John 6:41-47
Notes
Transcript
Open your Bible to John 6:41-47
Let’s read our text:
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 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’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 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. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
Prayer:
Remember, when you read and study God’s word you have to find yourself and you have to find Christ.
When we get into the New Testament it is much easier to find Christ isn’t it. Especially in the Gospels.
But sometimes we just skim it so fast that we don’t see ourselves.
Two weeks ago we preached John 6:35-40 and in that section of Scripture we covered some heavy stuff:
the depravity of man.
God’s sovereign election of His people
the perseverance of the saints / eternal security
There was some deep stuff in there. Some DEEP Doctrine.
It’s in there! It has always been in there.
You just don’t see it until you slow down and allow God’s Word do what God’s Word does.
Let me make my point: Lets read John 6:35-40 again
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 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.”
And now let me read you verse 41 and show you what I’m talking about:
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
Do you see it? Do we see ourselves in verse 41?
Here it is:
Jesus Christ just told them:
HE is the Bread of Life.
HE is the one who people must come to in order to be satisfied, truly satisfied
Then HE tells them to their face that THEY DO NOT BELIEVE.
Then HE goes on to tell them that
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
HE tells them that ALL the Father GIVES Him…WILL come to HIM.
HE tells them that they don’t believe in Him and that’s fine…He’s not down on Himself because HE, Jesus, didn’t preach the gospel good enough.
Now some feel that they need to manipulate the situation a little in order to get someone to follow Christ. Some feel that we need to play with peoples emotions in order to get them to follow Christ.
But Christ didn’t feel that He needed to do this.
Because HE KNEW that ALL THE FATHER GIVES HIM WILL COME TO HIM.
that the Father, before time, had a people He was going to give The Son… and ALL that the Father GIVES the Son WILL come to the Son.
Then He tells them that those that come…HE will never lose and they will be raised on the last day (perseverance of the saints / eternal security)
I mean…there was a lot of meat in those 5 verses! A TON!
But it just went right over their heads…they missed it. Didn’t hear a thing!
Look at verse 41:
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
just like us isn’t it? They didn’t hear any of it.
Jesus is right in front of them telling them some deep truths and they’re still over there thinking “how could he say he is the bread that came down from heaven?”.
They didn’t hear a word past that. Well, they hear him but they aren’t listening after he makes that claim.
That is us. So many times we read God’s Word but we miss so much. This section right here is a good example.
So many times we come to God’s Word thinking we already know what it says and what it means instead of coming to God’s Word with a humble heart saying, “God, open my eyes…show me what you want me to see here, reveal your truth’s to me Lord”.
Lets look at verse 42-43 to see what they do next:
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’?”
This is a strategy people use to cover or mask their unbelief. When you don’t like the message of someone then you attack the messenger.
people take the focus off of the message and put the focus on the messenger and try to discredit them.
THIS is what they are doing to Jesus here.
The claim that JESUS was the one who had “come down from heaven” surely could not be true. They were convinced it COULDN’T be true…
they were so convinced they could truly hear anything else HE said...
but they were wrong.
Richard Phillips - “The problem with human reasoning is that it is often misinformed. How ofter our thinking proceeds from false assumptions that we fail to question”.
George Hutcheson - “Men need to subject their reasonings to divine revelation in the things of God, lest they wrong him and themselves both.”
To these “religious people’ who went to seek for Jesus…to these religious people who not only sought for Jesus but found him (in Capernum)…they THOUGHT they knew Jesus… HE is just “the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know”...
who does He think He is...
Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
These people here and people today…people must submit themselves to God’s Word and not to their understanding. Submit to God’s Word and not your own reasoning.
Jesus knew that a prophet is never accepted in his hometown.
(For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.)
But here is our take-away from that. You tell them the TRUTH of God anyway. Even when you think they won’t listen.
If they ask…YOU TELL THEM
IF they give you a window…TELL THEM
Look what Jesus tells these unbelieving, grumbling people:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Earlier I said: people must submit themselves to God’s Word and not to their understanding. Submit to God’s Word and not your own reasoning.
this is one of those times…RIGHT HERE
This goes against every thing in us doesn’t it?
This goes against our own reasoning and our own thinking but let me ask you something:
What does the Word say?
It says, “No one CAN COME TO ME unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day”.
There are 2 words we need to look at in this verse:
The word “can”
The word “draws”
The Word “Can” is a word that has to do with ability.
RC Sproul says it best when is talking about the word ‘can’ in this verse
asking a teacher, “CAN I go to the bathroom”
Jesus tells us here that man, in his unregenerate state, not just will not come to him but he CANNOT come to him.
But I thought I had the “free will” to choose Jesus if I want to or not?
You do have free will…but you will always choose what your will desires. And because mans will is spiritually dead, held captive by the evil one, and because it is a slave to sin…it will always choose sin.
AW Pink:
“To predicate the freedom of the will is to deny that man is totally depraved. To say that man has the power within himself to either reject or accept Christ, is to repudiate the fact that he is the captive of the Devil”
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Man, in his unregenerate state, is not just sick. It’s not that man needs a pep talk or some motivational speaker to get him to do something to make his life better. The man who does not know Christ is spiritually dead and needs a miracle:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
lets look at the word “draw” in this verse:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws HIM. And I will raise HIM up on the last day”.
