John 6:60-71 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.
INTRODUCTION
Happy Palm Sunday. We’re glad you’re here to worship with us at the beginning of Holy Week. Holy Week, as you may know, marks the week between Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem (on Palm Sunday) and His resurrection from the dead (on Easter Sunday). The Thursday of that week is known as Maundy Thursday. It’s the night in which Jesus gave the Lord’s Supper to the Church, was betrayed, and arrested. And we call the Friday of that week, Good Friday. That is the day on which Jesus was crucified.
To better understand and celebrate these things, we invite you to come back tonight at 6:00pm for our kid’s Easter program where they’ll tell the story of Easter through drama and music (with snacks after). In addition, please consider coming back on Thursday night for our Maundy Thursday service from 6:30-7:30pm. There, we’ll sing together and consider more carefully the events and significance of Holy Week. And above all, we’d love for you to come to our Easter breakfast (8:45-10:00am) and worship service (10:30) next Sunday.
In one sense, all of life is a celebration of our risen Lord. Every minute of every day is a chance to praise the One who defeated death and purchased forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration to all who will receive Him in faith. In another sense, however, it is good and right to join with the saints of old and the saints around the world today in setting aside a particular time to name, explain, and celebrate the person and events at the heart of our faith.
With all of that, this is not exactly a Palm Sunday sermon. That is, as you can tell, our passage does not deal directly with the events of Palm Sunday. Indirectly, however, it helps prepare us for Palm Sunday. In particular, it helps us make sense of how the crowds could be so enthusiastic about Jesus on Sunday and then so demanding of His crucifixion just a few days later on Friday. And in that, it helps us to avoid their error and instead embrace Jesus for all He is and does and commands and offers.
What I’m trying to say and what I want you to see, is that in a very real way John 6 is a prequel to Holy Week. At the beginning of John 6, like in the beginning of Holy Week, the crowds adored Jesus for seemingly giving them what they wanted (food in John 6 and a conquering king on Palm Sunday). But by the end of John 6, it had become clear that the food Jesus offered wasn’t quite what the crowds expected, even as Good Friday made clear that He wasn’t the kind of Messiah they expected either. And for that reason, the crowds began to turn from Jesus in our passage for this morning, just as they did in Jesus’ last days. In other words, this passage is a Palm Sunday passage in that it helps us make better sense of how Palm Sunday turned into Good Friday.
The main point of this sermon continues to be that Jesus will receive all who come to Him, granting them eternal life. But we must also see that (1) all must come to Him on His terms; only His terms, and all His terms, and (2) that the ability to understand and gladly accept Jesus’ terms is a gift of God. This proved too much for many who had set their minds on a different kind of Provider-Savior-King, but to some it was the words of eternal life.
A BRIEF REVIEW
To make sense of our passage for this morning, and to get out of it all that’s in there, we need to be familiar with all of John’s Gospel up to this point, and with the rest of John 6 especially. In case you’re just joining us or in case your memory isn’t awesome (like mine), I want to quickly bring you up to speed by providing a brief review.
John 1-5 Review
The primary content of John’s Gospel is a bunch of stories about Jesus that most clearly show Him to be who He is—the long-promised Messiah/Christ. And the primary purpose of behind that was to help his readers (including you and me) trust in Jesus as the Messiah/Christ so that we can have everlasting life in Him.
To properly orient us, in the first 18 verses of the Gospel, John penned a kind of theological treatise—a kind of 10,000′ flyover—of the person and ministry of Jesus. In it, he declared Jesus to be the Word of God, the means by which God created all things, and the life and light that overcomes death and darkness. John went on to explain that even though Jesus had eternally existed as the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, He had actually come to earth and taken on flesh so that He might dwell among us as an example to us, and then die and rise for us.
From there, from 10,000′ all the way down to the ground, John began to recount the main events of Jesus life and ministry. He started with the fact that God sent someone, John the Baptist, to announce the coming of the Messiah and prepare the way for Him. John wrote several paragraphs (in the middle of chapter 1) on the ministry of John the Baptist. We’re told that he had spent his time fearlessly calling God’s people to repentance, baptizing those who did, and announcing the imminent coming of the Messiah.
