Challenges & Controversies

Just to remind you, especially for those who may not have been able to be with us regularly, that we've been doing a study of the life of Christ. This is now, I think, our 34th study, yes, 34th tonight. Really, when I came back to the chapel about a year and a half ago, I really had intended to do two studies a year and alternate between survey of the Bible, a particular part of the Bible, and a doctrinal theme. We did the doctrine of the Bible, and then we started into the survey of the gospels. I just can't help myself with the gospels. The life of Christ is just so rich. It's just hard to survey. It's hard to take just great chunks and mention a word or two about them. There's just so much there that we can learn from. And so I've come to peace with altering my schedule. That's difficult for a person like me, you know. So I've come to peace with that, and just trust that we'll take the pace that God wants us to and be comfortable with that. As we work our way through the gospels chronologically, taking all four of the gospels and the accounts chronologically and focusing upon one or two of them that really give us the most depth of teaching about a particular incident in our ords life. Let me just give you the big picture first. We talked, obviously, at the very beginning about introducing the gospels and why there are four gospels and the different perspectives they give on the life of Christ and so forth. The different audiences they were written to and that kind of thing. And then we talked about the genealogies and why there are two of those. And the different perspectives they have, the different things they teach us about God's grace. And then we talked about, of course, the birth and childhood narratives of our Lord and the stories of his birth and childhood and early life. And then we spent some time on the early ministry of Christ, which takes about eight months to a year's time, but there's very little in the gospels about it, most of it in the gospel of John. Then the next major phase of our Lord's ministry, we have spent the most time in, and that is the year and a half, Galilee and great Galilee and ministry, where Jesus focused His ministry out of cappernum on the Sea of Galilee, did three tours of the Galilee and province with His disciples, first time with six of them, the second time with all twelve, and the third time sending the twelve out and Him going on His own. So there was kind of an elevation and responsibility of those disciples as they learned more from Him. But in that year and a half time, period of time, which we've just basically finished, there were tremendous amount of miracles. There were signs that were designed to help people see who Jesus was and to understand that He was the Messiah, He fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. We've seen numerous evidences of the fact that the miraculous signs were designed to confirm the preaching and teaching of Jesus, and the emphasis of His ministry was on preaching and teaching. That's very clear in that part of His ministry. And then we come to Matthew 12 where Jesus was rejected officially by the leaders of the nation, the Pharisees, the religious leaders speaking on behalf of the nation, reject the Lord Jesus, attribute His miracles, His sign miracles to Satan, and Jesus basically tells them you'll get no more signs designed to be credentials of my ministry. The miracles from this point on will have a different purpose, and that different purpose is obviously miracles of compassion, but also miracles to teach His disciples. And so there's a transition in Jesus' ministry into a new phase of His ministry, which lasts about six months. And we've just been in that phase for the last two or three weeks, and that is sometimes called the training of the twelve. What you find in this period of Jesus' ministry is that He does more withdrawing from the multitudes, although there still is ministry to great multitudes of people, because as we'll see, wherever Jesus goes, crowds swarmed to Him. He cannot escape them. We've already seen twice where Jesus is seeking to actually get away from the crowds, and they catch up with Him. We'll see that again tonight or next week if we don't get that far tonight. But Jesus' focus in these six months is on the training of the twelve. And what we're going to see tonight is that Jesus will begin having some direct challenges and controversies with the Pharisees and even with the crowds, and then He will pull away. In fact, He will lead the nation of Israel for a period of time and minister in Gentile territory solely for the purpose of getting away from the crowds and spending time with His disciples. So the training of the twelve is a very apt description of this time, even though there's still a mix of interaction with crowds of people. Now what we saw last time was that the great Galilee and ministry comes to a close and Jesus at the end of the third tour, preaching tour of Galilee with the disciples, pulls away to rest. Remember, He told us disciples come apart for a while and rest. But by the time they got across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is really just kind of a hop along the northern side of the Sea of Galilee, as we saw, the crowds are already there to meet Him. And so Jesus does not take the time to rest. He immediately begins to teach the multitudes and then feeds the five thousand. That is designed to teach His disciples, and we saw three lessons that He taught His disciples from that miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. Then you remember that Jesus was besieged by the crowd, many of whom were on their way to the Passover we saw in John 7, on their way to the Passover in Jerusalem. I know that's, excuse me, John 6. And so there are huge swarms of crowd and they want to actually put Him on their shoulders, take Him to Jerusalem with Him and make Him King, lead a revolt against the Romans. And Jesus takes very direct action to stop that uprising. He dismisses the crowds, he forces His disciples to get into a boat. And they go out onto the Sea of Galilee and Jesus is in the mountain praying and Jesus comes to them in the middle of the night, three o'clock in the morning, when they are besieged by the worst storm they've ever been in. And they think He's a ghost, you recall the story. Jesus purposely put them in that situation to teach them some things. He says that they did not learn in the lesson of the bread and the loaves and the feeding of the five thousand. And that's about who He was. And remember we talked about the fact Jesus did that for the specific reason of what's going to happen next. And what happens next is what we're ready to look at tonight. John chapter 6, Jesus preaches a hard sermon. And it will be very clear when we get to the end of this sermon, the end of this chapter that Jesus purposely put the disciples through this incredible trial where they thought they were going to lose their lives so that they can learn something about Him that would solidify their view of Him so that they would be ready for the kind of sermon he's preaching the next day. So they all this is in control of the Lord. He knows exactly what He's doing and He's preparing them for this sermon that He's going to preach. So John chapter 6, Jesus preaches a hard sermon. Three challenges in this sermon on your outline there. First of all is the challenge to the crowd. Let's begin with verse 22. The next day. This is after the day before the feeding of the five thousand. The night between these two days, Jesus on the mountain with the disciples on the sea. Jesus comes to them on the sea immediately. The boat is at land. And so when the next day comes, the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake, see a gallery, realized that only one boat had been there and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Remember I told you they would come back looking for him the next day. It's exactly what's happening here. They're looking for him because they still have the purpose to take him to Jerusalem and lead a revolt against the Romans. Verse 23, then some boats from Tiberius landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. More people showing up. Verse 24, once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to cappernum in search of Jesus. They knew of course that's where Jesus made his home base. They can't find him. They think maybe he's gone back to cappernum. Verse 25, when they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Now at the end of this chapter, near the end, verse 59, you'll find that he's teaching in the synagogue at cappernum. He's teaching in the synagogue, that's where they find him. Because what happens between verse 25 and verse 59 is one of the sharpest, most direct, hardest messages Jesus ever preached. And he purposely preached it to drive away the crowd. Purfosely, because he knew they were not genuine in their efforts to seek after him. So they asked him the question, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered. Now, want you to see, Jesus does not answer their question. He does not tell them when he got there. He launches right into this hard sermon with a strong review. Strong review. Notice what he says. I tell you the truth. You are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Whoa. He doesn't answer their question. When did you get here? I want to tell you, you're not looking for me for the right reasons. That's what Jesus starts his sermon with. You didn't care about the miraculous signs. What do you think Jesus means by that? They didn't care about miraculous signs. Didn't they want to see those? What do you think he means by that? The origin. The origin. Possibly. Where they came from. What they mean? Okay. Where they really interested? Well, they were interested in something food. They were not interested in correct the origin of the miracles where they really came from. They were just interested in getting fed. And they were certainly not interested in what the miracles meant. That's why Jesus says you weren't interested in miraculous signs. Remember time and time and time and time again. We've seen that the purpose of the miracles were signs. They were designed to show that Jesus words were true. And Jesus says you are not at all concerned about the sign impact of the miracles. All you concerned is about getting your belly filled. They're not. You know, this is where the great things are. Well, obviously they they must have recognized it was a miracle, although. Okay, let's just think about crowd of 15,000, 20,000, maybe 5,000 men, others possibly. If you're at the back of the crowd, do you see how many lobes and fish that Jesus started with? I don't know, maybe not. So maybe many of them did not understand the miraculous nature of it, but those who did still didn't get it. They didn't understand that the purpose of this was to show who he was, where he had come from. And you better listen to what he has to say. It's his words. It's his preaching. It's