The Hard Sayings of Jesus: There are some seriously hard sayings in the Bible, either because they’re hard to understand or because they’re so counter-cultural. These teachings might even make us question the truth or goodness of God’s word. It’s helpful to see that God’s word has always been challenging or even downright offensive to some. But if the gospel is true, the words and way of Jesus are the only way that leads to life. Recorded on Oct 15, 2023, on John 6:41-71 by Pastor David Parks.
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Finding Life in Jesus’ Name is a sermon series on the gospel according to John in the Bible. Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your life? Or, even when things were going well, something was still missing? Many people sense there must be something more. But what?? John, one of the closest friends of Jesus, believed that Jesus came into the world so that we may have life and have it to the full. Jesus turned John’s life upside down, and John claims this new life — marked by God’s power, presence, and purpose — is available for all who believe.
Sermon Transcript
So, all year, we’re going through the gospel according to John in a series called Finding Life in Jesus’ Name. And today, we’re finishing up John 6 with what I think is a very relatable teaching on dealing with the hard sayings of Jesus. Have you ever wondered about that? There are some seriously hard teachings in the Bible, either because they are hard to understand or because they are so counter-cultural that if we live them out, we will stick out (not in a good way). Sometimes, as Christians, some of these hard sayings might be thrown in our faces as evidence of the absurdity of our faith. Other times, the hard sayings of Jesus might make us question the truth/goodness of God’s word/way. I think sometimes Christians are hesitant to even admit they wrestle with certain texts or concepts from the Bible, but we need to be honest about this. Usually, when things are kept in the dark, they have way more power over us than if we bring them out into the light. So let me bring this out into the light here for myself. I question the Bible all the time. If it’s true, if it’s truly God’s word, then it’ll hold up under our questioning, right? Well, there came a time in the ministry of Jesus when many people who had been following him started grumbling about some of the things he was saying. And it got so bad that many people stopped following him because they were offended by his teaching. Can you imagine that? Walking away from Jesus in the flesh? But in this controversy, we learn so much about what to do with the hard sayings of Jesus and the offense of the gospel. If you have a Bible/app, please take it and open it to John 6:41.
John 6:41-42 (NIV), “41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” Let’s pause here and get some context before we continue on. Jesus had just had the biggest, most impressive day of ministry the day before. He had fed the five thousand, and then that night, he walked on the water and calmed the storm, revealing both a sign of provision and a sign of power over his creation. Then the next day, after all that, they were in Capernaum, a small town at the north end of the Sea of Galilee, basically home base for Jesus during the first few years of his public ministry, where the Apostle Peter had a house. And Jesus was teaching in the synagogue where, as we saw last week, he made the claim, “I am the bread of life.” This was the first of the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus in John’s gospel. But in this teaching, Jesus claimed to have come down from heaven so that “…everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” It was at these claims that the Jews there in Capernaum began to grumble about him. Now, to a Jewish person in John’s day or to anyone familiar with the OT, the word grumble would immediately remind you of the story of the Exodus of Israel from captivity in Egypt. Several times during the Exodus, ancient Israel started grumbling against Moses and even against God. And I don’t think it’s an accident that John uses this language. In the book of Exodus, chapter 16, after God had miraculously provided manna from heaven, the people begin grumbling that they had bread but no meat. Now here, Jesus had just performed a miracle of feeding people with bread from heaven, and the next day, the people grumbled against him. But with Jesus, the people don’t understand how Jesus could say that he had come down from heaven. They were like, “But we know his family, we know where he grew up, how can he make this claim to be something special, much less equal with God?” Not a very warm welcome there for Jesus, but also this is evidence that Jesus himself was making the claim to be God. This wasn’t something his followers made up hundreds of years later. But I’m sure it was tense in the synagogue that day. As Jesus kept talking, people kept getting more and more upset. But would Jesus walk back this claim as he felt the room shift against him?
John 6:43-52 (NIV), “43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” 52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Not only does Jesus not walk back the claim to have been sent down from heaven, but he doubles down. Saying, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven [which anyone may eat and not die].” Then he extends the metaphor by saying the “bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” and “Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Now, this is clearly a metaphor. But the people go from grumbling to arguing sharply among themselves because they take him literally. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus actually explains the metaphor by saying, “Whoever believes in me has eternal life.” Jesus obviously isn’t advocating for cannibalism; he’s using this picture of eating the bread of life as an analogy for faith. But he seems to have lost the room. Will he now try and walk back this claim? Or will he only double down again?
John 6:53-59 (NIV), “53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.” Ok! So Jesus just doubles down again, adding drinking his blood to the metaphor. If Jesus had a PR firm, they would’ve quit that day. If the people didn’t understand the meaning of eating his flesh, they certainly weren’t going to understand the meaning of drinking his blood. But, again, there’s no way that Jesus meant people to take this saying literally. It’s clearly against the OT law to drink blood. So what is Jesus trying to say here? He’s teaching that just as food and drink are necessary for us to have physical life, so in the same way, we need God to provide us with spiritual nourishment through the person and work of Jesus that will lead to real/spiritual/eternal life. Now, if you’ve been a Christian for a while, this language of the flesh and blood of Jesus might remind you of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion, where the bread and the cup represent the body and blood of Jesus. Jesus won’t institute this practice until the night before his death on the cross, but here, perhaps a year before the cross, he is teaching the meaning behind the institution of the bread and the cup. That even today, we look to the Son and believe in him, and therefore, we have eternal life and trust the promise of Jesus to raise us up on the last day. But the point of this passage isn’t to start the practice of Communion but to help us to understand what Communion remembers and celebrates, that Jesus is the bread of life, sent from heaven, to nourish and to give life by faith in his powerful name. So there. All the cards are on the table. How will the people respond?
