John 6:51-71
Qualities of a Committed Christian
Introduction
I read an interesting anecdote this past week about commitment. When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he did something to ensure the success of his military venture. He ordered his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover. Then he commanded them to look down at the water below. To their amazement, they saw every single one of their own ships in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat by his own men. And now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer! He forced them to commit to their success. And that is exactly what they did.
Main Point
I hope for us today to see in our passage the Qualities of a Committed Christian.
Context
Chapter 6 opened with Jesus performing a miracle with bread. He fed thousands of people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. This is the only miracle that is found in all four gospels. This is important because almost all of what John writes is not in the other Gospels. So when John chooses to record this miracle again for the 4th time, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we know that he has good reason and we need to pay attention.
Actually, the miracle is not the focus of this chapter. The miracle is merely to set the stage and to give the context for the teaching Jesus gives in the rest of the chapter that He is the bread of life who came down from heaven to give life to the world. Just as He is the One who fed them a miraculous meal of bread the day before, He is also the One who can feed their hungry souls and satisfy them with eternal life. Bread becomes the metaphor throughout Jesus teaching.
But they don’t get it. From the beginning they don’t get it. They followed Jesus for the wrong reasons – verse 2 says they followed Him because of the signs. Verse 15 says they tried to force Him to become their king and Jesus withdrew from them as a result. Verse 35 Jesus says they stopped following Him because of miraculous signs and now followed Him because of their appetites.
Not once does it mention that this crowd followed Him because they believed in Him. Not once does it mention they followed Him because He was the Son of God. Not once does it mention that they followed Him because they looked to Him for eternal life. And therefore they could not understand what He was saying. This is all because they did not have the Qualities of a Committed Christian.
I have divided these last verses into 3 sections: Feeding on the Bread of Life, Frustrated with the Bread of Life, and Faithfulness to the Bread of Life.
Feed on the Bread of Life. (52-59)
Quality #1 is Feed on the Bread of Life. In verses 51-59, Jesus is talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Pretty gruesome, right? Well, if we take Him literally here then yes. But, when we look at the context we clearly see that Jesus is using a metaphor. He is using figures of speech to teach the truth that the only way to have eternal life is to believe in Him and believe in Him only. He is the bread of life. He was sent by the Father. He came down from heaven. He gives eternal life. Just like men live on bread for physical life, men must live on Jesus for eternal life. And, just as bread is received within the body by eating, so too Jesus must be received within the man.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Jesus is NOT referring to taking communion in this passage. The Catholic church takes this passage and uses it to teach their belief in something called Transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the teaching that the literal body and blood of Jesus become present in the bread and wine of communion. False. Jesus is not teaching cannibalism here, and, He is not talking about communion either. I’ll give you 2.5 reasons why:
First, He hasn’t even established Communion at this point in the Scriptures yet. That doesn’t come until the night before He is crucified, which at this point in His ministry is a little over a year away. (We know this because John mentions 3 Passover Feasts in Jesus ministry, and in verse 4 John mentions the 2nd one).
Two: Jesus says here that if you eat His flesh and drink His blood you will have eternal life. Taking the bread and juice at communion does NOT give us eternal life, therefore, Jesus could not be talking about communion.
2.5 (Bonus Reason): The context of this passage shows us that Jesus is using a metaphor of eating bread. He fed them bread miraculously, which was the basis of His metaphor. Just as you EAT bread to internalize it, you must BELIEVE in ME as the bread of life to internalize that life I give. Eating is a metaphor for believing.
In these verses there are 4 things Jesus says about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
First, You Receive eternal life. Notice verse 53. (Also notice verses 57,58). The point is you must receive Jesus within you. People say, “Yeah I believe”, but, my question is, “Do you have Jesus living within you?” Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, BUT, Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Second Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless of course you fail the test?” When you believe in Christ, He comes and lives within you. Does Christ live within you? If so, you have “eaten” Him – that is, if you have believed in Him - you have eternal life.
