A Full Stomach vs. a Hungry Heart, Part 3 is from a series of sermons based on John chapter six.

Learn more from the complete series of A Full Stomach vs. a Hungry Heart:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

In Part 3, the sermon examines whether we care more about physical needs than spiritual needs.

Key verses:
John 6:59-71

Please take your Bible, if you will, and turn with me the Gospel of John, chapter six, John chapter six. This will be the third and final of a series of messages titled “A Full Stomach vs. a Hungry Heart.” To begin with, I want us to read two verses. We’re going to go back and review a little bit starting at verse 45, but to begin with, I want us to read verses 67 and 68. John chapter 6, verses 67 and 68. In John chapter 6, verse 67:

John 6:67: “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”

John 6:68: “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

The Bread of Life

So, we’ve talked about this and I’m going to review just a little bit. The first part of John chapter six tells us the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. In order to understand what we’re going to say tonight, you need to understand the context of the entire chapter, so we’re beginning there.

If we look at verses 26 and 27, we find that the Lord tells us that while He can certainly meet our physical needs, our spiritual needs are eternally more important. Look at verse 26:

John 6:26: “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.”

John 6:27: “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.”

The important thing the Lord is saying is not the physical needs that we have, He does meet our physical needs, but the important thing is our spiritual needs. Take care of that which is eternal over that which is temporary. Then verses 28 and 29:

John 6:28: “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”

Well, that’s a good question, what do we do to work the work of God? Here it is:

John 6:29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

So, the work of God is to believe God, to trust God, and to follow Him by faith.

Calling People to Himself

Now, move down, if you will, to verse 45. The Lord says:

John 6:45: “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”

Now, that’s an interesting verse because it talks about how the Lord calls people to himself, and very important wording here. He says, “It is written in the prophets,” which means you’re going to find it in the Old Testament. Anytime in the New Testament you find those words “it is written,” it means it’s written in the Old Testament. “This is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God.” Everybody that hears about God is taught about God. “Every man therefore that hath heard, and has learned of the Father, cometh to me.”

It’s not saying universal salvation. We’ve talked about that some this morning there’s nowhere in the Bible that says everybody’s going to be saved. You don’t need to worry about anybody’s spiritual condition, you don’t need to worry about your own spiritual condition because eventually, everybody’s going to Heaven. Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say anything like that.

What it does teach is that the Father makes himself known. As we said this morning, you seek after God, you’re going to find Him, and the Father makes himself known. And everybody that hath heard and hath learned of the Father understands the Father, puts their faith and trust in the Father. How do you know it means put their faith and trust in the Father? I read verse 45, “Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”

The Lord gives us an important clarification of that in verse 46, where He says:

John 6:46: “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.”

“Not that any man hath seen the Father,” – there are people who say, “Well, I have. I’ve seen the Father.” Several times in the scriptures it says no man has seen God. This is John chapter six and back two chapters in chapter four, the Lord Jesus says, “God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

So, He says no man has seen God, except that He says this, “save [except] He which is of God, He has seen the Father.” What does He mean by “He which is of God”? He’s referring to himself, He’s seen the Father. But later on in this same book, the same Gospel of John, He says, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” So, we see the visible form of God and that is Jesus Christ. We do not see God the Father. “Well, preacher, when we get to Heaven will we see God the Father?” It appears that we shall. Where do you get that? I get that from Revelation in the later chapters.

So, it appears that we shall see God the Father but not in this life, not in this life. In Revelation chapter 4 and in the later chapters 20, chapter 20 in particular, the Lord is seen. Chapter 21, the Lord is seen and so we don’t see God in this life, but you see the Son. Well, what about those times in the Old Testament where it says the Lord appeared unto people? He did. We call that a theophany or a christophany and what is that? That is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father. Jesus said in another place that no man has seen God at any time; the only begotten of the Father, He hath revealed him. Here He says:

John 6:46: “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.”

