“Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, ‘Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.’ (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.’ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.”

Something I’ve become increasingly aware of, and that I like quite a lot, is that I don’t seem to agree 100% with nearly anyone. In particular, as I delve deeper into teachings from Biblical commentators and scholars, I’ll find some where I like or appreciate quite a lot of what they have to say. Then I’ll hit a subject where what their take doesn’t seem congruent with the Spirit of the Word, and to some extent I feel refreshed because it keeps me on my toes. I don’t want to buy wholesale into anything that another fallible human is putting out – I am obsessed and completely sold out on the truth of the Bible. I’m eager to hear the thoughts and teachings of those who are far more knowledgeable and versed in the history and sharing of the faith than I am, but it has to make sense in conjunction with the Word. I don’t want to criticize the teachings of a brother, but I do want to think critically and Biblically and not take a man on his word alone without thought or consideration as to how it lines up with the Word of God. Only God can give true understanding and we lean on our own wisdom at our peril. It is good that we weigh things before adopting them as truth, but it’s important to remember that the benchmark isn’t that the teaching lines up with what we want it to be, but that it’s in keeping with what the spirit of the Bible tells us. Reading the Word or receiving a message isn’t about having our ears tickled or our flesh gratified. It’s about honoring and adopting into ourselves the Truth. To take in and be indwelled by the Truth is to draw close to God, for our desires to diminish as the glory of the Lord increases in our lives. But to do the opposite of this and sift through God’s word and the teachings of His servants looking for what we want is a path toward what I want to discuss in today’s outline:

The Path to Rejecting Christ 

1. Rejecting the Word of God

“Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, ‘Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

Last week we went through the culmination of Jesus’s declaration that He is the Bread of Life. The gloves are off and the line in the sand has been drawn. Jesus has boldly and unapologetically declared His position and the degree to which He must be embraced for one to come to the Father and receive eternal life. His flesh is true food, His blood is true drink, and it is by fully embracing and receiving the truth of Christ that we are brought to eternal life with the Father. The instruction that His flesh must be fed upon, and his blood must be drank was poorly received by many who listened. The response was very similar to what people do with the teaching of the Bible today. Many have a literal, surface level understanding and rejection – in this case the mistaken believe that Jesus literally expected them to eat him. This is foolish, shallow thinking. To take the Bible, the Word of the Living God and reduce it down to only on the nose, literal interpretations robs it of it’s depth, and the significance of its teachings that transcend time and place. People will take stories and lessons of the Bible and treat them as antiquated and trivial, viewing the figures as simple minded or primitive. They don’t want the Word to be true, because its Spirit contradicts what they want to do, and so they strawman what God has to say. The people that Jesus addresses in the synagogue are identified as His disciples. These weren’t random people who happened to hear his teaching or His adversaries among the religious Elite. These are people who have seen His miracles and heard His teaching. They know there’s depth to what He says, even if they can’t understand it, yet they respond in disgust. There is also the possibility that their grumbling response, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” wasn’t just stopping at the literal, but understood the implications and found the truth hard to swallow. For those who wanted an earthly revolution and kingdom established, principles like the meek inheriting the earth, directions to turn the other cheek or, teaching like “take up your cross and follow me” weren’t what they wanted to hear. Rather than taking hope from Jesus telling them that He must truly and fully be embraced, they were dismayed. People do this with the Bible today as well. The teachings of Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and a personal relationship with God all bring about a sense of peace and joy that eclipses anything the world can offer – but it does require the rejection of many worldly things. James 4:4 says it plainly,

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

When we grumble over Jesus’s teaching now as these disciples did then, when we take offense at the truth of the Bible and the gospel of Christ, we befriend the wisdom of the world and make ourselves enemies of God. Jesus asks them, “Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” But for those whose eyes are set on worldly things, witnessing the heavenly glory of Christ ascending would be just as misunderstood as His revelation about His flesh and blood. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” The flesh of our bodies, the physical form we occupy, while tainted by sin is still a gift from God. One day this flesh will be made new and perfected and will endure to eternity with God. But as it is now, we cannot hold to understanding or wisdom in the flesh. Jeremiah 17:9 says,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Our flesh does nothing in the way of understanding Truth, of knowing love, mercy or righteousness. Fruits of the spirit are delivered from the Spirit. To lean on it is to know true peace, but to lean on the knowledge of the flesh is to embrace the grumbling of a discordant world and reject the Word of God.

