John 6:48-59

turn in your Bibles if you have them or follow

along on the screen. John 6, last time we were

here,

we ended with verse 47. And so I want to pick

back up our study in 48. And we're not going

to get to

all these verses today. This is just such

really rich material. But I want to read in 48

to 71.

And let's read that together beginning in

verse 48. Jesus says, "I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness,

and they died. This is the bread which comes

down out

of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not

die. I am the living bread that came down out

of heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live

forever. And the bread also which I will give

for the life of the world is my flesh." Then

the Jews began to argue with one another

saying,

"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

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

yourselves.

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 of

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 Father's aid and died. He who eats

this bread will live forever." These things he

said in the synagogue as he taught in Caperna

um. Therefore, many of his disciples when they

heard

this said, "This is a difficult statement. Who

can listen to it?" But Jesus, conscious that

his

disciples grumbled at this said to him, "Does

this cause you to stumble? What then if you

see the

Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

It is the Spirit 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 that would betray him. And he

was saying for this reason I said to you,

that no one can come to me unless it has been

granted from him from the Father." As a result

of this, many of his disciples withdrew and

were not walking with him anymore.

So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want

to go away also, do you?"

Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall

we go? You have words of eternal life. We have

believed and 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 meant Judas, the Son of

Simon,

Ascariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going

to betray him. Now, there is a lot in that

passage.

There is an amazing portion of Scripture. The

back end of this chapter here is the culmin

ation

of everything that has been going on in this

very long chapter. And in its heart, as you

know,

the heart of it is about spiritual defection.

It's about apostasy. It's about turning your

back on Jesus and walking away from him after

having been discipled by him. And we don't

have

time to review the whole chapter, but let me

just go back to the gist of what we studied

last time

we were here in John, just to get us back up

to speed. Jesus has been ministering in Gal

ilee for

about a year up to this point. Miracles, ast

ounding miracles, constant healings, just jaw-

dropping

miracles, feeding, as we saw in that one

miracle, upwards of 25,000 people, men, women,

and children.

And for the most part, as you remember, the

response of the majority of Galilee is unbel

ief,

defection. And as I said, that is painful for

Jesus. You can feel it in what he says to the

12. Look again there in verse 67. He looks at

him and he says, "You do not want to go away

also,

do you?" Now remember Jesus, truly God, truly

man, 100% God, 100% man, heavenly arithmetic,

as Thomas Watson said. You're not going to be

able to comprehend that with your mind,

but truly human, weeping at the grave of Lazar

us, tempted in all points as are we. And so you

can

feel that in his humanness that the rejection

of the people, the majority of the people in

Galilee,

think about it, after all that he had done,

after all the healing of hundreds of people,

all the clear evidence of his deity and his

Messiahship and the majority reject.

This affected Jesus. As we studied last time,

where then did Jesus go to find his balance

in the face of this rejection? Well, he goes

to the same place as I said before that we

always go

to. You're witnessing to that family member.

You're witnessing to that coworker. And they

just

absolutely reject the gospel. They reject

Christ. They don't want anything to do with

your Jesus.

And you only have one place you can go, right?

The sovereignty of God. It is God who is

sovereign

in salvation. All I can do is bring the

message to them and then it's up to God as to

whether or

not he's going to save them. That's exactly

what Jesus does here in this chapter, in the

face of

this massive rejection of all these Galileans.

He leans hard on the sovereignty of God and

when

he does, he doesn't pull any punches. He gets

very straightforward. He gets very direct. And

when you

put it together in the order I'm fixing to

give it to you, I want you to listen carefully

to these

words. There's no wiggle room out of this when

I put these verses together. Look at verse 44.

He says to them, "No one can." Remember, no

one has the ability. No one can come to me

unless the Father who sent me draws him. Now,

that, unless you're a universalist and you

believe

everybody goes to heaven when they die, which

we don't and the Bible doesn't teach that.

So those who are drawn by the Father who can't

come unless the Father draws them

has to be the particular group of people that

he calls. It has to be. And then look at verse

65.