I quote verse 47 all the time. I teach children to memorize verse 47 because it’s a very simple, very important statement, I will say eternally important:

John 6:47: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”

It’s that plain and simple, the ones who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. Now, that’s not to say that you simply believe as I did before I knew the Lord – that once upon a time, thousands of years ago in another part of the world, where at that time I had never been, never thought I would go, there was this man who lived, and His name was Jesus and He grew up in Nazareth. He was called Jesus from Nazareth and we celebrated His birth at Christmas time, and He said that He was the Son of God and He probably was. And so, I accepted all of that as historical fact. That’s not what He’s talking about. Verse 47 is not talking about just accepting the fact that Jesus did exist. What He’s talking about is what He said in verse 29:

John 6:29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

47 again:

John 6:47: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”

Things Eternal

Now, verse 48 down to verse 58, in the next 10 verses, and we talked about those last time, are best understood if you understand verse 63. Verse 63 says:

John 6:53: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

“Quickeneth” means makes alive. How does that help us understand verses 48 to 58? Because He’s talking about spiritual things, He’s talking about eternal things, and not just material and physical things. Verse 48, He says:

John 6:48: “I am that bread of life.”

John 6:49: “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.”

John 6:50: “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”

It was bread they got every day in the wilderness, the people of Israel. God gave it to them and it sustained them. He said:

John 6:49: “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.”

In verse 50, He said:

John 6:50: “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”

It’s not manna, it’s not like that. Manna came every day, as long as you were eating it, you were still living, but it didn’t give eternal life. “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”

John 6:51: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Now, the next verse is going to tell us some of the people got upset about that.

John 6:52: “The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Did you know that later on, after the birth of the church and yet still in the days of the Roman Empire, one of the reasons that the Christians were persecuted was that the Romans said the Christians practiced cannibalism? They were accused of cannibalism.

Now, no true Christian is a cannibal, okay? Can we say that clearly and simply? So, no true Christian is a cannibal, but they were accused of cannibalism and why? Well, partly because of this passage and partly because there were some who taught that the bread that we take in the Lord’s supper and the cup that we drink are literally flesh and blood, which is not true. And we’ve told you many times they are representative. They represent the body of Christ broken on the cross and represent the blood of Christ shed on the cross. So, verse 52:

John 6:52: “The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

John 5:53: “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”

John 5:54: “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 5:55: “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”

John 5:56: “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”

Now, folks, understand He’s using a picture here. He’s using imagery and you know that because you read verse 63. You know that He’s talking about faith because you read verse 29. You know that this is given of God because you read verse 45, but all of this is the Lord talking about how we participate in Him. We partake of Him by faith. Again, what we do with the Lord’s Supper is a memorial that He gave for us to get to practice at the last Passover that He ate with the 12 disciples. Look at verse 57, if you will:

John 6:57: “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.”

Why does He use this imagery? Because you need bread, or you need food. You need nourishment to live. Very simple. Let’s go to the physical idea. There are certain things your body has to have to live. First of all, you need air. You cannot live without air. You can’t live more than just a very short time, maybe a minute or two or a few minutes at the most, without air. You’ve got to have air. Why? Your body needs oxygen, so when you breathe in the air, it goes into your lungs. Your heart pumps blood, and the blood goes through your lungs, picks up the oxygen that you breathe in, and takes it to the circulatory system, takes it to all the cells of your body, and your body has to have that. Every cell in your body has to have oxygen. That’s why you must have air.

Secondly, you must have water. You must have water. Without water, the blood that takes oxygen into all the cells in your body will dry up. You must have water, and it’s necessary to transport that oxygen.

And thirdly, you must have nutrients. The nutrients come from the food that you eat, and that same circulatory system takes the blood not from the lungs this time but from your digestive system to the cells in your body. You need water and air, and food to live. Now, you can live the longest without food. You can live for a fairly long time, not an extremely long time, but you live a fairly long time. Without water, you can’t live very long, not long at all without air. So, all of these things give us life, and two of those three things Jesus uses as images of himself, the water of life in chapter four and the bread of life in chapter six.

