John 6:41-59 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Be back in the Gospel of John chapter 6 this morning.

[0:12] We left off last week in verse 40. And during the time leading up to that, we see Jesus refer to himself as the bread of life.

[0:28] We see some of the Jews say, well, our fathers ate bread and ate the manna from God out in the wilderness.

[0:39] And all these things we discussed last week, and the last verse we read last week, verse 40, it says, and this is the will of him that sent me, Jesus speaking, of course, and this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone would see it the Son and believe it on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

[1:01] And again, this is the last verse we read last week, but Jesus making a very plain statement. I mean, there's no reason to go digging around, no reason to go get a commentary or anything along those lines.

[1:18] Jesus plainly says that the will of him that sent me, well, who sent Jesus? That would be God the Father. The will of him that sent me, his will is everyone which see it the Son and believe it on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

[1:39] So a very plain statement made there by Jesus Christ. And once again, Jesus in this verse when he says the will of him that sent me, making a reference to his own deity, to the deity that was within Jesus Christ, that he was indeed God.

[1:57] He was God come in the flesh. He was sent from heaven. So with all that in mind, we'll begin at John chapter 6 and verse 41.

[2:08] Says the Jews then murmured at him because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven. Now where it says here the Jews began to murmur at him, this would have not been referring to all the people that was around him.

[2:24] This would have been referring to the more elite Jews, the religious leaders that would have began to murmur against him. May have been some of the common folk as well.

[2:36] But this would have been a direct reference though to them and we find that out at the end or toward the end of the passage, hopefully that we're going to get to this morning, where it says in verse 59, these things said he and the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

[2:51] Well, the synagogue is where people met and there was exposition on the word of God. There was a teacher present, but something to keep in mind before we even get to verse 59 is a synagogue was not necessarily a building.

[3:07] A synagogue was actually a meeting of 12 or more Jewish males and there had to be a copy of the Torah present and there had to be a teacher that was able to expound upon the Torah.

[3:20] That was a synagogue. Now there were buildings designated as synagogues as well. Yes, but the original Greek here in verse 59 says that Jesus spoke these things in the synagogue.

[3:33] The article, the word thee is left out in the original Greek. So was it just a spot that they met at down in the corner? They meet at McDonald's or Hardee's or wherever and decide to have synagogue?

[3:45] Could it be in? Were they in an actual building referred to as a synagogue? Could it be in? I wasn't there, I don't know. But either way, Jesus was speaking everything that we're going to read this morning in synagogue.

[3:57] So there would have been plenty of religious leaders present. That's what I said all that to say that. There would have been plenty of Pharisees present. There would have probably been a couple of Sadducees.

[4:09] They subscribed, maybe some chief priests that were present at this time. So when we read verse 41, the Jews then murmured at him, this would have been those religious elite, the Jews.

[4:21] Then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. They didn't murmur because he said, I am the bread. They murmured that he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven, making himself equal to God.

[4:36] And this is what began the murmuring. This is what started really the anger with these Jews, verse 42. And they said, it is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.

[4:51] How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? So folks, this is a logical conclusion that these people would have come to. Isn't this Jesus?

[5:03] Do we not know Mary? Do we not know Joseph? Do we not know that Joseph was a carpenter? Don't we know all the siblings that are associated with Jesus, his brothers and his sisters?

[5:14] Don't we know all these things about him? How can he say he came down from heaven when we know who his mother is and when we know who his father is? So this is a very logical conclusion that they came to.

[5:26] But folks, logic is what gets a lot of people in trouble with the gospel. It's what got me in trouble with the gospel for years before I got saved. I tried to draw logical conclusions.

[5:37] I tried to say, why would some God come here or send his son, for that matter, to come and die in my place? I knew I was a sinner. I was like a lot of other sinners.

[5:49] I was proud of some of my sin. I was proud that I was a free thinker, so to say. And that's what gets in the way of a lot of people, though, is logic and pride.

