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This sermon was preached on Sunday 30/12/2001 Am, by Kevin Matthews.
One of the things that really rocks a Christian is when he/she sees a fellow disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ turn back from following after the Lord and returning to his/her former ways in the world. We are often stunned by this and at certain times someone that we highly regard as a Christian does so. But should it surprise us? Should we be so stunned when high profile ‘Christians’ turn back and return to the ways of the flesh and of the world? Should we be so shocked when a close friend denies the Lord and goes back to their former way of life? Why do we not understand it?
What do the Scriptures say about this then? Well the passage before us this morning would suggest that we ought not to be as surprised at such things as we are, rather we should perhaps expect it to be the case, that disciples will turn back after having seemingly begun well. If Jesus Christ Himself saw many of His disciples turn back to the flesh and to the world, why should we think that it would be any different with us? Wouldn’t it be sheer arrogance to think otherwise, as though we are somehow better than Jesus at making disciples?
Then we have those to whom we take the Gospel, and these people decide to start coming to our church and stay in our church for ages, but without becoming a Christian. The Gospel has been so clearly portrayed before them, and yet they still do not embrace the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation and eventually they leave or die in their sins. Can we understand this? Can we really know why such things happen?
Again, what do the Scriptures teach on the matter? I’m not especially interested on what men teach on the matter, for my concern is with what God says, and what He says is in this book. So what do the Scriptures teach us?
Well, this passage suggests that we can and do know the reason for these things, and that we ought not to be surprised by such cases. Has anyone ever taught as Jesus taught, and did ever hearers hear a more certain sound of the gospel call than what they heard when Jesus preached the gospel? Yet how few believed, and how many turned back. Should we expect it to be any different today, when lesser lights such as myself preach it and the sound of the gospel is not so clear as when Christ did so?
Brethren, these things are not so difficult to understand when we are prepared to both hear and accept what the Scriptures tell us on these matters. They are not so difficult to grasp when we consider things with Biblical and spiritual logic, and when we consider the Biblical pattern of things. When we cling to past errors under the guise of ‘this is what I’ve always believed and therefore I’m not going to hear anything else,’ which is what we call the traditions of men, then we will never be able to understand the truth of the matter. Let’s accept what the Scriptures actually teach us on these matters, and then we may not feel as gutted as we perhaps do when a friend or family member rejects the truth, for we will be able to understand the situation from the Biblical perspective and not with mere human and superficial logic. Sure, it will still disappoint us, and we will still feel great sorrow, but at least we will have a right understanding of the matter and that will help.
Let us then look to the Scriptures this morning to see what they have to say to us, in order to get a right understanding of this matter. Please turn to John 6:60.
‘Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you (Jn 6:60,61)?’
Who were these disciples that were grumbling and murmuring about the teaching of Jesus as mentioned in the passage? Were these people Christians who now decided it was all too much trouble and therefore decided to turn back? Were these Christians who became no longer Christians and therefore went back to being non-Christians? No, in fact these disciples were never Christians at all. They had never eaten of the bread of life or drunk of the blood of Christ. They had never known the soul satisfaction that comes from spiritually feeding on the body and blood of Christ. These had never exercised saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, though they followed Him from place to place, and were seemingly well acquainted with Him.
You see, for far too long modern Christianity has accepted the designation of being a disciple as being consonant or equivalent to being a Christian, and so it may surprise some of you when I say that this is not the case. Being a disciple of Jesus does not make someone a Christian. Having a mere acquaintance with Jesus through a church or Christian people does not make someone a Christian. You may be a disciple, contented to follow Jesus and Jesus people from place to place, but you have not yet fed on the body and blood of Christ, and therefore you are still in your sins and face the wrath of God to come.
Were Peter and John disciples of Jesus - yes. Was Judas a disciple of Jesus - yes. Were these people in John 6 disciples of Jesus - yes. The Scripture calls each of these people disciples, yet out of all of these disciples I have now just mentioned, only Peter and John were Christians. How so? Because the word disciple merely means a person that has in some way attached themselves to another, a mere follower of a person, whether it be simply physically following after someone, or being an avid follower of some religious teaching. To be a disciple then does not necessarily mean a person that has put their unreserved trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation.
A disciple may only have been a person who followed Jesus in order to get a free meal. A disciple may only have been someone that followed Jesus in order to see whether He was in fact the temporal deliverer from Rome that they looked forward to. A disciple may only have been someone that followed Jesus to be simply part of that popular movement that was sweeping the country.
