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[0:00] Amen. Okay, kiddos, you are excused to your King's Kids class.! In 2018, the internet was abuzz with this audio test.

[0:38] A computer-generated name was named to test which name you heard. Either you would hear Yanni or Laurel.

[0:49] So, computer-generated, the name was named. Those who heard it heard a name. Some hear Yanni. Some heard Laurel. And I was just, there's no way that this is actually happening.

[1:03] So, I thought I'd run a test. So, Zach, come on in. So, I'm like, Zach, stop in the doorway. And I hit play. And the computer-generated name was named.

[1:14] And Zach was a little confused. What? He didn't even know he was in my office. I'm like, okay, let me do it again. I played. I'm like, what are you here? And he's like, Yanni? And I'm like, you got to come around to my computer screen.

[1:27] Because I'm like, Zach, I hear Laurel. You hear Yanni. I hear Laurel. What's up with that? I'm not making this up. This is no joke.

[1:39] How is it possible that two people hearing the same computer-generated name are hearing two different names? How is that possible? Two different responses.

[1:53] In John chapter 6, verses 60 through 71, there are two groups of people. Both the gospel of John, John says, are disciples of Jesus.

[2:06] And they both hear what Jesus has said. In John 6, verse 53, Jesus says this, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

[2:22] If you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no eternal life. So one group of His disciples hear this and say, this is a hard saying.

[2:34] Who can listen to it? And they turn back and stop walking with Jesus. The other group of His disciples hear and say, Lord, to whom shall we go?

[2:50] You have the words of eternal life. All of these are described as disciples. But one group says, we can't stomach this.

[3:05] We're out. And the other group says, we can't get enough of this. We're going to eat you up and follow you all of our days. How do you explain the difference?

[3:17] Well, in this passage, Jesus actually explains the difference. He explains why there are some disciples, disciples who stop walking with Him, and why there are other disciples who stick with Him.

[3:36] So let me read John chapter 6, 60 through 71. Hear God's Word. When many of His disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying.

[3:50] 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?

[4:05] 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.

[4:15] For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray Him. And Jesus said, this is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted to Him by the Father.

[4:31] 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?

[4:45] 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?

[4:58] 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.

[5:09] So we have two groups of disciples with two very different responses all to the same thing they've heard Jesus say. So let's look at both groups.

[5:20] The first one is the disciples who walk away from Jesus. This is in verses 60 through 66. Let's call them false positive disciples. Look at verse 60.

[5:34] When many of His disciples heard it, at this time, Jesus has a lot of people following Him. Last week, we were looking at a group of people who Jesus had fed and filled their stomachs at that miracle in which He feeds the 5,000, more like 15,000 to 20,000.

[5:54] They come looking for Him, and then He basically says, I'm the bread of life, and they're like, we don't want that. This group of people, here in verse 60, is a group of people who've been following Jesus.

[6:13] They're not the same group who've just had their tummies filled. And so it's a different group of people, and they have at least somewhere along the way committed to following Jesus, walking with Him, learning from Him, seeing Him do wonderful things.

[6:31] And I just want you to notice the word it. When many of His disciples heard it contextually, that's what He just said, has been talking about. We can talk about it as what He just said in verse 53.

[6:43] Truly, truly, I say to you, you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood in order to be saved. Look at their response. This is a hard saying. The heart of it, the heart is not trying to figure it out.

[7:01] It's not that kind of heart. The heart of it is it's disgusting. It's hard to stomach. It's distasteful. Who can listen to this?

[7:12] Do you? Did you hear Him? Does He actually want us to eat His flesh and drink His blood? They are taking it as literal cannibalism.

[7:27] But what we know is that Jesus has actually called them to a very radical dependence on Him by faith. This is not a literal eating of Jesus.

[7:41] This is a spiritual taking in of Jesus in a radical dependence. But they didn't hear that. In verse 61, we read, but Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense at this?

