The sermon titled 'To Whom Shall We Go?' by Jason Dohm explores the central question posed by Peter in the context of disciples abandoning Jesus after his hard teachings. It highlights the nature of unbelief as an active rebellion against God, necessitating divine intervention for one to come to Jesus. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus is the source of spiritual life, requiring believers to metaphorically 'eat his flesh and drink his blood,' which signifies internalizing the spiritual truths of his sacrifice. Dohm contrasts the reactions of two kinds of disciples: those who abandon Jesus due to the hard teachings and those, like Peter, who remain because they recognize Jesus as the source of eternal life. Peter's confession is underscored as a reflection of genuine belief that persists even when the initial excitement of following Jesus fades. The sermon also addresses how Jesus confronts the offense and confusion his teachings provoke, clarifying that spiritual rebirth is a work of the Holy Spirit, not a result of physical actions. Dohm concludes with applications urging listeners to be honest with God and themselves, prepare for times when the 'goodies' of Christianity are stripped away, and confront any offense the gospel may cause in their hearts.

The title of the sermon this morning is, To Whom Shall We Go? It's right off of the lips of Peter. And in the face of most who have been following Jesus stopping and turning around and going the other direction. But Peter can't imagine why, he can't imagine where they would go. Really is in many ways the centerpieces of the text.

Last week in our text, last week the sermon was titled, The Merciful God Who Draws. And that was based on the beginning of verse 44. Look back at 44, where Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. No one can come to the Lord Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws that person to come to Jesus. In saying that, Jesus is explaining the unbelief that is being expressed by the people.

The people are rejecting the things that Jesus is saying. And Jesus is putting his finger right on the problem. The problem isn't what he's teaching. The problem isn't lack of evidence. The problem is the nature of unbelief.

And What Jesus is teaching when he says no one can come to him unless God draws him, he is not saying that God is keeping out people who truly desire him. He's teaching that God actually has to overcome our active rebellion against him. That's why it is that no one comes to Jesus without being drawn by the Father. Because there's active rebellion in our hearts. We want to be God.

So we will not hear from a God who makes demands on our lives unless he breaks into that supernaturally. And it is an act of mercy in his life that he draws you contrary to the rebellion that is in your heart. You will never come to Jesus unless he does because you will never want to. That is really the point of what Jesus is teaching. And then he says, you have to eat my body and you have to drink my blood or you can never have spiritual life.

You won't have spiritual life and it can never be sustained without you eating my flesh and drinking my blood. This totally takes the gospel and salvation out of the realm of the intellectual. It's one thing to say, I believe in Jesus. Yes, these wonderful truths about the life and teachings and death of Jesus. I believe those things.

It's another thing to say, I eat His flesh. I drink his blood. It's a really good test for us. It's easy enough to say that you accept gospel facts. It's a different thing to say that Jesus Christ, who He is and what He's done, is more important to me than physical food and physical drink.

He's more real sustenance for me and my soul than breakfast was for my body. And the people actually react strongly in our text today against that. They say this is a hard thing. Who can understand what Jesus is teaching? So as we come to our text, let's go to the Lord and ask for help.

Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for an opportunity for your Word to be read, prayed, sung, and now preached. I pray that in an increasing way you would become our all-in-all The things said by Peter in the text that we're studying would be so true in our hearts that when when people are dropping like flies forsaking you walking away from gospel claims that the disposition would be in our hearts, there's nowhere else for us to go. You and you alone have the words that save, give life, and sustain life. We would be so satisfied in you.

You would be everything to us. I pray that you would use the words of this text in our lives to do this. In Jesus' name, Amen. I would like to divide our text into a couple of different sections. The first section will be verses 60 through 66.

So I will re-read those. I hope you'll follow along. John chapter 6, verses 60 through 66. Therefore many of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it?

When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit And they are life.

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 would betray Him. And he said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. That's a long section.

In this section we have the reaction of one kind of disciple. So you have a handout that has blanks on it. If you're filling in those blanks, it's reaction. The reaction of one kind of disciple. It really brings home the point that you have two kinds of disciples that are in view in our text today, then this is the reaction of one of them.

