Jesus and the Adulterous Woman

John 7:53 – 8:11

Today we come to the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery. This is one of the most well-known and popular stories about Jesus. Even those who rarely read the Bible often know about this story or at least they know the famous line “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

It is a beautiful illustration of what happens when a sinner is placed at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. It demonstrates the justice, grace, forgiveness, and life-transforming power of the Son of God. More →

Jesus Christ, the Great Divider

John 7:40-53

Let’s start today by reading our text:

40 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.”

41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee?

42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”

43 So there was a division among the people because of Him.

44 Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

45 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?”

46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”

47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived?

48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?

49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

50 Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them,

51 “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”

52 They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

53 And everyone went to his own house.

There are some things in life that you can be neutral about but Jesus is not one of them. Yet many people in our world are still trying to be neutral about Jesus. They claim that Jesus was a good man, maybe a even a great man, a prophet, a teacher, but that was long ago and in another time and it has nothing to do with our world today. And it certainly does not require that I go to church much less belong to a church. They say, “You don’t have to go to church to believe in Jesus.”

In Luke 11:23 Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” (also Matt. 12:30). Jesus says that neutrality to Him is really opposition to Him. To decide for God, one must decide for Jesus.

In John chapter seven Jesus has been teaching at the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles. He had made a big impression on both the people and the Jewish authorities in the temple, but the verdict about Him was certainly not unanimous. In verse 12 we saw “there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.”” In 7:31 John told us, “And many of the people believed in Him, and said, ‘When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?’” At the same time, verse 32 gave the opposite response to Jesus, “The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.” In John 7:43 we see again what we have experienced over and over in the Gospel of John, “So there was a division among the people because of Him,” (7:43).

The words “a division among the people” seem almost an understatement. Some were believing in Jesus and others were violently rejecting Jesus. This should not surprise us. Jesus expected it would be this way. In Luke 12:51-53 Jesus said, “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” (also Matt 10:34-35).

This is the way it happened in Jesus’s lifetime on earth: people divided over Him. And it’s the way it keeps happening wherever Christ is presented faithfully today. Faith in Jesus always has been and will continue to be a dividing line in this world. In parts of the world today where Christianity is not the predominant religion it is still very much so. In countries in which Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam are the predominant religions, to come to faith in Christ often means being disowned by your family.

You may be saying how does that concern me in modern America? R. Kent Hughes reminds us how it often works in our society today. He writes,

Christ brings division to everyday life. We all have experienced this. Maybe we are at the store, in school, or at work, and we are talking animatedly with someone about any number of things – maybe politics or education or sports or even the weather. Then someone says something like, ‘My life has really been different lately because of Christ.’ Suddenly there is a silence and a shuffling of the feet. Someone coughs. Someone else looks at his watch and says, ‘I’ve got an appointment to get to or I’ll be late.’ Another says, ‘Oh, yes I have to go feed the dog. I must be going.’ But in reality the man who said he had to feed the dog did not have a dog to feed and the other person’s appointment was the next day. Yet the mere mention of Christ brings division to life. [R Kent Hughes. John: That You Might Believe. (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1999) p. 222]

The great sadness of this division is that it means that there are those who choose not to believe in Jesus and by that decision reject the only means of being saved. I pray that in this very moment you won’t be on the wrong side of this division.

The division we see in John 7 reveals to us different kinds of unbelief. The first one is:

1. Some have an inadequate view of Jesus (7:40)

Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.”

Jesus has just given that great invitation to believe in Him in verses 37-38:

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus’ words are compelling. They call for a response. He is claiming to be the One who satisfies the thirst of our innermost being. Some of the listeners were sure that Jesus was “the Prophet” (7:40). They are surely referring to the prophet predicted by Moses in Deut. 18:15, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.” It’s what those who saw Jesus feed the 5000 said when they saw the sign that Jesus did, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world,” (6:14). But significantly here, they think He is the Prophet not just because of what Jesus did, but what He said. Verse 40 says, “when they heard this saying,” they said “Truly this is the Prophet.”

Certainly, Jesus was the Prophet of whom Moses spoke. He was much greater than Moses, both in the signs that He performed and in the teaching that He gave. But by itself, to believe that Jesus was the Prophet was an inadequate view. A mere prophet, no matter how great, could not authoritatively claim what Jesus just claimed, that whoever would come and drink of Him would have rivers of living water gushing up inside of him and flowing out of him. Only God in human flesh could make such a claim.

There are many people today who think highly of Jesus and His teaching, but they do not believe that He is God. A partial faith is not a saving faith. They do not submit their lives to Him as their Lord and God. They have correct, but inadequate views of Jesus.

2. Some have a correct but uncommitted view of Jesus (7:41)

You see them in verse 41. They went a step further and said of Jesus, “This is the Christ.” “The Christ” was God’s promised “anointed one,” the promised redeemer and king who would reign on David’s throne (Psalm 2). While that view is absolutely correct, and a step up from viewing Jesus only as the Prophet, it is inadequate because it does not reflect any personal commitment or submission to Jesus as Lord. The text suggests that they held their view as debaters, but not as disciples willing to follow Him no matter what the cost. As verse 13 points out, “no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.”

Just a knowledge of the facts about Jesus and even believing them to be true does not save a person. Many people have grown up in Christian homes, attended good sound Bible believing churches, gone to Church camp, attended Youth group, and yet have never come to trust Christ. They can quote Scripture verses, and can believe them all to be true and still be lost. One commentator calls this having a “orthodox head wedded to a rebellious heart.”

A.W. Pink (Exposition of John, on monergism.com) says, “Unless our hearts are affected and our lives molded by God’s Word, we are no better off than a starving man with a cook book in his hand.” Intellectual acceptance is not saving faith. Do you have a correct view of Jesus, but remain uncommitted to Him as your Lord and Savior?