[8:02] Jesus didn't overhear them like He did last week. He overheard last week these Jews who were grumbling. Not according to this verse. He knows inside of Himself, which means He's got this divine knowledge of what is going on in these quote-unquote disciples.

[8:22] And He overhears. He knows, doesn't overhear, He knows that they are grumbling over what He said. What is grumbling? Grumbling is a kind of complaining.

[8:34] It's verbalized complaining. It's a kind of whining. It's a questioning. And when it's spoken of in relationship to God, you are questioning God.

[8:52] And more often than not, grumbling leads to gossiping. And so you kind of grumble to others about someone else.

[9:05] This is the second group of people who've been grumbling in John 6 alone. If you look back at verse 41, so the Jews grumbled about Him, Jesus, because He said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven.

[9:18] And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? They're like, hey, this is weird. Isn't He Joe and Mary's son? We know where He's from.

[9:32] Why should we believe this? This is weird. What's interesting about all this grumbling in John 6 and Jesus claiming to be the bread of life is that it parallels Exodus 16, where Israel has been brought out, delivered from Egypt by God.

[9:50] He brings them out into the wilderness and they start grumbling because they don't have food to eat. They want to go back to their meat pots in Egypt. And that's where God miraculously provides manna in the wilderness.

[10:05] Jesus has just claimed to be the bread of life. This is Jesus' way of saying, I am the new and better manna.

[10:15] Not this flaky honey kind of stuff you find on the ground every morning. I'm the manna that came in the flesh. And Jesus asks them a question in verse 61.

[10:28] Jesus doesn't let up. In verse 61, He asks them, do you take offense at this? That word offense comes from a word in the original language.

[10:45] that we get the word scandal from. Just imagine Jesus. Do you find this scandalous, what I've just said? Look what He then says in verse 62.

[10:59] Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? Here's what Jesus is saying. If you find my words about eating my flesh and drinking my blood scandalous, wait till you see me ascend to the glory I had before with my Father.

[11:18] Now when you hear the word ascend, because I know you're all theologically astute, have solid Christologies, you're like, I hear ascend and I think His ascension. Christ's death, His resurrection, 40 days later, He ascends.

[11:33] This is Acts 111. But that's not the ascension that John is talking about here. In the Gospel of John, John emphasizes something about Jesus.

[11:45] He talks about, over and over again, about Jesus being lifted up. That it will be the hour of His glory. What he's actually referring to is being lifted up, ascending on the cross, and He will return to the glory that He had before with His Father at the cross.

[12:14] So Jesus is like saying, if you think me saying something about eating my flesh and drinking my blood is scandalous, wait till you see the Holy One of God hanging from a cross.

[12:28] That's scandalous. And that's exactly what a Jew would think. The Messiah nailed to a cross? Oh, the shame of it.

[12:41] It would have been disgusting to their ears. The promised one, the King of Kings hanging from a cross? The promised one, in 1 Corinthians 1, 18-25, the Apostle Paul gets at this scandal.

[13:05] Listen to what he says. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

[13:17] For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?

[13:28] 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.

[13:40] For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews. scandalous.

[13:54] In 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 man.

[14:07] So this scandal of the cross, do you take offense at what I'm saying? It's like, wait till you see me hanging from the cross.

[14:19] Here's what this means. When we proclaim Jesus to people who's been crucified on the cross for our sins, people are going to hear one of two things.

[14:33] They will hear either scandal, disgusting, why would God ever do that? I don't need that. Or salvation. salvation. This is music to my soul.

[14:49] In verse 63, we read, it is the spirit who gives life. This is Jesus speaking. It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life.

[15:01] Remember John 3, Jesus with Nicodemus. Jesus is trying to make this case. The spirit, it's the spirit who gives life. It is the spirit who gives rebirth. It is the spirit who initiates something in a dead sinner that enables them to believe to be born again.

[15:21] Here's what the spirit of God does. When we're preaching Christ, here's what the spirit of God is doing. The spirit of God tunes the heart of a sinner to the words of life.

