. And so in this passage, as he’s teaching about himself as the bread of life, he’s showing that the kingdom is a place where you will find life and you will find satisfaction in Jesus. It all comes back to him.

Because not only is he revealing the kingdom of God, he’s also revealing his identity. He’s sharing who he is. And it’s interesting, because in our culture today — and it’s been like this for a while — people are constantly asking the question of, who am I? We read self-help books, and we try to figure out who we are. And maybe you’re online and you see a quiz pop up, and you try to figure out, what kind of vegetable am I, right? We have all of these quizzes we take that are trying to reveal things about our personality and our learning style and the way that we think, and we’re investigating, who are we? Jesus never had to do that. Jesus knew exactly who he was, and instead he spent his time, in everything that he did and in everything that he said, pointing people to who he is. He knew who he was. He’s inviting us to look to him and to learn who he is.

Look at verse 2. It says, “A large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.” So some people are following Jesus because they see what he’s doing, and they interpret it as signs. What’s a sign? A sign is something that points to something. It’s an indicator. So they’re seeing Jesus doing miracles, and they’re saying, these miracles mean something. They mean something about who he is. So some people were following him because they saw signs. Other people were following him because they were probably curious. Maybe they had heard some of his teachings, or they had heard about some of the miracles that he had performed, and they’re curious about, who is this Jesus? And so they’re following out of curiosity. Others were following because they wanted something from him. Maybe they heard that he healed someone — they wanted healing. Maybe they heard that he fed someone, and so they wanted to be fed. And so there were people following him because they wanted something from him. Some followed because they wanted to see a show. They just wanted to see Jesus do a miracle, do something cool.

Some people got it. Some people didn’t. Look at verse 14. It says, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.” So some people saw it. They saw the signs, and they connected the dots, and they got it, and they said, this is the one. This is who God has sent to be our Savior. He is the prophet come into the world. He is the Messiah that we’ve been waiting for. So some people understood it. Jesus, in everything that he did — every miracle — it was pointing to who he is.

Even in little subtle lines — you know, there are things as you study the Scriptures that are beneath the surface. You dig a little bit deeper, and you’ll see it. In between Jesus feeding the 5,000 and this moment where he’s teaching about being the bread of life, Jesus actually walks on water. It’s all a part of the same story, the same day. And as Jesus walks on the water and the disciples see him, and they’re freaked out — listen to what he says in verse 20 of this chapter. He said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” Even in that statement, Jesus is revealing something about himself. That phrase, “It is I” — you look at it a little bit deeper — it would have been the same phrase, when you translate from Hebrew into Greek, that they understood when Moses encountered God at the burning bush and God said, “I AM.” God revealed himself as the great I AM. That’s the exact same phrase that Jesus uses here when he says, “It is I.” He’s saying, I AM. Jesus is pointing to the fact that he is God. He’s revealing this about himself. And he makes it even more clear in John 8:58. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus was claiming to be God. He’s revealing this through his teaching. He’s revealing this through these miracles and these signs. He’s showing who he is. In verse 33 he says, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” This is who he is. He’s come to give us life.

He’s revealing the kingdom. He’s revealing his identity. And then he’s also revealing what God is like. Remember — if you were alive back then, and it’s not that different from us today — sometimes it’s hard to imagine, what is God like? I can’t see him. So what is he like? What’s his personality? What’s his character? And Jesus, in becoming a man and taking on flesh, got to embody this: this is what God is like. This is what God cares about. This is what God does. In John 14:9, Jesus is talking to Philip, one of his disciples, and it says that he said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” Jesus was revealing the heart of the Father. As Jesus met people’s needs, he’s demonstrating that God cares about us, that he cares about our needs. As Jesus provided for people, it shows that God cares to provide for us. Everything Jesus did — every act of love — is revealing the heart of our Father in heaven. Jesus was showing us the Father. He’s helping us understand what God is like. So a big part of Jesus’s earthly ministry was this act of revealing — opening people’s eyes to the truth, to understand what God’s kingdom is like, what God is like, who Jesus is.