3. Some reject Jesus for faulty reasons (7:41-42)

We see these people in verses 41-42, “…But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”

They question if Jesus could be the Christ because He was a Galilean. They obviously knew that Jesus had grown up in Nazareth but had they cared enough to check out the facts they would have found that He was actually born in Bethlehem and that He was indeed of the tribe of Judah and of the line of David.

Some times people make up their minds before they have all the facts. Like these people they end up rejecting Jesus for a flimsy reason that was really nothing but an excuse.

These critics had to ignore Jesus’ many miracles, some of which they had no doubt seen with their own eyes or heard credible reports of. They had to dismiss Jesus’ powerful teaching, which even the arresting officers admit is like no other teaching they’ve ever heard (7:46). They had to shrug off Jesus’ astounding claims, such as the one He just issued, to be able to give rivers of living water to all who believed in Him.

But the truth is, they weren’t interested in believing in Jesus. If they had been interested, they could have cleared up the question of His origins very easily. But they didn’t want to believe; they just wanted a comfortable excuse to reject Him.

We come to verse 43 where John reminds us again, “So there was a division among the people because of Him.” It was such an intense division, verse 44 says, “Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.”

Now we switch scenes, from the open temple where all the people are gathered listening to Jesus and debating their judgments about Him, to the gathering of religious leaders who already have already condemned Jesus as a fraud.

In this encounter we also see three divided responses to Jesus.

4. Some are impressed by Jesus but too fearful to believe (7:45-46)

These are the officers who come back empty handed from trying to arrest Jesus.  “Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?”

The Pharisees and chief priests had sent out these temple servants on their mission to arrest Jesus back in verse 32. No doubt as these guards stood around waiting for an opportune time, they were astonished by what they heard Jesus say. They returned from their mission, but without Jesus. When their leaders demand an explanation of their failure, they gave a clear and yet very unexpected testimony. They said, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”

Although the guards did not intend this meaning, considering all that John has written so far in his Gospel, he probably wants us to think, “Precisely! Jesus is not merely a man! He speaks as He does because He is the eternal Word of God made flesh!” But the impression is that these temple guards were too fearful of the chief priests and Pharisees to take a bold stand with Jesus. That would have meant their jobs! So when they are rebuked, they fade from view.

There are many in our day who are impressed with Jesus’ eloquence or His wisdom. They think He was a great man and a brilliant religious teacher. But they don’t see Him as the eternal Word of God in human flesh and so they don’t believe in Him as their Savior and Lord. Out of fear of what others may think, they don’t take a bold public stand of faith in Christ.

5. Some arrogantly reject Jesus and any who believe in Him (47-49).

The way that the Pharisees respond to these men shows us three tactics of those who are against Christ. People use these same tactics today to avoid the truth about Jesus Christ.

Notice how the Pharisees who reject Christ behave. Do they ask the officers, “What is it about Christ that makes Him so compelling?” No. Do they debate the merits of His claims? No. Do they say, “Let’s go hear Him for ourselves?” No. Here is what they do:

A. They ridicule. (v. 47)

Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? (v. 47). It is apparent by their question that the Pharisees, were afraid that the officers had become so thoroughly convinced that they had been come followers of Jesus.

They use the same tactic with Nicodemus in verse 52 as they accusingly ask, “Are you also from Galilee?” In other words, “You’re not one of those ignorant fools from the back woods of Galilee too, are you?” Ridicule attacks the person instead of engaging with the truth.

B. They use peer pressure. (v. 48)

“Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?” The implication of their question is that no educated or intelligent person would believe in this Jesus. In fact, they were using peer pressure in the very way they formed their rebuking question. Expecting a negative answer they ask, “You are not also deceived, are you?” They are accusing these officers of not being able to see through the deception of Jesus, like they can. If the religious leaders do not believe in Jesus, then anyone with any sense won’t believe in Him either. It still a tactic used by the enemy today to make it appear that education and intelligence are the opposites of faith.

Which leads into the third tactic:

C. They call those who believe ignorant. (v. 49)

Here they turn their accusation toward the crowd who seem to be following Jesus. in verse 49 they arrogantly pronounce, “But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” They are saying that the common people not knowing the Scriptures are not only confused, they are condemned. By virtue of their position as religious leaders, the Pharisees should have been loving, caring shepherds over God’s people, teaching them His Word, binding up their wounds, and leading them by example in the ways of the Lord (Ezek. 34). But here they show their true colors. They despised the common people as a bunch of ignorant reprobates.

The ironic thing is that when they say that these people do not know the law they indict themselves, for they are the teachers of the law. And as Jesus has pointed out in verse 19, none of them keeps the law. In reality, it is the Pharisees who are under a curse. Remember what John wrote in John 3:36? “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

6. Some are willing to seek the truth (7:50-52)

In the middle of all this unbelief is one word of defense in verses 50-51. Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”

There is a double irony here. First, the Pharisees had implied with their question (v. 49) that no important person had believed in Jesus. But Nicodemus, one of their own, and an important one at that, spoke up in defense of Jesus. Whether or not Nicodemus is a believer he at least attempted to make them follow the law and give a fair hearing to Jesus.

And second irony here is that they spoke of those who did not know the law as being “accursed” (v. 49) and yet Nicodemus had to be reminded them that they were not themselves acting in accordance with the Law. The law demanded that a man could not be condemned outright, based solely upon what a man’s opponents thought about him. Everyone had to be given an opportunity to defend themselves. So Nicodemus registers this mild objection to their murderous intent. 

The Pharisees respond to Nicodemus in verse 52, “They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.””

The Pharisees taunted Nicodemus as being a Galilean and it seems at this point he said no more. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have felt called upon to defend your faith, and like Nicodemus you made some kind of half-hearted defense, but then you were shamed into silence?

It makes us ask the question, What is my public stand on Jesus?

