Believing
In Jesus
John
6:22-71
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1).
Listen to this
interesting exchange between Alice in Wonderland and the Queen from Lewis
Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass:
(The queen
says) 'Let's consider your age to begin with - how old are
you?'
(
'You needn't
say "exactly",' the queen remarked: 'I can believe it without that. Now I'll
give you something to believe. I'm just one hundred and one, five months
and a day.'
'I can't
believe that!' said
'Can't you?'
the queen said in a pitying tone. 'Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your
eyes.'
'I daresay you
haven't had much practice,' said the queen. 'When I was your age, I always did
it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six
impossible things before breakfast.' (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking
Glass)
In that
humorous passage Lewis Carroll is commenting on the enigma of faith. Why is it
that some people manage to believe things that others find utterly incredible?
As far as the Queen is concerned it's all a matter of effort. Just hold your
breath and shut your eyes. You can believe anything if you try hard enough. But
we, like
Yet having said that, many people do
believe the impossible. Certainly we Christians appear to,
don't we? That God would become a human being and walk on earth. That he would
be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. That he healed the sick, raised the dead and did other miraculous signs. That he
would be killed but then come back to life three days later. That he ascended
into heaven and is coming again.
We might have
to excuse
Now why
is that? It can't just be that we're all gullible. I mean there are plenty of
gullible people and even gullible Christians around, I'm sure. But there are
plenty of intelligent, reasonable, rational Christians around as well. So why is
it that some people believe, while others don't?
At the end of
John 6, Jesus speaks some words that show the insight He had into the minds and
hearts of His hearers. He says, "But
there are some of you who do not believe." And John adds the commentary, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who they
were who did not believe, and who would betray Him … From that time many of His
disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” (John 6:64,66).
Let’s back up
a little in John 6 and see if we can find some reasons why some did not believe
while others trusted in Jesus.
A Why
do unbelievers not believe?
1. The
Spiritual Nature of Jesus' Message.
(6:25-27)
What caused some of these people to
walk away from Jesus and not believe in Him? The episode here in John 6 gives us
several clues about their unbelief. First, let’s understand the context. At the
beginning of chapter 6 Jesus feeds over 5000 people with a little boy’s lunch
(John 6:1-15), an amazing miracle. Now these same people had caught up to Jesus
again on the other side of the lake, looking for more to eat. Some of the people
recognized what Jesus did as being a sign that Jesus was the new deliverer, like
Moses. They thought Jesus was the one who would bring them liberation from the
Roman oppression, the way Moses brought deliverance from slavery in
Jesus says to
them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the
loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the
food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you,
because God the Father has set His seal on Him." (John 6:26-27).
Jesus says
that they've got it all wrong. There are two kinds of food: "Do
not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal
life." There's the bread that nourishes our physical existence, but
which is doomed to perish in the end; and there's also bread that nourishes our
spiritual existence which is destined to last forever.
The trouble
was, these Galileans were materialists. They'd eaten
the loaves and had their fill. They saw the economic benefits of following Jesus
and had decided they were onto a good thing. But they'd completely missed the
spiritual significance of what had happened. They'd seen the miracle but they’d missed the sign.
One reason many fail to believe is
that they are so stuck in the material that they refuse to see the
spiritual. This is
especially true in 21st century
So Jesus'
words come to us today with renewed urgency, (6:27): "Do
not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to
everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has
set His seal on Him."
Jesus’ mission
and message are essentially spiritual, not material. And some people simply will not move beyond
the material. Do you remember what Jesus said to Satan during the first of
his temptations in the desert? “Man shall not live by bread alone,”
or “Human beings don't need just physical bread.” There's far more to life than
our material needs.
Yet there are
still those who disagree; who argue that such an idea is just a way of seducing
the masses; of stopping them from worrying about their real state of existence.
Marx claimed that religion (especially Christianity) was the opiate of the
masses, something to keep the poor happy and ignorant of the economic oppression
under which they live. But according to Jesus the opposite is true. It's actually materialism that's the
narcotic, which deadens us to our spiritual state.
Just listen to
our politicians some time. They'll tell you that all that matters is our
economic well-being. Remember the slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid!” And it
seems to be true doesn't it? As long as we're acquiring the latest gadget, the
newest car, the toys we enjoy, we don't seem to think about the spiritual side
of life. Not, that is, until we realize what a spiral we're in: where our latest
purchase is never quite enough, where the appetite for more becomes insatiable,
where our buying becomes a substitute for satisfying what's really a hunger for
something else—for significance, for acceptance, for love, for a relationship
with the living God.
A second
reason that people fail to believe in Jesus is
2. The
Gracious Nature of Jesus' Offer. (6:28-33)
Jesus had just
told them about, “everlasting life, which the Son of Man will
give you.” (John 6:27). He offered a gift. They offered to pay for it.
They responded with the question, "What shall we do, that we may work the works
of God?" And in asking that question they demonstrate their world view.
They think that eternal life is all
about what I do, about my works.
