The Gospel Is For the World

Read

John 6:41–51 (ESV)

41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered 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 will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever 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 that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Opening Prayer

Setting the Stage

A Lack of Faith Is Evident

The Jews are grumbling.

They don’t have room in their hearts and minds for an incarnation.

They know some things about Jesus and they assume that means they know enough.

Jesus calls them on their unbelief.

He commands them to not grumble among themselves. [imp verb]

Grumbling just means complaining.

They’re grumbling about what Jesus is claiming…

Which manifests disbelief.

It’s not disbelief based on the absence of prophecy.

It’s disbelief based on a love for sin and a hatred for God.

Enmity with God is Universal

It didn’t go away in the hearts of the people of Israel because God elected them and made them a Nation.

Sometimes, I think there is an underlying, maybe unspoken thought, that we can have while reading the gospels…

We think because Jesus is speaking to Jews…

And, because God chose the nation of Israel…

That these religious leaders are truly wanting to serve God they just lack direction.

They just need Jesus to hold a 6 week seminar on the Messiah of the OT.

As if the lack of belief on the Jews’ part…

And, the lack of understanding on the Jews’ part…

Well, it’s just a misunderstanding of good-hearted people.

But, the Bible paints a different picture, not only throughout the OT…

But, throughout the gospels, as well.

They hate God just as much as the rest of the world.

That’s Paul’s point in Romans 1 & 2.

That’s Jesus’ point in many of His parables, like the parable of the vineyard and the wicked tenants.

Jesus teaches us in…

Matthew 21:33–46 (ESV)

33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

The vineyard is the Kingdom of God.

The servants that the Owner sent were the prophets.

When the owner sent the servants, the servants had no legal standing to demand anything.

But, the owner was hoping in the integrity of the tenants.

When the tenants showed they had no integrity the Owner sent His Son…

Who did have a legal right to demand from the tenants.

And, they killed the Son.

The Son of the Owner is Christ.

And, Christ is not only foretelling what they are going to do to Him…

But, also, highlighting their current rejection of the Son of God.

Out of their own mouths, they told what these tenants deserved.

Death and condemnation.

Did this pointed, heart-dissecting parable turn them to repent?

Did it cause them to respond like David when confronted by Nathan the prophet…

With tears, sorrow, and repentance.

No, it stiffened their necks in their sin and caused them to plot in greater ways of how to get rid of God.

Think about this:

Is this sort of behavior restricted to the religious leaders?

Is this sort of rejection of God laid against the whole nation over and over in the OT?

Or is this just the attitude towards God in the gospels?

Listen to what God says about it…

Jeremiah 7:25–26 (ESV)

25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

God is saying that from the very beginning they have been hard-hearted…

Stiff-necked.

Unwilling to receive truth, unwilling to change, unwilling to repent.

So, now, in…

John 6:43 (ESV)

43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.

So, here we are again, a stiff necked people, stiffening their neck towards the Son…

Whom the Father has sent to His people…

To gain the benefits that only God deserves…

Which is our worship, love, and loyalty.

They want to stone Him to death.

Jesus wants to them to turn to Him.

To believe upon Him.

So, in another act of graciousness…

Jesus Points Them to the OT

Pointing them to the very thing they hold up as:

wholly devoted to

defenders of

teachers of

Jesus states in gracious, patience and with a desire for them to hear what He is saying...

John 6:45 (ESV)

45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

This is a paraphrase of…

Isaiah 54:13 (ESV)

13 All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

In Isaiah 52, the prophet lays out the great salvation that the Lord is bringing to His people.

In Isaiah 53, the prophet lays out that the salvation will be accomplished through the suffering servant, the Messiah that will come will die.

And, He will die for the transgressions of His people.

Chapter 54, that we just read in Isaiah, is God speaking of the great & new covenant of peace that the Savior to come will bring and grant to His people.

Isaiah 55 tells us that the offer of this covenant, this redemption, goes out, not only to the Jews…

But, to the whole world.

This is the context, the prophecies, the Scriptures that Jesus is bringing to the minds of His audience.

And then Jesus follows this passage in Isaiah…

As well as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel…

By saying…

John 6:47–48 (ESV)

47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.