Jesus Came to Revive

But it doesn’t stop there. Jesus also came to revive. He came to revive people’s hearts. He didn’t want us to stay where we’re at, but he wanted us to be made new, to be changed, to revive our hearts. Think again about the moment in time when Jesus shows up on the scene. In first-century Israel, you have this time and place where people had taken what was a relationship with God — the people of Israel had a unique relationship with God that God had established — and they had turned it into a religion, in kind of the negative sense. They had made it about a bunch of lists of dos and don’ts. Yes, God had given them laws, but then you have people like the Pharisees that add their own. They say, I know God says don’t do this; well, we’re going to say don’t do this so you don’t even get close to doing that. And then if you don’t do what we say, then we’re going to ridicule you and criticize you. And they turned it into something it wasn’t.

And Jesus says that God desires mercy, not sacrifice. Jesus is trying to get at the heart. He’s trying to revive people’s hearts and restore this relationship with God. It wasn’t about just a bunch of dos and don’ts. And yet, for how many of us has our faith become the same thing? Maybe you grew up in a Catholic background where it was about following these things, and it was about tradition more than it was a relationship with Christ. It was about going to church every Sunday and being at this thing and doing this and checking these boxes. And it’s so easy for us today to make our faith just a list of things that we check off to make sure that I’ve done these things and that makes me a good enough Christian. That’s not what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to show us love, to establish a relationship with you. He wants your heart. He wants your life. Yes, he wants your obedience, but that obedience is not out of just a feeling of obligation. That obedience is out of this place of love. I love him. Jesus said, “If you love me, you’ll obey my commands.” Right? So there’s a correlation to obedience, but I’m not obeying just to check off things on a list. I’m obeying because I love him. I want to serve him. Jesus is reviving our hearts.

Well, listen to the mindset of some of the people in verse 26. Jesus answered them and he said, “Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” So Jesus — again, he’s trying to revive these hearts, because some of their hearts are just turned toward themselves. They just want the free food. And I get it, right? Anytime I hear there’s free food at something, I’m like, I’ll be there. So there are people that are going to Jesus not because they were seeing who he was, but some people just wanted something from him. What are you going to give me, Jesus? And in verse 27 he says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on him God the Father has set his seal.” Jesus was redirecting people’s attention. He was directing their attention to what they truly needed.

But they were really hung up on their traditions. They were hung up on the way they did things and the way things used to be. In verse 32, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” We see that Jesus is turning their attention on him. You see, for them, they correlated Moses with the law. And so they were hung up on, well, this is what we have; this is what Moses gave us. And Jesus is saying, no, it’s not about what Moses did or what Moses gave you. It’s about what God the Father has given you. You’re missing the point. And he’s saying, God the Father has now given Jesus. Jesus is there on behalf of the Father. He’s the one who is calling us and directing people to himself. In verse 35, Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” If people could turn from their traditions and the things that they had built up and just turn to Jesus — he is what we need. He is who we need. It’s about him. It’s not about traditions and checklists. It’s about a relationship with the Son of God.

So this morning, what’s your relationship like with Jesus? Is it something that needs reviving? Have you made it something that it’s not supposed to be? Is it authentic? Is it genuine? Is it truly you seeking him and listening to him and being with him? Or is it something else? Maybe this morning you’re just in a place of needing to be revived.

Jesus Came to Restore

So Jesus came to reveal things — reveal truth. He came to revive our hearts. But he also came to restore some things that were broken. And it’s important to understand some context here, because we have all kinds of literature that was written in the first century by the Jewish people. So we can actually read, and we have a pretty good sense of what the people at the time of Jesus expected the Messiah to do. We can read about what they expected him to be like. And they really thought the Messiah was going to show up and restore three things. And we’re going to see that Jesus does — but not at all in the way that they were thinking. They expected that the Messiah would restore their land, that he would restore their temple, and that he would restore their king.