[15:37] Jesus has been talking about this. That's what he's getting at in verse 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

[15:48] That's what he means in verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. That's what he's getting at here in verse 65. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.

[16:04] grumbling, questioning, taking offense at Jesus, finding him scandalous, reveals that someone has not truly believed in Jesus.

[16:20] Do you remember back in the year 2020, 2021? There was something that swept the nation. Maybe you don't remember. COVID-19.

[16:30] I mean, anybody tested? I was... There was a percentage of people that were tested, though, who were false positives, which means this.

[16:44] They would go to the hospital, they would get tested for COVID, it would show up positive, but they're actually not carrying the virus. They're fine. What we're talking about here is false positive Christians, false positive disciples.

[17:03] Those who've seen Jesus would even say that they're followers of Jesus, but they haven't been genuinely drawn to Jesus. They haven't been granted by God the Father to come to Jesus.

[17:15] They will eventually be exposed. So what we're seeing here in this first group who take offense is a false positive disciple.

[17:35] Christians, so-called Christians who at one point start following Jesus, and then they become disenchanted, and they turn back and stop walking with Jesus, verse 66.

[17:51] these people have not received Jesus. And you can tell by the way that they're receiving these words about Jesus himself.

[18:03] Now, in our day, in our culture, this happens on a regular basis. People don't take offense today at saying eat Jesus' flesh and drink his blood.

[18:18] They just think that's nonsense. offense. But when you say something like this, did you know that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and life? No one comes to the Father but through me? Did you know that Jesus is denying any other human philosophy or religion as a means of being saved and going to heaven?

[18:36] Did you know that? Did you know that when Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and life, no one comes to the Father but through me, that he is making an exclusive claim to salvation.

[18:50] Do you know what? People will be offended by that. You can do an experiment. This week at work say that. People find that incredibly offensive in a pluralistic society that we live in where everybody wants to have kind of like, you know, we're all worshiping the same God.

[19:08] Jesus does not allow that. And his substitutionary death matters. So these false positive disciples, they eventually turn back from following Jesus verse 66.

[19:29] They stop walking with Jesus. And what's important here, this isn't some kind of doubting. This is like, I'm done. This is not a temporary thing, a temporary crisis of faith and then you return.

[19:44] No, this is, I'm done. I'm disgusted by this. I don't want to be known with him. That's what's going on here. That's a false positive disciple.

[19:57] They will not stick with Jesus all the way to the end. They turn from walking with him. So now let's turn and pivot to true positive disciples, the disciples who stick with Jesus all the way to the end.

[20:10] This is verses 67 through 71. We just saw in verse 66. There are many so-called disciples who will turn from walking with Jesus.

[20:20] They'll say that they're done. Maybe you know some. But in verse 67, look what Jesus does. He doesn't like, oh, please don't go.

[20:36] Verse 66, he turns to the 12. Do you want to go too? Do you want to go away as well? Jesus turns to his 12, the OG disciples, right?

[20:52] Peter and the gang. Do you guys want to go join the other false positives? Here's what I think is going on here.

[21:02] I think this is a test. It's like Jesus is saying, hey guys, I'm not holding you here against your will. You're free to go.

[21:18] You're free to go with the other false positives. You go ahead. Jesus already knew how these 12, at least 11 of the 12 would answer.

[21:31] Because if he already knew who would not believe, it makes sense that he would already know who would believe, even if one of them would betray them. It's like Jesus right here, he's like anteing up with his disciples.

[21:46] He's like, are you guys in? Are you all in? And if you're not all in, you can go with him.

[22:00] In verse 68, Peter, the spokesman of the 12, answers Jesus' question. And with the help of D.A. Carson, he answers in two sections.

[22:14] Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Do you know what Peter's saying right there?

[22:26] Who else are we going to go to? You're it. You are the exclusive Savior of the world. you are the one and only.

[22:38] You are it. Lord, who else are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. You are the source of eternal life.