Second, He will Raise you up on the last day. Verse 54 says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise Him up on the last day.” This is the 4th time in the passage that Jesus promises to raise us up. Every believer has the hope of being resurrected by Jesus Christ.
Third, He is Real Food and Real drink. Verse 55 says, “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” In other words, there is nothing else that will satisfy the hungry and thirsty soul. Search the earth over. Join religions. Get spiritual. Be a good and moral person. But nothing will satisfy because nothing else is real food or real drink for your soul. Only Jesus is.
Fourthly, You will Remain in Him. Verse 56 says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” United with Christ. You in Him and He in you. That’s what Jesus would tell His disciples later in chapter 14 verse 20, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” That’s what Paul told the Colossians was the “hope of glory.”
These are four things Jesus explains that come with feeding on Him, the Bread of Life.
Frustrated with the Bread of Life (60-66)
So first we see that Committed Christians Feed on the Bread of Life. Secondly we see a quality that is more of an “Anti-Quality”, Frustrated with the Bread of Life. This is a quality of false, uncommitted disciples, not of the true and committed. Notice verses 60-61, “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, ‘Does this offend you?’”
There were two things these disciples rejected that Jesus taught: That He came from heaven and that they must eat His flesh to have eternal life.
The phrase “Who can accept it” in the Greek stresses that they won’t accept these teachings. As a matter of fact, when Jesus asks if they are offended the Greek word means “scandalized.” They thought what He was teaching was a scandal and they wanted no part of it.
When you are truly a committed Christian, then you find Jesus teachings acceptable. You’re not offended in Him in front of others. More so, you’re not offended by Him when He demands obedience on your part. The life He calls and saves Christians to is not a life of license to live for self, but, a life that is surrendered to His Lordship. It is a life of submission to His Sovereign will for me. I am no longer my sovereign, but, He has become sovereign and Lord over my life.
And the reason for this is that you truly believe in Him. True faith produces true commitment. It begins when the Holy Spirit has convicted you of your sins, and made you aware of your spiritual poverty. The Father has drawn you to Jesus and enabled you to come to Him. You have placed your trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins and your righteousness before God. This has been a work of God in your life and you have submitted to spiritual truth from God.
This didn’t happen for these disciples. They followed Him for personal gain. They didn’t truly believe in Him, and so they could not accept the spiritual truth that Jesus was teaching.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Paul explains why in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” These false disciples thought that everything thought that the teaching Jesus gave was foolish, scandalous, and offensive.
And then in chapter 2:14 he says, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” They do not have the Spirit, they have not been given to Jesus by the Father, and therefore their reasons for starting to follow Him will not be enough for them to continue following Him.
That’s why Jesus says in verses 62 and 63, “What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” In other words, physical flesh and blood cannot produce eternal life. Eternal life comes when one accepts the words of Jesus and His words abide in you. This is a truth from heaven.
Can someone lose their salvation? No. People who quit prove they never believed at all. Many quit following Him because they never believed. They never had salvation in the first place. Committed Christians start following Jesus for the right reasons, and, therefore, they continue with Him. First, they have a spiritual hunger and know their own sinfulness. Second, they know Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. And lastly, they believe in Jesus and have received eternal life. If that’s not how someone got started as a follower of Jesus, then, most likely, there will come a time when they will stop following Him.
Now, they were called disciples. But a disciple simply means one who follows. They followed Jesus, but, they were not believers. People do that today in two ways.
First they come to church and do the church thing and never really come to faith in Christ. Their faith is in Church, not the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ.
But the other way is just as dangerous. It’s becoming very popular to hear leaders of the Emerging Church movement talk about following the way of Jesus. Living like Jesus. And there is an overemphasis on living your life to make a difference in the world just like Jesus did while at the same time ignoring the words of Jesus that believing in Him is the only way to salvation.
