The Gospel of John: Hard Words Aaron Brockett | John 6:41-71

Transcript October 25/26, 2014

If you have a Bible go ahead and grab it and get to John, chapter 6. If this is your first time to be with us, I want to welcome you. Glad to have you. We are in the middle of a series in the Gospel of John and I have just a little bit of a set-up to do, some foundational work to do before we get into the text. So I just want you to know that. Bear with me in that. Be patient. If it seems like it is taking a while for me to get into the actual text, it’s because it’s taking me a while to get to the actual text.

We’re in the middle of a series on the Gospel of John and if you’re visiting with us I want you to understand that our approach, our philosophy to preaching and teaching, is to, as a church, primarily work through whole books of the Bible. We’ll take breaks to do more of a topical or thematic study because real life bumps up against all of us and we need the wisdom of God’s word to know how to navigate through those scenarios. But our primary bread and butter is going to be to whole books of the Bible with this aim. I want to read the text sequentially. I want to explain it and then I want to apply it and illustrate the application when necessary all for this one, primary thing that I want to drill down on – what is the implication of the application?

In other words, why should I do this? What’s at stake if I don’t apply God’s truth to my life? What am I going to miss out on? Or maybe on the positive side of it is – what does God want for me out of this? What is it that I stand to gain if I would swallow my pride, humble myself and receive God’s word, God’s teaching into my life?

Here’s why this is necessary for us. Oftentimes the Bible runs against the grain of our desires. The Bible runs against the grain of our impulses – what maybe seems right to us. It seems sort of counter-intuitive. And Jesus just kind of had that knack. When Jesus would teach He would often say things that leave you utterly perplexed. As you read through the gospels and even as we’ve been studying the Gospel of John, one of the things that we see is that Jesus has this uncanny ability of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

So He would say things like, “I’ll give you water so that you’ll never thirst again…What, does nobody condemn you? I don’t condemn you either. Go and leave your life of sin.” Last week we saw that Jesus says to us, “I want to give you the bread of life. Not just so that you’ll have eternal existence but so that you’ll have eternal zoe. We said that word “zoe” means quality of life. That it means a life worth living.

There are other times when Jesus says things that afflict us. They leave us a bit uneasy and a bit uncomfortable. And that’s what we have here at the end of John, chapter 6. John, chapter 6, I believe, is the longest chapter in the gospel. I didn’t check that for sure. But, it’s 71 verses long. So, it’s really long and this is our third week to be in it and Jesus repeats Himself a lot. He seems to be mildly irritated as we get to the end of this chapter. And Jesus says some things that kind of leave us a little bit uneasy and uncomfortable, especially if you are new to Bible study.

One of the things that you need to know is that the Bible can sometimes say and teach things that are hard to understand. You read it and you’re scratching your head like, “That’s hard to understand.” There

are other things that the Bible will say that we can understand but that are hard to except. This passage is both. Welcome to church.

So, if we can manage to understand the end of chapter 6 – it’s hard to understand, I just want you to know that and it’s going to be difficult to accept. In fact, on Monday there were a couple of things that happened. I started to get more emails. I think we’re deep enough into this series that it is beginning to pick up a little bit of traction, I hope. And I’ve started to get a few emails. Even from out of state from people who have picked up the podcast and have said, “Man, I really love this. I feel like I’m getting to know Jesus personally. I’m just enjoying this series.”

And then I read this passage that I was going to have to preach on this weekend and I thought, “Oh, boy.” So, I turned to one of the commentaries – a commentary is just a book that explains the passage. So, one of the commentaries I’ve been leaning into in my own study of the Gospel of John throughout this series has been very, very good. I was really anxious to get to what that commentary had to say about this passage and I opened it up on Monday. Guess what the commentary said about this passage we’re going to read this morning? Nothing! Goose egg! The dude skipped it!

It’s like, “Man, you big turkey. How did your publisher let you get away with that? This is the longest chapter in the Gospel of John and you just conveniently moved beyond and on to chapter 7.” See, that’s the thing. If we were to do a topical or thematic series on the Gospel of John, I would have skipped it too. I would have said, “Well, let’s just figure out how to navigate around this,” because, as we’re going to see, this is a bit difficult for us to grasp.”

It kind of reminds me – this image just came to my mind this week. A few years ago, I took our family to Silver Dollar City which is an amusement park in Branson, Missouri. How many of you have ever been to Silver Dollar City? Several of you, it’s like the home country to me. I grew up close to there. So, I took our kids there.