We end where we began with the acknowledgement that you cannot be neutral about Jesus. We may speak politely about him. We even speak fondly of Him at Christmas and Easter. But the truth that we must face is that we cannot just casually brush aside His claims, treat Him as if there is nothing to really get serious about.

Those people in Jerusalem who held to favorable opinions about Jesus (“He is the Prophet; He is the Christ”) were on the side of the truth, but there’s no indication that they were committed to Him. Nicodemus would eventually come out of the closet for Christ. So must you! Jesus warns (Mark 8:38), “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

You are either for Him or Against Him, for He will not allow anyone to be neutral. You either believe in Him and receive Him as your personal Lord and Savior or my failing to do so, you are flat out rejecting Him.

So let me ask you, What have you decided about Jesus?

The Great Invitation: Come and Drink

John 7:37-39

The Colorado River flows through our valley. This great river has been called the life and soul of the West. It begins high in northern Colorado flowing out of La Poudre Pass Lake near Rocky Mountain National Park. It weaves its way through the western United States gathering other tributaries. It passes through the Grand Canyon, its course finally crosses the border into Mexico to its end point at the Sea of Cortez. All along the way, the river provides water to dozens of cities, irrigates the farmlands and golf courses that appear on the landscape. But as the population has grown over the past decades and the need for water has become more demanding, the water level of the Colorado River has actually decreased. It’s dropped by several feet in the last few decades so that now the river no longer reaches the Sea of Cortez. About a hundred miles to go to its endpoint it becomes dry. It runs out of water leaving a cracked and desolate and uninhabitable landscape, a dry riverbed, a wasteland. What was once a great river becomes a dead and empty riverbed. It’s run out of resources.

Our passage today tells us about a river which never runs dry. It’s a river whose source is Jesus. Jesus promises that from the innermost being of the one who believes in Him will flow rivers of living water. More →

Confusion and Conspiracy

John 7:25-36

Let me begin by reminding you of the context of our passage today: knowing that the Jewish authorities are seeking to kill him, Jesus privately enters into Jerusalem from Galilee, during the Feast of Booths. There are thousands of Jewish people that have come as pilgrims for this great eight day celebration and He goes straight to the temple, and begins to speak and teach publicly.

Imagine the scene: being the incarnate Word of God, His omniscient grasp of Scripture is compelling, authoritative, and it astounds the listeners. So the angry and jealous authorities tried to undermine Jesus’ teaching by attacking His credentials, suggesting He was just merely speaking from Himself and for His own glory, an argument Jesus destroys with compelling force.

Then He goes on to expose their religious hypocrisy because they have indicted Him as a law breaker for healing a man previously on the Sabbath and yet He demonstrates to them that they also violate the Sabbath and for good reason when a child needs to be circumcised and that eighth day falls on a Sabbath. Moreover, He exposes their evil hearts when He asked, “Why are you trying to kill me?”

So for this reason, He exhorts them in verse 24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment,” in other words, stop judging based on your own self-righteous legalism that is obsessed with externals but ignores the inner man. They were condemning Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath while hypocritically ignoring the murder in their own hearts.

So today we start with verse 25. More →

Judging Jesus

John 7:19-24

As we begin our study of John 7:19-24, let’s imagine the scene at that moment in Jesus’ life.  It’s the week-long Feast of Tabernacles (or Feast of Booths).  Jesus arrived unnoticed, went into the temple and began to teach publicly.  This is a bold and courageous move. Jesus knows the Jews are seeking to kill Him. For the past six months, He has kept away from Judea to avoid arrest, or worse. And now, suddenly, Jesus appears in Jerusalem, boldly teaching in the temple! It is incredible. More →

The Nature of Jesus’ Teaching

John 7:14-18

In our text, Jesus is at the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem, six months before He would be arrested and crucified. Before He showed Himself publicly at this feast, the crowds were debating, with some saying (7:12), “He is good”; but others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.” John wants us to see that neither of those are viable options. Jesus could not have been merely a good man and said the astonishing things that He said.

Just in the Gospel of John so far Jesus has claimed that He came down from heaven (6:51), that He had been sent into the world by the Father . He claimed to be equal with the Father in His nature (5:17-18) and in His works (5:19-20). He claimed the power and authority to give life and to raise people from the dead (5:21, 24-26). He claimed authority to judge all people (5:22, 27-30) and He said that all should honor Him just as they honor the Father (5:23). He claimed to be able to give eternal life. And those are just a small sampling of the shocking things Jesus said about Himself.

At the same time, Jesus was obviously too good of a man to be a deliberate deceiver. He healed the sick and fed the hungry. He was full of love and compassion. John wants us to see Jesus’ glory so that we will believe in Him as Lord and God so that we will have eternal life through Him.

But John knows full well that believing in Jesus isn’t the automatic response to Him. There is always division: some believe, some are indifferent, and others violently reject Him. Here again in chapter 7, John shows us the reaction of the Jewish leaders and the crowds to Jesus when He went into the temple in Jerusalem during the feast of Tabernacles and He began to teach. Although Jesus was sent from God, taught God’s truth, sought God’s glory, and did God’s miraculous works, people rejected Him.

Listen to our text today, John 7:14-24:

14 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.

15 And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?”

16 Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.

17 If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.

18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.

19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”

20 The people answered and said, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?”

21 Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work, and you all marvel.

22 Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.

23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?

24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

That last verse sums up the reason many could not believe in Jesus. They were judging on appearances, not with righteous judgement. This is what we have found repeatedly in the Gospel of John. People get Jesus wrong because they only look on the surface of things. We saw the crowd following Jesus in chapter 6 because they were simply looking on the surface. They saw bread and wanted more. Jesus’ brothers saw His miracles and just looked on the surface, that’s all they saw. Here these Jews were observing Jesus teach but just looked on the surface and were impressed with His sermon delivery but didn’t hear a word He was saying. In each case these people were judging with wrong judgment. If you judge who Jesus is superficially, you’ll end up rejecting Him as He really is.

