John, Pt. 35 | John 6:59-71

John 6:59-66 and the Reality of False Disciples

If you will at this time, please take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the Gospel of John, Chapter 6. We've got two more weeks in this Gospel, well, this chapter, excuse me. Maybe some years left in the Gospel, but two more weeks in this chapter, we'll be looking at considering verses 59 through 71.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 6, 59 through 71. This will be our 35th message in this Gospel. O God, Yahweh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, we worship you, the triune God, in trinity and in unity. Lord, my prayer for this moment is the same as it is every time I stand before your people, and that is that through your Spirit, you will speak to them through me.

I know of no other prayer to pray. Please, in Jesus' name, allow us to feast on your word.

Amen.

Let's begin by reading the text, John, Chapter 6, verses 59 through 71. 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 difficult statement.

Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling at this, said to them, does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

The Spirit is the one who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and 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 it was who would betray him.

And he was saying, for this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him from the Father. As a result of this, many of his disciples went away and were not walking with him anymore.

So Jesus said to the twelve, do you also want to go? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

Jesus answered them, did I myself not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil. Now he was speaking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

There was this man, an alcoholic, walking home on a Friday night, stops by the liquor store, picks up a bottle of whiskey, gets home, downs the whiskey. All this man had was a dog. The man falls asleep on his couch.

The dog begins to bark because the dog hears an intruder. The man wakes up in a drunken stupor, picks up a chair and throws it at the dog. Our theme for this Lord's Day, as it has been past several weeks, I don't know how many, is the reality of false disciples.

The reality of false disciples. We all have seen this, if you've been attending church for some time, you have seen people who profess faith and have not possessed faith. They came, they were a part of us, but they went out from us to show they were never of.

Us.

My proposition is this, false disciples follow for signs and wonders and not for theology. They follow for signs and wonders and not for theology. You may have heard it said, as I have, give me Jesus and not theology.

Anyone?

Give me Jesus and not theology. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no way to know who Jesus is without theology. The word theology is a compound word of two Greek words, theos and logos. Theos means God and logos means word.

Put them together and you have theology or God's Word. Without the Word of God, we would not know who Jesus is. Can anyone in this room tell me something about Jesus that you didn't know from the Bible, that the Bible has not revealed to you?

A true statement about Jesus that the scriptures have not revealed to us?

No.

Creation declares the glory of God. We know there's a God because of creation. Christ Jesus enters into creation to introduce us to God. You cannot know God apart from Christ. You cannot know Christ apart from his incarnation and what his apostles have written to us about.

Him.

We need theology.

We need the Word of God. This group of Jews, just like some so-called disciples today, want signs and wonders and all the clout, but they do not want to know who Jesus is. Preaching is logic on fire from a preacher who is on fire.

The great Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I posted this on my Facebook page, has a quote where he asks a question and he gives the answer. Quote, what is preaching? Logic on fire. Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire.

A true understanding and experience of the truth must lead to this. I say again, a man who can speak these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit and should never be allowed to enter one.

Ladies and gentlemen, my plan has always been and will always be to preach theology. God's Word. This is my plan simply because, did I say simply right? Simply because that's what Jesus and the writers of the New Testament did.

That's what they did. They preached theology. They took the Word of God of the Old Testament and explained it to us. In our outline, we're going to see the reasons why false disciples reject Jesus and the reason why true disciples follow Jesus.

Again, this is going to be a two-part message. So today, we'll look at the reason why false disciples reject Jesus. We'll pick back up on that point next week to start and then we'll carry out the second point, the reason why true disciples follow.

But as we transition, preaching in pulpits, on street corners, conversations over coffee, by letter, text, or email is how we express theology. You cannot express theology in your chair with your arms crossed not speaking to anyone.

Theology is something that you speak forth either by voice, written letter, text, however.

It may be.

It's something that you have to explain. One doesn't just simply wish others into heaven. No, one must open their mouth and speak the Word of God to any and all who will listen. We must use theology when we witness.

Why False Disciples Reject Jesus as the Bread of Life

Point number one, the reason why false disciples reject Jesus. We're going to see this in verses 59 through 66. We'll begin with verse 59. Jesus speaking, these things he has said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

Question is, is what is the these things? Verse 35, Jesus says, I am the bread of life who comes down, who come, excuse me, I am.

