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Sermons

November 24, 2019

The Spirit Glorifies Jesus in Sovereign Words of Life

Dave Zuleger (South Campus) | John 6:60-69

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 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 6:60–69

Introduction: Away From the Buffet

How many of you spent time this week deciding between a couple of different options? We live in an age of choices and instant gratification. You have a thought about something you want. Hop on Facebook to get a few opinions. Then hop on Amazon and buy it with one-click. You have it in your hands the next day. There has never been a time in history where there are more choices or more instant gratification.

Now, this has always been how our hearts worked even before Facebook and Amazon. I remember as a kid my first experience with Old Country Buffet when we were at a basketball tournament. I remember walking in there and thinking it was a little piece of heaven. Why? Because I didn’t have to choose. I had it all right at my fingertips. I could go up and choose what I wanted and then switch it up a little later.

Now none of that is in itself bad. But, it is important we stop and realize how we are being discipled to have a consumer mindset.

That mindset can translate over to how we view Jesus and the church, which isn’t good. We often kind of pick and choose how all-in we will be with Jesus. “I like that part of what he says, so I will post and tweet and talk about that a lot. But, the parts that might be really hard to swallow in my current situation—I don’t want those right now.” We can subconsciously treat Jesus like a cosmic buffet line instead of the Lord of our lives. We demand that he speaks in a way that makes us feel good and, if it doesn’t, we can just kind of brush it away and go back up and get seconds of the parts that do.

So, my prayer is that today we’d get away from being a buffet line, one-click kind of people with the words of Jesus and that instead, we would gladly hear, trust, and follow the words of our King.

Full Stomachs, Empty Souls That Reject the Words of Life 

John 6 starts with the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Remember that it is 5,000 men, so most commentators put the actual number there between 12,000-20,000 people. This is a big crowd. Jesus has built quite a following. So, here’s the math of that miracle: Five loaves of bread and two fish, and 12,000 people. And 12 left-over baskets of food. That’s crazy. And the people realize it. In verse 15 it says that Jesus went away by himself because he knew that they were going to come and try to make him king by force. The people liked this kind of king. He was popular. He brought them prosperity. He brought them physical comfort. He was exciting. It was fun to be connected to this kind of celebrity who could dazzle all the time.

When we get to verses 22–24, the crowd is looking for him, not knowing he’s already walked across the water to the other side. Eager to see more of the show and to eat some more food, they eventually find him. 

In verses 26–27 Jesus calls them out for working for earthy food that perishes instead of seeking eternal food that brings eternal life. So, in verse 28—like is so common of us as humans—they want a to-do list to calm their souls, “What work do we do to get that eternal food?” Jesus answers in verse 29 that the way to get eternal food that brings eternal life is to believe in him. 

That’s important, as he’s beginning a metaphor. They had their stomachs filled, but Jesus says he’s here to do more. He’s here to satisfy their souls forever. And it’s not by a to-do list.

In verses 30–34 they respond, “OK, we can believe in you if you prove yourself. Moses gave the people bread in the wilderness day after day. Why don’t you do that? I mean, one day of bread was good, but if you can do what Moses did, maybe you’re our new Moses.” You work for us.

Jesus corrects them and says, “Moses didn’t give them anything. God did. God fed them all those years with manna from heaven. But, now the bread of God is the person he has sent from heaven.” They reply that they want that bread. Does this remind you of anything? Remember the Samaritan woman. She wanted the water. These followers want the bread day after day.

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”—John 6:35

He’s the bread. He’s the satisfaction. He’s greater than Moses because he’s offering eternal satisfaction not just physical. This satisfaction lasts forever. No more hunger or thirst. How do you become satisfied in him? You believe. That’s how your soul feeds on him. You trust. That’s the work of your soul to be satisfied forever—to trust. He confirms this again in verse 40:

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

In verses 41–42 they grumble and say, “How can he say he is the bread from heaven? We know him. This is Jesus. We know where he’s from.” They obviously haven’t read the Old Testament about how the God-man would be born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. But, notice they aren’t confused about the metaphor. They get it, they just think they know better about him.

In verses 43–51 Jesus knows they’re grumbling and presses his point further. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died. I am the living bread from heaven that brings eternal life to all who feed on me. The bread I will give is my flesh and those who come to eat won’t die.