He is the source of light. We know that because in John chapter one, verses three and four, it says this:

John 1:3: “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made.”

John 1:4: “In him was life; and the life was the light of man.”

Well, guess what? John 1:3-4 is talking in the context of creation and He created us to be beings that are connected to Him as our source of life. He’s our source of light also, but He’s a source of life.

I’ve heard people many times misquote John 14:6 and say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man coming to the Father but by me.” That’s correct, but I’ve heard people quote it this way, “I am the way, the truth, and the light, no man comes on the Father but by me.” That’s not correct. That’s a correct statement that He is the light, but in the chapters around that passage, He says, “I am the light of the world.” But here’s the thing, it’s not a word-for-word correct statement to say, “I am the way, the truth, and the light.”

So, is He the light? Yes, and is He the life? Yes. And he’s both. In chapter one, verse four:

1 John 1:4: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

Now, look, if you will then, at verse 57:

John 6:57: “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.”

You draw your very life from Him. You can’t breathe without Him. You can’t live without Him. You draw your very life from Him. But listen, folks, spiritually speaking, eternally, you have to partake of Him to have eternal life. And you do that how? This is the work of God that you believe on Him that He has sent.

These Things He Taught

John 6:59: “These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.”

Now, spend some time going through that passage, those 10 verses, with you and I want you to understand He was in the synagogue, and He taught. It is Jesus’ custom to go to the synagogue. Now, somebody’s going to come along and say, “Well, see, Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.” He certainly did. There’s no question about that except when He was in Jerusalem. What happened? Then He went to the temple. He went to the temple because He was in Jerusalem. Not in Jerusalem, He couldn’t go to the temple, but He could go to the synagogue.

Understand this. The Lord did go to the synagogue and or the temple on the Sabbath day because that was before the cross and before the resurrection. The New Testament church does not worship on the Sabbath day. The New Testament church worships on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, because that is the day of the resurrection, that is the day of the new covenant, that is the day of the New Testament.

He taught these things in the synagogue in Capernaum. A lot of folks didn’t like that teaching; what I just went through with those ten verses about the bread of life. A lot of folks didn’t like that, didn’t like it at all. They didn’t like the imagery. So, maybe they didn’t understand, maybe they were thinking physically. He was speaking spiritually and that’s probably true in many of their cases. But they didn’t like the exclusivity of it, and a lot of people don’t know, they don’t like the exclusivity of the Gospel.

Well, Christianity is so exclusive you either believe in Jesus or you go to Hell. Let me tell you why. Folks say that because you either believe in Jesus or you go to Hell, that’s why, okay? It’s real simple.

I’ve told you this, before when I hadn’t been saved very long and I dated a young lady. She was a Christian. We dated for a little while. She has a Methodist background. I like Methodists, I do, but she was of a Methodist speaker. I went to a Methodist kindergarten. That tells you a lot, doesn’t it? But the fact of the matter is, she said, “You know what I don’t like about you Baptists?” I said, “No, what’s that?” Understand, I hadn’t been a Baptist very long, didn’t know much about it. But she said, “Every time you go to church, it’s the same thing, you got to get saved, you got to get saved, you got to get saved.” I said to her, “You know why, don’t you?” She said, “No, why?” I said, “Because you got to get saved, that’s why.”

So, some of them didn’t like that teaching, and some of them began to leave. When we begin the chapter, there are 5,000 men following Jesus. As we pointed out when we started this series, that number probably does not include the women and children who were there, just the men. There are the 12 disciples, they’re closer to Jesus, and then within them, the inner circle, Peter, James, and John, who were the closest to Jesus. But there were more than 5,000 people following Jesus at the beginning of this chapter. Stay with that. Keep that thought. Look at verse 60:

John 6:60: “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”

“Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard this,” – heard what? That teaching on Him being the bread of life. “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”

Didn’t like that. Some of them, again, didn’t understand the spiritual aspect of it, I’m sure, and were taking it purely on a physical plane. Some of them, I’m pretty sure, did understand the spiritual aspect. They didn’t like the exclusivity of it. People say Christianity is so exclusive. Well, it is.

