PM Home Bible Study Group; November 14, 2012
John 6:41-59
Theme: Those who encounter Jesus Christ, and hear the things that He said about Himself, are put at the fork of a decision about Him.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Over our past few times together, we’ve been studying the dialog that the Lord Jesus had in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel with those who began to oppose Him. As we’ve noted before, this dialog can can be divided up into four stages of conflict: (1) the questioning stage (v. 25-40), (2) the murmuring stage (vv. 41-51), (3) the striving stage (vv. 52-59), and finally (4) the departing stage (vv. 60-66). We come now to the departing stage; and we can add to it verses 67-71, and the commitment that the remaining twelve disciples had made to stay with Him.
Together, they constitute one of the most surprising passages in John’s Gospel in terms of what Jesus reveals about Himself.
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People often have the idea that, if anyone simply looked into who Jesus is, and heard what He had to say about Himself, they would be inclined to believe. But this just isn’t true. All too often, people have held for years to a fictitious view of Jesus—a view that they may have made up for themselves, or that was passed on to them by others. But when they encounter Jesus as He is presented to us in the Scriptures, they are startled at what they discover and become very offended at Him.
We shouldn’t be surprised at this, though. He is called in Scripture “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (Isaiah 8:14; Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:8). As the apostle Paul made clear, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Jesus truly puts people on the forks of a decision. He presents Himself to them in such a way as to require that they answer His great question, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).
In the passage before us, we see how He confronted people with who He claimed to be. We’re told by John, “These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum” (John 6:59). It would have been a scene of mounting tension and controversy as He unfolded more and more about Himself.
And as this passage reveals Jesus to us; note how it shows us that . . .
I. SOME WILL STUMBLE OVER HIS HARD SAYINGS (vv. 60-62).
A. The focus had shifted from the people in Galilee that had seen Him feed the multitude with a few loaves and a few small fish, to the Jewish leaders, and now to those who were His “disciples”. As we read on in the text, we find that many people had attached themselves to Him and were calling themselves His disciples. But not all were following Him for the right reasons. Some, no doubt were following Him because of the miracles He had performed. Many were following Him because of their expectations that He would be the conquering Messiah they had hoped for. But as they listened more to Him, they heard Him insist that He was the ‘bread of life’, heard Him continually referring to God as His Father, heard Him say that He had the authority to raise people from the dead, and heard Him urge people to ‘eat His flesh’ and ‘drink His blood’. John— who was present to witness this conversation—said, “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can understand it?’ (v. 60). A “hard saying” is a “difficult” one—perhaps difficult to understand; perhaps difficult to accept; perhaps both. But it’s so often true that when people—even people who say they are followers of Jesus—discover what He truly says about Himself, they find it a hard pill to swallow!
B. The word that John uses to describe their reaction was to say that they “complained” or “grumbled”. And he tells us, “When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, ‘Does this offend you?'” (v. 61). The word in the original language that He used is the one from which we get the English word “scandalize”. It caused them to ‘stumble’. It ‘scandalized’ them that He would say such things about Himself. But He softened nothing of what He said about Himself. In fact, He took it a step further. He asked them, “What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?” (v. 62). If they were offended by what He was saying about Himself then, how much more offended would they be when, after He was crucified and raised from the dead, He ascended back to the right hand of the Father in a glorified, resurrected human body? They were scandalized by what He was saying about Himself; but if He proved those things to be true by His resurrection and glorification, then the fault was not in Him but in them.
C. Jesus, by His example, teaches us that we should never try to avoid the way that the Bible’s testimony about Jesus might offend people. We should never try to soften the blow, or leave things out, or try to ‘cut’ Jesus down in size in order to make Him more palatable to the tastes of people or to the values of the times. To do so is to present a false Christ. We must let what the Bible says about Him stand, and not try to prevent the truth from doing its work in people’s hearts. Many who may stumble today will perhaps—by God’s grace—be brought to the place of belief tomorrow. But will happen only through a clear presentation of the truth.
II. SOME WILL DISBELIEVE WHAT HE SAYS (vv. 63-64).
A. The words that He spoke were given to Him by the Father; and they had the effect of revealing what was truly in someone’s heart. Earlier in chapter 5, He told the Jewish leaders, “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe” (John 5:38). In a similar way, He tells these—who were ‘disciples’—”It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (v. 63). Man cannot, by his own fallible wisdom, respond rightly to the truth of God. As the apostle Paul wrote, it is “the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:7-11).
