Jesus words to the Jews - Pt. I
So that you may believe - Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 50:56
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Show and tell
Show and tell
Ever play show and tell before? If we are honest we still do. We want people to show us something before we believe, but God calls us to believe then will show us.
(Insert Show and tell picture here)
What is something that you have shown and then told about?
The Jews were demanding another sign, proof so that they would believe (Jn6:30)
Jn6:30 “30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?”
This started the bread of life discourse (Jn6:31-51) tonight we are focusing on (vv.40-51)
Previously we have seen:
They related signs to the manna given by Moses (v.31)
Jesus related it to God gave what was needed, that was temporal bread, he gives true bread (vv.32-35)
Jesus calls for belief and to come to Him and you will not be cast out (vv.36-40)
Here is how we will approach this tonight:
Our passage (Jn6:40-51)
The bread of heaven (Jn6:33, 38, 41, 50-51, 58)
The drawing by the Father (Jn6:44-46)
The true bread from heaven (Jn6:47-50)
Our Passage
Our Passage
Open your bibles, your heart, your eyes and your intellect to glean from our passage.
40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”
43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.
47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 “I am the bread of life.
49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
What general observations do you make of this passage?
What is the theme of the passage?
That which came down from heaven
Bread of life
Who is the main person in this passage?
Jesus and the Jews
What is the Father will (v.40)?
Belief in the Son, have eternal life and resurrection on that last day
Why were the Jews grumbling (v.41)?
He said He came down from heaven!
Jesus makes a very bold statement in (v.44), what is it?
No one comes to Me unless drawn by the Father.
The statement (v.44) is backed up by facts (v.45), what facts?
Drawn by the word of the prophets
By what they have been taught, by what they have heard.
There is a promise (v.47), can you see it?
Those who believe have eternal life
What is the contrast that Jesus says in (vv.49-50)?
Those who ate manna died; those who eat the bread from heaven will have eternal life
What does Jesus say is the bread that gives life (v.51)?
It is My flesh.
The bread of Heaven
The bread of Heaven
Jesus uses the term “came down from heaven” six times in the context of the passage. It is a major theme of the words to the Jews.
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
and finally
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
I think it was important that we see this key phrase used over and over again “came down from heaven.”
sometimes called The bread, the living bread
Some versions say the bread of God that came down from heaven.
While you may notice that Jesus identifies Himself as the one who came down (41, 51)
This raised the cackles of those who were listening in unbelief in the synagogue where this was transpiring (41, 59)
Jews were grumbling, complaining, disputing because of their expectation of prophesy of Daniel (Jn6:41, 51, 59; Dan7:13)
They were expecting the Messiah to come in the clouds (Dan7:13)
13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.
They knew Jesus, they knew where he was raised, and by whom, in Nazareth as the son of Joseph. He came from among them, they did not consider born in Bethlehem and born of a virgin (Lk1:34-38). Had they truly known the scriptures and investigated they would have seen, known. But they had preconceived ideas.
The argument, the murmuring the complaining was now they wanted to know where He came from, even though he has said time and time again in the passage He came from heaven. He already claimed God as His Father and equality with God as the Son.
(Transition) - now this leads to our next thing to look at the “drawing” by the Father
The Drawing by the Father
The Drawing by the Father
Have you ever been drawn by something? What would be an example of something you have been drawn to?
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
46 “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.
Jews thought they were chosen by birth, by heritage. Jesus claim was they had to be drawn by the Father.
Jesus makes it clear that if one is drawn by the Father he will come to the Son.
Something to consider, to think about, how does the Father draw?
They are taught by God (v.45), but how does God teach (consider Jer31:3, 33-34; Isa54:13; Jn5:24; Rom10:17)
3 The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
According to (Jer31:3) how does the Father draw?
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
According to (Jer31:33-34) He draws by the law, in other words by the word God makes himself known. Not just to their intellect, but to their heart.
13 “All your sons will be taught of the Lord; And the well-being of your sons will be great.
Now when it comes to drawing, some have taken this to be irresistible grace, and Alford said this about that.
“That this ‘drawing’ is not irresistible grace, is confessed even by Augustine himself, the great upholder of the doctrines of grace. ‘If a man is drawn, says an objector, he comes against his will. (We answer) if he comes unwillingly, he does not believe: If he does not believe, he does not come. For we do not run to Christ on our feet, but by faith; not with the movement of the body, but with the free will of the heart. . . think not that thou are drawn against they will; they mind can be drawn by love.”
Crysostom says “This expression does not remove our part in the coming, but rather shews that we want help to come.”
The response to the drawing and to the coming is the resurrection on the last day (v.44), oh, wait, how raises those who come to Him?
How does one come? by belief, by faith
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Not enough to be taught, they have to have learned (v.45), must believe (v.47); which means they have to go beyond hearing, they must go to application, faith! Do something with what they have been taught.
One more point in these verses, another claim of equality with the Father, again look at (v.46)
46 (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)
The True Bread from Heaven
The True Bread from Heaven
Who likes a good illustration and teaching? Jesus is illustrating to the theologians of the day.
47 I am telling you the truth: he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died.
50 But the bread that comes down from heaven is of such a kind that whoever eats it will not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live for ever. The bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live.”
Jesus uses the illustration of the manna, they previously used (v.31), that he is not like the manna that He is better.
They ate the manna and still died
The bread He offers gives life, and life eternal.
No one before ever claimed believe in me and have eternal life. Jesus and Jesus alone did! For we know
12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
While physical bread is needed for physical life, spiritual bread is needed for spiritual life. Spurgeon says this:
“Every man feeds on something or other. You see, one man getting his Sunday newspaper; how he will feed on that! Another goes to frivolous amusements, and he feeds on them. Another man feeds upon his business, and upon the thought of his many cares! But all that is poor food; it is only ashes and husks, if you did not posses true spiritual life, you would know the deep necessity there is of feeding upon Christ.”
What are you feeding on? Both are needed, but are you feeding on both?
(Transition) I think I want to pause in the last few minutes and look at (v.51) again for many have taken it several ways.
51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
Is Jesus speaking of the Lord’s supper (Lk22:14-23) as practiced by early church (Act2:42) and taught by Paul (1Cor11:23-26)?
Some have taken that as such and sure there could be a reference to it; but it does not convey the spiritual truths that are proclaimed, celebrated, memorialized and done in fellowship at this point.
I like the way Barclay put it, in short, don’t argue about this.
“He is saying: ‘You must stop thinking of me as a subject for theological debate; you must take me into you, and you must come into me; and they you will have real life.’”
Remember the subject at hand is to come to Him! Not remember Him. Keeping things in context is important.
The bread He is giving is His flesh, His flesh that was going to be an acceptable sacrifice on the cross for you and for me.
FF Bruce says “To give one’s flesh can scarcely mean anything other than death, and the wording here points to a death which is both voluntary(‘I will give.’) and vicarious (‘for the life of the world.’)
One more quote and we will close out for the night.
BJ Clarke:
“Jesus explained that receiving Him as bread was not receiving Him as a great moral teacher, example, or prophet. It was not receiving Him as a good or great man or noble martyr. It was receiving Him in light of of what He did on the cross, His ultimate act of love for lost humanity.”
Remember God’s greatest gift was Love, and loves gift was Jesus who gave us the open door for salvation through faith. May we remember how we came to Him and may we stay seeking Him daily.
(Prayer) (Close)