April 17, 2023
Hostile to the Gospel
“Therefore, the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, I have come down out of heaven?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.’” John 6:41-44 (NASB)
Today, we live in an increasingly hostile environment against the Christian church. We see changes every year in society. Sadly, these attacks against the church increase every year. Consider this, “At least 420 acts of hostility against churches occurred in the United States over the past five years, while 57 of those hostile acts between January and September 2022 have been related to abortion, an analysis suggests. The new report by the Family Research Council, a Christian conservative activist organization based in Washington, analyzes publicly available data between January 2018 and September 2022 to document acts of hostility targeted at 397 individual churches across 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. Those acts include vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, and bomb threats.”[1] One thing is clear though. This is not a first for the church. Attacks started before the church was even founded.
In John’s gospel, when the word “Jews” is mentioned, there is hostility toward Christ. This hostility has a history dating to the Old Testament. In Exodus 16:2, 8-9, we see the same type of attitude against God before and after the manna was given. “But the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness (16:2).” “And Moses said, ‘This will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the Lord hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord.’ Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, Come forward before the Lord, for He has heard your grumblings. (16:8-9).’” “Grumbling,” or gogguzō; by the Jews is defined as mutterings or whispers of displeasure against God.[2] This anger by the Jews was seated in the statement by Jesus, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” Two statements are seen in this sentence which inflamed them. First, Jesus said, “He was the bread.” Secondly, He “came down out of heaven.” When they viewed Jesus, they knew the Galilean and were aware of His hometown, nothing good came from there! In their unbelief, God hardened their hearts to the truth. It still exists today. During the Tribulation period the Jews will turn to Messiah and receive Him. But for now, the hostility continued to increase against Jesus and His Message.
Today there are still many who are hostile to the call of God. They view God as One who wants to rule over them like a slave. They desire a life for themselves. Many have said to me “I’ll do it when I am ready.” We can’t. Faith is a gift of God. Luther said: “This drawing is not like that of the executioner, who draws the thief up the ladder to the gallows; but it is a gracious allurement, such as that of the man whom everybody loves, and to whom everybody willingly goes.”[3] God is calling people every day to salvation. Will you be there on the last day?
[1] https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-400-attacks-on-us-churches-since-2018-analysis-finds.html.
[2] (John MacArthur, 2006).
[3] Marvin Richardson Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887), 151–152.