2. Rejecting the Gift of God

“The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.’ (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

You have two choices when confronted with the Truth. You can either accept it, coming under it and taking it into yourself, or reject it in favor of your own desires – what the world calls individual truth. Jesus provides the Truth. What He gives is of immeasurable value, His very words are spirit and life eternal. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:20-25,

“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Before His death and resurrection and the truth of Christ crucified was there to be preached, there was the truth of Jesus’s teaching, which proved to be as much of a stumbling block for many as His resurrection. Proverbs 1:7 says,

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Jesus has presented theses disciples with the gift of Himself and the offer to embrace a true relationship with God. But again displaying divine foreknowledge, we see that He knows who will reject this message and even who will betray Him. This didn’t stop Him from delivering the truth, or from offering up the gift of freedom from the world and drawing closer to God. But He knew what the results would be before He ever spoke, who would hear and embrace the wisdom of God, and who would spurn His gift. We cannot seek God out on our own, and we can’t hear his Word without Him opening our ears to receive it. We see that in the aftermath of Jesus’s declaration, many of His disciples depart from Him. When we reject the Word of God we also turn out backs to the gift He offers, and declare rebellion against Him.

3. Betraying the Son of God

“So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.’ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.”

While it’s confirmed in the other gospels, this is the first time in John’s account that we see the twelve specifically acknowledged apart from the other disciples. These twelve, all of whom aside from Judas were to become Apostles after the resurrection and ascension, are presented with the opportunity to do as other disciples have done and leave Jesus behind. While John’s gospel doesn’t record Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ as the other gospels do, this carries the same significance. Choosing Jesus isn’t the act of picking something better over something that’s good. It’s water instead of sand, it’s bread instead of starvation. It’s what is holy and righteous and pure instead of that which is wicked, broken and poisonous. Psalm 61:1-2 says,

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Peter’s declaration isn’t just that Jesus is a way, but acknowledges that He is the Way. He sums up the salvation process in two sentences, echoing John 3:16,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

To hear the word and to receive the word of the gospel are not the same things. Peter states that Jesus has the words of eternal life, that they have believed in Him and in their belief, come to know that He is the Son of God. Jesus’s response may seem strange, first reminding and affirming that these twelve were not like other followers, but were called by Him, but then adding that despite this, one of them is a devil. We see, and also know if we’re familiar with the crucifixion story, that Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus to the religious leaders in exchange for money. While we can look at those who abandon Jesus in John 6, and this of them as new disciples, or poor students, this can’t be applied to Judas. He was chosen by Jesus, he was one of the inner twelve. These are the men who Jesus first sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and gave authority to heal the sick and cast out demons. It’s hard to imagine that Judas, who not only was taught directly by Jesus and had firsthand accounts of His miracles, but also worked miracles himself in Jesus’s name, could betray Him. But Jesus addresses this matter in Matthew 7:21–23,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

This is also something that is missed by other disciples, when the seventy-two return from performing the same work that the twelve did originally in Luke 10:17–20,

“The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’”

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” has become one of my favorite verses. This reminder that Jesus is more than a man, that He is God and has witnessed and understood things that our minds can’t wrap themselves around. But also the warning against the fall that accompanies pride and reliance on power. Our assurance is not in the works that we do or the wisdom that we wield in Jesus’ name, but in the assurance of our names written in heaven, of the provision that God has made for us in His love and power. We’ve seen in this passage that we cannot come to Christ unless it is granted by God, and we know that we cannot come to the Father except by the Son. But Jesus’s words concerning Judas also show us the free will and choice we have in the matter. We may look to the twelve disciples and think them spiritually bulletproof. That those who lives alongside Jesus throughout His ministry, learned from and witnessed His power and authority firsthand would be the most secure in their relationship with Him. But what we see throughout the gospels is that they regularly get it wrong, missing the point, striving after their own goals, and showing compromised faith. They were humans, and their salvation was not by their own power, but by the grace of God. Jesus allowing Judas to betray Him to death on the cross, and the fact that this was all part of the prophetic will of God, reflects the power and sovereignty of the Lord, but this doesn’t mean that Judas had no choice in the matter. He was presented with the same option as each of us – temporary peace with the world, or eternal peace with God. James 4:7-10 says,

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

None of us can live without temptation, but through strength in the Spirit and submission before God we are delivered. There is a line in the sand creating two clear options. With eyes opened in the Spirit, we see the world for what it is, cling to God, and reject the temptation of sin, or we embrace the world, chase what we desire in our flesh, and betray the sacrifice of God.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-moxbN-gBs