John 6:68-69

John 6:68-69 – Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy one of God.”

       Many people were drawn to Jesus because of the miracles that He was performing. They heard some amazing stories and they wanted to see it for themselves. When they found Him they saw people being healed, demons cast out and many other spectacular things. Then Jesus started teaching.

       Jesus told the people that it is not easy to follow Him. They would have to make sacrifices. He told them that He was the bread of life and in order to have eternal life they would have to share in all that He had to go through.

       This was, and still is a tough message. There were many that couldn’t handle it; there were many who left at this time. These people didn’t want to give up their lives; they didn’t want to make sacrifices. Jesus looked at His disciples and asked, “Do you want to leave too?” This verse contains their answer.

       Basically they told Him that they had nowhere else they could go that could compare with being with Him. The disciples understood that Jesus held the keys to the kingdom of heaven. This response really shows Peter’s heart and his commitment to following Jesus.

       I think there are many of us today that would fall into the category of the deserters. Once we realize that it will cost us something to follow Jesus we pull back and refuse to go. Jesus wants followers who are willing to give up everything. We need to put Him before all else in our lives.

If Jesus asked you to give it all up would you be able to do it? God looks at your heart and wants you to put Him first. If Jesus asked you the question that He had asked His disciples, “Do you want to leave too?” what would your answer be? Would you leave or would you answer as Peter did, “To whom shall we go?”

Jude 20:-21

Jude 20-21 - But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s Love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Our faith will not build itself up. We must make a conscious effort to live in a state of constant renewal and refreshing. If we go too long without building ourselves in faith we may grow weary. We have a great future to look forward to: eternal life with Christ. But until then we must continue in the world.

How do we do that? How we do we keep from growing weary? We must build ourselves up in our most holy faith and pray in the Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit is one way that we do build ourselves up in faith, but it is not all we need to do.

“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” We must stay in God’s Word. His Word is living and active and as we get it inside of us it not only builds our faith, but it gives us direction on how to live.

Another way to build your faith is to use it. James says, “Faith without works is dead.” So that would mean that if your faith produces action it is alive. Part of Faith’s action is Love. We must walk in the Love of God at all times towards everybody.

Faith and Love work together when you show kindness to those who are not kind. So to live a full and productive life we must build our faith, pray and walk in Love. Then we will not grow weary as we wait for Christ’s return.

1 John 5:20

1 John 5:20 - We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true - even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Before Christ there were some who knew God. There were priests and prophets that God would speak to and then they, in turn, would speak to the people. As a whole the people did not know or understand the things of God. Even the priests and prophets had a limited understanding. Then Christ came.

Christ changed life as it was known. He provided a direct link to the Father. Now we do not need an earthly priest to take our requests before God. We now have Jesus, who is in us and we are in Him.

Jesus has brought us into the kingdom of God in a new way. Before God’s people were just that: God’s people. Now we are no longer just God’s people, but we are also His children. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

Through Christ we now have the ability to understand God like we never could before. In fact, we are told that we have the mind of Christ. So we can know the true God and we receive eternal life in Him. And not only do we know Him who is true, we are also in Him. We are in God and He is in us!

Thank God that He sent Christ Jesus to bring us into the true kingdom and make us His children.

1 Timothy 6:12

1 Timothy 6:12 – Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

       “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” This is our fight. It’s not in the physical, but in your mind. We have to look at the things in our life that appear real and believe something different. Faith is taking hold of the victory that looks impossible.

       If we already have something or can see it in the natural we don’t need faith to receive it. That’s why Paul describes faith as a fight. We may have to fight against what all our senses are telling us.

       Take the second part of this verse for example: “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.” Is eternal life something that we can see? No. In our eyes we see people get born, get old, and die. That’s the progression of life as we can see it in the natural. We can feel ourselves getting older and our bodies not working the same as they used too.

       We can’t see what happens to a person after death. There is no evidence that anything happens to them, but we know different. Faith is believing in life after death. It is taking hold of the eternal life to which we were called when we received Christ in our lives.

You don’t have to do anything for it, except believe. Jesus already has the victory. Eternal life is already waiting for you. Take hold of it by faith, no matter what the world tells you.