What We Need (John 6:60-71)

So we're gonna pick up here where Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

He's been teaching them some hard things, not hard to understand, but hard things to accept.

And in this crowd, there are the 12 disciples, there's this larger group of disciples, there's these religious leaders, people that just want to see what happens next, people that are looking for a free meal.

So that's kind of what we've been covering so far in chapter 6.

We pick up in verse 60.

It says, Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, This teaching is hard.

Who can accept it?

Jesus, knowing in him that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, Does this offend you?

Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

The Spirit is the one who gives life.

The flesh doesn't help at all.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

But there are some among you who don't believe.

For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.

Verse 65.

He said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.

From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.

So Jesus said to the twelve, You don't want to go away too, do you?

Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom will we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

Jesus replied to them, Didn't I choose you the twelve?

Yet one of you is a devil.

He was referring to Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, one of the twelve, because he was going to betray him.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for these verses that you've given us for this morning.

Lord, I pray that you would accomplish everything that you desire in this passage within each one of us and within our church as a whole here this morning.

So would you encourage, would you convict, would you shape and do everything that you desire in each one of us?

And Lord, as you tell us to do in Scripture, we want to pray for our leaders, for our president, for the candidates for president.

We want to pray for our governor, our mayor, our city council, Lord, our school board.

Lord, we we know that there is corruption in this world, that sin runs rampant, and we can see this and we can get caught up in it and allow it to steal our joy and all of those things.

But Lord, I pray that you would remind us that you are on your throne, that you would remind us to pray for these people, that you would remind us that you work all things together for good for those that love you.

That you would remind us that you steer the hearts of our leaders like you steer the way that a river runs.

So, Lord, our hope and our faith is in you, and I pray for our leaders that they would come to salvation, that they would come to know you, that you would draw them, even through the events of yesterday, that you would draw them closer to you, and that you would have your perfect will and way in our nation, but Lord, more importantly, in this world.

But we depend on you.

We trust in the plan that you have and all that you're doing behind the scenes that we can't see.

But we know you're on your throne.

So would you help us to live our lives like that and to have the joy and the peace that only you can give us, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So we're finally going to finish chapter six today.

Four weeks later.

It feels like we've been in it even longer than that.

But as we've said, chapter six is one continuous thought about physical bread versus spiritual bread.

We've seen, you know, the last three weeks that Jesus is trying to help these people decide if they really want Him or if they only want what He can physically give them.

And today we'll see how Jesus is a truth teller, in love, of course, but he's a truth teller to the point that he's okay with losing some followers if they're not interested in him and the truth that he's teaching them.

You know, think about it.

If Jesus was trying to make this crowd bigger, he would have given them what he wanted.

Literally.

And he would have accepted the earthly kingship that they were trying to force him into just the day before.

But instead, what Jesus does, as we're going to see, is he doubles down on the truth that brings life.

And he's okay with those that have false motives moving on from his ministry.

Really moving on from him as their rabbi.

And I don't think it was without emotion that all of these things happened.

I think it must have broken Jesus' heart to see these people not accept the truth and not accept him.

Because he desires that none should perish.

He didn't want to give these people a false hope that he would become what they hoped instead of what they needed.

So last week Ben covered our third section of John where Jesus proclaimed that we must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood to have eternal life and to remain in him and him remain in us.

So these are some hard teachings that Jesus is giving this crowd.

And if that sounds really weird and disgusting, you know, this whole thing about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, go back and listen from last week because it's all symbolic, and we're not going to be touching on that today.

But just know that Jesus is the bread of life.

He is our spiritual sustenance that we cannot live without.

And if you know that, then you'll be good before listening to last week's sermon.

But it was a hard teaching nonetheless.

And this crowd that just wanted to take him by force and make him their king starts to realize that Jesus is not the Messiah that they were hoping for.

Instead, he's the Messiah the Old Testament pointed to.

And many we'll see weren't interested in him once he became what the Old Testament was actually talking about.

So they respond to all of this in verse 60.

They say, it says, look at it with me, verse 60.

Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, This teaching is hard.

Who can accept it?

You know, I think when we think of disciples, we tend to go straight to the twelve, usually, don't we?

But Jesus had many more disciples at this time.

And disciple just means someone that was literally following him as their rabbi, as their teacher.

And disciples followed their rabbi with the goal of becoming just like their rabbi.

So they followed closely to learn from the everyday actions and activity of their rabbi.

And that number for Jesus of disciples started to grow and to grow as people saw the signs and as they saw the miracles and as their bellies began to be fed.

But Jesus is about to make that number much smaller.

They said, This is hard.

Like I said, not hard to understand.

It's hard.

Who can accept it?

They said.

And the word hard here in the Greek when referring to things and not people, it means violent.

It means rough, offensive, intolerable.

So these dissenters in this crowd understand what's going on.

They just don't know if they can accept the hard things that he's saying.

So what do they do?

They start to grumble.

Just like their ancestors did in the wilderness.

And they didn't find God's provision to be what they wanted in the desert, and now they don't find God's provision to be what they wanted once again.

Look at verse 61 with me.

Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, Does this offend you?

Does it offend you that I'm the bread of life that came down from heaven, you know, speaking of pre-existence?

Does it offend you that no one comes to the Father except through me?

Does it offend you that I am God and the Son of God, and I'm the prophet that Moses prophesied about?

Does it offend you that I will not become your earthly king that will overthrow the Roman occupation?

Does it offend you that I'm not going to fulfill your expectations of what the Messiah should be?

Does it offend you that I said you must eat of this flesh and drink of this blood, so you can remain in me and I can remain in you?

Jesus is rocking their world right now.

He's rocking their beliefs, their expectations of what the Messiah should be, and many at this point are really struggling with all that Jesus is teaching them.

Hard teachings.

Jesus goes on in verse 62.

Then what if you are to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

That being heaven, of course.

He is the bread from heaven.

And I think this statement would split people into two camps when he says this.

Those that would believe him even more if they saw him ascending to the right hand of the Father in his glorified resurrected state.

And those that would be even more offended.

You know, they are already offended by him saying that he came down from heaven, you know, speaking of that pre-existence with the Father.

So how would they feel now with him claiming to go back, that he was going to be going back?

You know, and this same group would probably be even more offended if he left this earth without fulfilling their expectations, without overthrowing the Roman government and then establishing his own earthly kingdom at this time.

You know, in a way, Jesus is helping those that would be offended by him being the true Messiah by offending them now.

Instead of waiting for them to be offended when they stand before him in judgment.

He would rather people deal with the offense of truth before the final judgment.

You know, instead of allowing them to live in this false hope that they're living in, these people are about to move on from Jesus.

And he's gonna allow that.

He's gonna allow them to be offended at this point.

But he's offending them and he's giving them a lot to think about.

You know, they just witnessed the miracles and signs of Jesus, accompanied by the truth of the gospel.

That just crushed their expectations.

So I imagine some very sleepless nights, or a lot of sleepless nights, are in store for these people.

A lot of conversations are probably going to take place as they're walking away from Jesus and heading to probably towards Jerusalem for the feast.

And then it's probably followed by a lot of questions that hopefully they go and they search the scriptures to answer for themselves.

I think a lot of these people left offended because the teaching was hard, but it wasn't for nothing.

I have to think about how many of this crowd actually became a part of the church, the early church that came to faith after Jesus was resurrected and ascended to Jesus.

You know, the truth of the gospel offended these people.

And the truth of the gospel will offend people today as well.

But I think the truth of this is it's better for people to be offended by truth in love always, for them to be offended now than at the judgment seat when it's too late.

You know, this is not a call for us to be offensive jerks for Jesus.

To yell at people just to make sure that they get good and offended.

That's not what this is.

We need to follow Jesus' example here and offend with the gospel.

We should never be the offense.

The truth of the gospel needs to be the offense.

He offended them with truth in love.

He offended them because he loved them so much.

Look at verse 63 with me.

