Much of our modern Christian faith is built upon the premise that all of humankind has sinned against God, that we haven’t lived up to His expectations, that we have offended God. We could do nothing about this. No amount of righteous living or sacrifice on our part could undo our failures, our sins, or our offenses. And so our loving God the Father sent His one and only Son, perfect and righteous in every way, to pay the price for our sins by His death on a cross. His blood and His body were sacrificed in order to restore our fellowship & relationship w/God.

So, then, it is the height of all irony that very often we humans find ourselves offended by God! This very same God that gave entirely of Himself so that we could once more be restored in righteousness becomes our offense. How is this possible? And what is to be done about it? That is the subject of our sermon today. Our Scripture comes from the last half of John 6. Let’s read some of it together.

This is a difficult passage of Scripture. If you’ve come this morning looking for milk and cookies, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong church. Today we are eating the steak and potatoes of the Bible. We’re diving deep, not only into Scripture, but also deep into ourselves. Because no matter whether you’re a new Christ-follower, a long serving and experienced Christ-follower, or even not a Christ-follower at all… within us is the potential to be offended by God!

You know how when you take offense at someone or something they’ve done, you just don’t want to be around them. You separate yourself. It’s easy to form an us versus them or a me versus you attitude. You start to only see the bad in them. Offense is the first exit ramp to a full U-turn in the relationship. You just can’t believe someone would do that. You just can’t understand how someone would say that.

It’s possible that we can find ourselves offended by God and it is dangerous territory for us. Dangerous because A) we don’t readily admit it to anyone, including ourselves, and dangerous because B) we don’t take the necessary steps to confront our own feelings and so we drift away from God rather than drawing closer to Him. How can we know? We see all the indicators right here in John 6:

#1 - Questioning (25, 28, 30, 42): When did you get here? What do we have to do to satisfy God? How much is enough? What sign will give to prove yourself? Aren’t you the little boy we saw grow up around here? Just who do you think you are anyway?

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying to you that you can never ask questions. God welcomes your questions. The church has been asking some questions for 2,000 years. The difference is in the attitude of the questioner. It’s one thing to humbly say to God: “I really don’t understand and I really would like to understand. But whether I ever understand or not, I’m going to trust You! Could you help me?”

Then there’s the kind of questions that doesn’t really seek understanding. It’s more debating. More trying to prove how unreasonable God is. How illogical believing in God is. More trying to score debate points. More trying to put down God and His plans.

#2 - Demanding (31, 34): Questioning (in the bad way) often leads to demanding. As in, oh yeah?… then show me! Prove it to me! Jesus is trying to help them understand by giving the example of Moses and the manna. It wasn’t Moses who gave the manna. It was God. The people’s response? Oh yeah? Then give me this bread. Right now! Prove it!

#3 - Grumbling (43, 61) Twice in this passage we see Jesus being aware of the grumbling all around him. Billy Graham once said, “Grumbling and gratitude are, for the child of God, in conflict. Grumble and you won’t be grateful. Be grateful and you won’t grumble.”

#4 - Arguing (52) The Bible tells us that “the Jews were arguing sharply” over how they could eat the flesh of Jesus. Before we throw stones, know that the Christians have been having the same sharp arguments for the last 500 years over the communion elements. Rather than wait upon Jesus and hear what He has in mind, we would rather argue over our own understandings. Again, theological discussions are fine as far as they go, but they should never replace our first desire of the love and fellowship of our Savior Jesus.

#5 - Leaving (66) It was one thing for the enemies of Jesus to question, demand, grumble and argue, but it’s another thing entirely for disciples - professed students of Jesus to say that’s it. No more. I’m out of here. That’s what we learn in verse 66. “Many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” The same thing happens today. Someone you know who used to be so dedicated, so faithful, so full of Jesus turn into questioning, demanding, grumbling and arguing people. They eventually leave too. Is anyone else here bothered by that? How could this happen? More on point, could this happen to us too? For the rest of our time together this morning I’d like to explore WHY we feel offended by God and then WHAT TO DO when we’re offended by God.

We see three reasons in John 6 why we may feel offended by God. They each begin with EX - which helps us to remember that these could be reasons to lead us to become EX - Christians, EX - Disciples. We’ve EX-ited. We used to be a follower of Christ but now we’re not. We used to go to church but now we don’t. It’s important to consider these. Don’t think this couldn’t happen to you. Be prepared for these 3 trials in your faith walk. All of these EX verses begin with “very truly I tell you!”

Notice in Jesus’ words that “looking for Jesus” by itself is not enough to keep us faithful to Him. We must be looking for Him for the right reason. Jesus is pretty smart. He knew that there were people there who were using Jesus’ miracles as a way of getting food to eat. They weren’t really interested in what Jesus had to say as much as what He could do for them.

The same thing is true today. People come into the church with their own expectations of what Jesus will do for them. They think: If I am a Christian and a part of this community, I’ll receive financial help. Or… I’ll make friends. Or… I can gain influence and importance. Or… I can sing and play in the band. Or… I will make my (spouse, parent, friend) happy. If our expectation is for a better life, a wealthier life, a happier life, and easier life because we are Christ-followers - then our expectations are likely not going to be met. Our only expectation should be knowing Jesus in a deep, personal way and following Him as best we can.

