John 6:60-71 Hard Sayings of Jesus: Who Can Listen To It?

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The Hard Sayings of Jesus: Who Can Listen To It?

John 6:60-71

Introduction: The progression of John 6 is startling to say the least. Multitudes were following him. If he had been a mere man or if his desire was to grow his followers beyond all imagination, he had everything he needed. All he had to do, was feed them breakfast. All he needed was to acquiesce to the earthly kingdom everyone desired. Isn’t it amazing how the desire of the multitudes to create a king who fulfills earthly desires has thoroughly overtaken the religious climate of the day? It was the desire of the wilderness generation, the desire of the 1st century Jews, and the definition of the present day church.

But Jesus rebuked those desires: “you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” And from that moment on, the grumbling began, and one by one disciples starting walking away, and still walk away to this day.

Have you ever finished a fantastic meal, and thought of the Lord and thanked him a second time. Sure. But have you gone to the next step and realized that wonderful meal was only a sign that your heavenly Father is the only one who can provide you the true bread that gives true life? The multitude was unable to make that transition. Indeed, they refused it and complained about it.

In this lesson, we will conclude the chapter by examining ourselves. Are we able to listen to the hard sayings of Jesus? 

1. A Hard Saying? What Makes It Hard?
   1. “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?” Do not misunderstand, “hard saying” is not hard to understand,  but something difficult to accept. In other words, the Jews rightly understood that eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood, would be a major shake up to their lives. Following Jesus is not like choosing a new president with the hope of having your life eased.
   2. Consider this phrase, “hard saying.” Does Jesus ever tell us something to do that is too hard? Oh how we love to blame God when we deem something too hard. “Some of the Bible books are just too hard. Refusing sin and my desires are just too hard. Controlling my temper is just too hard. Consuming the life of Jesus so I reflect his glory is just too hard!” Oh, and don’t we love the followup statement: “Since God wants me to be happy, he will understand that I just can’t do these things.” Or, “I can’t believe God would expect me to…” Well, that’s interesting. He didn’t seem to cut any slack with these disciples.
   3. Listen to the words of 1 John 5:2-3, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” When I was young I read those words with some skepticism – “seems like some of the commands are really hard!” But in saying that I missed the key statement of the text and the principle of John 6: “this is the love of God…” In other words, this is what happens when you love God, you keep his commandments, and for the person who loves God, his commandments are not burdensome.
   4. Therefore, consider what makes Jesus’ statement too hard. It is that the Jews had long treated God as one of their idols. They didn’t love him or desire him or trust him. They continually changed God into a God who would be subject to their desires. That is exactly why it was hard saying! They had done the same with their Messiah. He was to be the nation’s answer to their oppression and would give them the comfortable life they desired.
      1. We have often talked about idolatry in this country. These idols are not represented by the images of ancient day; they are more subtle than that. Remember that idolatry in the OT was mostly woven into a religious veneer. And so it is today. There are not just money idols, possession idols, or pleasure idols, there are “church” idols and “Jesus” idols. Want money? Attach Jesus to it. Want power? Find it through Jesus. Want to worship your way? Just say you are worshiping Jesus. This is exactly what Israel did with the golden calf (Cf. Exodus 32:7).
      2. When a person creates his own “Jesus idol,” he expects Jesus to serve his physical needs and personal choices. He does not expect to extreme sacrifice as what Jesus did with his own flesh and blood.
      3. There is another commonality we should see in our present day idolatry. It is serving Jesus, but not exclusively. Like Israel, there were sacrifices to Yahweh, but there were also sacrifices to Baal on the high places just in case Yahweh didn’t come through with what they wanted when they wanted it!
      4. Therefore, when Jesus said, “the flesh is of no help at all,” it can offend all of us. We want God, but we struggle to trust God alone and to believe that we can be content with whatever he gives. Like Eve, there is a nagging feeling we should have more. In other words, we are the ones who make this a hard saying, not God. Jesus is giving us life that cannot be found any place else.
2. Many Disciples Turned Back
   1. The turning back of these disciples proved Jesus’ point. They were not given by the Father, nor drawn by the Father, nor granted by the Father. They were not the kind of disciple God desired to come to Jesus. 
   2. But we still want to ask the question of ‘why?’ Why couldn’t they see Jesus as God who has come down from heaven? Why would any disciple turn back? I will suggest two primary reasons:
   3. First, they were poor Bible students. 
      1. They were not discerning. They trusted others they deemed as experts. They bought into the counterfeit teaching of the day and were not diligent to hear God and know God by their own firsthand discovery and experience in the scriptures.
      2. There shouldn’t be anything shocking about this when we consider the history of Israel. Generation after generation passed down corrupted worship, in some cases for hundreds of years, until a good king would arise and restore worship back to the Law. Each generation would live and die without consideration of God’s covenantal laws, serving God along side their other idols.
      3. How much of what you learned growing up have you actually tested with the scriptures? I don’t mean “tested with a bias” – desiring to overthrow what you have been taught! No, testing because you have an overwhelming desire to be sure you are pleasing God and are doing all things according to his authority. That takes hard work, work that is often not done. 
