Responding to The Bread of Life
John 6:60-71

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. A quick review of where we are in John 6.
We're at a point in John's Gospel where we have been reading of the light coming into the world, light revealing itself to darkness, and darkness not receiving it, not comprehending it, and rejecting it. That has been the thesis of John's Gospel. As we saw in chapter 1, He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. We have seen that illustrated throughout this section in John 6. After the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, the people seek Him with only selfish motivation, the physical motivation of having their bellies filled.

At this point many disciples are turning away from Jesus, and it is not just the hard-hearted people that are rejecting Him. Even disciples who have been following Jesus are turning away. Why are these disciples turning away? What has happened to cause them to turn from following Jesus? We are going to look at John 6:60-71 and consider why these disciples are leaving and the warning for us.

John 6:60-71. “60. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 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. 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.) 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.”
66.After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 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.” 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.”[ESV] We will look at this final scene in the chapter that spends time on the bread of life, and we're going to notice two aspects.

I. Reaction of the False Disciples - The first aspect that we're going to notice is the reaction of the false disciples. We have seen in this story how there is a mirror to the wilderness wandering.

A. Jesus made the parallel that - I am the true bread that has come down from heaven. I am the one who gives you true life. Those who were in the wilderness, ate the manna and they died in the wilderness. Another parallel that is just as strong is the reaction of the people. Grumbling. There has been disputing and grumbling.

1. We saw in verse 41, the Jews are grumbling about what Jesus said, that He is the bread of life that has come down from heaven. It happens again in verse 61. Jesus knows within Himself that His disciples are also grumbling. They say in verse 60. “This is a hard saying and who can listen to it?”
2. What they are saying is not… Jesus just said something that I do not comprehend. -- What they're saying is what Jesus just taught is unacceptable. We do not receive what He has just told us. The reason why we know that is because of Jesus' response to it. He says, “Do you take offense at this?”
3. They understood exactly what Jesus is saying. The problem is they don't like what He's saying. Do you take offense at this? Is this a problem for you? Is this too difficult for you to recognize and accept Me as the bread of life?

B. Recognize what Jesus is doing here. Jesus has been, throughout this chapter, underlining what the true call of discipleship looks like. Jesus has repeatedly shown that you are not able to casually seek Him to simply consume the blessings that He has to offer.

1. That's how this all started. These people have come looking for Jesus because they want Him to feed them again. Jesus simply will not cave into that because their motive, their heart is wrong. They are not seeking Him for the right reason.
2. He is showing that being a disciple is not simply just looking for Jesus and enjoying His blessings. True discipleship is not about obeying the part of what Jesus is saying that you like, and then disregarding and ignoring the things He says that you don't like.
3. Jesus has said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you're not going to inherit eternal life. You're not going to be part of the kingdom of God. You're not going to be raised up on the last day. He has taught that our lives are to be consumed with Christ, that we are to eat, drink, breathe, live Christ, that everything about us is all about Christ. People say that's too much. What you have called for us to do is unacceptable. Jesus is showing that true discipleship is not about obeying the laws we like and disregarding the laws that we don't like.
4. It seems to me that many people today think that is the way Christianity is. Find the church where you like the rules they keep, the preaching is easy, and then go there, and you'll be happy. If you don't like what they say, that's OK too. Just find someplace else where they have what you like. That is not how discipleship works. You don't get to pick and choose how you follow Him. We are seeing in this that discipleship is not just saying you're a follower.

C. These people seem to be disciples. The text even calls them disciples. How long have they been following Jesus? We don't know, but here they are simply different than the rest of the group. They are not unbelievers. They are not of the world. They have been following him. They've been listening to him. They have seen the miracles.