his message. That's the important thing. Not the miracle. The miracle is just the sign to show you better listen to what he has to say. And that's why he says you're not interested in miraculous signs. All you're interested is getting your belly filled. Quite a way to start a sermon, isn't it? When did you get here? Well, they weren't ready for that answer. You don't care anything about miraculous signs and the intent and purpose of them and what the signs were designed to show about my message. You're just concerned about getting your belly filled. And notice what else he says. Verse 27, this is really this is really the thrust of his message the rest of it. Do not work for food that spoils. But for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you on him. God the Father has placed his seal of approval. What was the seal of approval? The miracles. Yeah. So Jesus is saying the whole purpose of the miracle was to show God's sign of approval on me. And I came to give you a different kind of bread. Now here's the whole thrust of Jesus message. You're only concerned about physical bread. I came to give you spiritual bread. And throughout this whole message, Jesus is going to contrast physical food with spiritual life. And he's going to use that metaphor of bread to indicate I'm giving you a kind of bread that if you eat, you'll never get hungry again. If you eat, you'll live eternally. Okay, so he's just using the figure of speech of bread to indicate spiritual life that which will give them eternal life. So that's the great contrast that this whole sermon is about. You're only concerned about physical food. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to give you spiritual food. I'm here to give you eternal life. Now, there's another not contrast, but another balance that Jesus is going to draw beautifully throughout this passage. And that is as he describes salvation as he describes what this bread, the spiritual bread is and what this eternal life is, he's going to draw beautiful balance between the work of the father and the response of the person who believes. He's going to make it very clear that nobody gets saved except the father initiated and do the work of salvation, but it's also the responsibility of the here to believe. Beautiful balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. What you'll find if you take the Bible seriously is that there is always a beautiful balance in those two. And Jesus draws it perfectly in this passage. People who go either to one extreme or the other must explain away a part of what the Bible teaches. And most people do that logically. Most people who put the emphasis on sovereignty have a very logical system that makes sense, but does not take some scriptures into account or explains them away. Those who do not believe in God's sovereignty and that he must initiate salvation have to explain away a whole other passage of scripture, other passages of scripture. There's always a beautiful balance. And when people try to put those two together and make them fit logically, it's when they get in trouble. And I just still believe that God intended us to see both. There is a divine side of salvation. There is a human response in salvation. Both are true. Both are true. And Jesus is going to say a lot about nobody gets saved unless the father draws him, but he's also going to say whoever wants to believe can believe and be saved. He's going to say both of those in this passage, both of them. And I read books that camp on one side or the other and end up denying the other side. And I wish we'd just do what Jesus did. Believe both of them. You say, well, I can't make them fit. The Bible never says to make them fit. Just believe them both. Just believe them both. I read a very interesting interview that John Piper did with Rick Warren last week. I think it was. And John Piper is very strong Calvinist. Rick Warren is not. And it was very interesting because as they began to debate some of those issues, they came to an agreement. They both realized and Rick Warren, through the interview, was taped interview. He smiled and said, we're a lot closer than I thought we would have been. And they really were because both of them were seeing one side of the picture and when they began to compare notes, they say, both is right. And I heard Piper say some things. I never thought I heard him say about whosoever will and gospel is open to anyone and that kind of thing. So it's kind of interesting. How did I get off on that? Let's see what Jesus is actually going to say here. Verse 28, and what's going to happen four times in this sermon? He's going to be interrupted with a question or statement. And Jesus will respond to it. Interestingly enough, Jesus points in this sermon are directed by the crowd. He answers four questions from the crowd. Verse 28, then they asked him, what must we do to do the works God requires? Now notice Jesus, the center verse 29, Jesus answered the work of God is this to believe in the one he has sent. Here's the age old difference between what man proposes to be saved and what God declares about salvation. Man proposes, I've got to do something. What must I do to do what God requires of me? And Jesus answered, this is the work of God to believe in the one he has sent. And this is where Jesus begins to draw this distinction between man's way of salvation or man's ideas as to how salvation can be earned and God's way of salvation through faith. Okay. Now, verse 30, so they asked him, what miraculous sign will