To whom shall we go? - John 6:41-71

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Good morning again, everybody. Turn to John chapter 6, if you would. John chapter 6, 71 verses.

We've been in this quite a bit, but it's been some good stuff. Jesus began with the feeding of the 5,000. It's how this chapter began. As we said, it was a setup. John is setting us up with his signs throughout the Gospel of John.

These signs, as he said, to show us that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that we might believe on him, and believing in him, we might have life through his name. So everything that John is putting before us in this book is to that end, to believe.

And he's showing us these different pictures of Jesus. That's why his Gospel is so different from the rest of them. Why doesn't he cover that? Why does he cover this? And it's for that purpose. And so what he started with was the feeding of the 5,000.

He miraculously met their needs. He took the bread. He blessed the bread. He broke the bread. He gave the bread. And then him and his disciples go through a storm. Jesus meets them halfway, walking on the water.

They come across to Capernaum, the village of comfort. And that is where we picked up then last week. And we saw the people then found him there. And it says, teaching in the synagogue, in verse 59, that all these things that were said were while he was in the synagogue there.

And the people find him, and they want a bread king. Like, man, give us some food. Moses gave us bread in the wilderness. Are you greater than Moses? Moses, and we looked at that. And we saw that God's will for us is to be fed.

God wants us to be fed. But not with the temporary fulfillment of this life, but with the eternal fulfillment from heaven. And that is where Jesus is getting to. He uses our needs to reveal to us we have a deeper need.

Man, I need to be fed. You do. But you need to be fed with something that will last beyond the temporary satisfaction that it gives. So man's deepest need is not a Moses to meet his needs in this life, but for a Savior to meet his needs for eternal life.

And so the Father gives those resources in the bread of life, his Son. Now, the Son comes on behalf of the Father to give what the people were hoping for in the person of Messiah was satisfaction in this life.

Fulfill me here. Meet my needs here. Make everything good for me here. That's what we're looking for because that's all we know, right? I mean, if the Lord sent Jesus and said, hey, I'm going to make it really good on Neptune, it's going to be really good there.

Well, what's that have to do with me? I can't get there. Okay, great. This is all we know. And so what we look for is, God, how are you going to interact with me here? What are you going to do for me now?

But what he does is he gives us resources. But what we do is we expect them to be temporal. We expect them to affect our lives now, not looking past them and seeing that the resources he gives are spiritual resources, spiritual resources that don't necessarily operate in this realm that we expect them to.

Paul says that in Philippians chapter 4, verses 12 and 13. He says, I know both how to be abased and how to abound everywhere and in all things. I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound in suffering need.

And look at verse 13. And I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. So Paul is saying, I can be abased through Christ, which strengthens me.

I can suffer need. I can be hungry through Christ, which strengthens me. It doesn't say, well, don't worry. He's going to take care of all that. I'm going to be strengthened because he's going to take away the hunger.

He's going to take away the abaseness. He's going to take away all of this. No, he's going to strengthen me in it. He gives a spiritual resource, a resource that is much greater than what these people were expecting.

And this is where he's trying to get them and us to in this. So we looked at the people asking the question last week to Jesus. Hey, are you able? Are you greater than Moses?

And Jesus answered saying, yes, I am able. I'm adequate. I have adequacy to meet this need. And this week, we're going to see where Jesus is going to speak to the Jewish leaders.

They're going to ask him a question. He's going to respond. And then we're going to see that he's going to respond to his disciples, not the apostles, the 12 of them, but the group of disciples who followed him. And then he will interact with his 12 apostles.

And at the end of that, he's going to put a question to his 12 and say, are you going to go away also? And their response is, no, it's not mm-hmm. It's mm-mm. Their response is, to whom shall we go?

And I think we all know that answer here. Well, whom shall we go? We're going to go to Jesus. Okay. Maybe I should cross out shall. To whom do we go? Who do we turn to in need?

Who's our reflex that we turn to? Who's the one that we go to? So just to give you some context, last week, right, we were in verses 30 through 40.

And we looked at where they questioned Jesus' ability. Jesus says, I am the bread of life that comes down from heaven. He who partakes of this life will never die. He'll have eternal life if you believe. And they questioned, do you have the same ability as Moses?

And Jesus responded with, yeah, I'm way more than adequate. And so then today, we're going to do verses 41 through 71. And if you're new here, you're thinking, he's going to cover all that.

And if you're a regular, you're thinking, he's going to cover all that. But we are. We're going to go through this. And Jesus will repeat himself a lot. So I think we can move through this in a way that keeps the continuity and allows us to see what Jesus is saying.

But I wanted to break it out because it helps me. As you read Jesus' words, sometimes you can just get lost in them. But it helps when you understand who he's responding to. Is there a question that was asked?

Is he responding to that question? Who's the information that he's giving it to? And what is the context? So this helps me when I go through Jesus' sayings and his teachings. What's he actually talking about?

And so today, we're going to see that then the Jewish leaders, they're going to respond and say, Oh, are you authentic? We don't know if you're the real thing. And Jesus' response is going to be that he has authority.

He then will hear the question, then will be posed by his disciples. They're going to say, this is a hard saying. His disciples at large, not the 12. And say, I don't know, Jesus, is this acceptable?

