"Rejected by His Own"
"Rejected by HIs Own" (John 6:41-71) Prayer:
In this study Jesus continues His response to the demand of the people that He provide the type of bread Moses had provided in the desert. It was necessary for them to understand that He was speaking of spiritual, not physical food, and that this spiritual food is only available to those who believe in Him.
VERSES 41-42 "So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42They 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'?" The Jews were not accepting Jesus' claim to deity. They began to complain and grumble because He claimed to have come down from heaven. Can't you just hear them saying, "we've known him all his life, we know his parents, Old Joseph, we know them all, so how can he say that he came down from heaven." And in one way they have a point in that they think they have known Him and his family all His life. Except, they weren't there when the angel "Gabriel" came to Mary, and they weren't there when Mary expecting Jesus, visited Elizabeth who at the time was also expecting John. The Spirit recognizing Jesus, had caused John to leap in his mother's womb. (John had been filled with the Spirit from birth) And where were they when the angels appeared to the shepherds? saying unto you is born to you in the city of David a Saviour. Where were they when at the age of twelve Jesus, speaking of God His Father, told His parents "Know ye not that I must be about my Father's business." There are other references, but the point is that these people didn't know Jesus as well as they thought, did they?
But rather than explain Jesus simply rebuked their grumbling.
VERSES 43-44 "Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." It's apparent that God doesn't like grumblers. If you remember, He threatened to destroy the people who had grumbled to Moses.
In verse 44 Jesus is telling them they are out of step with the Father; because if they were in the right relationship with the Father they would recognize Him; thatthose who do not recognize Him do not know the Father either.
VERSE 45 "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—" Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 54:13. "13 All your children shall be taught by the LORD,..." (and these were the children) Jesus is saying that their walk with God should have been such that they could have received the Spiritual revelation necessary to understand His words.
This also sheds more light on why God thought it necessary to have John the Baptist prepare the way for Jesus, because they weren't spiritually ready to accept Jesus.
VERSE 46 "not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father." Jesus alone has seen God!
VERSE 47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life." Here again, Jesus stresses the necessity of faith.
VERSE 48-49 "I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died." Jesus takes up the theme of the bread again and tells them the heavenly bread He offers is superior because it offers eternal life. VERSES 50-51 "This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.51I 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."
According to verses 50 and 51 when we lay this body down, we don't become nothingness. Jesus said those who believe in Him "do not die." our life doesn't disappear, we don't die and then come back to life a zillion years later, Jesus died for us so that we don't have to die. When this body wears out we go to where He is, and in His timing, we will receive a new body like the glorified body Jesus received. Going on: In these verses Jesus is drawing a sharp contrast between Himself and the manna by referring to Himself not only as the bread that came down from heaven, but as the "living bread."
The word "flesh" was a reference to the human life of Jesus, but was totally misunderstood again by the Jews.
Perhaps in our day He would say, I have come down from heaven and have brought you a gift, and that gift is eternal life. And it won't cost you anything; because I'm going to pay for it with my own body, my flesh. (which He did just a little later, on the cross)
VERSE 52 "The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So here again, they are interpreting Him literally. In studying some history of the people during this time frame: I found that the Romans considered themselves to be intellectual, a civilized nation, and abhorred cannibalism, which was occasionally practice by various cults and barbarians. So later, the Romans themselves became familiar with scripture in the "Lord's Supper," and had not understood that the eating of the blood of the lord, was a symbolic figure of speech, and had seen it as a type of cannibalism; and if so, may help to explain why the Christians were so hated by the Romans, and may have caused even more persecution for the Christian Church. Back to the Jewish people: Isn't it difficult to understand how they couldn't have associated some sort of metaphorical meaning in what Jesus was saying? Reminds us of what the writer (which may have been Paul) in Heb:5:11 said: "About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." This bunch was really dull of hearing, weren't they?
VERSE 53 "So Jesus said to them, "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."
