Although both John 5 and John 6 narrate the rejection of Jesus, these two chapters give us very different kinds of rejection. Among the Judeans in John 5, we see Jesus against the world, so that not even the man whom Jesus heals seems that interested in following Jesus. In John 6, however, the rejection of Jesus comes not from hostile enemies, but from people who have eagerly followed and sought out Jesus (John 6:2, 24). The narrative of John 6, then, does not primarily offer a judgment against the most outwardly rebellious, but a warning to those who are following Jesus, urging us to continue following Jesus, even when following him becomes hard.

Still, this passage does not drive us to despair, wondering if we are strong enough to resist the temptation of walking away from Jesus. In the final analysis, this is a passage about the way in which Jesus preserves his people rather than how we muster up the strength to drag ourselves across the finish line. To those who do not genuinely believe, Jesus’ words are scandalous and offensive, but that is not the case for Jesus’ own. For those who believe, Jesus’ words are spirit and life, assuring us of the reality of our faith, and driving us away from the possibility of apostasy. The message of John 6:60–71 is this: Jesus graciously preserves his people by promises, assurances, and warnings.

This morning our sermon text is from John 6:60-71. Hear the word of the Lord.

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 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. 64 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.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
John 6:60-71, ESV

This is the word of the Lord.

This past week, my wife and I took my daughter to what was called Kindergarten Roundup. It was a time for her to get an orientation to kindergarten, which she is going to be entering in next year. Evelyn loved it. She had a great time. My daughter got to go to her room where she was going to have kindergarten. They colored, they played games, they did all kinds of fun stuff. My wife and I, on the other hand, had to manage our two younger boys as we listened to an hour of educational theory and policies and procedures and laws related to the parents of kindergarteners. You tell me which of us got the better deal in this case.

One of the interesting things that I thought really kind of struck me was that they had a very clear plan for teaching kindergartners how to read. They have this whole plan about how they're going to try to help children to definitely recognize the letters, but which they should have already been working on at that stage. Apparently I don't really follow all this, but then they're going to work on seeing patterns and reading the same words over and over and over again. So they start to recognize that “see” is see. So I see John, I see Jack, I see the ball, I see whatever. Suddenly they start to recognize that word see is see. When they see it in other contexts, they'll recognize it there. Then they practice writing it and they slowly build up their vocabulary of the words that they can recognize by sight according to the pattern of them.

Now, for me, if you would have asked me, what's my educational theory for children teaching children to read, I probably would have said, well, I guess I could toss a book to my daughter and say, here kid read. I mean, it was just nothing anywhere, nearly that sophisticated. But these people who have gone through it knew the levers to pull in, the buttons to push to move children from a place of illiteracy, inability to read, to literacy. That's a remarkable thing.

In the passage we're looking at today, we're talking about perseverance. How do Christians make it all the way to the end? Notice here that among the people that the people who walk away from Jesus are called disciples. In verses sixty-one through sixty-six, and these disciples are the ones who fall away from Jesus who walk away from him, who no longer follow him. They are distinguished, though, from the twelve who do remain with Jesus, at least to this point. Then Jesus says, there's even one of you who is a devil who will ultimately betray me.

So the question is what is the process? What is the procedures by which believers are preserved all the way to eternity? Is it a lever that your pastor can pull? Do I know the buttons to push to make sure that you are definitely going to make it? Do I have to sign your permission slip to get into the eternal kingdom? Well, Jesus says it's not about me or about you.

Is there a 12 step plan that you can go through? Once you've jumped through all the hoops and you go through the process and you know that if you dot all of your i's and cross all of your t's, you're going to make it to the end. Well, Jesus says it's not that either. Jesus claims in this passage that he himself, Jesus, graciously preserves his people three ways.

Here's what we see in this passage; Jesus graciously preserves his people by promises, by assurances, and then finally by warnings. Jesus graciously preserves his people by promises, by assurances and by warnings.