Brethren, the same is so today. What we are seeing in the churches today are many many disciples, but few Christians - this being a distinction that has been lost to the church of our day with its determination to accept anyone and everyone within the broad and deep pail of so-called Christian unity. Today you find the churches full of this large group of people known as ‘Christians,’ when in fact only a handful of them actually are - the rest being mere disciples who want to be part of something, yet who may simply wander off in times of controversy, difficulty, persecution, and so on. We live in the day of many disciples, but few Christians. This is a day when there are many disciples springing up among the rocks and among the weeds.
And this is what you find here with the disciples of Jesus in John 6, for while everything was easy and nice and rosy, they stayed with Jesus, but when the time of controversy arose and when Jesus was rejected by official Judaism, so the masses also left Him, being uncommitted to Christ in a saving and true way. They were following Jesus for something most certainly, but that something was not the salvation that He brought from the Father.
And this is what you will find today. When people are confronted by the church over some habitual or serious sin, these disciples will run off to somewhere else, or when the heat becomes too much because of some controversy they will seek out less difficult pastures. These are disciples that want a bed of ease, and while they have that bed of ease they are contented with being disciples, but when that bed is taken away from them, they are soon gone also.
These Jewish disciples had heard the teaching of Jesus in John six up to this point, and it would seem that they too found His teaching to be repulsive, for when they had heard the teaching they began to reject both it and its Teacher. These disciples were unable to spiritual perceive the teaching of Jesus, coming at it with just their human logic and were therefore unable to understand the spiritual significance of eating the flesh of Christ and drinking His blood. It was something that they just could not accept - hearing only with their physical ears some sort of cannibalism put forward by Jesus.
These people were looking for an answer that involved some sort of physical reality, not spiritual. These people were looking for physical answers to more than likely physical problems, and if this strange teaching was all that was on offer, then they would go elsewhere until they got what they wanted. Yes, the teaching of Jesus had offended them, for it had brought them to the place were they would stumble and fall into sin by rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘How could this man be bread and blood from heaven? How can we eat and drink of Him? I’m not having any more of this! Look, our synagogue leaders are not having any of it, and so neither should we!’
But this didn’t catch Jesus off guard. There was no surprise in any of this for Jesus. He knew those that were truly His and those that were not, ‘And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man (Jn 2:25 ).’ He already knew those that were to be His, and these disciples weren’t on His list, for ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out (Jn 6:37).’ ‘And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day (Jn 6:40).’
A people have been given to Him by the Father, and so He knows just who are going to be saved, for it is He that is going to save them - they are not going to save themselves through physical means. ‘For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him (Jn 6:64b).’ There were an elect number given by the Father to the Son whom He came to save from their sins and of whom He would lose none. Even when this mass of people began to follow Him He knew that the vast majority were none of His, and He even knew the one that would eventually betray Him to His enemies.
This was not a mere look into the future as though His foreknowledge of events was dependent upon the choice of His creatures - no, for the following verse makes it abundantly clear that the salvation of sinners is not dependent on the choice of sinners but upon the electing purpose of the Father. There was no looking down the long line of history to see who would stick it out, for the Lord’s knowledge of the elect was based upon the election of the Father. He knew who for He chose few.
So the question that Jesus asked of the people at this point does not suggest ignorance or surprise, but is rather a question for the benefit of His hearers. It is to point them to the only means of salvation, a means that they found to be repugnant.
‘What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before (Jn 6:62)?’
What would these Jewish people say if they saw the ascension of Jesus? Would that make any difference to these people? Would they then accept the Lord Jesus and what He taught? Well some would perhaps answer yes it would, but that’s only a human logical understanding of the passage, for the truth of the matter is that they still would not believe - even if someone returned from the dead they still would not believe. A mere witness of a supernatural event will not change a person from being spiritually devoid of life and understanding.
Yes the ascension of Christ would bear witness to His divinity and His pre-existence, but without spiritual understanding these people would simply come up with some other human explanation for it, something that was more acceptable to their human logic. Neither would the ascension negate the need for eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ for these people, for without eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ there could be no salvation. If they were to inherit the Kingdom of God, then eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ remained an absolute necessity.
‘It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (Jn 6:63).’
No amount of physical means or physical bread can do anything to solve a spiritual problem. The manna in the wilderness had proven useless for doing so, those having died long ago who had eaten of that bread. The same is true of all fleshly or physical means, whether it be law keeping, ceremonial ritual and sacrifices, the keeping of religious observances, observing the ascension of Christ or even walking around following Jesus and hearing what He had to say. Physical things of themselves are of no value in solving spiritual problems, of which sin is the greatest. No, not even hearing the Lord Jesus Christ Himself preach is of any value to a perishing sinner without the Spirit, for all done by the flesh alone is useless in the attainment of everlasting life and salvation.
