The Gospel of John - What is Saving Trust/Faith - Pt 3 - Trust Him for Life!
The Gospel of John - What is Saving Trust/Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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GREET EVERYONE-
Good Morning Loved Ones
If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
BAPTISM CLASS NEXT SUNDAY
LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND
Open it to the Gospel of John - Chapter 6 and Verse 35 as we continue in our new series which is part of our verse by verse walk through the Gospel of John,
A Series that Answers an enormous question that everyone must ask “What is Saving Faith?”
And as A reminder - in the original language of the New Testament - Faith means “TRUST”
SO
The question that this series will expose from the Bible how God answers the question “What is Saving Trust?”
NOW If you don’t have a bible or simply would like a new one!……..
PRAYER OVER SERIES
is and has been that we would understand the importance of faith - i.e. TRUST in how we live our life out as Jesus Followers.
and Trust - Saving Trust is Eternally important!
Not only this idea of trust but the depth and severity of trusting Him.
I want all of us to hear this this morning - Loved ones pay attention to me.
There are lots of people in this world that would claim the Identity of “Christian” and there are even more that would not claim the identity of Christian, but rather some other identity -
If you claim the Identity of “Christian” and you have No idea what that is supposed to mean in your life with any sort of Historical/Biblical accuracy.
Here is what I mean:
Maybe you walked an Isle and said some sort of mystical prayer inviting Jesus into your heart got dunked in the water and some pastor some where tried to assure you you were saved by saying “you made it!”
and since then you have lived a pretty moral and good life and haven’t really done anything hugely wrong.
- A Good and decent family,
A good financial picture.
Life is pretty comfortable, You enjoy the conveniences of life, You feel pretty safe in where you live and work and shop.
You look at your future and you feel pretty secure about all that.
But overt, intentional, plan altering obedience to the commands of Jesus?
Deep abiding prayer life?
Intentional active purposeful plan to use all the resources God has given you to build His Kingdom and not your own?
Taking very very seriously the putting down of sin in our life?
Knowing the scriptures more that you know Tolkien, JK Rowling, Kipling, Kay Authur, Beth More or any other athor?
NOT so much.
Maybe you are someone here this morning or watching on live stream and you think that being a Cristian is just agreeing to a set of facts. That when you are asked “are you a believer?” Your response is from a heart that says “I Believe that Jesus was actually Crucified” I believe that He actually was raised from the dead”
But not knowing Church participation? Not knowing that Being the Church is something to do and Church is not a place to go?
Not knowing that Jesus himself said “Not everyone who says Lord Lord is in! Only those who do the will of my father”
Not knowing that the Jesus himself said “it is the one who endures to the End that will be saved”
Not knowing or thinking or believing that there is a requirement of Kingdom fruit the is produced by what Jesus calls “Good Soil”
Maybe your thinking that If I call myself Christian that Your in.
Like Self Identity is the Key and that will get you in.
Not knowing or understanding that NO ONE in the Bible Claimed the Name Christian for themselves. But Rather used the Terms -
Followers of THE WAY -
Bond Slaves”
Laborer - Co Laborers in the Gospel.
Workers and Fellowship Workers for the Kingdom.
OR maybe you are someone who does not claim the identity of Christ at all but you claim, Agnostic, You claim Atheist - or buddist or Hinu or Musslim.
If you are ANYWHERE are all in in the deepest place of Danger you could possibly be.
Because in every one of those categories of people - All of those are living by sight -
Living by what your think -
Living my what makes sense to you -
A life of Balance - Tranquility - Conflict free - A life of control - A life that is relatively free of suffering.
Loved ones - That is not the lives we see lived out in the pages of Scripture - That is not the live that Jesus calls us to -
That is not the life.
My prayer is that all of us will come to understand that we must life by FAITH -
We must live by TRUST
And Trust is oh so much more severe that probably most of us think trust in Him really is.
Jesus is calling us to so much more than that!
PRAYER OVER MESSAGE
is and Has been that the biggest trust we would have in Jesus is that we would trust Him for life.
Not just trust Him with our life -
Not just trust Him IN this life.
