“Absolute Salvation through the Absolute God.”

John 6:33-42

“Absolute Salvation through the Absolute God.”

The God Man Jesus will bring salvation.

Intro - Mothers Day

When I asked my wife Susan, What would you like for Mother’s Day. Her first response was, I just want to be with my family.

-Why? Being with the ones she loves the most makes her happy.

-It satisfies the maternal instinct.

-In fact, out side of Easter and Christmas, Mothers Day is consistently one of the Sunday’s that church attendance in the U.S. is consistently up. We see this year after year.

-My hope is that it is because mom’s want their families to experience the great salvation and satisfaction in Jesus.

Transition - And this is what Jesus wanted for the people listening to Him in His Bread of Life teaching. To see that only God...

Section 1 - God absolutely satisfies.

Read John 6:33-35

Jesus say “I Am” The Bread Of Life.”

When you come to me in salvation from your sin. Your soul is satisfied.

When you spiritually take me in through My Word. I continue to satisfy.

The people were still looking outward. Looking to physical bread.

vs. 34, Look in verse 34, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

The people are missing the point. They want Jesus to make them miracle food, like He did the day before in the feeding of the 5000

They still are not getting that Jesus Himself is the Bread and that He will spiritually satisfy their soul now and eternally, in the world to come.

Jesus wants them to take Him into the deepest part of themselves, their soul, by faith.

He wants them to spiritually feast on Him.

Then Jesus drops a Bomb.

He says something, & the whole conversation begins to get spicy.

He states that he is God as clear as it can be.

Jesus says, in verese 35, “I AM”

verse 35, “I Am the bread of life...”

The phrase that we translate as “I Am” is called the Tetragrammaton -

That’s just a fancy word for - The holiest names for God.

We pronounce it Yahweh.

This name is so special that the Jewish people in the Old Testament were not allowed to even say the name.

Illustration, Scribes, The people who copied the Bible ...

Each time the scribe came across the Hebrew word for God, he had to wipe his pen clean. And when he came across the name of God, Jehovah (YHWH), he had to wash his whole body before he could write it. Should a king address the scribe while writing that name he must take no notice of him.

Yahweh - means to be or to exist. It means that God is self-existent not needing anything to exist and not being bound by time, space, or matter.

It is a statement that God is the essence of being and existing. There is nothing more real than God himself.

When Moses was confronted by God at the burning bush to lead the Hebrew people. Moses asked God. What is you name? What should I tell the people your name is?

“God said, I Am who I Am.

Don’t ever believe someone who tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God. He clearly claimed to be God almighty.

Why does this matter?

Earlier in verse 33 Jesus tells the people that he came down from heaven.

Now, 2 verses later Jesus is using the holiest name of God to identify Himself.

Jesus says, Not only did I come down from heaven, but, Vs. 35, “… I AM the Bread of Life.”

This did not escape the ears of those nearby.

AND, what will God offering Himself as eternal bread says He will do?

When you fully trust in Him, He will satisfy the yearning and emptiness of your soul.

Illustration - Have you ever been famished at 5:30pm, knowing dinner was going to be at 6:30? ... but were so desperate to eat that you still opened the cabinet and gorged on a bunch of junk?

The, At 6pm when you were feeling sick with your stomach full of Cheetos, pretzels, and Soda you regretted not waiting, for the good food?

-You tried to satisfy your hunger with junk. AND it left you with regrets.

-That’s exactly what sin does to our soul. Leaves us sick and full of regret.

Jesus the creator of the soul gave you as a gift spiritual hunger.

-The world tries to feed us all kinds of junk to satisfy that hunger, but it always comes up short.

-When you accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, He satisfies that hunger.

-He fills your soul with Himself.

-As you walk closely and grow in Him, He keeps satisfying that Hunger.

Much greater than eating any wonderful meal, Jesus made you so you would experience the spiritual pleasure of your soul being satisfied.

-God made you so your greatest pleasure would be experienced in Him.

-Jesus is God.

-Jesus is the bread from heaven.

-Jesus saves.

-Jesus will satisfy your hunger and thirst.

God absolutely satisfies.

Transition - Not only does Jesus absolutely satisfy, but He absolutely saves.

Section - God absolutely Saves

How does he absolutely save?

Read John 6:36-37

God Is Sovereign Over The Heart (on the screen)

“All that the Father gives me, will come to me.”

Illustration

There are a handful of time in life that things in nature are not logical, but true.

Example 1

The placebo effect. Someone has a pain or a medical symptom, and the doctor prescribes them a medicine, but the medicine is nothing more than a sugar pill that came out of a prescription bottle & the pain (or symptom) goes away.

-Was the person lying about their pain? No

-Was the pain real? Yes

-Was the medicine real? No

-Why did the real pain go away?

-It shouldn’t have.

It’s called the placebo effect. We don’t know exactly how it works in our brain, we just know that sometimes it works… but it doesn’t logically make sense.

Example 2, this one is meant to be humorous.

Many modern women's pants are made with pockets that are so small you couldn’t fit a quarter in them. They are of no use. Even some women's pants are made with the outline of a pocket sewn in, but no pocket really exists at all.

Another example of something that is true, but makes no logical sense.

3rd example of something that is true, but doesn’t make sense.

Why when water freezes it expands and floats on its own liquid.

-We see it everyday. Obvious.

-It’s not supposed to expand or float.

-Everything else in nature when it gets colder, gets denser (gets smaller), and sinks.

-Scientists can’t explain why ice expands and floats, but it does, it’s true.