This Is a Genuine Call to Faith in the Son of God

Some have said, How can this be a genuine offer of the gospel if only those whom the Father gives the Son will come to Him?

The reason is that the weight of responsibility falls on the hearer.

Remember, the inability lies within us.

It’s our hatred for God and obsession to sin that keeps us from coming to Christ.

Some say why preach the gospel if the elect are going to come to Christ, no matter what.

Well, it isn’t no matter what.

God has ordained the end.

But, God has also ordained the means.

And, so the gospel must be preached.

The elect must hear the gospel.

God has ordained the preaching of the gospel as the means that the HS uses to effectually draw a person to Christ.

We do not know the names of the whosoever wills.

We do not know the names of the “all that the Father has given the Son will come to Jesus.”

We do not know who the elect are.

As Spurgeon said…

If God painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect I’d go around London lifting shirt tales. But, He didn’t. So I preach whosoever to anyone and everyone I preach the gospel to.

Listen, the gospel has an external call to the beauty and majesty of Christ…

That external call going to every single hearer of the gospel.

But, to those that the Father has given to the Son…

There is also, in addition, an internal, effectual call that the Father draws the elect to Christ.

But it’s like the wind, we don’t know when it’s coming, where it’s going…

We just see the effect.

So, we use the means that God has ordained…

The preaching of the gospel to as many as will listen.

Jesus is preaching to them the truth of the gospel…

John 6:48–50 (ESV)

48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

You Need More than the Very Best that Physical Sustenance Can Give You

You need a nourishment that will carry you past the grave.

You need a nourishment that will sustain your for eternity.

You need a nourishment that will get you through the judgment of God.

Jesus is pleading with them so they might understand…

That what they need is Him.

John 6:51 (ESV)

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Two things I want to point out here:

#1 – Jesus is again pointing His audience back to the New Covenant promised in the OT.

Isaiah 54 & 55 speak of this world-wide Kingdom that was promised to David’s lineage.

This Kingdom is made up of…

Not Just Jew, but Gentile Alike

This Kingdom is not a Jewish Kingdom.

It is a kingdom that is made up of people from every tribe, tongue ad nation.

It is a universal, eternal kingdom in which Christ is the Son-King whose Kingdom will never end.

#2 – The Bread that Nourishes Unto Eternal Life is the Life of Christ.

Meaning Jesus is going to be the sacrifice…

And, that sacrifice will be what makes eternal life possible for all who believe upon Him.

The Meritorious Cause of Salvation…

Is the work of Christ in His:

Perfectly Obedient Life

His Spotless, Righteous, Atoning Blood

His Defeat of Death in His Resurrection

And, those of us who cling to Christ…

Do so because of the grace of God to make us alive…

So that we may see the beauty and majesty of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Let’s think about this scene…

Jesus, the eternal Son of God.

Worthy of worship, praise, adoration…

Could have called down a Legion of Angels at anytime.

Graciously preaching the gospel to a crowd of people that hated Him.

Looking at faces who were already plotting to kill him.

Truth after truth, as He speaks to them…

Their spiritual blindness being evidenced in greater ways.

Yet, Jesus remains calm, continues to extend love and mercy and grace towards them.

Now let me ask you:

How often would we settle for temporal comforts over eternal comforts?

You may say, well, how would I know?

Well, is your behavior betraying God’s will because you’re not getting the temporal comforts you desire?

That’s a way in which we know.

How often do we lose our calm when confronted by opposition?

Jesus was still fulfilling the mission the Father sent Him to fulfill, in spite of Him facing extreme opposition.

He never wavered from the will of God because He trusted in the good & sovereign providence of God.

We’re much more like the crowds, who when things don’t go their way in their conversations with Jesus…

They pick up stones to stone Him.

How often do we resist sharing the gospel out of fear we may face opposition?

I pray this shows us how desperately we need God to work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

We need to pray that God will help us resist the temptations to settle for temporal comforts over eternal blessings.

We need to pray for God’s help to remain calm in the face of opposition.

And, we need to fill our mind’s with the will of the Lord for these scenarios…

All the while resting in the righteousness of Christ…

And, praising our Savior for His atoning blood and imputed righteousness that we have by faith alone in Christ alone.

Closing Prayer/Lord’s Supper