So who are the disciples in this section? Well a Disciple is simply a translation of a Greek word that literally means pupil or learner. It's a student. These are students of Jesus. They're followers of Jesus.

And when we see the word disciple in the New Testament, it's used in a couple of different ways. It doesn't always mean exactly the same thing. Sometimes it means those who profess to follow Jesus. That's how it's used right here in this section of the text. These are people who say, Jesus, we're here to learn from you.

We're your pupils. We're your learners. We're followers of you. Sometimes it's used for those who are real believers. So sometimes in the New Testament when you encounter the word disciple or disciples, it's meaning real, live, authentic believers.

And then sometimes when you see the word disciples in the New Testament, it's very precisely used. It means the twelve. So the twelve men that Jesus chose and who lived with him every day for three years and who heard his sermons and saw his great works and who are known as the Twelve, and eleven of them will be known as Apostles. So you have these different meanings. Here, the usage is those who profess to be students of Jesus, or those who profess to follow Jesus.

Some of the people who are called disciples here, one day earlier, have wanted to take Jesus by force and make him king. Do you remember this? We were just one day removed from this. We were many weeks removed from this because we're sort of slowly working through the chapter, but in chronological time we're only one day removed from Jesus feeding the 5, 000 and the people were so overjoyed at a man who could do this, they intended to take him by force and make him king. So these are people who are saying, we follow you.

In fact we would like to have you for our king. Now, they say this now, these disciples or these people who profess to be his students say this, this is a hard saying who can understand it. The Greek word rendered hard here, this is a hard saying, can literally mean harsh or stern. This is a harsh saying. This is a stern saying.

It's the same word that we find in Matthew 25 verse 24. Then, this is embedded in the parable of the talent. So you remember, Jesus gives resources to his, excuse me, God, or the Master in that parable, the Master, gives resources to his servants. Different amounts of resources to different servants. And then he goes away on a journey and when he comes back there's an accounting for what they did with the resources and the faithful servants have put those resources to work and made a profit and now they render the profit back to the master.

This is how it's supposed to go. God gives His people resources and we're to put those gifts, those resources to work so that His kingdom gains. But there's one unfaithful servant who just buries the resources that his master gives him. And then when he comes back, he digs it up and says, here's what you gave me. And there's no gain to it.

And so this is where that verse in Matthew 25 fits. Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed." So this unfaithful servant actually blames the master saying, I knew what you were like, you're a hard man, and so I was afraid to do anything with it, so I just buried it. That's the sense. And so this is the same word. He's accusing the master of being a harsh man, a stern man, a man to be afraid of.

So that is the sense. This is a hard saying like he thought his master was a hard man. A harsh and unyielding saying. So We have two things in view here with what the people are saying. First, the things that he's been saying are an offense.

Jesus, you're saying offensive things. You're saying things that offend me. They say this is a hard saying. This is a stern, unyielding, harsh saying. And then in verse 61, Jesus is going to ask the question, does this offend you?

Knowing that, That's really the problem here. They are offended by what he's been saying. Two things that are true here. One is that they're offended. These things are an offense.

But also, There is confusion. They say, who can understand it? And in verse 52, this was from last week's text, they say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink? They were confused. They were thinking that he was talking physically, which would be against the law.

Cannibalism, the drinking of blood would be against the law of Moses. So they are misunderstanding. So two things. One, they are offended by what he is saying. Two, is they don't really understand what he's saying.

There's confusion about it. And Jesus deals with both of these in turn. When we look at his response, how he responds to these people, we see him dealing with these things. Are you offended? He deals with that.

Are you confused? You don't really understand what I'm saying? He deals with that. The text says Jesus knew in himself, he knew in himself, that these so-called disciples were complaining. The Greek word that's been translated, complaining, there literally means to say against in a low tone, or murmuring.

There was an undercurrent of unhappiness being uttered here. So Jesus didn't hear it. They're mumbling, they're murmuring against their objections. And he didn't hear it. He didn't have to be told.

