The Offense of Christ - John..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So I invite you, if you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to open them up to the gospel according to John, and we'll be reading from verse, it's actually chapter six, and we'll be reading the last 11 verses. So from verse 60 all the way through to 71.

So that is the gospel according to John chapter six. And we'll be reading from verse 60 all the way through to the end of the chapter. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying, who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before?

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. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who were, who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him.

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. So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, 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. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the 12? And yet one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him. Amen.

This is the word of our Lord. Well, we are all still in the sixth chapter of the fourth gospel, the gospel according to John. We've been here according to my memory, from the very beginning of the year, the first or the second week of the year. So I hope that because we've been in this chapter for so long, that the context is still fresh in our minds. Now, it's been a few months since we started, but we should remember the miracle of our Lord turning the five loaves and two fish to feeding the multitudes at the beginning of the chapter was what you may say was the springboard of Christ to launch into the momentous teaching on the very next day in the synagogue at Capernaum that we've come to know as the bread of life discourse.

Many thousands had been following our Lord and we don't know for how long. His Galilean ministry is about two years in. But we do know that they were deeply enamored by his miraculous power and his supernatural ability to heal the sick from various diseases. But it wasn't long into the chapter that we quickly realized through the words of our Lord that these people that followed him that they had set their hearts and their hopes on Christ for all the wrong reasons. Their affections were set on the physical and the material things of this world, and they quickly recognized that someone like Jesus would be able to fulfill those physical needs and make their lives so much sweeter.

For starters, they wouldn't have to worry about their daily fill. Jesus has proved convincingly that he could have that covered. Physical ailments and diseases, not a problem. His healing ability is like nothing they had ever seen before. How about Rome?

Well, something tells me that they were quite confident with Jesus. Jesus by their side, the ruling authorities, of Rome would not be an issue. This Jesus is the answer to their prayers, so they thought. But they had it all wrong. Our Lord was not interested in merely satisfying their temporal needs, and He can do that for sure, but He was far more concerned with the state of His followers' souls, or at least that they would know where they stand.

So time and time again, implicitly and explicitly, He warns them. Not to pursue the food that perishes, but to set their sights on the food which endures to eternal life. That food is, he says, is his flesh, for he is the bread of life. And unless one eats of this bread and drinks of his blood, meaning to look to him and believe upon him, that all his words, his life, is to be consumed by faith, to become an inseparable part of one's being. The soul is to be nourished by this Jesus.

One is to be united to this Jesus. He alone is the fountain and the source of eternal life. So one needs to eat of this bread and drink of his blood. But as the teaching of our Lord progressed, slowly his hearers, which started in the thousands, we know, probably as high as 15 or 20 thousands the day before, wane and wane. And they wane more so in number, not so much in number as in their belief.

Firstly, they could not bring themselves to apprehend the veracity of his declaration that he has been sent from heaven. You see, we see this in verse 42. These people were locals. And because Jesus and his family had made their home in Capernaum for some time now, they knew his family. And from their humble estimation, they could see that there was nothing remarkable about the family of Jesus Christ.

the usual flesh and blood human beings. So when Jesus said that he's from above, from heaven, they cannot receive these words. But that was only the beginning. Their carnal sensibilities were going to be offended even further in a few moments when our Lord declares, his flesh is to be eaten and his blood is to be drunk. for many of his listeners.

That was the last straw. But now from verse 60 onwards, our Lord emphasis, his emphasis is gone, gone from, from addressing the multitude now to, to being concentrated more on a more intimate group of people. And a group of people that the Apostle Paul, Apostle John, my apology, calls disciples. So from verse 60 through 66, it's these so-called disciples who are in view. Now, it's not the 12.

They'll come into view from verse 67. No, these are a larger group who'd been following our Lord, perhaps for some time now, as he ministered in the streets of Galilee. It's about now that our Lord is at the height of his popularity in Galilee. So it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that his followers were as many as several hundred by now. Quite a crowd he has amassed.

They had placed their hope. in him. They were hoping that this would indeed be the Messiah to redeem Israel once and for all. Now, I don't want the title given to them as the Apostle John does. The Apostle just did the title disciples to put you off.

In this gospel, the fourth gospel, according to John, the same term can be used for both genuine and non-genuine things. And in this case, genuine disciples and non-genuine disciples. It's always, always, as we read through this gospel, we must consider the context because it's the context that proves which one is which. The following verses of this passage leaves us with no doubt that these were false disciples. It's clear.

It's clear here that their profession was not genuine. On the surface level, they seem to be believers. But just like those who were said to have believed Jesus in Jerusalem, back in chapter two, if you remember, only to have their counterfeit faith exposed by our Lord's response, who did not entrust himself to them, so too here in chapter six, in verse 60, the response of the disciples will give their position away. Their response will expose the actual reality of their hearts. Verse 60, when many of his disciples heard it, that is the teachings of our Lord, they said, this is a hard saying, who can listen to it?

