The Gospel Unites and Divides

Introduction

What will ultimately matter at the end of time? The language you spoke? Your nation of origin? What you did for a living? The only thing will matter is whether or not you are in Christ. Christ is the dividing line of history.

Today, our sermon will illustrate both the uniting and dividing nature of Christ’s teaching and the gospel. We see Jesus face rejection, but we also see people turn to him and acknowledge him as Lord yet again. With that in mind, let’s read our passage from John 6:60-71

John 6:60–71 CSB

60 Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?” 61 Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.) 65 He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.” 66 From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He was referring to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, one of the Twelve, because he was going to betray him.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for you Word. In it we find eternal life through Christ. Help us to know that we truly have no where else to go, and no one else to whom we can turn. You have the words of eternal life. Help us through your Spirit who gives life to turn to you always and everyday. Now, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Our passage takes place after a long period of Jesus teaching. He multiplied the bread and the fish, feeding 5,000 men and their families near the Sea of Galilee. He then walked on water to find his disciples, and went across the Sea to Capernaum, where he taught about being the all sufficient bread of life. That brings us up to this point. Jesus had just taught that he brings life through his own perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross. The only way to eternal life is by identification and union with Christ. That’s the summary of Jesus’s teachings in verses 53-58. Now we get to see the reaction to his teaching from his disciples.

The crux of the reaction is this: Some accepted Christ’s teaching and some rejected his teaching. I want you to see two things: Acceptance of Christ’s teaching is an acceptance of Christ himself; rejection of Christ’s teaching is a rejection of him. In the same way, to accept Christ as Savior is to accept Christ and all his teaching. And to reject him as Lord is to reject his teaching. There is a huge movement today (and it is not new) to simply accept Jesus as a good teacher, but not as Lord. This is inconsistent and not faithful to the actual teachings of Jesus. You can’t examine the teaching of Jesus and come out believing that he isn’t lord and that he isn’t the exclusive way, truth, and life. Jesus was the greatest teacher; but he isn’t merely a great teacher. The world can produce great teachers: Think of Aristotle and Plato. In our own Christian faith, Augustine was a great teacher. Aquinas, Anselm, Calvin, Luther, Knox, Spurgeon. All great teachers. In the last few years alone: Keller, Sproul, Piper, Tozer, Schaeffer: All great teachers. But merely teachers. Faithful teachers. But none of them had great teaching paired with Lordship. Only Jesus can claim that. And only Jesus can claim what Peter attested to in verse 68-69: You have the words of eternal life. You are the holy one of God.” Jesus isn’t merely a teacher. If he wasn’t Lord, the claims he makes about himself would make him a liar or a lunatic, according to C. S. Lewis. I agree. Anyone that claims we should eat his flesh and drink his blood as a metaphorical picture of spiritual union with him without being Lord would be both a lunatic and liar. But Jesus is neither: He is Lord. And he has the Words of eternal life.

And that brings us around to the main point this morning: Because Jesus has the words of eternal life, we must trust in him for all things. I’m going to skip to the end and go ahead and affirm that Peter was correct in his claim: Jesus is Lord and he does have the words of eternal life. Therefore, he is worth believing in. Remember: John is writing all these things so that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And the result of our belief in Christ is eternal life. I’ve said it every week we’ve been in John. And this gives us a new wrinkle: Jesus is not only the sacrificial lamb; his very teachings contain the way to eternal life. In other words: We find life not only in what Jesus has done for us, not only in who Jesus is for us, but what Jesus taught us. The teachings and claims of Jesus are consistent with the work and person of Jesus. And we will see that the teachings of Jesus divide and unite.

The Message that Divides

First, in our passage, we see that the message or teachings of Jesus divides. Look at the first verse of our passage. We have many of Jesus’s disciples here. Several times throughout the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are quick references to Jesus’s larger band of disciples. We all know about the 12, commonly called the Apostles. But there was a greater number of disciples that followed Jesus around. We don’t really know a number: We know that he sent out 70 disciples at one point, and that many followed him in large crowds. So we can’t really be sure how many were here listening to Jesus teach in the Capernaum synagogue. But a large number of the disciples reacted negatively to Jesus’s teaching. They say, “This teaching is hard.”

Now, we need to ask: “What teaching, exactly?” We can assume that these people are referencing the last bit of Jesus’s teaching in John 6:53-58

John 6:53–58 CSB

53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, 55 because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Like I said earlier, the crux of this teaching is identification with Jesus himself. Salvation. An acceptance and identification with Jesus meant that you would die to yourself and live in Christ. And yes, this teaching is hard. Jesus was teaching that salvation could only be experienced by his work and by grace alone through faith alone. In an age where we put a lot of stock in what we earn, this teaching of salvation by the unmerited favor of God is hard. We can’t earn it. This is hard to the human heart that values individual achievement.

“Who can accept it?” Those who are spiritually moved by the Spirit to do so. But we will get into that more later. But let’s look at how Jesus responds: “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” In essence here, Jesus is saying, “You’re offended by my teaching about the gospel? I am from Heaven and will be ascending back into heaven soon.” This is yet another example of Jesus speaking on a supernatural level to natural people. They did not want to accept Christ as Lord based on his teaching to them, and they wouldn’t accept him when they saw him ascending. Both his teaching and his ascension back into heaven are proofs of his Lordship and that he is the Christ. His teaching was pointing to himself as Lord. They needed to believe in that teaching. But they couldn’t get it. The great Reformation-era commentator Matthew Henry says this, “Those who stumble at smaller difficulties should consider how they will get over greater.” They stumbled at this smaller difficulty: His teaching. But they would stumble even more greatly at his ascension, a purely supernatural happening.