In verses 52–59 he says that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. His flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. They don’t understand what he means. How can he do this? What does he mean, exactly? They are arguing about it. Plus, the reference to drinking blood is a bit offensive for them since that was against their law.

He’s pointing ahead to his death as their life. Whoever feeds on him, that is, believes on him as he continues the metaphor, will be raised up again. Whoever feeds on him abides in him and he in them. 

So, notice, this life Jesus is offering of himself through his death and resurrection is not just eternal life in heaven. It’s eternal life now. He’s talking about union with him. He’s talking about abiding. Along the way in this back-and-forth Jesus has said that he is the Bread of Life and that to feed on him is to come to him, to believe him, and to abide with him.

That brings us to their ultimate responses in verses 60–69. Listen to these people who had full stomachs but empty souls:

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”—John 6:60 

Now, remember we started out this chapter with at least 12,000 people. But, by the end of this chapter we’ll be down to 11 who abide with Jesus. 

Why was this a hard saying? Most commentators don’t think it’s because they literally thought he wanted them to eat his physical body. Rather, he used offensive language, made himself greater than Moses, and demanded they deal with and come to him for all they needed. He was no longer simply the popular, sign-working, and stomach-filling show. He doesn’t fit their categories. He won’t do signs on demand. He won’t entertain. Instead, he challenges them. He points them away from self-dependence, buffet line following, and instant gratification of what they want, and instead he points them to total dependence on him, exclusive satisfaction in him, and a view toward eternal life with some offensive language. And most of them walk away:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.—John 6:66

This is sad. Instead of coming, believing, and abiding with Jesus to have true life, they walk away because the words that should be life don’t fit with their tastes. They walk away because what Jesus demands is just too hard. They walk away because his salvation is not in step with their gratification. They realized that coming to Jesus would mean changing everything else. If he would be the place of eternal life and satisfaction, then they would need to leave their current places of false life and false satisfaction. 

Maybe you’re in this room right now and you’ve rejected Jesus because he doesn’t quite fit in with your life right now. You have a sense that he’s true, but you know if you came to him, he’d begin to change your life—your priorities, your lifestyles, and you’d need to admit you’re a sinner in need of a Savior. 

Don’t you want true, eternal life? Don’t you want what your heart has been longing for?

Or maybe you’re in this room and you’ve trusted Jesus for eternal life, but lately you’ve been ignoring his words. You’ve been distracted with other things. You’ve been too busy. So, you haven’t even really been hearing what he’s had to say. Or perhaps you’ve been hearing hard things he’s saying to you from his word. You don’t want to submit yet. You’re not ready to walk away from that bitterness or that gossip or that anger or that lust or that pain or that whatever, and so you tune him out. Whether it’s distraction, distress, or disobedience—it doesn’t change the fact that you are missing out on the feast of life that Jesus is offering in his words of life.

May the Spirit of God help us not to walk away from Jesus in any area of our lives because his words don’t fit with our tastes, because they seem too hard, or because it’s not in step with our instant gratification. Instead, may the Spirit help us hear these words, trust them, submit to them, and cause us to go deeper into true life. 

Full Souls, Empty Hands Kept by the Words of Life 

But, not all of them walked away. Some of them responded to these words of life, hard as they were, and stayed. Listen to Peter’s amazing response in verses 67–69:

So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 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. 

Full souls and empty hands. Where else can we go? You’re it. We are here for you. We will follow. So, why did they stay? Hear verses 61–65: 

But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

Why did they stay? We could answer this question in two ways and both would be true. 

  • They stayed because they wanted Jesus. They stayed because they saw their desperate souls and wanted to be filled with true life. They stayed because they heard the words of life, believed, and knew that there was nowhere else they could go to be saved and satisfied. I hope you feel that way when you see Jesus. When you see that he really came into our mess from his eternal fellowship with the Father, he really lived a perfect life without sin, and that he really is the God-man who was innocent but went to the cross to pay for our sins. By simply coming and believing in him, we feed on him for eternal life forever! By simply abiding in his words we have that life now in greater and greater measure until it culminates into glory. Jesus is astounding.

I don’t sit in the kitchen ignoring Thanksgiving d;;inner spread out for me because I’ve stuffed myself on other food. I come to the table with expectation because I’ve fasted from other things that day. The food is better, so the coming and the denying of other things is because I want what can truly satisfy more. That’s one way we could answer. 

