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Four Responses to Jesus’ Teaching, The Dialogue Begins: Seeking Jesus (John 6:26-40), Observations on the Seekers, The Demand for Signs, Jesus as the True Bread, Murmuring: Complaining About Jesus (John 6:41-51), How Sinners Come to God, Jesus as the Living Bread, The Manna as a Picture of Christ, Quarreling: Arguing with Jesus (John 6:52-59), Misunderstanding Spiritual Truth, Not About the Lord’s Supper, Forsaking: Abandoning Jesus (John 6:60-71), Hard to Accept, Not Understand....
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Four Responses to Jesus’ Teaching, The Dialogue Begins: Seeking Jesus (John 6:26-40), Observations on the Seekers, The Demand for Signs, Jesus as the True Bread, Murmuring: Complaining About Jesus (John 6:41-51), How Sinners Come to God, Jesus as the Living Bread, The Manna as a Picture of Christ, Quarreling: Arguing with Jesus (John 6:52-59), Misunderstanding Spiritual Truth, Not About the Lord’s Supper, Forsaking: Abandoning Jesus (John 6:60-71), Hard to Accept, Not Understand....
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In this transcription, Alton discusses the miracle of Jesus feeding the multitudes with a small amount of food. He emphasizes that the purpose of this miracle was to set the stage for a sermon on the bread of life. Alton also discusses the different responses people had to Jesus, including seeking him, murmuring, quarreling, and ultimately forsaking him. He explains that Jesus wanted to teach the people about the true bread from heaven, which is the Word of God. Jesus emphasizes that believing in him and partaking in the spiritual food he offers is essential for eternal life. The crowd, however, was more interested in physical food and signs from Jesus. Alton concludes by highlighting the importance of seeking the truth and not being deceived by signs alone. Well, the last time we were together, Alton led us through the study of the early part of Chapter 6, in which we basically talked about the miracle, or the sign, as John would call it, of being able to feed those multitudes of people with such a small amount of food to start with, a boy's lunch. And it was not only remarkable to them, but it's still remarkable to us to observe what the Lord was capable of doing, and how many people were helped, and what the after effect of all of that was. Of course, I do believe that the reason that Jesus performed that sign was not just because he was concerned about people's stomachs and wanted to alleviate their hunger, but he wanted this to serve as the backdrop for a sermon to get in mind. He had a lesson that he wanted to teach, and the purpose of the sign was that he might preach this sermon on the bread of life, which we're going to get into today. You'll remember that in the early chapter of John 1, verse 17, it said that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and there's no doubt that in his mercy, Jesus fed those hungry people. But in truth, he gave them the Word of God. And that was what his real interest was, and what his continuing and eternal interest was, that these people know about the Word, that they know about the bread of life. They wanted the food, but some of them did not want the truth, and in the end, most of them abandoned Jesus and refused to walk with him. And I'm aware today that as I read this text, that Jesus lost the crowd with one sermon. So all it took was one sermon that they didn't like, and they decided to leave him, to walk away. And we'll see that as we go through this text today. The Lord's Sermon probably began in the out-of-doors, with multitudes of people listening to it. As we move through this text, we're going to find, however, in verse 59, that it's in the synagogue that Jesus does some of this teaching, and it, of course, would have been impossible for a huge multitude to participate in that synagogue service, though the overflow could likely remain outside and hear what was being said. I think we have two different venues as we look at this lesson today, one in the out-of-doors where multitudes could assemble, not where they were being fed, actually, and then it was moved into the synagogue later on. The Sermon on the Bread of Life is actually a dialogue, it's actually a conversation between Jesus and the people, especially the religious leaders among the people, sometimes just simply referred to as the Jews. I think you've probably picked up on this, but when John writes his Gospel, occasionally he will describe a group as the Jews, and when he says the Jews, I think he's more often referring to the leadership of the Jews than he is the rank-and-file Jew who just is working hard for a living and trying to rear his family and listening to what Jesus has to say and probably attends the synagogue on the Sabbath, but is not someone in a position of great influence or leadership in the nation. But at any rate, as I go through this text, I see four responses being made to Jesus, and we will highlight each of these things as we go through this text, but there are people seeking him, wanting to know what he has to say, then there are people that begin to murmur and make some complaint about what is happening. There are others who quarrel and argue with Jesus. They really just like the argument, it seems to me, rather than trying to be influenced by the truth that Jesus is teaching them. And then ultimately today, we will see a large group of people forsake Jesus, and so these represent, it seems to