Can we receive this? The things you're saying doesn't sound like it's very acceptable. And he's going to answer with accountability and show who they're accountable to. And then lastly, Jesus will ask the question. He will ask it to the 12.

He'll ask it to Peter and say, hey, what are you aiming at, Pete? And you guys. And Peter is going to answer with assurance. So I'm hoping to try and help us keep that idea as we go.

There's a lot of threads in here. There's the threads of the question of authenticity. There's the question of the thread of the bread of life, of understanding Jesus. That's a big thread we're going to see through this, as John has showed us through this whole book.

How do we understand Jesus? How do we interact with Jesus when we don't understand him? And then of discipleship. All of those threads come together in this. Let's jump in to verse 41.

So Jesus has just finished responding to the people. This is all within the synagogues. Everybody's here and hearing this. And he has said to them in verse 39, This is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he's given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which sees the Son and believes, which perceives, understands who the Son is, and believes. That is key. Remember, we said that our key verse to this whole chapter is verse 29.

This is the work of God, that you believe on him we have sent. Keep that in mind. Belief is a theme that runs through this whole chapter as well. The people will look at this outside of that reality, not hearing Jesus' words to say, You need to believe.

You must understand that in this context. And he that believes on me may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. And so he's in Galilee, in the synagogue of Capernaum, and then the Jews, and whenever you see the Jews in capital letters, it's the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders.

They murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Murmur is to be disgruntled, to disagree, to complain.

They murmured at him, but they wouldn't speak to him. Why didn't they just ask him, Hey, Jesus, what did you mean? What did you mean by that? Instead, they begin to talk amongst themselves, and they're grumbling, and they're complaining, and they're murmuring.

They won't speak to him. And I think we know why. We saw that in John chapter 3, verse 20. For everyone, says Jesus, that does evil, hates the light.

Now that comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. You know, darkness never seeks out the light. It doesn't. What are you doing this morning, darkness? Man, I'm going to put on my armor of darkness.

I'm going to take my weapons of darkness. I'm going to go and attack the light. And as soon as he steps into the light, he's gone. Darkness will never seek out the light. And the false will never, never openly engage the truth.

That which is false never seeks to openly engage the truth because it can't stand, has no ability to. So they grumble among themselves instead of speaking to Jesus. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How is it that he says, I came down from heaven? They didn't say Jesus we know. They said, well, we know about Jesus through someone else's relationship with him.

Their understanding of Jesus was based on someone else's understanding of Jesus. And that's our first principle. We're going to look at 10 of these, this thread that's going to weave through our message today, our study, our understanding of Jesus.

Our first is, never seek to understand Jesus apart from a personal relationship with him. Knowing someone who knows Jesus does not mean you know Jesus.

Well, I know this guy who knows Jesus and he said this and he said this and he said this, but do you know Jesus? Do you have a personal relationship with him? You're never going to understand his words.

You're never going to understand him apart from a personal relationship with him. See, the Jews were not murmuring, they weren't grumbling and complaining over his good deeds and miracles. But his claim to heavenly origin.

Verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, don't be disgruntled, don't complain amongst yourselves, don't backbite.

No man can come to me except the Father which has sent him. I'm sorry, it was the Father which has sent me, draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. They're questioning his origin.

They're questioning his authenticity. We know your Father. He says, no you don't. If you knew my Father, you would have come to me. Jesus answers this unspoken question.

Did they ask the question? Not to him. But Jesus answered. We've seen him do this multiple times. The woman at the well, with the ruler who comes for his son to be healed.

Jesus answers unspoken questions all the time. He does it with a truth that we need to hear. How many times do I have an unspoken question? I'm not willing to take it to Jesus. I'm murmuring amongst myself.

I don't know why I did that. Lord, why are you doing this? That's not how we, I wouldn't have done it that way. And he answers it. He answers it with a truth that I need to hear. To these men, he declares his authenticity.

It's not of heavenly origin. I mean, not of earthly origin. It's heavenly. He alone has the authenticity and the authority to receive men into life. He says, I am authentic because I'm the only one who has the authority to receive men into life.

Now, Jesus' words, they kind of seem unbelievable in the moment. When Jesus brings his words to us, many times it seems like, Lord, that doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

Are you sure about that? But all of his words that unfortunately these people will respond to in a way that'll cause them to stop following him make perfect sense after resurrection.

They make perfect sense when you realize, oh, he does have authority over life. He is the one who can give authority. He is authentic because he's the only one who rose. And he'll point that out a little later.

So Jesus alone has the authenticity and authority to receive men into life. Matthew 28, 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power, all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

But for what purpose? To do his father's will. And what is his father's will? That all who come to me, I would lose none, but will raise them up that they might too have the authority to enter in to resurrection.

The father sent forth the word to draw all men to the son so the son might raise them to life. And he can come. And he can come to the father. And he can be drawn.

But will they believe? Jesus then takes them back to the word. He says, guys, you should know this. You're the teachers here. It is written in the prophets and they shall be all taught of God.

Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of the father comes unto me. It is written. That is Isaiah 54, 13. Saying everything backwards this morning.

54, 13. Says, and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. Every man, therefore, that has heard has learned of the father comes to me.