you then give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Can you believe that? What have they just seen? What are you going to give us? Yeah. One day after seeing the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, they're wanting more. What miracle are you going to do? Now here's the reason why I think they asked that question. Verse 31, they followed up with this, our forefathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave him bread from heaven to eat. I think what they're doing is they're making a comparison between what Moses did and what Jesus did. And basically they're saying to Jesus, Moses gave us bread from heaven. You took bread that was already here. You got to give us more Jesus. You got to show us more. Moses fed us for 40 years. You fed us for one day. Moses fed 2 million people. You fed 15,000. You got to do more than that, Jesus, to impress us. Now, before we criticized them too heavily, remember that what they were looking for was the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy in Deuteronomy 18 that there would be another prophet like Moses. Now, I think they've got it wrong, obviously Jesus will point that out. But in their own thinking, they're looking to compare him with Moses. And so that's why they say Moses gave us bread from heaven in the desert. What you did yesterday was pretty good start toward that, but we've got to see more. Again, yes, that's presumptuous. It's borders on blasphemous. But it is in their thinking. And again, because we don't come out of a Jewish mindset and we're not steeped in the Old Testament like they were, we don't sometimes get what they're saying. What they're really saying is, show us Deuteronomy 18. Show us that you're a prophet like Moses. And so Jesus is going to say, wait a second, that's not what I came to do. Again, you missed the whole point. It's not about physical bread. It's about spiritual life. That's what I came to get. Now notice how he develops this in verse 32. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you bread from heaven. In other words, that's not what you're seeing now. We're not seeing another Moses come to give you bread. But it is my father who 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. You see, says it very clearly there, doesn't he? We're not talking about the kind of bread Moses gave you. So don't compare the two. So we're talking about the bread that God the father gives you and it's a person, verse 33, he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Not talking about physical sustenance. We're talking about life to the world that comes from someone who comes down from heaven and they still don't get it. Verse 34, Sir, they said, from now on, give us this bread. They're still thinking of physical bread. And so notice what Jesus does in verse 35. Then Jesus declared, I think his voice raised a little bit, his eyes got a little sharper and he said this with some force. I am the bread of life. You get that? I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. Okay, he's making the point very clearly declaring this. You're totally on the wrong page. You're thinking about Moses giving you something to eat. You're looking for that to happen again. That's not what I'm here to do. I'm the bread. I'm not here to give you bread. I am the bread. And I'm talking about spiritual life. If you eat this bread, if you partake of me, you'll never hunger. You'll never thirst. So it's obvious Jesus is introducing something that totally is contrary to what they're thinking. Now here's where Jesus begins to describe. The reason you don't get this is because obviously God is not doing a work in your hearts. And also because you will not believe. Now notice the balance here. Verse 36. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. He's making a distinction between the people he will drive away today because of this message who are not really under conviction of the Spirit of God, not really being drawn by the Father, not really being dealt with by the Father. There's nothing spiritual going on in their hearts. They are simply there to get food. Now the ones that the Father gives me, the ones that the Father is working with, and there's something spiritual going on in their hearts, I will never drive them away. And we're going to see who those folks are a little bit later. Okay, strong statement of God's work in salvation. Verse 38. Before I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me, and this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. All that the Father has given me. Okay, the Father and his sovereignty has given me some people. All that the Father has given me, I will raise them up at the last day. They will be eternally saved. They will have eternal life. Now look at the balance in verse 40. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Jesus beautifully balances this out with the responsibility on everyone, everyone who looks to the Son that your responsibility, you look to Jesus and you believe in him who gives eternal life, and he will give you that eternal life. Okay, beautiful balance as he begins to describe this work of salvation. It does involve the Father giving certain ones to Jesus, the Father drawing them to Jesus. There also involves those looking to Jesus and believing in him, the responsibility that we have to do that. Okay, before we get into the next statement or question, any questions before we go on? Questions or comments? We're going to come to that tension later in the story. There is a very real tension there. I believe the reason Jesus put them through the experience the night before was to confirm their faith so that they would not turn around and leave. There is a lot going on there. If they were genuinely say they wouldn't have done that anyway, but God does use means to confirm and establish our faith and ground our faith. I think that's exactly what was happening. Yes, John? The last day is just in general terms of day of resurrection. Jesus is not specifying here which resurrection, you know, in our dispensational chart, that's not Jesus' point. He's just saying at the time of resurrection I'll raise him up. Yes, the point is that they will be eternally with God in heaven. That's the result of the resurrection. So that's his point. His point is not to teach us okay, there is a first resurrection and a second resurrection. That will come later. There's a resurrection of church saints, resurrection of Old Testament saints, resurrection of tribulation saints, resurrection of Millennial saints. That comes later. That's not his point here. He's just saying, whenever the resurrection is, you'll get to heaven. That's his point in just in general terms. When we read this, we think that one of us here is being considered a walk here, and we think this is the result. We have one more that they want. But most of us we've heard this for decades and we've seen a whole picture. This is all new to these people. Yeah. It's a good point, John, that we have the advantage of looking back through the epistles, the development of doctrine, having the full story, understanding how it all fits together. We have the privilege of looking back through that lens and seeing what is happening here. And so we have a great advantage over people who were hearing things for the first time. Now, like you said, that doesn't excuse them because they should have been able to piece together enough of Old Testament prophecy to recognize Jesus. But certainly they did not have all the revelation that we have looking back. You're exactly right. And we have to take that into account when we think about that. When we think about them. Okay. Anything else before we move? Verse 41. Okay. At this, at this explanation of Jesus, the Jews, by the way, John always uses the term Jews to refer to the Jewish leaders. He's not just talking about any Jews. He's talking about the religious leaders. That's the way he uses the term in the Gospel of John consistently. And so here religious leaders are speaking up. And they're going to jump into some criticism here. The Jews began to grumble about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Okay. They've seized on that. I am the bread that came down from heaven. Okay. Now notice what they're going to say about it. Verse 42. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? Remember again, they're assuming that Joseph was his father. That was the normal assumption of the day, although we know he wasn't. But that was the normal assumption of most people. How can he now say I came down from heaven? And what they're saying, obviously is this, isn't it? Hey, we know he was born in that. We know his mother and father. How can he say he came down from heaven? We know he didn't come down from heaven. We knew he, I mean, you know, in their minds, it's like me claiming that I came down from heaven and somebody said, wait a second, I know Jack and Beth King. You were born here. What are you talking about? You came down from heaven. See, that's where they're coming from. Now, Jesus is going to answer them. Verse 43. Stop grumbling them on yourselves, Jesus answered. And here again, he's going to make it very clear. You are blind because the father is not drawing you at this point, at least. Verse 44, 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. They will all be taught by God. In other words, God has to do a work of turning someone's heart before they come to Christ. To him, the father has to be drawing, the father has to be teaching. Everyone who listens to the father and learns from him comes to me. So obviously there's a spiritual work that God is doing in the heart before anyone can come to Christ. That much is clear. Can't explain that away. Verse 46. No one has seen the father except the one who is from God. Only he has seen the father. I tell you the truth. He who believes has everlasting life. Now, he turns a corner in verse 47. He begins to focus upon the responsibility of the one to believe. He who believes has everlasting life. Verse 48. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the man in the desert. Yet they died. He's going to contrast again, physical bread, which you'll still die of. Eat that spiritual life. That's what I'm talking about. You'll never die if you have that. Verse 50. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. See the contrast. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. What is he talking about there? Crucifixion, sacrificial death. His death on the cross, isn't it? So it's clear what Jesus is leading up to. By the way, that's important to see in verse 51. Because what he's going to say next is going to be confusing and still confuses some people today about his bread and his flesh and his blood. But what he's already indicated, what he's talking about, the bread that I'm talking about that came down from heaven is me. It's my flesh, which I'm going to give for the life of the world. And notice the universality of that again. I'm going to die. Okay, so he's talking about giving himself to die. That's what he's talking about. His death. Verse 52, then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And Jesus said in verse 53, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Now, there have been some who have taken that to refer to communion, to refer to the Lord's suffer, to refer to as those who take it this way, refer to it as the sacrament of the mass. That when you pertake of communion, you actually eat the body of Christ and drink the blood of Christ. That is not at all what Jesus is saying in the context, is it? The communion hasn't even been instituted yet. Obviously he can't be referring to that. And the context has already made it clear. He's talking about his flesh being the bread himself that came down from heaven to give his life. So he's talking about his death. In verse 53, he's just saying, you have to actually receive me, partake of my death. And continuing on with the analogy of the bread and the bread, meaning his body, he's using very graphic terms, yes. But terms of eating his body, drinking his blood, is actually you have to partake this. You have to take it in in order to have this eternal life. Verse 54, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. Now that verse has a parallel verse earlier in this passage that helps us to understand what it means. Verse 40, look at verse 40. For my father's will is that, and look at this, everyone who looks to the sun and believes in him, shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. See, in verse 40, it's everyone who looks to the sun and believes in him. In verse 54, it's whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. So what does it mean to eat his flesh and drink his blood? Believe, believe on him. He's using graphic terminology that kind of follows through with the imagery that he's talking about to indicate that you've got to believe. You can't keep thinking of material food and eating and drinking. You've got to trust me. You've got to actually partake of me. Receive me. Okay, that's what he's talking about. Verse 55, for my flesh is real food. My blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I, and him 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, and then he makes it clear again, verse 58. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate mana and died. Again, the contrast, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever. So again, stop thinking of physical bread. Think of the eternal life that I came to give by giving my flesh, by giving my body to die. In verse 59 he said this while teaching the synagogue in Copernum. So Jesus has preached a very hard sermon with objections from the crowd and he answers them very strongly. Now, here's what happens. After this challenge to the crowd, there is a challenge to his disciples in verse 60. On hearing it, many of his disciples said this is a hard teaching who can accept it. The word disciples here is used in a general sense. The word disciples is used in several ways in the New Testament. Sometimes it has its classic literal meaning of just a follower. Anyone who's following could be anyone there who's been following Jesus. Following him around, hearing and teach, seeing the miracles, getting fed the day before. It's used in that very general sense today because it is distinguished from the 12 verse 66 will say many of his disciples turn back and then he turns and asks the 12. So it's used in a general way here of anyone who is following Jesus. Many of these people say, verse 60, this is a hard teaching who can accept it. The word that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, does this offend you? The word offense means does this cause you to stumble? Does this cause you to trip? To fall? What if you see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? Jesus here seems to be using the ascension as the whole package, the death, burial, resurrection, ascension of Jesus. And sometimes it's used that way in the gospels. If you're offended at my teaching, what are you going to do when you actually see me die and then go back to heaven? You'll never be able to take that. Okay. Verse 63, the spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. And that summarizes his message. Every effort of man's flesh, man's ability, man's effort to try to get to heaven is worthless. It is the Holy Spirit that gives life. This is a spiritual work of God. How does this work happen? Middle of verse 63. The words I've spoken to you are spirit and they are life. How does the Holy Spirit work in people's hearts through the word? Right? The word is that seed as first feeder calls it, that germinates into new life. The word is what the Holy Spirit uses to bring about new life. Verse 64, yet there are some of you who do not believe, where Jesus had known from the beginning, which of them did not believe and who would betray him, he went on to say, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the father has enabled him. No one comes to Jesus. It is the responsibility of the here to come to Jesus, but no one comes unless the father is enabled, unless the father is drawn, unless the spirit of God is speaking through the word of God to convict. It is the spirit who gives life. Jesus makes that very clear. And because of that hard saying, verse 66, from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Now these were not true disciples, were they? They were disciples in the loose term of people who were just following Jesus around. They were learners, but they had not