My daughter is kind of a thrill seeker. She really wanted to ride this ride that – I don’t even know what it was called. But it was this big, circular cylinder and seats line the outside of the cylinder. You all face out. You buckle in with a string and then it spins and then it swings back and forth like a big arc. And it gets up pretty high. And she’s like, “Daddy, I really want to ride this.”

So, we measured her. She was just barely tall enough to ride it. I asked, “Are you sure, sweetheart?” If you get on it there’s no backing off. And she’s like, “No, I’m going to love it.” We get on it and she buckles in. She’s ear-to-ear grin. She’s like, “This is so exciting.” And it start’s spinning, it starts swinging, she’s smiling, she’s laughing, she’s giggling and then at some point in the ride we hit a velocity where all of that changed. I looked down at her and she was like three shades of green and the grin had turned into a frown. Her lips were trembling. She was crying. Her face was buried in her arm-pit. Every muscle in her body was tense. And I just want you to know, that’s what this passage is probably going to be like in our series – there is a certain velocity.

We’ve been like, “Oh, the Gospel of John. This has been awesome.” And I’m going to look over you and we’re going to hit a certain velocity today where some of you might need to be reminded to breathe because it is going to be difficult. But, here’s how I want you to think about it. There’s a kind of hard, exterior shell around the truth that Jesus is going to give to us. But if you can manage to persevere through it – if you can drill through it – there’s something deeply satisfying on the inside. In fact it’s all

the difference between the sweetness of the gospel, or whether you could just take it or leave it. I want to encourage you to hang with me on this because it is difficult to understand.

I was just talking to a few people backstage about the message last night as we walked through it. And, here’s what I want you to know as we get into it. Number one, I grew up in church and I never remember hearing a sermon on this passage or even hearing the subject that this passage brings up discussed in church. I didn’t hear about this until I was a young adult. Now, maybe we covered it. Maybe I was just sick that day. Maybe I was daydreaming which is entirely possible. But I don’t remember this ever being covered in church. It’s actually a passage filled with several different landmines.

Here’s the second thing I want you to know. Some of you in this room have studied, maybe you even have deep-seated opinions on it and you’re very, very passionate about it. It’s very possible that some of you have actually heard this material covered in an unhealthy way and maybe you have a little bit of baggage as we bring it into the room.

Here’s what I would ask all of us to do. Just take a minute to humble ourselves before the Lord because this passage is in the Bible for a reason and we want to hear what Jesus has to say to us from it. And here’s what I would ask of you. If you’ve already studied this, if you already have an opinion about this doctrine or piece of theology that we’re going to look at together, by all means check me with the Bible and if I say something wrong, or heretical, or something that you oppose, by all means bring that to my attention.

Here’s what I would primarily ask of you. I would ask that in these next few moments you would have a prayerful spirit and that the Lord may give clarity to my words so that He could be glorified and that someone far away from Him would come to know Him. Could we do that together? Could you just pray for me? Because I’m trembling right now, this is a landmine.

Let me pray.

Father, we come to You right now and I thank You for this word, I thank You for this great church and the sincerity of Your people. And if there are some people here today who are new, who are visiting for the first time, I pray that they would have a divine appointment with You. I pray that Your Spirit would fall upon us in a dense way and if there are some of us who have been afflicted, I pray that You would comfort us, ironically, through this difficult passage. And if there are some of us who are filled and puffed up with a little bit of pride, I pray that You would afflict us until You bring us to our knees so that we would see the greatness of Your power. And we ask this in Jesus’ name. And the church says, “Amen.”

Well some of you, during my prayer, were reading ahead because you’re like, “What is it that he is talking about? We want to know what’s happening here.” Some of you are like, “Well, if this is a landmine, why are we covering it?” Here’s why we want to cover it. Here’s one principle, if Jesus repeats Himself a lot, sit up and pay attention. If He repeats Himself then there is obviously a reason behind it. So Jesus does that in this passage.

The other thing that I want you to know is that Jesus as our Heavenly Father knows what we need to hear before we know that we need to hear it. So, that’s why we should look at this together. There is great wisdom in this.