But so is every other religion in the world. “Oh, no, preacher, you’re not right about that. You know, there are beliefs like the Baha’i faith. Baha’i faith includes everything.” Yes, they’ll include everything unless you come to them and say, “You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.” They’ll exclude you. They will. They don’t include everything. There are other groups who say, “Well, we’re all-inclusive, universal, Unitarian Universalists, we’re all-inclusive.” Unless you say Jesus is the only way to Heaven and then they’re not all-inclusive. Do you understand what I’m telling you? You do.

So, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said this is a hard saying who can hear it. Verse 61:

John 6:61: “When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?”

Does this truth that I just taught you, does this teaching, does my teaching, offend you?

John 6:62: “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”

I want you to stop and think about that. We’re not going to turn there, but if you turn to Acts chapter one, you will find some of those people standing there that day. Did some of those people standing there that day, as Jesus was teaching this in the synagogue, see Him ascend up to Heaven? Where He was before, some of them were actually going to witness that. Of all the people who were following Him at the beginning of the chapter, many of them would not see it. But there would be those standing there who would. “What and if you shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before.”

His Words Are Spirit and Life

John 6:63: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

It is the spirit that giveth life, the flesh profiteth nothing – He’s talking in spiritual terms, He’s talking in eternal terms, He’s talking in being saved and the spirit gives us life. The spirit that quickeneth gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing. “The words that I speak unto you,” – the words that I speak unto you, the words of John chapter six, verses 48 to 58, “they are Spirit, and they are life.”

Now, I’ve told you many times you should take the Bible literally unless there’s an indication that it’s not meant to be taken literally, and there are many examples of that. Generally speaking, you just take it literally. It says what it means and means what it says. But there are cases where it says, for example, Jesus, in a parable, says what the kingdom of God is like. And when He gives that, He’s using imagery there and you understand that.

Here, He was speaking in spiritual terms, and you understand that. In those cases where it’s not speaking literally, it’s always indicated in the context. You don’t have to wonder about it. “Well, I don’t know if this passage is literal or not.” It’ll tell you in the context. It’ll be clear in the context. There’s no confusion there. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,” and He speaks the words of life. Peter’s going to say that we read that at the outset. He’s going to say that later.

Some Believe Not

Well, here’s the key between those who stayed with him and those who did not. Verse 64:

John 6:64: “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.”

“But there are some of you that believe not,” – there were people following Him, there were people who claimed to be His disciples, there were those who followed Him, but they did not actually believe. They weren’t believers. Folks, today, there are many people who, if you ask them, “Are you a Christian?” They would say, “Yes.” But they haven’t really trusted the Lord as their Savior.

I was in that category before I was saved. If you had come to me and said, “Are you a Christian?” I would have said, “Yes.” And I’m going to tell you something, I was young, and I was very naïve, and I did not understand a lot of things. Why would I have said that I was a Christian? I thought wrong, but I thought, “I’m an American.” If you’re an American, you’re a Christian. Folks, that’s not true. It never has been true. It’s never going to be true, okay? There’s never been a day when everybody in America was a Christian and there’s probably never going to be a day when everybody in America is a Christian.

Well, how do you know who is and who isn’t? Well, those who have trusted the Lord Jesus as their Savior they’re the Christians, and those who haven’t are not. Well, maybe they go to church, maybe they do, maybe they pray, maybe they do, maybe they try to live a good life, maybe they try to keep the Ten Commandments, maybe they do. But if they haven’t trusted Jesus as their Savior, they are not a Christians because the word “Christian” literally means Christ-like or, in its most literal sense, little Christ. You’re not a little Christ. You’re not truly Christ-like.