1. Yet, we see that simply saying that we are a follower and belonging to a group of disciples does not make us a disciple. What Jesus says here is going to thin the herd in a hurry as many turn away. Jesus is looking for faith. He's looking for trust, obedience, love, and service. Even in the face of challenging teachings and the difficult concepts that He would give.
2. In the scriptures we sometimes highlight the things that are important to us. We tend to focus on the things that are easy for us. However to talk about things that are difficult and zero in on texts that give us trouble, that point out our sins, that is hard. Both Mark and I find we profit the most when we work on lessons that are more difficult.
3. Also, it's important for us to recognize that Jesus is calling us to have Him as the only answer. He is the bread of life, even when what He says is not popular, is seemingly unacceptable, and is very difficult to obey. There's a lot of things that Jesus tells us to do that are very difficult. Things like forsaking your father and your mother, putting Christ first and leaving all else behind. Very difficult things, and yet this is the call for true disciples.

D. Here is the picture of disciples who do not accept what Jesus is saying. With Jesus response in verse 61, John clues us in with some interesting information. “But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?” I recall that in John 2:23-25 we read; 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. He knows they're not true disciples. This is another group where He knows what is in their hearts, and He does not entrust Himself to them.

1. Jesus does not simplify His message. He does not water down His teaching to make sure that these disciples don't leave. The message is the message. The results of that message are what they are. I love how He says it at verse 62, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” You think it's hard to consider Jesus as the bread of life, how about Him being the eternal divine God? Watching Him return to the very place where He belongs, and sitting down on the throne that He deserves, and taking up the glory that is rightly due to Him. He makes it more difficult. Rather than simplifying the message, He is trying to break through our spiritual dullness.
2. In verse 63 Jesus explains why His disciples are turning away from Him. He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Here's the reason why you're turning away from me. You don't understand what it means to be a disciple. The flesh is of no help at all in this matter. It is about the Spirit who gives life. We recall earlier in this chapter that He's expressed this idea twice. In John 6:28. “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” What are the works that we need to be doing? Here's the work of God, believe in Him whom He sent, believe in Jesus.
3. Then again in verse 44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Now He gives a similar statement. The Spirit is what gives life. The flesh is of no help at all. He's trying to help them see what they are lacking, and I believe He is referencing Ezekiel 36.

E. If you put a marker in John 6 and turn to Ezekiel 36, I’m going to look at a couple of verses, but I think the whole paragraph is important.

1. The context in Ezekiel 36 is a declaration of the wickedness of the people. You can look back to verse 17, where He speaks of how they've defiled the land with their sins and their wicked ways. God says, now because of your sins, here's what I'm going to do. It is not because you are good people deserving of anything, but for My own sake. You see that in verse 21.
2. Then continue reading at verse 22 and I’m not going to read this entire text because of time constraints.
3. In verse 22-23 God begins with; this isn't about you. This is about God. God's name must be vindicated, and God's holiness must be seen. You've desecrated My name with your sins, and I'm going to act for My namesake and not for you.
4. Continue to read the powerful message Ezekiel gives in verses 24-32.

F. Thinking about what Jesus is doing in John and what is here in Ezekiel, we see the concept of the spirit being put within people. An extremely rare concept in the Old Testament. Note the message, particularly from verses Ezekiel 36:27-28 where God says, I'm going to put a new heart in these people. There's going to be a new heart and a new spirit within them.

1. We also notice in verse 27, that God says He would cause His people to walk in His statues. What God is going to do is put His laws in their hearts and cause them to obey Him. This is going lead to a whole new, different kind of people, not like the people that He's dealing with in Ezekiel.
2. God is going to do something resulting in a new heart in these people, a new spirit will be within them, His laws will be on their hearts, and it will cause them to walk in His ways. Think about that along with what we're reading in John 6. The Scriptures indicate many times that we're not going to find life by simply willing the flesh to “do” the law.
3. Why do we have the idea that if we tried a little harder, we'd be able to obey all the laws of God? The Old Testament has given us a record of how that doesn't work. Part of what the law of Moses does is show we can't keep it perfectly. We should, but we don't. Hebrews 8:7-8. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” What was the fault? “For he finds fault with them…” verse 8. The problem is us. The problem is we don't do it.