me, four responses, four different ways that people react to what Jesus has been teaching them. So as we go through this text, let's sort of take a look at that, and we'll begin here at verse 26, where Jesus answers some questions that have been raised about what has just transpired with the eating of that food that was provided, and his swift movement across the Sea of Galilee. Everybody was just intrigued that Jesus could be across the sea so quickly. The disciples were intrigued by it, and everybody else that knew Jesus' movements were as well. So Jesus spoke to some of their concerns, and he said, Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him. Then they said to him, Well, what shall we do, that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him, whom he sent. For they said to him, What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, and he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. I think these disciples, of course, were very impressed that so many people had stayed through a storm to actually seek Jesus, but Jesus was not impressed with this crowd. Now, it shows you the difference in perspective. Jesus could see through this crowd. He was aware that their motives were not always pure. He was aware that many of those people were there only because they had eaten the bread that he had provided, and that was why they were continuing with him. They were hoping that there would be more opportunities for them to receive nourishment, food, physical food, and so they were attracted to the miracles. They were attracted to the sign which Jesus had performed, and as long as they were interested in his miracles, there's a possibility that they might come to believe in him. There is a possibility that they might be saved by him, because that's where Nicodemus started, if you recall, in John chapter 3. He just happened to learn a lesson that perhaps these people are slow to learn. But these people have an interest in Jesus that's on a lower level, degenerated to food, not spiritual food, but the physical food. And Jesus pointed out in this text we just read that there are two kinds of food, food for the body that's necessary, of course, but the most important, the food for the inner man, for the spirit, which is absolutely essential for everlasting life, is the word of God, the bread that is going to be shared with them through the taught word. What the people needed was not food. They needed life, and life is a gift. Food sustains life, but Jesus came to give eternal life, and that comes not from eating bread that someone has baked in an oven. It comes from imbibing the spirit and the word that that spirit gave, and as a result of this, eternal life can be a possibility. I think of Isaiah's question in Isaiah 55 and verse 2, when he said, Why do you spend money for what is not bread? Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? We all know that in just a few hours of being fed by Jesus, these people would be hungry once more, that the length of time between meals would not really be all that long, but Jesus was trying to teach them something that would last forever, and yet their interest was not there yet. The crowd began by seeking Jesus, but then they wanted signs from him. They were seeking more extraordinary things that he might do by which they would be impressed. You remember Paul saying to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 1.22 that the Jews require a sign, and in fact, the rabbis had thought that when Messiah came, he would duplicate the miracle of the manna. You remember the manna that was sent to the Israelites in Exodus chapter 16? If Jesus was truly sent by God, then let him prove it by causing manna to fall from heaven, and they wanted to see that, and they wanted to believe, only because they might get more food for their bellies if they were believers in this Messiah, so to speak. But faith that is based on signs alone, faith that is not based on the truth of the Word can lead a person astray, and here's why. Even Satan is able to perform lying wonders, 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 8 through 10 say, and so people can be deceived into thinking that a lying wonder from Satan is some great thing, and so when we recognize that that's what the mood of these people are, they're just really looking for, well, maybe entertainment, maybe just something extraordinary that keeps them hanging on, waiting for more food that will benefit their physical lives. And so in his reply to them, it seems to me that Jesus was trying to deepen their understanding of the truth. You know, it was God who sent the manna. The people said there that it was Moses who sent the manna, but Moses didn't send the manna. He wasn't the source of the manna that the children of Israel ate in the wilderness, not at all. In fact, he said Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, and they've got to take their eyes off of Moses and focus them on God. God gave the manna in the past. That was what had happened hundreds of years before this event, but the Father is now giving the true bread in the person of Jesus himself. That past event of the manna is over, it's finished, but there is a present spiritual experience that these people are not willing to see. They are not willing to grasp that Jesus is now the true bread that has come down from heaven. In fact, Jesus clearly identified himself as the true living bread that came down from heaven. He did not speak in riddles, he did not pull any punches, as