What was, what was the hard saying that they're referring to? The words of this man before them, that's what was hard for them to listen to because he was saying that there's a necessity for them to eat his flesh and drink his blood. You see, a literal physical understanding of the words of our Lord would definitely be disgusting. It'd be horrible to their sensibilities of these Galilean Jews. Torah observing Jews would have been totally offended by those words.

But of course, Jesus is using metaphorical language here. But the true meaning of his words was concealed to these men. Their response made it apparent that they were yet spiritually blind. Yes, they were called disciples of Christ. Yes, they had been following Jesus for a period, but yet blind.

in their understanding. Therefore, they could not, they could not understand the words of our Lord. Why? Because according to verse 63, our Lord's words are spiritual. This is so sad, beloved, because these people were self-deceived.

You see, they thought they'd figured it all out. they knew Torah, the writings of the great prophet, why they'd even only a day earlier, if you remember, declared that Jesus is not only a prophet, but the prophet. You know what I'm talking about? The prophet like Moses has been prophesied and promised back in Deuteronomy chapter 18. They declared this Jesus to be that prophet who was declared and promised some 1500 years ago.

And they weren't wrong, but they may have hit the mark with their identification of Christ, but their understanding of his significance was so superficial. In their minds, Messiah would rescue them from the oppression under the great enemy, Rome, and restore the promised land to its rightful owners. That's the Messiah they were looking for. They took the prophecies to be merely physical, literal, but their proud heart would not allow for a spiritual reality, a reality that is far more urgent for their soul than they could ever, ever imagine. These people had broken covenant with God.

These people were sinners and rebellious before God. Their desperate need was not for a Messiah to reclaim the land. That wasn't their desperate need. Their desperate need wasn't to be freed from Rome. Their desperate need, their immediate need was to be freed from the coming wrath of Yahweh upon unrighteousness, for which every single one was guilty.

But in their proud, stony hearts, they did not recognize that need. The irony is this. Back in Deuteronomy chapter 18, no doubt a passage that all of them were familiar with. Back there, the instruction given by Yahweh through Moses to the generation of people who would witness the advent of this great prophet to come was simply this, listen to him. That's right.

Listen to him. That was the instruction given to the people who would receive the prophet like Moses, because this prophet would have the words of Yahweh in his mouth. The words of God would be spoken from his mouth. Their obligation, their duty, their responsibility was to listen to him. So what was the response of these so-called disciples who had only a day earlier declared Jesus to be that prophet?

Well, the text tells us. They said, who can listen to him? In other words, we're not going to listen to this man. Can you see the irony? Even beloved, what seems so clear and literal in scriptures, staring them in the face cannot be fathomed or obeyed unless their spiritual blindness is taken away.

And until that happens, the carnal man or woman cannot and will not accept this Messiah. But then verse 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? The apostle John, in his purpose statement in chapter 20, and we've referenced this statement on no less than a dozen times as we've studied our way through this fourth gospel.

He has two points that are crystal clear about the identity of Christ in that purpose statement. The first is that Jesus, that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed, the anointed one of God. That's this Jesus. And the second is that He is the Son of God. Beloved, that He is divine.

And in verse 61, I don't know if you caught it or not, but there is a display of Jesus's deity right before our very eyes. But Jesus, it says, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this. You see, John is very, very careful to articulate on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was not, that Jesus knew, knew not because he heard them grumbling. He knew in himself. He knew because he knows all things.

You remember back in chapter two, where we're told that Jesus doesn't need anyone to bear witness about man, for he knows what is in man? He knew the reason for these disciples, or these so-called disciples grumbling, and he cuts straight to the heart of the matter. you take offense at this?" he says. Now the offense, As I said earlier, it's most likely the very things that the Jews in the synagogue at Capernaum were offended over.

Two things, one is found in verse 42, and they grumbled, we were told, they grumbled among themselves when Jesus said that he is from heaven. They weren't happy with Jesus stating that his origin is from above. They weren't happy. They weren't happy to hear that Jesus is saying, hey, I have come down from heaven. In other words, I was eternally with the Father in heaven.

They didn't wanna hear that. nor could they accept it. But the second point of offense is found in verse 52. And this is a deeper offense again, because our Lord says there that his flesh is to be even. So Jesus is aware of their thinking.

He turns and asks them, are you offended by my word? Are my words too hard for you to swallow? And then he says something profound, verse 62. And what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before? Now that's actually, a tough passage.

It's actually at first glance, we might not get immediately what Jesus is saying because there is more than one way to understand what he said here in the original. It seems at first glance as though Jesus is saying, okay, you were offended at my teaching. What if you were to see me ascend back to where I told you I came from, back to heaven? Back to my father. What if you were to see this with your very eyes?