The Jewish leaders had already taken notice, sent men to investigate, and were growing in skepticism.
And then, in spectacularly humble fashion, Jesus appeared on the scene. When John the Baptist saw Jesus simply walking by, he immediately declared Him to be the One he’d promised, the One he’d been sent by God to prepare the way for, “the Lamb of God,” and the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
Throughout His early ministry Jesus traveled throughout the entire nation of Israel. His ministry consisted of three main elements. He called a specific group of twelve men to follow Him (the Disciples) and revealed certain things only to them. Second, Jesus taught ever-growing crowds about the kingdom of God, calling them to follow Him as well. And third, Jesus performed many signs and wonders to bless people and validate His claims. In the first five chapters, He turned water into wine, cleared out the Temple of sinful money changers and exploitive businessmen, revealed to people the secrets of their hearts and minds, and healed the sick and dying. He also taught of the need to born again by the power of the Holy Spirit and that it was the love of the Father that sent Jesus into the world to save the world.
Early in His ministry, John recounts, Jesus even went into Samaria—a land of Jews who’d intermarried with pagan people and their gods, and who hated and were hated by the rest of the Jewish people because of that. He went there to proclaim the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God to all who would receive it in faith.
And all of this happened as Jesus traveled from south to north and north to south over and over again.
During this time some truly believed in Him and followed Him. Some believed they believed, but showed themselves to be unbelieving believers. Some were initially curious, even following Jesus for a time, but were ultimately unconvinced or unwilling to accept all of Jesus’ terms. And some, especially among the Jewish leaders, were outright hostile, even devising plans to silence Jesus because they believed Him to be a blasphemer.
In simplest terms, John 1-5 is the story of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth; one in which He made spectacular claims about being the Christ, performed spectacular signs to back up His claims, and was met by a myriad of responses ranging from whole-hearted devotion to murderous hatred.
John 6 Review
Our passage for this morning can only be truly understood in light of all of that, along with the dramatic extension of it in the first 60 verses of chapter 6.
In those verses, John explained to his readers that a large crowd gathered in light of the remarkable things they’d heard from, heard about, and seen in Jesus already. When it became know that Jesus was in their town, they sought Him out to see and hear more. And Jesus didn’t disappoint. He received them and added spectacularly to the growing list of sings and wonders He performed in the power of God. Somewhere around 20,000 men, women, and children showed up. He taught them and then miraculously fed them all abundantly from a few pieces of fish and bread.
Amazed, the crowd sought to make Jesus king “by force.” Before they could, however, He sent His disciples away by boat and slipped away to pray by Himself.
While the amazement of the miraculous feeding was certainly still at a fever pitch in the Disciples, Jesus poured gas on their fire by walking halfway across the Sea of Galilee to meet them in their boat in the midst of a storm!
And with the amazement of the miraculous feeding still at a fever pitch in them, the next morning, noticing that Jesus and His Disciples were gone, many from the rest of the crowd set out to find Him. Once they did, they began questioning Jesus further. And here’s where we really need to lean in to understand our passage for today.
As was often the case, the crowds who had come to Jesus for one thing, got something else entirely. Instead of being flattered by their attention and pandering to them because of it, Jesus began by rebuking them for coming to Him for nothing more than to have Him fulfill the desires of their flesh. Instead, He said, they should have come to Him to be eternally satisfied. And that comes ultimately by eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood (make sure you go back and read/listen to Pastor Mike’s sermon explaining what Jesus meant in last week’s sermon—he did a great job).
If that sounds kind of crazy to you, it did to those to whom Jesus first spoke those words as well. In fact, Jesus taught that sin’s corrupting effect is such that His words will only and always seem crazy to everyone apart from God drawing them into belief. And that’s where we pick up in our text this morning. The crowd that Jesus miraculously fed, enthusiastically sought Him after He left, found Him on the other side of the lake, but then eventually rejected Jesus because His teaching, claims, and terms were too much for them.