Jesus' authority, Jesus' claim to authenticity, where does it originate? And he goes back to the word. He says, this is my authority. This is my authenticity. And that's our second point of understanding Jesus.

Never seek to understand Jesus apart from the entire counsel of God's word. He says, it's written in the prophets. Jesus, why didn't you quote Paul? Oh, wait.

Sorry. Wasn't written yet. All Jesus had to quote was the Old Testament. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from the entire counsel of God's word. There are many misunderstandings, many errors, and many false doctrines that have come about when people seek to understand Jesus without the entire counsel of his word.

Looking at, well, this scripture makes sense here and maybe with this other, one other one. But when we seek to understand him in the entire counsel of God's word, what do we see? We see all the threads of God's grace and of God's promise woven through it.

This promise is originally made to Israel and it still stands to Israel. It will extend to the Gentiles through the gospel and the father will accept all who come to him through hearing and responding.

He will. However, God's grace to the Gentiles does not negate his promise to Israel nationally. That is a thread that when you take the whole counsel of God's word, you see all the way to the end.

Those who are the children, the descendants of the nation of Israel that have rejected, they shall ultimately be taught of the Lord. They shall ultimately receive his peace. Romans 11, 26, and 27, Paul writes, and so Israel shall be saved, future tense.

As it is written, and there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. Well, didn't he already take away their sins on the cross?

Yes, he did. He's not talking about individually. He's talking about them in context of nationally. The deliverer will come out of Zion when Jesus returns and puts his feet on the Mount of Olives, wipes out the Antichrist and all of his minions, and then he will go to Bozrah.

He will come out of Zion and down into Bozrah and will rescue his remnant at that time who's saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's a thread we see when we take the entire counsel of God's word.

But whether Jew or Gentile, all who recognize the authority of God's word, they respond authentically. When you and I recognize the authority of God's word, we then respond authentically.

We hear God's word, we obey God's word, and we follow God's word, and where does that lead to? Jesus. It leads to Jesus. Verse 46, not that any man has seen the Father, except he which is of God.

He has seen the Father. Guys, you are looking for someone, he's saying, you're looking for someone who can validate you, that you validate, that validates you.

You're looking for this one who can come and say, yes, guys, you're it. But you don't understand. Man, the only one who can say he's it is one who's seen the Father. And Moses tells us in Exodus 33, verse 20, he writes for us when the Lord responds to him when he says, Lord, show me your glory.

Let me see your face. The Lord says to Moses, no man can see my face and live. No one is worthy. No one has that authenticity except the one who's of the Father.

You see, the Jews, they were 100% right, absolutely right, that Jesus' origin was the basis of his authority. They were right. Jesus, if your origin is Mary and Joseph, you don't have authenticity and you don't have authority.

They're right. What Jesus did, he said, but that's not my origin and that's not my authenticity. And this is our third point. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from his relationship with his Father.

Never try and separate those out. Never seek to understand him as just a good person or as a teacher or someone with good morals or perhaps he could help turn our country around.

Never seek to understand Jesus apart from his Father. And the Father's heart and the Father's will and the Father's desire is to bring people into life. That's his heart. And when we choose to respond to the drawing of the Father to the Son, guess what happens?

we will see him face to face. We will have the authority and the authenticity to stand face to face with God in Christ and we will see him face to face and we will live.

No man has seen the Father except he which is of God. He has seen the Father. There will be a day we will stand there and we will be able to say, I shouldn't be here, but I'm accepted as of God.

Not that I am God, but I have been brought into a relationship with him. Amazing. Truly, truly. One of those truly, true words of Jesus as we've seen through John. I say unto you, he that believes on me, he has everlasting life.

And now these guys, they're going to turn around and go, he wants us to eat him. This is ridiculous. And he said, listen, if you believe on me, you'll have everlasting life.

We're going to see down in verse 63, it's the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak unto you, our spirit and our life. And then I turn around and try and understand them through the flesh.

I can't be too hard on these guys. Whoever believes on me has everlasting life. Those that accept the son's authority, they are drawn by the Father into authenticity.

If we accept the son's authority to bring us life, then we are drawn by the Father into that authentic life. But only if we receive him. Only if we accept him.

I am the bread of life. I am that bread of life. That specific, the bread of life. And now I contrast it again with those that were in the wilderness. With those that ate the manna. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.

Jesus is saying, you guys ate the food from your fathers and died. I give you the food from my father and you'll live. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.

To enter into life, we have to be partakers of life. We cannot enter into this life of God until we first receive the authority of the life of the son to enter into us.

Does Jesus have authority to give us life? He does. The only way I can partake of that life is to receive from him that life that he gives from his father. It's not something that as these guys were looking at, they thought, well, it's something that if I could just associate myself with a move of God in the past, if I can show that I'm connected with something very real of God, then maybe I'll have something real of God.

All of those people for 40 years that ate the bread that came down from heaven in the wilderness, a miraculous bread that came from God, they died.

And unless they had believed, then it was in vain. Jesus is saying, as John will give us a different way of saying the same phrase in 1 John 5, 12, he that has the son has life.

But he that has not the son has not life. You have to partake of the bread like we talked last week. It doesn't do any good to carry the bread around with you. It doesn't do any good to sniff the bread, look at the bread, sleep with it under your pillow.