So in this passage we are going to see some more reasons that Jesus gives to believe His claims to be God in the flesh. He wants us to consider them seriously, to judge rightly, so that we will believe and be saved. These reasons should compel you to believe in Christ and encourage you in your walk with Christ.

So first we see,

1. The source of His teaching: from God. (7:14-16)

Verse 14, “Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.” Jesus did not go up to the feast with His brothers to make a grand entrance. And He does not go to Jerusalem to do more miracles as they advised Him. Rather, sometime in the midst of the feast, He went into the temple and began to teach. John does not tell us the content of Jesus’ teaching in the temple that day, but He does give the reaction of the Jewish authorities and the crowd to His teaching.

His sudden appearance caught the hostile Jewish leaders off guard and made it difficult for them to carry out their deadly intent. As we will see later in the chapter, they wanted to seize Jesus in secret and dispose of Him, but that will be hard to do now that He’s captured the attention of thousands of fascinated worshipers.

Verse 15 gives us their reaction: And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” They don’t comment on what Jesus taught. They’re intrigued by how He did it, namely, how He could give such a powerful message without having a diploma. When it says, “the Jews marveled,” it does not necessarily mean that they were favorably impressed by Jesus teaching. Instead what we see is that they were amazed at His boldness to teach in the temple without the proper credentials. They ask, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” I think they were trying to discredit Jesus by alleging that “this man” makes Himself a teacher, but He has not studied in our schools. Probably, that put-down is coming from the Jewish leaders and addressed to the people listening to Jesus.

Jesus responds to their challenge by asserting (7:16), “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.” Jesus is saying, “I don’t need your education and humanly-conferred degrees because I am speaking truth directly from the living and true God who sent Me here to teach.” Jesus didn’t claim originality. He again claims that He has been sent to earth by His Father, something He points out throughout John’s Gospel (4:34; 5:24, 30, 36, 37; 6:38-39, 44, 57; 8:16, 18, 26; 9:4; 11:42, etc). That’s where I got my message, says Jesus, from the One who sent Me.

By the way, that ought to be able to be said about anyone who teaches or preaches God’s word. “My teaching is not mine, it is God’s teaching.” If I am just teaching my own thoughts or ideas, or even the thoughts and ideas of other learned men, I have not real authority. But if I teach the word of God in the power of His Holy Spirit, the teaching is from God, not man.

Wiersbe says it well, “No teacher or preacher can take credit for what only can come from God.” Even God’s Son Himself insisted that the source of His teaching was God, not Himself.

2. The initiative of His teaching: God’s will. (7:17)

Verse 17, “If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.”

Doesn’t that sound odd to you? Jesus says in order to know whether the source of His teaching is truly God, you must first want to do God’s will. That seems backward. We tend to think, “Prove it to me first, prove that Jesus is truly from God, and then I’ll do what He says.” But Jesus says, “No, you must first desire to do what God wants, and then you’ll have the capacity to discern whether what you are hearing is truly from God.”

The reason that people do not recognize Jesus for who He is does not hinge on having enough evidence, but rather on having enough obedience. If a person is willing to obey God, he will know that Jesus was sent by God and speaks God’s truth.

You say, “I’ve got questions about the Bible. How can I be sure this Book really God’s Word?” Let me ask you this. Are you willing to do whatever God says in your life, no matter how difficult? If the answer is no, then you’ll never get a satisfactory answer to your question for the truth is, because you don’t really want one.

The 1949 tent revival in Los Angeles that catapulted Billy Graham onto the national scene might not have happened if he hadn’t boldly confronted a brief crisis of faith with prayer.

Just a couple of months before the eight-week revival, Graham—then president of Northwestern College—spoke at a California college retreat. Also on the platform was Charles Templeton, another evangelist who happened to be a good friend of Graham’s. Templeton’s trust in the authority of Scripture had been waning.

He challenged Graham with his relatively newfound approach to the Bible, saying Graham’s approach was outdated. People no longer accept the infallibility of the Scriptures, claimed Templeton.

After the challenge, Graham was prompted to grapple with his own beliefs.

Could a Bible college-trained preacher and former Youth for Christ evangelist question his own faith? Yes, apparently.

“I had no doubt concerning the deity of Jesus Christ or the validity of the gospel,” he wrote decades later in his biography, Just As I Am.  “But was the Bible completely true? With the Los Angeles campaign galloping toward me, I had to have an answer. If I could not trust the Bible, I could not go on. … I would have to leave pulpit evangelism.”

After the weight of Templeton’s challenge stirred him, he went for a stroll on the grounds of Forest Home retreat center—where he was scheduled to preach the gospel the next day—and stopped at a tree stump.

During his Florida Bible College days, he was known for standing on tree stumps and practicing his sermons at least 25 times before he delivered them.

Now, he found himself kneeling at one, Bible open, praying through doubt—something that was foreign and uncomfortable for him.

“O God!” he recalled praying. “There are many things in this Book I do not understand … There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science.”

Moments later, he said he felt the Holy Spirit began to move in a clear way.

Graham then prayed, “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.”

After his prayer, he recalls his eyes brimming with tears.

“I sensed the presence and power of God as I had not sensed it in months. Not all my questions were answered, but … I knew a spiritual battle in my soul had been fought and won.”

So Jesus is right up front with His audience about what needs to happen. He knows they’ve got questions about who He is, but He tells them flat out that to get those questions answered they must first choose to do God’s will, no holding back. And keep in mind who is in this audience. Jesus is saying this to Bible believing people. They are convinced they are okay with God. They don’t see themselves as needing a heart transformation, but Jesus is helping them see they most certainly do. So He says the source of His teaching is God, not Himself. And the initiative for His teaching is God’s will, not His own.

