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LEARN & GROW
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Week of October 18, 2009
KEY VERSE
"Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.'" (John 6:68-69 / ESV)
CENTRAL TRUTH
The events in John's gospel all point to the divinity of Christ, and Jesus gives specific invitations to believe; we must choose to receive or decline.
DEVOTION
RSVP. In our very casual and "careless" society, proper invitations are rare, and any modern hostess can tell you that proper responses are more rare. Respondez, s'il vous plait, might as well mean, respondez, whatever. The whatever response may cause a host or hostess some inconvenience, and may possibly embarrass a negligent guest, but...oh well, no big deal. While bad manners (a lack of love in the "little things") reveal a careless attitude or lack of upbringing, ignoring the Lord's invitations ultimately lead to eternal death-a very big deal!
Our reading this week takes us from Jesus' most famous invitation, the one to Nicodemus found in John 3:16, to His impassioned feast-day plea of John 7:37: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." The invitations of Jesus are never merely social or polite. A whatever response to Jesus' invitations are of far greater consequence than are bad manners. Whatever isn't likely the last word from the lips of the dying.
In the early chapters of John, Jesus' disciples witness miracles, observe signs of Jesus' divinity, and hear confirming truth from His lips. In John 4:39, they hear words of the astonished woman Jesus met at the Samarian well, "He told me all that I ever did." Encounter after encounter, the twelve disciples gain conviction about Jesus' identity until they, too, reach the moment of decision. It was still early in their journey of faith, and times of hard testing had not yet come, but as other more casual (and careless) followers chose to walk away from the clear invitations of Jesus, Peter, speaking for the other eleven, gives their RSVP, "Lord, to whom [else] shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:68-69) Peter's response is proper, and the consequences are eternal.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
NOTES
- Which personal encounter in these chapters impacts you most?
- What are the four special events in chapters 4-6 that show Jesus as the Son of God?
- How do God's sovereignty and man's responsibility intersect in John 6:37-40?
- Is it possible to give a whatever response to the invitation of Jesus?
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