Jesus Offers A Lifeline And A New Heart

Shipwrecked souls don’t need new opinions; they need a lifeline. We open John 6 where Jesus calls himself the bread from heaven and confronts a crowd offended by grace. Pastor Carl connects the dots from manna to murmuring, from fiery serpents in Numbers 21 to the bronze sign lifted high, and from Capernaum’s demands for signs to the cross where Christ becomes sin for us. The throughline is urgent and hopeful: refuse God’s provision and you keep the poison; look to the Son and live.

We also face a hard, necessary truth about the church’s witness. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 5, we explore why real grace never celebrates what destroys us. Church discipline—so often misunderstood—is framed as redemptive love that protects the flock and aims at restoration. This isn’t moral grandstanding; it is mercy with backbone. Sin isolates and deceives, but love tells the truth and leads people back to the One who heals.

From there we press into the Father’s drawing and the promise that those who believe will be raised on the last day. Resurrection is not a footnote to Christian life; it is the engine of hope that reorders our desires now. Isaiah 54’s new covenant promise brings it home: God rebuilds with mercy, teaches his people by his Spirit, and gives peace that holds in a shaking world. Parents, leaders, and seekers alike will find a clear path forward—trust the Son, be taught by God, and hold fast to the lifeline that never frays.

If this message stirred questions or conviction, share it with someone who needs hope, subscribe for more verse-by-verse teaching, and leave a review to help others find the gospel’s lifeline today.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

If we do not accept the Lord's provision, if we do not accept the Lord's grace, his gifts, if we call what is good worthless, then where does that leave us? That leaves us right in the target of the enemy. I don't want God's ways, I want my ways, which are the world's ways, which are the enemy's ways, and you're just setting yourself up for death. That's what sin is.

Setting The Scene In John 6

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Imagine being shipwrecked at sea, floating out in the open ocean, just hanging on to whatever floats. Now, what if a ship came along and threw you a lifeline? Wouldn't you take it? Or would you complain because it was orange instead of white? Or straight instead of round? In today's message, Pastor Carl wants you to know that God has thrown you a lifeline. Jesus Christ. What are you going to do about it? Will you grab hold of him for eternal life or complain because he's not what you want him to be? And now here's Pastor Carl.