1. Jesus Graciously Preserves His People by Promises
2. Jesus Graciously Preserves His People by Assurances
3. Jesus Graciously Preserves His People by Warnings

Jesus Graciously Preserves His People by Promises

Well, let's take this first idea that Jesus graciously preserves his people by promises. As we look at sort of the first couple of verses here, the first three verses. When we read in verse 60 that “When many have disciples heard it”, if we aren't familiar with what's happening here, what's just come before it? It isn't defined in the passage that we're looking at today, but we have to know what came last, what we looked at a couple of weeks ago.

Jesus has been preaching to the people that he is the bread of life, that anyone who comes to him will not thirst and anyone who believes in him will not hunger, in John 6:35. Moreover, Jesus teaches that he is the one that anyone who looks on him, who looks on the Son, verse 40, and believes in him should have eternal life, and Jesus says, I will raise that person up on the last day. Then finally, and this is where it gets hard, complicated, offensive, scandalous is when Jesus starts to proclaim in verse 54, that whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Now, what Jesus is not saying is that you're supposed to come at him with your teeth. He's giving a graphic metaphor for faith as the bread of life. Whoever comes to him will not hunger and whoever believes in him will not thirst. But we feed on him, not just as a good teacher, that we learn a lot from, not as an example that we sort of have to follow after, but as the one who gave his flesh to be broken and his blood to be shed through his crucifixion and resurrection.

For you, all those who look to Christ and him crucified, will be saved and will have eternal life. Jesus promises to raise us up on the last day. These disciples, all of these people, these Galilean Jews who are following him, they hear this. Remember they just wanted another free lunch, right? They were fed and they just want that again. They want to make him king. They thought he was the prophet.

Then when Jesus starts explaining who he actually is, this is what they found hard. This is a hard saying, verse sixty, who can listen to it. And Jesus describes it this way, he says, do you take offense at this? The word for “take offense” is the Greek word that we get our word scandalize. Does this scandalize you? Do you find this horrifying? Does this turn you off to me? And he asked this question of verse sixty-two, then what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before? In other words, what if you saw me in my glory coming on the clouds to inherit a kingdom that will never perish, according to the prophecy of the Son of Man in Daniel chapter seven?What if you see me fully revealed in my glory? Would you still be scandalized? Would you still take offense at all that I have spoken to you?

Here's what makes Jesus so scandalous. So you have this thirty something year old guy about my age. Jesus was probably a little bit thinner, I'm certain he had more hair. I mean, it's hard to go down from where I am. But Jesus was about my age standing in front of these people, declaring that he himself was the bread of life. They looked at him and said, you're just a man. How can you give us your flesh to eat and your blood to drink? How are you going to do the things that you say you are because they were looking at Jesus and judging him, according to the flesh.

They looked at his outward appearance and they couldn't discern that Jesus is who he says he is. That he is the Son of God. The Word who existed with God from all eternity past. The Word who is God who took on flesh, dwelt among us and did it for us and for our salvation. That's a scandalous thought, that's a scandalous thing. How do you claim that for yourself? It's still a scandal.

I mentioned at the beginning of the service that Jesus is not here bodily, with the eyes of the flesh judging according to outward appearances. This is the most ridiculous waste of time, what we are doing here right now. You have a 30 something, you know slightly overweight, definitely balding guy who is standing here preaching to you about a king whose reign and rule you can't see. You can't go out and check for yourself. I'm telling you he's in Heaven at the right hand of his Father. How are you going to verify that with your eyes, judging according to appearances? It's a scandal to proclaim that this Jesus has any claim over you whatsoever. That is scandalous, according to the eyes of the flesh.

So how then do we get from that scandal to recognizing by faith that there is a day coming when Jesus, the Son of Man, will come in glory? As it says in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.” How do we believe that? How do we order our lives according to some reality that we can't see in this life?

