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[0:00] Now turning back to the portion of scripture we read, John's Gospel, chapter 6, and we will look this morning at verse 68 in that chapter.

[0:16] John's Gospel, chapter 6, verse 68, Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

[0:32] And in looking at this verse, we can first look at the shame of the cross, and secondly, just the two headings from the verse itself.

[0:46] The first one, Lord, to whom shall we go? And secondly, and the second one, you have the words of eternal life.

[0:57] Shame of the cross, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And firstly, coming to the shame of the cross.

[1:08] And we ought to note what was taking place as it was brought before us in the rest of this chapter.

[1:18] It would do as well to note what was taking place when these immortal words were uttered by Peter.

[1:29] Jesus puts the question to his disciples. I think it's in, is it in verse 56 of the chapter?

[1:44] Not in verse 56, but whatever. Jesus, he comes finally to put this question to his disciples. Will you also go?

[1:58] And the reason, of course, as we know, he put that question to them was that many were beginning to turn their backs on him and on his teachings.

[2:10] After all, this was the very person about whom it was said that he spoke with authority and like the scribes and the Pharisees.

[2:24] It was said of him that no man ever spoke like this man. He did miracles in the presence of them all that no other person had ever done, like raising the dead, giving sight to the blind.

[2:44] And even at this particular point, these very people had seen him feeding 5,000 in the wilderness from two loaves and a few small fishes.

[3:02] And once they saw that miracle, they wanted to make him king. Because as far as they were concerned, this was none other than the promised one. The one who would come after Moses, as far as they were concerned, he was the second Moses.

[3:20] Moses, as far as they were concerned, had fed their forefathers with manna in the wilderness. Now here we have a person feeding 5,000 from two loaves and a few small fishes.

[3:37] And they were of the opinion, this is the person that we have been waiting for, for centuries. This is the promised one. Let us make him king. But it didn't last very long.

[3:50] For we find most of them now turning their backs upon him. Turning their backs upon him. He lived a life.

[4:04] A scripture reveals to us that was holy, harmless and undefiled. A life that was pleasing to God and to man.

[4:17] Yet we find here that even such a man finds many turning their backs upon him, no longer being willing to follow him.

[4:31] All of them were turned back to the world because they were unwilling to receive the teaching that had just been proclaimed. What was that teaching?

[4:45] He who dwells, he who eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood, dwells in me and die in him.

[5:00] Her minds are never comfortable. with the language of sacrifice. Never comfortable with the language of sacrifice.

[5:14] Even Cain himself tried to overturn it at the very beginning. At the very beginning. And so it goes on even to this present day itself.

[5:29] The cross remains a stumbling block to many. We see we see many starting off from the Christian road.

[5:45] Looking every inch as promising soldiers of Christ. But the shame of the cross sends them back to be servants to be servants of sin, servants of the world and servants of unbelief.

[6:11] The cross remains a stumbling block to many. It was even so for myself. Because I used to ask myself the question what relevance does a man nailed to a tree two thousand years ago have for my life?

[6:35] What relevance does that have for my life? I thought it was just simply a load of nonsense.

[6:45] and so it is as the passage of time keeps on flowing the cross becomes more of a stumbling block to each and every one of us.

[7:04] we will this ought not to surprise us. It's an old disease. It's an old disease.

[7:16] Scripture reveals that to us that the cross was simply a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

[7:30] And so it continues to this day. And we see many showing promise when they start off on the Christian road.

[7:42] But the fact is that they never fully commit their lives to the Lord. And why do they not fully commit their lives to the Lord? Because of the shame on the cross. One can be bold in saying one can be bold in saying that the temptation to retreat from following Christ was never as great as it is in our day and age.

[8:10] The opposition to Christianity is strong and is gathering more strength, keeps gathering more strength to itself.

[8:22] And the objections to Christianity are many. Some are plausible, others are frivolous to say the least. People will tell us.

[8:37] But we live in an age of free speech. Therefore, we are not to foist our opinions about Christ on others. We are to keep them to ourselves.

[8:50] Science has become the God of many. It has become the God of many. And one can no longer believe or give place to beliefs that belong to antiquity.

[9:05] Anything that is incomprehensible to human reason has to be thrifted with scorn.

[9:17] It has to be thrifted with scorn. It is nothing but mere speculation. If anything is beyond human reason, it must be mere speculation.

[9:28] It must be treated with scorn. Beliefs that were given place to in previous ages cannot be entertained in this day and age. Why?

