JOHN 6:60\u201365<\/b><\/p>\n
Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, \u201cThis is a hard saying; who can understand it?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
(John 6:60)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Those who heard Jesus\u2019 sermon were divided into three groups: the Jewish leaders; His disciples, hundreds who were long-time followers of Jesus; and the Twelve. We have already looked at the reaction of the Jewish leaders who argued with Jesus. Now we learn of the disciples\u2019 reaction. While it might seem on the surface that their problem was the inability to intellectually understand Jesus\u2019 sermon, we discover from Jesus\u2019 rebuke that their problem was actually unbelief.<\/p>\n
Jesus followers complained that His sermon was too difficult. Because of their hard hearts, they could not understand what Jesus was telling them, and if there were those who did understand it\u2014that faith in Him was the only way to eternal life\u2014they still refused to believe and accept His teaching as the truth. Because they refused to think deeper about Jesus\u2019 teaching, most of them attached the most rigidly literal interpretation to Jesus\u2019 sermon.<\/p>\n
Jesus rebuked the disciples for their unbelief. It was as if He said, \u201cMy flesh as such cannot benefit you; stop thinking that I was asking you literally to eat my body or literally to drink my blood. It is my spirit, my person, in the act of giving my body to be broken and my blood to be shed, that bestows and sustains life, even everlasting life.\u201d But because of their lack of faith, they could not accept Jesus\u2019 teaching.<\/p>\n
Notice that Jesus did not try to tone down His message to accommodate the skeptics. He knew the problem was not in the message but in their hearts. Their unbelief was inexcusable, but it was to be expected. Jesus recognized from the very onset of His ministry that many would lack understanding and turn away in unbelief. Only those whom God had chosen, and He had not chosen all men, would believe the hard sayings of Jesus. The same can be expected today. Many will turn away from the teachings of Scripture because they find them too difficult. We should never try to change the message to persuade such people to accept the Gospel, but we should accept the fact that not everyone will believe. At such times, we must be faithful to proclaim truth and trust in God\u2019s sovereignty regarding the fruit of our ministry.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
2 Samuel 7\u20139<\/p>\n
Luke 19:29\u201348<\/p>\n
Do you ever find yourself trying to tone down parts of God\u2019s Word when you face skeptics? Do you ever start making excuses for what the Bible teaches? Remain committed to the truth. Trust that God will bring His chosen ones to Himself, that they will believe the truth without you watering down the message.<\/p>\n
For further study: Isa. 53:1\u20133 \u2022 Matt. 13:10\u201317 \u2022 Luke 22:66\u201371 \u2022 Heb. 3:7\u201315<\/i><\/p>\n
thursday<\/p>\n
april<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JOHN 6:60\u201365 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, \u201cThis is a hard saying; who can understand it?\u201d (John 6:60). Those who heard Jesus\u2019 sermon were divided into three groups: the Jewish leaders; His disciples, hundreds who were long-time followers of Jesus; and the Twelve. We have already looked at the reaction … Continue reading “A DIFFICULT SAYING”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}