Even Jesus’ brothers do not believe Him. Holy, and harmless, and blameless as He is in life, some of His nearest relatives do not receive Him as the Messiah. Seeing Christ’s miracles, hearing Christ’s teaching, living in Christ’s own company, is not enough to make men believers. Just having spiritual privileges does not make anyone a Christian. Everything is useless

The church is full of people like the men and women described in these verses who stop following Jesus. The look like genuine Christians, they talk like genuine Christians, they even live like genuine Christians, but when they hit a temptation big enough or a trial hard enough, it shows there’s no real heart faith there at all. They are

To some Christ’s sayings are hard to understand. To others, they are hard to believe and harder still to obey. As long as the heart is naturally proud, worldly, unbelieving, self-centred, and sinful, there is no lack of people who say about Christianity, “This is too hard.” We need humility. We need grace to understand. We need a new heart

Let’s look, first of all, at what these verses don’t mean. They don’t mean a literal eating and drinking of Christ. And they don’t refer necessarily to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. We may eat the Lord’s Supper, and yet not eat and drink Christ’s body and blood. We may eat and drink Christ’s body and blood, and yet

If Jesus had come as a conquering king, with wealth and honours to bestow on His followers, and mighty armies behind Him, the Jews would have been willing enough to receive Him. But a poor, and humble, and suffering Messiah is an offense to them. Their pride refuses to believe that such a one is sent from God. We see

Our Lord wants us to know that He Himself is the food of man’s soul. The soul of every man is naturally starving through sin. In Christ and His atoning death, in Him and His priesthood, in Him and His grace, love, and power, in Him alone will empty souls find their needs supplied. In Him there is life. Bread

Jesus’ listeners immediately start thinking of what they can do to prove how good they are. Doing, doing, doing, is their only idea of the way to heaven. But Jesus tells them that believing on Him is the highest and greatest of all works. What does He mean? Is He saying we earn our way to heaven? Is He saying

Jesus Christ knows our hearts. He knows the false motives of those who follow Him. He sees the secrets of those who call themselves Christians. He knows why we do what we do. The reasons why we go to church, why we take Communion, why we have family worship, and why we keep the Sabbath holy - He sees them

Notice our Lord Jesus Christ’s humility. He has no desire to be made king. It is not the time for Him to be crowned king, instead He comes to serve others. From His cradle to His grave, He lives a humble life. We need to remember His example. Pride is far too common in our lives and humility too rare.

This miracle teaches us about Christ’s almighty power. Food is called into existence that didn’t exist before. This power shows us that Christ is able to save. He is one who has all power over dead hearts. Not only can He fix what is broken, build up what is ruined, heal what is sick, strengthen what is weak, He can