Hard Sayings

John 6:32-71

John 6:32–71 NKJV

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

Jesus’ Message - Be One with Him (30-59)

Jesus offers the true bread of life (30-40)

Compares and contrasts with the Manna of the wilderness. That was temporal; Jesus is eternal.

Colossians 2:16-17 NKJV - So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Hebrews 10:1 NKJV - For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

Jesus identifies Himself as the bread of life (41-51)

Not teaching cannibalism, but emphasizing the need to be IN Him so that we can live forever.

1 Corinthians 10:16 NKJV - The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

The blind do not understand and take offense (52-59)

We might ask, “how could they? They didn’t know about the Lord’s Supper!”

But that doesn’t matter. All they had to know is that Jesus was saying these things.

Colossians 1:18 NKJV - And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

We get in trouble and become blind when we do not hold fast to the HEAD!

Colossians 2:18-19 NKJV - Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

The issue was NOT that they didn’t/couldn’t understand. The issue was that they did not WANT to understand.

This is APATHY and COMPLACENCY in action. When we don’t CARE to learn, of course we will not understand!

Thus, we can become offended by the truth NOT because we cannot understand it, but because we don’t DESIRE to know it.

The Offense (60-63)

The offense spreads to the disciples (60)

They say it is IMPOSSIBLE to understand this.

Like the Jews, they didn’t HAVE to understand it all; just that the Master, the Head, was saying it.

Consider some “hard sayings” for the people back then concerning Jesus:

John 1:29 NKJV - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

John 3:3 NKJV - Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

John 4:13-14 NKJV - Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the waterthat I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

John 6:35 NKJV - And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 14:6 NKJV - Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Now consider some “hard sayings” for us today:

Matthew 16:24 NKJV - Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Romans 12:1 NKJV - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:2 NKJV - And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Acts 2:38 NKJV - Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Consider ALL these things. We know they are not impossible to understand. What happens if we don’t even care to TRY to understand?

The source of truth is Jesus (61-63)

There are many teachings of Jesus and His Apostles that are hard to understand. Even Peter admitted such:

2 Peter 3:16 NKJV - as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

We had better be careful about complaining or grumbling about the harder truths to understand and apply! It might lead to us twisting the Scriptures to our own destruction.

If we do so, we should expect Jesus not to simply ask, “does this offend you?”; we should expect for Him to say, “I never knew you.”

Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV - "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

So it isn’t just about doing “the right thing”, but doing it and continuing to learn and grow by learning from Jesus.

If we do not accept that HE IS LORD, we will decide, “I cannot know this” or “I cannot understand that”... And we will condemn ourselves.

Once we doubt the Head of the Body, we have nothing.

Note: we do the same thing when we assume that our children CANNOT understand something that God plainly wants us ALL to understand!

Many go back (64-71)

Some do not believe (64-65)

WHAT were they not believing? That Jesus was the bread of life? That they needed to eat His body and drink His blood in order to have eternal life?

Yes, but it was more than that. They did not believe that Jesus was who He said He was. They did not accept Him as their King.

If we make excuses about not being able to live by God’s word, we allow ourselves to be blind. This is apathy, complacency... Foolishness.

If we make excuses about not following God in EVERY aspect of our lives, we declare to the world that Jesus is NOT our king, and we will live in active rebellion against Him... Even while being nominally “faithful”.

Do YOU believe?

Many went away (66)

They “went back”

Back to their old lives

Modern application: back into sin, back into apathy, back into complacency

In that time...

They could have gone back to Judaism

Matthew 5:17 NKJV - "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

They could have gone with tradition

Mark 7:9 NKJV - He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

They could call the works of the Spirit evil

Mark 3:22 NKJV - And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and, "By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons."

Today...

We can go back into worldliness

Titus 2:11-12 NKJV - For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

We can go back into denominations and division

Ephesians 4:4 NKJV - There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;

They “walked with Him no more”

Not just about what we DO, but what we DON’T DO.

In that time...

They could stop loving Him (Ephesus, Rev. 2)

They could stop working for Him (Sardis, Rev. 3)

They could stop seeking Him (Laodicea, Rev. 3)

Today....

We can stop working for the Kingdom

Romans 12:10-13 NKJV - Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

We can stop speaking well of God, and have harsh words for HIM.

When we don’t care, our words are harsh against God!

Malachi 3:13-18 NKJV - "Your words have been harsh against Me," Says the LORD, "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against You?' You have said, 'It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the LORD of hosts? So now we call the proud blessed, For those who do wickedness are raised up; They even tempt God and go free.' " Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. "They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him." Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him.

Any way we go from Jesus is a terrible place of darkness.

The twelve know that they have nowhere else to go (67-69)

They recognized that the words of Jesus are life, because He is the King.

We know there is no other place to go but Him. Do we live that out?

Because of Jesus, we can...

Be crucified with Him - Galatians 2:20

Have Newness of Life - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Have Him dwell in our hearts by faith - Ephesians 3:17

Have our life hidden with Him - Colossians 3:1-3

Salvation in Him - Ephesians 1:7

Jesus then exposes that even they are compromised.

Many “faithful” among us will face judgment someday unprepared. May we seek to help each other so that we are ALL prepared.