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January 4/5, 2014
Jason Meyer | John 6:60-71
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.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.—John 6:60–71
Introduction
An Authority Problem: Whose Understanding is Decisive?
The church in our day is at war. In some places in our world, that war means Christians are being killed for their faith. In our country, it means more often that we are mocked for our faith. This verbal attack is more subtle and sophisticated than a physical attack. One of the most common tactics in this fight is name-calling. That sounds childish, but as grown-ups we do it in a more refined and sophisticated sort of way. We are bigoted and intolerant to claim that Christianity is right and all other religions are wrong.
It almost looks like they have the high ground at this point. It does sound arrogant to believe that you are right and others (especially a bunch of people) are wrong. Furthermore, their position seems to sound humble. It sounds very humble to say that we can’t know anything for sure and therefore we do not want to tell other people that they are wrong when they disagree with us. How will you
respond to this claim—or more likely—how have you been responding to this all-too-common claim? I will close this sermon with a response to that question, but I want to tackle part of it right now from our text. Is it possible for someone to depart from the exclusive claims of Jesus’ words and still be considered a follower of Jesus? My goal in this sermon is to allow Jesus to answer this question in his own words and in his own way.
What we see is that there are two types of disciples: real and counterfeit. Therefore, one of the most important questions for everyone to determine here is whether you are a real disciple of Jesus or a counterfeit disciple.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?
The word “hard” does not mean “difficult to understand.” The word never means hard to understand in its uses in the New Testament (Matthew 25:24; Acts 26:14; James 3:4; Jude 15). In this context, the word means “offensive” or “intolerable.” This meaning becomes clear in the very next verse. Jesus says, “Do you take offense at this?"
The problem was not that Jesus’ followers were scratching their heads because Jesus was unclear. The reason they were offended is because they did understand. Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) famously said: “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” Now we have to ask what the “it” is. Many of the disciples heard “it.” What did they hear? We need to turn back to John 6:51-58.
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"—John 6:51-52
They asked how he could give people his flesh to eat. Jesus did not clear up any potential misunderstanding about his flesh being food—he drove the nail in even deeper by hammering away with further words.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on 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 whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.—John 6:53-58
He spoke in terms that could be taken as cannibalism. Eat his flesh and drink his blood? The Old Testament food laws were clear that one was not to eat or drink the blood because life was in the blood. All anyone could hear was the thought that doing what Jesus said would make them unclean. But the irony is that Jesus’ body and blood were the only thing that could make them clean.
Notice that Jesus is not caught off guard by the grumbling that is going on. He knows it "in himself."
But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?"—John 6:61
He does not need man to tell him about man. This is an important principle that John 2:23-25 has already established for the reader.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But
Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
Jesus did not need a profession of faith from others to know if they really believed or not. He could look deeper and see whether their faith was real. That is why chapter 3 begins with the story of Nicodemus. Chapter two ends with the words “and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” Chapter three begins, “Now there was a man named Nicodemus.” In other words,Nicodemus is an example of someone that is following Jesus and believing the signs but is not a real disciple because he is not born again. In fact, he does even know there was such a thing as being born again.
These so-called disciples in John 6 are the same as those in John 2 and Nicodemus. They are getting Jesus wrong. So in verse 62, Jesus puts himself into a different category than all other teachers.
Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
He is from heaven. Would what he is saying be hard to believe if he were to ascend back to heaven?
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.—John 6:63
Next he draws an incredibly important point of distinction. Life does not come from man. Man does not have life in himself—it is not an inherent possession. Eternal life always has an external source: God. So Jesus points them to the singular source of life. Life comes from God, not man. It is the Spirit of God that gives life, and man’s natural abilities (the flesh) cannot do anything to produce life.
They do not see who he is because that can only be seen by the powerful intervention of the Spirit. Listen to John 3:5-8:
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (v. 63).