Will that maybe reduce or even remove your offense? So as to suggest that Jesus is saying, if they were to physically witness him ascending in the clouds back to heaven, something like what beloved brothers and sisters, like what we read only a couple of Bible studies ago in Acts chapter one, where the apostles, the disciples saw Jesus ascend into heaven, something like that. If they were to observe that phenomenon, will that take away their offense? Well, will you now believe if you see me ascend like that? Is that what Jesus is saying?

Well, it's a possibility because this text can be read that way, but I don't think so. I argue, since when does our Lord ever suggest or even allude to genuine faith being the result of more physical evidence? Never. Physical evidence, the phenomenon, the sign and the wonders of our Lord may authenticate His words or His identity, but genuine faith requires a man or a woman to be supernaturally drawn by the Father through the Spirit. He's just taught that exact point back in verse 44 and 45, you remember.

So I don't believe I don't believe the explanation of our Lord's statement is saying that if you saw me as sin, surely now the offense will be taken away. So I, I submit that there's another meaning to what our Lord is saying. I believe that the words of our Savior and what he's most likely implying is this. that if these disciples that are before him, the so-called followers that are before him, who will eventually walk away, if they were to see his ascension with their very own eyes, that their offense would not diminish, it would not be removed, but rather it would be multiplied. Verse 62, in my view, can be read like this.

If you were offended at my words earlier, then imagine how offended you would be if you were able to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before. So let me explain why I believe this to be the case. The very thing that has offended these so-called disciples was the reason why Jesus came down from heaven. So in other words, the very thing that has offended these disciples earlier was the descension of our Lord. These men were not able to accept the teaching of our Lord, which is in essence found in verse 33, where it says, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Now, yes, the bread sent by the father from heaven is Christ, is his flesh. Jesus goes on to say, and yes, it's that flesh that is required to be eaten. Now, Now we know, we've studied that text, that the meaning here is that the life of our Lord and the words of our Lord are to be consumed by faith, to provide the soul satisfying spiritual nourishment and complete satisfaction for the soul. That's the spiritual meaning of eating the flesh. But they couldn't understand this and taking our Lord's words literally, they were quite offended.

We know that. But how could his ascension be of a greater offense? Well, I think the key in understanding this is to understand not so much how, how Jesus will be ascended into heaven, but rather the path he must take before he ascends. The Messiah that these disciples have in mind is God's chosen one. I mean, they knew the scripture, and they knew Messiah is the one chosen by God.

He's esteemed by God, and he will be esteemed by man. A great and powerful Messiah like that is certainly worthy of heaven. But what if, what if in about 12 months' time, these men are able to witness the sufferings and the humiliations and the shameful treatment of this Messiah who stands before them. What if they were to witness the way of his ascension back into heaven, which only comes through him being crucified as a criminal on the Roman cross? What would their response be?

They were told that this Jesus, despised and rejected by all men, would ascend to the glories of heaven as a crucified Savior. They would count that as blasphemous. You see, even to this day, they cannot fathom a crucified Messiah. The very thought is outright offensive to them. to see him ascend and recognize him as a suffering servant.

That's scandal of epic proportions and of the greatest offense to their religiosity and it is a scandal beloved and it is a scandal beloved. I agree it is a scandal. It's a mind-blowing scandal that this Jesus the esteemed son of God, the son of man, and the son of man, which is what he's called here, he calls himself, it's not only Christ's favorite designation for himself, but it has illusions to Daniel chapter seven, this king who all authority is and dominion is given to him and he reigns forevermore. This illusion is given by the title, the son of man. This is the messianic king and the object of the father's love, set by the father, from heaven, and he will only return back to heaven.

He will only ascend back to glory, the glory that he once enjoyed from all eternity, only after he bore the shame and the humiliation of dying a brutal, violent, bloody criminal's death upon a Roman cross. That's scandalous. And that is the inconceivable path that he must take before he ascends to glory. So I think Jesus is saying, if you're thinking that my saying to eat my flesh and drink my blood is offensive, then how much more offensive in your Jewish minds is the thought of an ascended, crucified Messiah? How much more of an insult to your sensibilities is to acknowledge the path back to heaven would come only after he dies, a death reserved for the scum of the world.

How offensive is it to acknowledge him as the suffering serpent, that it pleased God to crush him. If you witness What I must do, then see me ascend back to heaven. Your offense would be off the charts. A crucified Messiah, as far as they're concerned, is unworthy of heaven. And even now, they cannot acknowledge that a crucified Messiah ascends to heaven.

Is this not evidence in the apostle Paul's letter to the Corinthians when he writes, that we preach Christ crucified. It is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. And that stumbling block is further explained for us in the same apostles writings in Romans chapter nine. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling. It is a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

This rock of offense, the Ascended Crucified Messiah, is an insult for some, but to those who by faith have come to believe in his words, then the scandal of the cross is glorious. It's wonderful. It's magnificent, beloved. By faith, His resurrection and His ascension is a vindication that the righteous died for the unrighteous, that the sinless died for the sinner, that the holy for the unholy. Yes, it is a scandal.