Last year my wife and I were talking and we thought, “You know it’s about time that I take my son somewhere and have “the talk”.” Any of you know what I’m talking about? Did the air quotes give it away? It’s about time to have the birds and the bees conversation with my son. And if any of you ever had to have that conversation, it’s very, very awkward. I think it’s more awkward as a parent than it was as a child with your parent. That’s to be debated.

We decided, “Hey, it’s probably time that it happens.” So my wife is like, “When are you going to do this?” It was last December. I was going up to Chicago to meet some church planters and some pastors for dinner and then we were going to go to a Bulls game. So, I asked if I could bring my son with me and they were like, “Yeah, sure.” So, I picked him up from school early and I told Lindsay, “I think this is the day that I’m going to have the talk because I have three hours in the car with him all alone. He can’t go anywhere.”

So, I picked him up from school and we got on I 65 and I’d been praying it through and so I took a deep breath and right around Lebanon I started in Genesis 1. Here’s a little tip as your pastor to those of you guys who have to have “the talk” with your son. Always start with theology first before you get to mechanics. There is great wisdom in that.

So, I started with theology and I just talked about Biblical manhood and womanhood, and the fall, and all of what God intended. And right around Merryville we finally ended up getting to mechanics. Now here’s the thing for like an hour-and-a-half I was just talking, and talking, and talking and he’s just sitting there listening, listening, listening and his eyes are getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

Finally, I get done and I’m like, “So son, that’s it. Do you have any questions?” And he’s like, “Nope, nope, nope. I have a lot of math homework to do Dad.” That kid has never been more excited to do math in his life.

Now, here’s the point. He didn’t ask to have that conversation. He didn’t even know that realm existed. But as his father, I knew he needed to hear it before he realized that he needed to hear it. And in a lot of ways, this is what we have with John, chapter 6. We’re going, “Jesus, why are bringing this to us? Why are you talking to us about this?” And there’s a reason behind it.

Here’s what I want you to hear as we get into it. As we drill through the hard shell of this truth, we’re going to find a deeply satisfying center to it that is the authentic gospel message that extenuates the greatness of God in His unconditional love for us.

So last week, if you were here, Jesus was doing this teaching on the bread of life. Two weeks ago it was the feeding of the five thousand. Then He transitions and says, “Hey, I fed your stomach now let me feed your heart. I am the bread of life.” And what Jesus said there is helping us to understand that Christianity is not just a set of beliefs and it’s not a set of morals only. And many of us treat it that way, “What it means to be a Christian is that I’ve got to come to believe in God, and then I need to feel really bad for my sins, and I really need to do some good stuff.”

That’s not the heart of Christianity. Jesus says that the heart of Christianity is something that you receive in, you ingest it and then you digest it and it provides power for your life – very similar to when you eat lunch and you digest the food and it circulates through your body, or when you fill up your car with gasoline, or charge up your cell phone and it’s receiving power into it. Jesus said, “The way to be a Christian is to receive Me in, and ingest Me, and allow Me to give the power for living.”

Now, that’s a very offensive message because, primarily, that means He must be your food and drink. That Jesus is your source for living. And it’s a very offensive message to our core. It offended this crowd.

So, with that entire set up, look at what it says in chapter 6 starting in verse 41, “So the Jews grumbled about Him, because He said ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, “I have come down from heaven?”’Jesus answered them, ‘Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.’” That’s ground zero of this passage.

Let me read that verse once again, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me – not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from God, He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” Now, you have to balance verse 44 with verse 47 there. They say that God the Father has to draw you but then you have to believe.

Verse 48, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

The word grumble in this passage means that it was difficult for them to get it and it also implies that they didn’t like it. And ground zero of this passage is verse 44 where Jesus basically says to them, “The reason that you guys have barriers to coming to understand this, the reason why you guys are grumbling against this truth that I need to be your meat and drink is that, partially, you’ve failed to understand that nobody comes to Me unless the Father draws him to Me.”

So, what in the world is Jesus saying there? Well Jesus is saying to this crowd, specifically, and He’s saying to mankind generally that the reason why men and women grumble against the message that Jesus must be our primary food and drink is that your heart and my heart is so broken due to the rebellion of our sin that left to our own devices you and I would never choose God on our own.

I said this last week. No one becomes a Christian because he thought it was a good idea. Nobody ever wakes up and says, “Man, this is a gorgeous day. Maybe I’ll go out, pay some bills, run some errands, water the flowers, iron some clothes, and die to myself and pick up my cross and follow Jesus.” It just doesn’t occur to us. It runs against the grain of our human spirit. Left to our own devices, we do not make ourselves Christian – partly because we don’t have the ability or the currency to do it but mostly because apart from the drawing of God the Father, we don’t even want it. Jesus is saying, “Your heart will never come to that conclusion on its own.”