Well, Jesus continues in verse sixty-three and says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” You're trying to look at me and sort of size me up and evaluate me. Isaiah, the prophet, says this would be a person who would have no great appearance, no attractiveness that we should look on him. He wasn't a good looking guy. Jesus is saying, you can't size me up that way. You have to look with the eyes of faith. The only way that you will come to be able to do that is if the Holy Spirit gives you life to look on me differently than with the eyes of your flesh. You need eyes of faith to see me and evaluate me and size me up correctly. Not only that, Jesus also says in verse sixty-five, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

So the Spirit has to give you life, it has to be granted by the Father. Jesus also says, in verse sixty-three, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” I speak to you the words of spirit and life. I’m testifying to my promises that anyone who looks on me, who feeds, by faith, on my flesh and drinks, by faith, my blood, you will be saved. You'll have eternal life and I'll raise you up on the last day. Those are the promises I'm making. You in those words are Spirit and life, but apart from the life giving Spirit as you judge me according to your dead flesh, you'll miss it. Unless the Father has granted it to you, you'll miss it. Unless you cling to my promises, you'll miss it. The work of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is involved in bringing us.

How does this process work? How do we get to the end? How do we make it in faith into the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ? It's not about us. It's not about levers that you can push or a 12 step plan that you can implement, or even something that I can do as a pastor for you. All I can do is declare to you the words of Jesus, which are spirit and life. Then the Spirit has to take over from there, according to the will of the Father.

Jesus points to his promises. He says, what this will look like is for you to cling to my promises. For you to believe that I will be crucified, my flesh torn, my blood spilt for you, that it applies to you, that I went to the cross for you and to all those who believe that you will be saved.

But here's the question, right? How can we be sure that these promises are actually for us, for me? When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to get in the mail was a brown envelope. That said, you may already be a winner. Have you ever got one of those from Publisher's Clearing House? Well, when I was a kid, I mean, I'd seen the Prize Patrol on TV bringing around these giant cardboard checks of a million dollars. I wanted that. I could think of a whole lot of things that I could purchase with a million dollars.

So I begged my parents, come on, please let me fill out this application. We may already have won. Don't you get it? Well, my parents were patient and kind and tried to tell me, son, you're an idiot. I mean, they didn't use those words, but just thinking back on the time, that's not going to work. You didn't win, almost assuredly. In fact, some estimates put it that your odds are one in 1.2 billion to win Publisher's Clearinghouse sweepstakes. Nevertheless, I convinced my parents once they said, don't you dare buy anything. Once you can fill out this application, send it in, well, I didn't win, which probably doesn't surprise you because that's how it's meant to work. They want to sell you magazine subscriptions. I didn't win and I realized, OK, maybe some people do win. So there's a promise that has some reality, I may have already won, but almost certainly I haven't won.

Why does that work in our faith? Do you have the same odds of winning the Publisher's Clearinghouse sweepstakes as you do and being received by God through faith in Jesus? How do you know the promises are for you? For some of you, you say, oh pastor, if you knew my sin resume, if you knew all the places that I've been, all the places that I was this week, all the places that have been last night, this morning you'd probably devalue, mark down my odds, my probabilities. How could I possibly know that these promises are for me?

Jesus Graciously Preserves His People by Assurances

Well, Jesus gives these promises, but not only promises, he gives us assurances. In verse sixty-six, we read, “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?’” Now I always read that as sort of Jesus trying to sort of take the room temperature, just so I know so I can plan this whole, bringing the eternal kingdom into a broken, fallen world thing a little bit better. Are you going to stay or do I need to start over? Pick some new disciples, maybe try to build up some trust and credibility again differently with them.

That's not really what Jesus is asking. There's a little word, it's hard to bring out in English, but there's a little word in the Greek that is a negative word that expects a negative answer. It's like this, if you really wanted to sort of tease out the implications of this, you don't want to go away as well, do you? It's a question not of trying to gauge their temperature at the moment, but it's a question that Jesu asks to assure them that his promises are for them.

