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Well, good morning. We're currently in a series, as you all know, that I'm calling Behold the Lamb of God, gazing at the beauty of Jesus through the Gospel of John. And it's the idea that as we gaze at the beauty of Jesus, right? Beauty stirs our heart with love and affection and satisfaction when we see it. And so as we gaze and know the beauty of Jesus, our heart is moved to a posture of worship. Why? Because we see true beauty. And this week we're just talking about that Jesus is the mystery revealed or the revealed mystery. Mystery is something that is real and true, right? When we read a murder mystery, right? It's a mystery because there's a body, right? We just don't know how they ended up there, but not fully understood or explained. It's requiring our discovery. There's not instant clarity or a ready explanation. It's a truth that's requiring discovery. Think about you know the mystery, I find it funny, of falling in love. I've always found it fascinating that as long as people have studied human interaction, there's been this obsession trying to understand how people fall in love, right? It's a mystery. Even in sociologists continue to love studying this today. There's tons of research. Now they can kind of understand, okay, in the brain, there's dopamine, there's serotonin, there's oxycontin, but we have no idea why things happen, when they happen. I mean, why one person may fall in love, another person may not, and why those things happen. It's it's it's truly a mystery. Um, it's something that we feel is real. Sociologists think it's real, they're just not entirely sure why it happens or how it happens. Paul talks about the mystery of Christ in Colossians as one of my favorite verses. I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face. It's a weird verse to be a favorite verse. Why do I love it? Because he's clearly struggling, he's experiencing an inner conflict with people he's never met. And so, how is he struggling? He's clearly struggling in prayer. And he tells us, My goal in prayer is that you may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that you will have full riches of complete understanding. So there's something about being encouraged in heart, united in love that provides the context that we can have this richness of understanding. And what is it at? That they may know the mystery of God. The mystery of God, right? It's a truth that needs to be revealed. And he even tells us what it is namely, Christ. He's writing to believers, praying earnestly, wrestling that they would know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in John Calvin's Institute, right? He's got a lot of books. We sometimes think they are, right? Or in Quinas's Summa Theology, we think, oh, there's lots of treasure in these books. Paul is making it clear. No, in Christ, in Christ, they're hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Kierkegaard, I'm gonna like this quote from him. He describes that life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. Um, in that Christ can't be figured out or calculated. We don't, it's not like a math equation that we can sit from a distance and try to understand how this works. No, we're experiencing Christ in the day-to-day going forward, and in that experience, living forward in the moment, that's where the mystery of Christ is revealed. The mystery of Christ is revealed. Um, so we'll focus on that today, the mystery revealed in John chapter six. If you want to turn in your Bibles, I will pray for us and then we will get started. And there are new Bibles, thanks to Barry in the pews underneath you. And so feel free to get a Bible and I'll pray for us. But Lord Jesus, um, we just thank you, God, that you are the mystery revealed, that Lord, you are true and requiring discovery of some sort in on our part. And so, Lord, we just um thank thank you thank you for that. And Lord, join in Paul's prayer um in earnest, Lord, that we are inwardly struggling, we are working, laboring, that we would know. Just the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So today we're talking the mystery revealed, and I'm gonna go through three questions. One, if Christ is this mystery that needs to be revealed, there's a question that kind of prompts up of why do people reject God? Or why is the mystery of Christ not revealed to them? Why is the mystery of Christ not revealed to them? The second question I'll go through, I'm kind of similar to that, is then how do we know God? Or how is the mystery of Christ revealed to us? And the third question I'll go through is what does that mean for us? Starting with, why do people reject God? It that in itself is a mystery, right? We all know people that are currently rejecting God. And I think from our passage in John, we will see some answers. Um, starting in verse 5, it says, When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, Well, where should we buy bread for these people to eat? He asked this only to test them, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. And Philip answered him, I mean, it would take more than a half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each of us to have a bite, even. Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. Well, here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will that go among us? Jesus said, Have the people sit down. There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down, about five thousand men were there, and Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted, and he did the same with the fish, picking up in fourteen. After the people saw the sign that Jesus performed, they began to sit, began to say, Surely this is the prophet who is to come into the world. Jesus, knowing that they then intended to come and make him king by force, he withdrew again to a mountain by himself. So back to that question, why do people reject God? I think one of the reasons is they don't realize their real problem. They don't realize their real problem. We generally categorize our problems twofold. Either we have felt needs or the problems are external. Their problems are external. Here in this situation, there is a felt need, right? These people were coming to Jesus hungry. He knew that. He was acknowledging their felt need and he satisfied their felt need. Upon satisfying their felt need, what do they try to do? They tried to make him king. Why? Because they they saw their problem as a political one. It was a problem of earthly power. Today we might see our problem in the world outside of our personal felt needs as the Democrats. We talked about it this morning, or maybe even as Trump, or the injustices of earth or others' greed or laziness. And we currently are in this era of protesting everything. And now everyone has all kinds of problems that they can identify in the world out there. But in doing so, we often miss our primary problem. And in a lot of ways, we'll see later in the passage, the people in John also were missing the main problem. Yes, they had a felt need. Yes, they saw an external need, and that the fact that the Romans were governing them, they didn't like the current structure of their governing. But it's much harder to realize or accept that there are problems within us or in our own actions. People in John didn't realize their real problem. Francis Schaefer, who is like a philosopher, established something called Lebris in Switzerland. He described it like this if I only had one hour to spend with the man, I would spend the first 45 minutes trying to convince him that he is sick, that he actually has a problem, that there is something that he needs healing from. And then I would spend the last 15 minutes trying to persuade him that Jesus Christ can in fact save him, similar today. People know they have felt needs, they might have external problems, but it's hard, he's saying, for the first 45 minutes, where we realize we have an internal sickness that we need healing from. Similarly, kind of a sub point to that. Sometimes we don't realize their problem either. There's a guy by the name of Ray Comfort who wrote a book called Hell's Best Kept Secret. And he spent basically the last 50 years giving the same message over and over again at conferences, at churches around the world. He gives one message, and it's basically hell's best kept secret. And it's this idea that we don't realize what our actual problem is, both in the church as well as outside the church. And why is it hell's best kept secret? Because he's convinced that hell's is on a mission to just keep us from knowing what our actual problem is. We want to know our problem is our felt meets. Our problem might be external, but some reality that we have this sin problem that has great consequence. Hell wants us to forget about all that part, um, including us realizing what the problem is with friends, neighbors, those who are not coming back into the into Jesus. People have a problem, a major sickness, that sickness is sin, and there is no sin that that is not a major problem. In Romans, Paul writes it like this I have not, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I didn't I would not have known what coveting was if the law had not said, You shall not covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covenanting. What a wretched man that I am. Who will rescue this body that is subject to death? Right? He is describing that it is the law in itself that that that reveals to us what our major problem is. The law reveals to us our major problem that it's actually inward. It's not external, outside. It's not just our felt needs. We have an inward sin problem that Ray Comfort is convinced that Satan is on a mission just to convince the world and the church of the or hide this secret that we have this sin problem that has great consequence. We need the law to reveal what the the our sin actually is. So one of the reasons why people don't re or people do reject God, or the people in the in Jesus' day, you'll we'll see later in John, why they didn't understand his message, they didn't get the real problem. They knew they had a felt need, they knew there was external problems of the Romans, but they didn't internally really appreciate their own sin and the consequence of it. Secondly, they seek temporary solutions. They seek temporary solutions. It continues in verse 26. Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I perform, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. He says, Do not work for food that spoils. Of this food, the food that actually spoiled. Um, and we see throughout the New Testament until today, actually, that the problem isn't acknowledging and meeting felt needs because Jesus meets our felt needs. The problem is when that is all that we are seeking. These people were only seeking the food that spoils their felt need. Um he encourages them. But but but work for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. We learned from last week that eternal life is what? Does anybody remember? It says it in John. No, it's to know God. This is eternal life, that they will know the Father and the Son whom he sent. And we're the eternal life is knowing God. He's telling us, yes, there's a felt need, but it's it's just a temporary solution. There is an eternal life of knowing God that that you should seek or work for. 