[22:48] You are the bread of life. You're the resurrection in the life. You are the way, the truth, and the life. You are the good shepherd who laid his life down for the flock. You are the gate into the sheepfold.

[23:01] you are it. Did you notice that Peter starts with Lord? Lord.

[23:12] I don't know how he said it. I'd love to. Lord, Master, we know who you are.

[23:26] We're not going with them because we know you, Master. There is no other.

[23:38] You are the way, the truth, and life. No one can come to the Father but through you. And in verse 69, he says, we have believed and we've come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

[23:53] There seems just to be a little click up between we have believed and have come to know. It's moving from saying this is true and yes, I agree to being I am utterly convinced.

[24:09] This is not just a belief that we associate with like intellectual assent or agreement. This is a kind of belief that results in conviction that, yeah, man, I'm all in, unwavering.

[24:28] uncompromising, unyielding. So let me ask you, have you come to believe that? Have you become convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is the Holy One of God, that salvation is found in no one else, that He alone has the words of eternal life because He's totally God and totally man who died on the cross and in that is the fountain of eternal life.

[24:55] have you come to believe that? Are you convinced of that? Are you ready to stand your ground on that? Unwavering, uncompromising, unyielding, a full commitment to an exclusive claim of Jesus.

[25:17] Now, what do you think Jesus would do upon Peter's confession? Here's what I would have done. I'm like, Peter, that's awesome. High five. Ooh, ah, yes.

[25:31] One of those. That's not what Jesus does. Look what Jesus does. It's kind of like, wah, wah.

[25:48] Did I not choose you, the 12? 12? And yet one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him.

[26:04] I mean, you're thinking like, when Peter drops a dime like that, Jesus would be like, you finally got it! Yes! Did I not choose you?

[26:15] what Jesus is doing here is, he's not intentionally trying to discourage the disciples. He's just reminding him, them, of his grace.

[26:31] You didn't choose me, I chose you. Remember, all that the Father gives me will come to me. Simon, you're one of them.

[26:43] Remember, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Simon, the only way that you can say what you just said is that God has drawn you to me.

[26:56] That there's a spirit work in you that has resulted in a confession. That's not from you, Peter.

[27:08] Listen to this. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others say Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

[27:24] And Jesus said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Holy One of God, in other words. And Jesus answered, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

[27:50] Guys, I didn't, you didn't choose me, I chose you. It's all grace, from beginning to end. Jenny and I like watching medical dramas.

[28:01] and there will be these situations in the ER where they'll roll in somebody who's dead.

[28:13] They hook them up to the machine thing, beep, flatline. You know what they do? They get the pads out. Zip, zip, zip, zip, clear, hands up, zip, zip, they run electricity through their body.

[28:34] They're looking to jump start a dead heart. Zip, doesn't work, juice it, dial it up, zip, didn't work, juice it, dial it up, bap, thump, thump, thump, thump, sinus rhythm, they're back to life.

[28:51] It's a wonderful picture. When we come out of our mamas, we're dead in our sin. Flatline. No interest. No inclination to God.

[29:05] That's Romans chapter 3. None. And then God in His grace, by Holy Spirit power, He quickens us. He zaps us.

[29:17] He gives us new life that immediately results in a confession of life. You're the Holy One of God. Whom will we go?

[29:27] You have the words of eternal life. We believe, we've been convinced that you alone are our salvation. Jesus has chosen us.

[29:42] We haven't chosen Him. It's humbling, isn't it? It's a good humbling. This passage is essentially a contrast of two responses.

[29:57] Jesus has made it clear in 653, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, the Holy One of God, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

[30:12] The first response is false, positive disciples. Who can stomach these words? we're out.

[30:24] They don't believe. There's no life in them. They haven't been drawn by God. It was just a matter of time before they're exposed. Like the parable of the soils? But true positive disciples, when they hear something scandalous like, eat my flesh, drink my blood, God, when they hear something totally crazy, like God incarnate died on the cross for my sins, they don't hear scandal, they hear salvation.