Unless you partake of it, it has no effect inwardly. This is the first time here in verse 51 now Jesus will speak in John of his purpose being crucifixion, of his purpose being a sacrifice.

It's somewhat alluded to in John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It's somewhat alluded to there. But this is the first time that he's going to talk about the fact that his body will be broken.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

What was the picture Jesus just gave all of these people in the beginning of John 6? What did they have a need for? Man, they were hungry. They needed to be satisfied. They needed life. And what did he do?

He did the miraculous. He took those little loaves and he took them and he blessed them and he broke them and all of a sudden there was enough for everybody. Here's Jesus. The bread come down from heaven. You think that's enough?

This one guy is going to be enough for the whole world? This one guy, if he's blessed by God and broken by God, can give life to the whole world? The bread will first be broken before it has any authority to give life.

Back to the feeding of the 5,000. If Jesus just blessed the bread and said, oh, this is great, these five loaves. When did it receive its authority to give life to the people?

Not until he broke it. Not until it was broken. Jesus alone has that authority. He alone has the authority to break the bread, bless the bread, and then give it for life.

In John 10, he says, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again, and this commandment have I received of my Father.

We cannot separate that out. We cannot separate out that God's desire, the Father's will for mankind, is to partake of life. I think sometimes we think that, well, God's got plans for this world too.

He's going to do some great things here, only as it pertains to life. That's it. The Jews, therefore, they strove among themselves. Strove means to quarrel, fight, or dispute.

In my mind, I just picture it like a cartoon. They just all start beating up on each other and fighting, which isn't what happened, but I'm just kind of like, guys, what are you doing? They're fighting. They're disputing. You hope some of them are disputing, going, you know, it can't mean his flesh.

He's been talking to us about believing. It must mean something more. It must be something spiritual. It must be something deeper. There's some going, this guy's crazy. I told you he was a quack.

He just wants us to eat him. It's ridiculous. There's some in the middle. I don't know what to do. I don't understand Jesus, but I sure love him. They strove among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

How means in what way? They're discussing, in what way is he going to do that? Is he going to start cutting off fingers? Is this something spiritual? Is this something mystical?

They wouldn't receive it. See, those who reject Jesus' authenticity, they then reject the authority of his word. They won't receive that Jesus is authentic.

They won't receive that Jesus is the one who came from the Father, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. They're not going to receive his word. The Jews sought to understand Jesus' word apart from the context in which he spoke it.

So these words, I speak unto you of spirit and they are life. I'm speaking to you of belief. I'm speaking to you of eternal life. And you're trying to bring it into the context of like, how are you going to eat my flesh?

That's our fourth principle. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from the context of his words. Remember in John 5 what we saw? Jesus said to the Pharisees, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they which speak of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life.

When we seek to understand Jesus apart from the context of his words, we can run into a lot of problems. And that's a reason for a lot of misunderstanding and wrong teaching and doctrine regarding eschatology in end times.

People take Jesus' words in Matthew 24 or Luke 21 or Luke 17 and then they'll say, well this is the same thing as John 14 where he promises to come again for his church.

They're not the same. When you read them in context, they're not the same at all. We need to be careful because we can take a word and think, well this is what this means in my life and then I begin I look at it in context and I think, Lord, I think you're speaking something totally different.

That's why we need to be in the word ourselves. Don't just take what I tell you. Have a context in your own life in which you're going through the word and Jesus is speaking it to you, those words of spirit and of life.

So Jesus here says to these religious Jews essentially, if you reject my authority and my authenticity, you're not going to receive my word.

If you don't receive my word, you have no way to receive life. You have no context for life. This next section is Jesus responding to their question in 52.

So the previous section he's responding to their question in 42 when they said, how is it he says I came down from heaven? He says, hey, my authenticity, my origination is heaven.

They now ask the question amongst themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And Jesus is going to respond to that verses 53 through 58. We're going to actually look at it though from the context of his disciples because in verse 61, sorry, verse 60, it says, many therefore of his disciples when they had heard this, heard what?

What we're going to read right now, they said, this is a hard saying who can hear it. So we're going to look at what caused the disciples such consternation. So this next section where Jesus is responding to the Jews, the religious Jews, the Pharisees and leaders in the synagogues, this is what caused the disciples such consternation.

And so we're going to look at it from that perspective. This is then a question of acceptability. As they have a hard time receiving these sayings, a hard time accepting this.

And Jesus said unto them, he's saying this to those who just asked the question, the ruling Jews, truly, truly, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and you drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Jesus says things that can only be understood and accepted in context. They're only going to be understood in the context of what he's saying yet.

That holds true for the entirety of God's word. There are things in God's word that will never be understood and we'll never be able to accept if we don't receive it in context. The only way to have a context is to be in the text.

If you're not reading, if you're not in it, if you're just picking and pulling, and, well, I heard this guy and he said this and it was a good argument in this proof text, not proof text, context. We won't understand his words and we'll run up against a relationship with the Lord where all of a sudden we're just kind of like these disciples.

Lord, you're saying things to me that are really hard but they're coming from you and I just don't understand. And the last thing we want to do is allow God's word in my life to cause a response like we're going to see with these disciples.