Now, this runs so much against the current of what our society teaches us because, if you haven’t noticed, the two values of our culture – the two pillars if you will – have you ever heard these phrases? Follow your heart and be true to yourself. How many of you have ever heard that? Follow your heart and be true to yourself. That is the big idea of just about every animated movie that I think I’ve ever seen, “Hey, kids. Follow your heart and be true to yourself.”

You know what? It sounds good. There’s a part of that message that I like. And if they mean, “You are valuable,” by all means. If they mean, “You have worth,” then of course. But that’s not what they mean.

They are saying, “No, no, no – whatever impulse you have, man, follow that because you’re just being true to yourself.”

Now, I’m not talking about anyone but me right now – and all of you. Alright? I don’t want to follow my heart because my heart, at its core, is evil, its conniving, it cannot be trusted. I’m just talking about me – and you. Just think about it. If you followed every impulse of your heart, would your life be better or worse? If you followed every impulse of your heart your life would be in shambles.

So, this is not self-hatred. This is not denying yourself of all of your impulses. This is simply, instead of following my heart what I want to do is to surrender my heart to Jesus Christ, let Him reform it, and reclaim it, and redeem it. Then by all means I’ll follow my heart, as long as He is in control of it.

That is a fundamentally different message. So, for us that runs against the grain of our thinking. It’s insulting to us. And for many of us, what we’d really like is for the gospel message to be, “Hey, man. You are loved and accepted.” That’s only half of it. It’s, “You are loved and accepted in spite of the fact that your heart is darkened and rebellious due to your sinful nature.”

So Jesus says, “There’s no way that you’re coming to God the Father unless He draws you to Himself because you are dead in your sins.” Ephesians 2, you are spiritually dead. So the Spirit of God works, almost like smelling salts, He has to crack that, put it underneath the nostrils of your heart, and awaken you to the sweetness of the gospel. Then you have to humble yourself in obedience to follow after Christ.

What is Jesus not saying? That’s really important to grasp as well in this passage. Well, Jesus is not saying that when it comes to your salvation that you don’t have a role in it. Jesus is not saying that you don’t have free will. Jesus is not saying that some are more privileged than others. The primary heart of this teaching is that our salvation is dependent upon God. He has to take the lead in it because apart from His work in our lives we wouldn’t even want it.

So, if I could lay it out like this, I would simply say that salvation is the result of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man in that order. Sovereignty means that God is in control. Sovereignty means that God is the Head Honcho. He is the Main Dude. He is sovereign and He has to lead in this and then I reflect that. I reflect His love and I take responsibility for my life, only after I’ve been prompted by the Spirit of God. Now, is that a brain bender? Absolutely.

There are some of you in this room who have studied this before and have come to some deep-seated opinions on this and you’re saying, “Well, which is it?” Does God choose us or do we choose God?” And the answer is, yes. And I know that that irritates some of you but I want to be an equal opportunity offender.

Some of you understand these terms, you’re familiar with them and some of you do not. Traditionally, throughout church history, these two camps of thought have been Calvinists and Arminians. Calvinism that is extreme – there is such a thing as hyper-Calvinism and there is such a thing as hyper-Arminian. Basically what the hyper Calvinists would say is, “You don’t have anything to do with it. God drives you to it. You don’t have any control at all. God chooses you.” Hyper-Arminians say, “No, no, no. You choose God. You’re primarily in the driver’s seat.” This passage should offend both because some of us have taken too much pride in a title and we don’t have enough affection for Jesus Christ.

Now, here’s where I’m going to default on this. I’m going to default on the power and sovereignty of God in the process of salvation in my life because of Ephesians 2. I am dead in my sin. I wouldn’t even want salvation apart from the working, the renewing, and the restoring nature of God the Father through His Spirit in my life.

So what’s our response to this? Well the response for me is that I’m insulted. I’m insulted by this because it insinuates that I don’t have as much control over my life or my salvation as what I thought I had and I wonder if it’s fair. If God is drawing people to Himself, is He leaving anybody out? What about your family member who is not a believer? Is God not drawing them?