REJECTING JESUS (60-66)
Look now to v.60 as we begin to make our way through this passage with all you just heard as the backdrop. Again, having just been told by Jesus that rather than offer unlimited fish and bread, He offered His flesh to eat and blood to drink, having just been told by Jesus that He was greater than Moses, having just been told by Jesus that He came down from heaven, and having just been told by Jesus that He alone offers eternal life and resurrection on the last day, the crowds were understandably a bit dazed and confused.
60 When many of his disciples heard it [therefore], they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
Truly, that’s a lot to get your head and heart around. It’s what they’d been waiting and praying for, for centuries. But now that it was right in front of them, in an entirely unexpected form and with an entirely unexpected message, they doubted and complained rather that trusted and rejoiced. V.61 makes that plain.
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?”
Clearly, the response of the crowds was not one that honored Jesus or the Father. They shouldn’t have taken offense, but they did. They shouldn’t have doubted, but they did. They shouldn’t have complained, but they did. The passage tells us that these were people who had chosen in some sense to follow Jesus (“his disciples”), but also that they were now beginning to have second thoughts.
Jesus’ next reply only further upped the stakes. He basically said, “If you think that’s a big deal, wait until you hear what’s next. If you have a problem believing what you’ve already heard, you’re never going to believe what I’m about to tell you.
“Do you take offense at this [the things I’ve already said]? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
What did Jesus mean by this question and why is it even harder to believe that He would ascend to where He was before? It means that if the crowds were having a hard time hearing and believing that Jesus came down from heaven (38) in order to offer Himself as food and drink (35), that He was greater than Moses (32), and as the only means by which mankind can be saved (39-40), then the idea of Him accomplishing all of that by dying on a cross, rising from the dead, and then ascending again to the Father’s side, would have seemed 1,000 times more scandalous and preposterous.
Death on a cross was for the lowest of the low, not the promised Messiah, they believed. The Messiah would save by conquering and destroying, not by being conquered and destroyed, they believed. If the very idea of Jesus being from God was too much, they’d never accept that He’d soon return to God after having been handed over to the most humiliating death.
Grace, the only reasonable response to this is to wonder, “Who, then, can be saved?!” Who can believe such things? How do we come to the place where this not only makes sense, but seems so obviously true that we’d bank our entire and eternal lives on it? Jesus’ next words confirmed the fact that this is the right question, in that in them, He answered that question.
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.
In other words, you can’t do it on your own. In your flesh, you cannot overcome the blinding, deadly effects of sin. It is the Holy Spirit of God alone that gives sight and life.
I absolutely love how simply one commentator explains this, “However much men and women are commanded to believe, and are held accountable for their unbelief, genuine coming to faith is never finally a matter of autonomous human decision” (Carson, PNTC, 302-303).
We must choose to trust in Jesus and if we don’t we will remain in our guilt, but the ability to make that choice, Jesus said repeatedly, is a gift of the Spirit. When the Spirit gives that gift, even the “hard-to-listen-to” things of Jesus become clear and sweet and life! Evidently, Jesus already knew there were many of His “disciples” who had not received this gift, for He said,
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.”
In another example of His supernatural ability to know the hearts of all men, Jesus acknowledged the unbelief of many in the crowd (including one of the 12, Judas) and let them know He wasn’t surprised by it.
And here we are again. Jesus offers Himself to all of us. Holy Week is the great reminder of that. But He offers Himself to us on His terms—whole-hearted trust in all He is and says. Is that the kind of faith you have? Is it the kind you’re praying for, for your kids and neighbors, your family and friends? Is this what Holy Week is about for you or is it primarily nostalgic and sentimental?
One of the best ways to tell is by how you respond to the commands of Jesus, the Bible’s descriptions of the character of Jesus, and the trials that come your way. Do you view His commands as optional? Do you pick and choose which ones you’ll obey and when you’ll obey them? Do you focus on the more palatable claims of Jesus? Do you ignore the ones that speak of His holiness, wrath, and imperium? And what happens when things don’t go the way you planned? Is your happiness based on your sense of how things should be and go? Do you ever take “risks” for the sake of the gospel? Is your life primarily focused on maximizing your comfort and safety?