we might say, he did not disguise at all what he was teaching them. He said, I am the bread, I am the bread that came down from heaven. He came not only for Israel as a nation, he came for every nation, he came for the whole world, he came not just to sustain life, he came to give life. I don't know if you've counted or not, but seven times in this sermon, our Lord referred to his having come down from heaven, and this will get him into great trouble with the religious leaders of his day, John 6, 33 and 38, John 6, 41 and 42, John 50 to 51, and John 6, 58. These are all statements in which Jesus is declaring himself to be God. He came from heaven. Well, they're scratching their heads when it says that I came from heaven, because they all knew who he belonged to, they were all aware of his origins, or at least they thought they were, and he'll get into that in just a little bit. But Jesus is warning these people to believe in him and to recognize the difference between the true bread and the temporary bread. Verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Isn't this the same thing that Jesus taught the woman at the well back in the fourth chapter? And wasn't her response initially a little bit the same as the response of these folks here who were thinking only of where their next meal might come from? The woman in John 4 was thinking of how she might get out of having to come and draw water every day, maybe twice a day, maybe three times a day, I'm not quite sure how often she had to come to that well to get the water that was needed in her household. But she wanted to be free of that duty if she could be, and so when Jesus spoke of living water she immediately misunderstood what Jesus said, but then eventually I think she picks up on that. And so in this text, as we've read it together, Jesus is telling us that these people have seen him and yet they do not believe. The signs are not having the effect on them they should have had on them. They were still thinking only about how beneficial it would be to have someone preparing your meal for you every day. Someone feeding you. Yes, we'll go sit and listen and give him a hearing as long as he keeps us fed. And all of us have probably run into people who had ulterior motives when it came to studying Scripture with us. They did it for various reasons, maybe in the end they might have learned something, but sometimes people don't come for the best of reasons to begin with. And Jesus is speaking about something that has to do with their eternity, with their everlasting life, as opposed to their daily struggle to keep food on the table. Isn't it true that sometimes that's where everybody's attention is, even in our generation? That the reason we cannot interest people sometimes in the bread that does not perish is because they're spending so much time trying to put together the bread that will sustain them today without any thought whatsoever about eternity. And this seems to be a human problem, doesn't it? It was a problem Jesus experienced himself. I guess I should take away from this that I shouldn't be so discouraged when it seems I can't get the result of getting people to study with me who are truly interested in obeying the gospel. Jesus had the same experience and he recognizes that there's something greater to be had that many of these people just certainly were not ready, not ready at all to be able to partake of. Well, look at verse 41 in the yellow there. The Jews then began to complain about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Now, when they're thinking about Jesus talking about who he is, giving his self-identity, they're thinking to themselves, well, we know who this man is. He doesn't have to tell us about his origin. He doesn't have to tell us about who his people are, because they said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I've come down from heaven? Now, they don't believe, they don't see, they're only thinking about his physical lineage, just like they're thinking about the physical food that he is providing them without giving any thought to the eternal application of what Jesus is saying. They're not thinking of Jesus as having a heavenly origin. They're only thinking about his family tree, particularly those that they know personally in that family tree. This disturbed these folks, because they recognized he's really making a claim of being God. To say that he came down from heaven is a claim of deity. This is what they're most disturbed with. This is what bothers them the greatest. They thought they knew Jesus, they thought they knew who he was, they knew where he had come from, and Jesus, of course, was the legal son of Joseph. No question about that, but he was certainly not Joseph's natural son, because Jesus was born of a virgin, Luke tells us in the first chapter, verses 34 to 38 of his gospel. The leaders identified Jesus with Nazareth in Galilee. They did not identify Jesus with Bethlehem in Judea. Think about that. They recognized him as being a homegrown boy, he's a Galilean. His family is from this village not too far off over here called Nazareth. They thought Joseph was, in fact, his natural father. They had not accepted the idea, if they'd ever even been told, that Jesus was the son of God, fathered by the agency of the Holy Spirit. If they had investigated that matter, they could have talked to Mary about it, and she could have explained that to them, and as incredulous as it might have been to them, perhaps some would have accepted