John 6:60-71:

The Bread of Life--Part III

By Dr. Hal Harless

Foundation Fellowship of Greenville, TX

October 11, 2009

 

I.  Introduction

A.  Please turn to John 6:60. 

B.  While you are turning.... 

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph

Woodcrafter’s Carpenter Shop

Nazareth[, Israel] 25922

 

From: Jordan Management Consultants

 

Dear Sir:

 

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization.  All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

 

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.

 

As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general statements.  This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.

 

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking.  They do not have the team concept.  We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

 

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.  Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.  The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.  Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.  We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

 

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential.  He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places.  He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible.  We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.  All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

 

We wish you every success in your new venture.

 

Sincerely,

Jordan Management Consultants[1]

 

It was not just the crowd and the Jewish authorities that had problems with Jesus' discourse about the bread of life.  This teaching troubled even Jesus' own disciples, so much so that many turned away.

II.  Exposition

A.  Background

1.  We are still in Jesus' public ministry (John 2:1-12:36a).

2.  Chapter 6 is entirely in the Galilee; with chapter 7, the focus of John's gospel returns to Judea where it will remain until our Lord's death and resurrection.

3.  Jesus had feed the 5,000 (John 6:1-14), which was the occasion for this dialogue, which took place in the synagogue in Capernaum.

a.  The discussion falls naturally into three parts.

1)  We have looked at the interchange between Jesus and the crowd (John 6:22-40)

2)  Last week, we considered the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authorities (John 6:41-59)

3)  This week, we conclude with a look at the conversation between Jesus and the disciples (John 6:60-71)

b.  Although the section begins with Jesus' popularity at an all time high, by the end of it, many have turned their backs on Him.  Wiersbe calls this chapter, "Jesus loses His crowd."

B.  Exposition: The fourth discourse: the Bread of Life: the disciples (John 6:60-71)

1.  Does this cause you to stumble (John 6:60-65)?

a.  Stumbling disciples (John 6:60)

                ⁶⁰ Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" (John 6:60).

 

1)  Jesus' teaching upset even His own followers, who considered it difficult and unbearable. 

a)  The Gk. word translated "disciple," which corresponds to the Heb. term talmîd ("scholar"), means "one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice."[2] 

b)  These distressed disciples were referring to Jesus' saying:

⁵³ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.  ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.  ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.  ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever" (John 6:53-58).

 

c)  Of course, Jesus was using a metaphor for partaking of Him by faith.  However, like the Jewish leaders, these disciples were being too literal and missed Jesus' clues that He was speaking metaphorically. 

d)  The Gk. word translated "difficult" (sklēros) means "literally hard, dry, rough; ... of words harsh, unpleasant, hard to take, intolerable."[3] 

e)  The Gk. word translated "listen" means "to hear and understand a message, understand."[4] 

i)  This has been translated, "who can understand it?" (NET, NKJV), and, "Who can accept it?" (HCSB, NIV, NRSV; see also NLT). 

ii)  One translation has, "When many of Jesus' disciples heard him, they said, 'What he says is hard to accept.  Who wants to listen to him anymore?'" (GW). 

2)  At some point, we all find God hard to understand.  How do we react?

b.  Jesus' question about stumbling (John 6:61)

⁶¹ But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? (John 6:61).

 

1)  Jesus was aware of their grumbling and asked them if His statement caused them to stumble. 

a)  The Gk. word translated "grumbled" is the same word used in John 6:41, 43 meaning "to express oneself in low tones of disapprobation."[5] 

b)  This is reminiscent of Israel in the wilderness. 

c)  The Gk. word translated "cause you to stumble" (skandalizō) literally means "cause to stumble" and, therefore, "to shock through word or action, give offense to, anger, shock."[6] 

2)  Jesus then proceeded to address the real causes of stumbling.

c.  The real cause of stumbling (John 6:62-63)

⁶² "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?  ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:62-63).

 

1)  "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?"

a)  Jesus asked them to consider their reaction if they were to see something even more difficult to take in such as Him ascending into heaven. 

i)  In addition to this verse, John records several references that Jesus made to His ascension (John 3:13; 8:21; 14:3; 16:10; 17:11; 20.17). 

ii)  This actually happened in Acts when Jesus "was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9). 

iii)  Keener paraphrases Jesus, "If you cannot receive the message of the cross, how much more difficult will it be for you to accept my resurrection and return to the Father."[7] 

iv)  Paul wrote that "we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness" (1 Cor 1:23). 

v)  It has been observed that "when men resist the truth the Lord Jesus makes it harder for them, but when they will receive the truth, then He makes it very simple."[8]

b)  Because God's ways are not our ways, the day will come for each of us that Jesus will say or do something that will shock or offend us.  We must predetermine that what we do know of God, His wisdom, love, and truth, will not be overthrown by what we do not yet understand.

2)  "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life"

a)  Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit was the source of spiritual life, not the flesh. 

b)  Jesus indicated that the flesh profited nothing. 

i)  Paul wrote, "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh" (Rom 7:18), and that we must "put no confidence in the flesh" (Phil 3:3). 

ii)  Therefore, these sayings must be spiritually discerned. 

iii)  Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one (1 Corinthians 2:12-15).

 

iv)  Thus, the first real cause of stumbling was lack of spirituality.

c)  Since they "are spirit and are life," they were wrong to take them in a wooden literal sense. 

i)  We must interpret Scripture literally, but it is being literal to take a metaphor as a metaphor. 

ii)  Literal interpretation takes into account the type of literature that we are reading.

d.  Unbelieving disciples (John 6:64-65)

⁶⁴ "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 it was that would betray Him.  ⁶⁵ And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father" (John 6:64-65).

