Introduction: My father is an antique dealer, and over the years he found that there are many fakes, counterfeits, and secret repairs. Last Thanksgiving he received an email from a man that had bought a dish from him for $500. The man had washed the dish, and that caused a secret repair job to fall out, this revealing a chip in the dish. My father had to take back the dish, and refund the money. Church-goers are like antique dishes. There are those who are the genuine article, but also there are counterfeits, and people who go about hiding their true nature. Here in John 6 Jesus’ teaching about Himself reveals what it means to be a true Christian:

I. The True Christian is a person who does not seek Jesus for selfish reasons.

A. John 6:24-27. They were seeking another free meal.
B. TV evangelists are pointing people to Christ for the wrong reasons:
1. “Accept Jesus, and you will prosper financially!”
When Zaccheus accepted Jesus, he had to give away his wealth.
2. “Accept Jesus, and you will be healed from your illness.”
When Paul accepted Jesus, God gave him a thorn in the flesh.
3. “Accept Jesus, and you will have a wonderful life here and now.”
Jesus told His disciples they would be rejected by their families, cast out of the synagogues and persecuted by other religious people.
C. The important reason to seek Jesus is for salvation from sin.

II. The True Christian is a person who knows he cannot earn his salvation.

A. John 6:28-29. The crowd thought they could do something to gain salvation.
B. Most people today think they will gain salvation if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds. Or if they go to church, or if they give some money to charity, and so on.
C. Salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus.
D. To “believe in Jesus” means to believe intellectually and emotionally, to be committed to Him as His follower, to depend on Him for your salvation, and not at all on yourself.

III. The True Christian is a person who has been chosen by God the Father.

A. Jesus repeated this several times (John 6:36-39; 43-45; 64-65).
B. If God had not chosen us, we would be just like the unbelieving crowd just looking for another free meal from Jesus.
C. We did not believe in Jesus because we are better or more spiritual than others, but because God chose us and gave us His grace in a special way.

IV. The True Christian is a person who understands what it means to feed on Jesus.
A. The crowd was puzzled by Jesus’ teaching (John 6:41-42; 52; 60).
B. We understand that He gave his flesh and blood for our salvation by dying on the cross. His incarnation and crucifixion bring us spiritual life and sustenance. The incarnation is the real meaning of Christmas.
C. We understand that we feed on Him spiritually when we put our faith in what He did for us in the flesh to bring us salvation. When we participate in the Lord’s Supper, the benefit is not literally in the cup and in the bread, but in our faith in his true death in the body on the cross.

V. The True Christian is a person who remains loyal to Jesus forever.
A. Many of His “disciples” abandoned Him at this point (John 6:66). They did not want to hear about Jesus’ dying on the cross for their sins. They wanted a literal warrior king to overthrow the Roman rule, and bring political and military power to Israel. They rejected the Messiah.
B. The 12 Apostles (except for Judas) remained faithful to Jesus (John 6:67-69). The Bible teaches that true believes continue in their faith. We may still stumble and fall from time to time, but we will always come back to God in the end, because we have been born again into God’s family, and we truly are His children.

Conclusion: Today is Christmas Eve. The world has taken this holiday and made it into a really frantic commercial season. Let’s celebrate the holiday in a spiritual way, by truly believing in Jesus, depending on Him for salvation, and remembering that the incarnation for our salvation is the real meaning of Christmas.