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).