Yes, it is an offense, but not against man. It's an offense against a Savior who was willing to be humiliated like this. It's an offence against a saviour who was willing to drink up the punishment and the wrath of God in full on unrighteousness. It's an offence to a saviour who bore our shame on that tree so that we can have faith. By faith stand forgiven and forever praise his unfathomable name.

It's an offence Not against us, it's an offense against him. And this is the good news, that he was willing, that he was willing to take upon himself that offense for the sake of wretched sinners. But there's good news. It cannot be understood by one's own intellect. Beloved, it's too amazing to be believed by our human faculties, whether it's the Jew or the Gentile.

And that's what it seems these so-called disciples were trying to do. They were trying to use their own intellect, their own understanding of what a Messiah ought to be. And that's why it resulted in offense. Because the Messiah they had fabricated in their own mind is not the true Messiah who stands before them now. This Jesus just does not stack up And so the natural response of a proud heart that doesn't like to be corrected is to be offended.

And so our Lord deals with the heart of the problem in verse 63, where he says, 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. Is that not the crux of the matter? The things of the spirit are discerned by the spirit and the natural man in Adam is as we've taught on many occasions before.

The biblical teaching is that the natural man in Adam is dead in his trespasses and sins. He is dead spiritually. And so to try to understand the things of the spirit using human abilities or intellects or the power of our own understanding or any physical or mental capabilities the faculties that we have is of no help at all. In other words, when it comes to the things of the spirit, the things of faith, the things of salvation, the things of eternal life, all of which are spiritual, the flesh is absolutely and utterly useless. It is the spirit who gives life.

A truth, if you remember, Jesus established already with the most learned of these Jewish men, the first century professor of theology, the teacher of Israel himself, Nicodemus, back in chapter three. He could not fathom the words of our Lord, the spiritual words of our Lord, when he said, ye must be born again. But Jesus said to him, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. So unless the spirit has produced a spiritual heartbeat, beloved, then Christ's words, no matter how profound, no matter how glorious, no matter how magnificent, will fall flat. In other words, it's completely useless to interpret the words to eat my flesh and to drink my blood in a literal, non-metaphorical way, as though Jesus was promoting some form of cannibalism.

That's not it at all. But when they are spiritually understood, because His words are spiritual, remember, then they are the means to bring dead souls into life, to consume His flesh, is to embrace his life. It's to embrace his work. It's to consume his word so that he becomes an inseparable part of who one is. You cannot feed on Christ without feeding on his word.

Deuteronomy 8, 3 tells us man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. And this is no different with what our Lord says in this passage. It's no different with the word incarnate. This gives some light to what Jeremiah wrote in the fifth chapter of the book that bears his name. Your words were found, he says, and I ate them.

And your words became to me joy and delight of my heart. You see, a proper understanding with the Spirit's illumination of what our Lord actually means, rather than being offended of his or by his words, One will embrace them by faith, believe upon Him, trust Him, and taste the eternal life, even from now, the eternal life that He promises. And why can they believe? Because He is the sole source and substance of that life. But Jesus, Jesus knows the sad reality of his listeners' hearts.

That's not a surprise to him. We've already established he knows what is in man. And then in verse 64, he says, but there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning those 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, unless it is granted by my father.

Did you hear that? He knows he knows who would believe, and he knows who won't believe. Jesus knows his sheep. He knows the real sheep, the real disciple, and he knows the ones that masquerade like disciples. He knows them.

He knows their counterfeits. He even knows, we're told here, the betrayer. And he is referring to Judas here because the word betrayer is in the singular when the others are in plural. The greatest, the greatest of counterfeit disciples was known to our Lord from when? From the beginning.

And he'll pick up on that in chapter, in verse 70 and 71, and we'll get to that soon. But no one, beloved, no one can pull the wool over the all-seeing eyes of our Lord. He cannot be mocked. From the beginning, he knows his own. From the beginning, he knows who would receive his word.

Because once again, in verse 65, Jesus reminds us that God is sovereign over salvation. He grants it. He gives it. Because there is no one, there is not a single surgeon in the whole universe capable of doing a heart transplant that is required to enable a wicked, rebellious sinner to receive Christ by faith. This can only be accomplished by God himself.

Only accomplished by God himself, whereby eyes are opened, lives are made from death to life, faith is given to receive the life-giving words of our Savior Jesus Christ. Without that faith producing, without that faith that was produced in the heart of the Christian, in one's ears are dull to the good news of the gospel. Yes, one could hear the gospel, but the words will just bounce off like, off the heart which is stony and lifeless. Why? Because the dead heart, the heart that is yet to be made alive is devoid of saving faith.

