Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.37 – September 1967
Remaining With Jesus
Sermon by Rev. H. DeWaard on John 6:66-69
Scripture reading: John 6:41-71
Psalter Hymnal: 132:1-4; (after law) 397; (after creed) 340:1-3
188:1-3; 357:1-4; 338:3
Brothers and sisters, young people, boys and girls,
Who is Jesus? This is the question which has puzzled many people right throughout the ages. Who is this Jesus, the son of Joseph? Did not the people in Jesus’ day see him play in the market place? Didn’t they know his mother and his brothers and sisters? Who is this person going on a job with his father into Galilee? Yes, many people knew him very well, and yet they found Him somewhat strange. He was different from all the others. That is what the people used to say to one another: What is wrong with this Jesus? Why does He act so strangely and differently? Jesus, son of Joseph, who are you?
Increasingly, (Jesus became a riddle to many people. Many people flocked to Him. They wanted to hear what He had to say; they wanted to see the miracles of healing which He performed; they wanted to see and hear how He put the Pharisees to silence; they wanted to find the clue to His personality. Many people soon found a clue. They said: He is mad! He is possessed by Beelzebul, the Prince of the devils! Even His own family at one time had to say: “He is beside Himself. But that is too simple a solution; that’s an easy way out. For why were others moved to tears when they looked into the face of Jesus? Why were others ashamed of their sins when they confronted this Man? Why did others fall at His feet to praise and worship Him?
His hands, his feet, his sorrow, his tiredness, his hunger, all these things are all exactly like ours. But His person is different. He has a human head, but on that head are many crowns. He has a human nature, but in union with His divine nature!
Jesus, who are you? Jesus said: “I am the bread which came down from heaven. I am the bread of life. You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. You need Me as your Saviour. I came down from heaven to die for your sins.” “…Then many of His disciples drew back and walked no more with Him.”
This text is one of these tragic statements in the Bible. Here were people who walked with Jesus for some time and then left Him. Here were people who were so close to Jesus that the Bible calls them DISCIPLES. Here were people who sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His teaching day after day. People who had some kind of faith in Him. People who followed Him from place to place for some time. Jesus became their friend, companion and teacher. But after all that there came a time that they left Him. Tragic indeed! And then to remember that there are so many people like that today. People who very well know what the gospel is all about. People who have had a Christian education and have faithfully attended Sunday school for years on end. But after all that, the time came that they turned their back on it all, for whatever reason. We consider our text under the theme:
REMAINING WITH JESUS.
We see:
1. the human difficulty
2. the divine possibility
3. the blessed reality.
1. To come to Christ is one thing, but to remain with Him is something else altogether. Apparently it is not difficult to remain with Jesus for a while. Many did that in Jesus’ day and many do it today too. Many people were impressed by Him, they were delighted, they marvelled at His personality and longed to see His miracles. And today people are moved to make a decision for Christ and they hear others speak of the “sweetness” of walking with Jesus. And so they join too! Thousands came to Jesus for all sorts of reasons. Men, women and children alike, until the Pharisees exclaimed, “The whole world is going after him!” Not really. Indeed, thousands came, but almost as many left again. They came to a point when they said: “I have had enough of this Jesus. It was different from what I had expected. It is all a big disappointment. I am going home.”
Do you know why these disciples went back and no longer walked with Him? Well, read back over the story. Jesus had just been telling them the reason for His coming into the world. He had given them the key to His personality, when He said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven… if any man eat of this bread he will live forever… Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you. That’s the very thing which made them decide to go home. Hearing that, they found it impossible to remain with Jesus. When He told them that He had come to die for sinners and that by faith in Him they would receive everlasting life, they no longer wanted to go about with Him. According to Jesus they had to put their trust in His broken body and shed blood. But they could not possibly accept that. So they left. They went back to their everyday life, having no intention to return. The word used means that they made an absolute break with Jesus. They turned against Jesus and to the world. They remind us of Demas, of whom Paul had to say, “He has deserted me, having loved this present world.’
Is it not for the same reason that many people have turned their back to Christ and His church? This teaching of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is a stumbling block to many. And even to us, who know it so very well, it is not very pleasant either. The whole idea of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ is not very popular or pleasing. No wonder. It is not appealing until the Holy Spirit opens our heart and we accept it by His grace. Many of Jesus’ disciples found it impossible to accept it. They said to one another: “This is a hard saying. Who can bear to listen to it?”
And for Christians it is not pleasing to be reminded time and again, “This is what I had to pay in order that your sins might be forgiven. I had to give My only-begotten Son to cover your sins before I could adopt you as My children.” Not one of us likes to be told time and again that the Son of God had to die the awful death of the criminal in order to save us.
Humanly speaking it is impossible to remain with Jesus and believe this hard teaching. And there are always people who will try to make us stumble exactly at this point. Young people may be so taken up in the life and ways of wrong friends who care neither for God or His commandments and who scoff at this teaching of salvation through the blood, that there may come a time, when they no longer walk with Him. There may be someone else who chooses an unbelieving partner, who does not at all trust in the saving power of the blood and so there may come a time that neither one walks with Him. Another may be so disappointed in the God of love, who allows humanity to bathe in its own blood, that he cannot see what the cross of Jesus has to do with life in this world. And so he no longer walks with Him.
