Good morning church! If you’ve been tracking with us, you’re aware that we’re going through a series titled Believing and Knowing Jesus from the Gospel of John.
The apostle John wrote this book precisely so that the readers would believe and know Jesus. At the end of this book, he clearly states his purpose by writing:
John 20:30-31
[30] Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; [31] but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Believing and Knowing Jesus is the point of this book. So even as we prepare ourselves to hear from God’s Word, that should be the expectation in our hearts. That we would believe and know Jesus – that we would commit our lives to Him, entrust our lives to Him and know our Savior deeply and intimately.
So before we proceed, let’s ask God for help to understand this passage and apply it in our daily walk with Him.
Could you imagine people shutting their ears at the words of Jesus? Could you imagine people saying that they have heard enough of Jesus and can’t listen to him for a second more? Could you imagine people being deeply offended by the words of Jesus? And yet that’s what we see happening in our passage today.
What’s even more remarkable is the background context in which we find people being offended by Jesus. Just 24 hours earlier, many of them had witnessed an astonishing sign of Jesus feeding 5000 men alone (adding women and children – this could have been anywhere between 10-15000 people) by multiplying 5 barley loaves and 2 fishes. And it’s not as though they shared crumbs among themselves, the Bible says that the crowd ate their fill and were fully satisfied.
And so overwhelmed were they by this sign, that the Bible tells us that they declared that “Jesus is indeed the Prophet who was to come into the world”. Not just that, they were trying to take him and make him king. That’s the instant reaction that the people had towards Jesus 24 hours earlier!
Jesus’ popularity was at its peak. From a worldly sense, this was the moment when his ministry was supposed to kick off and go to a whole another level. And yet within 24 hours, in the eyes of this very same crowd, Jesus is no longer seen as their hero. He is no longer a candidate for kingship.
So what happened? Did Jesus change within 24 hours? Did people suddenly change within 24 hours? Or was it that people were always the same, but they never really, truly knew what it meant to follow Jesus!
And so that’s what we’re going to spend some time diving into today – what does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
3. Following Jesus is a gift from God (V60-65)
[60] When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
I want us to focus on a couple of words in this verse. “Many” and “disciples”. Like we’re not talking about a handful of people. We are talking about a large number of whom? Jesus’ disciples at the time!
These were not ordinary people who followed Jesus in the crowd. These were “disciples” or “learners” or “followers” who dedicated their lives to following the teachings and their lifestyle of their Rabbi – in this case it was Jesus. So we’re talking about dedicated students and disciples of Jesus.
And what were they saying? “This is a hard saying (harsh, difficult), who can listen to it?”
What hard teaching were they referring to?
John 6:41
[41] So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
The Jews basically grumbled saying “How can Jesus say that He’s come down from heaven when we know his biological father and mother. We know his home address. We know his family. How can he say that?”
John 6:53-58
[53] 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. [54] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. [55] For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. [56] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. [57] 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. [58] 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.”
They were wondering “Is Jesus talking about cannibalism here? Why is he telling us to eat his flesh and drink his blood? This is a repulsive, violent teaching.”
But was Jesus actually talking about cannibalism? No! So what does Jesus mean about feeding on him? We need to go back a few verses earlier.
John 6:35 ESV
[35] Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Jesus is using an analogy of something as basic for survival as physical bread to show how much they need Him for their spiritual survival and sustenance. If Jesus is the spiritual bread that our spiritual lives survive on, then feeding on this spiritual bread means what? Coming to Him & believing in Him. It means humbly approaching Jesus and committing your life, entrusting your life, surrendering your life to Jesus as the only source of your spiritual survival and sustenance.
Another verse in the same passage to help us understand what Jesus means by feeding his flesh and blood.
John 6:51 ESV
[51] 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.”
It’s clear that Jesus is talking about His loving, willing sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Let’s remember that Jesus didn’t go up on that cross because he committed a crime. He went up on that cross because we were condemned criminals before Holy God. We deserved to die. We deserved God’s anger. We deserved hell.
Romans 5:8 ESV
[8] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus went up that cross, bore our punishment and our sin and died in your place and mine. Every time we look at a cross, it’s supposed to be a humble reminder that we should have been there instead. But yet Jesus in His love stood in our place for us. He died for us.
He was buried in a tomb and then after 3 days He rose from the dead so that whoever may repent (turn from our sins and living for ourselves) and believe in what Jesus has done for us, would be saved and granted eternal life.
So is Jesus talking about cannibalism? Absolutely not. He’s talking about believing in His sacrifice for us on the cross and holding onto that as the only thing that we need for our spiritual eternal survival.