Listen to how the author of Hebrews puts it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them. Why? Why did the message not benefit them? Because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

Faith. Faith is only given to a regenerated heart. Only given to a heart that has been made alive to understand and to perceive and to discern the things of the Spirit. And when a divine work like that is done, When there is indeed saving faith, the evidence is not only that they come to Christ, but they remain in Christ. They remain with Him.

This truth was already spoken of back in verse 37, where we read, Christ saying, all that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. His sheep will come. He knows who they are. And when they come, hear this, they remain with Him. This is not because of their own ability, as we've already, as I've already said before, it's not because of their own strength, but because of His preserving power.

Jesus keeps them. Jesus guards them. Jesus feeds them. His voice is sweet to their ears. His words, life to their famished souls.

to eat true bread from heaven, beloved, is to remain with Him and constantly feed upon Him, to feed upon His words. There is food for the living soul nowhere, nowhere else. You see, the final test of a true disciple of Christ is that they will remain till the end. The final test of a true disciple, beloved, is that they will remain a disciple until the end. Listen to what our Lord says in chapter eight.

He says, if you abide in my word, if you abide, if you remain, if you dwell, if you live, if you constantly are found in my word, you are my disciples. Why would he say this? Well, beloved, if Christ, the incarnate word of God is indeed the only source of life giving food to one's soul, then to depart from him, hear this. To depart from Him and to depart from His Word is death. It's death.

Because there is life in no other. So here in verse 66 we read, what was the response of these disciples? Well, as I said earlier, We know the authenticity of them being called disciples, whether they're false or true. We know by either what Christ says or by their response to the word of Christ, the word of life. Verse 66, this is their response.

After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. You can be sure that what you see here in the mass defection of these men is this. Dead men walking. Counterfeit disciples who were in it for the ride. This Jesus was exciting for a while.

His exhibition of power to heal the sick. to cast out demons and to miraculously feed thousands was so exhilarating for the worldly man. This is a Messiah that we could follow. This Messiah has power to provide us with all the material and physical things they must have thought. Everything we can dream or imagine of a Messiah, we believe that Jesus can satisfy us.

It can satisfy the hunger of our carnal hearts. But when he begins to teach them hard spiritual truths, because he's concerned, remember, with the state of their soul, he's come to seek and save that which was lost. When he teaches them these things and begins to enlighten to them what type of Messiah he actually is, they begin to realize, hey, wait a minute, this Jesus doesn't stack up after all. He doesn't stack up to our expectations. And so then in that moment, their hearts are laid bare and exposed to be faithless.

So when the life-giving, life-sustaining word of our Lord is spoken, these so-called disciples cannot and will not receive it because they were not hungry. for this type of bread. They had no spiritual life to sustain. And so they turned their backs as though they had nothing to lose. And they walk away from life.

They walk away from light. And they walk back into darkness and the impending death. A sad, a sad day, really. In the space of what seems no more than 24 hours, Jesus goes from the height of his popularity in his Galilean ministry, where swarms of thousands upon thousands were following him, to now where only it seems a few men remain. Sad, when I say sad, I'm not speaking from Christ's point of view, of course.

His sheep are numbered. He's already told us that, and they will all, all come. But to think that the multitudes that were right beside him, they rubbed shoulders with the very author of life, and yet, at the same time, that was so far from salvation and eternal life. Indeed, that is sad. They failed the test of time.

For a while, they looked genuine. For a while, they looked authentic. But they didn't remain in Christ. His word did not abide in them, and therefore, they proved themselves not to be true disciples. We may know people like this, beloved.

People that we may have considered brothers and sisters in Christ. for years, even decades, people that we've known, and I'm sure we all know one or two or many of these people. And it breaks our heart to think about them, but they acted like Christians. They spoke like Christians. They came to church regularly.

They read their Bibles. They prayed daily. Beloved, I know one of one who evangelized the streets with me and from what I could see with my own eyes, he had a zeal for the Lord that put me to shame. For all intents and purposes, I was convinced that this person was a Christian, a man committed to Christ. But I was deceived.

But in time, his heart grew cold. His zeal and his fervor diminished. The sustaining, preserving power of Christ was not at work in him. It turns out, he was never a true disciple. What I saw was the work of the flesh, and beloved, hear this, that cannot last.

The flesh is of no help when it comes to spiritual things. You see, people like this can masquerade as disciples, as Christians, as followers of Christ, but they remain in Adam. And because they remain in Adam, their heart, their nature has not changed. And they will eventually return to feed their own desires, the desires of their own sinful nature. The desires of their own unchanged hearts, they will always revert back to what feeds their carnal desires.

Case and point of 2 Peter 2, 22, where he writes, the dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to the wallow in the mire. Counterfeits. We can be deceived, but not Christ. As I said earlier, you cannot pull the wool over the all seeing eyes of Christ. Pardon me.