Let me give you a typical objection to this:
“No one can come unless the Father draws him”...
Trey, I don’t disagree with that. Of course the Father must draw you…but he has drawn everyone.
You know what is wrong with this objection? For one, it is mans attempt to maintain his own sovereignty. It is an attempt for man to not own his own sinfulness and depravity before the Holy Eternal God!
“God “draws” everybody!”
If your’e thinking that the Father “draws” everyone then you must accept that everyone will go to Heaven and there is no one in Hell.
Because the HIM who is drawn is the HIM who is raised by the Son.
What exactly is meant here by the word “draw”?
this is not talking about an “attraction”
Also found in John 18:10
Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
So, what are you to do here this morning if you have never come to Christ.
What are you to do if you find yourself here…realizing that you are a sinner in the hands of a Holy God, and you know you deserve eternal death?
I’ll tell you what to do…BEG GOD TO DRAW YOU TO HIS SON!
BEG GOD TO SPEAK TO YOUR HEART AND SHINE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IN YOUR HEART!
You know why you should beg God to do that...
for one, because you in your spiritually dead state, do not have the ability to come to Christ or submit to him (Romans 8:7-8)
and the other reason you should beg God to do that is found in the next few verses....
Look at verse 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—
the first thing to look at here and ask ourselves is:
who is the “they” here?
if we work our way back up it is:
those that the Father draws to the Son (verse 44)
It is those that the Father gave to the Son (verse 37)
THEY will ALL BE TAUGHT BY GOD...
Look at what the Prophets said!!!
Where is it written in the Prophets?
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.
All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
and great shall be the peace of your children.
ALL God’s children will be taught by the LORD.
Not most
Not a lot
but ALL, of God’s children, will be taught by God
this is God’s elect
Jesus says that EVERYONE who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
Not most
Not a lot
BUT ALL…EVERYONE WHO has heard and learned from the Father comes to Christ.
Look at verse 46:
not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
He is the bread that has come down from Heaven to reveal to fallen man who God is and his gracious gift to sinners…HIs Son, the Bread of Life.
This is a restatement of John 1:18
Since Christ came to show us the Father and tell us Heavenly things…we need to believe what He tells us...
Lets look at our last verse this morning:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
NOT “will have”…but HAS
this is not a call to sinners but a comfort to Christians.
Believing is not the cause of eternal life but the effect.
If someone believes in the Son, truly believes in Him, it is proof that he/she already has life.
because he has been given to the Son
He/She has been drawn to the Son
He/She has heard from the Father
And He/She has come to the Son
And the Son will raise you up on the last day.
Because he/she HAS eternal life.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
I want to end with a couple of applications for us this morning
But before I do, I want to praise God for using us in this area. We planted this church to teach God’s people sound doctrine, historical Christianity. We wanted people to know the FULLNESS of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everyone says God is Sovereign, in control of everything…but we mean it and we will not back down from that.
There is no, “Yeah, He is sovereign over everything but the weather and salvation…that is up to you”
When we say He is Sovereign we truly mean it.
Everyone says that Christ purchased a people at the cross…but what they seem to believe is that Christ died for an opportunity...
But we believe He died and ransomed a people from every tribe, tongue, people group and nation (Rev. 5:9)
Everyone says that we have been adopted in Christ Jesus but they haven’t thought about how adoption works...
the parent chooses the child in adoption
and the Father chose us.
Everyone says God gets all the glory…but what they mean is that they get some because if it wasn’t for them making a decision on their own free will then they would not be saved.
But when we say God gets all the Glory, we mean ALL OF IT.
While we were dead…he saved us!
So praise God that He is using us in this town
The word on the street is that we are too heavy on Theology.
Theology: the study of God, his attributes, and how he relates to his creaton.
We are too heavy on Bible Study...
Praise God Almighty.
I pray that continues to be what POTR is known for because that is what the first century Christians were known for. They were called Creatures of the Word.
If you are visiting I want you all to know one of the reasons we are this way:
Because we believe the Words of Christ that we just heard this morning.
If it is true that
all that the Father gives me will come to me
no one can come to Christ unless the Father draws them
everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Christ
then there is no need
to turn the lights down low
set the mood with some music softly playing
to manipulate a persons emotions to get them to make a decision
The only thing that is going to draw someone to Christ is God so we speak His Word…we teach people His truths…we show them what God said.
We believe that if we are going to be used to bring people to Christ it will be through the teaching of God’s Word.
and how can we teach it if we do not know it?
So the first Application:
Be a creature of the Word and witness to others by teaching them God’s Word
Application TWO:
IF GOD IS THE ONE WHO DRAWS PEOPLE TO THE SON...
IF GOD IS THE ONE THAT GIVES A PERSON TO THE SON...
Then let us always be praying to the Father that he will draw people to His Son.
Pray for the lost
Pray that God opens their hearts and eyes and gives them ears to hear.
God, and God alone, can save the most unlikely person (think of the Apostle Paul).
Nothing you have done can keep God from saving you if you are here this morning.
If you hear his call on your heart this morning…come find me so we can talk about it.
If you hear his call…run to Christ. Acknowledge that you are a broken sinner in need of a mighty savior…in need of a miracle.
If you do not know Christ this morning then you are not truly free…but I have good news for you....
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
If you hear his call…run to Christ and he will set you free.