THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP.
John 6:60-71.
JOHN 6:60. “Many therefore of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”
Many “disciples,” who had been following Jesus for a season, were now beginning to turn back. All this talk about eating His flesh – who can bear it?
JOHN 6:61. “When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Doth this offend you?”
Again we are told that Jesus has a full knowledge of what people are thinking (cf. John 2:25). Even as they were murmuring, He asked, “Doth this offend you?”
JOHN 6:62. “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?”
The Jewish leadership in particular had started their murmuring back in John 6:41, ‘because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.’ It is as if Jesus is now saying, if you have difficulty with that, then what would you think if you saw the Son of man “ascend up to where He was before?”
And, of course, there were those who remained disciples of Jesus, who did see just that.
“Where He was before,” incidentally, speaks of the pre-existence of Christ.
JOHN 6:63. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
Another perplexity for the Jewish leadership was all this talk about ‘eating His flesh’ (cf. John 6:52). Their problem was that they were putting a carnal meaning on a spiritual teaching.
So our Lord says, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” Jesus had never meant a literal ‘eating and drinking’ of His flesh. No, indeed, He says, “the flesh profiteth nothing.” The soul receives no benefit by a literal eating of literal flesh, but by a spiritual discernment laying hold of the significance for us of Jesus’ sacrifice. This is brought home to our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus adds, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Jesus’ words are to be understood in a spiritual sense, and are applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And thus, we are born again.
JOHN 6:64. “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who believed not, and who should betray Him.”
Yet again we see that Jesus has divine knowledge of the hearts of men. We are an open book to him.
The cause of all the murmuring, ultimately, was unbelief. Yet Jesus had persevered in His teaching, even having known “from the beginning” who the doubters were, and who would betray Him. What patience!
JOHN 6:65. “And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”
Without the grace of God, and without the Holy Spirit applying Jesus’ words to our hearts, none of us would ever have come to Jesus!
JOHN 6:66. “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”
It is a sad reflection upon humankind that with such weighty teaching many of Jesus’ would-be and so-called “disciples” retreated from Him, deserted, turned back, and “walked no more with Him.
JOHN 6:67. “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”
Do you wish, is it your will also, to turn away? Of course, Jesus knew the answer, but wished to draw it from them.
JOHN 6:68-69. “Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Having tasted of the good things of the life which Jesus has to offer, there is no other to whom we can possibly go. His are the words that lead to eternal life. Peter spoke for them all. Literally, ‘We have believed and have known.’
JOHN 6:70-71. “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon; for he it was that should betray Him, being one of the twelve.”
Literally, Judas was “about to deliver Him up.” No wonder Jesus named him “a devil.”
Let us rather be like the other eleven apostles. As the writer to the Hebrews put it: ‘We are not of those who draw back' (Hebrews 10:39). Amen.