But to trust Him FOR life itself.
and when we think about Trusting Him FOR life we must think about relying on Him FOR this very life that we have because HE has given it to us.
This is why Paul Said in
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
ENGAGEMENT –
When we think about relying on Jesus for LIFE
Not Just in this life -
And not just With this Life.
But rather For Life itself.
this draws us into a direct conflict with the frameworks by which most of us were raised.
You see we were raised to rely on Self -
TO be Self Reliant -
Were discipled into it.
And there are many a text that you could draw from that would support the Idea that we Could get to the point where we can have the ability and the means and the skill sets to our being sustained in this life can be directly attributed to our production in this world with no outside assistance and in this we have become Self Reliant.
But in many ways we have taken it too far.
What we have managed to do in our life is take our God given abilities to work and have the skill sets to sustain our life without any outside assistance to a place of arrogant pride.
WE look down on the homeless and the poor -
We are not generous to the person on the street with the sign that says “need help” Will work for food” or “I just need a beer”
What this has also done is made us way to prideful to ask for and to accept help when we need it.
I don't know HOW many church goin folk say “oh We will be fine, we’ll figure it out” When Life is Completely falling apart -
and in doing so we have stripped the Gospel of it Soul saving Power.
Because what we have done is one of a couple of things.
Either
We don't trust Christ at all for anything -
OR
We Trust him for eternal life and everything else is on us.
OR
We Trust him IN this life really we do that for the benefits of the next life -
OR We Trust him WITH this life, as if we own this life and we trust Him WITH it usually and only when we are in danger - Either from peril or from sickness.
And what Jesus is going to tell us this morning is He IS life and HE IS the source of Life
He IS the power and sustenance and the nutrients necessary for this life and the next.
BACKGROUND
As we dive into this passage -
WE must remember the WHO Jesus is speaking to here in this discourse.
This is so important to grasp hold of this
He is speaking to a large Jewish crowd -
A crowd that has been chasing Him around for a minute -
A crowd that he feed lunch to just the day before. A lunch that the disciples did not trust that Jesus could pull off.
20k people on the backpack contents of a young boy - 5 Barley loaves and two Fish.
After Jesus fed them He went off by himself and the disciples went to the other side of the lake where they were -
Jesus caught up with them in the middle of the night and in order to catch up with them He walked on the water to get to them.
The crowd wakes up the next day - Finds Jesus Gone - They get in boats and chase after him.
They want to know what the Works of God Are -
Jesus replies with “The WORK” the ONE thing that you must do -
The ONE thing that God requires is that You Trust in the one who God has sent.
Jesus has wrapped this in this image of work and Food this Idea that the ONE thing we must strive and strain for it to trust in the one whom God has sent -
Jesus in the previous part of John Chapter 6 then moves this idea of Food to the image of bread -
Bread being a life giving staple food back them for that culture.
Jesus then moves the Idea forward that this bread this food for eternal life Is a person and that Person is Himself.
And this is were the narrative and discourse pick -up in Verse 35
This crowd of Jewish people who have chased Jesus around for a minute - Had just heard Jesus say:
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They Respond “Sir Give us this Bread”
UNPACKING
VVS35
Jesus begins to respond to their request by Uttering the first of 9 definitive “I am” statements that are recorded for us in the Gospel of John.
Here is what I mean by “definitive” it means These “I am” statements “defined for the reader then and for every one who would read this for the last 2000 years and consequently for us today”
These “I am “statements would define who Jesus is.
They are revealing statement - Meant to Reveal “who Jesus is and who He is supposed to be in the life of a believer.
Those “I am” statements are and in order as recorded for us:
This one “I am the bread of life”
I am the light of the world
I am the door
I am the good shepherd
Be for Abraham was “I am”
I am the Son of God
I am the Resurrection and the Life.
I am the way the truth and the Life.
I am the True Vine
What is so very interesting is how this is ordered.
Jesus begins with this Image of Food - This Image of Bread - The very thing needed to sustain and have life flourish here in the physical world.
Jesus begins with the “I am the bread of Life”
After Jesus makes this definitive statement - Jesus then unfolds for them, and the readers and for us today What that is supposed to do and what that is supposed to mean in the life of any person.