Bread From Heaven And Offense

Murmuring And Numbers 21

Serpents, Bronze Sign, And The Cross

Turning Unrepentant Sin Over To Satan

Sexual Sin, Grace, And Church Discipline

Drawn By The Father And Last Day Hope

New Covenant Promise And Taught By God

Children, Formation, And Peace

Christ’s Authority And Everlasting Life

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Well, let's get into a study of God's Word. We are in the book of John, and we're going to finish up John chapter 6, and we'll pick up at verse 41. The Jews then complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that he says, I have come down from heaven? So he's speaking in Capernaum, Jesus is, and of course, this happens a little while after crossed the Sea of Galilee. He had fed five thousand people miraculously, and a lot of those same people came and followed him over to Capernaum, so they knew what had happened. And he was describing the fact that he was the bread of life. And that what Moses, they said, Moses brought the bread to the people there. He was saying it wasn't Moses that brought the bread, it was the Father that brought the bread. And I am the living bread. If you partake of me, you'll live forever and ever. And so they weren't as complaining about his calling himself the bread as much as he's coming down from heaven. He's saying he has come down from heaven. He is saying that he is the Son of God. He's saying that he is the Messiah. And some of the locals here realize that, wait a minute, he's no Messiah. He's Joseph's son and Mary's son. We know these people. How in the world can he say he's from? We've seen him from a baby and grown up. And this just doesn't make any sense to us. Well, what is the truth? Joseph was not his father, right? God was his father. Mary was his earthly mother, but Joseph was his adopted father and raised him up. And yet there were all these stories and all this uh hoopla about that, and and now it's coming back to haunt him. He's become a respected rabbi, but he's saying some things that are questionable, and they don't know what to do about it. And so Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Do not murmur among yourselves. And I'm gonna stop right there. Do not murmur about yourselves. Let's go back. And what have they been talking about? They've been talking about, okay, if you're who you say you are, you need to show us some signs. And he's have I not shown you enough signs. I'm declaring to you what you need, because I know who I am. And they were going back to Moses, they were going back to the manna, and uh, and so now he they're murmuring among themselves, amongst this one who's come who says he is the living bread. They're questioning that, and yet they they have exalted Moses and they have exalted what had happened in the wilderness, and and Jesus is saying, Don't murmur among yourselves, which is the same thing that the people back in Moses' time did that they seem to forget about. Can we go back to Numbers chapter 21, starting at verse 5? And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food, no water, and our soul loaths this worthless bread. Ouch! Can you feel that a stab to the father's heart? The bread that you sent down from heaven, God, is worthless. So the Lord is reminding them that your forefathers actually complained about this bread that came down from heaven. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. If we do not accept the Lord's provision, if we do not accept the Lord's grace, his gifts, if we call what is good worthless, then where does that leave us? That leaves us right in the target of the enemy. I don't want God's ways, I want my ways, which are the world's ways, which are the enemy's ways, and you're just setting yourself up for death. Because that's what sin is. It exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And I don't want what God has to give me. In fact, it's worthless. So where does that leave you? It leaves you with serpents biting you. And do you remember what we what we learned in chapter 3 of John when Jesus was talking with Nicodemus? He went back to Moses. He went back to this same event. And he talked about the vipers biting and killing people. And what did the Lord say to Moses to do? To fashion for himself a bronze serpent and put it up on a stick. And if they got bit, they were to look up at the serpent and find healing. And Jesus was basically telling Nicodemus, I am going to do that same thing. I am the serpent that will be put up on the cross. Paul described it this way: He that knew no sin became sin on our behalf. Jesus became the sin. He took the sin upon of the world upon himself. So the bite of sin he took the punishment for, so that whoever would believe in him would not perish. But that would be healed by that sin. And now they're bringing back the bread, and they're talking about how great it was, and that was a sign. And why'd you do something like that? And he's saying, Well, I am doing something like that. I am the bread. When Jesus brought back this idea of the murmuring and brought them back to the story of Moses, which they were exalting Moses instead of God the Father, and they were forgetting about the murmuring. Sometimes the Lord says, You know, if you don't accept, you know, the gift that I've given you, if you don't accept the forgiveness, if you don't acknowledge your need for it, sometimes you just need to turn them over to Satan. And that's what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness. They didn't accept the gift of God, so they were turned over to Satan. Paul described it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. He said, It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife, and you are puffed up. You have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For indeed, as absent in the body but present in sight, I have already judged as though I were present him who has done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. We are here to be changed by the Lord and not to celebrate sin. They thought they were being great and exalting and celebrating the sin that was happening in their midst, that a man was sleeping with his father's wife, his mother-in-law. It wasn't