And so in light of this mass defection, these multiples, I would think hundreds of disciples are now walking away Jesus now diverts his attention to the 12 and asks this piercing question, do you want to go as well? Can you imagine what's going through the disciples' mind right now? They still had a lot to learn, no doubt. They by no means had grasped at this point all that the Lord had taught them. We know that, we've read the rest of the gospels and we know for sure that they had a lot of questions at this point.

If they had any doubts about their master, what effect would witnessing hundreds of followers turn their backs on their master and walk away have on them? They walked away grumbling among themselves. Not neutrally, grumbling. as though their master was some sort of madman. And it's in this state of heightened emotion that Christ turns around and looks at his 12 and he says, do you wish to depart also?

Now we know from our study in the gospels already, and from verse 64 in this chapter, that Jesus already knew the answer to that question. He knows. He knows from the beginning who he is. So the question we need to ask is why? Why does he ask this question if he already knows the answer?

Well, beloved, It's the same reason the all-knowing God asks any question to anyone in Scripture. He already knows the answer. He already knows the answer. But He asks the question for the benefit of others. And here Jesus is asking this question for the benefit of his disciples.

You see, they need to know that it doesn't matter what others think. It doesn't matter what others are doing at this point in time. They already have seen the cards shown of the other so-called disciples when they walked away from Messiah. But you, disciples, will you walk away? The important thing is that they answer this question personally in their heart.

You see, the Lord's question demands that they articulate an answer because a simple no won't suffice. They remain. They'll need to know why they remain. Because being a true disciple, being a true disciple of Christ is not a path of least resistance. It's actually the opposite.

The path of the most resistance. Despite what we see, beloved, in the world today, true Christianity is not at all popular. It's not popular today, and it wasn't popular back then. If they hated our Lord, they will hate his disciples also. And the time of anguish will come for many, for many.

In fact, the anguish will come to any true believer, the Bible tells us this. And when that anguish comes, walking away from this Jesus, walking away from the faith is so much easier than remaining in it. Will we have the account of what the future holds for many of these disciples? And beloved, it's not pretty by worldly standards. How can it be?

How can it be pretty when the list of what they'll experience contains things like floggings, imprisonments, excruciating torture, and very, very painful deaths? That's going to be their experience. and the disciples who bravely answer, or the disciple who bravely answers our Lord in the very next chapter, little does he know that the terrible sufferings he and his family will endure for the sake of Christ. Oh, you better have a good reason for why you remain if that's what your future holds. And beloved, It's as true for them 2,000 years ago as it is for us today.

We don't know what it is yet that will come across our plate. We don't know what the future holds. But His word is clear that every Christian will suffer in this world. No exceptions. Unless there's an undeniable reason to remain in Christ, unless we have convictions that are set deep within our soul, the outcome would be no different to the defecting disciples who simply find the easiest option to simply turn their backs and walk away.

Because there will be times when to be Christian hurts. There is a cost to follow Christ. And at times, it will seem that that cost is far more than one can bear. The system of the world is not with us, brothers and sisters. We see, we see this even now.

Many secular academics and the wisdom of this age ridicule what we believe. The scripture is labeled foolish and archaic. Beloved brothers and sisters, there may be times you are ostracized for your faith, ostracized by the people closest to you, your own family, your friends, your colleagues at work, ostracized and belittled for not engaging in the worldly activities, in their conversations and the things they do, look down upon. There may be times ahead of us where real persecution comes because of following Christ. times that will be hard and unbearable.

The cost may be great. It may be that our jobs are on the line. It may be your reputation. It may be your freedom or even your own life. This was the case for the disciples.

And right now, as Jesus speaks to them, I cannot imagine that they fathomed what was to come. In the midst of pain and suffering for the faith, in the midst of that, one will realize that the pain can go away. All you need to do is take the pain-free option. And that pain-free option, beloved, for many is to turn one's back and to walk away from Christ. This will be the confrontation of every one of these disciples.

And beloved, every one of us will go through phases in our life where we will struggle immensely. And the question is, why will we remain? and I submit to you, if you don't have a true, deep, spirit-implanted reason to remain, then you won't. And my intention is not to cast any doubts, beloved. God knows that's not my intention, but my intention is that we all introspect to examine ourselves, because this is good and healthy.

Because if we are remaining in the faith, If we remain in His Word, if we remain in the church for any reason short of what is articulated by Peter's spirit-wrought confession in verse 67, then the outcome of our lives will be no different to the masses that have just walked away from the Lord. Because whatever reason these counterfeits were following Christ in the first place, it fell short of the ultimate reason of his incarnation. Because as I said earlier, he has come to seek and save that which was lost. In other words, he has not come to give people more stuff, but to give them eternal life. As one commentator put it, What about these disciples who walk away?