If someone is to be brought out of spiritual darkness and death and then inherit the spiritual kingdom for eternity, that one needs more than a physical piece of bread, no matter how dressed up that bread might be. You can apply all the dressings of human logic to that bread as you like, but you will still be left out of the kingdom in the end. For salvation a person needs more than these breads that perish, whether they be religious breads or figments of our own imagination. We need a spiritual bread that answers to our famished spiritual state, and that bread is Jesus - but that bread can only be of help to us when the Holy Spirit gives us the spiritual life that we might have the sense to actually eat of it.
Dear ones, all such physical pursuits to obtain salvation, whether they be walks down the front in some crusade, a submerging of the body under water, an eating of a wafer, swearing allegiance to God, or whatever it might be, all profit you nothing. What you need is spiritual life and this is not something that you have or can bring into existence of your own free will. You do not have the autonomy in this at all, you need external aid in the form and work of the Holy Spirit, for it is He who gives life, and not you yourself. The flesh is of no value in gaining life - None! You are dead in trespasses and sins, being the very slave of the Devil and have therefore no ability to choose Christ for yourself. You are not your own master, for you are the slave of sin and must do as sin dictates and that is not to choose Christ.
The great truths of election and sovereign grace are the only answers to such questions as those posed at the beginning of this message. Why are some saved and not others - sovereign grace. Why do some believe when others hearing the same gospel sound do not - sovereign grace. External circumstances mean absolutely nothing when they are devoid of the Holy Spirit. This passage before us this morning clearly teaches these very truths while insisting upon human responsibility for their own continuing unbelief.
‘And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father (Jn 6:65).’
Unless the Father has chosen a person for salvation, given that person to the Lord Jesus Christ as one of that number for whom He came to die, and unless the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of Christ’s life and death to that chosen individual, that sinner cannot come to the Lord Jesus Christ and eat of that bread of life. Outside of this arrangement a person does not have the ability to choose life in the Lord Jesus Christ, for the flesh profits you nothing in salvation, but the Spirit He gives life. Unless the Spirit of God gives life to a perishing sinner, that sinner will indeed perish no matter what external religious exercises are undertaken, even though they may be in the very form of Biblically sanctioned exercises.
Those people can come week in and week out to the church, all the time appearing as saved disciples yet being devoid of this most crucial aspect - the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit within imparting new life to the sinner, thereby enabling them to eat of the bread of life. All that they do apart from the Holy Spirit is as nothing and useless vanity. What may appear as the greatest of sermons ever preached by a Christian preacher will be as nothing to a perishing sinner devoid of the Holy Spirit within, for He cannot come to Christ apart from the Holy Spirit’s work within.
What will you do with this teaching this morning - will you walk off as the disciples of Christ did so long ago? Would you rather continue to look for physical bread that is satisfying to a human understanding of things, but will not satisfy the human soul for eternity? Then you continue to look unto yourself and your own ability to save yourself, but the truth will always be that the flesh or human effort will profit you nothing and you will die in your sins. No amount of human effort can bring a person to salvation.
This applies also to our work of evangelism - all our letterbox drops, all our witnessing, all our preaching, all these things will profit nothing if they be apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, for He is the Author of spiritual life. Point people to Jesus by all means, but this will still profit nothing apart from the Holy Spirit. His work is absolutely essential for salvation, or a person will never believe in the great truths of the gospel that we preach.
Well, we must hurry on to a conclusion:
‘From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him (Jn 6:66).’
Having heard of the prescribed way of salvation and of the necessity of the Spirit’s work in it, a great number of Jesus’ disciples ceased following after Him. The salvation that God gives was not what they understood or wanted. It had proven a stumbling block and an offence to them and they would have none of it.
Here you see an example of those that appeared to begin well, forsaking the truth and returning to their former way of life.
Now the question for us this morning is, how will it be with you? Will you also turn back because salvation is not of your own doing? Will you now stop following the Lord Jesus Christ because salvation involves the eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ by faith alone and therefore apart from human and fleshly means? Will you forsake the Lord because you want to be able to add your own decision to the work of salvation, or your own religious fervency?
Merely coming along and going through the ritual of a weekly worship service, sitting and singing, hearing and listening to a sermon - these all profit you nothing apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the words of Christ were and are spirit and life, and so are the words that I speak as they are the Scriptures - but only as they are attended by the Holy Spirit and applied to the hearts of men and women by Him.
Here then is the answer to our questions - those that turn back are those that have never been true Christians, for the Spirit of Christ has never worked in them. They may have done a myriad of religious exercises, but without the Spirit they were of no value. Many a person may hear the gospel invitation to live, but few are chosen of the Spirit to actually live.
Don’t say you don’t understand why someone has not believed or why someone has fallen away - the ultimate reason for it is clear, they have not experienced the work of the Spirit in their lives and have therefore never believed the gospel. Their seeming salvation was based upon the flesh, and the flesh profits for nothing. It was no spiritual work.
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