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 at the last day. Similarly, kind of as a sub point on that. Sometimes we also seek temporary solutions. We can do the same thing inside the church, seeking these temporary solutions of either empty glory or dissolving satisfaction, losing sight of the true eternal treasure of eternal life, of knowing the Father, knowing the Father in Christ. Sometimes this can come in the form of what they've called prosperity gospel, which is that God gives us physical health or financial wealth or general success in this current life, or there's kind of an offshoot of that of a gospel of human flourishing. And it's that our that everything in life is unto our personal happiness in this earthly kingdom, and God exists to help us achieve it. But both are distracting us from the true treasure of gaining Christ. And it's natural, right? We're wanting to to satisfy our natural desires, but Jesus is saying, don't just work for the food that perishes. No, seek the eternal life of knowing God. Thirdly, they they were seeking the wrong sign. So why were people rejecting God? They were seeking the wrong sign. Continuing verse 30. He says, So they asked him, What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe it? What will you do? Right? He had just turned the these loaves and fed five thousand people, and then they're coming to him and saying, Hey, well, give us a sign like Moses, um, so then that we may believe you, what will you do so that we can know? In Matthew, Jesus says, when in a similar situation, Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. He answered, A wicked and adulterous generations asked for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He's saying, This is the sign that is given. Found it fascinating that it's still probably the most convincing apologetic today. Um, there's two guys that wrote similar books in recent years, Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel, and they started from a similar starting point. Josh McDowell was just very anti-Christian, very intellectual, and he set out, he was going to prove for once and for all how ridiculous Christianity was. He just was so fed up with it. He was an agnostic, he thought there was probably no God. Um he set out on this journey of studying everything he could to know about Christianity. And the one thing that absolutely he could not get beyond was the resurrection. And that this group of people, that there was a sizable number of followers, that they they continued to share this story. The whole religion essentially of Jesus is built on this idea of the resurrection. And he came convinced that it made absolutely no sense that that any group of people was smart enough and willing enough to lie long enough to convince a people that that this Jesus resurrected. So he became convinced historically, these people must have seen a risen king. They must have seen a resurrected Jesus. And as a result of that, he he's like, well, this whole thing must be true. Lee Strobel did almost the exact same thing. His wife became a Christian. He was an atheist, he was an investigative reporter, and he decided, well, his wife's now a Christian, this is terrible. I'm gonna do the research and prove to her like why this is such nonsense, right? He started in the journal journey, similar to Josh McDowell, they didn't know each other, and he got stuck in the same thing. All these people, the whole thing is built on this premise that their Lord resurrected, and they seemed to genuinely believe it, and there's a whole bunch of them that believed it, and it made no sense to him that that many people could have promoted a lie. So he was like, Well, they must have seen a risen Lord of what they was previously their teacher, and he came to the same place of like, okay, well, if they saw the resurrected, this Jesus resurrected, the whole thing must be true. Um, he's written a ton of books now just on the case for Christ and the case for other things now. A similar journey, the point in that is these people were seeking a sign. Jesus gives us a sign in his resurrection is still one of the most convincing apologetics today. Sometimes, though, kind of as a sub point to that, we also can seek the wrong sign. I think it's easy in my life, but I think in a lot of people's lives, that our definitions of God's favor or love can merely be a matter of meeting our felt needs or solving our external problems, right? We are the sign of his love is based on our experience in felt needs or external problems, not in who we know him to be and who he says he is. And the problem with it all is that this life leads to of not believing Jesus, becomes fickle and not based in faith. Verse 53 Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my love, blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. That is a bizarre statement. His disciples even say it. On hearing this, many of his disciples said, This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Verse 66, from this time many of his disciples turned back and they no longer followed him. Why? Because they were merely following him, because he met their felt need for a moment, or maybe because he was interesting, but they never actually believed in him. And he says in the passage, he knew that they did not believe in him, they didn't keep believing in him. Same is true, I think, for many today. So the question then rises if if this is how like roadblocks for how people are not following God or not not re or they're rejecting God today, then how do we actually know God? And verse 28, kind of in between the passages that I read, he shares. Then they asked him, What must we do? What m what must we do to do the work God requires? Jesus flips it and he answered, The work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent. They were asking what works they can do that God is requiring. Jesus says, Well, it's actually the work of God for you to believe in the one who he has sent is what he requires. The tense of the Greek for the word believe is not a one time event, but it's an ongoing lifetime of believing, and it is a work of God. In verse 35, he kind of expands on this that whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever Believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. He's saying the Father will bring people to him, and He and they will come. Jesus is the revealed mystery. It is the work of God, not our work, that we can continue this life in believing. It is the work of God that the mystery of Christ is revealed. We can't calculate it or figure it out or solve it in our own, right? It is just a gift of faith. So