The bread of life.

He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. Look at verse 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

Verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Verses 47 and 48. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.

Verse 51. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and also the bread of which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Verse 53 through 58.

So Jesus said to them, 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 yourself. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 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 the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me.

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. We concluded last week that identifying yourself for the death of Christ is to believe.

And that's what the Gospel of John is about. It's about believing in Jesus Christ. It is a Gospel that's focused on, it's an evangelistic Gospel, right? It's about believing. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes has eternal life.

The Greek word here is pastuo. It means to commit oneself to and to put your trust in. When Jesus says eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, he's not adding something to.

That.

Eating of the flesh of Jesus and drinking of his blood, it equates to belief. There's not anything weird going on here in the text. So these things, this is what he was teaching in Capernaum. He was teaching that he is the bread of life, that he has come down from heaven, and you must consume him.

Jesus is in a Jewish synagogue saying these things, and the response was, as you would.

Expect, not good, not good at all.

This group of Jews were going by information that they had, which was they knew Jesus,.

Right?

They grew up with Jesus. They knew Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, and they knew the mother of Jesus, Mary, right? These were people in their community.

They grew up with him.

I mentioned last week that Joseph was considered a builder. He built furniture, maybe, or he was a good craftsman. And there might have been people in this group at this synagogue who had furniture built by the earthly father of Jesus.

Their mothers hung out with his mother, right?

They played with each other.

They played tag. They played you're it, right? They hung out with each other. These people knew who Jesus was, and by their information, Joseph was his father and, of course, Mary, his mother. They didn't see anything significant about him as a child growing up.

They're going on the information that they had, and I mentioned that God uses the information that they had in their hardening. Look at verse 60. Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, the him coming down from heaven as bread, and you are to consume him, said, this is a difficult statement.

Who can listen to it? The statement of him being the bread of life. Jesus being the bread of life is theology.

It's theology.

This group of Jews did not want theology. They wanted bread, physical, natural bread. They wanted to be fed. Remember, Jesus was their fish and bread dispenser. He was their cash cow. If he kept providing bread for them, they would no longer have to work to provide bread for themselves by the sweat of their face.

They wanted the food that perishes and not the food that endures to the eternal life. Hashtag believing in Jesus, right? Believing in Jesus is the food that endures to eternal life. Excuse me. They were more concerned about the physical here and now and not about the spiritual, the now and not yet.

Man, how many of us today are guilty of that? We're so worried about the here and the now. We don't put much attention in our worries about the now and not yet. We don't think spiritually. I am so guilty of this.

Again, like these false disciples today, they wanted health, wealth, and happiness and not theology. You cannot have Jesus without theology. Think about this. Think about Matthew 16. Jesus asks, who do men say that I am?

Some say Elijah.

Some say Jeremiah.

Some of the prophets. And he asked Peter, who do you say that I am? Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus responds, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Theology. You cannot know that Jesus is the Christ.

Who's the Christ?

The Christ is Greek for the Hebrew word Messiah, the Mashiach. The Mashiach who is the prophesied messianic king of the Old Testament. You cannot know who Jesus is apart from theology. Jesus says that he's going to build his church on that statement that he is the Christ.

You cannot be a Christian and deny that Jesus is the Christ. But you don't understand who the Christ is apart from theology. False disciples, they want a 20 minute out of context message and not an hour, I'm trying to stretch here, of exposition.

They want to know what can they get from God's word. Listen, and not what God's word means. The meaning of this doesn't matter to them. But ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing new under the sun. That's what takes place today.

Same thing that these false disciples are hearkening, living, doing, practicing their preaching. That's what we see today. Jesus, when he fed this multitude with a sack lunch, this group of Jews wanted to...

Excuse me, read that again. Jesus, when he fed the multitude with a sack lunch, that same group is who he's speaking to of Jews wanted to take him by force. Remember, they wanted to take him by force, yank him up, and make him king.

They saw that what he was doing correlates with what Moses is doing. Moses says there's coming a prophet like him. And when he comes, listen to him, they're putting two and two together. They're seeing that the prophet that Moses spoke about leads to the feet of Jesus.

