You have the words of eternal life

John 6:67-69

Previous to this Scripture Jesus had fed the five thousand and had walked on water. The people were amazed by all this and were seeking more signs from Jesus. Jesus tells them that it is not physical but eternal food that they should be interested in. He tells them in John 6:35 that He is the bread of life. He is telling them that they need to feed on Him. Jesus goes on to say that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have eternal life. He explains that He came to do the Father’s will and that He could give them eternal life. This angered the people and they began to say how can He say these things. They found it abhorrent that He could say they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Many of the disciples said, “This is hard teaching” and many of them turned away from Him. This led to Jesus questioning His closer disciples and asking them if they wanted to leave Him as well. Paul made four points about this Scripture:

1. The question that demands a decision – “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus doesn’t manipulate or guilt the people into following Him. He allows them to turn away. It has to be a personal decision to follow Jesus. The question that demands a decision is do you choose to follow Jesus or turn your back on Him?
2. The confession of where else to turn – “Lord, to whom shall we go?” The world can be so attractive, but Peter’s response is a desperate sense of understanding that there is nothing that satisfies like Jesus. There is a spiritual hunger deep within each of us we are not self sufficient and that we need more than just who we are. We have a deep need for God.  All alternatives fall short of God Himself. Jesus is the only one who can meet all our needs.
3. The conviction about His words – “You have the words of eternal life.” Worldly stuff is nice and we can put our faith and trust in it, but it will always let us down. Peter doesn’t say, “You have the comfortable, easy or popular words”, but he says, “You have the end destination”. He sees that truth matters more than comfort. We must distinguish between the things that offend us and the things that save us. How often do you read God’s word? Do you devour it? Is it the words of eternal life to you?
4. The certainty of faith’s assurance – “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Peter ends with this absolute assurance and declaration of certainty. There is a progression here from believing to knowing. Faith leads to knowledge. Can you follow Jesus not knowing where He is going, but knowing He has you in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16)? Are you holding unswervingly to the hope you profess (Hebrews 10:23)?