[31:00] They hear life. And they want to eat Him up. They're like, oh, this is so good. I believe and I'm convinced you're the Holy One of God.

[31:11] I will live for you, not myself. how can these two groups of His disciples have heard the same words but have very different responses?

[31:27] Well, the difference that Jesus gives us is one is being drawn by God the Father and the other is not. These are deep theological waters. But that's what Jesus has said.

[31:41] And maybe you're in your pew wondering, whoa, whoa, whoa. what about me? What does this mean for me? Well, let me just run the audio test on you.

[31:56] When you hear Jesus say, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat my flesh, flesh of the Son of Man and drink my blood, ye will not have life. When you hear that, what are you hearing?

[32:11] Are you hearing scandal? Or are you hearing salvation? Let me just urge you, by way of application, to make Peter's confession this morning your confession.

[32:31] Make it yours. If you're not a Christian in the room, but you've had this sense that this Christianity you've never really thought of before, you're like, boy, this has got substance.

[32:46] This makes sense to me. It's hard to believe that God incarnate would die on the cross for my sins, but boy, I see it. Guess what?

[32:58] You're being drawn by God. And so what you need to do is you need to come to Jesus. And so you pray, Lord, where else shall I go?

[33:11] you alone have the words of eternal life. Give me this life. And at that moment, your eternity just changed.

[33:24] And then you join a church, a nobody church like Christ the King Church, and together we follow Jesus. let's say you think you are a Christian.

[33:39] You think you are a Christian. This passage is a little sobering. There's a warning in it, isn't there?

[33:51] It's possible to think of yourself as a disciple of Jesus when you're actually not. You're a false, positive disciple. Or at least you can be.

[34:03] A dino. A disciple in name only. What do you do? You examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.

[34:19] You just take stock. Are you grumbling? Are you pushing back against Jesus' exclusive claim to be the only savior of the world?

[34:33] Do you find that embarrassing or disgusting or offensive? Do you want to disassociate? Is this exclusive claim that Jesus is making, is it actually scandalous to you, even though you're walking through kind of the motions of kind of weekly Christianity?

[34:51] Christianity? If it's scandalous to you and you do not want to walk with Jesus, can I urge you to stop calling yourself a Christian because you're not?

[35:11] But if it's salvation you're hearing, you're a true positive disciple. But there are no high fives this morning.

[35:25] Remember, you did not choose him, he chose you. The Father has drawn you by the Spirit unto Christ.

[35:38] It's only by his Spirit that you have been able to confess, Lord, to whom else will I go? You have the words of eternal life.

[35:51] It's humbling, isn't it? Maybe in your pew and you're like, why me? Why not my neighbor? Why not my workmate?

[36:04] Let me answer that with a verse from Ephesians, two verses from Ephesians 2. For by grace, you have been saved through faith.

[36:16] It is not your own doing. It's not a work of your flesh. It's of no help. It's the gift of God. Not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

[36:31] There is absolutely no boasting in oneself around the throne of Jesus. None. There is only boasting in Jesus and what he has done.

[36:46] And so for those who are true positive disciples, we don't hear scandal, we hear salvation. Do you know why Zach hears Yanni and Mike hears Laurel?

[37:05] Zach has better hearing than I do. He can hear higher frequencies than I can. He hears things that I can't hear.

[37:18] Do you know why some sinners believe in Jesus unto eternal life, but most do not? Jesus says in 65, no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.

[37:37] It's only by grace. And when that saving word, these words of eternal life, when that is heard, you want to eat them up.

[37:53] You can't get enough. Stick with them to the end. let's pray together. Lord Jesus, where else will we go?

[38:09] You have the words of eternal life. We've come to believe and we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. And not only have you given your life, not only have you been raised, not only have you ascended on high, not only are you reigning on high at the right hand of God, we're one day closer to you coming back and seeing you face to face.

[38:34]  Come, Lord Jesus, come. It's your name we pray. Amen.