They knew that this was the messianic king, and they wanted to take him by force because he was feeding them bread. However, once he gave them theology, they said this is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it?

As long as he was feeding them, we're going to make you king, baby. We like this, a sack lunch? Two fish and five biscuits? And you're feeding over 20 ,000 people? Man, we need you to sit on the throne.

Oh, hold on. You are the bread? We made a mistake. Which shows their concept of God was limited. And God is more powerful than they knew. And ladies and gentlemen, he's more powerful than we can understand.

We are so limited in our understanding. I think this can be especially attacking us as reformed people. We think we're so smart, right? We're not.

We're not. We're not. I'm not.

You're not. We don't have everything together. They love the signs and wonders, but they hated the truth. The truth of Jesus being in and of himself, God. Remember, I spoke about this not long ago, that you get a group of men together.

I'm glad we don't have this in our church. But sometimes you can get a group of men together. And there's that one alpha of the bunch who tries to outman everyone. He's better actually than everything, right?

And he tries to make you feel small as a man, right? That's not what's taking place in the Godhead. God's not out-Godding Christ. Christ is not out-Godding. I mean, the Father's not out-Godding Christ.

Christ is not out-Godding the Holy Spirit, vice versa. They are co-equal, co-eternal. Look at John chapter 10. Look at verses 30 through 33. I'm not going to go into the context of it. I think what we'll pick up at is a good place, because we will be preaching in it in a few months.

But Jesus makes a statement. He says, I and the Father are one. Verse 31, the Jews pick up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, I show you many good works from the Father. Which of them are you stoning me?

The Jews answered him, for a good work, listen, we do not stone you, but for blaspheming. And because you being a man, think about the information that they have, you being a man, make yourself God. Remember in chapter five, Jesus was doing the same thing.

John chapter five, Jesus was doing the same thing. Jesus made himself out to be God. Listen, it's theology. Look at verse 17 of chapter five. But he answered them, my Father is working until now, and I myself am working.

For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, remember he healed the lame man on the Sabbath, but also was making God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

And I pointed out that in the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, he says to pray our Father. So we're including the group. When Jesus says my Father and not our Father, the claim was that he is making himself equal with God.

He didn't include the group. But he is some kind of special, unique son, which he is, and they took it rightly, right? They understood correctly this point that he is making himself equal with God by calling him my Father, which is why he teaches us to pray our Father.

We are not uniquely special like Christ is. I cannot say my Father to a group of Christians without including y 'all as our Father. Now, I can pray and say Father, like if I'm in my own personal time prayer, I'm like, Father, thank you for all, you know.

That's fine. But to say my Father, I would be uniquely putting myself in a position.

That I am not in.

Only Christ is in that position. These Jews understood that. By him saying my Father and not our Father, he was making himself equal with God. But we see this over and over in John's Gospel. So look at verse 61.

But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling, said this, excuse me, his disciples were grumbling at this, said to them, does this cause you to stumble? Ladies and gentlemen, I want to ask you, as what the Gospel of John teaching, right, that Jesus is the bread of life, that we must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, does that cause you to stumble?

Because that's the purpose. It's to cause false disciples to stumble. There are multiple places in Scripture where Jesus is referenced as the stone. We read one of them last week. We'll look at it again and point out this portion of it.

First Corinthians chapter 18.

I mean, excuse me,.

First Corinthians chapter one, beginning in verse 18, says this, this is Paul speaking, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Think about false disciples, atheists, Hindus, Muslims, whoever, to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of their clever, I will set aside. Where is the wise man and where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the foolish and the foolish and the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For indeed, right here, Jews seek for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles, foolishness. Acts chapter four. In Acts chapter four, Peter had just, they've just been arrested for healing a man, a crippled, a lame man in the name of Jesus.

They're walking into the gate called Beautiful. A man there begging for alms, money, and Peter looks at him and says, Silver and gold, I do not have, what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus.

Stand and be healed. And so this is what's taking place. Look at verse eight. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of the people, if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man, as to how this man has been saved from his sickness, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands here before you in good health.