He knew in himself. Jesus, as God, knew exactly what was happening in the hearts of these so-called disciples. So he goes right at the offense by asking a question. Does this offend you? Now, what was so harsh and stern and unyielding, what was so offensive about what Jesus has been saying?

It's this. Jesus is making the claim of all claims. He is saying, I am everything, you are nothing. We don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear that Jesus is everything and that we are nothing.

But this is what he's been saying. He's been saying, I'm the key to life and death. I'm the bread that came down from heaven. If you want life, you have to eat my body and drink my blood. Otherwise, there's no hope for you.

And you don't come to me at your own pleasure. You only come to me if God intervenes against the active rebellion in your heart and draws you to me." These are offensive truths. We don't want to be nothing. We don't want to be helpless, But this is the testimony of Scripture, that we're nothing. No, we're worse than nothing.

All of our righteousness is as filthy rags, the things that we're proud of and that we think are good. A holy God looks from heaven upon those things and say, they are filthy rags before me. That is true. That is the testimony of scripture, but we don't want that to be true. That truth offends us to the core.

And we don't want to be helpless, engaged in our active rebellion with God and with no hope except for that he would do something for us. No, we don't want to think that we're as bad as all that and we don't want to think that we're as helpless as all that, but that's what scripture says and that's what Jesus has been teaching. I was reading last night, I was really sleeping last night, and I only lasted in my Saturday night book that I'm reading right now about leaders in the 1700s. It's a wonderful book. I only lasted maybe five minutes last night.

But in that five minutes I was reading about William Romaine, who I knew almost nothing about. He was part of the Church of England in the mid-1700s and He was a faithful preacher, a faithful man. And in the 1750s, because he was a mighty preacher, he started being invited repeatedly to preach at Oxford University. But in the late 1750s, so this is 20 years from our American Revolution, slightly before that, he's getting repeated invitations to come and preach at Oxford University, but I think it was 1756, he preached two sermons titled, The Lord Our Righteousness, about this. That you are nothing, Jesus is everything.

You have nothing to offer. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and they were offended. Now this was supposed to, at the time, this was a Christian university, but the simple preaching of the gospel was so offensive that he was banned from the pulpit and he never preached at Oxford University ever again. You know what? The Gospel is an offense to the sensibilities of the natural man in every generation.

It was true when Jesus was preaching and it has been true in every generation since and it will be true to the end of the world. We don't want to believe what the Bible says about us. That's what was so offensive. That man is evil, that everything we do is defiled by sin, that we're helpless with only one single remedy. We don't get to pick from a number of options.

It's Jesus or nothing. You eat his body and you drink his blood or you are lost forever. That is the truth of the gospel and it is a stumbling block. It is a rock of offense. Now here's a question for you.

Have you ever become aware that you had offended someone with what you said so you backpedaled to make peace and to preserve the relationship. Have you ever done that? You became aware that somebody was ticked off because of what you said. And so you retreated as fast as you could to try to preserve the relationship. This is not what Jesus does in our text.

By the way, sometimes it's right to do that. Sometimes it's right to do that. Jesus was always right, we're not always right. Sometimes we take people off and we should backpedal. We should retreat as fast as we can because we weren't right.

But Jesus is right. And Jesus doesn't backpedal to preserve the relationship. In fact, we were going to see that there is a fracturing of the relationships here between these so-called disciples, people who have professed to be followers of Jesus, aren't going to follow him anymore. Look at what Jesus says in verse 62. Jesus said, he just said, does this offend you?

What then, if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before. So to people who just said how can he be the bread came down from heaven. We know your dad and mom. Remember this from last week's text? You're saying you're the bread that came down from heaven.

You didn't come down from heaven. You came from Nazareth. We know your dad and your mom. You're not who you say you are. Jesus doubles down.

He claims pre-existence, Right? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? Before I had a dad and mom, I was in heaven. It's fine for you to talk about your beginnings with your dad and mom, but it's not fine for us to talk about Jesus in that way. There never was a time when He wasn't.

He is pre-existent God and He lays claim to that by saying this. And He claims to be the Son of Man from Daniel chapter 7. So Jesus uses the title for himself, Son of Man, so often that it's easy just to read over the top of it, yeah, he's calling himself Son of Man again. But every time it helps to slow down and say, okay, what is the Son of Man? The Son of Man is in Daniel 7.