So Jesus says to them, truly, truly, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you drink his blood, you have no life in you. Jesus holds us accountable. He's saying to these men, I have provided the means but you are accountable for life.

Jesus holds us accountable for the state of our eternal life. He says you have to partake. Except you partake, you have no life in you. He's provided the means.

When we stand before God and we say, well, Lord, I didn't want to eat that or drink that. It didn't make a lot of sense. He holds us accountable. What did you do with this eternal life? Will you partake or won't you?

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed.

He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him. These are hard sayings. If taken out of context, if not understood according to the words of the spirit, like Jesus says, the whole point is to partake.

To partake of something that to this point the disciples, the Jews, the people, the world was completely unacceptable. The Messiah will not be crucified. He can't go on the cross.

This is unacceptable. However, it's only through the cross that our accountable man, accountable for our sins, accountable to God with what we do in response to his words. It's only the cross that makes accountable man acceptable to God.

That's it. You see, we enter resurrected life. I'll raise him up at the last day. We enter that acceptability where God will look at us and say, I receive you.

I accept you. We enter into the acceptability of Christ's life because he was raised from the dead. He was proven acceptable to the Father. We do that by receiving the life he gives on our account.

See, I am accountable to God, but I can't pay it. So Jesus came and he fulfilled that. He gave his life on my account. And now I have accountability to that.

I have an accountability to the life that Jesus gave on my behalf. And I can enter into that resurrected life that he gives when I choose to, as he says here, believe, to partake.

Accountability leads to acceptability. When I am accountable to the Lord, to his word, when I say, yes, God, I recognize I'm accountable to you for my sins. I'm a sinner. I recognize I'm accountable to you for life.

You're the only one who can give life. When I choose to assent to that, when I believe that, that leads to acceptability. He says, oh, I accept you now.

I accept you on the basis of what my son has done. This is our fifth point. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from his broken body and poured out blood.

Never seek to understand him apart from the cross. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from his sacrifice. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from the fact that he has covered your sins and has paid the price for you.

Don't separate him out from that. He's not here to just help lead you in a way that'll make you successful in your families, in your ministry, in your life. He's here to take away sins.

For this cause came I into the world. He came to take away our sin. Never seek to understand him apart from his broken body and poured out blood. As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father so he that eats me even he shall live by me.

This is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eats of this bread shall live forever. How do we know Jesus lives by the Father?

How do we know that's true? Maybe he's just making it up. Maybe he's not authentic. We know that because of the resurrection. Jesus is the one who has the same life as the Father. A life that cannot be overcome by death.

Jesus proves his authenticity authenticity and that means he then has the authority to say to you and me you can enter into this life too. Wow. It's true. The Father sent an acceptable means of life just as he did in the wilderness to Israel.

Just as he sent that manna. It was an acceptable means of life but it had to be partaken of in a certain way. Remember when they're in the wilderness? Remember when we were in Exodus and they went to partake of it and Moses said by the way don't leave it until morning.

You only have the morning to get it and then it's going to melt but when you collect it don't get a bunch and leave it until morning it's going to rot. And what does it tell us they did? It rotted. They collected it until they saved it until morning and it bred worms and it stunk.

And we looked last week at that verse in Deuteronomy that said the Lord said hey I allowed you to hunger I allowed you to thirst so that I might try you and test you if you would obey my words.

So just like Israel the Father has sent an acceptable means of life and we must partake. We are accountable to partake. If they didn't eat the manna and they starved and died whose fault was that?

They were accountable. Jesus holds us accountable to partake of the life that he gives but it is a life that is true because he proves that. He proves the authenticity because of the resurrection and that's our sixth point.

Never seek to understand Jesus apart from the resurrection. Just as we never seek to understand him apart from the cross don't stop there and so many of us do. We're still at the cross. We're still trying to crucify the old man.

We're still trying to get rid of the old sin and as Paul would write man walk in newness of life. Get up and go. You're free. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from the resurrection.

That he is the way the truth and the life. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. As he's teaching there by the Sea of Galilee the village of Capernaum the village of comfort he said all of these things he said all of these things because God so loved the world.

God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to say things that are hard to take sometimes for us. Man sometimes it's hard to take. Lord what are you saying? I don't understand. What's the heart behind this?

Oh it's the Father's heart. What's the purpose of this? Oh it's to bring me into life. Okay. Many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said this is a hard saying but we'll trust the Lord.

But we know he loves us. No many. Many are called. Few are chosen. Who are the ones that are chosen? The ones who respond to his word. Many are called.

His disciples said this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? The word hard in the Greek is harsh, violent, offensive. This is harsh. This is offensive. Whoa it's a little violent here Jesus.

Eating your body. Your flesh. What are you talking about? Who has the ability to accept these words? Well the only one who will accept these words is the one who recognizes their accountability.

I have no other choice but to accept Jesus' words because I recognize I am accountable to him. He's the one with the words of life. I'm the one whose fathers died.

As far as I know every one of my fathers died. I don't think I have any ancestors that are still alive. They're all dead. We're the ones who need a source of life.

When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at him or murmured at this he said unto them does this offend you? How sad. How sad when Jesus looks at his disciples and realizes that his words have produced in them the same response as the world.