-BUT - even though it defies logic, it is true.

O.K. Why would you tell us this? What’s the point?

There are a handful of times in the Bible that something is not logical, but it is still true.

Example - The Trinity. God is 3 persons in one being. Is God three? Well yes, Father, Son, and Spirit. Is He One? Absolutely.

The greatness of God is beyond logic.

John 6 is a classic example of something being true, but not making logical sense - when it comes to salvation.

Look up the page at verse 28 -29, The work of God is that you believe in the Savior.

-The responsibility is placed on the human to believe in Jesus.

In contrast look at verse 37 - It tells us something different,

Look at verse 37. “37 A” That means the first half of the verse.

Who are the ones that come to Jesus in salvation? “The ones the Father gives Jesus.”

In verse 37 God is the one who gives salvation.

He is the one responsible for the change of heart and belief.

In verse 29, People are held responsible to believe.

-So which is it? Is God responsible for my saving faith or is the individual responsible to believe?

-The answer is “yes”.

-Both, God is sovereign over the human heart, and the individual must exercise belief.

Both are true, even though it breaks our logic.

There are a handful of times in scripture that your logic will fail you and you must learn to rest in biblical tension.

-If I just lost you, don’t worry - we’ll cover it again later in the chapter.

verse 37, Here is the teaching …

The human heart is so corrupt, so broken, so crippled that trusting in Christ is a moral impossibility without the direct intervention and drawing of the Father. (X2)

You are dead in your trespasses and sins and God has to radically intervene and revive your spiritual heart.

I’m going to give you 3 scriptures. We may go over these later, but if you want a few scriptures on the deadness and inability of humankind’s heart to respond to God … here are 3.

Romans 3:10-12, I Corinthians 2:14, II Cor 4:3-4

You can not save yourself. You cannot produce faith on your own.

Faith is a gift from God.

God gave you faith.

God gave you the desire to exercise faith.

God gave you the ability to exercise faith.

He did this when He drew you and gave you to Jesus.

jumping to verse 44.

Read 44.

This is the great miracle of your salvation.

It is impossible for you and I to save ourselves.

You would not have been saved, you could not have been saved, without the direct loving intervention of God breathing spiritual life into a soul that had no goodness in it.

Why did He draw you to salvation? Why you?!

Only His love, mercy and grace.

Not because you were prettier or more appealing than someone else.

Just God’s mercy and grace.

And God didn’t stop there.

vs. 44 tells us that - God is so sovereign over the heart, so in control that He promises that those who He draws, will come to Jesus.

-MOTHERS - Here is A great hope.

-THAT WHEN YOU PRAY AND BEG GOD TO SPIRITUALLY INTERVENE IN THE HEARTS OF YOUR CHILDREN THAT ...

-… God is so powerful that he can take the most stubborn, rebellious, hardened person and turn them to Himself.

-God took an enemy of Himself in the Apostle Paul turned his heart around.

-God took the slave Trader John Newton and turned his life around.

-God can turn your loved one around too.

Your salvation was a miracle of grace from God.

He raised you from the dead.

Your response to Jesus should be a shouting in your heart of, “Thank you for saving me.”

Transition - One of God’s great attributes is that, He has a loving iron grip, on His children.

Absolute God Gives Assured Salvation (vs 39-40)

What we see in our passage is this, that ...

Jesus perfectly preserves and protects the salvation of those who come to Him.

When someone is truly saved, not religious, not walked an isle, but has come to faith in Jesus and repented. They cannot lose their salvation.

John 6:39 Jesus said … “39 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.”

The scripture tells us that our salvation is guaranteed.

That God places a guarantee within us. Collateral within us.

Illustration - When I was in middle school, I was zoned 1 block away from going to the richest middle school in the country. I missed it by 1 block.

Instead, I went to the poorest middle school in my county. If a student needed to borrow a pencil from a teacher, there would be an exchange.

The student would get the pencil and as a guarantee that the pencil would come back at the end of class, the teacher got the students shoe as collateral. The shoe was the deposit. You never forgot to give the pencil back.

That is a silly illustration of collateral.

Let me tell you, What God deposits in the heart of a Christ Follower is not the lowest of collateral like an old shoe.

Instead, to prove how serious He is about fulfilling His promise to save, He has given us the most magnificient of collateral. He places in the Christ Follower Himself

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 ESV

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

If you are a Christ Follower, Not only has God placed his spiritual wax stamp on you (His Seal), He has placed Himself in you. God who is Spirit, is in you.

Nothing can seperate you from Him.

Not Satan, Not your own Sin, Not the entrapments of this world.

Once you belong to the Father, you are always His.

Verse 39 and verse 40 both tell us, that God will keep you, and raise you up when He comes again to give you a resurrection body. He will “…raise [you] up on the last day.”

An Absolute God Gives Assured Salvation, Pause

Transition - After all of this life changing news, how do the religious leaders respond?

Section 4 (vs 41-42), Absolute Rejection Of The Son of God

In my sanctified imagination, I can see them waging there heads saying … “Isn’t this the poor kid who grew up in Wadley? We know who his mom and dad are. He didn’t come form heaven.

Their hearts were hard.

They rejected Jesus.

Accepting Jesus would mean they would have to surrender too much.

They wanted a Messiah to satisfy their plans.

You need to make a decision.

Jesus desires to forgive you. To take your guilt and shame.

He desires to satisfy the longing of your sould.

Christ Follower - Maybe you have believed that the world will satisfy.

-Romance, money, things will satisfy.

-Jesus came to give you life to the full.

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