He is a figure that comes before the Ancient of Days and he is given an everlasting kingdom and dominion. So when you see Jesus calling himself the son of man, he is saying, I am the fulfillment of Daniel chapter 7. I am the character from Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14, the one who comes before the ancient of days, Who is God the Father, and is given an everlasting dominion, and is king forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever, I am Him." Jesus is teaching by His use of the Son of Man that the character that you see in Daniel chapter 7 is normal Jesus. What's abnormal is Jesus in his state of humiliation for 33 years on planet earth. What is normal for Jesus is that he has the place of honor and glory in heaven above as the maker of all things, as King forever.

That is normal Jesus. Humble Jesus, humiliated Jesus, was only for such a small sliver of time. But he's claiming to be the Jesus from, or the son of man from Daniel chapter 7. And it's as if Jesus is saying, if you can't handle that, if you can't handle me simply claiming that I'm the source of life, that you're nothing but I'm everything, how will you be able to handle this, seeing me become normal Jesus again, who is king forever? It is meant to be a jarring, shocking truth.

What madness is it that you would be offended by the one appointed by God to the place of glory and honor, ascending and assuming that place of honor. What kind of insanity is it to be offended by that? This is meant to shock and jar. This is a shock and awe statement. It's meant to bring them face to face with the insanity of their objections.

Because of who Jesus is. And the honor that He has been appointed to. If you are ever offended by the pre-existent fulfillment of Daniel chapter 7, you adjust. He doesn't adjust. You should be asking, not, God I'm offended at what you're saying, Jesus I'm offended at what you're saying, but God what is it about me that offends you?

Jesus is the Son of Man from Daniel chapter 7. He doesn't adjust to you and the things that you're offended by. You adjust to Him and the things that He's offended by. We're taught that in this text. Takes us out of our little man-centered world that's this big.

And then we begin to see through the lenses of God to say, oh God, I repent. Then in verse 63, he clears up the confusion. So in 62 he's dealing with the offense of the gospel that he's preaching. And he confronts them about it. And then in 63 he addresses and clears up the confusion.

Look at verse 63. Jesus says, it is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. He's making it perfectly clear here that when he says you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, he's not talking about physical flesh and physical blood, that he's speaking about spiritual truths.

The flesh prophets nothing. There's nothing physical that you can eat that makes you right with God. This is a spiritual truth. This is talking about the partaking of him being offered up as a substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of sinners. Here's the best commentary I saw on verse 63.

By a wonderful commentator named the Lord Jesus. From John chapter 3. Turn to John chapter 3. This happens a lot where the best commentary on Jesus is Jesus. And this is what he said to Nicodemus When Nicodemus didn't understand that he was talking about spiritual truths when he said you must be born again.

Remember Nicodemus is thinking how can you physically be born again? And Jesus brings him right back to spiritual truths. John chapter 3, follow along as I read verses 3 through 8. Jesus answered and said to him, to Nicodemus, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born Of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, And you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Jesus in John chapter 3 and I'm convinced in John chapter 6, our text for today, is teaching that New birth, the giving of spiritual life is the work of the Holy Spirit. All that is born of the flesh is flesh. Flesh just being us in our natural condition and all that that means. Anything that you can produce out of your natural condition, any profession that comes from your natural condition, anything that you eat in the body, none of this helps you with God.

If you are to be alive, it is a work of the Holy Spirit in your life and it is a spiritual work, not a physical thing that is done. This is not physical eating and drinking in view. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. So what we need is not physical realities, things that we can touch and feel and see, but spiritual realities, things that change the condition of our hearts, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells them straight out that He has given them words of Spirit and life.

Words of Spirit meaning these are truths about spiritual matters. They're not truths about physical matters. They're spiritual words and they are life. They tell you how to obtain life and it is through him. He is the bread who has come down from heaven.