To the Jews this was a powerful, and most unusual statement. They couldn't understand that He, as the new Passover Lamb, the Lamb of god, was speaking symbolically.
Somehow they couldn't accept that these words were coming from the Son of God, the One of whom John had said in Chapter 1 was "The Word" (with a capitol "W" signifying deity)"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."
This "Word" whom God called "His Son" was sent to earth by God the Father. The One who had been all spirit had come to earth and was living in the restraints and limitations of the a human body. The One who's ways are higher than our ways, and thoughts higher than our thoughts and comprehension, loved these people and was trying to reach them in any way they might understand; because He knew that without Him, they could have no eternal life. So in still another attempt to reach them went on to say:
And in verse 54: VERSE 54 "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." In Exod 12:8, Eating of the Passover Lamb was required.
Here again Jesus is telling these people that in the not so distant future He would give his body and spill His blood on the cross; so that all who believe on Him would have eternal life.
That when they were born again, they would thereby enter into the covenant of Christ, (they would then be under the New Covenant) They would accept that His blood was shed on the cross for their sins, that He gave His body to die on the cross, His Spirit would enter in and they would then be joined to Christ and receive the gift of Jesus, the gift of eternal life.
VERSE 55-56 "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." Here, faith in who Jesus is and what He was soon to do on the cross is vividly described in terms of eating and drinking.
Strong's' Concordance: having, or sharing in common; a sharing in the realization of the effects of the death of Christ and the body of Christ..." (An indication of our realization) This study is not about the communion, because John simply didn't record the details of the "Last Supper." But, as we have seen, he does go into great detail regarding the significance of the sacrifice of His body and spilling of His blood regarding everlasting life. Other gospels do record the events of the Last Supper and communion. But this is basically a summary to simplify our understanding of the communion as much as possible.
As we discussed in our last study, just as the Israelites fed upon the Passover Lamb, and drank the "blood of the grape" as a symbol of it's blood, Jesus, the "Lamb of God," is now the sacrificial lamb. In Luke 22:19 Jesus and His disciples celebrate the Passover meal, which is the last supper they would have before His death. At this supper Jesus inaugurated the "New Covenant," and commanded that we partake of the "Communion" in remembrance of Him. At the "communion" we eat a small cracker, or unleavened bread as a symbol of His body, and drink the fruit of the grape symbolizing the blood of the lamb, Jesus, (The Lamb of God), as a way of saying that we totally accept and believe in Him and everything He did, that we are His and are totally committed to Him. When we internalize His body symbolically in the bread and in the fruit of the vine of communion, we recognize and accept the New Covenant, which is Jesus on the cross, and that the Old Covenant has passed away and is no longer in effect. The Messiah, Christ has come, all things are now become new. We are at one with Him, He is our one and only way to heaven.
In verse 57 Jesus goes on to say: VERSE 57 "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me."
God the Father sent Jesus, and He lives because of the Father, and whoever feeds on Jesus will live (have eternal life).
VERSE 58 "This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." The bread that came down from heaven is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Not the kind of bread the Israelites ate in the desert and later died, this bread from heaven is the "Son of God" who extends the offer of eternal life. (Who could turn that down?)
VERSE 59 "Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum." They are still in Capernaum, Jesus is teaching from the Synagogue which is thought to be next door to where Peter's house stood, if you remember the pictures.
Continuing on into the next part of this study Jesus offers:
VERSE 60 "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" According to the above scripture some of the people found Jesus' statements so incredible they didn't see how anyone could believe them. Up until now, we have seen the unbelief of the other Jews, but here the disciples, and even more, what must have been the majority of them, are not accepting His teachings, and are turning against Him.