3. The motivation of His teaching: God’s glory. (7:18)

Verse 18, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.”

Break that apart. He who speaks from himself. We do that all the time. I speak on my own when my wife gives me a piece of loving and constructive criticism, and I become defensive and try to turn the conversation to the flaws in her life. That doesn’t come from God.

He who speaks on his own seeks his own glory. That’s something Jesus said He did not do. Hear Him in John 8:50, “And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges.” So Jesus didn’t seek personal glory, even though He deserves it and will receive it, since His Father is seeking it for Him. When He was on earth, Jesus’ aim was to glorify the Father. He states that this, not rabbinic credentials from the accredited schools, is the test of a true teacher. Again this applies to all who claim to teach God’s truth: If a man glories in himself and his academic degrees, he is not a true teacher of God’s truth. God’s truth will always cause us to humble ourselves and exalt Christ. Psalm 115:1 gives the heart of a true teacher of God’s word. “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth.”

So Jesus says, “but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true.” Jesus is claiming to be absolutely true, with no hint of deception (7:12) or sin in Him. The only other places in the Gospel of John where a person is said to be “true,” it is used of God (3:33; 8:26).

That’s critical. Do you want to be a man or woman of truth? Jesus says that unless a person is living and working for God’s honor, he will not be a man of truth. Here’s why. The time will come when, in order to maintain his own honor, or even something noble like the honor of his family, or company, or church, he will hold back the truth, or twist the truth, or leave out part of the truth because he fears the consequences to himself or his family or his company or his church. Only when God’s honor is supreme will a person do the hard thing and speak the truth in love in every situation.

Verse 18 ends, “and no unrighteousness is in Him.” Jesus is claiming to be absolutely true with no deception and no sin in Him. The person who is committed to honor the one who sent him is concerned only with accurately communicating what he has been sent to say. He does not use his words to gain a personal following, but rather to urge men to follow the one he serves. He has no need to deceive, and thus he speaks with integrity. His speech is righteous. 

Conclusion

Let me just stop there today and apply what we have learned. If you have not yet believed in Jesus Christ to save you from sin and give you eternal life, consider His teaching here. First you must recognize that it is God Himself teaching you in Jesus Christ. In the previous chapter Jesus said it (6:45), “Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”

Second, you must have a desire to do God’s will.  Coming to Christ is not motivated by your desire to get what you want.  It is motivated by your desire to do what God commands. This is where salvation begins. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and righteousness is judgment.  The sinner is weary of his sin and his fallenness and his wretchedness, of nature of it and the consequence of it; he becomes a seeker. And he’s not looking for personal fulfillment. He’s not looking for personal benefits and blessings. What he wants is to do the will of God. What draws people to the gospel, what draws people to Christ is a desire to do the will of God.

So if you want to know if Christ is who He claims to be, here’s the test.  Are you crying out for a new master?  Do you desire the One and only Savior?  Do you really want to do the will of God in your life? 

Third, you must long for the glory of God. Jesus said in John 5:44, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” Until you get to the point where your honor isn’t what drives you, but God’s honor is, you won’t believe. You won’t be saved.

And Christians, these three principles apply to you as well. If you want to understand Jesus’ teaching, if you want to grow in your walk with Him:

• Recognize that God Himself is teaching you in Jesus Christ. Believe His words are the words of God and you will grow in your walk of faith.
• Seek to do God’s will. Knowledge of God comes from obedience to God’s word. James 1:22 says it, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” You will know God’s word to be true when you start doing it.
• Long for the Glory of God. You grow in your understanding of God’s word and in your walk with Christ in proportion to your desire for the glory of God. He is worthy of all honor and all worship.

What Do You Believe About Jesus?

John 7:1-13

Even though I have read through all the Gospels a number of times and taught from them often, I have been utterly amazed as we have studied the Gospel of John over the last few months. The Apostle reports so many extraordinary events and astonishing words from the Lord Jesus Christ. These events and words serve to take away our false views of Jesus, salvation, and what it means to follow Christ. I don’t know if you have felt this way, but sometimes I’m left with my mouth hanging open and my head drowning in the deep truth of God. I find myself like Peter at the end of chapter 6 saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (6:68-69). Or even like Thomas at the end of the book, I find myself falling down at Jesus’ feet and crying out, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).

Why does John report so many things that seem to stretch us and cause us to marvel? I think that what John does is in his Gospel is this: he removes any false ideas about who Jesus is and what true saving faith really is. He wants us to believe and to have life in His name (John 20:31), but that believing, that faith must be a real, saving faith in the true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He is revealed in scripture.

More →

The Lord’s Supper: How and Why

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

One of the things I hope you came to see in our study of John 6 was the meaning of the powerful metaphor Jesus used when He said, “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,” (6:51). Jesus made it clear that when He talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood it was a picture of what it means to believe in His atoning death for our sins.

He was saying we would need to acknowledge that He was God in human flesh and appropriate His sacrificial death on our behalf by believing in Him. And as I said when we studied those verses, John 6 is not about the Lord’s Supper, but the Lord’s Supper is about what is described in John 6. It is about believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Now before we return to the Gospel of John next time, I thought it would be good for us to celebrate the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper together. Our church observes two ordinances, two formal religious rites that Jesus ordained or commanded for us to keep. They are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both of these ordinances are very meaningful for us as believers in Jesus Christ.

Before we celebrate the Lord’s Supper today, I would like to put this ordinance in its biblical context and focus on why and how we keep it. I hope that by understanding the Lord’s Supper better, it will become more meaningful and worshipful for you.