"No one can come to me. No one has the ability

to come to me unless it has been granted him

by the Father." Again, that's a very

particular group of people that have been

granted the ability

to come to Jesus by the Father, that have been

given the ability when drawn by the Father to

the

Son. That's a particular group of people. That

's the church. That's all Christians. And then

look

at verse 37. "Out of that particular group

that are drawn by the Father, that are granted

by the

Father." How many of them come to the Father?

Verse 37. "All that the Father gives me will

come to me." That's absolute certainty. And to

add for good measure, the one who comes to me,

I will certainly not cast out. That's an

extraordinary set of verses right there.

Words have meaning. And the meaning of those

words is so very clear. I remember when I

first

got into John 6, James White has a great

little booklet called "Drawn by the Father"

that specifically

deals with these, the meaning of these words.

It's unmistakable. The Father, God the Father,

is the final decider of whether or not a

sinner comes to faith in Jesus Christ. He

decides that.

He draws. He grants. It's unmistakable. If you

're basing your understanding on the meaning of

the

words and those verses, you cannot get around

that conclusion. To do so completely warps the

meaning

of those verses. And so in the face of massive

rejection, what does Jesus immediately do?

He goes big picture. Biggest picture. The

Father will draw who the Father will draw is

basically

what he's saying to these rejecters. He will

call who he wills to call. That's what he's

saying to

these Jewish leaders. And it's so interesting

to take note of in verses 60 to 71 in response

to the

words of Jesus, the false disciples are

exposed. They grumble and then they stumble as

we're fixing

to see. And then at the very end, they

completely defect. But out of the same group

of disciples

in verses 67 to 69, lo and behold, we find

some true disciples and their response to the

exact

same words of Jesus is absolutely they will

not leave. They will not go. And who takes to

lead?

Good old Simon Peter takes to lead verses 68

through 69. Look what he says. "Lord, to whom

shall we go?

Where else are we going to go? You have the

words of eternal life. We have believed and

come to know

that you are the Holy One of God, obviously in

that group drawn by the Father, obviously in

that

group granted by the Father to the Son." And

it's no different from today. Not in

whatsoever. Different

people hear the same words of the message of

the gospel and some reject outright. Some

follow

for a little while and then at some point they

turn and they defect and they walk away. But

some

believe and endure to the end just like Peter

did. Where are we going to go? Where are you

going to go? Besides Jesus. We believe Jesus

that you are who you say you are is what Peter

is saying.

Now, we've been working our way through this

outline and it goes many Sundays back,

especially

when you factor in Ephesians. Sorry about that

. But I just want to go back through these

points

that we've studied so far to put it together

to where we are today.

And if you remember, the heading we've been

working under is the characteristics of a

false

disciple. We saw first, they're, remember,

attracted by the crowds. Still happens in

false religion today. They're fascinated by

the supernatural. I mean, even these guys that

can't

deliver the supernatural, just the fact that

they're saying something supernatural is going

to happen,

they people go and they're attracted to it.

Thirdly, they're focused on the earthly

benefits.

Fourthly, they have no interest in true

genuine worship. Fifthly, they seek only their

personal

satisfaction, the group that was fed in their

miracle. Remember, they were just there for

more food the next day. Sixthly, false

disciples make demands on God. They see God as

a bank.

They see Him as a genie and that He's oblig

ated, actually teaching that He's obligated.

Some

of them, if you say the right words, He's

obligated to give you what you want. And then

seventh,

we looked at last time, false disciples are

not satisfied with just Christ alone.

Having Christ alone for them is not enough.

They want all these benefits, all these

temporal

benefits. And that brings us to number eight

today. And it's just staggering when you sit

and think about this. False disciples do not

understand, do not comprehend divine

revelation.

And I'm going to show this to you. Back in

verse 32, Jesus started talking to them about

bread.

He said at the end of verse 32, "It is my

Father who gives you the true bread out of

heaven."

Verse 33, "For the bread of God is that which

comes down out of heaven and gives life to the

world." And then verse 35, he says, "I am the

bread of life." And we studied what he's

meaning

there. For one thing, he's talking about his

pre-existence. He alone is the one who comes

down out of heaven. Jesus alone has come down

into time and space from heaven to fulfill the

divine

purpose of the Father, and that is to provide

salvation for his people. So he comes from

heaven with a purpose, salvation, eternal life

, for all who come to him on his terms of

repentance

and faith. But note this clearly. As he says

this, they are not able to comprehend what he

's saying.

