The Rejection of Christ

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 100
• Hymn — All People That on Earth Do Dwell
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Athanasian Creed
• Scripture Reading — Malachi 2:1-9
• Hymn — Jesus Paid It All
• Prayer of Confession
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
• Sermon
• Hymn — I Know Whom I Have Believed
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14
• Gloria Patri

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Sermon Title: The Rejection of Christ

Scripture: John 6:60–71

I. The Rejection of Christ Is Predetermined by the Father

A. The disciples grumble at Jesus's hard saying — "hard" here means spiritually offensive, not intellectually obscure

1. Their dispute in John 6:52 is a heavy, heated debate; Jesus says human reason cannot grasp this
2. The gospel is spiritually discerned, not attained by human logic or a "mathematical formula"

B. Belief must be granted by the Father — John 6:63–65

1. Romans 9:16–18: salvation depends not on human will but on God who has mercy
2. Mercy = God not giving us what we deserve; grace = God giving us what we do not deserve
3. Predestination is a difficult but necessary doctrine, handled pastorally by the Westminster divines

C. The unadulterated gospel is the instrument God uses to separate wheat from chaff

1. Jesus's offensive, sacrificial language ("eat my flesh, drink my blood") is the tool that hardens those not granted faith
2. An adulterated gospel — one stripped of the cross and sin — allows unbelievers to think they are Christians, blurring lines and stunting growth among God's elect
3. The hardening of Pharaoh was simultaneously the means of merciful salvation for God's people; so too here

II. The Rejection of Christ Is a Personal Detachment from the Son

A. The departing disciples were followers who had attached themselves to Christ, calling him "Rabbi," but leave with eyes wide open

1. "Hard saying" (Greek: sklēros) means harsh or difficult to receive, not hard to understand — cf. the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:21–22)
2. They wanted bread and healings, not the radical union Christ demands — "I am in you and you are in me"

B. Rejecting the gospel is not rejecting a concept, theory, or formula; it is rejecting a person

1. Jesus has fed this crowd abundantly, healed their sick, and now offers his very body and blood — supremely personal self-giving
2. The cross is the most personal act of self-giving the world has ever known
3. Hebrews 6:6: those who fall away are "crucifying once again the Son of God to their harm and holding him up to contempt"
4. Hebrews 10:29: spurning the Son of God and profaning the blood of the Covenant carries the worst punishment
5. To reject the gospel is to reject the second person of the Trinity who became man to shed his blood for sinners

III. The Rejection of Christ Is a Prideful Denial of the Spirit

A. Jesus asks: "What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?" — John 6:61–62

1. The Ascension belongs to the spiritual realm; it cannot be grasped by the flesh (human reason and pride)
2. Borrowing from 1 Corinthians 1: man's wisdom is offended by the things of Christ; what should inspire awe instead brings offense and hatred
3. Illustration: 3D movie glasses — without the spirit, the image that should inspire wonder is only an offense to the eyes

B. Peter's confession — John 6:68–69 — is true but not a mountaintop moment in context

1. Contrast with Peter's confession in Matthew 16:17–18, which drew an unqualified blessing from Jesus
2. Here Jesus responds: "Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil" — a sobering check against pride
3. The disciples at that moment do not know it is Judas; the effect would be like the disciples at the Last Supper asking, "Is it I?"

C. No believer ever graduates from complete dependence on Christ and his Spirit

1. Gethsemane: Jesus tells Peter, James, and John to "watch and pray, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" — they fall asleep; all the disciples abandon Christ at the cross
2. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1980, dying of cancer): "More and more do I see that what we need is simple, childlike faith — just to believe his word and surrender ourselves to him utterly"
3. Lloyd-Jones: "My only hope of arriving in glory lies in the fact that the whole of my salvation is God's work — grace at the beginning, grace at the end… not what we have been, not what we have done, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord"
4. The children of God are those who receive grace and mercy from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from beginning to end