Remaining with Jesus? Humanly speaking – No!
2. It must have hurt Jesus and the twelve to see all these followers go home. This must have been a real temptation for them. We would not have been surprised if Judas, for example, had said, “Master, I would rather go home too”. And Thomas, “Me, too.” But Jesus Himself asks them: “Will you not also go away?” All others have gone back, why not you? Do you really think it worthwhile to stay with Me even though my words are so hard to accept and even though there is no hope of an earthly kingdom?
Jesus here presents His disciples with an opportunity to profess their faith. He wants His disciples to follow Him, but not out of obligation or anything like that. Jesus wants the heart of His disciples. He wants everything or nothing.
Brothers and sisters, young people, will you not also go away? So many have left and so many are leaving every day. Our days are days of great apostasy and rebellion. So many break with the Christian faith in the same way as people throw out a piece of worn-out furniture. They bring it to the rubbish tip. They throw out their Christian upbringing, the reading of the Bible and the fellowship of the church, They have a good clean-up in their life and throw all these things out. And why not, if it is useless anyway?
Have you a good reason to stay? This is Jesus’ question of love. I am sure that when Jesus asked this question he looked at His disciples – as He looked at Peter some time later when He said: “Simon Peter, do you honestly love Me?”
Here they are placed before a decision either to throw out their Christian faith or to renew their trust in the perfect work of Christ.
You, who call yourselves the children of God, you who place so much emphasis on the beautiful promises of the covenant; you who listen so faithfully to the preaching of the Word, Sunday after Sunday, why do you do all that? Are you really so wrapped up in it all? Is your trust really in that hard teaching about the blood of Jesus? Why not go after all and join the thousands who have given their Christianity to the garbage man?
You may be sure that when Simon Peter and the twelve decided not to go along with all the others, they still considered it a hard doctrine. When they professed their faith in the Son of God, they did so in spite of the fact that His teaching was hard to accept. What made them stay? What was the secret of their remaining? It was the drawing love of God Himself. Look at verses 44 and 65: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me, draws him…. no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” If you can say honestly and sincerely, “I want to remain with Jesus”, then praise God, for it is an evidence that He is at work in you. It is an evidence that you receive grace to know Jesus as the Bread of Life who gives Himself for YOU. When you really want to remain with Jesus, it is proof that He is moving your soul to seek Him. And once God begins His work in us, He will not leave it half done. This is our comfort, that He who calls is faithful and will give grace that we may put our trust in Jesus and His hard teaching.
To remain or to go back? That is not really the question. No, we pray for grace that we may remain with Jesus and walk in daily fellowship with Him. So that tomorrow morning, when I face all these hurrying people again, I may also see… Him. For did not Jesus Himself say: “I am with you always, even to the end of the world”? So also on Monday morning Jesus is walking with me and that lifts this day above the dullness and monotony of the daily routine. This lifts our days above the fear of death and all the things that men can do to us. “Thou art with me…” – that means that all our days may stand in the shadow of the broken body and shed blood of our Lord.
3. “Will you not also go away?” It is again Peter who answers in the name of all. He gives a most beautiful answer; an answer that is deep and spiritual, testifying to the blessedness of remaining with Jesus. Peter answers the Lord by asking another question: “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Peter does not know a better address where greater gifts and more grace could be obtained.
To whom shall we go? We have found the place of security and peace.
To whom shall we go? You have the words of life. Your words are the revelation of God Himself.
To whom shall we go? Your word is the power of God to save sinners. You only are able to satisfy the longings of the human heart.
Therefore we want to continue with this Jesus. The disciples want to cling to Him who is the Rock of Ages. Only this Rock will keep them from going down in the shifting sands of eternal punishment. For did you ever hear of someone sinking through a rock? No, of course not! There is no sinking for those who stand on Christ, the Rock of Salvation, whose side was pierced that His own may find there a place of hiding and safety. His blood shelters for time and eternity.
No need then to fear the storms of life or the waves of death. For faith in Jesus and the power of His blood leads to eternal life.
Our world obviously thinks that it does not need this teaching of Jesus Christ as our substitute. All this is regarded as a leftover of the cruel past. All we need now is a determination to start all over again and do much better. So the world thinks. But this world is all wrong, for it has turned its back on the everlasting Christ and His great sacrifice. His cross does not change. We don’t have to try to bring it up to date either. This cross of Jesus is always up to date, for it is the one thing we all need in order to be saved. It is the one place where we can be sheltered from the judgement of God. It is the only place where we can be justified and so have peace with God. It is the one and only place which leads to everlasting life.
May we by the grace of God, make the good confession and so experience the blessedness of remaining with Jesus. Humanly speaking, it is an impossible task, but all things are possible with God. And when we have come to believe in Him as the Bread of Life, we will sing the more joyfully:
“We taste Thee, O Thou living bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the fountainhead,
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.”
Amen.