Verse 64 tells them that he knows some have totally rejected what he is saying. He says, some of you do not believe. The text says that he knew from the beginning who it was who would not believe and who it was who would betray him. Jesus always knew that there were people who said, I'm your learner, I'm your student, I'm your pupil, but their hearts were never with him." He always knew. He was never fooled by anyone.

So we see two kinds of people, both described by the word disciples in this text. Some of them leave him, a few of them stay with them at the end of the text, but Jesus sees beyond that term to the heart, he always knew who it was who would believe, he always knew who it was who would betray him. We're coming to more on that later in the text. Now look at verse 65. Verse 65.

And Jesus said, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. He's saying this again. He's explaining unbelief again. So he's just put his finger again right on the unbelief of the people and he explains in the same way again just like last time what the unbelief is. Let's look at verse 44 side by side with verse 65.

Here's what he said in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Now look at verse 65, Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. It's almost exactly the same words. In one, it's the Father who draws and so you come to Jesus. In another, it's granted by the Father.

In some translation, it's given. It's a gift from the Father that brings you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is explaining their unbelief. It's not a problem with what He's teaching. It's a problem with their heart.

And their only hope is that God would reach into that and counteract their act of rebellion against God. The words are spirit and life, but just hearing them alone is not sufficient to convert. You believe that? You should believe that. These words of the Bible, especially of the Gospels, are Spirit and our life.

But that doesn't mean that everyone reads them or hears them read or hears them preached or born again. The Spirit has to enter in and do His work on the heart. Or it's as if they've never ever been read or seen or heard. So many people have this as part of their testimony. Like I know I had heard the gospel a hundred times, but then that one time when it was preached it was like a whole new world opened up to me.

How many times have you had people give a testimony with a description like that of the day they heard the gospel and they could see for the first time things they could never see before even though they may have heard the gospel a hundred times, even faithfully preached. Jesus is explaining unbelief. And then we have the sad conclusion for these so-called disciples. Look at verse sixty-six. The last verse of this section.

From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. They were saying, professing, where are your students? Where are your learners? Where are your pupils? We follow you, but now the hard sayings and they change their minds.

They repent. Have you ever thought of it in those terms? What does it mean to repent? Literally it means to turn around and to go in exactly the opposite direction. We think of repent meaning we were headlong to destruction and God opened our eyes to truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and about our own condition and So we turned around and instead of running away from God, we ran towards God and we threw ourselves on to Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope.

These people are repenting in exactly the other way. They actually had been attaching themselves to Jesus, listening to Him probably with pleasure, certainly seeing Him heal the sick with pleasure, feed multitudes with pleasure, but now the hard sayings come and they repent of being his disciples, of being his followers. They turn around and they go in exactly the opposite direction. They don't walk with him anymore. In Hebrew, walking to the Hebrew mind is to share life with.

We're not sharing our life with you anymore. We want to do other things. They repent in all the wrong ways. Now, the next section. Verses 67-69.

Follow along as I read verses 67 through 69. Then Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Here in these verses we have the reaction of the other kind of disciples. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, it's reaction other. The reaction of the other kind of disciples. The twelve here are also called disciples. Jesus asks His disciples if they also repent of following Him.

You've been following me. You've been saying, you're my pupils, my learners, my students, do you want to turn around and walk away? Also. Now, in verse 64 from our last section, John the Gospel writer has already told us that Jesus knows who believes and who doesn't believe. We've already had it.

So, this question was not for Jesus. Jesus says, do you also want to go away? This is not for Jesus to learn information. This is for the disciples. This is to draw out of them the response that is a reflection of the condition of their hearts.

It is to draw out a confession from them. Peter speaks. It seems to always be Peter who speaks. And he says this in verses 68 and 69, but Simon Peter answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God." There are two parts to what he says here and I want to take them in order. The first part of what he says is, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Here's one way to understand that. You're the best available option.

Jesus, a lot of people are forsaking you, but as for us, you're the best available option so we're not leaving. Here's the best way to understand it. You're the best possible option. Not you're the best available option, so while others are forsaking you, we'll stick with you. But you're the best possible option.

You see, there's a world of difference between those two things. Many people professing to follow Jesus, He's the best available option. They look out there and it seems to them that of what's available, he's the best. You always have a sense that they are keeping their eyes open. They are on the lookout in case there is something better.