He, speaking of Jesus, is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders. Think of Hebrews chapter three where it talks about Moses and the house being built, but which became the chief cornerstone and there is no salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Romans chapter nine, Romans chapter nine, beginning in verse 30. What then shall we say? What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness laid a hold of righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith, but Israel who pursued a law of righteousness did not attain that law.

Why?

Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works, they stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and the one who believes upon him will not be put to shame.

One more. This is a little longer and as I read it, I'm going to give some commentary. Matthew chapter 21. We did a deep exposition of this one or two years ago, so this will be semi-familiar to some, and as I read it, I just want to kind of point out some things.

So this is the parable of the vine growers. Jesus speaking to the Jewish leadership. Verse 33. Jesus speaking. Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers who went on a journey.

So this is speaking about the land of Canaan. He plants Israel, the people, the Jewish people into the land of Canaan. Now, when harvest time approached, he sent slaves to the vine growers to receive fruit.

Now, this should be your understanding that once Israel was planted, there was a split between Israel and Judah. You had the two tribes and the ten tribes. He sent prophets. Think, oh, so when it says the slaves here, think, oh, covenant prophets, Elijah, Isaiah, all the prophets in the scriptures.

So think them when it comes to these. We're talking about the slaves here. The idea was that Israel was supposed to bear fruit. Now, part of this bearing fruit, the separation of the kingdom, the kingdom was supposed to come back together.

Verse 35,.

And the vine growers took the slaves, the prophets, and beat one and killed another and stoned a third. Again, he sent another group of slaves, larger than the first, and they did the same to them. So when you get into chapter 23, when it talks about you speaking to the Pharisees, you stoned the prophets and killed those who were sent to you.

He's hearkening back to this parable, which is pointing back to what took place in the Old Testament. But afterwards, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect my son. This is speaking of Christ.

But when the vine growers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance, the land. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Where was Christ killed at? Outside of the city. All this is foretelling what's going to happen, what happened and what's going to happen. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard, speaking of God, comes, what will they, what will he do to those vine growers?

They, these religious leaders answer, they said to him, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Some translations say a miserable end. And he will rent out the kingdom, the vineyard to other vine growers who pay him the produce at the proper season.

Jesus said to them, did you never read the scriptures? The stone, speaking about this son, which the builders rejected. This became the chief cornerstone, but this came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes.

This, this killing of the prophets and this taking the son and killing him, this came about by the Lord and it's marvelous in his eyes.

The most heinous crime ever committed,.

Christ being crucified,.

Had to happen.

In order to save a people. Therefore, verse 33, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruit. And he who falls on this stone will be broken into pieces, but whoever it falls on, it will shatter like dust.

Think that whoever it falls on will shatter like dust. I'm gonna stop there. And Daniel chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and no one can interpret the dream. They had to know the dream and also interpret the dream without being told what the dream was.

Daniel prays to God, God gives him the dream and the interpretation. And in this dream, it was a statue, had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron, and partly iron and partly clay.

And he tells Nebuchadnezzar that the head of gold is him and his nation Babylon. And that the chest of silver is the medial Persia who's gonna come and take plunder from them. They're gonna come and take over Babylon and they're gonna take over the world.

And that the belly of thighs of bronze was Grisha and they will do the same to the medial Persia. That the legs of iron is Rome. And if you read Elm 2 chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar loves this dream so much that he builds a statue all of gold saying, trying to defy God, this dream.

We're not just the head, we're all of it. The gold is us and we're taking over. But in prophecy, a lot to understand is about the feet of partly iron and partly clay. And if you've been around me for a while, you know my interpretation.

The partly of iron has to be Rome because the legs of iron is Rome. Partly of clay, I would interpret this to be Jerusalem over and over. Jeremiah, Isaiah, they pray to God and they say, you are the punter.

We, the Jews, are the clay. In Romans chapter 9, as we're reading this great discourse that Paul is breaking out on election, the Jews are called clay. And then Gentiles are mentioned afterwards. And I'm not saying that we're not clay, but in particularly when the Jews are speaking about, when the scriptures are speaking about clay, it's speaking about Jerusalem.

And then it mentions in Daniel 2, it mentions a stone that's cut out by no human hand. And it comes and it strikes the image, the statue on the feet of iron mingled with clay. And it crushes them. Whoever the stone falls on, it crushes them.