What they wanted, Jesus would not give. What he offered, they would not receive. Let's hear the confession, this glorious confession of Peter. Verse 67, Simon Peter answered him, 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. This is certainly a lot. There is a lot that Peter is yet to learn, but this confession is no doubt, no doubt, implanted in his heart by God himself. You remember back in Matthew 16? Back then in Caesarea Philippi, when our Lord looks to the disciples and he asks them who they think he is, you remember the confession of Peter back there?

Something similar, he says, you are the Christ. son of the living God. Then Jesus says something very, very interesting to him back there. He says, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, Peter, but my father who is in heaven. This is no doubt the same right here in chapter six, verse 67.

because the Spirit gives life and the flesh is of no help at all. These are the words of life and Peter believes because the Spirit has done a divine work in his heart. And then he says, Lord, to whom shall we go? I love that. Lord, to whom shall we go?

Now, this is not to suggest that Peter is saying that there is no other options, no alternatives, because we know in every generation there are alternatives. Back then, And now, remember the disciples had just walked away. They've just departed from Christ. They're going somewhere, aren't they? Back to old legalistic religiosity, possibly.

Others may end up joining cults. Some back to unbelief, but whatever they're going, they're going someplace else. The world is filled with alternative for a person to satisfy what their hearts desire. If it's things you want, you'll find a religion that promises things. If it's good pleasure, many cults promise this.

If it's licentiousness, then do away with God altogether and take up atheism. If it's prosperity, if it's wealth, if it's health, you'll find false religions that will offer all these things. There are many options and there are many places, but here's the thing. with Peter's eyes opened by the Spirit of God, he has come to realize that if it is eternal life for wicked sinners who deserve nothing but death, if that's the true desire of the soul, then there is only one option. One option, one source of life, one savior, one redeemer, the bread of life, Jesus Christ.

For you has, he says, he continues, for you have the words of eternal life. And we have come to believe. We have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. Peter gets it. He now understands.

He recognizes the truth of why all the alternatives are empty. They don't offer life. He can now recognize the hundreds of disciples who have now fallen away, had remained for a time for the wrong reasons, filling the blank. Whatever reason that is, it's the wrong reason. If you remember earlier in the chapter, actually way back in the second verse, we were told that thousands upon thousands had followed Christ.

Why? Why were they following Christ? Because the signs that he was doing. That's what we're told. And on the next day, we're told that when they do track back over to the Western side of the Sea of Galilee, some in boats and some by foot, a long way, they are confronted by a Lord in verse 26, for why they were pursuing him.

And he hits them right in the heart and says, you're doing this because you want to feed your bellies. Some follow for signs, some because of the physical provision. It doesn't matter if it's one or the other. If you follow Christ for any other reason than because He is the only Savior, He's the only bread of life, He's the only Redeemer, the only one able to forgive your sins and give you everlasting right life, you are following Him for the wrong reasons, for the wrong reasons. But realize, Peter, Peter, as a spokesman of the disciples, declaring his allegiance to Christ, he says, it's not because of the signs that he's done.

It's not because of the miracles. It's not because of the wonders. It's not because of what was accomplished just a day earlier, where he fed several thousand people. It's none of these things, but it is because of his word. Did you get that?

Why? Because in verse 63, the words that I have spoken to you, Jesus says, are spirit. and life." The words that I've spoken are spirit and life. Peter had been given ears to hear the words of life.

And although he was still a good way away from understanding even the confession of his mouth in its fullness, because that confession was implanted into his heart by the Father through the spirit. Into his soul, he was now spiritually aware of why it is that one must remain in Christ. He was made aware because that truth was now absorbed into his life. And now he knows that the words of this Savior Jesus generate life. The Spirit has confirmed this to his soul.

It's confirmed what our Lord had said to the Jews in Jerusalem only months earlier when he says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. The difference between Peter and the deserters earlier is that Peter had been given the ability to believe the words of Christ, but the deserters could not bear to listen to them. And in believing his words, he has come to believe that his rabbi, his master is indeed the Holy One of God, the one consecrated by God, the one chosen as God's Messiah. as God's Redeemer. He may not have fully understood the profoundness of his confession at this point, and he became clearer and clearer as time went on.

But the holy, righteous, sinless one from God would be the only one qualified to be the sin-bearing sacrifice for the unholy, for the unrighteous, and for the sinful man. Flesh and blood could not have revealed this to Peter. No, it must have been revealed by the Spirit of God. This is the Spirit's work. He's the Spirit's work.

It's a divine work by God. Unless Peter or any one of the 12 or the 11, because one is a traitor, any one of them think that they figured this out on their own, listen to what Jesus says in verse 70. And so we'll read 71 as well. He says, did I not choose you, the 12, and yet one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him.

Did I not choose you, Peter? Yes, your confession is spot on, but Peter, remember, it's spot on because I have chosen you. You have been chosen by God. But it's also interesting to me, it's interesting how the chapter ends, don't you think? It's a glorious chapter.