But for the person whose heart has been captured by the glory and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not the best available option. He's the best possible option. They've stopped looking because they can't even imagine that there could ever from eternity past to eternity future be a better option. I think this is what Peter is saying.

Listen to Matthew chapter 13 verses 44 and 45. Matthew 13 verses 44 and 45. This is Jesus' teaching. Jesus says, Again the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, Which a man found and hid, And for joy over it he goes away and sells all that he has and buys that field." Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it." I think this is what we see in Peter's profession, confession. Not this will do for now.

Of what we can see, we haven't seen everything, but of what we can see, it's better to be here than leave. But a heart that has laid eyes on the pearl of great price, knowing that there could never be, and can't wait to part with everything else in order to lay hold of this thing of supreme value. Here's what's happening in our text. The honeymoon is over. You know the honeymoon.

You have the wedding, and Then there's this period afterwards where it is heaven on earth. You get to experience all the joys and wonders and beauties of marriage, often times outside of the pressures of real life. And It seems like it will last forever, and it seems like nothing else could be so wonderful. And then at some point in every human marriage the honeymoon is over. And I don't say that in a disparaging way.

It doesn't mean that you don't love each other. It doesn't mean that you're still married or don't want to be married. It just means that the realities and pressures of life set in. And it's not all bliss all the time like it was on the honeymoon. It just isn't.

For the disciples, the honeymoon is over. They've had this time where the crowds are swelling. People love it all. They love the preaching. They love the healings.

They love the miracles. They love water becoming wine. Jesus is pretty much universally appreciated to this point. Think of how exciting It must have been to have been a disciple of the Lord Jesus up to this point. Well now almost no one wants anything to do with this man who preaches the hard things.

And they repent of following Jesus. And now there's just thirteen of us. It's Jesus and the twelve that he chose. The honeymoon is over. They're not universally appreciated.

And it's clear, the excitement going forward is going to be of a different brand. The Gospels stay exciting, but for not all the same reasons. And yet, for Peter And for his friends, Jesus is more than enough. It's enough for everyone when we're on the honeymoon. Everyone wants to stay married when we're on the honeymoon.

The love is flowing freely because there are no pressures of life and the realities that set in when you have to go back to work. And bills come due. And people die. And people sin. You find out about a marriage not on the honeymoon.

Everybody likes the honeymoon. You find out about a marriage really sometimes years into it. Now, let's consider Peter's confession. This second part. We have come to know and believe.

Isn't that what it is? We have come, I need to get back to the text. We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. So by itself just looking at that in isolation it is magnificent. It is an embracing and understanding, a right understanding of who Jesus is.

He is the Christ. He is the one that God has anointed to be the prophet and priest and king of His people forever. He is the fulfillment of all the promises that God has made to sinners. We're here. We're here with Jesus who is fulfilling every promise God ever made to sinners.

And you are the Son of God. You are God. So you don't even need the context. It's magnificent just in isolation. But in context, there's greater, deeper, richer meaning.

What is the context? It stands in stark contrast to the tide of the world. He's saying we believe and embrace everything that's just been rejected by the masses who have left you. We are willing to swim upstream, not to go with everyone else but to go cross grain to everyone else because we believe all that you're saying about who you are and what you've come to do. Jesus has set himself forward as the bread of life from above.

And people have said, no you're not the bread of life, there is life outside of you and you're not from above. You're just like us. You have a mom and dad and that's your beginning point. They've rejected all that Jesus has been saying Peter's confession affirms all that Jesus has been saying all those things that are offense to the people Who have been hearing Him that made them go away are embraced by Peter in his confession. However, this confession is not new.

Did you know that? There's nothing in Peter's confession that we haven't already seen. Consider John chapter 1, the second part of verse 41. This is when Andrew, who has encountered Jesus, he goes to his brother Peter to tell Peter about Jesus. Now this is John chapter 1.