Those are real questions that I simply don’t have easy answers to. But we can look at Scripture and say, “Well, who is God drawing? Who is God wooing to Himself?” And we have to understand this. That at a higher, 30,000 foot level, God is drawing everyone in the world to the name of Jesus Christ.

We can go to Romans, chapter 1, verses 19-21 which says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

That passage just basically said that God is demonstrating, not only that He is real, but He’s demonstrating His power every single day both in nature and in your body. It’s not so much that we don’t have the proof but it’s that pride is blocking us from coming to see it.

We could go to John, chapter 3, verse 16, “For God so loved the” what’s the word there? It’s world. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.”

2 Corinthians 5:19, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”

1 John 2:2, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Now, what that is saying is that God has a heart and a desire that all people, everywhere in His creation would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. These passages are not saying what the teaching known as Universalism says which basically is, “It doesn’t matter how you live your life just as long as you sincerely believe something and that you’re good with God.” That is not what these passages are teaching.

What this is teaching is something known as God’s common grace and God’s saving grace. Every single person in this room regardless of where you stand with Christ is a recipient of God’s common grace. God’s common grace is evident in your life – everybody just put your hand over your heart right now. Do you feel it beating? I hope it’s beating. That’s God’s common grace because none of you are telling your heart to beat right now. You can flex your bicep but you can’t flex your heart.

Right now, if your lungs are drawing breath without every few seconds you having to say, “Okay, draw breath, draw breath, draw breath,” that’s a result of God’s common grace in your life. And God’s common grace in your life isn’t just to terminate upon you. It is to lead you to His saving grace which is

to place your faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. But, that’s where pride ends up blocking the way and God has said, “I’m shouting this from creation. I’m shouting this from your body. Would you respond and make Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?”

I’ve met a lot of people in pastoral counseling who are kind of on the fence as to whether they want to give their lives to Christ. And this has to be in the top five objections to somebody giving his life to Christ. It’s simply this, “What about all of the people who have never heard? What about all of the people who don’t know the name of Jesus Christ, who have never heard the name Jesus Christ? Does that seem fair?”

Once again this is a brain bender. And I don’t know if I can fully give you a nice tidy answer to that but I do know this. In John 21 Peter asks something very similar. Jesus says to Peter, “Hey, Peter. You’re going to die for your faith one day.” That’s kind of an alarming statement. Do you know how Peter responds to Jesus? He points to the apostle John and says, “Well, what about him? What’s going to happen to him?” It’s kind of like they are brothers or something. And do you know how Jesus responds to him? He doesn’t caudle him at all. Jesus actually says something that seems a little hard. Jesus turns to Peter and He says, “If I want John to remain alive, what’s that to you? You must follow Me.”

Now, here’s the principle for us. What about all of those other people who have never heard the name of Jesus. Well, you know what? God has already said in His word, He’s sovereign and He’s in control. He has an answer to that that I don’t yet fully have. And I think that Jesus would look at us and say, “Yeah, that’s a complicated issue but right now I’m wooing you. What about you? Would you follow me?”

I think another objection to this when it comes to this whole idea – I think that it’s interesting that Jesus uses the word “draw” here. And we would say, “Well, who exactly is God drawing?” And here’s what we do. If I’m God and I have to choose teams who am I going to choose? Well, I’m going to choose the talented of the bunch. I’m going to choose the wealthy of the bunch. I’m going to choose the popular of the bunch.” How many of you have ever played playground basketball and you had to pick out teams? How many of you are picking the five foot guy who weighs 60 pounds? No, you’re going to pick the tall person, the most talented person for your team.

So, here’s what we do. We allow our fallen hearts to seep into this and most of our problems with God are when we say, “Well if I was in God’s shoes, here’s how I would do it.” The problem is we’re not God. So here’s the question. Who exactly is God drawing? Here’s the Biblical answer. God draws the poor in spirit. God draws the humble. God draws people who slay their pride because that’s the primary thing that keeps us from Him. In the book of James it says that God has chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith. In 1 Corinthians it says that God chose the foolish things to shame the wise, He chooses the weak things to shame the strong.

Now, here’s an interesting thing about Christianity, the history of Christianity throughout the world. Christianity in general and throughout history has primarily resided among people who are out of power. So the geographic center of the religion of Islam has always been in the same place – the same place where it started, the Middle East. The geographic center of Hinduism has always been in the same place – India. The same is true with Buddhism. This is not true with Christianity.