So let’s look at the first of these, which is that he would restore the land. Now remember, the nation of Israel was a physical place. It still is a physical place today. And they had been overthrown and occupied by army after army. And at the time of Jesus, the Romans are the ones in control. And so they’re expecting that the Messiah is going to show up and kick out the Romans. He’s going to purge the land, and the land’s going to be just the nation of Israel once again. And that was their expectation. What does Jesus do? He shows up, and rather than kicking out the Romans from the nation of Israel, instead he invites them in. And there’s a good chance that — unless you’re in here today and you have an ethnically Jewish background — that we’re included in this. Jesus has invited us in; he’s grafted us in. The gospel and the kingdom of God became open and available for anyone who would believe — not just for the Jewish people. Listen again to verse 58. Jesus said, “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Whoever feeds on this bread — anyone. It’s available for everyone. Jesus came to open up the nation of Israel, to open up the land of Israel, to invite us to be part of his kingdom. What came before was something physical, but now Jesus is showing us something spiritual. It’s bigger than just a piece of real estate. And he illustrates this with — God had previously provided manna, this physical food, to help the people. And now God is providing something spiritual: Jesus, the bread of life. He’s providing eternal life. He’s given us an invitation, and it’s for everyone.

Now, here’s the great thing: Jesus is not done. And there is a physical restoration that’s going to take place of the land. And it happens in two ways. Because as soon as we place our faith in Jesus, guess what? We are destined for the promised land. We’re going to be with Jesus and dwell in the land for all eternity. So there is a physical land — but as it relates to Israel, the book of Revelation describes there’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth. And then this really beautiful verse in Revelation 21:2 says, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” So there is this land that we’re going to dwell in with him forever — this new Jerusalem. And so we have that to look forward to. So he does come to restore the land, but in a different way.

That second expectation: they expected that the Messiah would restore the temple. Now, the temple was the place where they went to worship God and to offer their sacrifices. The original temple was built by King Solomon, and it was this beautiful place of worship. And then that temple got destroyed. And later on, when it was rebuilt, the people saw the temple, and it says that they wept, because they remembered the splendor of the previous one, and this new one just didn’t compare. Now, by the time Jesus shows up, that second temple had been kind of restored and built up even more. And Jesus enters, and he’s walking with the disciples, and the disciples are blown away. They point it out to Jesus: “Jesus, look at these stones. Look at the architecture. Isn’t this place amazing?” And Jesus kind of shocks them, I think, with his response as he tells them, “Not one of these stones is going to be left. This is all going to be destroyed.” And it was not many years after that the whole thing was laid waste. So what did Jesus do? He didn’t come to transform the physical temple. He came to transfer the temple to you and I. Because when you become a Christian — you believe in Jesus — you become the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit moves in. In verse 63, Jesus says, “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.” And then the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” So we become the temple. Jesus does restore the temple, but he makes it something way different. It becomes you and I. That’s pretty amazing.

The third expectation they had was that the Messiah would become their king — that he would rule over the nation of Israel as king. We see in this story that they were about to force Jesus to become king. It says in verse 15, “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” So Jesus knows what they’re thinking. He knows what they’re planning. He knows what they’re about to do. What they want to do is say, “Jesus, we’re going to declare you our king. We’re going to declare our independence. We’re going to raise up an army. We’re going to fight the Romans. And we’re going to take back our land.” That’s what they expected. But Jesus knew that’s not what God had planned. Jesus knew that’s not what God intended. And so Jesus withdraws. He doesn’t let them make him the king at that moment, because Jesus understands that it’s God’s plan that Jesus instead is going to be mocked as a king — that rather than wearing a crown which he deserved, he would be pierced by a crown of thorns and mocked with a sign that says “King of the Jews.” Jesus understood what God’s plan entailed, ultimately understanding that one day he would be lifted up as the true King. Revelation describes this moment in the future when we all will worship, we will all bow down. And it says about Jesus in Revelation 19:16 — on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written: “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” That’s who he is. He really is the King. He’s the King of the universe. As we sang earlier — all hail King Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. That’s who he is. But it’s in God’s timing.