This has been months ago we encountered this. Here's what Andrew says to Peter, we have found the Messiah which is translated Christ. All the way back in John chapter 1 when Andrew first encountered Jesus he was convinced that Jesus was the one who had been anointed by God to be the prophet and priest and king of his people forever, that he was the fulfillment of every promise that God ever made to a sinner. Or a few verses later, Listen to this in John chapter 1 verse 49. This is Nathaniel.

Remember Jesus said to Nathaniel when he met him, I saw you under the fig tree. We don't know why that was so miraculous, but that was so stunning to Nathaniel that he says this, John 1.49, Nathaniel answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. It's a confession from chapter 1. Jesus a day earlier had fed the 5, 000 and then he sent the disciples on in a boat while he stayed behind to pray and then in the middle of the night as they're straining against the oars in a tempest, he does what? He walks to them on the water.

And this wasn't in the Gospel of John, but this is in the Gospel of Matthew, the same events in Matthew when Jesus gets into the boat after walking to them on the water. We read this, Matthew 14 verse 33. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped him saying, truly you are the son of God. This is within 24 hours of where we are in our text. Jesus had walked them out on the water and when he got into the boat they worshiped him and they said truly you are the Son of God.

So don't think that they had a conception of the Son of God that made him something less than God. They are worshipping him and Jesus is receiving the worship. They understand him to be God and Jesus is setting himself forward as God. So there's nothing new in Peter's confession. So what is the significance of this particular confession?

It is a post-adversity confession. It is a post-adversity confession. The beauty of what we see here is that when everyone else has rejected what Jesus has been saying. Peter fully embraces it in what he says. Peter is showing that in his heart he's gone beyond, everything's good, so I believe." Oh God in heaven, let us be beyond, everything's good, so I believe.

Many professing learners of Jesus, professing pupils, professing students of Jesus, professing followers of Jesus, never a day in their life get beyond, because things are going well, I believe in Jesus. Peter is showing that in his heart he wants Jesus because of Jesus. Because the goodies have been stripped away. Now we see what's there when the goodies are stripped away. Okay, verses 70 and 71.

Verses 70 and 71. Our last two verses of the section and chapter. Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil he spoke of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon for it was he who would betray him being one of the twelve. In these verses they are dealing with one who knows all things. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, it's knows, dealing with one who knows all things.

So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, it's knows, dealing with one who knows all things. When you deal with Jesus, you deal with one who knows everything. Past, present, and future. Things that are outside that other people can see and things that are deeply personal, totally internal to the thoughts and motivations of your heart. He knows it all.

This seems to me to be a response to Peter's assertion that we, all of the twelve, have come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus is resisting the false notion that all of the twelve savingly believe. Jesus is resisting the false notion that all of the twelve believe in Jesus in a saving way. That all are truly disciples in that sense. There are two things to say here.

At least two things I'm going to say. First, this is the first mention of the Twelve in the Gospel of John. Listen to Luke chapter 6. You might turn there if you'd like. Luke chapter 6.

Luke chapter 6 verses 12 through 16 is the most thorough description of the choosing of the twelve. Luke chapter six verses twelve through sixteen. Listen. Now it came to pass in those days that he, Jesus, went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose twelve whom he also named apostles.

Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother. James and John. Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas. James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot. Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor.

As a side note, in all the lists of the twelve, Judas Iscariot is always the last one. Peter is always the first. So, here in Luke chapter 6, Jesus goes to the mountain and he prays all night long. And then he calls together his disciples. Again, we have to see what does that mean?

Does that mean true believers? Does that mean the twelve? Well, it can't mean the twelve because the twelve were chosen. He calls together a larger group and out of that larger group of ones who were professing to be his pupils, his learners, his students, his followers, he says, you twelve will walk with me every day. And we get the names of those.

So he picked them out. He picked out all of them, including Judas Iscariot. That brings us to the second thing to say. So the first thing to say is, this is the first time in the Gospel of John that the twelve as a group have been mentioned as a group. Members of the twelve have been called by name, but they've never been called the twelve before or this inner circle of disciples.