[9:39] Because these people were not as enlightened as we are in this age. And yet history gives lie to that. History gives lie to that.

[9:52] opinion. Knowledge, as scripture says, knowledge puffs up. Only love edifies.

[10:05] Only love edifies. You and I can gather as much knowledge as we can to ourselves today, so all we have to do is simply press a button and inquire of Google and we can gather knowledge on any subject we want.

[10:27] But does that make us more enlightened than the people that belonged to the previous ages? Does it make us more spiritual than the people that belonged to previous ages?

[10:39] know. Scripture is right. Knowledge puffs up. Love alone edifies. Which brings us to the second thing that we have here, the question Peter posed.

[10:55] to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? And we have to remember the circumstances he was posing that questioning.

[11:10] The disciples were only human beings and they were seeing these hordes turning their back upon the one that they had been following themselves. And they would have been questioning, well, why should we carry on following this passion?

[11:27] Look at these crowds that are turning their backs upon him, who were wanting to make him king, only a while back. Now they're leaving him. Should we continue following him?

[11:42] And yet this is the question that Peter posed, to whom else can we go? they are very like the words that Esau uses in Psalm 73.

[12:01] Whom have I in the heavens but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire but you. there was great wisdom behind Peter's reply because the world as it was then through wisdom had not come to know God.

[12:30] Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Nations that had reached spectacular heights in learning and military conquests.

[12:48] Yet at the time of Christ we find them completely in darkness. We find them in complete darkness.

[13:00] These were the nations that had given birth to great orators, architects, poets, philosophers, great generals.

[13:12] And yet at this particular time in history we find them swallowed up in the darkness of idolatry.

[13:27] The learned philosophers of Greece and of Rome were like blind men groping in a dark tunnel seeking the meaning of life and yet never coming close to an answer.

[13:46] Never coming close to finding an answer. To whom else could Peter go for peace of conscience, for forgiveness of sin, for a hope that would sustain him in the midst of a turbulent world except to the prince of peace, Jesus Christ.

[14:14] Could he have found what he was seeking for? Could he have found what he was seeking for amongst the world's philosophers, amongst the world's false gods, amongst the world's pleasure seekers, amongst the world's great oridosh?

[14:34] Well, the answer to all these questions is that none of these things, all of these things have been proved to be man-made remedies that cannot cure and that can never give lasting satisfaction to the serious seeker.

[14:56] never give lasting satisfaction to the serious seeker. As Jeremiah puts it, they are all broken cisterns that cannot hold any water.

[15:12] And the person who drinks of these waters, he or she will find that these waters can never quench his or her thirst.

[15:24] His or her thirst. the question which Peter posed is one which every Christian believer can pose with boldness.

[15:38] To whom else can we go? go? Everybody who has come to know Christ as their Lord and Saviour can echo Peter's words, knowing that they are true, to whom else can we go?

[16:02] and when people tell us today that Christianity is a tired, worn out belief, well, we can be bold in asking them.

[16:17] We can be bold in asking them if they can show us anything that surpasses Christianity. Christianity. They might challenge us with questions.

[16:40] And we might struggle with giving a proper reply to these questions. but we can challenge them by asking them to provide us with a better foundation than faith in Jesus Christ provides us with.

[17:05] We can challenge them by asking them to provide us with a better foundation for life, better foundation to life than the faith in Jesus Christ provides me and you with.

[17:24] If a Christian believer was to turn his or her back on Jesus Christ tomorrow, would he and she not be turning their backs upon the very fountain of life and turning their face towards what?

[17:45] Towards a world world that confuses and bemuses and fails at every turn to give an answer to the big questions of life.

[17:58] who else could Peter go to? Who else could he go to?

[18:11] Except to the Lord of glory, which brings us to the last and final thing that we have here, words of eternal life. life? To whom else can we go?

[18:25] For you are the words of eternal life. The question is, was Peter, was Peter grasping the meaning of the words that he was uttering?

[18:36] well, he was in a great measure. Because remember, remember the other question Jesus posed to his disciples, whom do people say that I am?

[18:54] And their answer was, some people say John the Baptist, some say the prophet, and so on. and then Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am?

[19:07] And again it was Peter who came up with the answer. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Peter knew in giving that answer, like the rest of the disciples knew, that they were in the very presence of the Son of the living God.