The spirit is the one who gives life.

The flesh doesn't help at all.

So remember, chapter 6, Jesus is trying to convey to them the difference between physical bread and spiritual bread.

He's really separating the physical from the spiritual for them.

And he comes right out and he says it here.

The spirit is the one who gives life, eternal life.

The flesh doesn't help with eternal life at all, he says.

You know, it's really quite the opposite.

Our flesh longs for satisfaction, and it keeps longing for more.

Whether it's food or whether it's sin, our flesh is never satisfied.

It's Jesus that gives satisfaction and the spirit that gives life.

It reminds me of Romans 8.9, which says, But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.

Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his.

And if you're not his, you don't have eternal life.

You see how that works?

You either live for your flesh or you live for the spirit.

One leads to death, one leads to life.

Now let's look at the whole of verse 63 together.

It says, The Spirit is the one who gives life, the flesh doesn't help at all.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

You know, so much of John comes together right here, I think.

Jesus is telling him, the words, the truth that I've been teaching, address the spiritual.

You want bread, but you need the bread of life.

And these teachings may be hard, but they are the truth that leads to eternal life.

So, really, who cares if they're hard, right?

They need to respond to his word if they want eternal life from him.

And that's the whole message that Jesus is bringing together here.

But, verse 64, look at that with me.

But there are some among you who don't believe.

For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe in the one who would betray him.

You know, we learn here in a few verses that it's actually many that don't believe, that will turn and walk away.

And one of them that doesn't believe is one of his own disciples.

You know, it's comforting to me that Jesus picked Judas.

Jesus was not caught off guard when Judas betrayed him.

It wasn't like, oh man, I, you know, I thought he was going to help allow the foundation of the church.

I really messed up in picking that disciple.

That is not it at all.

You know, and there's all kinds of speculation as to why Jesus chose Judas to be one of the twelve disciples.

But from my perspective, I wonder if he simply did it for us.

You know, so we don't feel like a failure when we pick a bad elder or a bad ministry leader or a bad office admin that starts to embezzle from the church.

It's comforting to know that one bad apple doesn't sink or derail an otherwise healthy ministry.

Or that one bad apple, you know, it doesn't mean a whole ministry is corrupted, or that others in that ministry can't be trusted.

Jesus had a hand-picked bad apple in his ministry, and I personally just find that comforting to know those things.

Look at verse 65.

He said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.

Now, Ben put this so well last week.

You know, we want to clutter this statement with questions of predestination and free will, but put simply, the Father draws people to Jesus as the source of salvation.

The only source of salvation, the only way to the Father.

God draws, but we still have to come to Jesus for salvation.

You know, we talked about this extensively in chapter 5, how Jesus and God are this package deal, right?

They're one God along with the Holy Spirit working in perfect unity, and you don't get one without the other.

God grants and draws people to Jesus as the source of salvation.

And then people come to the Father through accepting Jesus as the only source of salvation, which then leads to the Holy Spirit indwelling us as a seal of that eternal life that he gives.

It's really we're seeing the Trinity working in unity here.

Look at verse 66.

From that moment, many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.

Jesus was sifting his followers.

He was sifting out the people that just wanted more bread or wanted entertainment.

You know, it's said that toward the very end of the Roman Empire, that Roman authorities were providing free bread and entertainment to the citizens.

So, you know, think Colosseum and things like that.

And they were doing those things to distract them from the deeper issues of the Roman Empire.

Conversely, there was a crowd following Jesus for the free bread and for the entertainment for the miracles.

And Jesus wanted them gone because they were a distraction to the deeper issues that he was trying to teach to his disciples.

He wanted the people that were following him to follow him for the truth of what he was saying.

He wanted followers that heard the hard teachings and still said, I will follow you.

You know, and that it's that's true today as well.

He doesn't want these lukewarm people that want food, entertainment, and Jesus.

You know, as people that have an attitude, you know, as long as Jesus behaves himself, I'll follow him, you know.

Those types of people can cause harm in a ministry.