And that’s why you hear more and more of these so-called Christian pastors saying you can be a Christian simply by living like Jesus. The definition of being a Christian according to these people is someone who lives the ethical lifestyle Jesus did. According to Brian McLaren you can be a Muslim and be a follower of Jesus. You can be a Hindu and live like Jesus. You can be an agnostic and be a Christian. You can be a New Ager or a Wiccan and live like Jesus. In other words, the only thing that matters is that you live a life like Jesus lived. Salvation is not found only in Jesus.
That is a damning Gospel. That is a gospel that Paul says is another gospel and the one who brings another gospel is twice damned. A Christian is not someone who follows Jesus, but, who believes in Jesus. A Christian is someone who follows Jesus because they believe in Him for their salvation. He is the Way, He is the Truth, and He is the Life. He is My God and My Savior. I follow Him therefore.
Faithfulness to the Bread of Life (67-71)
Thirdly we see that Committed Christians are Faithful to the Bread of Life. Notice verses 67-71.
Jesus watches thousands of people walk away from Him. Then He turns to the original 12 and asks them, “You do not want to leave too do you?” Peter gives the answer of every committed Christian’s heart. I want to point out 2 things in Peter’s response.
First, He knows there is no one else to go to for eternal life. “To whom shall we go?” There is no one else. Jesus said “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the Life. No one goes to the Father except through Me.” Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” When Jesus prays in John 17 He says, “Father, you have granted Me to have authority over all people that I might give eternal life to all those you have given me.” In the heart of every Committed Christian is the conviction that there is only One Salvation, and Jesus is it.
But Peter also says “we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” It’s interesting that demons called Jesus the Holy One of God in Mark 1:24 when Jesus was casting them out. The disciples knew and believed this about Jesus, the thousands that left Him did not know and believe that about Him.
That is the distinction between false disciples and true disciples. The true know and believe in who Jesus really is.
Feed on the Bread of Life
Frustrated with the Bread of Life
Faithfulness to the Bread of Life
Qualities of a Committed Christian
Introduction
I read an interesting anecdote this past week about commitment. When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he did something to ensure the success of his military venture. He ordered his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover. Then he commanded them to look down at the water below. To their amazement, they saw every single one of their own ships in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat by his own men. And now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer! He forced them to commit to their success. And that is exactly what they did.
Main Point
I hope for us today to see in our passage the Qualities of a Committed Christian.
Context
Chapter 6 opened with Jesus performing a miracle with bread. He fed thousands of people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. This is the only miracle that is found in all four gospels. This is important because almost all of what John writes is not in the other Gospels. So when John chooses to record this miracle again for the 4th time, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we know that he has good reason and we need to pay attention.
Actually, the miracle is not the focus of this chapter. The miracle is merely to set the stage and to give the context for the teaching Jesus gives in the rest of the chapter that He is the bread of life who came down from heaven to give life to the world. Just as He is the One who fed them a miraculous meal of bread the day before, He is also the One who can feed their hungry souls and satisfy them with eternal life. Bread becomes the metaphor throughout Jesus teaching.
But they don’t get it. From the beginning they don’t get it. They followed Jesus for the wrong reasons – verse 2 says they followed Him because of the signs. Verse 15 says they tried to force Him to become their king and Jesus withdrew from them as a result. Verse 35 Jesus says they stopped following Him because of miraculous signs and now followed Him because of their appetites.
Not once does it mention that this crowd followed Him because they believed in Him. Not once does it mention they followed Him because He was the Son of God. Not once does it mention that they followed Him because they looked to Him for eternal life. And therefore they could not understand what He was saying. This is all because they did not have the Qualities of a Committed Christian.
I have divided these last verses into 3 sections: Feeding on the Bread of Life, Frustrated with the Bread of Life, and Faithfulness to the Bread of Life.