More →

False and True Disciples Part 2

John 6:66-71

Why do you stick with Jesus? I mean some of you have been Christians for a very long time. You have walked with Jesus through many seasons of life. Surely it is not because God has made your life free from troubles. You have seen good times and yes, you have seen bad times. It’s not all been smooth sailing in your life with Christ. But you stuck in there especially when things have gotten tough. You have believed through spiritual victories and you have endured even through spiritual defeats. Even when you failed God time after time, you kept on believing. You have stayed even though you saw others walk away. You have been disappointed by church leaders and betrayed by other church members, yet you persevere. Why?

Here at the end of John 6 we see the faith of a true disciple of Jesus. While false disciples abandon and betray Jesus, true disciples cannot walk away. As I read our text today, I want you to listen for that contrast: the false disciples who walk away and the true disciples who won’t go away.

60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”

61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?

62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.

65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”

68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

Did you see the difference? Last time we considered the temporary disciples who abandon Jesus. We said that they were marked by at least three characteristics:

• They take offense at difficult truth. While they were drawn by the works of Jesus, they were offended by His words.
• They are stuck in the flesh. Jesus said to them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
• They do not believe. Their hardened hearts were not open to the truth. Outwardly they heard the words but internally had not been taught by the Father. Their unbelief showed that the Spirit had not given them life and the Father had not given them to Jesus.

So verse 66 concludes about these false disciples, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”

But the opposite can be said of the true disciple of Jesus. True disciples of Jesus cannot go away.

2. True disciples abide with Jesus.

Here is the mark of the true believer: He cannot quit! 

Why? Because a true disciple:

A. Knows that no one else can satisfy.

When many of the would-be disciples are walking away, Jesus turns His attention to the twelve. He asks them in verse 67, “Do you also want to go away?”

Wow, what a thing for Jesus ask! Literally the question is in the negative, “Not also you are willing to go away, (are you?)” The way the question is worded indicates that Jesus did not expect them to say, “Yes, we’re out of here, too!” He said it to test their faith. He expected them to stay.

And Simon Peter, speaking for the group, (for the eleven anyway), asks a question in reply: “Lord, to whom shall we go?” What an insightful question!

It’s a question that maybe you have asked when you have faced difficult issues. Before you turn away from Jesus because of hard truths or difficult circumstances or disappointed expectations, stop and ask yourself, “Lord, to whom shall I go?” There just aren’t a lot of other good options.

Where could they go? Well, they could go where the false disciples probably went. These fair-weather disciples who couldn’t handle Jesus’ statements about eating His flesh and drinking His blood as the requirement for eternal life went back to their Jewish heritage and religion. They thought that being the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and following the Jewish religious rules and ceremonies was good enough. They had hoped at first that Jesus would be the Messiah who would deliver them from Roman rule and usher in an age of peace and prosperity. But, when they heard His shocking teaching about giving His flesh for the life of the world and the need to eat His flesh and drink His blood, they just turned back to the religion that they always had known.

The problem with going back into their comfortable religion was that it ignored the serious reality of their sin and guilt before the holy God and their desperate need for a Savior. No amount of religious activity or good deeds can save us from sin. Only Jesus can save from sin and death through His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection. Man-centered religion will ultimately fail you if you turn to it.

Where else could they turn? They could go where Judas went.  John twice mentions Judas (6:64, 70-71) here in the context of these disciples who turned away from Jesus. Look at verses 70-71, “Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.”

Have you ever wondered why Judas betrayed Jesus? We may not know all the reasons, but we can see a couple things that he turned to. The first was money. Later (John 12:6) John explains that Judas was in charge of the disciples’ money box and that he used to steal from it. He would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15).

Perhaps, Judas had accepted the invitation to become an apostle because he saw it as a good career move. If Jesus was the promised Messiah who would conquer Israel’s enemies and reign on David’s throne, then maybe he thought that being in Jesus’ inner circle would mean power and riches.

But then Jesus began talking about giving His flesh for the life of the world and how the Jewish leaders would put Him to death and how those who followed Him must take up their cross and follow Him. That wasn’t what Judas had signed up for! So he sells out for money and power.

Was that a good place to turn? Of course not! When Judas realized that he had betrayed innocent blood, he threw the silver down in the temple and went and hanged himself (Matt. 27:3-5). Money and power never ultimately satisfy.

Peter’s question implies that there really is no one else to whom they can go. It’s a question of desperation as well as faith. “Lord, to whom shall we go?”
There is no other one to turn to. Everything else, everyone else pales in comparison to Christ.

True disciples have turned away from everything else to follow Jesus. They have seen that the world offers no good alternative to salvation in Jesus Christ. True disciples admit their desperation and their destitution apart from Christ.

Are you like Peter and the other eleven? Are you desperate for Christ because you see that you are destitute without Him?

So a true disciple knows that no one else can satisfy but Christ. Second, a true disciple:

B. Receives the words of Jesus.

Peter says in verse 68, “You have the words of eternal life.” The very thing that drove away the false disciples is the thing that draws the true disciple, the words of Jesus. The false disciples said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (6:60 ESV). They stumbled at the words, the hard teaching of Jesus.

But the true disciple loves the words of Jesus. They look to Jesus and say with Peter, “You have the words of eternal life.” Jesus had just said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life,” (6:63). And these disciples know that to be true.

The true disciple of Jesus says to Jesus, “What you say to us has met our deepest need, has delivered us from our sins and freed us from our fears. Your words, Lord, are the most remarkable words we have ever heard. They explain us and they explain life to us. They satisfy us. Nobody speaks like you do, nobody understands life like you do. No one else has the words of eternal life.”

True disciples love the words of Jesus. Listen, the words of Jesus are not easy. They are sometimes hard to accept. But they are true. They are spirit. They are life. Jesus has the words of eternal life. In their cool depths weary souls bathe; through their pure glow, the dark passages of life are illuminated with heavenly luster; and by their fascination our wayward hearts are closely bound to Him who spoke as no one has ever spoken. As He still speaks down the long corridors of the ages, His words float towards us with undiminished beauty and force; thrilling, soothing, teaching us, and shedding light on God, and life, and death, and the world to come. They are the very words of God.