A church had a
yard sale. Well, it was actually a storage room giveaway. The pastor said, “We
didn’t really sell anything. We had so much stuff that it took up too much
space. Also, we wanted to reach out to the community. As people came up we told
them, ‘Everything is free! Take as much home as you can. We want you to have
it.’ People responded in curious ways. Many were noticeably uncomfortable. Some
didn’t come thinking there was a catch. Others refused to leave without paying.
Others, after much convincing, finally took the stuff to their cars, not
believing their good fortune. And I thought to myself,
‘That’s pretty much the way people are about God’s grace.’ We insist on paying or working for
it.”
The idea that
God’s love comes to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against
every instinct of humanity. That’s what religions are all about. The Buddhist
eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and the
Muslim code of law—each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only
Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing
about Grace?).
John Stott writes of man trying to
justify himself by works, "It is the
religion of the man-in-the-street today. Indeed, it is the fundamental principle
of every religious and moral system in the world except New Testament
Christianity. It is popular because it is flattering. It tells a man that if he
will only pull his socks up a bit higher and try a bit harder, he will succeed
in winning his own salvation. But it is a fearful delusion. It is the biggest
lie of the biggest liar the world has ever known, the devil, whom Jesus called
‘the father of lies.’ Nobody has ever been justified by the works of the law,
for the simple reason that nobody has ever perfectly kept the
law."
Instead Jesus says to come by faith.
Jesus answered and said to them, "This
is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He
sent." (John 6:29). Believe in Him, it sounds too easy for some. They
want to work for it, to earn it. But you cannot earn a gift,
that is the nature of a gift. An old Middle Eastern story shows the
futility of salvation by works:
A man was traveling on his donkey
when he came upon a small fuzzy object lying in the road. He dismounted to look
more closely and found a sparrow lying on its back with its scrawny legs thrust
skyward. At first he thought the bird was dead, but close investigation proved
it to be very much alive. The man asked the sparrow if he was all right. The
sparrow replied, “Yes.” The man said, “What are you doing lying on your back
with your legs pointed toward the sky?” The sparrow responded that he had heard
a rumor that the sky was falling. The man replied, “You surely don’t think
you’re going to hold the sky up with those two scrawny legs, do you?” The
sparrow replied, “One does the best he
can.”
The little bird’s futile works were
obvious. In the same way, man’s condition is so desperate that his works are no
more effective than a bird’s legs in the air trying to hold up the sky. No one
will ever be saved by works.
Believe. So easy a
child can do it. So hard the wisest stumble over
it. The humble receive it. The proud refuse it.
Have you seen people who refuse to
believe because they are trying to earn God’s favor?
A The third
reason some find it hard to believe is because of
3. The
Supernatural Nature of Jesus' Claims. (6:34-48)
In the gospel
accounts Jesus makes some astounding claims. In John 5 there is a long discourse
between Jesus and the religious leaders in which Jesus claims over and over to
have come from God, indeed to be the Son of God. And again, in John 6, he is
claiming a uniquely divine origin.
Now if I
claimed to have come from God and to be the unique Son of God, you would
probably lock me up. It's the sort of thing you expect to hear in a mental
hospital: from people who have lost touch with reality. But that is just what
Jesus claims. In the space of a mere 7 verses, from 34 to 40, Jesus uses the
words 'I' or 'me' or 'my' 17 times. His claim is for a divine ministry: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me
will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
(John 6:35); a divine origin: “I have come down from heaven;”
(6:38); a divine mission: “I have come to do the will of him who sent
me;” (6:38); divine power: “I
will raise him up at the last day," (6:40),
Jesus says he
has come to satisfy our hunger, as both the giver and the gift. "For
the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. .
. . I am the bread of life." (John 6:33-35). Jesus has come to satisfy
the most important need of human beings: the need to fill the spiritual void
caused by sin. Do you know that
hunger? It's a profound hunger that only God can
satisfy.
But his
listeners couldn't swallow that. After all, they thought they knew Jesus. And
they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose
father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from
heaven'?" They'd seen him grow up. They'd bought furniture from his
father. They'd eaten with his family. How could he claim to have come down from
heaven? That's ridiculous! He may have a strange ability to heal people, even to
produce food in unexplainable ways, he might be able to do amazing miracles, but
it's another thing to claim to be a
miracle. That's a bit unbelievable wouldn't you say? Yet that is his claim.
Of course it's
still his claim today and it's still an obstacle to faith for many today. You
see, we're so intent on understanding our world, of being able to judge for
ourselves what's true and what isn't that we find it hard to accept someone who
claims to come from heaven and to be so beyond our
understanding.
Jesus made greater claims for
himself than any major religious figure, before or since. In the Bible we clearly see Jesus
as supernatural by all the miracles he did. And we clearly see Jesus making
claims to be the Son of God, to be sent from heaven, to be the only way to God,
to have come back from the dead, and to be equal with God.