In other words, Jesus now shows them the reason for the grumbling. They do not detect any life in what Jesus is saying. Jesus says in effect, the problem is not my words; the problem is you. If you don’t find life in my words, then you have no life inside of you. Jesus is saying exactly the same thing as the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:14:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Then Jesus shows his hand. He knows that many are not believers (despite their profession of faith). They do not believe because they have not been drawn by the divine power of God. The power to believe and abide in Jesus’ words is granted by the Father. They have come on their own will power, and it is not strong enough to keep them there when they hear hard things from Jesus.
"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."—John 6:64-65
Sure enough, what Jesus says comes true in verse 66. Many left.
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
It was not just his words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. That teaching offended their sensibilities, but what Jesus just said was perhaps even more offensive. He tells them that his words are not the problem—they are. And God is sovereign even over their unbelief and disobedience. Rather than producing repentance and fear to be called out, they were further offended. These followers of Jesus ceased to follow Jesus. As long as he did what pleased them (which included bread-making miracles), then they would follow. The moment he says something that offends them, they stopped following. They became judge and jury of what was right and wrong. Jesus’ words were tried in the court of their own heart and mind. The gavel came down, and Jesus was found guilty of being offensive. They voted with their feet and left him. But in fact, they were guilty. The problem was them, not Jesus.
We have reached a preliminary conclusion. What is the mark of a counterfeit disciple? Answer: they depart from Jesus and his words. They do not abide in his words. True disciples responded differently. Let’s look at point two, the mark of a true disciple.
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.”
Jesus now invites the twelve to leave. "Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter became the spokesperson for the disciples—for better (here) or worse (last week in Mark 8). He says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter’s insight was that they were completely dependent upon Jesus’ words for life. They could go other places, but they could not go anywhere else and find life. All other roads would lead to a dead end. Only Jesus’ words had the words of eternal life.
And Peter knew that Jesus’ words had to be connected with Jesus’ identity. His hard words did not change the fact that he was the Holy One of God.
And we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.—John 6:69
When you connect Peter’s confession here to what Jesus just taught, we can only interpret Peter’s faith as coming from the Holy Spirit. Peter’s faith came from the power of God, not from his superior intellect or spiritual sensitivity. Peter’s confession is that they have seen Jesus’ true identity as the Holy One of God, and thus they regard his words as the words of God. They had learned what Israel had failed to learn in the wilderness—man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
There is much more we could say at this point, but in the interest of time, let me draw an initial conclusion. The dividing line looks very clear at this point. Counterfeit disciples are defined by their departure from Jesus’ words; real disciples are defined by their act of abiding in Jesus’ words. They detect eternal life there and never depart. True disciples abide in Jesus’ words even when they are hard to hear, and counterfeit disciples depart when they do not like something that Jesus says.
That is a true summary, but it only scratches the surface of what is going on in this passage. Jesus shows that it is only the tip of the iceberg. He is going to take them down into the depths of God’s sovereignty to see the divine reason for this division of the disciples. Let’s look at point three.
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.
True disciples stay with Jesus and do not depart from his words. The reason why true disciples stay with Jesus and do not depart from his words is Jesus’ choice. He says, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve?” His choice determines their choice. His willing stands under their willing. They do not go because Jesus will not let them go. The staying power they have comes from sovereign power.
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."—John 6:64-65
It is the divine choice of the disciples that explains their persevering faith. John 15:16 says this with crystal clarity:
You did not choose me, but I chose you.
Now Jesus uses Judas as a case in point. They should not assume that all of them stayed because all of them are drawn and kept by God. One of them is a “devil.”
"And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.—John 6:70-71
They are all not children of God; one is a child of the devil. Even this rejection and betrayal was chosen by God according to John 17:12:
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
The simplest way to see these things is to see the difference between Simon Peter and Judas. Both betrayed Jesus. Jesus predicted both of their betrayals. But Jesus also prophesied about Peter’s return. Luke 22:31-32:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Jesus’ power and choice is what explains Peter’s persevering faith. He momentarily departed from Jesus, but Jesus’ power brought him back. Notice that he says Peter’s faith will not fail. Not “if you turn,” but “when you have turned again.”