it. But I have an idea that many would still have persisted in the idea that Jesus certainly didn't come from heaven. He came from Nazareth. He came from the loins of Joseph, which is not so at all. You know, even in the days of Moses, the Jews were known for murmuring, weren't they? Notice verse 43, Jesus said to the crowd, he said, do not murmur among yourselves. And this is just a trait, isn't it? It's just something that, as you go back into the Old Testament and read about various circumstances, not just once, but many circumstances in the history of Israel, they were often murmuring, speaking under their breath, complaining about something that was happening or not happening as they would have desired it to. In fact, Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at that last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me, not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. Most assurably, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they're dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Maybe by this time they had begun to move toward the synagogue for the rest of this discussion. I don't know. But the main issue on everybody's mind is, where did Jesus come from? What's his origin? What's his background? We thought we knew that he was just from Nazareth of Galilee. But Jesus says, no, I'm the bread of life. I came down from heaven, verse 51. I'm not like anybody else you know. I'm not as common as bread is because I have an unusual origin. They have not yet come to accept that. Jesus further explained, as you read there, how a sinner comes to God. He said, it's through the truth of the word, verses 44 and 45 there. Jesus said, you can't come to the Father who wants you to come unless you're drawn, and then I'll raise you up at the last day. It is written in the prophets that they shall all be taught by God, and everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. That point, that they shall all be taught of God, is Jesus quoting, of course, something out of the prophets. It could be either Isaiah or it could be Jeremiah, Isaiah 54, 13, or Jeremiah 31, 33, and 34. Jesus is proving his point by referring to these two great Old Testament prophets. And I'm hoping that what we can see from this is that it is through the teaching of the word that God draws people to the Savior. Now, just stop and think about that a moment. If the means by which God draws people to the Savior is the word of God, what must be the destiny of those who give no thought to the word of God? Well, they're not going to be drawn closer to God. They're not going to be brought to a Savior, because the only way in which that can occur is through being taught of God. Jews were Jews because they happened to be born into a Jewish family. They had very little to do with, just like all people, who their parents were, under what circumstances they were actually born. They had no control over their heritage. But Jesus said, in terms of this eternal life that he wishes to give, that that's going to come on the basis of those who are drawn to him through the word, drawn to him through the teaching that needs to be given. A sinner hears, a sinner learns, a sinner comes. You see all that progression and thought there in those verses as the Father draws him. God's appeal to man is through his intellect. It is not through his emotion. In fact, it could be said, given the context of this statement, that God wasn't trying to make his way to men's hearts through their stomachs. Sometimes we say that's the way you get to a man's heart is through his stomach. No, the only way that a man comes to God is through his intellect, through his mind. And the only way that his mind is going to be brought closer to God is through accepting the word, the things that are taught him that will change his thinking and change his emphasis and cause him to come closer and closer to God. You know, there wasn't any cost to God, was there? When he gave manna to the people of Israel every day for those 40 years that they were in the wilderness, they got what they got. But even though God provided that food, they all eventually died. It did not give them eternal life, not that bread. It did not cause them to escape death whatsoever. But Jesus came to give life and he came to give a bread that would yield eternal life. The Jews ate that daily manna. Yes, when God gave the manna, he was giving a gift. But when Jesus came, he gave of himself. He was going to give his life so that other people could have eternal life. And the Jews in the Old Testament, the Israelites, I should say rather, they had to eat that manna every single day. But the sinner who believes and obeys Christ is given the hope of eternal life. And so there's a great deal of contrast between those two things that this text brings out. It's not difficult for me, at least, to see in this manna a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that you can see that as well. The manna was a mysterious thing to the Jews, to the Israelites, I should say again. In fact, you remember that when they first discovered manna on the ground, Exodus 16, 15 says that the people looking at it said, what is it? That's what the word manna meant. It was a mystery to them. They did not understand it. This was a substance they'd never handled. They'd never utilized. They had no experience with. And so Jesus was also a mystery to these people, right? The manna came at night from heaven. It was there when people awoke in the morning. But Jesus