a) The problem is we listen to our flesh. Our flesh does not want to do the will of God. Our flesh wants to do the will of the world, the will of Satan, the will of sin. We have a problem. We come to Christ and then say; isn't it wonderful that Christ has saved us? Now perfectly obey the law.
b) That's a great ideal, something to strive for, but it's not going to happen. It didn't happen before, and it's not going to happen now. Something radical must take place that goes beyond just saying, okay, today I'm going to obey the law of God.
c) If that's all that is needed, then why are we failing so much and so often? Because we have a flesh problem. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Paul in the book of Romans talks about the war that goes on within us and the issues that stand before us. I think this is exactly what it means in verse 63 when it says, it is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help at all. It's recognizing where we stand. We need God's intervention.

G. Jesus is talking to Jews who are coming from the law of Moses who think that they are good, righteous, moral people. They're doing A-OK, and they don't need a Savior. But they are not ok. They, and we, need God to intervene. What Jesus is teaching here is valuable. He says it is the Spirit who gives life. Think about what Ezekiel said. What is going to happen? I'm going to have a new group of people in this new covenant.

1. These people are going to have a heart that is responsive to the laws of God. They are going to listen to what God has to say so that God will be able to etch His laws onto their heart. These people in the old covenant haven't done that. They have not been listening to God. They have not been responsive to God and their sins are filled to the uttermost.
2. Imagine if you were there in the days of the law of Moses and under that covenant, how is that going to happen? What is God going to do that's going to radically change everything so that we will obey? So that we will have His law on our hearts and we will follow Him? Verse 63 gives the answer. “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” That is a powerful statement.
3. Jesus says, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” my words are spirit and life. Christ was going to come and teach the ways of God and exemplify the laws and ways of God and act in such a way so that we will be compelled to want to follow Him. It's the essence of the cross.

H. Every week we look at the cross and think about what He's done. We remember, and that is such a massive motivation. It's no longer we'll do the law because God said to do the law. That's pretty hard. Just do it. Okay, but I fail constantly.

1. What is going to be the transforming act that would cause me to want to obey God's law? Christ is. His love, His death, His resurrection, and in particular what Jesus is highlighting here, His words. Ezekiel says God's going to put His spirit in His people. How's God going to put His spirit in His people? Magically? Mystically? No. Jesus gives a clear answer. By His teachings. My words are spirit and life.
2. Never underestimate the power of the words of Christ. We need to let the words of Jesus rest in our heart. Meditate on them, focus on them, so that we will desire Him and want to consume our lives with Him. This is the means that God has given. We know that when you tell people - what you need to do is read your Bible more, that usually is turn-off. But it is the answer to; What do I need to have deeper faith? What do I need to do to draw closer to God? What do I need to do to feel like I'm in His graces? What do I need to do to experience His mercy? What do I need to do to be part of His grace? What do I need to do to experience the Kingdom of God? – His words are spirit and life.
3. People don't often like that answer. We want magic pills or a list of, do this, say this, act like that, and it will all be easier. Throughout this chapter, God is underlining over and over again the way that you belong to Christ, have a relationship with the Father and participate in His Kingdom, is to consume the bread of life and that life comes through His Word. That is how God writes on your hearts.

I. The more you learn about Him and grasp His love, listening to what He has to say, the more you will be compelled to follow Him. It will no longer be simply; there's the rules I've got to keep the rules. Rule keeping does not work with human beings very well.