To recap for just a moment, in the questioning and debating, back and forth arguments between Jesus and those around Him, they asked Him the most important question: What must we do to do the works God requires? (28) Now THAT was the best question of the day. And Jesus wastes no time in giving them the answer: The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. (29)

FULL STOP! This is where the chapter should have ended. This is where the debate should have stopped. What is our work? What is our job? BELIEVE! That should grab ahold of you (and me.) Sometimes belief is hard work. Faith is not always easy. Is there more to do in the Kingdom of God? Of course there is. But ALL KINGDOM WORK REQUIRES FAITH. Belief is our starting point. Believing is our PREREQUISITE to everything else done in our work for Jesus. That’s where our focus should be. We should be concentrating on our belief.

But did the debate stop? Did everyone go home? No! They came right back with another question. Another argument. “Oh yeah? Prove it! Show us a sign!” Already in the past 24 hours, Jesus had fed the 5,000 and walked across the Sea of Galilee. Pretty good signs! But they wanted another one. How about you? Are you always wanting more?

So Jesus comes back with the explanation that the bread from Moses was bread from Heaven and provided by God the Father. And now this same God the Father was providing the bread of life eternal. And this Bread of Life was standing right in front of them. Rather than stopping and walking away and trying to be satisfied for at least the day, and trying to understand what Jesus had meant, they just kept on arguing.

3rd EXit - Our EXPERIENCES are not understood.

This is what is happening here. They are confronted by a Jesus they really don’t know. And rather than stop and try to understand, rather than give some time and reflection, they just push right ahead with their questioning, demanding, grumbling, and arguing. When this happens with us (and it does) I can promise you that Jesus is not ever going to get easier or more understandable by our stubborn refusal to stop, listen, and humbly admit that we just don’t get it. But we want to. By asking Jesus for help. And Jesus did try to explain it to them:

This was just too much for them. How could they be expected to eat the flesh of another person? Even Jesus! You and I know the rest of the story. We know that Jesus gave His life for all of those who would become lifetime followers of Jesus. But they didn’t know that. They didn’t know how things would turn out. Their experience with Jesus in that moment made it seem like they would have to become cannibals. They just didn’t understand the significance of the experience they were experiencing with Jesus.

Let’s not be too critical of these people in that moment, for I tell you that we all suffer from the same problem. We don’t understand every experience that we are going through. We might be suffering. We might be sick. We might have lost someone really close to us. We might be going through a rough time at work or at school. Maybe our dreams have come crashing down all around us. And we just want to scream to Jesus: WHY?? In that moment it’s very easy to become offended by God. We want to hear what we want to hear and nothing else. Maybe we have been a follower of Jesus for a long time. How do we remain faithful? How should we respond when we feel offended by God?

Remember it is not God Who has offended. We are the offenders. God is our rescuer. So it is we who must change… in three ways:

Let’s start by assuming that we don’t understand everything about our Christian faith. We don’t have to understand everything. God understands even if I don’t. Belief is saying to ourselves, ‘that’s ok. I don’t have to get it all. God gets it and I’m going to trust Him.’

This was the key to remaining and not leaving for Simon Peter. “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (69)

Jesus says something really profound in this. Our very lives depend upon our feeding upon Jesus! Do you see that? There is an eternal back and forth loop that happens between God the Father and God the Son. (57a) Likewise our eternal lives come to us because we are in Jesus and He is eternal. (57b) Belief is the key for us. Jesus knew even back then that some who said they were believers in Him were not. (70) The same is true today. Perhaps our prayer should be, “Lord give me the faith to believe when my faith falls short.”

Madonna only got it half-right when she sang, “I am a material girl.” All of us are material. We exist within a physical world. We see and understand things in a material-physical way. But God created you and me also as spiritual beings. We have our spirit that can commune with God in a spiritual way. Jesus tells us that his words to us are spiritualwords. Just as important they are also the words of life.

So we must change our perspective. Look and hear and think in a spiritual way, not just in a physical way. It’s hard to understand how we might physically eat the body of Jesus, but it’s easier to grasp if we think about this spiritually. We must take in the Holy Spirit of Jesus. He must be a part of us. We must be a part of Him. Without this spiritual sense of our Christian faith we’ll always struggle. It’s like being stuck in 1st gear. It gets me from the stop light up to about 10 mph. But it takes my highest gear to run at my top speed down the highway. I have to change gears or I’ll always be limited to the slowest speeds. Without a change in perspective from physical to spiritual, I’ll always be slow to understand the harder things of my Christian faith.

Simon Peter didn’t know all the answers. But he knew one answer really well - Jesus. Nothing has changed. I don’t know all the answers, but I know Jesus and I’m on His side and He has the answers. That’s what matters most. If I find myself in questioning, demanding, grumbling, and arguing mode - these are not the characteristics of being on the side of Jesus! My leaving, my EXit is a real possibility. Don’t let that happen. When tough times come I may not understand the experience I’m experiencing. Ask Jesus to help me to change my assumptions, to change my perspective, and to change my side.