You see all these people walking away, but you're not going away, are you? Think about that. Look at that, observe that you're not going away, are you? Peter responds, Peter responds to this question of assurance and says, 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. We believe your words and we believe that you are the word made flesh, The Holy One of God. Where would we go? Where possibly could we go to fulfill the longings that we know that you satisfy?

Jesus is essentially saying, look, at that, recognize that. Notice that you are not leaving. Understand that is one of the chief ways in which you can be assured that these promises are for you, because you're not going anywhere, because you can't fathom going anywhere else.

If you have some time today, I'd recommend you get a copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith and open it up to chapter 18. The Westminster Confession of Faith is our doctrinal standards. Some of them are very, very detailed theology. Some of them are still theological, but they're very rich pastorally. Chapter 18 is on the idea of assurance and is one of those richly theological and pastoral chapters. We don't put the Westminster Standards above the scriptures. The scriptures are our sole authority, but as a church we believe, this leadership believes that the Westminster Confession of Faith are faithful expositions of the scriptures. That chapter about assurance is really remarkable.

It really helps to summarize and systematize the Bible's teaching on assurance. To say this, we can as believers and we should seek and expect assurance of our salvation. But. Some of you are saying I don't necessarily feel that strongly about my salvation. Honestly, some days it feels like I'm teetering on the brink.

Well, what it also says is we are not saved by our assurance. Your salvation is not dependent on how you feel on a certain day. Also, we believe that not everyone who is saved feels assurance. Assurance is something good that God gives as a gift. Jesus here asks this question to the twelve, noting, look, you're not going away. Do you see how that distinguishes you from those disciples who have? Yet assurance is also something that is not based on probabilities. It's not saying, well, if I can get something better than one in 1.2 billion, maybe one in two. It's not about that. It's also not based on what your pastor or elders think about you. I don't sign your permission slip into the kingdom.

So what is assurance? Assurance is something that's based on the infallible promises of Jesus. Go back to what he says, if you go back to what he says and believe that it is for you, it is for you. The only way you can believe what Jesus says is if the Spirit gives you life and the Father grants you to recognize that the words of Jesus, pointing to himself as the bread of life are spirit in life. If you believe, find assurance in the promises of Jesus.

Number two, the other thing that assurance does is it gives us inward evidence of those promises. When the spirit of adoption, Romans chapter 8 talks about this, testifies with our spirit that we are indeed children of God. Do you find yourself relating to the Father through the Son? That's an evidence that God is working in you, because that's not a natural posture.

Number three, whether we want to go away from Jesus or not, one of the main signs of assurance is that we don't go away. In 1 John 2:19, a letter that John the Apostle wrote, John writes, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” The point is stick with Jesus. The mistake that these false disciples make is that they turn back from Jesus. They turn back from Jesus.

Now you're not saved by church membership. You're not saved by how many Sundays you can come and have your seat in the pews here. You're saved by Jesus. One of the ways he distinguishes who his people are outwardly, are people actually continuing to follow Jesus. When you do, Jesus says, look, these promises are for you. Believe them, hold to them, cling to them. I'm not doing a bait and switch here. Keep following, even when you are doubting and confused.

Well, that brings us to our last question. Jesus preserves us by promises, by assurances.

Jesus Graciously Preserves His People by Warnings

But what happens if you're contemplating walking away from Jesus? What if you are tired of following Jesus and thinking, what would this look like to try something else to embrace that relationship that I know is wrong? To use those substances that I know will kill me. To cling to money as my unshakable hope of security? Well, Jesus preserves his people by one more means, by his warnings.

Look at what Jesus says in verse 70. Jesus again, assuring them, saying you're still with me, but he gives the reason for this in verse 70. Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”

Now how's that for an assurance, right? If I said, guess what, all of you were saved, but there's one of you here who is a devil? Imagine that Jesus doesn't tell the disciples which one of them is a devil, which one of them is going to betray them. So much like in Matthew 26:22, they probably start asking around, is it I, am I the one? Am I going to betray you? Is it me?