If your answer is increasingly no to these kinds of questions, it is a gift from God and your faith and salvation are genuine. But if you’re stuck in “yes” to many/most of these questions, please soberly consider v.66.
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
An important thing for us to see here is that just as there are unbelieving believers (people who believe they believe in Jesus, but don’t), there are also discipleless disciples (those who follow Jesus as long as His terms match theirs).
May the fact that different versions of this keep coming up in John’s Gospel be a warning to us. If you are a “disciple” of Jesus only where it nicely and neatly matches up with your own sensibilities, you’re probably a discipleless disciple. That may be jarring to hear, but it is good news in that by realizing it you are now invited to repent of your unbelief and turn to Jesus in genuine faith. Would you do so today?!
You may have heard the famous sermon where the pastor passionately reminds his people, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!” The point of that catchy phrase is that although our Savior will die a criminal’s death on Friday, we need not fear, for He will rise from the dead on Sunday and all who longed for His appearing will be raised with Him! That is good news for all who truly believe.
Grace, this part of our passage is the reverse of that. If I had more fire in my logic, to help you truly appreciate the gravity of this passage, I’d bellow out, “It’s (Palm) Sunday, but Friday’s coming!” That is, for all of those who love Jesus only for what He can give (as did the crowds at the feeding of the 5k and during the triumphal entry), the suffering that comes with it will drive you away. If you only believe in Jesus when He calls you to things you’d do on your own, you will not stand the test of the trials that Jesus endured and promised His followers. If you only love the kind of Jesus who brings you the victory you’ve concocted on your own, you will turn away when you find that the “victory” comes through dying.
BELIEVING IN JESUS (67-71)
There were many who turned away because they had not truly received the Spirit’s gift of faith and, therefore, were unwilling and unable to see the greater glory of what Jesus offered than that which they desired in their flesh. But were there any who had received it and would remain? Jesus turned to the Twelve and posed that exact question to them.
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
Again, there’s an important distinction we need to make. Not all disciples are disciples. In his first letter (1 John 2:19), John said it this way, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” True disciples are those who remain faithful, not those who are merely willing to follow Jesus on their own terms. True disciples accept all of Jesus and His commands as good and right and binding, and Jesus’ forgiveness for when we fail and His strength to repent.
Though many left and proved themselves to be discipleless disciples, Jesus’ true disciples, spoken for by Peter “68 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.’”
May God grant all of us the life and sight to see these great, twin truths: (1) Jesus alone has the words of eternal life, and (2) Jesus is the Holy One of God, the promised Messiah who would save the world from our sins. He did for eleven of the twelve. But the chapter concludes by making it clear that one more would walk away though. In the most treacherous, treasonous act of all time, eventually Judas would join the crowd. Jesus knew this and still chose Judas to follow Him (vs.70-71). (We’ll consider that more carefully when we get to chapter 18).
CONCLUSION
I hope you are easily able to see the fact that this passage is a precursor to Holy Week, and as such it is a Palm Sunday passage. I hope you are humbled by the unbelief of so many as Jesus proverbially moved them from the high of Palm Sunday to the low of Good Friday, in order to reveal the (in)authenticity of their faith; not as a way of cutting them off forever, but as a way of inviting them into the genuine thing and of bringing them to the highest heights of Easter Sunday!
Jesus will receive all who come to Him, granting them eternal life. But all must come to Him on His terms; only His terms, and all His terms, and that the ability to understand and gladly accept Jesus’ terms is a gift of God.
It’s Sunday, but Friday’s coming. And for all who will received a mocked, beaten, crucified, resurrected Messiah, that’s good news because Friday is the only way to Sunday and the everlasting life Jesus purchased for us.
With that, let’s ask God for the race to trust in and obey Jesus where the crowd failed. Let’s eat His flesh and drink His blood; that is, let’s acknowledge that in Him alone is true satisfaction and salvation and let’s do so this morning by taking part in the meal He gave us for just that purpose.