came to this earth when sinners were in moral and spiritual darkness as well. I think about the manna being small. It was like white frost that was on the ground. It was round from the descriptions that are made of it. White it was. It was sweet to the taste, according to Psalm 34 and verse 8. And of course, the book of Numbers tells us that it had the flavor of wafers that had been made with honey. And they would take it and they would grind it and mix it and bake it. And they made bread from it. It was a very unusual substance, something no one had ever seen before, nor saw since after it left. And yet it was mysterious. And yet it contained a gift that God was bringing them. The manna was given to a rebellious people, if you recall, in Exodus chapter 16. They were sick of the things that they would have to eat eventually as they travel through the wilderness. They even began to complain eventually about the manna, even though they recognized that it had sustained them. And I think as I read that and I think about that, that these people in Exodus and all they had to do was stoop down and pick it up off the ground and then process it and use it however they chose to use it. If they failed to pick it up, they walked on it. If they failed to pick it up, it was all over the ground and it was just under their feet. And that's the case with many people today. Jesus has come and they just trample him underfoot. They don't see him as the true son of God. They don't see him as the bread of life. And so if we would just simply humble ourselves and take the gift of Jesus that God offers, how much better off we would certainly be. Now, Jesus closed this part of his discourse by referring to his flesh, a word that will be used six more times before this discussion is concluded that we're looking at here today. And in John 6 and verse 51, as eventually we get to that, he makes the declaration that he will give himself as a sacrifice for the life of the world. And Jesus giving his flesh is a very important thing because it's a reference, of course, to his death and his substitutionary death, which I think is a key doctrine in John's gospel. Jesus would die for the world. John 3, 16 says he would die for his sheep. John 10 and verse 11 and 15. He would die for the nation. John 11, 50 to 52. He would die for his friends. John 15 and verse 12. That's all that means. That word for is that he was doing that in someone else's stead. Jesus died as our substitute. Paul made that very personal in Galatians 2 and verse 20 when he said that Jesus loved me and gave himself for me. And so we must not limit the work of Christ on the cross. He's the sacrifice, not just for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world, as John will later write in 1 John 2 and verse 22. So as you complete that, you find finally that we have these Jews beginning to quarrel and to fight even among themselves about what they're learning on this particular occasion. Verse 52 begins by telling us that the Jews quarrel. Some of your texts might say that they strive together, that they strove. They were in great disagreement about this. And they said, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you that 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 blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever. And these things he said in the synagogue as he taught there in Capernaum. You know, the Jews knew that there was a divine prohibition against eating human flesh or any kind of blood, for that matter. Genesis 9, when Noah first disembarked, that was one of the requirements God gave is that blood should not be a food product. It was something that was sacrificial, but it should not be used for eating. That was just not what God's intention was. And when the Levitical law came along under the law of Moses in Leviticus chapter 17, 10 through 16, as well as chapter 19 and verse 26, there was a prohibition against blood for the Israelite nation as using that as a food product. Here we have another example in John's gospel of the people misunderstanding a spiritual truth by treating that truth literally when Jesus was speaking figuratively. All Jesus is saying here is, just as you take food and drink within your body and it becomes a part of you, so you must receive me within your innermost being so that I can give you life. But of course, he wasn't talking about physical life. He was talking about everlasting or eternal life. Now, some folks, when they read this text, become a little bit confused and think that Jesus was making an early reference here to the Lord's Supper and that we eat his flesh and drink his blood each time we partake of the elements of that table, the bread and the cup. But I do not believe that Jesus had the Lord's Supper or the communion in mind at all when he spoke these words. For one thing, why would he discuss the Lord's Supper with a group of disagreeable unbelievers? Remember who he's talking to here. He had not even shared that truth yet with his own followers, with his own disciples, the truth about the memory of his death through the Lord's Supper. Why would he cast that precious pearl before these swine, so to speak, who would not have appreciated or understood at all what he was saying? Secondly, I think Jesus makes it very clear here that he was not speaking in literal terms. You go over to the 63rd verse of John chapter 6. It says there that Jesus was speaking in spiritual terms, not in human terms at all. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. He was using life circumstances and physical things only as illustrations, you see, of certain things which were spiritual. He used human analogies to convey spiritual truths back with Nicodemus, didn't he, when he talked about a new birth? And what was initially the reaction of Nicodemus? Confusion. He thought that a man would have to re-enter his mother's womb. No, no, no, no, Jesus said. That's not what I'm talking about. And in the same sense, the same thing happened in John 4 with the Samaritan woman who thought that maybe there would be a certain type of water that she could begin drinking where she'd never have to draw from that well anymore. And Jesus wasn't talking about H2O at all. He was talking about what would come to her through her knowledge of God and through the life eternal that she would eventually obtain through her faith. And here, I believe, that he's doing the very same thing. He's talking about something physical to illustrate a very important spiritual truth. You know, the Greek verb that's used here in John 6, verses 50, 51, and 53 about eating is a word that is used in a tense which means a once-for-all action. And the Lord's Supper is something repeated again and again and again. It's not just something one does once in his life. It's a repeated thing, so much so that the early church observed the Lord's Supper weekly from all of the evidence that we read of it in the New Testament, Acts 20 and verse 17, one of the chief places we can deduce that. It's kind of significant to me that the word flesh is never used in any of the reports that we receive about the Lord's Supper anywhere in the New Testament. The word body is used, but the word body is a very different word than the word flesh. If a person holds that our Lord was speaking here about the communion service, then he must believe that somehow these two elements, the bread and the fruit of the vine, turn into the very body and blood of Christ. And, of course, there are plenty of people who do believe that. The Catholics believe in the transubstantiation that that physical bread, that physical fruit of the vine actually turns into the blood of Jesus, turns into the body of Christ once it is blessed and broken by the priest. And that's a ridiculous thing. That's not what Jesus was saying at all. He's speaking symbolically. He's speaking with great imagery. And if we were to take this literally, we would be making the same mistake that others were making as they listened to the teaching of Jesus. He's talking about taking Jesus and his word and his teaching into our hearts, our innermost being, and allowing that to cause us to begin seeking eternal life and to eventually receive eternal life because of his mercy and his grace. But as you notice there, he goes on to say that the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father. And if you feed on me, you will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate manna and are dead, but the bread that I am giving you causes you to live forever. And he said these things, of course, in that synagogue, Capernaum. Now, to finish our study, we have this last group of verses which are very sad in many ways because, therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, well, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? And when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. And he said, therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. And from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. And then Jesus turns to the twelve. Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered, 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. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve. You know, as I read this, I have to recognize that it wasn't so much that what Jesus had to say that was hard to comprehend or understand. But it is hard to accept it once you understand it. Right. Once you understand what Jesus is demanding of you, it is a difficult thing for you to make up your mind that you're going to give your life to this pursuit, that you're going to devote your every waking moment to following Christ and making no decision whatsoever without involving him in your life. Now, the Jewish religious leaders both misunderstood his words and rejected him. But here he's talking to people that seem to show some interest in being his students. They're called his disciples, his pupils. You know, I think about this in this context. There are all kinds of young kids each year that go to school the first day full of all sorts of excitement, only to return home that afternoon saying, I'm not going back. And we experience that with our own children sometimes who are all enthused about going to school only to go and then decide, this isn't for me. I don't want to go back anymore. That's exactly what we have going on here. People thought they wanted to learn from Jesus, and yet they became offended by the things Jesus was teaching them. It was not what they wanted at all. It was not something that they felt comfortable with accepting. He said, if I'm offending you with this, what would you do if you should see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? In other words, there's going to be some far greater difficult things to accept and to believe than what you've gotten on the first day of school here. It's going to become more intense. It's going to become more necessary for you to have great and deep and abiding faith in me as we move forward. But he recognized, verse 