Christianity started on the plains of Palestine and then it migrated to the Mediterranean world and stayed there for several centuries and then it migrated over to Europe and it stayed there for a little while and then it migrated, one could argue, with the pilgrims over to North America. And there was

such a thing as Christendom where everybody kind of saw a Judeo/Christian ethic in North America. I don’t know if you realize this or not – we are no longer the geographic center of Christianity. It has migrated on and it’s primarily migrated to the Southern Hemisphere. There are more Christians in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere because Christianity always migrates away from power, unlike any other religion. James says that God chooses the weak to shame the strong. God chooses the poor to shame the rich.

This is where it should be very, very convicting for us living on the north side of Indianapolis. Even if you are not specifically powerful or wealthy, you live in a region that is. Thus you are a secondary beneficiary of it. It doesn’t matter what you make, you’re still in the top 10 percent of the wealthiest people in the world. And Jesus is saying, “Be really careful.”

Is He saying that wealthy, successful people cannot be drawn to the Father? No. He’s just saying that it is a lot harder because your meat and your drink is your success. Your meat and your drink is your salary. You don’t readily see your need for a Savior because your life is so good. Who’s God drawing? The poor in spirit. Do you realize, no matter how much you have materially, how spiritually bankrupt you really are? And if you come to recognize that then that is the drawing nature of God the Father in your life and in mine.

So Jesus says that God is drawing you to Him. He’s not driving you and that’s the difference. That’s where the responsibility of man comes in. Let me give you this definition. To be drawn means that no human being, on his own, has the moral conviction and spiritual ability to come to Christ until God the Father draws him by His Spirit. So, to draw means to implant the desire, it means to provide the inclination, it means to develop the ability to place our trust in Christ. It’s the smelling salts underneath the nostrils of our spirits that leads us to the saving power of God’s grace in our lives.

Now, this analogy isn’t perfect but it gets us in the ballpark. This is the way relationships primarily work. As much as it pains me to tell you this, 18 years ago when my wife and I first met I pursued her. She did not pursue me. And if you were – you thought something really serious was going to be said there – if you were to talk to my wife today and if you were to ask, “Hey, Lindsay, when you first met Aaron 18 years ago were you just smitten? Did you just think, ‘Man, this is my future husband? This is the father of my children?’” She would say to you, “Nope.”

As much as it pains me to say that, she did not pursue me – I wasn’t even on her radar that it could even be a possibility. But, it was on mine. And I pursued her. I went after her. I was trying to draw her in. I was trying to paint a picture. I was trying to cast a vision of what life with me could look like. And she had to respond to that. This analogy breaks down at some point but it gets us into the ballpark. This is how relationships work. You just have to begin to look at some of the grace of God in your life. Is He wooing you toward Him?

It’s important to understand this definition as well. Salvation is not something I choose on my own completely. And yet, at the same time, it’s not something I’m driven to against my will. Once again that’s a little bit of a brain bender complexity. I can’t come to see it. I can’t choose it on my own but I’m also not driven to it against my will. God is drawing us.

What gives Scriptural support to that? Acts, chapter 16, verse 14. Paul’s preaching. There was a lady, Lydia, who was listening. It says, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized.”

Romans 10:20, Isaiah is prophesying. He’s giving us the words of the Lord and he says, “I have been found by those who did not seek Me. I have shown Myself to those who did not ask for Me.”

John, chapter 15, verse 16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.”

So we are not driven to Christ against our will, we are being drawn – which means this. God the Father’s work in your life that brings about salvation is prior, preeminent, and greater than any of the effort that you bring to the table. That’s the hard shell of it.

Now, here’s the thing. If you can bear through that there’s something that is deeply satisfying on the inside of that that is lasting. When you say, “You know what? It is God’s grace in my life. It is God who ran to me.” Now, here’s the response to this. It’s a dropping onto our knees to worship God in all humility.

Hey, this is what the parable of the prodigal son is all about. Don’t misunderstand the meaning of that. This prodigal son who tells his father that I wish you were dead, takes his share of his inheritance, runs off to a distant land and he realizes, “Okay, this isn’t what I planned,” he followed the impulses of his heart, “Okay, this isn’t what I thought it was going to be,” and he’s working as a ranch hand feeding pigs. And he’s going, “Man, what they eat is a lot more appetizing than what I’m eating right now. Maybe I’ll go back to my father’s place.”

