You
Must Work or You Won't Eat
Well,
praise Jesus, everyone. There's an old saying that everyone knows, that if you
don't work, you don't eat. And this concept is also true both physically and
spiritually. Whatever that you want to do good in this life, anything that you
want to be really good at or anything that's worth anything, you have to put
blood, sweat and tears into it. You have to put a lot of effort into it. Yet a
lot of Christians think this does not apply to their salvation. It doesn't apply
to working for Jesus. So they put all of their effort into worldly things. They
spend a lot of time getting a degree or becoming educated for whatever position
they are at their workplace. But they don't work for Jesus. They're not
sweating for Him. They're not laborers in His field. But we know that for
anything else in the world that we want to accomplish, anything that's worth
anything, we have to put effort into.
Jesus
hasn't called us as His disciples to just sit back and to do nothing. He's called
us to specific tasks. He wants us to daily
deny
ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. But that doesn't mean that we just
sit around and do nothing and say, well Jesus paid it all on the cross. He
carried the cross to Calvary so that we can just sit back and relax and be on
vacation. Jesus wants us to be diligently working for Him, calling people to
repent. And it seems a lot of the Christian culture has turned their back on
the work of the Lord. Jesus is still going out, calling people to repent, while
His supposed people are just sitting back relaxing and not doing anything,
thinking that they're once saved, always saved, so they don't have to lift a
finger to call people to repent or to do the work of the kingdom of God. Now
Jesus called His disciples to be part with Him, to do His work, to eat His
flesh and to drink His blood.
He
was the bread of life. And this saying, even to the disciples back then,
apparently was offensive enough that most of the disciples left. I want to see
if I can find it here and read it. I believe it's in John chapter 6. Yeah,
Jesus says, 26Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you
seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and
were filled. 27Do
not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to
everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father
has set His seal on Him.”
You
see, a lot of people, when they saw Jesus do these miracles, like turning a few
pieces of bread and fish into a lot of bread and fish, they thought, “we'll
make Him king, because He will give us an easy life. We won't have to lift a
finger to work. This guy can just produce food out of nothing. So why would we
ever work a day in our life again for food, or why would we have to pay taxes
or make money when this Jesus can do everything for us?”
And
that's what a lot of Christians think today. They think that if they repent and
if they put their faith in Jesus, Jesus will do all of their work for them. And
they think that they're just once saved, always saved, they don't actually have
to repent of sin, because that would be a work. And they have Jesus totally
wrong. They don't realize that Jesus calls us to daily deny ourselves, take up
the cross and to follow Him, and that's work.
28Then
they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” 29Jesus
answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him
whom He sent.” 30Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then,
that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?”
Now
this is funny to me, because Jesus had already turned the bread, He'd already
multiplied the bread and fed all these thousands of people, yet these same
people say, “what sign will you show us
to prove that you are a true prophet, that you are the Son of God?”
So
they obviously didn't even recognize that He had already done a miracle.
31Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is
written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32Then Jesus said to them,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven,
but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is
He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34Then they said to
Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
See
these guys still just, they wanted to escape earthly work. They were thinking,
perfect, just give us this sort of bread that we never have to work again or
pay taxes and we'll believe in you, Jesus.
35And
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never
hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that
you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37All that the Father gives Me will
come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38For I
have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent
Me. 39This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40And this is the
will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may
have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
And
that is truly a wonderful blessing, knowing that if you eat Jesus' flesh and
drink His blood, if we eat His body, then we will be raised up on the last day.
The last day of our life we will not end up going to hell, but we will enter
into the Lord’s Kingdom with thanksgiving in our heart,
because He has saved us. But when Jesus said this, a lot of the people
complained and turned away. It says,
41The
Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came
down from heaven.” 42And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down
from heaven’?” 43Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur
among yourselves. 44No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws
him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the prophets,
‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and
learned from the Father comes to Me.”
See
if we come to Jesus, we will have everlasting life. We will eat His flesh,
drink His blood, and we will work for Him. But when people learn that Jesus did
not just come to save them from worldly problems, He did not just come to die
on the cross and then say, Well now you can live life joyfully and you do not
have to do anything. When people learn that, then they say, Well I am out. If I
have to actually work, then I will just go back to doing my worldly work that I
was doing before. Why would I put my faith in Jesus when I actually have to
have a relationship with Him, when I actually have to eat His flesh and drink
His blood? See working for Jesus and being in a daily relationship with Him is
hard work. And not a lot of Christians want to actually engage in a living
relationship where they are eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood. They do
not want to abide in Him. All they want is religion. And that is why they enjoy
going to church once a week and having ungodly fellowship with Christians. They
love the term fellowship because to them it just means a once a week gathering
where they can talk about whatever they want and then leave and go out to
lunch.
Jesus
was offering something completely different than what these Jews or what these modern-day
Christians want. He was offering Himself as the bread of life that comes out of
heaven. And if we eat His flesh and drink His blood we will live forever. But
it will take work. And that is why the Jews turned away. They thought, “Well
we do not actually want to work for Jesus. We just wanted to set Him up to be
king so that He would then kick the Romans out and He would give us the easy
life. We would not have to work for bread. And Jesus would just do it all for
us. He will make that guy king”.
And the same is true today. As soon as Christians learn that they really have
to work for Jesus, they really have to repent of their sin, eat Jesus' flesh,
drink His blood, that is when many Christians turn away from the gospel. They
turn away from the truth.
But
how about you? Are you willing to lay your life down for the Lord, to turn away
from the things in the world that are sinful, to live the gospel of Jesus, to
preach His gospel so that your family members, your friends may actually
repent? And even if they do not repent and go with you, will you still go with
Jesus even if no one else goes with you? As for me, I want to continue
following the path of Jesus, preaching His gospel, doing His work, and enduring
with Him to the very end of my life, because I know that He is the only one
that has the words of life. And remember that is what Peter said. Jesus said to
Peter, will you turn away also? And he said, no, where else will we go? Only
you have the words of life.
See
everything else in this life is perishing. Everything else is on its way to
hell. Everything in this world is going to, it's going to burn up. It's going
to be like chaff. But Jesus, His kingdom and His words will be forever. So we
need to make sure that we're actually connected to Jesus, we're hearing His
voice, we're walking with Him every day. So I want to pray for those of you
that want the words of life working in you, that want to hear Jesus and want to
overcome this world. “Lord
Jesus, I pray for your true church. I pray for those brothers and sisters in
the Lord who want to hear Your voice and who want to hear Your voice and step
outside the world of sin and bondage. Everything that comes is distractions
from Satan. I pray that we can overcome in Your name and eat Your flesh and
drink Your blood and have the words of life in us. I pray that You speak to us,
that You build us up and that we could conquer evil and just truly overcome in
Your name that we could be the sons and daughters of Your kingdom. I pray that
You bless the family of God and have Your curse continually on the wicked, that
people would repent or perish. We pray in Your name, Lord Jesus, that we would
have the power of the Holy Ghost in us, that we would be salt and light in
encouraging people to truly repent and to come out of the world and to touch
nothing unclean. We pray this in Your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