And Jesus will just as soon sift those people out for the sake of those that do have pure motives, and that's what we see him doing right here.

So picture in your mind the synagogue, and just one by one, people start to filter out of this synagogue.

Many in the crowd start to filter out.

Look at verse 67.

So Jesus said to the twelve, You don't want to go away too, do you?

You know, and there's a few interesting things here.

This is the only time in John's gospel that Jesus addresses the twelve disciples specifically.

Where he singles them out and talks to them specifically.

You know, and this sounds like a question, but it's really a statement the way that Jesus says this in the negative.

You don't want to go away too.

And then the question comes in, do you?

Because Jesus knew this already, that they didn't want to go away.

You see, Jesus only wants committed followers that can hear the hard truths, that can go through the hard things, that can weather the biggest storms and still cling to him.

These disciples just went through the storm in a boat, and then they heard these really hard teachings from Jesus, and they're still clinging to him.

Look at Peter's response here in verse 68.

Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom will we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

You know, and for us today that can identify with Peter constantly sticking his foot in his mouth, I just want to well, I just want to yell, like, yes! Peter finally said something right.

You know, go, Peter.

But I have to think this is exactly what Jesus was looking for.

What Peter says here.

You know, notice Peter didn't answer, you know, where else would we get bread, Jesus?

Or where else would we find our entertainment?

Where else will we go and find somebody performing miracles and signs?

He says, You have the words of eternal life, spirit and life, as Jesus said.

And Peter goes on in verse 69.

He says, We, so this is not just Peter.

He says, We have come to believe, and then he says, and know that you are the Holy One of God.

The disciples, you know, at least in this moment, know that Jesus is the Messiah.

They're gonna struggle with doubts and fear, they're gonna struggle with their own unmet expectations, they're gonna even abandon Jesus for a moment when he's arrested.

But they're trying their best, they're wanting to follow Jesus' heart's teaching, they're willing to go through these hard trials as we've already seen, and they want with all of their heart to stick with him for the rest of a time.

So we have to at least give him credit for that, I think.

But Jesus asked the question, and Peter responds correctly.

Look at verse 70.

Jesus replied to them, Didn't I choose you, the twelve?

Yet one of you is a devil.

Think less Satan, more false accuser, when he says one of you is a devil.

Verse 71.

He was referring to Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, one of the twelve, because he was going to betray him.

So I want us to think about Judas.

He's in this really close proximity to Jesus for all this time.

He's following him, he's hearing all of these teachings, he's witnessing all of these signs and these miracles.

Yet he's still living for his flesh.

He's stealing from the money bag, betraying Jesus for motives that we still don't know.

They were never stated the why behind him.

But he's an example of somebody that knows Jesus well.

He knows Jesus personally, face to face, and he's still living for his flesh.

Yet he's still counted among Jesus' disciples.

You know, I think this is an example of someone that doesn't give himself or herself and surrender themselves completely to Jesus.

You know, Judas knows Jesus, yet he lives for himself.

He had the appearance of a disciple.

I'm sure he looked the look, talked the talk, walked the walk, but was found out in the end of what he was truly living for.

And I'm not saying this so that we can doubt our own salvation and all ask, like, wait, am I a Judas?

That's not the purpose.

If you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you are not Judas.

But I bring this up for two other reasons.

Really, to put us on guard that just because someone says they are a follower of Christ, it doesn't mean that they're living for Christ.

The second reason that I'm bringing this up is so we can ask, you know, what have we not surrendered to God?

What flesh are we still living for that we haven't given completely over to Him?

Because as Jesus said, our flesh is of no help at all.

In 63, he said, the Spirit is the one who gives life.

The flesh doesn't help at all.

I want you to look up earlier in the chapter, verse 56, and we'll read 57 as well.

So chapter 6, verses 56 through 57.

Jesus says, The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father.

So the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

Now the entirety of chapter 6, I think, really comes down to remaining.

Some translations say abiding in Christ.

He's all we need.

This is what Jesus is trying to communicate to this crowd.