They don't understand this. It doesn't fit

into their minds. Look at verses 41 and 42 in

response.

"Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him

because he said, 'I am the bread that came

down

out of heaven.'" They were saying, "Is this

not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and

mother

we know? How does he now say, 'I have come

down out of heaven.'" And remember from last

time,

it's complete mockery in that. It's ridicule.

Isn't this Joseph's boy from up there in Naz

areth?

And they mock because they cannot grasp with

their minds the truth of what he's saying. You

have to

remember about false disciples. You have to

keep this in mind about all unregenerate

people.

They can't understand divine revelation. They

're always on the outside looking in.

We quoted this many times, but you have to go

back to it. This is such a stark,

amazing verse, 1 Corinthians 2.14. I don't

know how the Bible could be any clearer about

this

subject right here. "But a natural man that is

an unregenerate human being who has not come

to

saving faith in Christ does not accept the

things of the Spirit of God, for they are

foolishness to

him," and here's the phrase, "and he cannot

understand them because they are spiritually

a praise." It's so clear. Now, in the case of

false disciples across the spectrum of the

church,

they may be some who sow some kind of feigned

interest in the truth that this is why false

teachers don't need to feed people a true

presentation of God because false disciples

don't have any capacity to grasp the Word of

God. They really don't have any hunger for it,

and Jesus was so descriptive with his words

about this. Let me give you another example,

John 8, to just sink this in because it's so

astounding. John 8, here we find Jesus,

back with the Jewish leaders. Look in verse 42

. "If God were your Father," he tells them,

"you would love me, for I proceed forth and

have come from God, for I have not even come

on my own

initiative," but he sent me. Then he says in

verse 43, "Why do you not understand what I am

saying?" And here's the staggering answer that

he gives. "It is because you cannot hear my

word."

Wow. You can't. You don't because you can't.

This is not just unwillingness. This is

inability,

and then in verse 44, "Jesus says something

that I doubt any of us in this room would

really be

willing to publicly say to any unbeliever that

we would be witnessing to." Look in 44, he

says,

"You," to these Jewish leaders, "you are of

your Father, the devil, and you want to do the

desires

of your Father." He was a murderer from the

beginning and does not stand in the truth

because there is no truth in him. Whenever he

speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature,

for he is a liar and the Father of life. I

really, I just don't know how much more

shocking

and provocative Jesus could be than with that

characterization of these lost Jewish leaders.

I mean, what he says there just takes the cake

. Just picture yourself in that scene.

These are the religious elite of Israel. I

mean, would you tell somebody that

when you're witnessing to them and they reject

? "Well, you're of your Father, the devil,

your Satan's child." Would you tell anybody

that? I mean, it sounds wild to even say that,

doesn't it? But it's true. And as far as false

disciples go, they're very comfortable with

lying.

You wonder why so many people follow the false

teachers that are out there?

For the reason is, that's their family. They

live in a world of lies.

Their Father is the devil from Jesus' own

description right here in the Word of God.

And they are the children of Satan. And I

realize how wild a statement that is. And if

people outside of our church are watching this

on Facebook, they're probably turning off that

guy's

nuts. But guess what? That didn't come from me

. I didn't make that up. I didn't say that

originally.

I'm just telling you what Jesus said. The same

Jesus that we celebrate his

birth all across the world on December 25th

said, "If you're an unbeliever, your Father is

the devil.

You're a child of Satan. You cannot understand

divine revelation." Look at verse 45.

He says it right here. "But because I speak

the truth, you do not believe me."

And then again, with great clarity, he says in

verse 47, "He who is of God hears the Word of

God.

For this reason, you do not hear them because

you are not of God." It is that simple.

The demarcation line is clear. If you belong

to God, you believe God, you're part of the

family,

and you hear his Word, and you understand it

when you hear it. In fact, you really want to

hear it.

I mean, you long for it. You study it. You

embrace it. You get it. And then you

understand why it is

that people... Jesus tells people, "You're of

your Father, the devil." You hear that. Yeah,

it's still

wild to you, but you say, "Yeah, he's right."