If you’re not part of the family and in chapter three of this same book, He says, “You must be born again.” No question about it. So, if you have not been born again, if you are not trusting Him spiritually, if all of your act is physical, then you’re not really a Christian. So, verse 64:

John 6:64: “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.”

He’s not saying that all those people betrayed Him in the sense that Judas did. This verse does refer to Judas, but they did turn on Him, they did leave Him, and I want you to understand that is so significant.

Let’s go back, if you will, to verse 60:

John 6:60: “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”

Then come back to verse 64:

John 6:64: “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.”

John 6:65: “And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”

The only begotten of the Father, He hath revealed Him. But unless you’ve heard the Word, unless you’ve believed the Word, unless you put your faith and trust in Jesus, then you are not one of His disciples. You are not a Christian. Notice what happens. Verse 66:

John 6:66: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

Those who claim to be followers of Jesus, many of His disciples, went back and walked no more with Him. They turned away. Now, in the context of this chapter, this is where we got the title for this series, “A Full Stomach vs. A Hungry Heart.” You see when He gave them bread, thousands of them wanted to follow Him at the very outset of the chapter, even before the miracle of feeding the five thousand. It says that many were following Him because they saw the miracles which He did.

So, many followed Him because they had their physical needs met. They got the food they wanted, and in this story, they got the food they needed. He met their needs. And many of them get hold of the physical and they ignore the spiritual.

“Well, I got my needs met. God’s meeting my needs.” That is one of the problems with what’s called today the Prosperity Gospel. If you do this, God will meet all your material needs. The Lord is perfectly capable of meeting all your material needs. But if you don’t get your spiritual needs met, you are not going to be in eternity with Him. I don’t know how to make it any clearer.

So, from that time, 66, from that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. So, they’re not 5,000 people following Him at this point. How many are left? It doesn’t tell us how many of those five thousand are left, but it’s a good number. Did all five thousand leave? Probably not. Why do you think that? Because as we go on through the Gospel of John, you see there are more than 12 people with Him. But a good number of those 5,000 people, they’re not in the picture anymore. They’re gone. Why? Because they were just there for a full stomach. They were just there for what they could get.

Now, many people go to churches and they’re in one church for a while and then they’re in another church for a while and then they’re in another church for a while and then they’re in another church for a while. I know people who I’ve known for probably 15-20 years – I’m not exaggerating – they must have belonged to 10 different churches now. Why is that? I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all to that. I really don’t. But in many cases, it’s where they go and they say, “Well, I’m not getting my needs met.” Not getting your needs met that’s possible. I won’t say that’s not true. Could somebody come here and not get their needs met? Absolutely. Has that ever happened? I’m sure it has.

But what about going a step further? What about instead of coming and saying I’m not getting my needs met, what about coming and saying, “Hey, I want to be part of this, and I want to help other people get their needs met.” It’s kind of a different slant on it, isn’t it? A different point of view. That’s not to say that everybody who moves from one church to another is thinking fleshly and not spiritually.

I’m not saying that there are biblical reasons why people move on. The Lord calls people to serve elsewhere. He does, and that’s clear in the Book of Acts. Paul and Barnabas were serving in the church at Antioch, and they were happy there. And the Lord was blessing and things were going well, but the Lord came to them, said I need you to go up here to Asia Minor and start some new churches. They went where they followed the Lord, absolutely.

And then there are times when the Lord tells us to separate, tells us to separate from those who are teaching false doctrine and wrong doctrine. And maybe we try to correct it and we try to make things right and people go. You had that case throughout history and you have that case today. But let me give you a few examples of that and I’m going to make a couple of blanket statements here. The trouble with blanket statements is they’re almost never entirely correct. There are almost always exceptions to the blanket statement.

But that’s kind of what happened in what we call the Protestant Reformation, almost said Revolution. Protestant Reformation was when there were fellas who began to read their Bible and they said wait a minute, what the church is teaching us, what they called the church, what the church is teaching us is not what the Bible says. They left and they started new groups.