Feed on the Bread of Life. (52-59)
Quality #1 is Feed on the Bread of Life. In verses 51-59, Jesus is talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Pretty gruesome, right? Well, if we take Him literally here then yes. But, when we look at the context we clearly see that Jesus is using a metaphor. He is using figures of speech to teach the truth that the only way to have eternal life is to believe in Him and believe in Him only. He is the bread of life. He was sent by the Father. He came down from heaven. He gives eternal life. Just like men live on bread for physical life, men must live on Jesus for eternal life. And, just as bread is received within the body by eating, so too Jesus must be received within the man.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Jesus is NOT referring to taking communion in this passage. The Catholic church takes this passage and uses it to teach their belief in something called Transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the teaching that the literal body and blood of Jesus become present in the bread and wine of communion. False. Jesus is not teaching cannibalism here, and, He is not talking about communion either. I’ll give you 2.5 reasons why:
First, He hasn’t even established Communion at this point in the Scriptures yet. That doesn’t come until the night before He is crucified, which at this point in His ministry is a little over a year away. (We know this because John mentions 3 Passover Feasts in Jesus ministry, and in verse 4 John mentions the 2nd one).
Two: Jesus says here that if you eat His flesh and drink His blood you will have eternal life. Taking the bread and juice at communion does NOT give us eternal life, therefore, Jesus could not be talking about communion.
2.5 (Bonus Reason): The context of this passage shows us that Jesus is using a metaphor of eating bread. He fed them bread miraculously, which was the basis of His metaphor. Just as you EAT bread to internalize it, you must BELIEVE in ME as the bread of life to internalize that life I give. Eating is a metaphor for believing.
In these verses there are 4 things Jesus says about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
First, You Receive eternal life. Notice verse 53. (Also notice verses 57,58). The point is you must receive Jesus within you. People say, “Yeah I believe”, but, my question is, “Do you have Jesus living within you?” Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, BUT, Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Second Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless of course you fail the test?” When you believe in Christ, He comes and lives within you. Does Christ live within you? If so, you have “eaten” Him – that is, if you have believed in Him - you have eternal life.
Second, He will Raise you up on the last day. Verse 54 says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise Him up on the last day.” This is the 4th time in the passage that Jesus promises to raise us up. Every believer has the hope of being resurrected by Jesus Christ.
Third, He is Real Food and Real drink. Verse 55 says, “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” In other words, there is nothing else that will satisfy the hungry and thirsty soul. Search the earth over. Join religions. Get spiritual. Be a good and moral person. But nothing will satisfy because nothing else is real food or real drink for your soul. Only Jesus is.
Fourthly, You will Remain in Him. Verse 56 says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” United with Christ. You in Him and He in you. That’s what Jesus would tell His disciples later in chapter 14 verse 20, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” That’s what Paul told the Colossians was the “hope of glory.”
These are four things Jesus explains that come with feeding on Him, the Bread of Life.
Frustrated with the Bread of Life (60-66)
So first we see that Committed Christians Feed on the Bread of Life. Secondly we see a quality that is more of an “Anti-Quality”, Frustrated with the Bread of Life. This is a quality of false, uncommitted disciples, not of the true and committed. Notice verses 60-61, “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, ‘Does this offend you?’”
There were two things these disciples rejected that Jesus taught: That He came from heaven and that they must eat His flesh to have eternal life.
The phrase “Who can accept it” in the Greek stresses that they won’t accept these teachings. As a matter of fact, when Jesus asks if they are offended the Greek word means “scandalized.” They thought what He was teaching was a scandal and they wanted no part of it.
When you are truly a committed Christian, then you find Jesus teachings acceptable. You’re not offended in Him in front of others. More so, you’re not offended by Him when He demands obedience on your part. The life He calls and saves Christians to is not a life of license to live for self, but, a life that is surrendered to His Lordship. It is a life of submission to His Sovereign will for me. I am no longer my sovereign, but, He has become sovereign and Lord over my life.