And I know why he's right, because I've

studied him,

and I've studied his Word, and I know exactly

what he means when he says that. So it's

really

not that wild, because it's the truth. We see

the same situation later in John 10. It's so

amazing

how often Jesus brings us up. He's with the

Jewish leaders again, and he says to them,

and I hope one day in heaven, we get some

video of what happened. I just want to see it.

Verse 24,

this is what they say to Jesus. "How long will

you keep us in suspense? You are the Christ.

Tell us plainly," which, of course, he's

already told them plainly many times. Verse 25

, here's

his response. "I told you, and you do not

believe the works that I do in my Father's

name. These

testify of me." So you have the evidence from

my words. You have the evidence from my works.

Verse 26, "But you do not believe." Why do you

not believe? Because you are not of my sheep.

You are not of my family. Verse 27, "My sheep

hear my voice, and I know them,

and they follow me, and I give eternal life to

them, and they will never perish,

and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

The clarity that Jesus gives us on this

subject

throughout this Gospel of John alone is

overwhelming. You just have to dig into the

meaning of the words. Now go back to John 6

and pick it back up with verse 41 with these

grumbling

Jews. They're grumbling because of what he

said in verses 32 to 40 about the bread of

life. Remember

verse 35, "I am the bread of life. He who

comes to me will not hunger, and he who

believes in me

will never thirst." And of course, when he

talks all through here about being the bread

of life,

just like when he says, "I am the door,"

clearly he is speaking in metaphoric terms.

You don't have

to be an English major. Even I can figure this

out. He's talking in metaphoric terms about

himself

being the only provision for the soul, and he

's using bread, the only one who can provide

eternal

life, and he provides it, he says it over and

over and over, only to those who believe in

him.

He will not ever lose them. He'll raise them

up on the last day, and what is their response

?

Verse 41, "And remember, these are the elite

religious leaders of Israel. Therefore the

Jews

were grumbling about him because he said, 'I

am the bread that came down out of heaven.'"

Again,

verse 42, they were saying, "It's not this

Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and

mother we know.

How does he now say, 'I have come down out of

heaven.'" They don't get it. It doesn't

register.

It's so cool. Jesus doesn't argue with them.

There's no argument he puts up. Verse 43, "

Jesus

answered and said to them, 'Do not grumble

among yourselves.'" Now next, does he want to

get into

it in more debate with them? Does he want to

explain any more what the issues are? Oh boy,

he goes straight. Verse 44, where does he go

straight to? "No one can come to me unless the

father who sent me draws him, and I will raise

him up on the last day." He goes right to that

,

and he's talking about them. Jesus finds

comfort in the doctrine of divine sovereignty

in salvation.

They don't understand the truth. On the other

hand, at the same time, in verse 45,

for anybody who does understand the truth,

look what it says. "It is written, and they

shall all

be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and

learned from the Father comes to me." And we

looked at this.

The only way that you can possibly come to

Jesus, you're drawn by the Father, the Father

begins to

teach you when he draws and he combines the

Word and the Spirit and the illumination of

his Word

to instruct your soul. Look at verse 46, "Not

that anyone has seen the Father,

except the one who is from God, he has seen

the Father." Nobody goes to heaven and gets a

private

lesson from God. God instructs us through

Christ, through his Word. And even though

these people

here in our text do not understand the truth,

Jesus next reminds them there is eternal life

available. Then he spreads it out to anyone

who will believe. Look at verses 48 through 50

. "Truly,

truly, I say to you, he who believes has

eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your

fathers ate

the manna in the wilderness and they died.

This is the bread which comes down out of

heaven so that

one may eat of it and not die." And so Jesus,

of course, understands both sides of the coin.

Sovereignty of God on one hand, responsibility

of man on the other. And just to reinforce

this

eighth point in our outline. False disciples

cannot understand divine revelation unless

the Father is drawing them and transferring

them, as the Bible says, from the domain of

darkness

into the kingdom of his dear son through the

miracle of regeneration. Otherwise,

they can't hear his word. In fact, really,

they're happy to live in the world of false

teachers.