We see why in verse 63: The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. What could Jesus mean here? He is hearkening back to the same message that he has given over and over throughout the book of John. The new life, the new birth, is a supernatural, Spiritual life and birth. Here’s what I mean by that: You cannot give yourself life. You cannot will yourself to salvation. If we are to take Jesus at his word, we will see that we will also be rejecting Jesus and his teaching unless the Spirit gives us new life. Without the Spirit giving us life, we reject Jesus. We are with the first group of hearers here. The Spirit is the one who gives life. And we cannot grasp his teaching until we have that new life. These found Jesus’s teaching too difficult and gave up on him because the Spirit did not give them eyes to see. They were left in their sin.

And then Jesus moves on to the Father’s role in all of this: “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.” The Father wills who comes to him; the Son accomplishes salvation; and the Spirit breathes life into those who are being saved. Every person of the Trinity is active in salvation.

But at this point, the teaching of Jesus is too much, and several people leave him. They could not bear his teaching and rejected it. And in rejecting Jesus’s teaching, they are rejecting him as Lord. Here is where we see the gospel acting as a divider. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:15–16 “15 For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. Who is adequate for these things?” As we proclaim the gospel message — consistent with Jesus’s teachings — we will bring the aroma of death to those who do not respond in faith. Those whom the Father has not willed, and those whom the Spirit has not given life will hear Christ’s words as an aroma of death. This is because Christ is the great dividing line of history. All that matters ultimately is if you are in Christ or not.

The gospel divides the believers and unbelievers

We see in this text that the gospel message is the dividing line between believers and unbelievers. Jesus calls them the sheep and the goats. The gospel divides those who respond in faith and those who reject. Look at verse 66: After realizing Jesus’s teaching and that he is the only way to salvation, many leave. This is not a message that is attractive to the world. This is why it takes spiritual work to save people. Those who did not stay rejected Christ’s teaching. In so doing, they took a step of unbelief. This is what John is trying to show us: Belief in Christ as Savior is the key turning point on which the whole of our system of doctrine and life rests. That is why Paul tries to drum the idea of Justification by Faith Alone home to the Galatians. He wanted them to see that the basis of our salvation is not any work, but faith. Faith in the gospel! That is what saves. And that is what divides. This shows us that there is a real in and a real out when it comes each person. Some believe and are justified. Some are unbelievers. This is the greatest divide in the world.

Where are you then? Have you been made new by believing in Christ’s work for you? Do you accept his teachings that he is the only way to the Father? Are you a believer? Or do you reject him? Do you walk away without spiritual eyes to see his saving beauty?

The gospel divides the Spirit and the flesh

The other divide we see in this passage is between the Spirit and the flesh. Those who respond in faith to the call of the gospel (believers) have been made so by the Spirit. The Spirit has given them life. So there’s another aspect of this divide between believer and unbeliever: Those of the Spirit and those of the flesh.

Salvation starts with the will of the Father. But a vital step in that process of belief is what we call regeneration. This is when the Spirit opens our eyes and our hearts to step forward in faith. The Spirit regenerates us and brings our dead hearts to life. Everyone who doesn’t believe is not regenerate. They have not been made new by the Spirit.

The message of Jesus divides. There are those who accept his teaching and those who reject his message. Those who believe and those who reject. Those who join with the ones who walk away and those who join with Peter and say, “You have the words of eternal life.” There are those who are made new by the Spirit, and those who are still trusting in the works of the flesh to save them. Where are you this morning? Receive Christ in faith today. Be made new and cross the dividing line into the family of faith.

Our second point will examine that family of faith: A unified body that is under the blood of Christ.

The Message that Unites

This message divides and unifies. This is kind of where we will leave this text this morning and seek to synthesize several aspects of the faith. We want to see what happens when we are on the right side of this dividing line of belief in Christ. And when we do believe, the opposite of division happens: We experience unity. And that unity is expressed in two ways: Unity with other Christians and unity with God.

The gospel unites us with other true Christians

The gospel unites us with other true Christians. This is true of Christians throughout history and today. Our unity with Christians throughout history tells our family story. So we have unity of belief, of mission, and of worship with the saints in 250 AD, as well as in 1500 AD, and today. We have unity of belief: We confess the same things about God and hold to the same doctrine. Now, we have some subtle and important differences in the faith expressed in denominations, but overall, we confess the same gospel as every true Christian. Our unity is grounded in and founded on orthodoxy: Shared belief.

We also have unity in mission. We want to reach the world for Christ. We want to join with the 12 (11) and go out and share the message of Christ with a lost and dying world. We strongly desire this. We join with all Christians in affirming that the lost and dying world needs the gospel and so we have a unified mission.

We are also unified in worship: We worship Father, Son, and Spirit since the Triune God has worked for our salvation.

This has been expressed both in worldwide Church and in local churches.

The gospel unites us with Christ

United with the Father, Spirit, and Son

Shared will of the Father

Union and identification with the Son

Baptism and indwelling of the Spirit

Conclusion