Now here’s the thing. He wasn’t repenting. He wasn’t even thinking that it was on the radar that he could be received back as a son. He thought, “Well, maybe I’ll get a part-time job on my dad’s ranch.” So, he packs up all of his things and he’s walking home which is not Biblical repentance – he’s just going home because he’s starving.

What happens? His father is scanning the horizon, he sees his boy at a distance, and he forgets his own dignity. He picks up his garments and takes off in a full sprint to his son. He embraces his son and his son starts his rehearsed speech. His father doesn’t even let him get through it. He says, “No, no, no – none of that. Put the ring on the finger, the robe on his back, kill the fattened calf. My boy is home.” It was the father who reinstated the son. The boy didn’t do anything to deserve it. He didn’t do anything to ask for it. The father gave it to him. Friends that is unconditional love.

Now, does God choose me or do I choose Him? The answer is, yes. And if God is convicting you, breaking your heart, drawing you to Him, man, respond to that. Am I bothered that I can’t put things into a nice tight category and say, “That’s that.”? Not in the least. Does it bother me that God works in ways that I can’t possibly understand or fathom? Not in the least because if I could figure God out, then I’d be God. But God is God.

Now, Jesus goes on in verse 60 here. I want to finish this passage and I’ve got to move very quickly. Here’s the second difficulty of this passage, “When many of His disciples heard it, they said, ‘this is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” Any of you agree with that? Yeah, we’re kind of with you guys.

Verse 61, “But Jesus, knowing 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.”

Here’s what I want you to see. Jesus is speaking, not to the crowds, but to disciples. What does the word disciple mean? It means “learner”, it means “follower”, it implies that these are people who believe, these are people who are, supposedly, all in. And Jesus looks at a crowd of disciples and He says, “Hey, I’ve known all along that some of you don’t believe. That some of your hearts have not been fundamentally changed.” In other words, “You’ve been following Me or learning from Me for all of the wrong reasons.”

What makes this a hard teaching is that what Jesus just said here revealed the cancer in their souls. I’m willing to be that every single person in here has been touched by cancer, in some capacity. Whether it’s your own body or whether that’s a loved one, or a friend, or a co-worker. Many of you know that a few years ago my grandfather had cancer, pretty suddenly. He was diagnosed in February and he passed away in April.

Here’s what I know about that. I know that he had cancer long before we caught it. That’s the really crummy thing about cancer. Internally it can exist for a while without you ever detecting it. The same thing is true spiritually. Jesus is saying that there is this spiritual cancer that existed among the disciples that they hadn’t detected themselves. And when Jesus gave a really hard teaching, what the hard teaching did is that it brought the cancer up to the surface and many of them couldn’t hang with Him.

Jesus seems to be saying here, not only here but other places throughout the gospels, to be a false Christian is more dangerous than being a non-Christian because at least a non-Christian is honest about where they stand and they have an opportunity to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Somebody who’s following Jesus for the wrong reasons will feel the impulses of the Holy Spirit and potentially dismiss them until they no longer feel them anymore.

It’s startling how often this comes up in Jesus’ teaching. You have the parable of the 10 brides. Only five of them are waiting for the bridegroom. Five were not and that’s the five of them who were condemned.

Jesus one time told a parable of the wise and foolish builders who were contractors. They build houses that were very similar on the top but the foundations were fundamentally different. One was made of sand and one was made of brick and the storm came and it blew away the house that was built on sand.

One time, in Luke, chapter 9 there is a man who shows up and he says, “Jesus, I will follow You wherever You go.” And if you were Jesus, how would you have responded to that? “Hey, that’s fantastic news. That’s what I’ve been looking for. I’ve been looking for some more commitment.” But here’s how Jesus responds to him. Jesus says, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Do you know what Jesus is saying there? He says, “Have you really counted the cost? Do you really know what this is going to require of you?”

See, this is a really, really hard teaching that we oftentimes don’t want to think about. And neither did they because in verse 66 it says that many of them stopped following Jesus at this point. Many of them said, “This is too hard,” and they ended up walking away. Jesus is willing to lose followers over it. There’s something about that that just has a real authenticity to it. He says, “You know. This is a difficult truth. This is a difficult reality. But if you can bear through the hardness there’s something deeply satisfying that’s on the other side.”