They're happy to sow their seed, hoping to get

their financial breakthrough to

give the preacher money. Maybe this time when

I drop the money in the pot, this will be my

big

breakthrough. They're happy to live like that.

Wherever you find false teachers who are

successful,

they are successful. Why? Because they have

false disciples that are following them.

That's why. Now, all that brings us to the

next point.

False disciples have no interest in embracing

the cross. Look next in verse 51.

Jesus says, "I am the living bread that came

down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this

bread,

he will live forever. And the bread also which

I will give for the life of the world is my

flesh."

Now, that last part is new. Verse, he goes on

with the metaphor of bread.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live

forever. So, clearly, believing is eating.

In his example, that's pretty easy to see,

right? You must eat. You must believe. Same

thing. Anyone

who eats, anyone who believes will live

forever. But then at the end of this verse, he

adds a

whole another dimension. "And the bread also

which I will give for the life of the world

is my flesh." What in the world? My body. And

this, of course, is a reference to his death,

his sacrifice of his body on the cross. "I

will give my flesh, my body, for the life of

the world."

What does it mean of the world? Does it mean

that the whole world is going to be saved by

the

death of Christ? Well, no, we know that's not

true. What it means is,

is that the world only has one savior. He says

, "The bread also which I will give for the

life

of the world is my flesh." This is only one

offering in the whole world, for the world,

that can bring salvation. The world has no

other provision for salvation, for eternal

life. You

can go all over this world. You can look to

Allah. You can look to Buddha. You can look to

new age

spirituality. You can look to the God that you

make up in your own mind. But the reality is,

there is no salvation in any other specific

name. Save the name of Jesus Christ. And Jesus

says,

"I will give my flesh for the life of the

world." And you must eat my flesh. What kind

of language is

this? I really have to stop here, because

there is a great deception that has been

fostered upon

this world for centuries, where the terrible,

corrupted system of the Roman Catholic mass,

which I was raised in, has been inked into the

world. This passage right here

is where the Roman Catholic system devised the

meaning of the mass, their church service.

And at the heart of it is the Eucharist, the

host, communion. There is just no other way to

say this.

The mass is a heretical corruption that

somehow the priest can turn the bread and the

wine

into the literal body and blood of the Lord

Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and

wine.

I got it right back there in that catechism,

Roman Catholic catechism, on that I can show

you

exactly the pages where this is taught in the

catechism. It's called transubstantiation.

And as the catechism teaches under the

appearance of bread and wine,

it's a real, true, listen to me now, re-sacr

ifice of Christ right there on that altar.

And the people literally eat his body and his

blood under the appearance of bread and wine.

And it is called in the catechism a propiti

atory sacrifice. What does that mean? James

White just

had a debate with a Roman Catholic scholar. Is

the mass a propitiatory sacrifice? Propit

iation.

If you don't know that word, you need to go

home and write the definition 10 times until

you memorize

it. It deals with the appeasement of the wrath

of God. A propitiation was made. It's a

biblical word.

God's wrath was appeased when his holy justice

was poured out on Jesus as a substitutionary

atonement. His wrath was appeased. Satisf

action for that holy justice was made. We

deserved it.

Jesus took it in our place and the Catholic

Church teaches that again and again and again

and again

and again over and over, thousands and

thousands, like millions of times now over the

centuries,

the mass, when the when the priest goes

through the miracle of transubstantiation,

a propitiatory sacrifice where Jesus is re-sac

rificed again and again and again. Every time a

mass is

said, let me tell you that is a severe, sad

misunderstanding of this text right here.

And I don't care how much people get mad at me

for saying this. It's the truth. What it does,

every time that's done, it denies the su

fficiency of what Hebrews says is a one-time

offering of

Christ on the cross that is all-sufficient

when it was made and it never needed to be

made again.

So it's directly contradictory to the meaning

of the cross. Every time the mass is said and

I know

people lose their minds to hear me say that,

but it's the truth. There's no way you can get

around it.

When you put the words of Scripture up against

that teaching, you have so totally diametr

ically

opposed teachings that they both cannot be

right. And you have to choose which one it is

if you're making the choice between the two.