[19:36] And was not this eternal life, the very life that Jesus had come into the world to proclaim? He had been sowing the seeds of this life through his preaching and through his teaching, and the apostles continued to sow the seeds of this life through the very preaching the very words of Christ as he had taught them.

[20:06] And so the baton is passed down generation from generation within the church of Jesus Christ. And that is why me and you have got to be very careful in the way that we handle the word of God.

[20:30] The way that we handle the word of God. The question is, does this life have a beginning? If it's an eternal life, does it have a beginning?

[20:42] Well, it does, in the experience of believers. it has its beginning when a person turns to the Lord and places his or her trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

[21:00] Do we have the fullness of this life within this world? No, we don't. and we will never have the fullness of this life within this world or while we are in this body of sin, but we will have the fullness of this life in glory.

[21:21] Remember what he said himself? I came, he said, so that they might have life and have that life in all its fullness. And the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.

[21:40] Why? So that you and I would be recipients of this eternal life and be recipients of it in all its fullness.

[21:51] We cannot have it in its perfection here, but we will have it perfectly in glory. All we can have as far as this eternal life is concerned here, we have it within the hope that has been planted within our hearts.

[22:17] And we know that one day we will have it in all its fullness, in all its fullness. happiness. This is the very life that you and I forfeited when we fell into sin.

[22:36] The very life that we lost, that we forfeited. And isn't it amazing, isn't it amazing, that the very person who speaks the words of eternal life, was willing to suffer and to die, in order that that life, that eternal life, would be restored unto me and you.

[23:02] What is eternal life? Well, Jesus gives us the answer to that in his high priestly prayer in verse 3. Eternal life is to know you, the one true and living God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

[23:27] Knowledge of God and knowledge of Christ brings eternal life to me and to you. Not head knowledge, but heart knowledge.

[23:44] This is eternal life. To know you, the one true and living God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And this very person who speaks the words of eternal life was willing to suffer and die so that you and I would have that eternal life restored to us.

[24:14] We live in dangerous and deceitful day where our position to the gospel is gathering strength, is gathering peace, especially in the West where we live.

[24:36] How do we know that? How can we tell that? God, well, we can tell it by this, that there was once a day when ungodliness brought shame to our passion.

[24:52] But that is no longer the case. The more ungodly you are today, the more you are looked up to. the more you are looked up to.

[25:09] Even now, my friend, Christ is calling you to himself even through the sermon on this morning. The world will tell you, the world will tell you, that you do not need to search your own heart to discover whether you have sinned or not, because this talk of sin is nothing but old fashioned nonsense.

[25:37] Nothing but old fashioned nonsense. But let me tell you this, your time will come as it comes to us all where we find ourselves needing much more than human friendship has to offer to us.

[25:56] Without Christ, you can live a good life. As people consider what a good life is, without Christ, you can live what people consider to be a good life.

[26:16] But without Christ, you can never be comfortable in dying. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Christ alone has the words of eternal life.

[26:34] And these words have to be believed and received into the heart. And once they are received into the heart, they bring joy and gladness to that heart and bring nourishment to the soul.

[26:50] let us not be ashamed of his cross. Let us not be ashamed of his cross. Let the world laugh at us and oppose us as much as the world sees fit.

[27:06] but can the world offer to me and to you anything that surpasses the excellence of this Christ who is the son of the living God.

[27:30] And every believer can echo these words of Peter. Once you come to Christ you can echo these words of Peter knowing that this is truth.

[27:45] To whom else can I go? For you alone have the words of eternal life. You alone have the words of eternal life.

[27:59] And where he is there is where you will want to be. Remember the promise that he gave to his people. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself so that where I am there you may be also.

[28:25] And this is his great desire desire. As we find at the end of a priestly player in John chapter 17 Father I will that those whom you have given me shall be with me where I am that they may behold my glory.

[28:49] That is his desire for his people. he left them a promise that they would be where he is and he desires that that day will come where they will be with him and behold his glory.

[29:09] In a world that is perishing can you and I find anything that can be compared to this Christ the son of the living God.

[29:26] That is more or less what Peter was saying. To whom else can we go there is nothing that can be compared to you.

[29:37] No one and nothing that can be compared to you. So let us hold fast to Christ and to his words knowing that he will never fail us and that his words never fail.

[29:55]  He remains the ever trustworthy friend of sinners. And the question is this morning is he your friend or does he do you look upon him as somebody who stands in your way stopping you from living your life the way you want to well only you can answer that question my friend may he bless to us these few thoughts let us pray okay