John 6:41-51
Last week we looked at Jesus’ words to the Jews…it is a back and forth conversation regarding His claim as the Messiah and the Jews’ misunderstanding about who it is that actually performs miracles.
They begin to talk about the miracle Moses did in feeding the Jews in the wilderness for forty years claiming;
He (Moses) gave them bread from heaven to eat (John 6:30)
After stating an already established fact…they turn to Jesus and ask Him:
…what then do you do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do you perform?
What sign do you do that we may see and believe…really…after the miracle of feeding the five thousand you have to ask…what work do you perform?
They’re not satisfied with the sign of the loaves and the fishes…they don’t believe that’s a sign that Jesus is the Messiah, so they’re asking for another sign.
They’re comparing Jesus’ one-time miracle of feeding the 5000 to the 40-year miracle of Moses giving manna in the wilderness…so Jesus contrasts Himself with that manna by pointing out that the true bread of heaven isn’t something they can just pick up off the ground and eat…it’s nothing less than Himself.
He is the bread of heaven that came down to give life, and it is only from this bread that men can obtain the satisfaction they desire…which is eternal life.
Jesus says you’re wrong in two ways;
FIRST…let me explain to you who it really was that gave the manna from heaven:
It is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven (John 6:32).
SECONDLY… and the real meaning on why it was given…what came in the wilderness was not the true bread…it was only a symbol of it…a shadow of the true bread…the real bread that came down from heaven is Me.
I came down from heaven sent from the Father…it is My father…who gives you the true bread out of heaven. (John 6:32).
Then Jesus makes them an offer…the same offer He’s been giving for over 2000 years…in verses 35 through 40 this whole exchange with these people is nothing more than one big invitation.
Jesus is giving them the opportunity to accept Him and receive Him as Lord and Saviour.
[v.35] is the OFFER…he who comes to Me…he who believes in Me…will never hunger or thirst.
[v39] is the INVITATION…this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those He has given Me. (preferred will vs. sovereign will)
[40] is the PROMISE. That everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life.
[v40] is the GUARANTEE of what Jesus will do…I Myself will raise him up on the last day.
This whole / offer / invitation / promise / guarantee is the result of one question: OK…you say you’re from Heaven…that God is your Father…well, since you have such a personal relationship with Him…since you two are so close…answer us this;
“What must we do, to be doing the works of God? [6:27]
So Jesus reduces this down even further…something that is easily understandable …but something that has confused the world for 2000 years.
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:27-29)
How simple is that…here’s where the confusion comes in because there is a difference between ‘work for God’ and ‘work of God.’
Work for God is when we’re working to earn favor or score points with God… doing certain things to show or prove to God how good or close you are to Him and then because we’ve done certain things…expecting favors and blessings from Him.
This is what many Christians are busy doing…the work of God has nothing to do with baptism…taking the Lord’s supper…nothing about tithing…nothing to do with attending church to be blessed…has nothing to do about doing stuff… Christians need to realize that all the ‘work’ that was needed done…was done on the cross.
Problem is…people forget that the gospel is not a question of …What can I do to make God happy? …or…How can I please God by what I do? Those are the questions asked by those who are working for God versus doing the work of God.
The work of God means realizing that Jesus died and rose again from the dead to prove His deity…that He ascended into heaven and those who believe in him whom he has sent will also go to heaven because of what He did for us on the Cross.
BUT…that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do any works…in fact…strangely enough… the Bible stresses works…‘faith without works is dead’ [James 2:26] …that’s the second part of ‘believing in Him whom He has sent’…it doesn’t have to do with works…it has to do with His Spirit which was sent into the world in order that we might do the work of God.
This is something I have said on a repeated basis…because it’s for your benefit and God wants you to know it.
James affirms that works (or actions) are the byproduct of faith…works do not justify us or make us righteous before God nor are they the means to salvation… but our deeds are the fruit that grows from those who are obedient to God’s commands…here’s the importance in that.
All Christians will one day stand before Jesus…not to be judged between heaven and hell…that’s already been decided…but to receive in heaven your rewards based on your works which were done from a true intent to bring glory to God.
So, works are important…but it is ‘works’ that were done because you were fulfilling your God-given purpose in life…not because you wanted to please God.
Here’s the other side of that coin…those who say you don’t need to do anything for God…taking the statement literally that all ‘work’ was done on the cross to mean “I’ll just do nothing because believing in Jesus is all I need to do to get into heaven when I die” – that is an accurate statement…but that assessment comes with devastating results.
