JOHN 6:65-66
65 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." 66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
I don’t know if any of us hasn’t suffered the heartache of a loved one who at one time professed Christ only to sometime afterwards abandon Him. It leaves us bewildered and feeling dejected, and we at times ask ourselves, “Was there anything I could have done to prevent this?” Perhaps, but we will examine this towards the end of this edition in JEWELS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. For now, let’s consider the text at hand, and that which transpired previously!
The LORD spoke in rather startling terms what with “eating My flesh” and “drinking My blood” without which, these followers of His would have no life in them. He claimed to be that bread which came down from heaven, the very Bread of Life! Yet He clarified His statements by stating that He was speaking in spiritual terms, not physical (JOHN 6:63). He then revealed to His followers that some of them didn’t really believe and who would betray Him (JOHN 6:64).
They even admitted that these words of Jesus were difficult to take (“hard sayings” and asked the question “who can understand them?” (vs. 60).
Only those who were His true followers, and led by the Spirit of GOD, their Teacher.
This is why it’s so important to have a living, breathing, vital and spiritually real relationship with the LORD Jesus, so that He can never declare, “I never knew you.”. We who truly know the LORD, though there may be hard sayings that we don’t understand in part or in whole, we will walk by faith and not by sight – or by intellectual understanding.
One thing that I’ve learned in these many years in following the LORD: walk in the light of what you do understand, obeying His Word by the grace of GOD as precisely as you can, and further light will be granted and deeper understanding.
There are those who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ – but it’s a false claim as time proves out. There was a similar instance two chapters from now: here are some selected verses to reveal this:
JOHN 8:31-32So there seems to be some apparent “belief” on the part of these certain Jews, and the LORD is instructing them to continue in His Word so that they may become free (which insinuates that they weren’t free at all, but still in bondage (to sin – and to Rome as well, despite their denials!). They protest, but as we know, the LORD knows us better than we know ourselves!
31Then Jesus said to those Jews who BELIEVED on Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
JOHN 8:37-38,40These that “believed on His name” were seeking to kill their Messiah?? I would classify this as a vain belief indeed (1 COR 15:2)! When the LORD speaks truth to us, His blood-bought children, we endeavor to die to self; the LORD spoke truth to these men, and they sought His death! A sure mark of a true child of GOD is a self-sacrificing love for JESUS, as the LORD here points out, if in fact GOD was their Father!
37 "I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 "I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."40 "But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.
JOHN 8:42-44And here the other shoe drops; they did indeed have a vain belief, for the flaming eyes of fire of the LORD Jesus Christ saw through their façade and determined what their true parentage was: “You are of your father the devil”.
42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Cain was attributed as the first to commit murder. Actually, he was the second. Our LORD Jesus Christ Himself testifies to this fact. When he knowingly lured Adam and Eve into sin, they were effectively cut off from the only True Source of Life, and thus murdered – slain by the father of lies.
And here is where we may lend our aid to our loved ones, making every effort to keep them from a vain belief, and from falling away from the faith:
Cultivate in your children, especially while they are young, a love for the truth; do not merely teach them what to think, but how to think.
Do not teach them what the Bible says only but teach them why we should believe the Bible. All too often young (and not so young) people are asked why they believe the Bible, and they answer, “Because it’s GOD’s Word”. When they are asked to prove it’s GOD’s Word, they perhaps will appeal to their changed life as a result of believing in it. While the claim is valid, the same claim could be made by converts to Islam, or Hinduism – or witchcraft for that matter.
At such times the Christian may shrug their shoulders and say, “I just take it on faith that it is the Word of GOD”. That doesn’t help the seeker or the skeptic in any measurable way. There are empirical materials that demonstrate the Bible to be GOD’s Word. For one, prophecy – the only book in the world that declares the future in details that are incontrovertible.
In addition to cultivating in them a love for the truth, teaching them how to think, instructing them in the fundamentals of the Bible and why we believe the Bible is the Word of GOD, keep them in prayer – where we are able to lead them just so far, by our prayers the LORD will take it from there and lead them much farther than we ever could.
Of course, none of this can be truly effective if they are not born again; so it’s vital that the Gospel is presented in a simple, straight forward, and direct method.
I know many parents who have done all of this, and yet their children still abandon the faith “and walk with Him no more”. Among these, there are parents who persisted in prayer for their child’s return and continued to relate to them in a Christ-like manner, and later in life, some of these children return to the faith.
Russ Miller of CREATION, EVOLUTION & SCIENCE ministries (www.creationministries.org) has given some alarming statistics on the number of college students that leave the faith when their faith is attacked by university professors, and having no defense, they cave in.
See the TTUF Interview with Russ Miller here.
Frank Turek of CROSSEXAMINED (www.crossexamined.org) shares that same perspective regarding the younger generations abandonment of biblical faith. These are two very good sites to begin an apologetic program for your children.
In the church I attend, we have committed to pray (and fast) for our children, having a list of their names, so we can intercede for them individually! May I encourage you all to develop such lists and pray for the children of your fellowship as well!
Next time, JOHN 6:67-69 – The MESSIAH’s MONOPOLY!
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