Jesus will later say (John 12:49-50), “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

I know why people stay.  They say with David (Psalm 119:97), “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”  They can’t hear enough. The true disciple accepts the word of Jesus as the very word of the Father, the words of eternal life. Finally a true disciple,

C. Believes and knows Jesus as the Holy One.

Notice how Peter puts it in verse 69, “Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The ESV translates that, “and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Look at the part where Peter says, “We have believed and have come to know.” The terms are roughly synonymous, but the order is important. First, we believe and then we come to know.

The world says, “Seeing is believing,” but God’s Word tells us, “Believing is the way to seeing.” We will see this especially when we get to chapter 9 when Jesus heals the man born blind. Hebrews 11:3 affirms, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Faith yields understanding, or knowledge.

What does Peter believe and know? “… you are the Holy One of God.” His confession is that Jesus is the Holy One. It is a title for God Himself as well as the Messiah. It is similar to the confession that Peter makes in Matthew 16:16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter is saying, “We have watched you, and we have come to see that there is nothing wrong in you. ‘You are the Holy One of God,’ you are the Sinless One. You fit the prophecies; you fulfill the predictions. You have drawn us and compelled us. You are the imcomparable Christ, thus there is no place to go.”

I have found this to be true of real Christians. Those who continue always feel this way about Jesus. Here is a wonderful statement of what these disciples were seeing in Jesus:

In Christ we have a love that can never be fathomed;
a life that can never die;
a righteousness that can never be tarnished;
a peace that can never be understood;
a rest that can never be disturbed;
a joy that can never be diminished;
a hope that can never be disappointed;
a glory that can never be clouded;
a light that can never be darkened;
a happiness that can never be interrupted;
a strength that can never be enfeebled;
a purity that can never be defiled;
a beauty that can never be marred;
a wisdom that can never be baffled;
and resources that can never be exhausted.

If you have found Jesus to be like that, where else can you go? Who else can measure up to that? This is the testimony of those who walk with him and follow him.

There are really three kinds of disciples represented in our text: (1) There are those who were initially interested in Jesus and followed Him until He started teaching some things that they didn’t like. Then they defected. (2) There are those, represented by Judas, who seem fully committed to Jesus. Judas kept up such a good front that the other disciples did not suspect that he was the betrayer. But his life ended in tragic rejection of Christ. (3) There are those, like Peter, who submit with persevering faith even to the hard teachings, because they know who Jesus really is and they cannot quit following Him.

Which group are you in?

False and True Disciples

John 6:60-71

How many of you know people who started out the Christian life and seem to do very well for a while, but then they drop out of sight and nobody seems to know what happened to them. They are like the rocky soil or the thorny soil in Jesus’ parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-23). They receive the seed of the word of Christ, it appears to be growing, but in the end it proves to be unfruitful. What are we to think about spiritual defectors, people who come and hear and stay for some measure of time, and leave and turn their backs on the gospel?

For some of us this problem hits us right at home because we have family members or friends that may seem to fit this category. It is painful to us to see them go, to see them apparently lost out in the world. We love them and pray for them and hope to God that they will return.

This morning’s passage from John 6 shows us that we are not alone in this problem. Jesus also knows this pain, certainly much more than we do. John 6 is very revealing as to why this phenomenon occurs. Jesus concluded his great message on the bread of life in the synagogue at Capernaum on a very offensive note, talking about “eating his flesh” and “drinking his blood.” Many were disturbed by his words, and John records their reaction. Listen to it starting in John 6:60:

60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”

61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?

62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.

65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”

68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

Here we have two different reactions to Jesus’ teaching from two different groups of people. First we have the temporary disciples who abandon Jesus, and then the true disciples who abide with Jesus. False disciples who walk away, true disciples who won’t go away.

1. Temporary disciples who abandon Jesus (6:60-66).

The unbelief in this chapter is pervasive. And it intensifies as the story goes on. It is not just Jesus’ enemies that end up rejecting Him, even many would-be disciples reject Him. Thousands of people in this chapter start out following Jesus after eating the loaves and fish. But many of them are not true believers in Jesus. As we have seen through this chapter they are following Him for the wrong reasons: because they’re drawn by the crowd; because they’re fascinated by the supernatural; because they want their bellies filled; because they are seeking personal prosperity and political deliverance. Most of these would-be disciples abandon Jesus (verse 66). And in the end, a tiny remnant is left believing — the eleven.

Why are these disciples turning away? What has happened to cause them to turn from following Jesus?

Notice the marks of these who drop out from the Christian cause:

A. They take offense at difficult truth.

Verse 60, “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”” Notice that it is Jesus’ words, His teaching at which they take offense. They accepted His works. In fact they wanted more of them. They wanted Jesus to do more signs, more miracles, to feed them daily. But it is His words that offend them. It is “when they heard this,” that they complained. In verse 61 Jesus knows what is on their minds and in their hearts, “When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?” They complained because they were offended at His teaching. The word “offend” is the word skandalizō which means to stumble. We get out word, scandalize from it. Jesus is saying, “Is my teaching scandalous to you? Are my words causing you to fall away?”

What teaching were they complaining about? They complained about Jesus’ claim to be the Bread of Life that came down from heaven (6:41). They knew Him as the young man that grew up in Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Mary. So they couldn’t accept His claim to have come down out of heaven.

Jesus confronted their grumbling and told them that they were unable to come to Him unless the Father drew them (6:43-44). He proceeded to emphasize repeatedly that He was the bread out of heaven and that He would give His flesh for the life of the world (6:48-51). But this caused them to argue (6:52): “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” In response (6:53-58), Jesus didn’t back off, but in graphic language He told them over and over that they must not only eat His flesh, but also drink His blood to have eternal life.

That is what prompted the response in verse 60, “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?””