So here’s what I want you to understand about the gospel message. It is a gift that you must receive while, at the same time, accepting an insult. And that’s not easy to do. If somebody gave you a gym membership for your birthday, you’ve got to receive that gift. And you basically have to say, “Thank you for telling me that I’m overweight. I appreciate that. I receive the gift. Thank you for the insult.”

If somebody gives you a book that says How to Win Friends and be a Nicer Person what are you thinking? You’re thinking, “Well, I accept this gift but I also receive the insult. Thank you.” Jesus gives you the gospel message and you basically have to say, “Thank You for the gift of eternal life. I receive that insult that I’m a sinner, that I’m fallen, that I can’t get beyond this on my own.”

Now, I know that some of you might be relating a bit to Peter right now. Peter watched all of these disciples walk away and I love Peter’s authenticity. Peter’s watching all of the people walk away and he’s going, “Man, they’re walking away and I think that I’m struggling with the same questions that they are.” Jesus turns to Peter and He says, “Peter, what about you? Are you going to walk away too?”

Jesus would ask that same question, I think, of all of us in this room today. What about you? Allow the sweetness, allow the hardness of that question penetrate your heart. What about you? And Peter is just like, “Where are we going to go? You have the words of life. This is a hard truth but you have the words of life.”

I know some of you, here in this room, are a little bit worried, a little bit fearful, “What if I’m a false disciple? What if I’ve been following Jesus for the wrong reasons?” Here’s where I want to give you some assurance. In 1 John, chapter 2, verse 28 it says, “And now little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have,” what’s the word there? “… confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.”

Here’s the question. How do I know if God is drawing me? If you are worried, concerned, broken by it – you’re being drawn. If you’re like, “Man, I could care less. Get me out of here. What time is lunch?” that should be concerning. And if God is drawing you, man, respond to the sweetness of that. Respond to that drawing nature and allow Him to pull you in.

See, there is such a thing as a counterfeit gospel and an authentic gospel. A counterfeit is always leading with this question, “I’m in the driver’s seat. What is in it for me?” Authentic gospel is, “I’m humbled and God is the One who is sovereign and in control.”

How many of you ladies have ever wanted to buy a designer purse but it was too expensive so you bought the knockoff? Any of you ladies in the room want to admit that? Several of you are loud and proud. Absolutely! That’s good stewardship, right? How many of you guys have ever wanted a Rolex but you’re like, “There’s no way I’m spending the cash for that so let me find the generic, let me find the knockoff.”

Now, here’s the difference between a counterfeit and an authentic. There are more counterfeits available, you can find them more readily, they are cheaper, and they won’t last. An authentic is harder to find, Jesus said something about narrow is the path that leads to life and few find it. It’s more costly than what you would like to spend, but it lasts.

That’s the difference between a counterfeit gospel and a real gospel. And if you can penetrate through the hardness of the shell, there’s something deeply satisfying on the other side of it. And I’d simply just ask you to soften your heart and respond to the wooing of God the Father, to swallow your pride, and to choose not to follow your heart until Jesus redeems it.

Father, we come to You right now and I thank You for Your word and I thank You especially for the difficulty of Your word because it’s in these moments where I have the opportunity to grow the most. So, Father, I pray that the teaching this morning comforted the afflicted and I pray that, if necessary, that it afflicted the comfortable, not to crush their spirit but to, hopefully, serve as smelling salts to their spirit that maybe they would come to recognize that perhaps they have been pursuing You, like these crowds in John, chapter 6 for all of the wrong reasons. God, thank You for the message that Jesus cannot be sampled. He’s not merely our friend. He’s not merely our co-pilot. He’s not merely our teacher. He’s our Savior. He’s our meat and our drink.

Father I pray that Your Spirit would fall freshly upon this room in these next few moments together as we just sing one more song in worship. That You would do spiritual surgery on hearts and minds. And if there is somebody here who needs to be – I fully believe that there will be somebody here who will say, “Today, on this particular Sunday in October that is when God the Father drew my heart to Him and I responded.” And maybe there would be somebody here who would say, “You know what? Honestly I’ve been drifting, I’ve been on a plateau, and I’ve been cooling to the winds of the Spirit for a long time. And on this Sunday in October God filled my sails once again and gave me the ability to see things that are only spiritually discerned.” So, we pray that You would come and You would meet us in this place in these final moments together. And we ask this in Jesus’ name. And the church says, “Amen.”