Dear Christian friends,

The basic teaching of the Bible is that we are saved by grace alone. It really is a precious teaching, which assures us of eternal life.

That's what Jesus had been teaching in the first part of the Gospel Lesson, which was read before and which is my text this morning.

Yet many of the people in His audience called it a "hard teaching" and refused to accept it. (v. 60). Why?

In the sermon I will answer that question and also show that it is a hard teaching, but by God's grace it becomes easy.

I. This teaching of salvation by grace alone is hard to accept.

A. Many of the people in Jesus' audience that day could not accept it. "On hearing it many of His disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" (v. 60)

1. Jesus was basically saying that He was the eternal Son of God who came from heaven to save the sinful world from eternal death and give it eternal life. (v. 51) He especially was emphasizing His incarnation, that the Word became flesh and lived among us. (John 1:14) Jesus was speaking allegorically, not literally. (Explain!)

2. These disciples, not the twelve, may not have understood, it fully, but they understood it well enough. To them it was unreasonable and unbelievable, and humiliating. They ask "Who can accept?" They thought, "No one!" And they were right. The basic teachings of Christianity are radical, beyond natural man's reasoning.

B. We also, by nature, are unable to accept those teachings. For us, too, these are "hard teachings."

1. For us, too, the teaching of the incarnation of Gods eternal Son is unreasonable and unbelievable: God became a man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin? Really? You got to be kidding! It defies all reason and logic.

2. And who can believe the teaching of the resurrection of the body: The body dies and becomes dust or ashes, but it will be raised up better than before, new, eternal and glorious. Come on now! Whose kidding who?

3. And the teaching that we are by nature poor, miserable sinners deserving of God's wrath and eternal hell fire is most humiliating and offensive to our self righteous proud human nature. Are we really so bad that only God Himself, can redeem us? That's got to be a teaching from the dark ages!

4.We who consider ourselves "Enlightened and modern" can never accept such a teaching that destroys our delicate self image. Take George Bernard Shaw, the great English playwrite who said: "I don't need Jesus Christ to die for me. If I sin, I should be man enough to suffer the consequences myself." And Ted Turner, the billionaire owner of CNN News channel and other enterprises once was quoted in the Dallas Morning Gazette as saying: "Christians are bozos. I don't need Jesus Christ to die for me. Sure, I've had a few women. If that's going to condemn me to hell, so be it!"

5. And we may think we are better than George Bernard Shaw and Ted Turner, but basically we are not. On our own we, like them, cannot accept and believe the hard teachings of Jesus. St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:14: "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." And we confess with Martin Luther in his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed: "I believe that I cannot by my own reason and strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel _ _ _."

C. Jesus emphasizes that God alone gives us faith.

1. The text tells us that Jesus was aware of the grumbling of his disciples when He told them about His incarnation, that He had come down from heaven. He said to them: "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before. The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." (vv. 61-63)

a. Life and salvation come from the Holy Spirit alone; not by our own reason or power or deeds.

b. Then He clearly states that the Holy Spirit works only through His Word. Apart from Jesus' Word the Spirit gives no faith and no spiritual life.

2. Then Jesus goes on to say something that you may not be aware of and which may shock you.

a. He says that even those who hear His Word may not believe it and on there own are unable to believe it. He says, "Yet there are some of you who do not believe. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." (vv. 64 and 65) (You who have heard my life giving Word.)

b. Joel P. Okamoto, Professor at St. Louis, Seminary explains it: "Unless God desires faith for the hearer, there will be unbelief, even in the presence of truth and with the promise of eternal life. Unless God wills one's salvation, Christ's Word will not give life." Unfortunately, this was the case with many of Jesus hearers in this text.

Transition: The issue, therefore is clear. There is no question that salvation is by God's grace alone. This is a hard teaching, which does not flatter us, but humbles us. However, it is true!

II. In view of this, the questions is whether God will save us or not.

A. We really need to ask ourselves these questions: Has God willed my salvation? Has He elected me and called me? Has He justified and sanctified me? Will He raise me from the dead and glorify me?

1. If we can answer "Yes" to those questions, If we in our hearts honestly believe this to be the case with us, then we can be certain that God will save us.

2. Also, the fact that we are gathered here today, listening to His Word is a good indication that God has willed our salvation, although it is not absolute proof; yet, if we are to be saved and have any chance at all to be saved we need to be hearing Jesus' life giving Word even though some who hear it are not enabled to believe.

Transition: This clearly shown in the last part of our text, where we hear Peter speak about "the words of eternal life." (v. 68)

B. We, like Peter and the other disciples, have "the words of eternal life."

1. When many of Jesus' hearers that day were offended at Jesus' hard teaching and turned away and no longer followed Him, Jesus asked the twelve, "You do not want to leave, too, do you?" (v. 67) Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." (vv. 68-69)

2. We have the words of eternal life already in Baptism, many of us as infants. Since our Baptism we have heard again and again these precious words from our parents and Sunday school teachers and the church services year after year. We, like the twelve, have the words of eternal life, the means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments. Therefore, we will not arrogantly leave Jesus and go away to the religions of men. We know that there is no other place to go. Right here at St. John are "the words of eternal life," the words that give salvation.

It is crucial that we stay with Jesus who has the words of eternal life.

3. Because it is in Jesus that the Father wills our salvation, elects us and enables us to believe, and keeps us believing.

a. It is true that God elected us in eternity, even before He made the world, however, this gracious work happens in time, after we are born and baptized. In Baptism we are born again of water and the Spirit, and adopted into the family of God, and freed from the domain of Satan.

b. Then we are kept and preserved in this salvation through the words of eternal life, the Word and the Sacraments, which only can subdue our natural, sinful reasoning. I know from my own experience, that when I begin to doubt these radical teachings I must hurry back to the words of Jesus, which subdues my doubts and restores my faith.

4. So we need to be in the Word continually and partake of the Sacrament regularly, just as it is offered to us so beautifully here at St. John Sunday after Sunday, month after month and year after year.

Conclusion: Yes, indeed, the teaching of salvation by grace alone is a "hard teaching" for those who reject it and refuse to believe it, but for us who are drawn and enabled by God's Spirit it is really an easy teaching. It doesn't depend on us, who fail, but on God who does not fail and so it is really easy, assuring us of eternal life in God's new creation of glory.

Amen