The word “hard” there means harsh, rough, stiff. It implies that Jesus’ teaching is offensive, intolerable. It’s not, as the NKJV translates it, hard to understand. It is more like what the ESV translates, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” What Jesus said was harsh, offensive, intolerable. So they would not listen to it.  Jesus’ teaching is not too difficult. The problem is that they do not want to receive it. They were not going to pay any attention to it; they did not want to be troubled with difficult teaching.

Let me remind you, these are would-be disciples of Jesus. They have followed Him. These are not the unbelieving enemies of Jesus. These are followers of Jesus who will not accept what Jesus is teaching. Jesus is teaching truth that they will not believe. Listen, being a disciple of Jesus is more than casually looking to Him and eating what He gives. It is trusting in Jesus even when His teaching is hard and goes against our preconceived notions and worldly ideas.

I have discovered that this is frequently true of those who drop out of church: they are bothered when difficult doctrines are taught. They don’t want to change their minds or learn new things from God’s Word. They don’t have a teachable heart in submission to God’s Word. Rather, they sit in judgment on what they heard, leave, and go back into the world that agrees their opinions or they go find a church that affirms what they already believe.

If you come to God’s Word with that kind of attitude, you won’t grow in your walk with God. You may not like what the Bible says about your sin, or about God’s election, or the role of women in the home and in the church, or homosexuality, or divorce, or hell, or any number of other doctrines that our culture finds intolerable. But if we accept only the parts of the Bible that fit with what we like, then we’re not following Jesus as Lord, but rather ourselves as lord. We’re just using certain parts of the Bible that we agree with to support our own biases. To be a Christian is to submit to the teachings of Jesus.

In verse 62 Jesus asks, “What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?”  What if you saw Me go back to heaven?  Could you then believe that I had come from heaven?

Would they believe His words if they saw Him ascend into heaven where He came from? Sadly, most of them walked away before that happened. The faithful were there when Jesus ascended because they believed His words.

So the false disciples take offense at Jesus’ words and also,

B. They are stuck in the flesh.

Jesus says in verse 63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” These false disciples were hung up on fleshly, worldly things.

When Jesus talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood they took Him literally — they imagined He was advocating a kind of cannibalistic practice — but He was actually saying to them, “No, if you would continue to the end and saw Me ascending into the heavens, thus removing my body from the earth, you would understand that I am not talking about flesh and bones, meat and blood, but rather I am talking about what those things symbolize, that It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.’”

We have seen many times in the Gospel of John that people fail to grasp what Jesus means because they put too much emphasis on the symbols He uses. In Chapter 2, he said to the Jews, ” Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” (John 2:19). They immediately thought He was talking about Herod’s temple in Jerusalem. But John quickly explains that Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body, which the building symbolized. In Chapter 3, when Nicodemus was told by Jesus, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” Nicodemus wonders how someone could get back into his mother’s womb and be born again. But Jesus was talking about being born of the Spirit, which physical birth symbolizes. In Chapter 4, when Jesus said to the woman at the well, ” If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water,” she thought He was talking about well water. But Jesus went on to make clear to her that He was talking about the gift of eternal life. And when Jesus speaks here of “eating flesh” and “drinking blood,” He is not talking literally, but about feeding on Him which is believing in Him for eternal life.

False disciples are stuck in the flesh. Those things can never give eternal life. Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” Don’t get hung up on the symbols and on the things of the flesh.

Then He says, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”  It all comes down to this, receiving His words. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to impart new life to sinners so that they can understand it. James 1:18 says, “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth.” 1 Peter 1:23 says, “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Jesus’ words are spirit and life. The gospel of Jesus “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,” (Rom. 1:16).

False disciples are offended by Jesus words and they are stuck in the flesh. This results in the third characteristic of these false disciples:

C. They do not believe.

Verse 64, “But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus points out also that those who draw back are the ones who really do not believe. The verse goes on to say, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.” We see in verse 70 that Judas was the betrayer. Judas had heard all the same messages from Jesus and saw all the same miracles from Jesus. What made him different from the rest of the apostles? He did not truly believe. He did not allow himself to be taught by God. He was hard-hearted and the teachings of Jesus did not change him. How easy it is to not allow the words of Jesus to transform our hearts and transform our lives! People can listen and listen to the words of Christ and have it do absolutely nothing to them. It is so sad to see this but it happens regularly. Therefore they end up without true, saving faith, not enjoying Jesus as the bread of life, and remain lost in their sins.

So Jesus says in verse 65, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” Remember that earlier Jesus spoke of being drawn of the Father, which He interpreted as being “taught of God.” The Father is the One who teaches the words of Jesus to our hearts and our spirits. He is the One who opens our heart to the truth of the gospel.

So Jesus knows. He knew Judas was a betrayer. He knows those who believe in Him. He knows those who do not, and yet they are fully responsible for their own belief or unbelief. This is the tragedy that befalls many. Thus we read in verse 66, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” They had gone as far as they would go. They did not believe. The drew back and walked away without eternal life.

I want to believe that is not necessarily a totally hopeless situation. I know of some who drew back, walked away from Jesus, but later returned again. Perhaps some of these later believed the message of the gospel from the apostles and were saved. God may do that work in them later. But listen, we cannot count on that. The Bible says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts …” (Heb. 3:15). And “… behold, now is the day of salvation,” (2 Cor. 6:2). If God is drawing you today. Turn to Christ as be saved. If you hear His voice today, come and believe. Don’t put it off any longer. You have no guarantee of tomorrow.

So false disciples abandon Jesus because they take offense at difficult truth, because they are stuck in the flesh, and because they really do not believe.

2. True disciples who abide with Jesus.

Next time we will look at the characteristics of true disciples who abide with Jesus. But for now, let me just ask you. Do the words of Peter here express your heart? “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” (6:68-69).