“Lord, to whom shall we go?”

“Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”(John 6:68)

Victory Presbyterian Church is the Lord’s church and the Lord is building His church.  This is what He promised to us in Matthew 16:18 – “… I will build my church ….”  Our church mission statement is “Build His Church, Build His Kingdom!”  And our church vision is “Raise the Leaders!”  It is our hope and prayer that the Lord to raise the Christ-centered visionary leaders and send them into this world to expand the kingdom of God.  When I am praying for our church, I am holding onto the promise word of God Matthew 16:18.  Also, I pray that the Lord enable all of our church members to confess like apostle Peter did.  When Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say I am?”(v.15), Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”(v.16).  And this wasn’t revealed to him by man but by God the Father in heaven(v.17).  So when I pray for our church members, I pray that heavenly Father God reveals who Jesus is to all of us so that we may confess like Peter did – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  And I hope and pray that all of can live according to the confession that we made.  I also pray that the Lord build our church on the rock so that it may stand firm without wavering even there are temptations are hardships.  The reason I pray like this is because Jesus said to Peter “… you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church …”(v.18).  Lastly but not least, I pray that the Lord to build our church so that the gates of Hades will not overcome it(v.18).  I hope and pray that all of us may fight the good fight against ourselves, this world, sins, Satan and the death and be victorious.

When we look at the context of today’s passage John 6:68, after Jesus did two fish and 5 barley loaves(vv.1-15), he told the crowd that he is the bread of life (v.35).  And Jesus told them “he who feeds on this bread will live forever”(v.58).  On hearing this, many of Jesus’ disciples said, “This is a hard teaching.  Who can accept it?”(v.60).  From that time on many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus (v.66).  So Jesus asked his 12 disciples “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (v.67).  This is what Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life”(v.68).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are you thinking about leaving this church?  If so, why?  Or if you want to stay in this church, may I ask you why you still want to stay in this church?  Our church doesn’t have really well set up elementary department, youth and college and young adult group as well.  We don’t have good program too.  Also, our church doesn’t have good programs and events for elderly people.  In a word, there is nothing in our church that will attract other people so that they may be willing to come and visit our church.  One thing that maybe different than other churches is that our church also has Hispanic Ministry.  What I am trying to say is that there are many reasons that people can leave this church.

Few weeks ago during the KM worship, when elder Peter Yoon was praying for worship he kind of quoted John 6:68 – “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  When I was listening to his prayer, I thought that this is it.  One of the clear evidence that the Lord is building Victory church is that there is the Word of God in this church.  Well, maybe some may think that’s not a big deal.  All churches have the Word of God.  But I think this may not be true.  Not every church has the Word of God.  I mean not all the church preaches the Word of God and people want to hear it.  Rather, some churches many preach a different gospel and different words instead of the true gospel and the Word of God.  Also, I am sure that not all the church members hear and accept the word of God as it actually is, the word of God but as the word of men(1 Thess. 2:13).  Rather, they do not put up with sound doctrine but suit their own desires and hear what their itching ears wat to hear (2 Tim4:3).

What must we do?  We must know that the Lord has the words of eternal life (Jn.6:68).  We must know that Jesus is the bread of life and the Word of eternal life (v.68).  So first, we must believe that Jesus is our eternal life.  And he who believes in Him has eternal life (vv.40, 47).  I hope and pray that all of our church members believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior so that everyone has eternal life (v.54).  Let us remember that the work of God is to believe in Jesus (v.29).  So first thing we must do is to believe in Jesus Christ.  I hope and pray that all of our church members believe in Jesus and have eternal life (vv.35, 51).

Believing in Jesus who has the words of eternal life,

James Kim