Number two, it was part of the eternal plan of God for a false disciple who would succumb to the influence of Satan to betray Jesus. Again, like I said during our time of corporate prayer, the cross is not the train going off the tracks. The cross was the eternal plan of God to save. And Judas was the appointed instrument of that. Jesus picked him by name out of a larger crowd of professing disciples, knowing when he picked him, When he called on him, he knew that he was a false disciple, that he would succumb to the influence of Satan, that he would betray him, that his death would come through the instrumentality of Judas' betrayal.

Never surprised Jesus. Jesus chose him and he always knew. There's going to be a lot more to say. There's a lot more that could be said about this text. But we have ample opportunities in John.

Actually, in the Gospel of John There's a lot about Judas, so I'll say it then, not now. Applications. I have three applications. Number one. Because God knows with perfect clarity the condition of your heart, you must deal completely honestly with Him and with yourself.

I'll read that again. Because God knows with perfect clarity the condition of your heart, You must deal completely honestly with Him and with yourself. This means no games. No games. Because they don't fool God and they don't serve you.

The best you can get out of your games is to fool me and your neighbors and your family members. And it's dreadful poison. And it's dreadful poison. But putting up a front, a false front, to please and satisfy me or your family or your neighbors while never being changed in heart is poison. It's self-deception that leads you to the doorstep of hell.

No games. It's so clear from this text and ones that came before it and ones that come after it, Jesus knows everything that no one else can see. Every single thing. Number two. Going back to number one.

J.C. Ryle says in almost every book, he says it in many chapters in every book, Whatever you are, be real. Whatever you are, be real. Number two. At some point in your life, the goodies of Christianity will be stripped away.

And the honeymoon of following Jesus will be over. And the days that are all sunshine and birds chirping and warmth will be gone for a time or forever in this life. And It will feel like Christ is distant and the circumstances will make it feel like the walls are closing in on you. And your friends might forsake you And your enemies will be mercilessly attacking you. You might experience something that fits this description to a T in your life.

But in any event, a time will come where sickness will come upon you or some frailty or infirmity or the circumstances of life will bear down on you and all the goodies will have been stripped away, the honeymoon of following Jesus will be over, and then, and then what? Second Timothy 3 verse 12 is a great promise from scripture. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If you've not been in the faith long enough for that day to have come, just know that the promise of Scripture is that it is coming. What will that reveal you to be?

This just sorted out One kind of disciple from the other kind of disciple. What we see in our text, the hard sayings coming, sorted out the real from the fake. So when the honeymoon is over, and the goodies of Christianity, which are sweet and precious and real. Don't think for a minute I'm saying that those are fraudulent in any way. It is sweet to be a Christian in a hundred different ways.

But I'm just saying those things are peripheral on the Christian life. They are not essential. Jesus is essential. Having Jesus is essential. Everything else is icing on the cake.

When all the icing is off and you are just left with Jesus and there is none of the other goodies, What are you? What will your heart reveal you to be? We should be crying out to the Lord. Oh God, be all in all to me so that when all the other niceties are stripped away, you'll still be the best possible option. It won't be that you're no longer the best available option.

I think there's something better than you. No matter what, you'll always be the best possible option to me. Number three, finally. Does the gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone offend you? Does that offend you?

You'll never say that it does here, but in your heart of hearts, when the Bible tells you that you are nothing and Jesus is everything, when the Bible tells you that you are filthy, that the best things that you are proud of and that you bring to offer to God, the holy God who sits in heaven and looks upon them and says, those are filthy rags. You have no hope outside of me. You have nothing to contribute. Anything that you contribute to your salvation would defile the whole. Does your pride keep you from embracing that?

If you can't embrace that, You're not born again. I'm not saying we all completely embrace that all the time, or that we don't still have feelings that rise up against that. I'm saying You can't maintain your pride and really throw yourself on Jesus to be saved. You can't keep it. You have to part with it.

You have to believe what the Bible says about you as well as what the Bible says about Jesus. Father, thank you for this text. I pray that if anyone is offended by the offensive stumbling block truths of the gospel, that you would in your mercy come by work of your spirit, draw them to your Son. Thank you for truth, words of spirit in life. Pray that they would have their good effect in our hearts.

In Jesus' name, Amen.