B. Something more, then, was being revealed about Jesus. Something was also being revealed about these ‘disciples’. They did not believe what He said about Himself. At the most basic level, a “disciple” would be someone who truly believed what Jesus said about Himself. But as Jesus went on to say about these ‘disciples’, “‘But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him” (v. 64). Just as “He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25), so He knew the unbelief of these supposed ‘disciples’. And now, because they were shrinking back from what He said about Himself, they knew too.
C. Later on, Jesus would say to some Jewish people who believed on Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). That’s the mark of a true disciple of Jesus—that he or she not only hears what Jesus says, but believes it and abides in it. We should never try to diminish that requirement in order to make it easier for people to declare themselves followers of Jesus. We should never ‘dumb-down’ discipleship. The requirement of believing and abiding in what He said is one that truly proves who is and who isn’t His disciple!
III. SOME WILL BE SO OFFENDED THAT THEY WILL TURN AWAY (vv. 65-66).
A. If what He had said to them so far had been offensive to them, it was nothing compared to what they were about to hear. Many of them followed Him because they truly believed that they had chosen Him. They believed that being His disciple was—at the most foundational level—a matter of their initiative. But then, as they began increasingly to back away from the “hard sayings” that He was declaring about Himself, He said boldly that some of them did not believe. One Bible commentator said that the text of John’s Gospel almost implies a moment of pause—during which that shocking statement sunk in. After a pause, we read, “And He said, ‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father'” (v. 65).
B. This is very much in keeping with what He had said to them earlier; “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (v. 37); and that “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him . . .” (v. 44). In other words, He was being so bold as to say that someone could only come to Him and believe on Him if it had first been given to them by the Father to do so; and if they had not come to Him, it was because it had not been given to them by the Father. John tells us, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (v. 66). Dr. Harry Ironside wrote, “And does that then shut anybody out? Does it make it impossible for some men to come? Does it mean then that there are some that God has decreed may come and some that may not? No. ‘Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.’ All may come if they will, but apart from the drawing of the Father none would come” (Addresses on The Gospel of John, p. 278). Any truly humble sinner may come to Jesus—whoever wishes to do so—and will find that they are fully accepted and forgiven. But a truly humble sinner who comes will eventually acknowledge that they never could have even willed to do so except by the grace of God.
C. Sadly though, this—along with many other such things that Jesus said—is enough to have so offend people that they turned away from Him and walk with Him no further. We should always seek to share what the Bible says about our Lord in a winning and winsome way. But when we faithfully do so, and it causes them to turn away from Him, we shouldn’t be surprised. It even happened to our Lord. We need to make sure that the offense is cause by the truth—and not by our manner of telling it. But we should never water the truth down in order to avoid the offense. No one who comes to Jesus can ever do so, ultimately, because of our persuasion; but only because the grace of God first worked in them to do so.
IV. SOME WILL BELIEVE HIS WORDS AND REMAIN (vv. 67-71).
A. Not everyone left. The twelve remained. “Then Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?'” (v. 67). And as so often happened, Peter stepped up and spoke for them all. “But Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (vv. 68-69). Some texts of the Greek New Testament have it that Peter said, “You are the Holy One of God”. Others have it that he spoke words very much like his great affirmation in Matthew 16:16. Certainly, in either case, he would be affirming the same truth about Jesus—that He is everything that He declared Himself to be. Peter and the others could go to no one else. No one else had what Jesus spoke— words of eternal life! No one else was what He is!
B. And then comes yet another revelation. “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (v. 70). The word “devil” means “accuser” or “slanderer”. The Gospel writer goes on to explain; “He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve” (v. 71). Even among those who remained, a further division was made. Jesus lets us know that, regarding everyone—those who may stumble, those who may disbelieve, those who may turn away, and those who may remain—Jesus knows who it is that He has chosen for Himself.
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It’s not for us to know what only the Lord Jesus knows. It’s only for us to sow the seed of the truth about Jesus faithfully—and to trust the truth to do its work in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the Lord Jesus supplied own best commentary on this passage when He said;
“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:18-23).
May we faithfully sow the word—even the hard sayings.