All right, there's only one time in history where iron and clay were mixed, and that's first century Jerusalem. You had the Pax Romantis. Rome took over 10 nations, Israel being one of the 10. And they took hold of them.

They were intermingling in marriage. You had Jews who were half Greek, Greeks who were half Jewish. This was something that was taking place. And just like the head of gold represents Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, this stone that's cut out by no human hand represents Jesus in His incarnation.

Right?

The stone that's cut out by no human hands is speaking about Him coming down from heaven, and He lands in the period where the iron is mingled with the clay. And I would add this up to be 4 BC, 3 or 4 BC.

Jesus started His earthly ministry at 27 AD. That would have been the baptism of John. And by 30 AD, He is crucified. So not only was this stone representative of Jesus in His incarnation, but it represents His kingdom because it goes on to say that as this stone strikes the statue on the feet of ironing with clay of Rome and Jerusalem, it begins to grow as a mountain, and it covers the whole earth.

And it started with 11, and then there was 120, and then 3 ,000 were saved, and 5 ,000 were saved, and so on and so forth. As the gospel message went forth, people became Christians. And that mountain is still growing today.

Jesus is putting all of His enemies under His feet. And it came at that time, and it crushed them.

How?

Those who did not believe did not receive eternal life. And we know 70 AD came, and Jerusalem was destroyed. And you just watch the pattern in church history on how Rome eventually becomes destroyed and Christianized.

It was a stumbling stone, and whoever fell on was crushed. And if you trip over it, you are going to be crushed. This stone that came down from heaven in the book of Daniel is the bread which came down from heaven in the gospel of John.

The stone caused them to stumble, and here in John, they stumble over the fact that Jesus is the bread which came down from heaven. He's just explaining it in a different way. The bread is the stone. The stone is the bread.

You have to believe in what the prophets have written.

There's coming a stone in Zion,.

And whoever it falls upon, it will crush. And Jesus is preaching.

That he is the bread of life, and they are rejecting his teaching. This group of Jews were grumbling because Jesus said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Jesus responds, does this cause you to stumble?

Question, what caused them to stumble?

Answer, theology.

Theology, going deep into who Jesus is.

He is the stone that came down from heaven and crushed people who did not believe.

And it's still crushing people who do not believe. All enemies are going to be placed under the feet of Jesus.

You were an enemy.

Who was placed under the feet of Jesus.

I was his enemy.

I was born dead in my trespass as a sinner, shaking my fist.

I'm going to do things my way. Heard the gospel, hit the brakes. God changed me. I'm under his feet. Those who see Jesus as a meal ticket, then the time of this gospel was written, and now would say, please Jesus, feed us.

But also, please Jesus, don't teach us. Give me Jesus, keep your theology. Please Jesus, feed us. Please Jesus, don't teach us. Now I'm going to attempt to take what Jesus just said and put it in a sentence.

However, in verse 62 and 63, Jesus asks a question and he gives the answer. Look at verse 62 and 63, and I'll put that in a statement. What if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? Speaking about, you know, he's the bread that came down from heaven.

This is speaking about going back to heaven. The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. Jesus is saying, oh, you don't believe that I came down from heaven?

So neither will you believe when I go back to heaven. Look at verse 62 again. What then if you see, with their eyes, remember Jesus, when he was with his disciples, he was lifted up into the clouds.

If you were around,.

You would see Jesus lift up into the clouds.

What if you see the Son of Man.

Ascending to where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life.

The flesh profits nothing.

The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. Jesus is saying, believing is not whether or not you see something.

You can see him descending to sin.

That's not going to cause you to believe. But rather or not, you have been given the Spirit. Flesh profits nothing. If you have not been given the Spirit, you will not believe. Jesus is saying to them, you have to be given the Spirit.

The Spirit is the one who gives life,.

Not the flesh.

You cannot decide to believe. The purpose, listen, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to apply the purpose of the Father by the message preached about the Son, which is theology. We use the law of God, we use the law of God to show people their need for a savior.

You use the law of God to show them they are in debt, that they have a fine that they cannot pay, and that God in his reconciliation sends Jesus as a propitiation to pay the payment for our wrongdoing.