   4. Serving a “God Idol” is easier. In fact, many today, even among Christians, think the same way the Jews did because it is easier. It is easier to just “believe in Jesus” (Cf. John 2:23-25), and be a part of a church that worships correctly, because he is obviously the Son of God. Yes, that is easier. I mentioned this before, but consider further:
      1. Consider Matt. 5:19-20, “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” 
      2. Did you catch the problem? The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. In other words, they relaxed some of the commandments, even the least of them. Draw a conclusion: if they relaxed some, what did they do with others? Over-emphasized them! Now what do you have? The important ones and the unimportant ones. You can see why this is easier and comforting. It is what is done today. We choose the commands to relax and the commands to emphasize. It is self-made religion.
      3. Have most Christians been more comfortable with the Jewish way of thinking? I know the world is. Consider that in the late ’80’s a number of brethren put out a list of 29 questions. The list was sent to preachers especially, but also to members. If you answered the questions correctly, you were considered faithful. Otherwise, you were not worthy of fellowship. Of course, the questions all had to do with right and wrong answers on certain doctrinal issues (and I’m not suggesting that those questions are unimportant!). How many churches today have done the same with their own list of questions? And how many Christians have done the same, creating their own list to justify their faithfulness in their personal lives? “I’m faithful because I…” Fill in the blank.
      4. God’s way is mentally more difficult. Jesus said, “When you have done all that is commanded of you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.’” Now what? We rely on the mercy of the Master. Listen to Paul: “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.” 
      5. Here is the point of faith versus works: to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man is far more difficult than making a list of commands. Give me a list of commands any day, especially a list I’m allowed to choose. Which is easier, “You shall not murder,” or “you shall not hate”? Which is easier, “You shall not commit adultery,” or “you shall not lust”?
      6. Therefore to consume Jesus is to open our mouths and eat everything he is and everything he does. It is to consume his life and his death.
   5. How should this affect us? What should we do differently in order to respond to this 71–verse chapter (a major section within John’s gospel)? We must appreciate why we, disciples of Jesus, should carefully examine ourselves in light of this chapter, consider that John wrote this gospel to people who considered themselves disciples. Throughout the book, John has differentiated between true and partial disciples. In this chapter, most of his “disciples” turned and walked no more with him. Therefore it is dangerous and wrong for us to comfort ourselves because we are “believers.”
3. Judas!
   1. Before we can close the message of this chapter, Jesus offers one more shocking statement in verse 70: “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 
   2. Judas! Are you listening? What should you have done? Jesus referred to you as a devil. What is going on in your mind right now that will eventually determine your betrayal of the Lord? What should you be doing to turn from the path you are taking?
   3. In John 13:2, we read that during the Supper, the night before Jesus was crucified, “the devil had already put into the heart of Judas to betray him.” Judas had a three year battle within himself concerning Jesus, and finally at the end, he allowed Satan into his heart.
   4. It isn’t that the battle was unique to Judas, every man and woman struggles with it (Galatians 5:16-17). Judas, where did you fail? 
      1. You allowed your love for money and the things of this world to displace your love for Jesus. Just as the multitude, you saw the immediate pleasure, the immediate gain, and it blurred your thinking. Jesus said, “The flesh is no help at all” (63). What the flesh desires, and the filling of those desires, is no help at all.
      2. How did you handle your doubts? The doubts were not wrong nor were questions about what Jesus was doing. All the apostles lived in a “darkness” for awhile. You should have pursued Jesus and the words of scripture – the words of the Spirit – to solve your doubts and struggles with the flesh. This is where there is a major flaw in today’s “disciples.”
         How many of us have gone through doubts? How many of us have struggled with faith during trials? How many of us have wondered whether what we are doing and believing is really the truth, really the right way? 
      3. There are two sides to that question. (1) First, if you have never had doubts, it may be because you have accepted too easily what you have been taught. You could be in the category of Israel who accepted the religious culture of their day without careful examination. (2) If you have had those doubts and questions (which most have), what have you done to solve the problem? And again, there are two paths that are often taken: (1) continue to question in your mind and allow your own reasoning to come up with an answer. Or, (2) listen to Jesus, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” And the words of Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
4. Conclusion:
   1. This last scene is a striking contrast to the beginning of this chapter. If we were seeing this in a film, the scene would open with huge multitudes clamoring to see him and hear him. We observe them foregoing their own comforts to hear him teach all day on the east side of Galilee. The next morning the crowds have grown even bigger as the “buzz” about the previous day’s miracle spreads. But as Jesus reveals himself as God in the flesh and the true bread come down from heaven, we watch the people begin to walk away. The final scene is Jesus standing again with a small group of disciples. Now ask yourself, “Where are you, and where will you go?”
   2. After studying this chapter, how would you define a disciple of Jesus? Jesus changed the whole playing field and all the typical rules. Discipleship is not what is seen in the modern American church. And thus the words of Paul should ring in our ears: “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Berry Kercheville