John 6:60-71 (NIV), “60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” 66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)” This is God’s word. Wow. On hearing this hard teaching, rather than humbly asking Jesus for more information, for more of an explanation of what he means, many of the people who had been following Jesus “turned back and no longer followed him.” These were people who had seen the power of God through the ministry of Jesus, who had heard him teach, and maybe even knew him from when he grew up in the nearby town of Nazareth. But despite all that, when his teaching was hard for them to accept, they walked away from him. This must have been so hard for Jesus to experience. What do you think he felt when he saw all of them walk away from him? If I were Jesus, I probably would’ve quit. After two major miracles the day before and with so many thousands of people following him, I’m sure it would’ve been tempting for him to look at all that ministry fruit as a measure of his own value and worth. But then, Jesus preaches one sermon that manages to offend almost everyone, and many people decide to stop following him (unfollowed, blocked, done). Does that mean his ministry failed? But none of this surprises Jesus one bit. John says he knew from the beginning which of them would believe and truly follow him, who would walk away from him, and even who would betray him in the end, his friend, Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. He knew that no one could come to him unless the Father had enabled them to come, and Jesus fully and implicitly trusted his Father. He knew the fruit of his ministry wasn’t about the numbers that day in Capernaum or the next week when barely anyone was left. But it still must’ve been tough for him. Jesus had compassion on the crowds because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus really loved people, so to see them walking away from him was to see people that he loved walk away from the only ultimate source of life and love and joy and peace. And in this moment, Jesus turns to the Twelve, his closest followers, and asks them if they want to leave him, too. And as usual, Simon Peter speaks his mind. But his confession is good. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Peter is saying, “Lord, where else can we go to find the hope and the truth and the life that offer? Only you, Lord, only you have the words of eternal life. Only you have the gospel, the good news of who God is and what he has done. Only you are the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Only you are the source of living water and the bread of life. Only you are the Lord and the Savior. Only you are the Holy One of God.” Peter isn’t always pointed in the right direction, but he nails it here. And I think his confession, even though Peter certainly didn’t have as full of an understanding as he would have after the cross and the resurrection, I think it still would’ve been helpful/encouraging to Jesus. Now, next week, we’ll continue to consider the unique theme and authority of the teaching ministry of Jesus.
But for today, I’d like to end our time by thinking about how we can deal with the hard sayings and the potentially offensive teachings of Jesus. I’ll give you two thoughts. First, this isn’t a new problem for modern people. God’s word has always been challenging or even downright offensive to some. Just as people grumbled against God in the OT and against the teaching of Jesus that day in Capernaum, God’s word has always been challenging or even downright offensive to some people. But the uncomfortable truth is that the message of the gospel is offensive. The gospel says we needed Jesus to die for us because we were hopelessly lost on our own, and we couldn’t do a single thing to save ourselves. That’s a humbling message. Everyone kind of believes that they can do more good than evil and that God should give us credit for that, that that should be enough. But the gospel says, no, that’s not how it works. The standard is perfection, and all have fallen short of the glory of God. But even if you believe that you might need a savior, there’s the ethical teaching of the Bible, and what God says is right and wrong. Whether it’s the ethical teaching on human gender or sexuality, or the requirement of forgiveness and love, even for our enemies, or the calling to care for the poor and those in need, there are many hard sayings in the Bible. Sadly, just as it happened that day, many people today walk away from the faith because of these hard sayings. I’ve had dear friends who have rejected Jesus (at least for now) because they’re unwilling to accept his way. Maybe you’ve had friends or family who have done this, too. They were unwilling to submit to his word/way when it conflicted with their word/way. The way of Jesus is a hard way. It’s a way of suffering. It’s a way of dying. It’s the way of the cross. The way of Jesus demands that you lose your life in order to find it. And we stand under the authority of God and his word; we do not stand over it. But here’s the second thought: The way of Jesus is the only way that leads to life. John’s gospel is all about finding life, real/eternal/abundant life by faith in Jesus’ name. When our circumstances or a particular teaching of the Bible are hard to understand or to deal with, the Christian must say, as Peter said, “Lord, where else would we go? Only you have the words of life.” There is no viable plan b. There is no other religion or philosophy, there is no other way that leads to life/love/joy/peace. So today, when we wrestle with the truth/goodness of an aspect of God’s word, let us bring our questions and our doubts to Jesus. If he’s real, as I believe he is, and if his way is the only way that leads to life, then he can handle our questions; he can handle our doubts. And in his timing and according to his perfect wisdom, he will reveal to us the truth and the goodness of his words/way. Let us pray.