1. What's going to change? God is going to display His immense love through His Son on the cross and reveal the amazing message of grace to radically change people's lives to desire Him and follow Him. If we do not have this love to consume him, then it shows that we are merely practicing external righteousness which does not give life. Jesus and His words alone give life.
2. False disciples of Jesus do not cling to God’s word. They do not recognize how wonderful it is to consume Christ. If we do not respond to the bread of life by desiring him, consuming him, and having His law in our heart, then we are not true disciples but false. The words of Jesus are the vehicle of the transformation of the heart from stone to flesh that gives us life and spirit.
3. If we're not desiring God, not consuming Him, and if our life is not wrapped up in Him, desiring His laws, desiring to learn about Him and consume all that He has to say, it is an enormous red flag for discipleship. We may think and say we are a follower of Him but simply practicing external righteousness, without the heart that seeks Him and desires Him and loves Him - will not bring us life. We cannot turn what Christ has done for us into simply saying, if I do X, Y, and Z, I'm A-OK.

J. That's what this is about and Jesus highlights this in John 6:65-64.

1. First reading verse 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.”” He said that in verse 44. It's not going to be possible for us to come to Christ unless the Father does something. Then shows how are we drawn by the Father to Christ. They will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
2. We need God to give us a solution, and that is Christ, in Christ's sacrifice, and in His words. It is the Word of God that does it. Look at verse 64. “But there are some of you who do not believe…” John then explains; “For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.” Judas. What made Judas different from the rest of the apostles? Why talk about him right now? We are talking about false and true disciples.
3. Judas heard the teachings of Christ, just like the other 11. He saw the miracles of Christ. How could Judas do what he did? He was right there.
4. He did not allow himself to be taught by God. There is a way to hear the message of Christ, hear His words, and yet it will do absolutely nothing to our lives. It can just be words on a page, and it doesn't penetrate the heart. Think of the parable of the different types of soil.
5. The Word of God is seed that's being cast everywhere, and it in those who are the good soil where it begins to sprout and grow and bring in the fruit. Judas listened, He's seen, but he hasn't been taught by God. He hasn't allowed it to become transformative to him, and the point in verse 66 is the same. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

K. A grave warning to us. Is consuming Christ too much to ask? The disciples that leave say; Who can listen to this? It's too difficult. Who can receive what He's just taught? The answer is… many cannot. This is a serious challenge. What they wanted, Jesus was not going to give. They wanted things to be easy. They wanted the physical. What Jesus is willing to offer, they won't receive. He wants to give them life, and they will not take it.

II. Reaction of True Disciples – The second aspect we look at is the reaction of the true disciples. Verse 67, “So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”” Imagine watching this throng of disciples all just quitting and walking away. I wonder what the twelve felt like as they watched this enormous crowd just dwindle down.

A. Jesus is asking, has My call for discipleship been too difficult for you too? I love Peter's response. Verse 68. “… “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.””
B. Peter's answer. Where are we going to find eternal life but in you? Who are we going to turn to but you? It doesn't matter how challenging Jesus is. There's nowhere else to go. What a great statement that Peter makes. He understands exactly where he stands. I know they're all leaving Lord, but you have the words of life. Where else are we going to go? Your words give life transformation. Your words give us hope. Where are we going to turn? – We must believe that truth. There is nowhere else to go but Christ.

CONCLUSION:
We are looking at the distinction between the false disciples and the true disciples. What can we do to see Jesus as the bread of life and let God write His law on our hearts?
First - we need more prayer. Pray to God for a softening of your heart. Prayer is so important to the Christian walk. Pray to God the words a father declared to Jesus. “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Tell God your weaknesses and your struggles.

Second - what we've seen throughout this chapter is read the Word of God, but don't just read the Word of God. Read it with purpose. Read it with great intention. Take just a few verses, read them and think about them. Meditate on them. Pray about them. I suggest that is important to letting the Word of God into your heart. It is so easy to treat the Bible like a novel. Read it as fast as you can. Don't do that. Slow down.

Pick a Gospel and read through it slowly. Read a few verses and think about what is being said there. Don't just read over it, let it soak in. What does that mean? What is happening here? What is God trying to teach you? These are the things that God has given us for greater faith. Give yourself more time in prayer and give yourself more time in God's Word. You will deepen your faith.

His words bring us to faith, and His words help us grow. May we see that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through a knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

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Reference Sermon: Brent Kercheville