The same response as unbelievers. How sad as disciples that we sometimes can respond to Jesus' words the same way an unbeliever does. I'm a Christian. I love Jesus.

Oh Lord. That must be for someone else. I'll go pray for them. I respond the same way. It offends me. It's harsh. It's hard. Lord that's going to cause me to change my life.

I'm going to have to change my patterns my thought patterns my life patterns. This is offensive. This is violent. My right arm offend me. I'm going to have to cut it off. I'm going to have to enter into life maimed and live a maimed life.

Other people get to do that. Why don't I? Your words are harsh Lord. They're offensive. But whether a disciple or whether an unbeliever Jesus' words offend all those who do not accept that they are accountable to them.

You see I can do the same thing. I can hold myself in a position where I don't see myself accountable to his words anymore. I'm good. I've been born again. I've partaken of the flesh.

But whether disciple or unbeliever I will be offended by God's word unless I hold myself accountable to it. I need to recognize this is what I give account to. God's word.

Not what's the latest trend. Not what so and so is allowed to do. Not what other churches do. Not what my wife does. She's a good one to be accountable to too.

But ultimately man I'm going to find his words so offensive if I don't realize I'm accountable to them. And he says what if you will see the son of man ascend up where he was before?

He's essentially saying listen guys if you cannot accept my earthly ministry if my earthly ministry offends you how are you going to accept a heavenly one? How are you going to accept the things of the spirit if you can't even understand this that I'm talking to you of?

It is the spirit that quickens that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life. Oh.

So if we reread then as a living father has sent me and I live by the father so that he that partakes of me spiritually even he shall live spiritually by me.

This is that spiritual bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna bread of this earth and are dead but he that eats of this living spiritual bread he shall live forever.

Oh now that makes more sense. There's no lasting value in the temporary works of the flesh. There's nothing lasting there. These people in the wilderness lived for 40 years under God's blessing of provision of care.

Their shoes didn't wear out. You know their clothes didn't wear out. I mean they wore the same thing every day for 40 years but it didn't wear out. You understand why then when they get into Joshua when they get into the promised land when Achan goes and steals the Babylonian garment he's like man I've been wearing the same thing for 40 years this is beautiful.

But there's no lasting value in the temporary works of the flesh. Jesus' words can only be applied to our lives spiritually. Jesus' words only have value in my life when they're applied spiritually. My accountability is not according to the flesh but the spirit and that's our point number seven.

Never seek to understand Jesus apart from the life of the spirit. Never seek to understand him according to your own works and efforts and flesh. Never seek to understand him according to a law or a system or a religion.

We only seek to understand Jesus according to the life of the spirit. The flesh profits nothing. There's no value there. The people the common people the Jews and all of these disciples at large here they expected to understand Jesus' words according to what those words would accomplish in their life.

Their present life. Not for what they would accomplish in their eternal life. They sought to understand Jesus' words only in context with what can these words do for me now?

What can they accomplish for me now? The people wanted to be fed. The Jews wanted a Messiah who would validate them and give them position. The disciples man they thought they were going to be sitting on the right and the left of Jesus.

Yes we've attached ourselves to a star. But it wasn't in context of what Jesus could do for them eternally. So this whole narrative that John's giving us showing how Jesus set these people up.

He fed them with broken and blessed bread to get them to see that they had a greater need. Something that he could give them eternally. But there are some of you that believe not.

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. He said he therefore said unto them that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father.

No man can come to Jesus who does not believe and no man who does not believe is given to Jesus by the father. No one comes to Jesus except through believing and the father will give no one to Jesus who does not believe.

This is not an arbitrary choosing. This is not like well the father picked in ages past who was and who wasn't going to come to Jesus. It says here whoever my father gives me will come to me.

Yes because all the ones who are given to Jesus believe in Jesus and those are the only ones who come to him. And the father says hey look son another one's come.

Another one has responded to the word. Another one has responded to the drawing of the spirit and he's believed. Here son I give you this one. I give you another one. Why is that so important? Because after 40 years in the wilderness the people of God who ate of the manna died.

They were lost. And Jesus is saying if you partake of the bread of life my father will put you in my hands and I'll never lose you. You will not be lost in the end.

Belief comes before belonging. You must believe before you belong. The father will withhold none who want to come to the son. But you cannot belong if you don't believe.

Jesus here is not surprised by their unbelief. He's not overcome by it. He's not surprised by betrayal. Hebrews 4.13 says Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight.

But all things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Old English King James way of saying to him whom we are accountable to. He sees it all.

He knows it all. He's not surprised by the betrayal that's in my heart. To betray means to put into the hands of another. To give something that belonged to the camp of the king and put it into the enemy's camp.

To be a betrayer. To be a traitor. Judas did. He put into the hands of another. He betrayed Jesus. God's not surprised by the unbelief and the betrayal that's in my heart. He knows.

He's not overcome by it either. Those who will not accept Jesus, they will not be accountable to Jesus. He is the one that they are to be accountable to, but they will refuse!

accountability. And just like we see here, these disciples, they would no longer walk with him. Verse 66. And from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

They wouldn't accept Jesus, wouldn't accept his authenticity, they wouldn't accept his authority, they're not going to be accountable to Jesus. We cannot be discipled by one we do not believe.