That We Might Respond: Believe, Become, Belong

So Jesus came to reveal. Jesus came to revive. Jesus came to restore. But for what purpose? What’s the point of it all? Why? Why was Jesus doing all this? It’s that we might then respond. He wants our response. And that first response is one simply of belief. Jesus wants us to believe in him. In verse 36 he says, “I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” So he’s facing people who saw the things that he did, they heard the things that he said, and yet they did not believe. In verse 47 he says, “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” So if we just believed in who Jesus is, believed in what he’s done, we can have eternal life.

It’s interesting — so many times I hear people say comments like, “Man, I wish I could have just been there and seen.” Maybe it’s somebody who’s struggling with doubt, and they go, “If I could just see it — if I could have been there and seen Jesus turn water into wine, if I could have seen Jesus heal the sick, if I could have seen Jesus resurrected after his death — if I could just see it with my eyes, I would believe.” And yet Jesus encountered people who were there, who saw all those things, and still did not believe. It wasn’t just about seeing. In verse 64, Jesus said, “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 was who would betray him. He knew it all. He saw it all.

And that leads us, really, to me, what is the most depressing and sad verse in this entire passage. Because after Jesus has done these incredible miracles — he’s fed 5,000 people, he’s walked on water, he’s done all these things, he’s taught about himself, he’s offered eternal life — then how do the people respond? In verse 66 it says, “After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

And then Jesus asks an important question. Jesus turns to his disciples and says, in verse 67, “Do you want to go away as well?” And how would you answer that question today? If Jesus looked at you — after all that you’ve read and all that you’ve seen in the Scriptures, and all these people walk away — and Jesus looks to you and he says, “What about you? Are you going to walk away? What are you going to do?” And then we get this incredible response from Peter. It’s one of my favorite verses. 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 had not yet died on the cross. He had not yet resurrected from the grave. And the disciples had enough — just based on what they had seen and what they had heard — they had enough to make that response, to make that statement and say, “We believe. You have the words of eternal life. Jesus, you have the words of eternal life. What you’re saying leads to eternal life. We get it. We know you are the Holy One of God.” That was a title for the Messiah. They’re saying, we get it. And yet I know a lot of people — maybe they grew up in church, maybe they called themselves Christians at one time — and they’re like these disciples, these others that walked away. Maybe you know some people like that. Maybe that was you at one time. And yet Jesus is there inviting us back. Would our heartbeat, would our prayer be that we would be like Peter here, and that we would say, “We believe. You have the words of eternal life. We know who you are.”

I was with some friends recently — a couple guys named Josh Fox and Brandon Passion — and we were reflecting on this verse. We were reflecting on just what we see around us with so many people that have walked away. And we came to this passage, and we wrote a song based on it. And so we’re going to continue in the message in just a moment, but I want to take a moment just to share this song with you as we reflect on what Peter said to Jesus.

[Song]
There’s a million different paths that I can wander, where my heart is pulled a million different ways. Keep me from the road that leads to ruin; though many have gone, I follow on the narrow way. ‘Cause you have the words of eternal life. You spoke to the darkness and opened our eyes. Now we have believed and come to know — oh Jesus, you are the Holy One of God.

And you lead me to the waters of abundance, and my soul is satisfied here in your grace. Even when the road is marked with suffering, your joy is my song; I follow on the narrow way. ‘Cause you have the words of eternal life. You spoke to the darkness and opened our eyes. Now we have believed and come to know — oh Jesus, you are the Holy One of God.

And where you go, I’ll go. Where you stay, I’ll stay. With a fire by night and a cloud by day, Spirit, lead me on; give me strength to stay. ‘Cause each day I find the blessings that line the narrow way.

Oh Jesus, you are the Holy One of God. Oh Jesus, you are the Holy One of God.

I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus.