Now, a lot of times, I hadn’t intended to go here tonight but I’m going to very quickly. A lot of times, we get this idea the church was born in Jerusalem, which it was, and it continued because of persecution and all that happened. About 300 years later, the church moved its headquarters to Rome and that was the true church. Then about 1,200 years or so, 1,200 to 1,400 years after that, 1,200 years later probably, the church at Rome had gone off track and gotten off into tradition over doctrine. They became corrupt.

So, the fellows read their Bible and they protested, therefore being called Protestants, and they left. That’s kind of true, but not entirely. “What do you mean kind of true, but not entirely?” Well, number one, the church at Rome never was the true church. “How do you know that?” It was the first state church. It was the first church that was run by the government, and the government in that case being the Roman Empire.

When they made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, they had a strange mixture of things because people held tightly to their old beliefs, and it put a lot of places out of work, a lot of temples out of work, and a lot of pagan priests out of work. What are you going to do with all those people? Well, we’re going to make them temples, and churches, and we’re going to make the priests our priests because, in the New Testament church, there are no priests except the priesthood of the believer.

So, think about that for a bit. There was the Protestant Reformation. There were those people who were reading their Bible and said there’s a lot of what’s going on here, and for all these years, isn’t right. So, they went off and began to teach what they believed to be biblical and what they believed to be right.

Here’s what gets left out of that story. There were always people who were never part of the church at Rome. There were always people who held to the teaching of the scriptures. There are always people who got their doctrine from the scriptures. Sometimes, they were called by different names, and they traveled under different group names, but there were always such people. They were the true church; they were the true believers. There’s more to it than that, but just put that in. If you were to read my notes tonight, you wouldn’t see any of that in it.

Following or Leaving?

John 6:66: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

John 6:67: “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”

Think about that, He turned to the 12 and said that these 12 whom He had personally chosen, these 12 who had walked with Him and talked with Him and ate with Him and slept where He slept and heard Him teach and seen the miracles, these 12, who later on, 11 of the twelve, would go out and give their lives to preaching His Gospel, He turned to them and said, “Will ye also go away?”

Now, let me ask you something. The men that He was talking to in verse 67, were they believers?

Well, 11 of them were, weren’t they? One was not. “How do you know?” Well, if you go back to verse 64:

John 6:64: “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.”

So, one was not and that was Judas. But the others were believers.

John 6:67: “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”

You know, I think that is a message for churches in America today, “Will you also go away?” Many people, many people decide that following Jesus and sticking with His Word and his teaching his doctrine is a little too tough, a little too restrictive, a little too narrow. So, Jesus says, “Will you also go away?”

John 6:68: “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

“To whom shall we go?” – Where are we going to go? “Thou hast the words of eternal life.” You’re teaching us the way of life. You are eternal life. You have the words of eternal life. You give us that water of life. You give us that bread of life. Where else are we going to go? He didn’t stop there:

John 6:68: “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

John 6:69: “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”

“Thou art that Christ,” – what does he mean? That Christ, the one of prophecy, the one who was promised to come, the Redeemer, the Savior, the one who would come to the Earth, the Son of God.

He says, the Son of the Living God, the one that was talked about in Genesis 3:15, the one who was promised as the begotten Son of God in Psalm 2, the one who is coming to bear our sins in Isaiah 53, the one whose crucifixion was described in Psalm 22, “Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”

They knew the Messiah was coming, they knew the Savior was coming, they knew that Christ was coming, they knew it was the time for Him to come, and they knew this was Him. Peter says we know that. Where are we going to go?

John 6:69: “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”

John 6:70: “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

Boy, that one is a devil. That’s what He said. You know there are only two people in the Bible, many people in the Bible, it talks about being possessed of demonic spirits or evil spirits, only two people does it say that Satan entered into them, only two people that says Satan possessed, that is Judas Iscariot and the beast of Revelation 13. Only two people were possessed of Satan himself, “One of you is a devil.”