This is the way that warnings work for true believers, and I want you to hear this. Jesus gives you warnings for your benefit. There guardrails for our lives, for a true believer. The way that a warning works to hear this, one of you is a devil and start to ask yourself, please don't be me, not me. It can't be me. Please let it not be me. You start thinking to yourself and working your way through what some people call a pre-mortem.

Have you ever heard of this? Sometimes people do post-mortems where they look back on something that's clearly failed and say, well, here were the reasons five years ago this happened, that happened and that happened. If we had dealt with that better, if we had addressed it at all, if we had gone a different direction, then probably things would not have failed in the way they have. A pre-mortem reverses the order. They say five years from now, what's happening in your life today that you'll look back on and say, I wish I would have repented. I wish I would have brought the sin that I was keeping in darkness out into the light. I wish I would have believed. I mean, understand. For those who reject the promises of Jesus, there will be an eternity to do a post-mortem. I wish when I heard the gospel I would have believed.

What's in your life right now? If you hear this warning not to be a devil, not to betray Jesus. If you start taking inventory of your life, not because you will be saved by being able to confess every one of your sins because there are too many that you can't possibly recognize. That's why Psalm 139, says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” Jesus is giving us this warning here to start taking inventory of our lives so that we can repent, because that is the means by which Jesus preserves his people.

On the other hand, if you are a devil, I'm using Jesus words. If you are someone who will eventually betray Jesus, here's what this looks like. You will hard heartedly allow these words to wash over you. You let them go in one ear and out the other. Right now, as you hear this warning, you'll rationalize your sin. Well, look, I've got to have this over here or this is going to go wrong. I know Jesus has told me no over here, but frankly, I just don't care anymore. You will start to ask yourself who's ever going to know. Ignoring the fact that sin will always find us out, not always in this life. Yet if Jesus is really the king when he comes as the Son of Man in glory, your sin will find you out.

You might even fake contrition. Like all of us, we confessed our sins today, right? As Jesus told us in his word, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. These are questions that we have to ask. All of us. All of this false repentance, all of this hiddenness to our lives. All of this conspiracy or conspiring to betray Jesus. This is to still judge Jesus by the flesh.

I don't see an omniscient Son of God here. I don't see the Son of Man coming in glory. If I bring the sin into the light, I'm going to lose position, respect, money. I'm going to lose relationships. Who's ever going to know if Jesus wants to call me out? Let him come here and call me out.

What if you see the Son of man Ascended to where he was before? That's the warning of the gospel, and it's serious. As we consider apostasy, it's something we have to weigh and measure appropriately in our lives. Understand this isn't to cause you to become morbidly introspective. This isn't to cause you to sort of spend the rest of your life firmly with your eyes planted on your navel, navel gazing for the rest of your days. This is to lead you back to the promise that Jesus Christ died for you. He died for you. His flesh was torn. His blood was spilled for you. Not because he's trying to play bait and switch. Not because he's trying to trick you. Not because he's trying to mislead you. Because his promise is for all those who look upon the son and believe.

Here are the promises. Seek his assurance, but heed the warnings. Heed the warnings to come back to the promise that Jesus Christ will save all those who believe in him.

Let's pray. Father, we ask today that you would grant your people grace. You’ve got to show us our hidden faults. Search us, know us. God, we are fearfully and wonderfully made and you alone know our inward parts. You alone know the depths of our thoughts. Father, we pray, will you show us our sin and lead us by your Spirit to repent and come again to Jesus? One year from now, five years from now, an eternity to come, let us not look back on this morning as we hear your voice and say, I wish I wouldn't have hardened my heart. God, we look to your Spirit for grace to give us life, to respond in faith to the promises that Jesus makes for us. We pray this in the name of your son, our king who is reigning and who will return as the Son of Man in glory. In Jesus name. Amen.