You owe it to
yourself to consider them with as objective and sincere a mindset as you can. I
can testify that if you do you will not be disappointed. I have found Jesus to
be the loving and just Savior and Lord that he claims to be. He also claims he
will be our eternal judge concerning eternal punishment or eternal life. "And
this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who
sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him
up at the last day." (John 6:40).
The only way to discount these
claims is to discredit the biblical accounts. Of course that is what many try to
do. If I can call into question the accuracy of the biblical record then I don’t
really have to deal with the supernatural claims of Jesus. And if Jesus is not
who he claims to be in the Bible, then I don’t have to deal with his claims on
my life either.
Do you take the supernatural claims
of Jesus seriously?
A fourth
reason why some did not believe is:
4. The
Scandalous Nature of the Cross. (John 6:49-58)
Jesus takes
the idea of the bread that comes down from heaven and uses it to describe what
he is soon to do on the cross. That is, he's about to give up his life in order
to bring life to others. All through this passage Jesus tells us how to receive
eternal life. He repeats himself over and over again. In 6:29 he says: "This
is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He
sent." And in 6:35, "I am the
bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger,
and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." In 6:40: "And
this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who
sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him
up at the last day." And then in 6:47 "Most
assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has
everlasting life."
What do all
those verses have in common? Believe, believe, believe. The way to eternal life
is to believe in Jesus.
So now we get
to 6:51 and Jesus starts talking about us eating his flesh. He says, "I am
the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he
will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the
world." If the way to eternal life is to believe in Jesus, and he now
says, “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live
forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, “ it's fairly clear that eating his flesh has to do with
believing in what he's done with his flesh: that is, his death on the cross; his
flesh given for the life of the world.
Again his
hearers take offence at this language. In 6:52, The
Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His
flesh to eat?" The thought of eating his flesh is enough to turn them
off completely. But Jesus takes the metaphor even further: he says that his
flesh and blood are real food and real drink (6:55). They're such that if you
partake of them you'll partake of Christ himself (6:.56). To eat of this food is
to partake in the life that the Father gives to the Son
(6:57).
Well, I guess
we can understand how hard this was for Jesus hearers to understand. Even his
disciples begin to complain what a hard saying this is (6:60,61). So Jesus responds, in 6:62: "What
then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? " There
would come a time when an even more amazing thing would happen. Not only would
Jesus be killed on a cross, but he'd rise from death and ascend again to the
Father in heaven. Then their faith would really be tested and even having seen
all that, there would still be some who wouldn't believe.
So we see here
4 reasons why people fail to believe in Jesus: 1. The
spiritual nature of his message. 2. The gracious nature of his offer. 3. The
supernaturalism of his claims. And, 4. The scandal of the cross.
But there were
those who did believe. And that leaves us with the question
B Why do
some people believe?
I think there
are two reasons given in the passage.
1.
Believing is A Gift from God.
Three times in
this section we're told the same thing:
John 6:37 "All
that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by
no means cast out.;"
Jn 6:44 “No
one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him
up at the last day.."
John 6:65: "Therefore I have said to you that no one can
come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My
Father."
At first
glance we don't like the idea that our coming to Christ, our believing, is the
work of God. We'd prefer to think that we can solve our own problems, make our
own choices, muster up our own faith. There's an
independence of mind in us that rebels at the thought that God does it all for
us. Yet that's the message of the gospel. Everything to do with our salvation
comes from God. God gives it. We receive it. Salvation is a
gift.
This truth has
brought me great assurance. Think about how well you do in keeping to God's will
for your life. How good are you at overcoming those bad habits? How often do you
find yourself regretting your words or your actions? If you were left entirely
to your own devices how long do you think you'd continue to be a follower of
Christ? For most of us I fear it wouldn't be too long. No, we need God's help
all along the way and that's no less true at the start of the journey as half
way through or at the end. So isn't it wonderful that it's God who calls us to
himself and that Jesus promises that anyone who comes to him will never be cast
out?
But for those
with an independent frame of mind, there is another side to this.
2. What
alternative is there?
Look at v 67:
Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want
to go away?" But Simon Peter
answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life.
There is a
rational response to Jesus that says 'What alternative is there? Where else
would we go? With Jesus we find the words of eternal life. Anywhere else we look
there is only death.'
This
expression of faith on the disciples' shows that the faith they express isn't
just blind faith. Rather it's rational faith that comes about because of the
work of God in their hearts. It's rational faith that
comes about as the Spirit takes the words of God (6:63, 68) and sets them to
work in our hearts to bring eternal life. As Jesus says in 6:45 the disciples
are those who have listened to God and so come to Jesus in faith.
The choice is
the same today as it was 2000 years ago. Do you believe in Jesus or not? Will
you come to him or will you reject him? If you're one who's still deciding, then
ask God to open your eyes so you can see the truth about Jesus and come to
belief in him. Ask him to feed you with living bread that endures to eternal
life. If you already believe in Jesus then make sure you're spending time with
God's word so God can continue to feed your faith in Jesus so you too will live
with him forever.