They Should Have Known // A Life Eternal, Part 2

It turns out that coming to grips with the resurrection of Jesus wasn’t easy for the disciples. And to tell you the truth, it can be difficult to come to grips with it here and now as well.

They say that there are two absolute certainties in life – death and taxes. Well, let’s leave taxes for another day – that leaves death. One day, you and I will breathe our last breath on this planet, that’s pretty much certain, despite all the hopes and dreams and plans that we have for next week and next year and the next decade, most of us simply don’t know when that moment will come, when we breathe that final breath.

And then what? What comes after that? Well, there are basically two schools of thought. One is that at that point it’s all over – nothing – a big emptiness. The other school of thought has many different flavours, but many people – in fact most people on this planet – believe in some sort of afterlife, whatever that may look like to them. If there’s an eternal life, what is it, what does it look like, and is it worth having?

There’s some good questions there to ask and here we are in the week after Easter so we are going to unpack and explore a little bit, particularly looking at the resurrection of Jesus; this new life; this eternal life. Jesus over and over again said:

Believe in me and you will have eternal life.

Now, some people say, "Well that’s nice but really, these days, all roads do lead to Rome. I mean you believe in a good God and you’ll make it; you’ll have eternal life. Kind of doesn’t quite matter which flavour of God you happen to believe in."

But not according to Jesus. He didn’t leave that option open; He didn’t intend to. Here’s this carpenter from Nazareth, an ordinary man and somewhere in His early thirties He begins a three and a half year public ministry. He heals people; He does amazing things; crowds follow Him; He upsets the religious leaders and there’s a murder plot and ultimately He is crucified and He rose again. And lots of people saw Him after He rose again and we’ll have a look at that on the program tomorrow.

But in the competitive world we live in, there’s a notion that’s deep ingrained into who we are, that if you and I are going to attain this eternal life that Jesus promised, we’re going to have to work for it. I mean, it makes sense after all, at school, it’s competitive, you get the grades, you go and do certain classes based on your grades, you compete for a limited number of good jobs and you compete for promotion. Nothing comes easy; you have to work for things. You have to get out there and achieve and take them and make it happen; they’re not just going to come to us on a silver platter, all of those good things.

And then God turns around and says, “Well, I’m a God of grace and this eternal life thing is free, because Jesus bought it for you on the cross.” Now I study this stuff every day. I do what I’m doing right now, right, and I have to tell you, the concept of God’s grace still doesn’t come naturally to me. The notion that Jesus paid for everything is sometimes hard to embrace with my life. How about you? I mean, what are the things in your past; things that we have been taught about life; things that have hurt you; things that have been about conditional love; things that hold you back from wrapping your heart around God’s grace; God’s free gift of eternal life; life with God for ever and ever and ever. What’s that look like?

Well, Jesus was praying – and you can read it in John 17 in the Bible. He was saying eternal life is being with Him; eternal life is knowing Him; eternal life is seeing His glory for ever and ever and you know, all that seems to be too good to be true sometimes. And if that’s true today, it was true back then. I’m going to read you a small passage that comes from John’s Gospel, chapter 6 verse 28:

The people ask Him, “What do we have to do? What are the works that God requires?” And Jesus said, “The work of God is this - that you believe in me; in the one whom God has sent.” So they asked Him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe in you, what’ll you do?” I mean our forefathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written. God gave them bread from heaven to eat.

And Jesus said to them, “I’ll tell you the truth, it’s not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven but it’s my Father, who gives you the true bread from heaven because the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “from now on, give us this bread,” and Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me never be thirsty. But as I have told you, you’ve seen me and you still don’t believe."

All that the Father God gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive them away, for I’ve come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has give me, but raise them up on the last day, for my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and I’ll raise them up on the last day.

What will we have to do? What do we have to do Jesus? What does God want us to do? And Jesus said "just believe in me!" And they said, "Oh, ok, prove it, show us, do the ‘manna’ thing. You know, remember how God did the manna from heaven and there was bread on the ground for the Israelites when they were wandering through their forty years exodus. Go on, do the manna thing.” You know what manna is? Its stuff that came down from heaven and the Israelites looked at it and went, "manna, manna". "Manna" means, what the heck is it?

Isn’t it amazing? Whenever God provides something for us, and it’s free and it’s grace and it’s life and it’s blessing, we want Him to explain it. We just can’t enjoy what He is doing, we have to go, "manna" – what is it?

That desert and that bread coming down in the desert to feed them is a picture of our lives. They want this bread and engaging them He says, “Don’t you get it? It’s me, I am the bread of life and this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given me but raise them up on the last day, for my Father‘s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up on that last day.”

God is so passionate about you and me, He looks at us and He says, “You are to die for” and He does exactly that through Jesus. It’s a powerful thing; it’s not just death, its resurrection and we can muck around half our lives – all our lives – and miss the point. "Oh, I don’t know."

Well, either it’s true or it’s not! If Jesus rose for the dead; if that’s true, let’s live our lives passionately, wrapped around that reality. There are people wandering around this world with broken lives and low self-esteem and a list of a thousand maladies, all the time the answer is staring them in the face. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” Never hunger, never thirst, He’s alive and His passion is for you and for me to have eternal life, here and now and for all eternity.

Wake up! What’s the matter with us? Look at Jesus with the eyes of your soul and take time to rest and delight in Him and believe in Him and to feast on the bread. Come on, what’s the matter with us?