We have all found ourselves at a crossroads, some moment in our life when we have needed to make a crucial decision that would have far-reaching consequences. Jesus' teaching will inevitably bring us to a crossroad, and the direction we choose can impact our eternal destination. Alastair Begg explores the options in front of us today on Truth for Life. This large crowd that has been following Jesus now for some time. has a decision to make They have come in the course of the dialogue to essentially a crossroad.
And as a result of the determination that they make in relation to what Jesus has said. and the claims that he has made. will determine certainly their future progress and perhaps even their eternal destiny. They have understood the fact that everything Jesus said was true. But not everything Jesus said was easy.
And some of us have discovered that as well as we've been reading the Bible. We haven't had difficulty in understanding it. But we're just wondering whether it is too hard to accept and to become committed to. The crowd either have to take him at his word Look. Believe.
Come to him. Find eternal life in Him. Or continue in life. without him. And Jesus actually confronts not only the crowd on that day, but he confronts everyone every day with the very same decision.
who've ended his life somewhat dissolutely. The the philosopher, 25,000 people have attended his funeral. He said that God does not exist, I cannot deny. That God continues to search my soul. I cannot forget.
So, that whatever the defiant responses of philosophy, whatever the immediate reaction of the hearts of men and women, the gospel is very clear. John has been making this clear all the way along. We have begun to study these truly, truly, in light of his express statement concerning his purpose, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing you will find life in the Son. In chapter five, he puts it with great clarity: whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life For God's wrath.
remains on him.
So, the passage that we've been reading now shows us that it's possible to be part of a crowd. attracted to what Jesus can give, and yet opposed to what Jesus demands. It makes perfectly clear that not all who are apparently disciples. are actually disciples. And of course, classically and chillingly, as the chapter ends, we're reminded of the fact that the one who betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver was one who is listening to this dialogue as it unfolds, one who was part of the crowd that followed Jesus on those days.
Now it would seem that The decision that is demanded of those to whom Jesus speaks is a decision that is demanded of each of us. In fact, not only does it seem so, but it is so. And by the time we end this morning, I'm going to give an opportunity to some of us. to actually respond in a public way in making our affirmation of our desire to take our stand with Peter. and not with a crowd.
In leading up to that, I simply want to track our way through the text, and if you're looking at it, I'll take you through it without any particular displays of anything. Verse 60. We have the reaction of the crowd.
Now, what we've discovered is that it wasn't that they were disinterested, they were interested in the miracles. They were interested in the food. They were interested in the possibility that this man would be a great political ruler for them and set them free from the tyranny of those who opposed them.
So they had an interest in their stomachs, they had an interest in the spectacular, they had an interest in politics. It wasn't for them that the truth that they said was hard. was hard to understand. It was that it was hard to accept. There's a difference.
And they were just part of a loose affiliation of people that had come along with him. They had begun to listen to him. But either they hadn't understood or they were unprepared to accept the implications of what it was that he was saying.
So there you have the reaction in verse 60. In verses 61 and 62, you have these questions that are posed by Jesus to them. Because John tells us that Jesus knew in himself that the disciples were grumbling about this. And so here's his question. Do you take offense at this?
You see what he's saying? Is is this too much for you? Do you? I know you don't like the sound of what it is I'm actually saying.
Now we've seen this, haven't we? If you look back at verse 41 for a moment, so the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. And they began to say to one another, This doesn't make any sense at all. We know his street, we know where he lived, we know his father and mother, we know Joseph and Mary. How can he cut get off with actually saying, I have come down from heaven?
How does he say that?
So Jesus says, let me ask you a second question. What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending? to where he was before. You're struggling with the fact that I told you I came down from heaven. What if you were to see me going back up to heaven?
Because that's exactly what he was going to do. And when Jesus speaks about the ascension, you realize everything that precedes the ascension, before he gets to the ascension, People go to the cross. When he goes to the cross, he will go to the tomb. He will emerge from the tomb. He will display himself to people, declaring that he has triumphed over sin and death and hell.
And then he will ascend. And I'm not sure whether he expects the answer to be a positive answer to that question. Like, what would it be like if you saw me ascending? Would you believe then? What is he saying?
What if you saw me ascending? Would that make any difference to you at all? Are we to continue to be offended. Verses 63 to 65, he then provides an explanation. an explanation of what's going on.
This is what he says. It is the Spirit who gives life. Remember last time in this great and trying passage, we recognized that Jesus was using physical things in order to explain spiritual truths. And he actually rounds on this by making this point. It's not a matter of physicality.
When I speak to you about eating and drinking my flesh, The flesh is no help at all. You can't get there physically. It is The spirit Who gives Life. The words, notice, the words that I have spoken to you. Our spirit and life.
