Jesus has just shared with the crowd the difficult teaching that only those who drink His blood and eat His flesh will inherit eternal life. For most, it is too difficult to realize. They seem to be unable to expound or understand what Jesus is teaching.
Therefore, the Bible says, "from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him (6:66)."
Can you picture the crowd deserting Jesus. They start leaving by the masses. This is church growth at its finest. When truth is presented, sometimes people leave. In fact, we may need to judge the reality of truth being preached to our church decline in attendance sometimes - that is what happened with our Savior.
The dust settles, and all that is left are the Twelve staring there at Jesus. And Jesus asks, "You do not want to leave too, do you (6:67)?" And Peter responds in the statement above in verse 68. To truly understand what Peter was saying though we must look back a few verses in this passage. Look at verse 63, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."
Jesus all throughout the Scripture only spoke what He heard the Father say, and He only did what He saw the Father do. Therefore, the words He spoke were spirit, and as a result, they gave life. I love this!
Although the disciples don't truly understand what Jesus was teaching; although they can't fully expound on what has been taught; it is as if Peter is saying, "We may not fully understand, but we KNOW this: the words you speak Jesus make us feel more ALIVE!"
Who can we turn to other than Jesus whose words make us come alive? He alone has the words of eternal life. He alone is Savior of the world. He alone is Messiah.
So the question is: Do the words you share make people come alive? Do they bring life to those who hear? Are your words coming from His Word? If not, your words are not spirit and do not give life.
pcraig
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