And the reason for this is that you truly believe in Him. True faith produces true commitment. It begins when the Holy Spirit has convicted you of your sins, and made you aware of your spiritual poverty. The Father has drawn you to Jesus and enabled you to come to Him. You have placed your trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins and your righteousness before God. This has been a work of God in your life and you have submitted to spiritual truth from God.
This didn’t happen for these disciples. They followed Him for personal gain. They didn’t truly believe in Him, and so they could not accept the spiritual truth that Jesus was teaching.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Paul explains why in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” These false disciples thought that everything thought that the teaching Jesus gave was foolish, scandalous, and offensive.
And then in chapter 2:14 he says, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” They do not have the Spirit, they have not been given to Jesus by the Father, and therefore their reasons for starting to follow Him will not be enough for them to continue following Him.
That’s why Jesus says in verses 62 and 63, “What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” In other words, physical flesh and blood cannot produce eternal life. Eternal life comes when one accepts the words of Jesus and His words abide in you. This is a truth from heaven.
Can someone lose their salvation? No. People who quit prove they never believed at all. Many quit following Him because they never believed. They never had salvation in the first place. Committed Christians start following Jesus for the right reasons, and, therefore, they continue with Him. First, they have a spiritual hunger and know their own sinfulness. Second, they know Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. And lastly, they believe in Jesus and have received eternal life. If that’s not how someone got started as a follower of Jesus, then, most likely, there will come a time when they will stop following Him.
Now, they were called disciples. But a disciple simply means one who follows. They followed Jesus, but, they were not believers. People do that today in two ways.
First they come to church and do the church thing and never really come to faith in Christ. Their faith is in Church, not the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ.
But the other way is just as dangerous. It’s becoming very popular to hear leaders of the Emerging Church movement talk about following the way of Jesus. Living like Jesus. And there is an overemphasis on living your life to make a difference in the world just like Jesus did while at the same time ignoring the words of Jesus that believing in Him is the only way to salvation.
And that’s why you hear more and more of these so-called Christian pastors saying you can be a Christian simply by living like Jesus. The definition of being a Christian according to these people is someone who lives the ethical lifestyle Jesus did. According to Brian McLaren you can be a Muslim and be a follower of Jesus. You can be a Hindu and live like Jesus. You can be an agnostic and be a Christian. You can be a New Ager or a Wiccan and live like Jesus. In other words, the only thing that matters is that you live a life like Jesus lived. Salvation is not found only in Jesus.
That is a damning Gospel. That is a gospel that Paul says is another gospel and the one who brings another gospel is twice damned. A Christian is not someone who follows Jesus, but, who believes in Jesus. A Christian is someone who follows Jesus because they believe in Him for their salvation. He is the Way, He is the Truth, and He is the Life. He is My God and My Savior. I follow Him therefore.
Faithfulness to the Bread of Life (67-71)
Thirdly we see that Committed Christians are Faithful to the Bread of Life. Notice verses 67-71.
Jesus watches thousands of people walk away from Him. Then He turns to the original 12 and asks them, “You do not want to leave too do you?” Peter gives the answer of every committed Christian’s heart. I want to point out 2 things in Peter’s response.
First, He knows there is no one else to go to for eternal life. “To whom shall we go?” There is no one else. Jesus said “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the Life. No one goes to the Father except through Me.” Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” When Jesus prays in John 17 He says, “Father, you have granted Me to have authority over all people that I might give eternal life to all those you have given me.” In the heart of every Committed Christian is the conviction that there is only One Salvation, and Jesus is it.
But Peter also says “we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” It’s interesting that demons called Jesus the Holy One of God in Mark 1:24 when Jesus was casting them out. The disciples knew and believed this about Jesus, the thousands that left Him did not know and believe that about Him.
That is the distinction between false disciples and true disciples. The true know and believe in who Jesus really is.
Feed on the Bread of Life
Frustrated with the Bread of Life
Faithfulness to the Bread of Life
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