The others didn’t know at that time who that was. The others at that time did not suspect Judas. We know that from later in the account, particularly in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. We know that when Jesus said it at the Last Supper, when He established what we call the Lord’s Supper, communion, He said one of you is going to betray me and what did the disciples do? They all turned to look at Judas, “Yep, it’s him. We knew it all along.” Nope, they didn’t do that.

You know what, everyone? I’ve said and rightly so, they said, “Lord, is it I? Am I the one?” We ought to ask ourselves, “Am I the one? Am I the one who’s not following you closely? Am I the one who’s going to leave next? Am I the one who’s not going to be the disciple that you would have me to be? Am I the one?

But one of them knew he was the one. He wasn’t asking. He knew, he knew. Before that meal was over, he went out and carried out his betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people are known just for being traitors. If I mention the name, Judas Iscariot, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Traitor. If I mention the name, Benedict Arnold, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Traitor. You know what? You don’t think Benedict Arnold, General in the Continental Army. You don’t think Benedict Arnold, a friend of George Washington. You don’t think Benedict Arnold, who lived out his life in England. You don’t think any of those things. What’s the first thing you think? Traitor.

It’s a terrible thing to be, that one terrible thing, to be the traitor. So, Jesus says to the 12, “Will you also go away?” Now, didn’t He know who was going to betray Him? He did. Didn’t He know then who was going to stay? He did. So, why did he ask that question? The same time, same reason, the Lord always asks a question, so we will think about the answer, so they would look at themselves and say, “Lord, is it I? Am I the one?

Verse 70 again:

John 6:70: “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

John 6:71: “He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.”

He had seen everything the others had seen. He had heard everything the others had heard. He heard the teaching. He saw the miracles. He passed out the five loaves and two fishes. He had seen it all, one of the twelve. Do you know what we would call Judas today? We’d say he’s a church member. “No, they didn’t say church member then. The church hadn’t been born yet.” But we would say today he was a church member. He was one of them. He was one of the 12.

Calling Hungry Hearts

“He it was that should betray him.” So, Jesus says to all of them, “Will ye also go away?” – because He’s calling those who have a hungry heart, He’s calling those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled. Not just those who have a full stomach. Judas got a full stomach also when everybody else did.

He’s calling those who hunger and thirst after Him. Will you also go away? Will you leave the Lord? Will you leave His truth? Will we go the world’s way? Will you go the material way? Or do you have a hunger and a thirst in your heart for righteousness? Do you have a hunger and a thirst in your heart for the Lord and for the things of the Lord, for that which is spiritual, that which is eternal, that which lasts forever, as opposed to that which is here today and literally gone tomorrow?

This is a matter of true faith. It’s a matter of true loyalty. When others are abandoning ship because they wanted food without work, the true believer would stay when others were leaving because they weren’t getting free bread every day. The others would stay and live their lives for Jesus when others were moving out because they didn’t like the way He spoke and didn’t like the way He talked. The others would stay.

So, the question from me tonight and the question for all of us is, “Will you also go away?” The answer is, “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

~~~~~~~

Let us pray. Father, thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you for this time that we’ve had together. Thank you for this important chapter in your Word. Help us, Lord, to be those who are like Peter. Peter drifted, Peter had his faults, Peter had his failures, but he stayed after the Lord. Help us, Lord, to be that kind of Christian.

Heads bowed; eyes are closed. We’re going to sing a hymn of invitation. I’m simply going to say that if the Lord has spoken to your heart, the altar’s here if you need it.

Father, bless and move this invitation time we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

---

Watch the prerecorded live version of the entire service and sermon, A Full Stomach vs. a Hungry Heart, Part 3, on Facebook.

Learn more from the complete series of A Full Stomach vs. a Hungry Heart:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

A Full Stomach vs. a Hungry Heart, Part 3 — Related Sermons

You may also want to listen to or view these sermons:

To Be Or Not To Be: That Is the Question

What Time I Am Afraid