True believers abide in the word of God because of the power of God—period. We cannot take credit. He gets all the glory for it. Abiding in the word of God is a diagnostic test as to whether we are a true disciple or not. But passing the test does not give us a reason to boast in ourselves and sing our praises—far from it—it gives us a reason to boast in God and sing his praises.
Application
Are you a disciple? It is easy to think about those who are not here and take pot shots at them for not being disciples. Sometimes it is more dangerous to come to church and assume that you are a disciple simply because you are here.
What is a disciple? John 8:31 says that there are disciples, and then there are disciples. Those who are truly disciples are the ones who “abide” in the words of Jesus:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Are you abiding in Jesus’ words? Are you in danger of departing from them? Are you willing to let God be God and take him at his word instead of telling him what he can and can’t say?
A text like this should elicit watchfulness from our church family. Don’t presume that you are saved just because you are sitting in a seat in a church right now. What always stands out to me about the disciples is how well Judas fit in as a disciple to those around him. The others did not even suspect him. When Jesus said that one is a devil, the other disciples did not say, “It is Judas.” When they were celebrating the Lord’s Supper and Jesus said one was going to betray him, no one said, “It is Judas. I always thought there was something suspicious about him.”
It is very possible to fool those around you, but it is impossible to fool God. We need to give the whole idea of carnal Christianity a public funeral here today. I hate that view point. You can live like the world and still call yourself a Christian. It is ture that we ought to be patient with new believers. There is growth that takes place. We don’t expect baby Christians to become mature Christians overnight. But we also do not expect people to show no signs of growth their whole life. Wouldn’t you think it was odd if a baby never grew up? Imagine a baby staying a baby for 80 years. You can’t because it does not happen. Why does a baby grow? They eat nourishing food.
Peter gives the same rationale in 1 Peter 2:2-3:
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Mark 8:34-38 warns us that disciples will not be ashamed of his words or Jesus will be ashamed of them.
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
People are ashamed of his words if it means that the rest of the culture will not approve and they may lose some cultural power or possessions or opportunities. Some would like to claim Jesus and acknowledge him, while reserving the right to be ashamed of his words. That is not an option that Jesus gave us.
It is not loving to try to remove offense from Christianity. Jesus did not bend over backwards to soften things or remove things that could offend people by watering down the truth of God’s word. Jesus did not hide them—far from it—he often put them there at the outset. It is unloving to give people soft, half-truths that are angled at getting as many people as you can to agree to Christianity and then trying to keep them away from hard things that could offend them. It is not your job to keep them by hiding truth from them—that is unloving! True discipleship does not make our sensibilities the supreme thing. We make God the supreme thing. In fact, we try to do this upfront kind of teaching very early on—like in children’s Sunday school.
Bethlehem is a church that is not ashamed of Jesus’ words about the sovereignty of God in salvation. We celebrate his sovereignty! We don’t try to bring it in the back door anywhere. We want them to be front and center. This is a loving thing to do even though some people find it offensive. I am calling you to joy in embracing the sovereignty of God. I call you to the joy that is found when God breaks out of the feeble little box that we try to put Him in when we don’t let God be God. We celebrate God’s sovereign freedom to be God.
If we want people to grow up into salvation, then we have to be willing to give everyone in this church—even our children, the big truths of Scripture. I stress this because I was raised in a Sunday school program that did not make disciples. I received watered-down Bible teaching that I quickly outgrew. That experience put a stamp on the way that I parent. I want to give my children big truths that they can grow into—not trite things that they grow out of. For example, when one sibling hits another sibling we do not simply say, “it is not nice to hit. How would you like to be hit?” We can say, “Do you understand that your sister is made in the image of God and that is what you are hitting?” It will take some time to grow into a robust understanding of the image of God, but that only argues for starting early enough to give them time to grow into it.