Jesus gave us numerous parables about those whose mindset was “I don’t have to do anything”…and that’s exactly what you’ll get when you get to heaven…nothing.
With respect to the Jews…the problem is they’re in the ‘now’ …they can’t get past the statement concerning where Jesus came from and what He came for…they are frustrated by the statement:
I am the bread that came down out of heaven (John 6:41).
When they realized that Jesus was speaking about himself…that He was infinitely greater than Moses and that He alone was the true bread of life that descended from heaven, they began to grumble: (John 6:43).
because He said I am the bread which came down from heaven;
These words were very offensive to the Jews…they’re still offensive today…they still do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
They didn’t realize it then…and they don’t realize it today, that the person they’ve been waiting for… for generations was standing right in front of them.
You can almost see in your mind’s eye their reaction…turning to each other with cynical looks on their faces and saying…”What does He mean? What’s He talking about? …how can anybody ‘come down from heaven’”?
We know this guy…He grew up in Nazareth right over the hill…we know Joseph His father and Mary His mother…He’s just like one of us…they were unwilling to even remotely believe that Jesus, whom they knew to be the son of a carpenter, could consider Himself to be superior to Moses.
They immediately forgot all the wonderful things they had heard Jesus say and do. They forgot the healings, the miracles of restoration, even the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand which had taken place just a day earlier.
They focused on one thing…they can’t get over the statement: I am the bread which came down from heaven;
Because they knew Him…knew His parents…they began to regard him as an ordinary man…and in one respect that is important…here’s why…one thing about the crowd’s reaction is that it proves that when Jesus was a boy, He was no different than anyone else…He didn’t go around doing miraculous feats as some suggest and claim He did when He was growing up.
He grew up in Nazareth…He was a child just like all the other children were…the problem is…they saw only that… they didn’t know the full story…this is the reason for so much doubt today about Jesus.
People have never examined the evidence…they have never really looked at the eyewitness accounts of what Jesus did, or read the accounts of what He said…in his reply to the crowd, Jesus gives the second reason for their doubt:
They had inadequate enlightenment…it’s not enough merely to hear the facts about Jesus or to hear the story of his life.
No figure in history has been so widely portrayed in films…in drama…in books …or in narratives as Jesus…but hearing about Him is not enough…there must be an inner opening of the eyes to the soul.
How many times in the Scriptures do we see this phenomenon! We saw it with the disciples…”And the Lord opened their eyes so that they understood,” (Luke 24:45).
We need to have our spiritual eyes and ears opened so that the full meaning of what He did and said becomes evident to us so that we can begin to understand the implications of His life.
We think we choose Jesus…but there is no greater truth in the Word of God than to realize that our decision to trust in Jesus is not made by us.
Unless our eyes are opened to understand…we will never make the decision to do the work of God which is believe in him whom he has sent…that is the result of
God’s drawing us to Him…He Himself said to his own disciples, “You did not choose me, I chose you,” (John 15:16a).
Why do we choose the way we do? …to us it seems natural that everything is centered on what our wills desire…but Scripture reveals much more about our humanity than that…it reveals that unless God draws us to himself…we would never come…no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him [44].
If left to ourselves…no one would respond if they were not “drawn” of the Father… this is a very strong word…it means “compelled,” to be “dragged along.” That is how it is used in other places of Scripture.
This is what is necessary…Jesus is clearly indicating that God the Father must draw us to himself…what a tremendous sense of assurance it is in realizing that when we came to Christ it was not on our own…but because God set His love on us and drew us to him!
That is the meaning of [v 45]: And they shall all be taught by God.
Jesus is quoting a verse from Isaiah 54:13…but how shall ‘all’ be taught by God… people are taught by God through internal illumination…this is the operation of the Holy Spirit on the heart.
God universally teaches everyone about Jesus…He gives inward illumination to “all” but unfortunately…here again…His illumination to all does not mean that all will believe on Him.
Jesus is making the claim that those who truly follow the Word of God will recognize that His claims are true…the crowd demanded that they see something—an additional miracle—before they would accept the truth. (John 6:30)
This goes back to what I said last week…the difficulty with Christianity is it’s an abstract reality that we cannot grab ahold of…is there a God because I’ve never seen Him…how can He be known because I’ve never met Him.
These are the grumbles in [43] …Jesus is pointing out that we must be willing to learn the truth before they can see Him with their spiritual eyes.