So let's be clear about what this really means

,

what Jesus is saying here. If you said to

somebody, I have something I need to tell you,

and it's really important for your life. And I

know it's not going to be easy,

but you're going to have to swallow this what

I'm fixing to tell you if you want to get

to the next level. When you hear me say that,

you're going to have to swallow this,

you understand when I say that that I'm not

asking you to eat something literally, don't

you?

I'm not asking you to eat some donuts, am I?

No. If you can't swallow this that I'm fixing

to tell

you you're not going to get to the next level

is obviously, very simply, a metaphoric way of

me

saying to you, you have to swallow this, you

have to embrace this, right? You have to

acknowledge

this, what I'm saying to you. Is that not so

clearly what Jesus is saying in this passage?

So again, either I'm right about that, or the

Roman Catholic Church and its teaching

is right about the way they're interpreting

this, but we both can't be right. It's

impossible.

So it isn't just that you have to, Jesus is

saying, accept me as the pre-existent bread

that came

down from heaven and accept me as the

provision of the Father by His will and accept

me as the only

one who can supply eternal life. You also have

to eat my flesh, meaning you have to accept my

sacrificial death and the fullness of all that

my death on Calvary's tree means. That is what

He's

saying. This was way, way over the top for

these Jews. It's why the gospel was such a st

umbling block

for them. They had no room in their minds for

a crucified Messiah. And that's why when Jesus

was

on the road to Emmaus with those disciples

that day, He had to tell them, look, from the

Old

Testament, let me show you why it was

necessary that the Messiah had to suffer and

die because you

haven't been getting it when you've been

reading it. So it's a simple metaphor, is all

it is here.

You have to be able to accept my death. And He

piles it on without really advancing this

statement.

In fact, He just repeats it, but verse, verse

52. The Jews begin to argue with one another

saying,

how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And

again, that's really more mockery. And how

does

Jesus respond? 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. Now, on the surface, does that

not

sound crazy? I mean, Leviticus 17, they knew

it forbids drinking animal blood, let alone

human blood.

Right? Why is He saying this? Listen, remember

this, too. They weren't confused. These are

rabbis.

They knew He was speaking metaphorically.

Unfortunately, as billions don't understand,

rabbis talk like that all the time. He's

giving them the divine truth that you have got

to be

willing to fully embrace my substitutionary at

onement on the cross. He says it again. Next,

He just keeps going. He repeats it again in

verse 54. You think these guys weren't wound

up?

He Jesus says to them, he who eats my flesh

and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I

will

reckons him up on the last day. And then He

hits them again in verse 55. He doesn't stop.

And my

flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

And then again, verse 56, he who eats my flesh

and drinks my blood abides in me and I and him

. I mean, can you just imagine at this point?

What was happening? What was the looks on

their faces? And what He means is you come

into union

with me. That's what it means. In order to

come into union with Christ, you have to

understand

what His atoning death is about. And you have

to accept it as He offered His body, His flesh

,

as a sacrifice for sin. And He shed His blood,

the one who was executed in our place. And the

blood is simply a metonym for His death. Death

, the shedding of blood. Without the shedding

of

blood, there's no remission of sin. It's

talking about death. The penalty wages of sin

is death.

And He's saying to these Jews, "You first must

accept the person that I am and the death that

I die and the fullness of what all of that

means." And then in verse 57, "As the living

Father sent

me," and again, back to His preexistence, "and

I live because of the Father,

back to the Father's will, so he who eats me

will also live because of me." Verse 58,

"This is the bread which came down out of

heaven, not as the Father's ate and died."

Talking about

the Jews in the Old Testament times, "He who

eats this bread will live forever."

And so the bottom line here is false disciples

have no real interest in embracing the cross

of

Jesus Christ. And that's all that it means.

Now, they might want to wear a cross around

their neck

on Fox News to show that they're a Christian.

They might want to put a T-shirt with Jesus on

it. They might want to put a fish bumper

sticker on their car. But a false disciple

doesn't really

embrace the fullness of the gospel and the

substitutionary atoning work of Jesus on Calv

ary.

That's what He's getting at. That's the point.