his mother, but his mother-in-law. And this was even something that the Gentiles thought was, ooh, that's weird. But we're celebrating because we're full of grace and we're full of mercy and we're full of love and acceptance. No, this is sin. This is what separates us from God. We don't celebrate sin, but we we turn from sin and we turn to the one that brings us forgiveness of our sin. And if somebody in our midst doesn't do that and comes and flaunts their sexual immorality, then they need to be turned over to Satan for a period of time. You can't fellowship here. You need to go out and do what you're going to do with the hope that they will get to a place where they realize how deep and dark and separated from God they are, and how they need to repent and turn back to the Lord. What is the church doing with sexual sin today? This is just one aspect of it. Are we celebrating it or are we calling it out in love but in boldness and saying God doesn't mess around with this? This is what God died for. This is what our Lord paid the price for. Not that we would continue in it, but that we would be freed from it. And the Israelites in the Old Testament, they didn't accept the gift of God, his provision of manna. They complained about it, so he turned them over to Satan. But even then he made a way. Look up to that serpent and find healing. And Jesus says, Look to me, the living bread, the bread of life. I am that serpent on the cross. I've become sin on your behalf so that you can be free. I'm not coming here to try to impress you and to try to do tricks for you to get you to believe. I've fed you in the wilderness, and you want more, but you don't believe. And they're missing the whole point. So back in John chapter 6, verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Do not murmur among yourselves. No one could come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. He said this before, he'll say it again and again. When Jesus says something in the Word, it's important. When he says it twice, your ears should really perk up. If he says it three times, this is vital. You've got to get this. And Jesus is saying, you're looking for signs, you're looking to do the works of God. You're thinking in your flesh on how you can make it into the presence of God. And it won't work. This is a spiritual matter. And the Father needs to reveal himself to you. No one can come to me unless the Father reveals him or draws him. So there's nothing that you can do in your flesh to be made right with God. It's a work of God that's doing it in your life. And when you do respond with faith, then I will raise him up on the last day. And he says that phrase a few times as well. We talk about, and usually we talk about it because we're aching and moaning and looking forward to a new body in heaven. We say, you know, don't worry about it. A new body is coming, a new resurrected body, and we're going, yay, that's great. But that's really everything. That's what Jesus is promising. That we are dead. Even in these bodies, we are dead. If you die in the Lord, if you die saved, you will be one of the first that will be raised up on the last day and given a new body. This idea of having a new body, it's not just, you know, hang in there, Cliff, because a new body's coming, and then you won't have those problems anymore. And usually we deal that way, but then our flesh is so sinister, it's like, yeah, but I like it the way I am now. I like this life in the world. And so we get our eyes off of the eternal body that's to come, and we still try to make the current body work because we kind of like the way things go in this world. And it's not like that, and it should be, but a lot of times it's not that we're here and willing to suffer because we want other people to know the gospel, but we stay here and we're willing to suffer because our flesh really enjoys this world. You can't love the world and the things in it and love the Lord at the same time, right? And this is one of those things where Jesus is again and again telling us it's not about what you do in your flesh, it's about what you believe, and it's about the work of the Father that comes. To do the work of the Father means to believe in the one he sent, and the one he sent is the Lord. And when you do believe and you do pass away, if you are dead in Christ, you will be raised up on that last day, which is, I believe, pointing to the rapture of the church. When the Lord comes from heaven with the trumpet, and the dead in Christ are raised to life first, and we who are still alive in Christ and remain will be brought up together with them. The dead of Christ get raised first because they died first. But a split second later, we are going in the air with them, and our bodies are immediately changed into the resurrected bodies that we've been waiting for, and we realize our full salvation and heaven and eternity. We ain't seen nothing yet. And yet we just kind of think those are nice words to say, to encourage each other. No, this is our goal to know the Lord, to be with him forever, to be changed, and he's promising it. Then he says, as it 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. It's no longer you just learning from the rabbis, it's no longer where you're just learning from somebody else, but you actually get into the word of God and the Holy Spirit teaches you. And as the Father teaches you, your eyes are open to the Sun. And you come to the Son. He's implying that they aren't. They aren't hearing from the Lord, they aren't hearing from the Father because they haven't been changed. But this points to the new covenant. Now, when he says, and they shall all be taught by God, now he's going back to a prophecy from Isaiah. A prophecy that happened while Israel was taken captive by Babylon. They had not only rejected the manna, but they had rejected the ways of the Lord, the laws of the Lord, and they went their own way, built their own kingdom. They did not repent. They saw the northern kingdom be taken away captive, and it's quite a while later, but they thought, yeah, we're okay. God loves us because we have the holy city of Jerusalem. And yet they didn't know their God. They rejected their God, and they, as a result, were judged by God and sent into captivity. This passage is from Isaiah chapter 54, and I'll just pick up at verse 9 here. For this is like the waters of Noah to me. This is the heart of God, describing the judgment on Israel. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. You have suffered this discipline, this judgment at this time. But my heart is still with you. Are you following? For the mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord of God who has mercy on you. Now what's this covenant of peace? Well, the covenant of peace points to the new covenant. The new covenant says, the old covenant said, you need to be perfect as I am perfect, and you realize that you can't be on your own. And so the new covenant says, I have done it for you. I have come and lived in your place. And because I have represented you and taken the burden of sin upon myself, your sin, now you can have the righteousness of God. And you can have the Holy Spirit dwell within you, not just upon you, as he did in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. And we hear God. And we're changed by God because He has mercy on us. And He's given us that same ministry of reconciliation. We've been made at peace with God because of the Son. And here He's talking about it in the Old Testament. This is my heart for you, to be at peace with me, to be reconciled with me, and I am making the way for that to happen. It continues, oh you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. When we're stuck in our sins, stuck in our rebellion, stuck in our own way of doing life. Sometimes we realize it, sometimes we don't, sometimes we blame God for it, sometimes we just ignore it. But we're afflicted, we're tossed about, and we're not comforted with the comfort that the Lord desires to give us. And the Lord appeals. He says, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems and your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies and your gates of crystal and all your walls of precious stones. I'm going to give you a new life, a new heart, a new beginning on the foundation of Christ. And I'm going to build you up into this beautiful body, this beautiful building that in the New Testament is described as the body of Christ. And then he says, All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. We could try to raise our kids in the right way to do things, tell them what to do, what not to do. The problem is they still struggle with their heart, with their flesh, with their sin. But if we bring them to the Lord and allow the Lord to change them from the inside out, then they'll learn directly from the Lord. And will be changed by the Lord. And the Lord will give them great peace in a world that's very shaky. This last part of the verse, all your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children, is the verse of our homeschool, the Pete's homeschool. Which was great for us because it's like we don't know what we're doing. Lord, you gotta teach these kids. That's the aspect of it. But it's true. The most important thing is to lead your children to the Lord, to help them know how to read and study and partake of God's word. It's been said there are no grandchildren in heaven. There are sons and daughters of God. Every person needs to come to faith in the Lord and have their own relationship with the Lord. And when they do, and they seek Him and they Grow in him, the Lord will reveal more and more, will grow in them. He will conform us into his image. He will give us the mind of Christ. The thing is, you gotta come to him in faith. When he reveals himself to you, when he invites you to come in, that's the time where we say, Yes, I surrender. Or, as Jesus is implying here, most will say, No, I uh I I've got this, I'll go my own way and do my own thing. So Jesus comes back and he says, Not that anyone has seen the father except he who is from God, he has seen the father. Your children will be taught by God, he'll they'll be taught by the Father, even though they'll never see the Father face to face in this lifetime. But I have, because I come from the Father. The Father and I are one. I am telling these things not to brag, I'm telling these things because I'm I'm revealing them to you for your good. If you knew the father, he said this earlier, if you knew the father, you would know me. But because you're rejecting me, you don't really know the father. Even though you you're greatly versed in the law and you know the Bible, but you're missing something here. You don't have that connection. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Again, he is a self-existing one. He doesn't receive life from anyone because he is the giver of life. Jesus is the creator, he is the word of God, and he's become flesh and blood like mankind in order to become the savior of mankind.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

That's Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're currently going through the book of John. We're so glad you've been with us, and we know there's so much to get out of this gospel book. One of the most powerful moments is in a well-known passage in John chapter 3. Jesus is meeting with Nicodemus and explaining what it means to be born again, not physically, but spiritually. As you might have memorized, Jesus speaks this to Nicodemus, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What a promise from God! It sounds so easy, right? But sometimes the pressures of life can push you further away from wanting a relationship with God. Let me tell you, the most important decision you'll ever make is being in right relationship with God. He wants you with him for eternity. So don't be waiting around for the right moment. The best time to choose Jesus is now. If you'd like to learn more about what all of this means, head over to themountaincross.com and click on How to Know God. The Mountain Cross is a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We meet on Sundays at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville. We look forward to worshiping with you. Well, that's all for today, but come on up to the mountain with us again as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.