64, that there were some there who just simply did not believe. And Jesus knew their hearts. He knew their minds. He knew what their proclivities were as to whether they were ever going to follow him or whether they were not. Now, the Lord knowing that does not preclude anyone from obeying him simply because the Lord knows initially he's not that interested. The Lord is not causing people to not believe in him. He wishes that all will come to him, but he recognizes that all will not. Even some who initially start will eventually drop by the wayside because this is not at all what they signed on for. They were stumbling over these matters that Jesus was trying to teach them here, but there were greater things to come. His language, he said, is figurative. It's spiritual. It's not literal. And yet you're stumbling at these things. You know, he told these people that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood. And for some of them, they took that literally and they didn't want to do that. Who would want to do that? Who would want to turn into a cannibal and eat a man's flesh and drink a man's blood? By the way, you know, that was one of the first reports that was made about the early Christians. One of the things that some observers, maybe Jews even, would say to other people who were inquiring about the early Christians is, well, don't you know that they get together every week and they eat a man's flesh and drink a man's blood? And of course, that would have the net effect of turning some people off, not wanting to even think about investigating that further and seeing what that might be. But Jesus said we must eat his flesh. Jesus said we must drink his blood. How do we do that? Through his word, my friends. Jesus said it in John 6, 63. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. Did not the word become flesh? John 1, verse 14. Our Lord said the same thing in John 5, in verse 24, when he said, he who hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life. The scribes who knew Jeremiah 31, where he said that they will all be taught of God, would have understood the concept of receiving God's word into your innermost being. And that's what we're required to do. Indeed, in that sense, we must eat the Lord's flesh. We must drink the Lord's blood. And yet the result of this message was the loss of most of the people who were following after Jesus on this occasion. They went back to their old life. They went back to their old religion. They went back to their old hopeless situation. Yes, Jesus was the way, but many of them were not willing to walk in that way. And when the Lord looked at the other disciples and he saw the twelve still standing there, and he asked the twelve if they planned to desert him also, it was Peter, characteristically Peter, who spoke up very quickly and declared their faith. He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Peter got the message, I think. He knew that Jesus was speaking about the word and not about literal flesh and blood. He knew that the words of eternal life was what they were depending on. And if they turned anywhere else, they were not going to hear the words of eternal life. You know, the only mistake Peter made, the only mistake Peter made here, and it's almost subtle, you'd almost miss this. In John 666, he bore witness to the entire group of the twelve, saying that we all believe that you are the son of God. And Jesus said, no, he said, you're speaking for Judas and Judas. He didn't call Judas by name, but he was speaking, John tells us later, of Judas. And he said, even among those twelve, there was one who did not really and truly believe, even at that point. And yet Peter thought he did. He looked like he did. He's with us. I would remind you that on any given Lord's Day, there are all kinds of people assembling with us in our congregations, some of whom are devoted disciples, and they're eating the Lord's flesh and drinking his blood. And of course, by that, I mean not the Lord's Supper. I mean, they're imbibing, eating Jesus and his word. That's what's filling them and nourishing them and causing them to lay hold on this hope of eternal life. But sitting right next to them on the pew is likely someone who doesn't believe this at all. He's there. He hears it. He has a motive for being there that's not exactly the same as the motives of others. But the Lord knows, and the Lord knows his heart. We may be fooled by it. We may think that his presence indicates agreement and acceptance, but he may be just as complacent as he can possibly be about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was on this occasion that Jesus found himself wondering whether or not the other disciples would also walk away. The preaching of the word of God always leads to a sifting of the hearts of those who listen to it, because God is interested in drawing sinners to him through the power of truth, through the power of his word. And those who reject his word also reject the Savior. And that's what we see happening on this occasion. Well, it's bittersweet. Lots of people were listening to Jesus, and then all of a sudden, lots of people were not. And that was disheartening. And yet Jesus knew the hearts of those people, just as he knows the hearts of all of us. I'm hopeful that that lesson is not lost on us and is useful to us in some way. And I know that we took a little extra time, but I appreciate getting to walk through that with you.
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