[61] But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
Because Jesus is God, He knows what’s going on in our hearts even before we say it. And so Jesus confronts his disciples by asking them “are you offended by what I’m saying?”
Which is an interesting statement about the human heart because it tells us that many times Jesus’ words and word of God will sound offensive to us (not because Jesus is trying to hurt us) but because it’s confronting the sins and unbelief of our hearts.
[62] Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? [63] 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.
Jesus is telling them that if the statement “I am the bread of life who came from heaven” is offensive to you, how will you respond when you will see me ascend and go back to heaven? And then in verses 63, Jesus diagnoses why they are finding Jesus’ words so offensive. It’s because they are still fleshy, earthly, worldly minded people. For them to receive and embrace what Jesus is telling them, the Holy Spirit will have to do something miraculous in their heart. The Spirit will have to awaken their hearts. The Spirit will have to pump new life into their hearts.
[64] 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.)
Because He is God who knows the end from the beginning, He’s not surprised or confused when people refuse to put their faith in Him.
[65] And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
It’s a huge statement that Jesus is making here. He’s saying that unless the Father grants permission, unless the Father allows, unless the Father enables, unless the Father gives the green light, no one can come to Jesus.
Now that’s a mystery that we can’t understand with our finite minds. I can’t claim to have all the answers today to be able to explain that to you. But we need to recognize that for a person to come to faith in Jesus, something has to happen outside of that person’s control, desire and ability.
The Father has to give the green light. The Spirit has to awaken the dead heart for the person to see Jesus as their beautiful Savior and Lord.
And if you’re a believer in the Lord, that should fill your heart with worship and gratitude – because we had nothing to do with this. And if you’re an unbeliever or want unbelievers in your lives to get saved, that should move you to earnest prayer because you can’t do anything in your own strength to make someone a believer.
2. Following Jesus isn’t a matter of convenience; it is a matter of conviction (V66-69)
[66] After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Again those two words “many” and “disciples”. These were a large group of people who followed Jesus for sometime but at this point they walked away from Jesus. Why? Because their commitment was not to Jesus, it was to their expectations of what Jesus should say and do for them.
As long as Jesus was saying and doing the things that expected him to do, they hung around. The moment Jesus started saying hard things, the moment they realized Jesus wasn’t giving them what they wanted, the moment Jesus started confronting their sin and unbelief, the moment they realized that following Jesus would mean wholesale renovation and change in their life, they walked away.
[67] So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
It’s amazing that Jesus would even ask this question to his twelve disciples when everyone else abandoned him. Is Jesus trying to reduce his team? But Jesus wanted to challenge them to ask themselves deep down why they were following Him? Is it because of some expectation? Is it because of something that they are expecting for Jesus to give them? Or were they following Him for who He is and what He came to do?
[68] Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, [69] and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
It’s such an amazing statement of faith in Jesus. Peter is telling Jesus that there’s no one else they can go to. It’s not because there weren’t any other options out there. There were plenty of other Rabbis.
But he was convinced that Jesus has the words of eternal life. Those these were hard and difficult sayings, it doesn’t make them untrue. Jesus sayings were true and would lead to eternal life. How was Peter so sure?
V69. We have believed (committed, entrusted, surrendered) and have come to know (ginosko – experiential knowledge or intimate knowledge through personal experience). In other words, Peter is saying that after spending time with Jesus, listening to Him and seeing His life, He’s convinced that Jesus is the Holy One of God. He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Son of God.
What if we were to ask ourselves the same question today? Why are you following Jesus today, what would you say?
3. Following Jesus is not a religious activity, but a relationship with Jesus (V70-71)
[70] Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” [71] He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
I find it so interesting that this passage on following Jesus ends in a very sad analysis of one of the 12 apostles. Jesus refers to him as “devil” which in the Greek which could mean slanderer or false accuser or someone who scatters and divides. And I think that is what is meant here – he had a divided heart with scattered desires.
Though he was one the Twelve, he had special access to Jesus and actively participated in ministry (he handled the ministry money (John 12:6) and he was sent out by Jesus to preach the good news, cast out demons and heal all kinds of diseases (Matt 10). Though it seemed like he was very close to Jesus, his heart was far away and was often divided and scattered. He never really followed Jesus. He was never really a committed believer.
And so that should leave us with a shocking warning that simply being around Christian things and activities will not make you a committed follower of Christ. Don’t assume that. Father has to give the green light. The Spirit has to awaken your dead heart. And Jesus needs to be seen as treasured and loved not because of your expectations but because of His loving, willing sacrifice for us.