That's a dramatic statement, isn't it? Who else can say the words that I speak not only display life, but give life? That the very words of Jesus, the power of Jesus' words, the truth of Jesus' words, when received by faith, actually bring about the reality to which He points In him was life. The prologue says, and that life was the light of man. I am the living bread, he says.
I came down from heaven. But now they grumble. And he understands perfectly. Verse 64. Let's just be honest about it.
He says there are some of you who do not believe. There are some of you who just don't believe. You just continue in your unbelief. To believe Jesus is to trust Jesus. To believe somebody is to trust that what they tell you is true.
To believe someone is to say that when they make a promise, they will keep a promise.
So what he's saying is this.
Some of you just don't trust me. You don't trust me. You're not prepared to trust me with your entire life. You're happy to be part of the crowd. It's exciting to be around on some of these occasions.
But some of you, says Jesus, do not believe. You've heard the voice of the preacher. You haven't heard my voice. The voice that says, Come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
The voice that says, I am gentle and lowly in heart. And if you'll take my word, you will find rest for your souls. Verse 65, he says, Now you understand. If you didn't understand when I said it the first time in verse 44, we have it. And he said, This is why I told you.
That no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. Allow your eye to go back up to verse 44. where they were grumbling. And in that context, he says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. What Jesus is saying is that when a person actually comes to trust in Jesus, the initiative lies outside of them.
The initiative actually lies with God. You could think about it in terms of interpersonal relationships. Perhaps there's a lady listening to me now, and she realizes that if that fellow. That she knew very little about, had not approached her on that day in that coffee shop or in that place, there's no saying where her life would have gone. It wasn't when she was looking for him.
She might have even been running from him at that point. But he showed up. He was insistent. He pursued her. He loved her.
They have a relationship. Not a relationship that is a result of actually knowing the person exists. But a relationship as a result of having been joined heart and soul with one another. But says Jesus, looking at them, With compassion there are some of you. who do not believe.
Some of you may actually be tied up on the very notion of God's sovereignty. You have a caricature of what that actually means. You've decided that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen despite you. It will not happen despite you. You believe on account of God's initiative.
But God does not believe for you. Is there a decision to be made? Absolutely there is. We're called to it. Is our will engaged in coming to saving faith?
Definitely. But the determinative cause of saving faith. lies in the divine side. and not in the human sight. That's why you see when someone calls you to a decision It's not a call to your emotion.
It's a call to the totality of your being. And no one Ever, ever says yes to the that call. In reality. Apart. for the moving of the Spirit of God, for it is the Spirit That gives life.
Jesus explains.
Well, you would think after such a wonderful explanation And such a compassionate statement. They would all say together Terrific. We're all on board with you, Jesus. Verse sixty six. And after this Desertion.
Desertion. Reaction, this is hard. Question. Are you offended? What if you saw me ascend?
Explanation. Desertion. You see, What they wanted from Jesus, he wouldn't give them. And what he offered them. They didn't want.
So they decide we're away. Instead of submitting to Jesus, instead of saying, I want to rely upon you, Jesus, many of them just went back to the life that they had had before. It was fun for a while, goodness. Who would ever forget the feeding of the five thousand? They'd earlier considered even the possibility of making him a king by force.
You can see that if you go back to chapter 5, you see the volatility of the response of people to the person of Jesus and to the claims of Jesus. At one point, it says, you know, maybe we could actually make him a king. And then they say, Well, well maybe we could throw him over a cliff. And they said, well, maybe we could just forget about them altogether. Who cares?
I used to go along there, I used to listen. I remember I was in the youth group. Back in the day Actually, I I have a very vivid recollection of a similar decision kind of Sunday. to this Sunday. when back in the high school auditorium and so on.
I invited people to do what I'm going to invite you to do in a moment. And In the multitude of responses I had lunched the following day, was someone that I knew who was present. And at lunch, he said to me, I heard what was said yesterday. If I were to respond in the way that the Bible prompts me to. My life would be entirely changed.
And I do not want my life to be changed. My friend continues in that position. to this day. Days of decision. are vital days.
And so he has a question for the twelve. It wasn't that the hard things Kept them away. It was there. Selfish will kept them away. Either they had to keep on living in their own way, Or they had to start living in the Jesus way.
There was no middle ground anymore. He calls it the fair weather followers. will eventually drift away. And that's what's happening here. And after this, many of his disciples, not a trickle.
Many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
So he looks To the twelve. He narrows the focus now. And he has a question for the twelve in verse sixty-seven. Do you want to go away as well? It's a test, you see.
He had already given him a test at the beginning of the chapter, which had led to the feeding of the 5,000, remember? You remember he said, uh does anybody know where we could get some bread here for these people? And then John tells us he he said this as a test because he knew exactly what was going to happen.