So, Jesus looked at you and he said, “What about you? You’re going to leave also?” — what would you say? Would you say, “I’ve decided to follow Jesus. Jesus, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”? What would your response be? Because I think Jesus poses that same question to all of us. He calls us to believe, to place our faith in him. Because once we believe, then there’s another thing that happens — we become. We become something new. We become a new creation. The moment you believe, a transformational work starts to take place in your heart and in your mind, changing everything about who you are. Paul describes it like this in Ephesians: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.” That’s what Jesus has done for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He has made us new. He’s made us alive. It happens the moment you believe. You become something new.

And lastly, then you belong. You belong to the family of God. You become a child of God. You’re grafted into this family we call the body of Christ. In John 1:12 it says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Again, it happens the instant you believe. Our citizenship is transferred from the kingdom of earth to the kingdom of heaven. Yet while we’re here on this earth, we don’t walk alone. He’s put us in community. He’s given us a family where we get to share in one another’s burdens, where we get to walk alongside each other and encourage one another and love each other and live in perfect unity through Jesus. That’s what he’s invited us to.

Next Steps

Maybe you’ve recently come to this place of believing in Jesus and you’ve started a relationship with him. Then what’s your next step? Your next step is to be baptized — it’s to show people, just like Justin did a couple weeks ago, this is what I believe. This is what Jesus has done for me. He died for me, and he rose again. He has changed my life. And so this morning, if that’s you, then right after the service, walk through those doors, go around the corner, and you’re going to find our baptism class. Go in there, learn about baptism, learn what it means, and then follow Jesus in obedience. I can’t wait for Easter, because we’re going to see lots of people baptized who are declaring what Jesus has done for them. It’s going to be amazing. We need to be praying for people for Easter too. Stop by that prayer wall. Pray for some of those names. Be praying for people who don’t yet believe in Jesus. Be praying that when they see people baptized, that it would do something in their life — that God would be calling them to himself.

And then maybe for you this morning — maybe there’s some people in here, you haven’t got to that place yet. And maybe God is tugging on your heart this morning, and you’re realizing, you know what? I want to believe. I want to have that relationship with Jesus. I want to belong to the family of God. I want him to do a work of restoration in me. I want him to revive my heart. If that’s you, all you have to do is believe. All you have to do is call out to him. The simplest prayer in Scripture that God always responds to is the prayer: “Lord, save me.” And so we’re going to create some space this morning when you can just pray that. And if you say, I want to start a relationship with Jesus, you can start it right now. Just talk to the Father. Tell him you realize you’ve blown it, that you’re a sinner, but that you recognize Jesus paid for your sin upon the cross, and that you want to give your life to him.

Church family, if you’ve already made that decision, then in just a moment I want you to be praying for those that haven’t. I want you to be praying that they would respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we’re just going to be silent in here for a moment, and we’re just going to create some space for us to pray together. And if you want to start a relationship with Jesus, just talk to him in this moment. Just be quiet. And then I’ll close us in prayer in a minute. Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the ways that you’re working and the ways that you’re moving. Lord, we pray for anybody in this room right now who’s maybe taken a first step of placing their faith in you and believing in what you’ve done for them. Father, would you make them new? And Lord, would you surround them with people who can encourage them and help build them up, who can help them learn to follow Jesus and what it looks like to be more like him? We pray your blessing on any of those who are making a decision for you this morning. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, church family, if there’s anybody in here who has just started a relationship with Jesus right now and you’ve prayed that, there are two action steps I want you to do. One: we would love to know, so we can come alongside you. And so there’s a card in front of you in that seat. Grab that card, put your name on it, and just check the box saying, “I made the decision to follow Jesus.” And then drop it off in one of the black boxes by any of the exits on your way out. But then there’s a second step. If you’d be so bold — don’t be afraid to walk through the doors right there. We have a room called the altar room. It’s just a room where we pray for people. We just love to pray for you. We love to meet with you, pray for you, share some resources. So if that’s you this morning, take that step. Again, baptism class right after the service — you can go be part of that. For everybody else this morning, make sure you grab some invite cards, invite people to Easter. I’ll be out at the welcome center; I’d love to say hi to you. Have a great Sunday, everybody.