Ans what Jesus does is make WIDE open the invitation to this multitude of people who have chased Him around -
and He does this by beginning unfolding he impact of I am the bread of Life with the Word “Who ever”
Watch and Listen to what Jesus says:
Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Hunger and Thirst - Two images here that are the realities of a person who is in need for the basic necessities of life.
There is a ton to unpack in what Jesus has just said - SO just two things. What He is and Is not saying.
He is not saying that we wont have physical hunger and physical thirst. or that we wont need to have an acquire actual food and actual water.
WE don’t see that lived out in the life of the church.
What we do see is that the Hunger and Thirst for your soul to be satisfied - This hunger we all have for things in this world to be right - This thirst for Justice - This hunger that we have for correction in our lives and in our culture are all Found in Jesus.
Blessed are those who Hunger and thirst for Righteousness for they Will be satisfied are the words of Jesus.
VSS36
He then turns to the crowd and says
But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
And what Jesus is saying here is that they missed it and the reality is that some have missed it and some do miss it and some will miss it.
VSS37
What Jesus then does in verse 37 is He begins to unfold for them and for us this eternal purpose of the Gospel The Eternal purpose of God this eternal framework of God - Setting aside from all cultures - A people to Himself.
In the old testament that People was Israel and in the New Testament that people is the church.
And What Jesus is going to unfold for us is this covenant relationship that the Father has established between His son and the people who God brings to the Son.
Watch and Listen to What Jesus says about the covenant relationship in VSS37:
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
The Father Give to Jesus -
Jesus then is not particular - WHOEVER comes to me I will never cast out -
WHO EVER The father gives me. Jesus takes and accepts and loves and is in covenant forever relationship with Anyone and Everyone the Father brings to the Son
Watch and Listen to where Jesus take this idea that it is the father who gives to the Son the people who will come to him and he will be in covenant with.
VSS38-40
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jesus begins 38 by saying “No my will but the will of Him who sent me”
Here is what Jesus is saying in the context of this paragraph.
Its not my job to choose who comes to me and who does not - Whatever and WHOever the father gives to me I will be in covenant relationship with.
Here is why this is the case vs 39 - I will loose nothing the father give me - and Because I will loose nothing that the father gives me - I will raise it up on the last day -
What is the last day?
and What has the father given to the son?
The last day is when He comes back - and all of this ends and there is all things new!
What has the father Given the son? All of creation.
and In verse 40 It gets personal.
“Everyone who looks on the son AND Believes in him” - Trust in Him - and the severity of this trust begins with the Statement He is the bread of Life - He is the necessity of life - He is the sustaining factor of Life - He is what provides nutrients for life.
EVERYONE - who trust Him should have eternal life and will be raised up by HIm in the last days -
again the last day is when Jesus returns and everything changes.
VSS41
The Jewish crowd the Grumbles Because Jesus has made this definitive claim that He is the Sustaining nutrient and satisfaction for this life and the next one.
watch what they do and say that actually refer to His past to invalidate Him
Isn’t this the kid Jesus that we knew from nazareth? Isn’t this Joseph boy? Isn’t this Mary’s kid?
Listen loved ones - There are plenty of people in this world that will attempt to invalidate your testimony because of your past -
Ignore it - is is a scheme of the enemy the accuser - Satan Himself.
The Reason you have a past is so people can see and hear the glory of God and the transforming power of the Gospel -
remember loved one He will use your Past for His glory when you have fully surrendered to Him.
VSS 43-51
Jesus not only amps it up - Jesus steps into the conversation -
He Uses the Old Testament to make his point - which would be very very relative to the people He was speaking to.
Notice - Jesus didn’t back down - Jesus steps in.
Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
Grumble in the original language means “to complain”
Jesus says “Stop Complaining about me”
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
What Jesus has just done is restated what He said back in vs 37.
He just said it in a different way.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Then Jesus Uses the Old Testament Prophets - Who Spoke of Him - The prophet Isiah and the Prophet Jerimiah
Isiah 54 and Jerimiah 31
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— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
Here is what they say - I’m going to paraphrase them
All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
and Jesus Reiterates once again what He said in VS 37
“Everyone who has heard and learned form the Father comes to me”
and He gives clarity that there is only One Person - One Being that has seen the father.