Now he gives them a test. He assumes the affirmative response. There's no doubt about it. It's a question not that he needs an answer to, it's a question that they need to face. It's a question that you and I need to face.
Do you want to go away? Do you want to stay on the side of Jesus? Do you want to be unreservedly committed to Christ? Not just a churchgoer, not just a religious person, not just somebody that wants to flirt around in the wake of things? No, no, no, no, no, no.
Do you want to go away? You want to stay. Peter Who gets it right sometimes and wrong other times? comes in strong here. And in response to the question of 67, there is the answer which comes in 68 and 69.
And it is a declaration. We sang it, didn't we, really? Lord, to whom shall we go? Uh we've heard you. We've heard what you said.
We know that it is the Spirit who gives life, that the flesh is no help at all. We know that the words that you speak are spirit and life. That's what he's actually saying there. To whom shall we go? You, you alone, have the words of eternal life.
So, here's an illustration of what it means to be unreservedly committed to Jesus. Number one. you know that there is no other alternative. There is no other alternative. You have reached the point now where you say, I cannot go on into life without you, Jesus.
That's it. Where else would we go? To whom? To what? To where?
To philosophy. to whatever it might be. You've reached that point, said no, no, no. Mm. To whom could we go?
Because you have the words of eternal life. And We have believed. and have come to know. And people say, Well, if you don't answer all the questions, I'm not sure I will ever believe. If you don't believe.
You will never ever begin to understand. Many of your questions. And even some of those questions you will take into heaven with you. But don't fall foul of the idea that I'm an intelligent person here this morning. I live in the realm of knowledge.
I live in the realm of fact. And you want to call me apparently into the realm of faith, into the realm of the unknown, whatever it might be. Notice what Peter is saying. We have come to know. Having believed, That you are the Holy One.
of God.
Now Jesus then clarifies things in a quite dramatic way. In verses 70 and 71, The chilling reality. that one of the inner circle so close to Jesus He could touch him. had access to him on every front. was prepared to sell him.
as a betrayer. But let's end in this way. Jesus is now speaking to us. Through his word. And the question is, is this your declaration?
Have you concluded that there is no alternative? That my heart Won't allow me. to do anything else. Your love has broken down the barriers in my heart. You haven't reached me by clever talk.
You haven't reached me by specific argument. your love. has reached me. I want to live my life loyal to you. Are you prepared to say we have believed?
that we've come to know. Realizing that faith's not a feeling. or an experience. It's certainly not A leap into the dark in the absence of evidence. Faith is not a thing.
People say every so often, Oh, I wish I had your faith In the way that somebody might say, I wish I had your brains. Or I wish I had your red hair. That doesn't make any sense. Faith is Is Reliance. It is trust.
So for example, you say to somebody, Do you have reliance? The inevitable response is reliance on what? or reliance on On whom? What Peter is declaring here is that he is unreservedly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what that means is being prepared to say, I'm no longer going to live my life in my own way.
Rejecting Jesus. Spoiled by my indifference or my rebellion, Living my life without hope. I'm not going to do that anymore. I actually decided that a while ago, but you're pressing me. Pastor.
Uh-huh. I'm going to go Jesus' way. I'm going to submit my life to him as my Lord. I'm going to trust him entirely. I'm going to rest on the fact that when He died on the cross, He bore my punishment that I deserve, and that when He rose from the grave, He opened up the way for me to enter.
unashamedly into the presence of the Father. It was decision day. At the end of chapter 6. And let me suggest to you. It's decision day.
Today. Yeah. You're listening to Truth for Life. Alistair Begg meeting you at the crossroads today, urging you to unreservedly. Commit to Christ.
Here at Truth for Life, we are passionate about God's Word and helping you confidently face decision day. when his word is heard, lives are changed. And if, like us, you long to see unbelievers come to saving faith in Jesus, we want to ask you to do two things before the year ends. First, would you support us in the global gospel outreach of this daily program by giving a year-end donation? Truth for Life is 100% listener funded.
We rely largely on your financial support to end the year with the resources needed to continue our Bible teaching in 2026. You can give a donation of any amount online at truthforlife.org/slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. The second thing we'd like to ask you to do, will you make gospel outreach your personal mission this holiday season? One way you can do that is by distributing Alistair's new Gospel tract. This is a small twelve page tract that introduces Jesus to those who have not yet met Him.
It's something you can share widely with people with whom you come in contact throughout your day. You can give copies to neighbors or work colleagues, college students, leave them behind at coffee shops or other places you frequent. The tracts are just five for one dollar, so buy as many copies as you need at truthforlife.org/slash tract. Thanks for listening. Did you know there are Christmas songs in the Bible?
Tomorrow we'll explore the first of these powerful songs of praise. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Mm-hmm. Where the Learning is for Living.
