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Viewpoint from Pastor Mark Borrett 12/03/2021
 Pastor Mark Borrett
Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft churches
South England Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
The sixth chapter of the Gospel of John has it all. It starts with John’s account of Jesus’ feeding the five thousand, which is followed by Jesus walking on water and a rather wet Peter. It then records Jesus teaching the next day in Capernaum. He does not hold back and there are many challenging words that day in His teaching. So much so that we read in John 6:60 “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?””, which is followed by the very sad summary by John in John 6:66 “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more”!
 Jesus then asks a heart wrenching question in John 6:67 to the 12 disciples, “Do you also want to go away?”. In the space of one chapter in John’s Gospel, Jesus had gone from over 5000 following and listening to His words, to 12 disciples, because He spoke what was true, not what was popular. Today we measure success by growing numbers, yet here we see Jesus speaking the truth and loosing disciples. Truth is truth, even in a world where many think truth is relative to me and my opinions. Yet some of us believe that the Bible contains absolute truth for every one of us, not relative truth which we can just pick and choose. We cannot just focus on the words of Jesus we like and quickly pass by harder sayings
 The Apostle’s Peter answer to Jesus heart wrenching question is as relevant today, as it was when He spoke up for the 12 disciples. Peter’s answer is recorded in all the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but John gives us the most personal and comprehensive reading. It says in John 6:68-69, “But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Surely this is the very heart of coming to Jesus and being His disciple. It can take time, it took Peter time. But Peter came to believe, to know and to trust Jesus for the rest of His life till his martyrdom in Rome under the Emperor Nero
also published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury
photo is of Mark and his wife, Norma; courtesy of Michael Walker
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