“Words that Cause Stumbling” John 6:59-64
Last week we ended with these verses from John 6:56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."
Life with God in His Kingdom is only by the gift of God-given faith by Believing into Jesus. People who are “blessed”, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, are those whom He has granted a new birth from above. Those who are believers by faith understand and receive Jesus as the only way into God’s Kingdom: He is the Living Bread which came down out of Heaven. Without partaking of Him, one does not have forgiveness of sins nor life eternal. Life is in Jesus Christ. Today we examine John 6:59-63:
“These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. 60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? 62 "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe."
THE MARKS OF THOSE WHO “STUMBLE” and QUIT “THE RACE”
Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum His self-proclamation as the “Bread of Life,” “the Living Bread”, that He was the only Mediator Messiah sent from Heaven by God; Jesus said that you had to spiritually “eat of His Body and drink of His Blood if you were going to “abide in Christ” and have a place in God’s Kingdom. When many of His disciples heard it they said , 'This is a difficult or hard saying or teaching; who can listen, accept or hear it?' This is one of the marks of people who drop out of the Christian cause, those who “quit the race”, those who do not continue to follow the Savior: They take offense at difficult truths or teachings, the teachings cause them to stumble and they quit the race and turn to something or someone who is more pleasing to their senses and understanding.
The word that Jesus uses in verse 61 referring to “stumbling” is “skandalizo” meaning “to offend, to give offense, to cause to stumble.” Peter later explains the significance of people being offended at the Words of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:7-8: This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone," 8 and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE "; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.” So very important!
By their grumbling at the teaching of Jesus, they indicated that they were no longer going to consider what Jesus had just taught; it was too hard to understand and they would not continue to listen, hear, or follow Jesus. Verse 66 makes that clear: As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” WALKING WITH JESUS is what disciples of Jesus do!
One of the teachings or doctrines that Jesus was teaching was that of the Trinity, the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son (the mouthpiece or Word of God in the flesh-that’s why the WORD OF GOD is so important in the life of the one who is following Jesus!) Many people say, "I don't understand the Trinity. I can’t accept that: How can God be one and yet be three Persons?" I don’t fully understand it either, but I believe it, and I understand that in the Triune God there is a deep and marvelous truth about ETERNAL RELATIONSHIP that is extremely rich. Jesus prayed for His Body, the Church in this way in John 17:21: “That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”An understanding of the Perfect unity of the Trinity gives us an understanding of the beautiful activity and life of the Church, the Body of Christ serving the Head who is Jesus, the fellowship, love and unity of the Saints, and the beauty of Christian marriage.
Many other difficult teachings tend to frustrate so-called “Christians”: the fact that the King of Glory achieved salvation for sinners by dying a bloody and horrible death on a cross was a shock to many Jews and pushes many away from the Gospel today. But many people do not want to be bothered with searching out anything that is difficult… If you become bothered by difficult doctrines, sooner or later you will almost certainly drop out of the Christian race: Difficult doctrines offend many people. Much of the Church today avoids tough teachings of Jesus to please people.
Jesus repeated the doctrine of election in verse 65: “And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." This is a repetition of John 6:44: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” I have met many people who have been offended by this teaching of Jesus, reiterated by Paul and Peter, as well as John in Revelation. They will cause divisions in church fellowship and attack others while refusing to acknowledge God’s Sovereign role in calling sinners to salvation.
Another mark of Christians who quit the race is that many people hold fast to symbols and miss the spiritual essence or reality of the Savior’s Words. In Chapter 2, Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again," (John 2:19). The Leaders immediately thought he was talking about the beautiful building that stood on the top of Mt. Moriah, when Jesus was actually speaking of the temple of his body, which was symbolized by the temple building. In chapter 3, Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about being born again or being born from above, BORN OF GOD, but Nicodemus thought about gynecology. In chapter 4, the woman at the well thought only of physical water instead of Jesus being the only One who could satisfy the hungering and thirsting of one’s soul. In chapter 5, the crowds refused to recognize Jesus as being the one who gives Life, choosing to honor the words of Moses but refusing to believe that Jesus was the fulfillment of Moses’ words. In chapter 6, the crowds are pleased by the sign and miracle of being provided physical food, but reject Jesus as Deity and as the one and only Mediator sent from God’s Heaven to human kind, sent as the Bread of Life.
The Supreme Glorification of Jesus to the Father came by way of the Cross. The suffering of Jesus on the Cross was the hour for which He entered the world, but the glorification is not only seen in Jesus’ absolute obedience to the Father in all things, which led Him to the Cross, but this Supreme Glory involves His resurrection and ascension, which is the proof that his sacrifice was acceptable by the Holy Almighty God.
But unregenerate man cannot fathom this Divine Wisdom of God (which we have been seeing as well in the book of Proverbs; Listen to these words from Isaiah 50:11: “Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and among the brands you have set ablaze. This you will have from My hand: You will lie down in torment.” Isaiah presents a picture of the natural man, the man of the flesh, depending on his own wisdom to get things going, kindling fires everywhere by his own natural mind and energy.
Paul warns in Galatians 6:8: “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Paul is just working off of Jesus’ Words from John 3:6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (In John 3:6 Jesus was explaining John 1:12-13: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Many people hold fast to spiritual symbols, to crosses, to formats, church buildings, traditions of men, even the honoring the sacraments for the physical while they miss the spiritual reality. Many understand the disciplines of worship, prayer, the preaching and the studying of God’s Word as purely legalistic tools of pleasing God without really communing and fellowshipping with the God who created and saved them. Jesus said: "My words are spirit and life." Anything else is of the flesh and profits nothing. 2 Timothy 3:5 warns Christians practicing “a form of godliness but denying its power.”