VSS46
not that anyone has need the father except he who is from God He has seen the father.
VSS48-51
Jesus then restates “I am the bread of Life”
and what He will do now is compare and contrast two types of bread for the audience He is speaking to.
Remember they are Jewish people and God set the Jewish people free from the oppression of Pharoah about 1500 years from before
Jesus was saying these things and again they would have known this story and related to it. ReStating what He said back in verse 31
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
Here is what is so very important to get about what Jesus said in verse 31 and verse 46.
God provided the bread in the wilderness - Not Moses - and yet the bread provided by God then was physical bread and it was eaten by their forefathers in the wilderness and they died.
Jesus is saying - that physical bread, even though it was provided by the father, has a temporary fix to your hunger.
But then He gives definition to what He is speaking about and once again he make the clarity a person - Himself.
VSS50
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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.”
What Jesus is implying here is the image of consuming Jesus.
That we must purposefully and intentionaly have him in us.
We must trust Him for life.
He ends this part of His discourse by saying
“And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh”
and what Jesus is speaking of is His crusifiction when He will willingly and for the Joy placed before Him - Be placed on the Cross of Calvary by the predetermined plans of the Father
And what Jesus will do on that Cross is He will Pay the penality for those who come to him,
He will recieve in His body their guilt for their sins,
He will absorbing and satisfy the wrath of God that was against them for their sins on HIs flesh with HIs poured out blood.
THE GOSPEL CONNECTION - AS THE WORSHIP TEAM
in this passage Jesus has said a couple of things about the Father giving Him people.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
What Jesus is talking about it good news of great joy! Jesus says some interesting things in this passage
He is talking about no but he is also talking about the past and the future.
He is talking The People whom Jesus is in convenant relationship with.
You see loved ones -
What God is doing and what Jesus is beginning to unfold for us when He said these things is that from the very beginning of Time what God the Father has been doing
What He is doing, What HE has been doing and What He is continuing to do is He is gathering a people by himself, to Himself, for Himself, and from Himself - the Church - The Bride of Christ -
You see loved ones we are Save By God, We are saved For God - We are saved TO God and we are saved From GOD.
Saved By God - It is a gift from God - Grace through faith - Not of works.
Saved for God - Created in Christ, God’s workmanship FOR the good works that He planed for us.
Saved To God - Ambassedors of Christ - given a ministry of reconciliation - Bonds servants of Christ.
Saved from God - We are saved from the wrath of God. While we were yet sinners Christ dies for us.
And in the last day - When Jesus comes into the world to Judge the living and the dead and all things will be subject to Jesus -
What the father will do is the Father will present to His son His bride that the Father has gathered -
This bride will be presented to the Son as a gift - A Spotless perfect and without blemish - an eternal gift -
WHY?
Because The Son is the one who died for this bride
Because it is the blood of the son that washed this bride clean from all her sin.
IT was the son who took upon His body the guilt and satisfied the wrath of God the Father, for the sin this bride had committed -
It was the Son who was raised from the dead to validate that He was the one who could accomplish this by defeating death for His bride that God the Father was and is preparing -
and in all of it - The son did it with Joy - Did it willingly and did it for the eternal glory of the Father -
He did all of that because He loves us.
WE ARE NOW LEFT WITH THIS ONE QUESTION
If you claim Christ - are you living for Him because He is the one who died and was raised for you?
Do you trust Him beyond Trusting him in this life - Beyond trusting Him with this life -
Do you trust Him FOR life itself.
IF you have yet to claim Christ - Is the father calling you to Jesus? DO you hear His call to surrender to his Son, become His bride and to abide in Him and with Him forever?
Loved ones He calling us to consume the bread of Life?
He is calling all of us to Trust in Jesus for everything with everything and in everything!
Is he calling us to abandon all hope in anything else or any one else and take into your very being the Bread of Life which is Jesus?
Let us all Come to Him.
The Father is calling -
Experience the Love of God that God has for you and the fact that He displayed it completely on the cross of Calvary -
Come and delight in the one who died for us and was raised.
PRAYER TEAM