yet grasped what he was saying. And he made it clear in this sermon. They were not spiritually minded. They had no spiritual inkling as to what was going on and he drove them away with this sermon. They left. And then there is the challenge to the 12. And let's just quickly look at this and finish up the chapter. Verse 67, you do not want to leave too. Do you? Jesus asked the 12. There's a lot of pathos in that question. Most of the crowd and even some who have been following Jesus around have just walked away. This has been a hard sermon. And Jesus has drawn the line very clearly. I am not here to feed you people. I am here to give you life, eternal life. And you will not come to me unless the father is doing a work in your heart. The spirit is giving you life. And unless you are willing to turn to me and faith and trust me. That's what I am talking about. And they couldn't handle that. So they left. And Jesus turns to the 12. As the crowd is walking away, turns to the 12. And he asks it in a negative way, but in the Greek, there is a certain way to ask this with a negative that implies a negative answer. Jesus is expecting a negative answer. You do not want to leave too, do you? It's not like he's doubting them. He's wanting them to say it. No, we're not going to leave. He's expecting that answer. In verse 68, Simon Peter answered him, Simon, Simon Peter, bold, impetuous Peter, this is one of the classics. This is one of the times when he shines. We like to kind of jump on the times where he puts his foot in his mouth, but this is one of the times where he really shines. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. There's nowhere else to go, Lord. I don't know where those people are going, but there's nowhere else for us to go. And do you see why he said there's nowhere for us to go? What does he say? You have what? More bread to give us. We get to eat again today. No. You have the words of eternal life. And then notice verse 69, and this is exactly why Jesus put him through the night on the sea of Galilee. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. The tents of the Greek verbs are so much more precise than English. It literally should read, we have come to believe with, and it's a certain. We've come into a state we have believed and are continuing in that state. Perfect tents in the Greek. We have come to a point where we have believed and we continue in that state. And we have come to a point where we know and we're continuing to know that you are the Holy One of God. And the word no here is a word that John always uses in the gospel of John of experiential knowledge. I am convinced Peter was talking about the night before. We have come to a point where we believe without any question. And we have come to a point we have experienced. We're not going by what anybody tells us. We saw it last night. We saw what you did. Remember after the miracle they said they fell at his feet and worshipped him on the boat and said, truly you are the son of God. And that's what Peter is talking about here. We have come to know with experience. We have learned this by experience that you are the Holy One of God. There's nothing that will convince us to turn back from you now. That's why Jesus put him through the problem on the lake, the great trial on the lake to confirm their faith and who he was so that they would stand when everybody else was leaving. And then these fascinating words, Jesus has been speaking about the 12 but he makes clear verse 70. Jesus replied, have I not chosen you the 12 yet one of you is a devil. Not V devil, A devil in Greek whenever it's an arthress without the article that always refers to nature. Not V devil, A devil. It always refers to nature. You have the nature of an accuser. You have the nature of a betrayer. You have the nature of a deceiver. That's what Judas was. And John notices in parentheses John adds this later as he's writing Jesus didn't say this but John adds this later as he's writing. He meant Judas. The son of Simon is carried who though one of the 12 was later to betray him. Why did Judas add that in later? Jesus didn't tell him that. Why does John add that later? To clear it up. Yeah. Nobody knew at this time who Jesus was talking about. Nobody suspected. If you remember right up to the very last when Judas walked out to betray Jesus, John will say later they didn't understand what was happening. They were as shocked as anyone at Judas. This man was a master deceiver. Even those who walked with him day and night did not suspect that he was the deceiver until after it happened. That's scary. People can pull the wool over your eyes. Make sure you always examine people by the word of God. We had about four or five more stories to get to tonight. We'll have to wait on those. That's some cool maps to wow. I have to wait on those two. Okay. We'll do those next time. This is such a powerful turning point kind of message in Jesus ministry that it was worth spending the time. Let's pray. Father, thank you for our time together tonight. And we pray that as we look at our Lord's life, help us, Lord, who are responsible for giving your word, wherever it is. Bible study, a class, pulpit of this church. Help us never to be afraid to say the hard things. Say the uncomfortable, unpopular things that are true to your word. Help us to know that those whom you're really dealing with will understand them. Accept them and stick with you. Help us to be confident in your working in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.