that then leaves us. Well, then how do what can we do? What can we do to actually know God? I think there's a part of it back in that verse in Colossians chapter 2, where he's saying, I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those that lay it as sea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. And this struggle is his hunger, it's an inner struggle of prayer. So, and his goal in prayer is that this posture of unified love so that they can understand the mystery of God in whom is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So, one thing is in this word, there's kind of this hunger of prayer. There's a hunger of prayer. And so the question is, are you hungry for God? We need God Himself to reveal the mystery of Christ. We need God Himself to reveal the mystery of Christ. The question then is what can we do? The only posture we can bring is hunger and prayer. Bill Bright talks about fasting as the most powerful spiritual discipline of all the Christian disciplines. And through fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit can transform your life because fasting is letting go of a felt need to stir a hunger for the eternal things of God. Are we hungry for God, not just for the things from God, but for God Himself? I started with that hope that we would be a people of worship. And we're currently going through this series of beholding the Lamb, right? We're beholding the King. We're beholding Jesus. In this revealed mystery, there is this reality that we need God Himself to reveal Christ. We need God Himself to reveal Christ. It is an it is a gift of faith. We can't figure it out, we can't calculate it. So what can we do in this process? We can be hungry for God, hungry in prayer. We can hunger with Paul in his prayer that the mysteries of God, namely Christ, would be revealed in whom is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So that's really just my hope, my encouragement for us as a congregation. Bill Bright talked wrote lots about fasting. Um and he felt like there's something about fasting where it's us letting go, again, of our felt needs, which is where we're mostly trying to interact with God. We're interacting with God on felt needs, but we're gonna willingly let go of a felt need that is a real need. We need to eat to sustain our life, to live, right? We're gonna willingly let go of that so that so that our hunger for the things of God can put us in a posture or a place where God can reveal Himself. And so that's kind of the hope, the heart that through the rest of the series. We can't, Jesus is not somebody that we can just calculate to understand, right? We can't just read all of the systematic theology and memorize all the books, right? We need him to reveal himself. What is our posture that that allows the faith of God to be revealed from us? It is a hunger in prayer. Fasting is not only a spawning, spontaneous effect of superior satisfaction in God, it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away. So the question is do you hunger for God? Not just the things from God, but for God Himself. And as a community, if we are to be a people of worship, um, it it it it this the seed bed of it, I really convinced, is a hunger for God, that hunger in prayer. We're wanting to know God, we're wanting to see the beauty of Jesus, not just in his felt needs, right? We all have felt needs and Jesus meets them, but no, in the eternal life of what is that? Knowing God. So my encouragement for us is just that you would consider how fasting can be just a part of your your routine, either whether it's from food or other things. But why will I encourage that? Because again, the hunger for God, of the for the things of God, we're hungering to know God, just stirring that that that hunger in prayer through fasting is is really where worship in a community is is birthed. Why? Because that is where the mystery of Christ is revealed. I find it fascinating in that Colossians verse, he's writing to Christians, and he's praying so earn and earnestly, he's never seen them that the mystery of Christ, mystery of God would be revealed, namely Christ. They already knew Christ. And I'm like, well, how he was writing to a church, he wasn't writing to non-Christians, but he's praying earnestly. I'm praying earnestly that the mystery of God would be revealed to in the fullness of understanding, so and and it's in Christ. And I think the same for us is true. There's we're wanting to know Christ. And what is the the seed bed for that revelation of Christ, revealing of the mystery of Christ? It is the hunger and prayer, and because because ultimately it's only God who brings the faith, right? Jesus telling us that that um it is the work of God, it is not our work. And so that's just my hope, my heart, my prayer, and my encouragement that we as a community hunger for God and consider um a place of fasting in your month or rhythm of life, um, that we can just develop that desire for God, not just for the things from Him. With that, I will pray and then we'll do communion. But Lord Jesus, we do just thank you, God. Lord, you Lord, stir just our hunger and prayer, Lord, and that, Lord, we can come just dependent and needy, Lord, that wanting and yearning, Lord, to have the mystery of Christ revealed, Lord, in Him, we know, we know it's true that in you, Lord, not in just all these books or sermons or anything else, but in you is the the treasures hidden of all wisdom and knowledge. And so, Jesus, just stir in us just that hunger for you, hunger for the things of God that, Lord, we would be a people passionate, just to see you, to know you, to love you, to worship you, and that you would just reveal yourself. Lord, you'd grant us just the understanding, the miss of the revealing of who you are, Lord, and the beauty of Christ. And Lord, just we thank you, Lord, and thank you that you do, Lord, meet our felt needs and Lord that you call us, Lord, to to long for the eternal needs. Lord, we just thank you, Lord. Amen.