VERSE 61 "But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this?" Amplified Version: "But Jesus, knowing within Himself that His disciples were complaining and protesting and grumbling about it, said to them: Is this a stumbling block and an offense to you? [Does this upset and displease and shock and scandalize you?]" There are three things in this verse that stand out: (knowing within Himself, stumbling block, and offense)
And He asked them, are you going to be offended at this? In other words He might have said, after all this time and all the miracles you have seen, is this going to become a stumbling block to you? And then He said, in verse 62:
VERSE 62 "Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?" Hew was telling them that" what they had seen to this point is practically nothing, hardly anything compared to what's to come. If they can't believe this how much more difficult will it be for them to believe the message of the cross; when He would be crucified, die, then raise from the grave and ascend to heaven where He been for longer than they could possibly comprehend.
VERSE 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." This is very clear that He was literally speaking of the gift of the Spirit. And by saying "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life," He draws the distinction between the Spirit and the flesh.
He says the flesh, or natural man, is worthless, no help at all. The answer is in the Spirit. Because the Spirit is what gives everlasting life. According to some studies, many of the Jewish interpreters were masters at figurative interpretation, so how did they miss when He said, "the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." But, He knows their hearts and in verse 64 says: VERSE 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.)" So here we see that Jesus not only knew what was `on the heart of man, but also knew the future. It is clear that He knew in advance that Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples He had personally 'hand picked,' would be the one to betray Him.
Speaking of "knowing minds:" There were some in that day, possibly similar to our modern day "mind readers," they called "miracle workers," who were thought to know the mind or heart of some people. Only God was called "Searcher of Hearts" the one who knew the hearts of all people. On to say in verse 65:
VERSE 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." Here again Jesus knows their faith is missing and stresses the initiative of the Father. Salvation is a free gift but is only granted through belief/faith in Jesus. In this verse Jesus is apparently literally saying that no one can come to Him unless it is granted by the Father. And verse 66 says that: VERSE 66 "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." Here the unbelievers are separated from the true believers. Some bible references refer to the departure of these disciples as apostasy, (abandoning of what one has believed in as in a faith) which Judaism regarded as one of the worst of all sins. We aren't given a specific number, but there may have been hundreds if not thousands who rejected His teaching and no longer walked with Him. (if you remember, earlier, in this same chapter, He had fed possibly twenty thousand of these same people, and many of them had followed Him hoping to receive more food.) This is said to be the only recorded incidence in the New Testament where the believers stop believing in Jesus because of His doctrine. Even more interesting is that Jesus didn't run after them begging them to come back while trying to explain instead, He just let them go. Do you know of anywhere in Scripture where Jesus either runs after and begs, or of His demanding people to follow and believe in Him? I don't. A part of me says I'm glad they didn't accept Him because they didn't deserve Him, and yet, I know that I am just as undeserving as they were. And in the next verse we see a sharp contrast between the faith of the twelve and those who left. VERSE 67 "So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" So the original hand picked twelve were still there, and didn't leave. And he speaks to them as a group. and simply asks if they have so little faith will they leave too? And verse 68 says:
VERSE 68 "Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,"
Here, with Simon Peter as the spokesman the twelve affirm their complete faith in Jesus. They had decided to trust in Jesus.
And Peter went on to say in verse 69: VERSE 69 "and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." The phrase in this verse, "Holy One of God" indicates positive identification. In Mark 1:24 and Luke 4:34 the demons, knowing exactly who He was, used this same phrase when speaking to Jesus.
So Peter says, "we have believed, and we know! that you are the Messiah."
The twelve disciples had seen and heard enough to convince them that Jesus was who He claimed to be.
They were saying, "where else could we possibly go? You are the deliverer, there is no one else. We may not fully understand all you are saying but we know that you are the Messiah, God's promise to us for eternal life, and we're not leaving."
VERSES 70-71 "Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." 71He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him" Back in verse 64 Jesus had said "there are some of you who do not believe,' so here He qualifies Peter's use of the word "we" by saying, "yet one of you is a devil." And in verse 71 John simply identifies this person to be "Judas," one of the original Twelve who had been personally chosen by Jesus.
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