John 6:60-65 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?… I. THE WORDS OF CHRIST PERTAIN TO AND REVEAL THE SPIRITUAL AND ETERNAL. 1. Spirit and life are closely related to each other. The Spirit originates, the life perpetuates. 2. Words strictly speaking cannot be Spirit; they represent or manifest; as Christ said, "I am the Door." The words of man express his thoughts and reveal his inmost being, How easy to detect the style of Johnson, Macaulay, or Carlyle. The words of Christ reveal His Spirit of wisdom and love. 3. Valuable as are the works of literature, etc., Christ's words do not pertain to them. They are of a prior and higher realm. They do not teach science, but they give light and life to men that he may pursue the most profound investigations. Hence under the shadow of the Cross alone flourish literary and scientific institutions of the highest character. II. THE WORDS OF CHRIST ARE ACCOMPANIED BY AN UNSEEN SPIRITUAL POWER, which is indissolubly joined to them, and thus they become spirit and life. How the spiritual can be joined to the material we can't explain. Where are the cords which bind this earth to yonder sun? What is it that gives the minute seed the power to develop? Life. But what is life? The chemist says a grain of wheat is so much carbon, etc. I ask him to make one, and he takes the various substances in their due proportions, and the result looks like a grain of wheat. It has the same colour, weight, form. But plant it — it will not grow. But the grain that God made, though kept in Egypt's catacombs for three thousand years, will, because it has life. So with the words of Christ. They are like other words, but God has joined with them a spirit and life which affect the heart of man. III. THE POWER OF THIS WORD IS SEEN IN THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE. 1. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made." The great worlds are God's conceptions materialized that finite minds may catch a glimpse of His almightiness and wisdom. Think of all this as the product of a word and who can estimate its power? 2. More than this, "He upholdeth all things by the word of His power." 3. Great as is the creation and preservation of worlds there is something higher in life. The one is passive the other active. In Christ was life and He breathed into man a living soul. His Word perpetuates natural life, and how numberless are its forms and varieties! What endless gradations in the character of that life from the worm to the man, from life for a moment to life everlasting. IV. The text, however, refers to SPIRITUAL LIFE AND DECLARES THAT THE WORDS OF CHRIST ORIGINATE AND PERPETUATE THAT LIFE. 1. Were there no such declaration we might infer it. Unless needed to awaken man's sensibilities, why did God stoop to Mount Sinai and Christ to the manger and the cross? 2. Everywhere religion is spoken of as life. Ezekiel's mystic river and valley of dry bones. 3. The words of great men have frequently given to nations increasing influences: Homer, Aristotle, etc., for Greece; Bacon, Shakespeare, etc., for England. But if God speaks, how powerful must His words effect the hearts and lives of men! Even fancied Divine words, as of the oracle to Alexander or of the imaginings of Joan of Arc inspired almost irresistible power. 4. During His earthly abode, Jesus showed how truly His words were spirit and life. He healed the sick and raised the dead with a word. And how simple were His words, apparently without any effort. How quietly he calmed the winds and multiplied the bread. And His words reached spirit as well as matter. "Whether is it easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee," etc. 5. The same power accompanies His words as spoken by His servants. They have revolutionized the world, Idolatry disappeared before the Bible. The Cross was exalted above the eagle. Great reforms have always been preceded and accompanied by the study of God's Word. (Bp. M. Simpson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? |
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