They couldn't be disciples. They couldn't follow. They couldn't walk with him. They didn't believe him. The word disciple means learner or pupil. It means to be taught. If we do not accept Jesus' words, we're not going to accept his leading.

If we do not accept the words of one that was discipling, we will not follow. We cannot be a disciple of one we don't believe, of one whose words we won't receive. We cannot be discipled by one we won't follow and we cannot be discipled by one we draw back from.

That's our eighth point today. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from walking with Jesus. I was going to put following, but it's walking with. It's not just following. Judas will follow Jesus through his whole ministry.

Judas will be with Jesus. He will serve with Jesus. But Judas will not believe Jesus. And so Judas just following.

Walking with Jesus is to be in step with, to be in kind with. They're there because they want to learn from Jesus. They want to know Jesus. They want to understand. Do they always understand him?

No. We're going to see here when he says to Peter, will you go away also? Peter essentially says, I don't understand what you're saying, Lord, but I know your words of life. That's what I know.

Then said Jesus under the twelve, turning to the twelve after the others says they went back from following him. So you imagine this is after they've come out of the synagogue.

They've left the synagogue and all of the seventy and whoever were there following Jesus and many of them begin to filter out and leave. Oh, he's going to die. He's going to be crucified. We've got to eat his flesh, drink his blood.

It speaks of death. I don't understand that. And he turns to the twelve, who are still there, to Peter, to John, James, Jude, Judas, Bartholomew, Nathaniel, Andrew, Philip, turns to all of them.

He says, hey, are you going to withdraw yourself also? Jesus asks if the twelve will withdraw from his words. Will you pull back from my words when they're hard to understand?

Will you pull back from my words when they seem offensive? Will you pull back from my words when there's a cost? When there's a sacrifice? What if it cost you your flesh? What if my words cost you your blood?

Will you pull back? We cannot follow Jesus apart from his life?

As Peter says here Lord to whom shall we go? I don't understand everything you're saying but I know I can't go anywhere else. When am I going to go? To the religious leaders here?

To the people? They just want something temporary? To some other religion? What am I going to do? I don't have anywhere else to go. You're the one Lord to whom shall we go?

You can always tell what someone is aiming at by how they respond to Jesus' words. What's this person aiming at? What's their goal? You can always tell by how they respond to Jesus' words.

Are they seeking something temporal? Are they seeking something lasting and eternal? And we believe and are sure that you are the Christ the Son of the living God. That's our eighth point.

Never seek to understand Jesus apart from his words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure. Where else are we going to go Lord? You have the words of eternal life.

Jesus' words produce something in us that many times do an amazing awesome fulfilling work for us here. But recognize everything Jesus is speaking and doing in your life has an eternal facet to it.

Has something lasting has something eternal even in our suffering even in our frustrations even when we're offended by his words. For I believe that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Never seek to understand Jesus apart from his words of eternal! life. A true disciple Peter responds as a true disciple! He always aims to follow Jesus.

A true disciple he draws his assurance from faith not from sight. I don't get it Lord but I get you I believe you I believe your heart I believe the Father's heart.

Faith is a substance of things hoped For the evidence of things not seen. A true disciple will receive the word of life. A true disciple! will believe! the word of life and a true disciple is assured of the word of life.

And as Paul said what we started with whether we're abased whether we abound whether we suffer need or we have want or we have plenty man I can always be assured of the word of life that God's word is always speaking life eternal life into my situation.

It would be wonderful! We could just end the had there and Jesus answered them you know Lord you have the words of eternal life yeah and one of you is a devil okay Jesus answered them have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil and you know I hope and I'm sure actually in every one of their lives eventually they got to a point where they walk with their Lord and they said it was me I also had the devil Lord I also had something in me I had something in me that needed something with authority something with authenticity that could deal with what was in me and he spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon for it was he that should betray him being one of the twelve again

Jesus is not surprised he's not overwhelmed he's letting them know guys I want you to know something this is going to end in a way that you're not going to quite expect but it's all part of me offering myself for the life of the world but I knew from the start who Judas was so when the betrayal happens when the betrayal happens when the knife comes we can turn to the Lord and he can say yeah I knew I already knew that right from the beginning and Lord you allowed that oh I didn't allow it Jared I chose it I chose it we cannot follow Jesus apart from his word but chosen to follow does not mean chosen to life all have been chosen many are called but few are chosen just because we choose to follow does not mean we choose life only way to choose life is to receive

Jesus receive his authority to receive his authenticity to receive that we are accountable to him Judas followed all the way to the very end and yet he didn't have life only those whose aim is to believe have the assurance of being given by the father and kept by the son if your aim is anything else Judas's was he was aiming at Jesus but it wasn't to believe he had no assurance that he had been given to the father given by the!

and kept by the son belief comes before belonging what good did it do for Judas to be with Jesus and to follow Jesus and not partake of Jesus what good does it do me if I'm with Jesus and I'm following Jesus and I'm not partaking of him what good is that oh I'm there every time the doors are open I'm a church oh yeah yeah there's ministries boy I'm there I'm giving his if I won't receive his words our last point in understanding Jesus never seek to understand Jesus apart from his grace yes he knew Judas would betray him. Yes, he knew Judas was the devil, but he didn't call him out. He didn't push him away. His grace extended to him through his entire ministry. Never seek to understand Jesus apart from his grace, apart from his long suffering, apart from his care.