And the evidence here is very clear. Verse 59,

"These things He said in the synagogue as He

taught in Capernaum." And again,

that's where we are. That's where He's talking

to these Jews. In the synagogue, the center of

all

Jewish life of every village in every town was

the synagogue. Again, can you imagine their

reaction?

Just think about the words He's been saying.

Well, verse 60,

therefore, many of His disciples, when they

heard this, said, "This is a difficult

statement.

Who can listen to it? I mean, I guess so. Eat

my flesh. Drink my blood. Live forever."

Then they grumbled. Verse 61, "But Jesus

conscious that His disciples grumbled at this,

and then they stumbled," said to them, "Does

this cause you to stumble?" Later down in

verse 66,

look at it. Man, they're out of there. This

guy's nuts. As a result of this, many of His

disciples

withdrew and were not walking with Him any.

The false disciple is not interested in the at

onement

because the false disciple is not concerned

with having a righteousness that can make him

right

with God, which only Jesus can provide. The

false disciple doesn't understand the absolute

desperateness of his own natural condition,

and so thereby the false disciple is not

hungry for

God's forgiveness. The false disciple is not

feeling at all the weight of impending divine

judgment over his head because the false

disciple already has all the answers.

The false disciple is satisfied with whatever

the world has to give in Jesus' name, of

course,

and you've met him. You know him in your life

right now. Being the big man upstairs had a

conversation. "I'm okay with the man upstairs.

We're going to be all right."

False disciples concerned with his own will

being fulfilled in his life, not Christ.

Jesus said he didn't come to call the

righteous. You know why? The righteous don't

come.

They're not hungry for true righteousness

because they think they already have enough

righteousness. They think the good works are

going to outweigh the bad works and everybody

's

going to go to heaven when they die. They

think they're all right with God. Everything's

good.

As we've learned here in John 6, it's only

when the Father

sovereignly draws, sovereignly teaches a

person through Christ and his Word and through

the

miracle of regeneration that a person becomes

aware of and broken over their own sinfulness

before a holy God. In this process, a person

becomes aware like they never had before of

the void

that they have in their soul and then they

have a longing to be right with God, a longing

that they

never really had before and to have peace and

joy and hope to escape what they know now that

they

deserve, God's wrath and God's judgment. Let

me tell you, that person comes and eats. That

person

comes and drinks and people have Christ

presented to them and they may have him

presented in all

his glory. They may respect Jesus. They may

admire the grace of Jesus and the love of

Jesus and the

kindness of Jesus. They may be awed by his

power. They even may go to the passion movie

and shed

tears over the way he was mistreated

physically, but it's only when they see him as

their only hope

in this life and the next for the forgiveness

of their sins through the sacrifice

specifically of

himself on the cross that they truly, really,

savingly come to him. False disciples don't

come on those terms. True disciples do. And

the primary question of the day is what kind

of

disciple are you? You attend 10 church every

Sunday. There's no greater question that you

can possibly be asked. Examine yourself. That

's what Paul said. Am I a true disciple? Nail

it down.

If you answer those list of questions that I

always give you about being a true disciple,

nail it down. And you know what? Give yourself

another burst of assurance as you walk out of

church. Yes, indeed, I'm adopted by grace. I

don't deserve any bit of it, but God by his

grace

drew me, called me, granted me the gifts of

repentance and faith, miracle of regeneration.

I believe and I'm trusting in Christ's

righteousness, not my own. Or you need to

repent

and say to yourself, I need to get this

straight and I need to get it straight today.

You only get one life to get this straight.

And as those 32 people across multiple states

found out yesterday, you have no idea of how

many days you have left.

Today is the day of salvation. A repent,

believe, or come a true disciple. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you. These are intense words

in Jesus. I have no earthly idea how

anybody could just glaze by these words

without deep investigation of the meaning

of this. It's incredible to me. The supreme

boldness of Jesus is something that should

just

leave everyone with their mouth open and

amazed. But this is God in human flesh,

speaking

God's truth. Lord, help us all to have a

deeper understanding today of the person of

Jesus,

the work of Jesus, than we did when we came in

the door. And as we go out, may that deeper

understanding motivate us to live even more

deeply a life that brings you glory. In Jesus'

name,

we pray. Amen.