He is our spiritual sustenance, the bread of life.

John 15, 5 says, this is our same verse of our church.

I am the vine.

You are the branches, the one who remains or abides in me, and I in him produces much fruit because, and this is important, you can do nothing without me.

This is the attitude that Jesus is teaching here in chapter 6.

You know, like we depend on food to keep our bodies alive, we need to depend on him for eternal life.

I want us all to think about what happens when we go without food and water for an extended amount of time.

We get weak, we get cranky, sometimes we get disoriented.

You know, for some of us that's happened since breakfast hours.

We need to depend upon Jesus in the same way for our spirit.

Realizing we can do nothing without him and we can't last in this world without him.

That we get weak and that we get disoriented spiritually without him.

We need to recognize that we need all that he provides for us to survive.

And we need to be abiding in him like the branch depends upon the vine.

You know, I had a great illustration in my yard earlier in the week on Monday.

You know, I have these table grapes that I grow in the front yard.

And I just did a little bit of pruning on Monday to increase the airflow and push some more nutrients into those grapes.

And I put a pile of these branches on the ground, and by the end of the day, the branches that were no longer abiding in the vine, they had already shriveled up.

They started to brown, you know, in the course of just hours with the extreme heat that we were in.

That's what it looks like spiritually for us to not abide in Jesus Christ, to not depend upon him for everything.

Because, what does it say?

We can do nothing without him.

That's what Jesus is communicating to this crowd.

And I'm like, I don't know.

This is hard.

I think I'm done, Jesus.

I'm just gonna go the other way.

This is hard to accept.

And Jesus was willing to do that.

He was okay with those people being offended then and going and thinking about all of this stuff, and then hopefully coming back to him at some time.

And I want to remind us too of what Peter stated in verse 69.

He said, We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

And I bring us back to that verse because I want to make sure that every one of us can say this before we leave today.

That Jesus is all we will ever need.

And if you haven't come to that place of conviction in your own life, of understanding and of belief of this, Jesus is calling you, just like this crowd, to partake of the bread of eternal life.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through him.

And he's offering eternal life with him forever, just like he was doing with this crowd.

If you simply confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

And Jesus is offering that to you right now.

He wants to begin this abiding relationship that we've been talking about all morning, where you will have everything you've ever needed in Jesus Christ.

And if you're here today and you're already walking with the Lord, but maybe there's some dependence upon other things that are not completely coming from Jesus, those are the things that we need to surrender.

So that we're making sure that everything that we are existing on is coming from Jesus.

That we don't have these little other things that we think that we need, that we have dependency upon.

We need to find that abiding relationship in Jesus Christ and in nothing else.

So would you please pray with me?

Oh Lord, would you help us?

These are hard teachings.

Lord, it's so easy to become dependent upon something else, whether it's a substance, whether it's a relationship, whether it's a thing, Lord, that we we long for, a thing that we have that we cling to.

Or would you help us to push those fleshly things aside, to surrender those things, to acknowledge that those things are not from you, and to cling to you for everything.

Depend on you for everything.

Lord, this is a uh a thing that's going to take the rest of our lives to figure out.

There's so many things that we don't even recognize that we are dependent upon right now, that we are, that take the place of you.

But God, we thank you for your patience, that you're willing to walk us through this process of sanctification, of becoming more and more like Jesus, more and more like our rabbi.

So would you find us here, Lord, as faithful disciples that are depending upon the Holy Spirit for life, depending upon the Holy Spirit for counsel and for everything that we need in order to become more like Jesus.

So I pray that our dependence would grow on a daily basis and that you would help us along in that process, that you would start even now to bring up the things in our life that you are ready for us to surrender and to get rid of.

Lord, and that we would be faithful to do that and to depend upon the work of the Holy Spirit in us to help us to do those things we pray.

God, you are so good and to know that you've given us Jesus as the bread of life for the sustenance of everything that we need spiritually.

We are so eternally thankful for that.

God, you are such a good and wonderful and loving Father.

And we thank you that you have called us to be your children.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.