Our evidence for belief, it's not circumstantial. It's not the circumstances of my life. God, I believed, but I was betrayed. God, I believed, but I'm suffering need and want and hunger.

My evidence is not circumstantial, but like Peter, we have something far more sure than circumstances. What did Peter say? He said, Lord, you have the words of eternal life. And Peter, eventually, in 2 Peter, he will write this, that we have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. The day star is Jesus. The day star, as we said a couple weeks ago, comes before the morning. Before the day dawn, the day star arises.

And when our day star arises in the heavens, we shall go and meet the Lord in the air, and there we'll ever be with him. And until then, we have a more sure word of prophecy. See, Peter will eventually realize, as he walks through his ministry with Jesus, and he gets to this point where he says, wow, Lord, at one point, I didn't understand. I just knew you had the words of eternal life. And I believed, and I was sure that you were the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Now I have a more sure word in my life. I have the more sure word of how you've spoken forth the words of life to me, because I've given myself a context for that, because I've followed even when I didn't understand. Our aim is not seeking Jesus for the assurances that come in this life. There are many assurances that come because we follow Jesus. But ultimately, it's so that we can stand assured of the life to come. Romans 5, Paul writes in verses 1 and 2, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. We are assured of that through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. My aim is not to seek Jesus for assurances in this life, but the fact that he's assured me of the life to come allows me to go through all of the trials of this life.

A true disciple of Jesus, understanding will grow. And as it does, I realize that he is just showing me the heart of his father, a heart that loves me, a heart that receives me. But I'm not going to gain understanding of Jesus if I don't follow him, if I turn aside because of his hard words. To whom shall we go, Peter says. So this morning, to whom do we go?

To whom shall we go? Well, let's go to Jesus. But who do we go to? Who do I go to in times of trouble? Man, we need to partake of the bread of life. We do that when we accept that we are accountable to Jesus.

He is the one with the ability, the adequacy, the authenticity, and the authority to give us life. Not just in this life, but the one to come. In John 7, 17, Jesus will say, we might get there next week.

If any man will do his will, he will know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Do you want to understand Jesus? Follow him.

Do you want to understand Jesus' words? Obey them. When they don't make sense, when they're difficult to receive, follow and obey. Jesus will bring the understanding.

If any man will do his will, will believe this is the work of God that you believe. On him he sent. Then we'll know. We'll know of the doctrine.

If it be of God. Or whether it's just something that's just someone speaking of themselves. And I bet every one of us here can say, yeah, I can testify to that. But in doing God's will and putting my faith in Christ and doing the work of God, which is to believe.

Man, I found out the doctrine of salvation was true. There's a whole lot of other doctrines. A whole lot of other teaching that we can know is true. As we do his will. Understanding follows obedience.

And obedience follows belief. So we look this morning at these points of Jesus. This woven, this theme woven through it of understanding Jesus. And this is a lot of what we've been looking at in John.

John is presenting Jesus to us. Sometimes hard to understand. We looked at it in the negative, but if I could, I want to rephrase it in the positive. We understand Jesus. Because we have a personal relationship with Jesus.

We understand Jesus through the entire counsel of God's word and his relationship with the Father. We understand Jesus because of the context of his words. His broken body. His poured out blood.

And his resurrection. We understand Jesus because of the life of the Spirit and with walking with Jesus. We understand Jesus because of his words of eternal life.

And we understand Jesus because of his grace. Amen. Father, thank you. Thank you for these words of life that you've spoken to us this morning.

Lord, as we close in song now, Lord, as we stand before you one last time today. In the body here. In a group. In context of fellowshipping with one another, Lord.

Lord, we want to understand that on behalf of the Father, Lord, you have the ability.

You have the authority to freely accept us. To tell us that we are adequate for eternal life. Lord, we want to understand that the aim of our life is something that we're accountable to.

But it's not something we do on our own. As we aim towards you, Jesus. As we aim towards that eternal life. As we focus our life to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

What happens is we find I'm walking with Jesus. He's with me. He's speaking to me. I'm being discipled by him. I'm receiving his words. I'm a pupil.

I'm a learner. And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters this morning that if they hit a rough patch. Where they don't understand. That Lord, they would stop trying to seek understanding.

And instead, they would seek your will. Lord, as we respond to your will, Lord, to your leading. We gain understanding. We can follow you. We can obey without understanding at all.

What we need to understand is like what Peter said. To whom shall we go, Lord? Well, we're going to go to you. Because you have the words of eternal life. Speak to us now. And remind us again that you know what's best.

And you already understand. And in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus is the only one who brought earth and heaven together. He's the only one who could bring a fallen world into acceptability with God.

The words that he speaks, they are spirit and they are life. But if we're not listening to his words, we're not allowing ourselves to partake of spirit in life. Man, I encourage you this week. If you've been struggling to understand, maybe it's time to stop seeking understanding and seek his will.

And seek his heart in his word. Amen. Lord, bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you.

And give you peace. If you want to pray, I'd love to pray with you. Enjoy some fellowship. God bless.