 

1)  "'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 it was that would betray Him."

a)  Jesus remarked that some of His disciples did not believe. 

i)  Not all disciples were, in fact, believers. 

ii)  The second real cause of stumbling was unbelief. 

(a)  Those who did not believe would lack the Holy Spirit and be unable to rightly understand Jesus' words. 

(b)  Jesus possessed foreknowledge of who would believe and who would betray Him. 

(c)  Ironside remarked that Jesus

knew what was going on in the hearts of men.  He knew whenever anyone made a profession that wasn't real.  He knows today.  The Son of God knows whether you are genuine or not.  Your friends may not know.  Those you are close to may not know, but He knows whether you have rally put your trust in Him....  Let us seek to be real before Him.  Let us not rely on mere profession, it will not avail in that day.  There must be reality.[9]

 

(d)  God knows and has always known the heart.

2)  "And He was saying, 'For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.'"

a)  Jesus explained that such unbelief was the reason for His statement about no one coming unless the Father grants it.

i)  This has been translated, "no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come" (NET).[10] 

ii)  As we have seen, we come by faith, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40). 

b)  Faith is the only way that the Father has granted us to come; we cannot come to God on our own terms.

2.  Do you also want to go away (John 6:66-71)?

a.  Leaving disciples (John 6:66)

⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore (John 6:66).

 

1)  Because of Jesus' response, many disciples left. 

a)  The Gk. phrase translated "withdrew" means literally, "went away into the things behind."[11] 

b)  This has been translated, "Jesus' speech made many of his disciples go back to the lives they had led before they followed Jesus" (GW). 

2)  People vote with their feet. 

a)  What makes this hard from a pastor's point of view is that, because folks do not like confrontation, you often have absolutely no idea why they left and no opportunity to reconcile.  Suddenly, they are just not there.

b)  People leave for many reasons. 

i)  Perhaps they find a teaching hard to accept or God's Word offends their pride. 

ii)  Perhaps they have a relational problem with another church member. 

iii)  Perhaps some other church is flashier or more comfortable. 

iv)  Sometimes, it is some trivial irritation that, had the parties involved been walking in the Spirit, might scarcely been noticed.

(a)  I know of a group that spilt over wearing neckties. 

(b)  Another church almost split over who was allowed to wave flags or touch the altar during worship.

v)  Sometimes people leave because they do not believe.

b.  Jesus' question about leaving (John 6:67)

⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" (John 6:67).

 

1)  Even though He knew their hearts, Jesus asked the twelve if they wanted to leave also. 

2)  He asked in order to clarify their thinking. 

a)  The Gk. grammar indicates that a negative answer was expected.[12] 

b)  Therefore, this has been translated, "You don't want to go away too, do you?" (HCSB, NET).

c.  Where else can we go (John 6:68-69)?

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have words of eternal life.  ⁶⁹ We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68-69).

 

1)  "Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have words of eternal life.'"

a)  Simon Peter answered that there was no place else for them to go. 

i)  We are crowded to Christ; there really are no alternatives. 

ii)  The Gk. words translated "words of eternal life" grammatically mean, "words producing eternal life."[13] 

iii)  Pastor Chuck Smith remarks:

Sometimes we don't understand everything God is saying and doing.  We have problems and difficulties.  But where else can we go?  We have already learned that the world has nothing for us.  It can't solve our problems.  There is really nothing to go back to.  So we trust the One who has the words of eternal life.[14]

 

b)  Jesus is the only source of words producing eternal life.

2)  "We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."

a)  Peter confessed that Jesus was "the Holy One of God." 

i)  He would later confess at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of the living God (Matt 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-21).

ii)  "We" is in the emphatic position.[15] 

iii)  The Gk. word translated "we have believed" is a perfect tense verb, i.e., "we have come to a place of faith and continue there."[16] 

iv)  Moreover, the Gk. word translated "have come to know" is also a perfect tense verb, i.e., "we have recognized the truth and hold it."[17]

b)  He made the confession on behalf of the entire group, but he was wrong about Judas Iscariot.[18] 

d.  The devilish disciple (John 6:70-71)

⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?"  ⁷¹ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him (John 6:70-71).

 

1)  "Jesus answered them, 'Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?'"

a)  Jesus replied that, even though He had chosen these twelve disciples, one of them was the devil. 

b)  This is not election to salvation, but service.[19] 

c)  The Gk. grammar indicates that we should take "a devil" as "the Devil."[20]  John wrote of Satan later entering Judas (John 13:2, 27).

2)  "Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him."

a)  John clarified that Jesus was referring to Judas Iscariot who was going to betray Him. 

i)  Judas is the Gk. form of the Heb. Yĕhûdāh ("Praised"). 

ii)  His father's name was Simon, which is the Gk. form of the Heb. Šim'ôn ("He who hears"). 

iii)  The Gk. word translated "Iscariot" is usually taken to mean the same as the Heb. 'îš qĕrîyôt ("a man of Kerioth," a town in southern Judah mentioned in Josh 15:25).[21] 

b)  Judas was the sole non-Galilean of the twelve; he was the "odd man out."

II.  Applications

A.  What this says about Jesus Christ ...

1.  Jesus is the only source of words producing eternal life.

2.  There is no place else to go.

B.  What this says to us ...

1.  Because God's ways are not our ways, the day will come for each of us that Jesus will say or do something that will shock or offend us.  We must predetermine that what we do know of God, His wisdom, love, and truth, will not be overthrown by what we do not yet understand.

2.  Causes of stumbling:

a.  Lack of spirituality

b.  Unbelief

3.  God's truth must be spiritually discerned; the Holy Spirit must control our intellects.

4.  Faith is the only way that the Father has granted us to come; we cannot come to God on our own terms.