We've spent many, many, many months in this chapter, but look at how it ends. It ends. It seems to end on a somber note, doesn't it? The disciples or the other disciples had turned their backs and now they walk away because they couldn't receive the words of our Lord. But now, but now he ends with Judas.

It's Judas and he calls him the devil, the betrayer, this deceiver. It ends on that note. Because Judas doesn't receive the word of God. He doesn't receive the words of Christ. He doesn't believe in him.

He's a deceiver. He's a devil, Jesus says. But this is the thing, those other defectors, they came to a point where they could no longer listen to Christ. They came to a point where they came to a crossroad where what they believed was in conflict with what Jesus was saying, and they turned their back and walked away. But Judas, Judas didn't receive the words of Jesus.

Yet he remained. Yet he remained. That's interesting. This reminds me of Jude, when he writes of the certain people who crept into the church unnoticed, just like Judas was unnoticed by his disciples, or by the disciples, not by Christ, Christ knew him, but by the disciples. Jude says who long ago were destined for this condemnation.

So basically what Jude is saying is it is according to the will of God that these deceivers would be found in the church. That's hard for us to swallow, but it's true. And this is an example of this, that a devil is going to be found among the very intimate disciples of God in Christ. That one of his disciples is a devil. and he remains with Christ almost to the very end, unbeknown to the others.

He looks genuine for the most part. If you remember when he was found out to be the betrayer, the disciples didn't know who Jesus was talking about at that point in time. But when I think about why this chapter ends this way, I'm led to believe it's for two reasons, and we'll end with this. I'm led to believe both it's a warning to the church And it's a comfort to the church. I believe it's both.

A warning, because deceivers like Judas will lurk among the church. We don't know their hearts. They will look like the real deal to us. They'll look like disciples of Christ, like Christians, like beloved brothers and sisters, and we'll treat them that way. But unbeknown to us, there may be counterfeits.

There may even be wolves in sheep's clothing. And although the scripture, the New Testament in particular, speaks about a weeding out, for the most part, Christ does expose these people, but we also know that sometimes he won't. Sometimes, sometimes it's not in this age, but in the age to come that these people will be exposed. That's the parable of the wheat and the tares, remember, that's what that illustrates. So it's a warning.

It's a warning that this is a reality. It's a warning that we all examine ourselves to make sure that we are indeed in the faith, that we are walking and abiding in the word of God. But primarily, I think, that this chapter ends this way and the Lord ends this great, beautiful discourse, at least by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the recordings of John, I think it's a comfort to the church. You see, a major theme that's run throughout the sixth chapter was that salvation and life are found in Christ alone. And a major theme already, and we've discussed this on several occasions, is that it's a sovereign act of God, this salvation.

Those who are chosen are chosen from eternity past, and they are drawn by the Father. In other words, they are taught by the Father, they learn by the Father, and they come to Christ. And in coming to Christ, Christ guides them and preserves them, and He keeps them to the very end. Beloved, this chapter makes it very clear that not a single one of those will be lost. Yet, what is unnerving is Judas, because he is a man where Jesus says, I have chosen, here's the word he uses, I've chosen the 12.

He says, I've chosen the 12. The Son of God, God Himself, who knows the end from the beginning, chose the one who will end up deserting Him and betraying Him. He actually chose a man who will actually be lost. Now, early on, Jesus said that none will be lost, and now we see Him choosing one that will be lost. Can you imagine the impact of the disciples' hearts if they were left at that?

How would they, or even any of us for that matter, knowing full well the deception of our own hearts and the selfish desires of our flesh that we still have with us, how could we rest for even a moment knowing that our salvation could be lost? Oh beloved, we all know that if we could lose our salvation, we would lose our salvation. If Judas was chosen unto life and yet fell away, then none of us would have hope. But Jesus makes it clear here, and this is where the comfort comes in. There are no anomalies in the Christian faith.

There are no special conditions that apply for Judas and not the rest of us, but rather Judas was chosen, yes, but not unto life. He was chosen from the beginning unto destruction. In John 17, our Lord says, I have guided them, that speaking of the disciples, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. Judas wasn't chosen unto life. He was never a sheep.

He was a wolf in sheep's clothing. He never was chosen unto life. He never was drawn by the Father. He was never taught by the Father. He never was united in Christ.

He never abided in His Word. He was never guarded by His power. Beloved, beloved, because upon the authority in scripture, I could say without a doubt, if he was, then he would have been saved until the very end. But he wasn't. He wasn't.

He was chosen so that the scripture would be fulfilled, that he would be the one who betrays our Lord. and our Lord would be crucified, and our Lord would die on that cross, be buried, and then resurrected unto life, so that all who would come to trust in him, all who would eat upon his flesh and drink upon his blood, would enjoy that everlasting life from the very source of life himself. Beloved, that's where the chapter ends. And that's where we'll end also.