John 6:43-71 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

⁴³ Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 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. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 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 yourselves. ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 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.”

⁵⁹ 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.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 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.”

⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” ⁷¹ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.

“This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”…  As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.    Jesus had been working great miracles, healings; deliverances. He had just fed the thousands with the fish and loaves. There were many disciples following Him because of these great works and because of the excitement which surrounded Him. These also liked the teachings of Jesus that were critical of the establishment and showed compassion and grace to the outcasts. In today’s text Jesus speaks of the sign of the new covenant He would establish, communion, the remembrance of Him which He would establish at the last supper saying:   “Take, eat; this is My body.”  And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you;  for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”(Matthew 26:26-28)

Even today there are some who are attracted to the excitement of Jesus. Many are drawn to churches or gatherings to hear good music, encouraging testimonies or inspiring messages. There are many who follow Jesus based more on feelings than faith.  Jesus says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.”  But to believe requires more than that we accept the easy and good teachings. To believe in Jesus for eternal life is to believe in who He is and what He did. It is to believe all of what Jesus taught, not just the parts we easily understand or the parts which are appealing to us. In today’s text Jesus says:   ^“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”  When Jesus established communion, He said:   “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”(Luke 14:19)

If we believe in Jesus we will remember what He did. We will remember that He suffered and died for our sins, His blood was poured out, His body was beaten and broken to overcome the effects of sin in the world. If we believe in Jesus we will follow Him based on faith not feelings. We will follow and listen to the good and easy teachings and seek to understand the more difficult ones. We will not turn away at the hard teachings of Christ. If we believe in Jesus and remember the price He paid for our sin and the sin of all mankind, we will not think it too much when He says:  "Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."(Matthew 4:17) Or when He says: “neither do I condemn you..Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:11) We will still follow Him when He says: “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”(John 5:14) If we believe in Jesus we will do as He says in Mark 8:34:    “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”    Our cross is not to suffer and die for our sins. That was the cross Jesus bore for us. We do not suffer and die with Christ, rather we live with Him, we live and deny ourselves. We follow Him wholly.

Some will fall away at the difficult teachings of Christ. They will seek the comfort of human philosophies that require nothing of us. Philosophies which say everything is okay. Jesus has some difficult teachings, He requires us to change, to leave our old life to follow Him. In today’s text He asks the question:  “You do not want to go away also, do you?”     Jesus asks that same question of us. Will we, like Peter, say:  “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.  We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”     Just as Jesus performed many great miracles, healings, deliverances and provision. So too, if we believe, if we will faithfully and wholly follow Jesus, will there be those signs today.

 Jesus says: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.  These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;  they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:15-18)  What will happen if we believe?

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; Holy Spirit I do join with Peter and say: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.  We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God. Thank You for the finished work of the cross, for Your broken body and Your blood poured out for me. I remember and I choose to follow You. I choose to deny myself, casting aside all my own preconceived ideas I follow You wholly. I receive and believe the good news of the gospel with joy. I ask that You, Holy Spirit, give me wisdom and understanding to believe and receive the difficult teachings with the same great joy.  Amen