I know that many people worry that our children cannot handle big truths about God; they say that we should wait until they are adults to teach them those things. I find that this approach fails on two fronts: (1) children often have less resistance to big biblical truths like God’s sovereignty, and (2) adults often have more resistance to those same truths because they have never heard them before, and they are more suspicious of them the later in life that they learn them.
We must acknowledge the link between authority and arrogance. It is not arrogant to believe in divine authority; it is arrogant to believe in our own authority. Faith comes into the picture in both of these options because we have to trust something. Are we going to trust our own reasoning (lean on our own understanding) or will we trust God’s thoughts? Which is broken—us or the Bible? Jesus claimed that the “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
Take the famous example of many roads leading to heaven. All religions are like many roads on a misty mountain that all lead to God. Some claim that all religions have grasped something true about God, but all of them are incomplete. They use the analogy of blind men that are all feeling different parts of an elephant. One feels the legs of the elephant and says that God is like a tree trunk. Others feel the trunk of the elephant and say that God is like a hose, and so on and so forth. The point people are trying to make with this example is that all religions have part of the truth. It would be arrogant to say then that only our views are right.
It sounds good at first glance, but upon further reflection it is extremely arrogant to make this claim. Here is why. You are claiming that you alone see the whole picture and know it is an elephant. How did you come to see it all? Why is everyone else missing it? You are saying everyone else is blind and groping in the dark, but you can see what these poor blind people are failing to see. You are claiming that you alone see it. So we should just trust your perspective.
It is not arrogant to assume that God alone has a God’s-eye view that can see the entire picture. Christians believe in divine authority, not our own authority. This is a sign of humility, not arrogance. We are not leaning on our own understanding but trusting in His. We believe that Scripture gives us the words of eternal life. The Bible is clear that eternal life comes only through Jesus. He is the only way to the Father.
Conclusion
The Lord’s Supper
We confess that together every time we take the Lord’s Supper. Life is only found in him. All other roads do not lead to God—they are dead ends that lead to everlasting death. Are you ashamed of Jesus’ words that life is found exclusively in the gospel and not anywhere else?
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.—John 3:18
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son does not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”—John 3:36
The story is told of a man that had only one son. The father and his son loved each other very much. One of their favorite things to do was to collect great masterpieces of art. Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc. They would buy them and then put them in their living area and just sit and talk while admiring the great works of art that surrounded them. World War 2 broke out, and the son had to go to war. They were able to carry on a fairly consistent correspondence of letters when all at once—the father stopped receiving letters from his son. The father feared the worst as the silence lengthened. Then one day there was a knock at the door. A man dressed in military uniform came to the door holding something behind his back. He said, “It is a privilege to meet you. You do not know me, but I knew your son (the father noticed the past tense way he was talking about his son). We used to talk about the great love that you two shared and also your great love for great works of art. Well sir, I am not a great artist, but I painted you this picture of your son. He stepped in front of a bullet and died saving my life. It is not much, but I would like you to have this painting."
The father thanked the man and put the painting up above his mantle. It was his favorite painting until the day he died. After his death, they auctioned off all of his great works of art. People came from far and wide. The auctioneer began the auction with the painting of the man’s son. People grumbled a bit because they did not come to bid on the work of an amateur artist; they came for the masterpieces. The auctioneer continued, “Come on, who will bid? Five dollars then? Five dollars for the painting." People in the crowd got a little more irritated. No one wants it! But the auctioneer lifted up his voice, “The son, the son, who will take the painting of the man’s son?” Finally, someone in the back raised their hand. Going once, going twice, sold to the man in the back for five dollars. At that the auctioneer put down his gavel and declared that the auction was over. Pandemonium broke out as the place almost came unglued. "What do you mean? We came here to bid on all the other great works of art." The auctioneer said, “I was given explicit instructions in the man’s will. Whoever got the painting of the man’s son got everything."
God the Father says the same thing in his Word.
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.—1 John 5:11-12
The Lord’s table is only for those that believe this testimony: life is found only in Christ. This bread, which represents his body, and this cup, which represents his blood, are the only source of life. You could go other places, but they are all dead ends. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.