Two qualifications are necessary: people need to (1) hear and (2) learn…a person hears and learns from the Father by something from within…it’s a deep conviction planted by the Father…Jesus Himself says so:
Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me [46].
A prerequisite for becoming a Christian is knowledge. We cannot understand divine knowledge without illumination from the Father through the Holy Spirit.
Hearing and learning convey the process of coming to Christ…the Father’s drawing is the starting point…no one can come to the Son without having first heard about Him…no one can learn about the Son except through the Holy Spirit.
It’s God who takes the initiative by drawing men to Himself. Unless the Father draws, no one can come to Him…two Keys to this whole dialogue:
Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. (45)
It’s only the humble and teachable that God draws to Himself…the arrogant and strong willed are unable or are willing to abandon their own ideas that view themselves as in control…they believe they’re competent enough to make good decisions on their own…and wise enough to avoid the wrong turns in life.
But Jesus is saying with regards to eternity…only those who are willing to “hear” and “learn” are the ones God draws to Himself.
It’s not enough to just hear God’s voice through inner illumination…we need to learn from it and respondto it…and with that response comes a promise.
He who believes has eternal life [47]
Jesus has been explaining the true source of eternal life…a belief in the One sent by God… the one believing [ὁ πιστεύων] means not only that they may have it…or shall have it…or will have…but that they do have it.
That He Himself is the “Bread of Life” that has come down from heaven…His assurance is that eternal life is for those who believe.
Jesus again enters into a dialogue that your fathers may have eaten manna in the wilderness for 40 years but it did nothing for them in the short term.
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. [49]
I remember when I was young…I couldn’t grasp the concept that I would ever get old…when I looked at the old people around me with their gray hair and in some cases their feeble physical efforts…can remember thinking to myself, “I can’t believe that will happen to me”.
Even in my late twenties I could still run times that were not that far off from the times I ran in college…I assumed I’d always be able to run that fast.
I can remember telling my daughter as we stood on the starting line…see you at the finish line and I’d be waiting for her to finish…I still tell my daughter I’ll see you at the finish line…but now she’s the one waiting on me to finish.
The years have stretched out ahead of me…Jesus’ words… ‘and they died’ are a ringing reminder that the body is headed for death…it’s decaying.
What Jesus says next is troubling in two ways…it’s extremely troublesome for some in the church, let alone those outside the church…He’s talking about eating human flesh and drinking human blood.
FIRST…that statement is an especially offensive statement to the Jews….in fact…even today…for us to take His words literally turns many people off.
Their reaction then is the same reaction from people today…you can hear the cynicism in their voices: What does he think we are — cannibals?”
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat,” [52]
This was most offensive to Jews because they had been taught all through the centuries that God prohibited the eating of any meat in which there remained any blood in it.
But Jesus is making it more than clear that that is exactly what they must do;
SECONDLY…saying that He will give His life can only mean death, and they are troubled by that…behind their protest is the feeling that their sins are not that bad, that it should not require death to clear up their difficulties.
Many people align themselves with that same thinking today…they don’t want to believe that their sins are so bad that it requires death to cure them.
Most people think they’re pretty good people…they may admit that there is a need for a few changes…some additional New Year’s resolutions perhaps…possibly a little adjustment in behavior…but generally…they feel they’re not all that bad.
Yet everywhere in Scripture, both Old and New Testaments alike, there is this emphasis upon the necessity for blood…for a death to happen in order to cure and deliver us from the evil grip of sin in our lives. This is why the Jews protested Jesus’ words.
In these words, Jesus reveals the absolute necessity for receiving his life:
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever [51]
In the Greek the wording suggests the eating of this bread is a one-time event…the Greek wording ‘to eat’ (φάγῃ) is in the aorist tense…and the subjunctive mood.
Here’s the importance in that…it is an action without continuation…and it means a definite outcome that will happen—If anyone eats of this bread—speaking of a one-time action—he will live forever—the definite result…to eat of this bread, in this context, means the once-and-for-all action of accepting or believing in Jesus with the promise of eternal life.
Jesus goes on to further define the importance of that statement…and how absolutely essential it is to life…not this life, but eternal life…if you don’t have this, you are on a slide into ultimate corruption and total death.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” [53]
a theme Jesus would later repeat at the Last Supper.
The most we can do in this life is to merely preserve life for a while…hold it at arm’s length…physical death is inevitable…but spiritual death doesn’t have to be…hence the importance of believing in and knowing the One who gives life…it’s the life that God intends for us.