Look at verses 62-63: What the text really says is, "Jesus said, 'If you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before (and then we have to supply the words which the Greek anticipates) then you would know that it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail." The Symbols of the faith are not the message but point to the spiritual reality of the reality of the Gospel. Jesus is hinting, “If you follow me to the end of my ministry here on earth and see me ascending back from whence I came, then you would know that I am the only one who can give you life, and that your fleshly striving is in vain.
In John 6:27, Jesus had just warned: "Do not work for the food which perishes,(for the physical) but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal." The Father has set His stamp and seal of approval and authenticity upon the ETERNAL Son whom He has sent from His side: LISTEN TO HIM. FOLLOW Him because what He says will lead you to eternal life. The only way to be saved is to “TAKE Jesus INTO YOU” for spiritual life as you take food into your body for your physical existence. Receive Him as the only way to live and be right before God.
It is the Spirit who gives Life.
Jesus’ response in verse 63 is plain: “It is the Spirit who gives Life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are Life.” “THE SPIRIT MAKING ALIVE is a thoroughly Biblical thought. The Old Testament word for Spirit (literally, wind) is “ruah” or “ruwach”, translated in the Septuagint and New Testament as “pneuma” or “spirit”. It is not hard to think of Genesis:1:2…”and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” when Spirit is discussed as giving life, although in Ezekiel 37:5-6 we find a much closer parallel.” (G. F. Boesenecker, Exegetical Notes, John 6, p. 33)
5"Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 'I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'”
In the New Testament, especially in John’s Gospel, it is clear that it is the Spirit who gives new life, spiritual life in the “new birth from above” (John 3:3-8). And so in the Scriptures, the Spirit is not only the breath of God, but the Spirit is the animating, life-giving and life-sustaining principle of all life. In the new birth it is the Spirit of God who grants that new life as a gift from above.
“The Flesh profits nothing.”
Jesus adds: “The flesh profits nothing.” He is not using “flesh” as everything that is sinful: He does not mean that the flesh does not or should not exist. The Word came to earth in the “flesh” and died a bodily death, and rose in a resurrected body. The key here is the context of the Bread of Life teaching and what comes next in verse 63: “The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are Life.” Only when we look to the spirit of Jesus’ sayings through the eyes of the Spirit-filled person do we find the true meaning. The words of Jesus possess an eternal perspective and meaning, actually they provide Life to the one who believes and follows Him as Savior and Lord. When our focus is on the physical or the flesh, we miss the significance of Jesus’ Words. A fleshly view draws ones attention to the literal words of “eating Jesus’ flesh” and “drinking His Blood” and that would be automatically offensive to anyone but cannibals!
“Jesus’ Words…are Spirit and are Life.”
Jesus exclaims that the words which He just spoke concerning Himself are “Spirit and Life”. If you receive His Words and truly believe they will continue to have an effect on you. John 5:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Jesus’ Words impart Life beyond the physical, as a matter of Biblical fact, truly believing what Jesus said and what He did on the cross brings ETERNAL LIFE.
In the OT in Deut. 8:3-4, God’s Word brought life too: "He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” The reality came to the prophet in Jeremiah 15:16: “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jesus’ Words are God’s Words and the Words spoken by God Jesus’ Words are spiritually active in the new life from above. Ezekiel 2:8-3:3 “The way to feed on Christ is to cherish and obey His Words; they are spiritual life-giving words. Hearing and believing them bring a person from spiritual death to life in Christ.
Jesus’ life is to be received in our innermost being, believing into Him and trusting Him solely for our spiritual sustenance, gives us eternal life. His words spring up to eternal life. Back in Isaiah 50:10, Isaiah foretold this to those who would believe in the Name of the LORD: “Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.” TRUSTING IN THE NAME OF the LORDL JESUS is trusting in what He both said, and what He accomplished. It is what the word of God means by believing into the name of Jesus. Has He come into your innermost being and given you Life and forgiveness? That’s what it means to ACCEPT Jesus Words: His words have not caused you to stumble, but to come to the Savior in faith. Praise His Holy Name.
OUTLINE
I. Marks of those who “stumble” and “quit the Christian race”.
A. Many take offense at difficult teachings, stumble, and quit the race.( 1 Peter 2:7-8, John 17:21)
B. Many people hold fast to symbols and miss the spiritual essence or reality of the Savior’s Words. (Gal 6:8, John 3:6, 1:12-13, 2 Tim 3:5, Isa 50:11)
II. “It is the Spirit who gives Life.” (Gen:1:2, John 3:3-8, Ezekiel 37:5-6)
A. The Spirit is the animating, life-giving and life-sustaining principle of all life.
B. The Spirit of God grants a new life and birth as a gift from above.
III. “The Flesh profits nothing.”
A. Jesus does not mean that “the flesh” does not or should not exist.
B. If our focus is on the physical (or the flesh), we miss the significance of Jesus’ Words.
IV. The Word of Jesus are Spirit and are Life.” (John 5:24, Deut. 8:3-4, Jere 15:16, Ezekiel 2:8-3:3)
A. Jesus’ Words impart Life beyond the physical.
B. Jesus’ Words are spiritually active in the new life from above.
C. Jesus’ life is to be received in our innermost being, believing into Him and trusting Him solely for our spiritual sustenance, even to eternal life.( Isaiah 50:10)
“Sad to say, far too often congregations become measured by the three B’s: Bodies, Building and Budget.” (“What Does a Mature Christian Look Like?” (Douglas Aldrink)