  • They came because God the Father, by the power of the Spirit and by the words of Jesus granted them to come. John 6:44 says it this way: 

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

So, yes, they came because they saw his beauty. But, they saw his beauty and came because the Father granted them to come and drew them to Jesus. Underneath their coming, their believing, and their abiding is the Father’s drawing, granting, and keeping.

Now, this isn’t a drawing that is bringing people to feast on Jesus kicking and screaming. This is an irresistible grace that makes it impossible not to see how good he is. There are no perfect analogies. 

But, this is the smells of the kitchen, the pies on the counter, the turkey being brought out, and the mashed potatoes going past my face that guarantee that I will come to the table for the feast that I cannot resist. 

We come to Jesus for life and we stay. Underneath that, the Father decisively draws us to Jesus and holds on to us.

Charles Spurgeon was one asked if he could reconcile these two truths to each other. “I wouldn’t try,” he replied; “I never reconcile friends.” 

Here we see full hearts and empty hands being kept by the words of life!

Application: All We Have Is Christ

So, I want to end with an observation and challenge.

Here’s the obvious observation that struck me as I read. In the end, what’s the reward for those who stick around? As the 12,000 goes down to 11, what’s the reward? They are with Jesus. They get Jesus. Now and forever. That’s it. So, if we don’t see Jesus as the greatest Treasure, this doesn’t make sense. I mean, if following the words of Jesus were all about us getting what we want when we want it like we do with Amazon, then it would not have made sense for the disciples to stay. And frankly, it would not make sense for many of you in this room to stay. 

None of us want to lose a family member. None of us want cancer. None of us want chronic pain. None of us want children who aren’t following Jesus. None of us want to lose our jobs.

If Jesus is just a way for our lives to be easier, then why in the world are Marlin & Gloria Olson staying with him right now? What about Kelly Fredin? Or why would we even try to be peacemakers like Phil Nelson called us to on Wednesday night? That’s not easy. Why would we confess and fight sin like another brother I sat with? That’s not easy.

In my own heart, I’ve been tempted in these last few years of suffering to doubt the goodness of Jesus. Why aren’t you doing the sign I’m demanding from you?

If Jesus is just a way for us to get things, it makes no sense to stay with him when suffering comes, or to give up sinful joys. But if Jesus is the ultimate, eternal Treasure, then we can’t go anywhere else—even when he calls us to hard things and seems to speak hard words. The Father keeps us through words of life by the power of his Spirit to help us go deeper and deeper into true life in Jesus.

So, here’s the challenge connected to that observation. Let’s be a people marked by being with Jesus. If Jesus is the Treasure, and if the ultimate goal is to be with him, then let’s prioritize that. I’m convinced one of our main issues in the world we live in today is distraction. Now, I’m not saying people have not had distracted hearts before, but there’s all sorts of studies out there that the current climate we live in is teaching our minds to be distracted.

What if we before we checked our email (it will be ok), got on Facebook or Twitter, browsed Amazon, or turned on the morning news, we prioritized being with Jesus in the word and prayer. John 5:39 says all of the Scriptures testify to Jesus, and we’ve seen that we need to abide in his words to experience true life. And we’ve seen it is the Father’s keeping power by the Spirit and through the words of Jesus that help us and others see Jesus as better than the things of this life—so let’s prioritize pleading with God to help us and our friends, family members, neighbors, and coworkers see him.

Two weeks ago, we talked about being a people striving together. I want us to be a blood-bought family that strives together in the Word and prayer. This is why I love our Bible reading plan—I’ve seen it knitting people’s hearts together in the words of life by the power of the Spirit!

And so my challenge—and I realize it would take some planning, realigning of life, and figuring out—is that before you hop on forms of media that are prone to distract, that you go to Jesus in his word and that you find a way to pray with someone else. This could be five minutes total.

If our lives are not meant to be a buffet line of whatever we want, whenever we want it, but instead a continual coming back to the words of Jesus and asking the Spirit to see him and submit to him so we have true life. Then let’s be people who strive together by the power of the Spirit to feast on his words of life and pray for his power together before we do anything else. His body was given as our bread of life and he invites us to come again and again for more!