[6:00] And these people were drawing it. No conclusion, do we not know who this is? Don't we know his parents? Therefore how can he say that he came down from heaven?

[6:11] Verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said, Under them murmur not among yourselves, No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

[6:23] Verse 45, it is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me.

[6:35] So Jesus in verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said, Under them murmur not among yourselves. Well, the question was, how can he say that he came down from heaven?

[6:47] How can he say this when we know who his parents are, when we know where he's from, as they thought? Verse 44, no man, his answer was to not murmur among themselves first, but in verse 44, No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him.

[7:07] And this is one of several verses within the New Testament that we can cite to where I have said, you've probably said or at least heard it said, that you can't just come to Jesus anytime you want to.

[7:23] A sinner can't come to Jesus at their own given time. If the Holy Spirit is not drawing then, which is how the Father uses the Spirit to draw people to the Son, if the Holy Spirit is not drawing, then there's no salvation going to take place.

[7:43] It's an impossibility for that to happen as per the Scripture. That's why people say, well, I'm just going to live my life how I want to. I'm going to raise as much cane as I want to.

[7:53] I'm going to drink as much and dope as much and go to all the bars and see all the women and or men that I want to, whatever the case is. And they'll say, when I'm on my deathbed, then I'll give my heart to Jesus.

[8:06] Folks, if the Holy Spirit ain't there, it'll never happen. It will never, ever, ever happen. They'll say, I'll repent of my sins. You repent all day long if the Holy Spirit ain't there drawing.

[8:17] It ain't going to do anybody a lick of good. No man can come to the Son unless the Father with the Spirit is drawing him to the Son.

[8:28] Nobody can do that. The disciples couldn't do it. Even Peter and John and all the other disciples that we know, they couldn't even do it.

[8:38] Only through the drawing can this happen. So Jesus says this, but He goes on to say, and I will raise him up at the last day. This is a recurring statement that Jesus makes throughout this passage saying, and I will raise him up at the last day.

[8:53] Once again, referencing his own deity and saying that. He's not saying the Father will raise them up, although the Father has His part in it and the Spirit has His part in it as well.

[9:06] But Jesus is saying, I will raise these people up. I will raise them up at the last day. This is Brother Verne read from John chapter 11 this morning where Jesus Christ said, I am the resurrection and the life.

[9:20] What was said right before that reference was made to, I know that Lazarus will live again. He'll be raised up at the last day. And this is the same last day that we're talking about here.

[9:31] But Jesus said, I am the resurrection and I am the life. In other words, I will be the one to resurrect Lazarus in that last day. And Jesus here is saying to these folks that no man can come into me except the Father which has sent me, draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.

[9:50] So it's all a work of God. You all have heard me say it over and over. I've heard Brother Verne say it over and over and I can't reiterate it enough. Salvation is a complete and utter work of God.

[10:02] You have no say so whatsoever in it. God is the one that saves souls. God is the one that draws souls to him. God is the one that saves those souls.

[10:12] God is the one that keeps those souls once they're saved. And God is the one that will take those souls home to him one day after a while. We have no part in our salvation.

[10:24] It took God to do the drawing. You say, well, I had to believe who gave you the ability to believe. That would be Almighty God. I had to repent who gave you the ability to repent.

[10:34] God Almighty gave you that ability to repent. It is completely and utterly of God. Salvation is. Verse 45, Jesus quotes from the Old Testament, from the book of Isaiah.

[10:48] He says, It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me.

[11:04] Now, there's different ways that you can take this. What Jesus is saying here, it is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. What does that word all mean?

[11:16] Means all, does it not? However, if you're reading the Old Testament, where this scripture come from, the direct reference was to God's people. And so, therefore, me personally, I think that Jesus citing this within the context that it is, the reference would be to God's people.

[11:35] What was he talking about in the verse before this? He was talking about those that would be drawn to him by the Father. Those are God's people. The ones that are drawn to Jesus Christ and the ones that will be raised up at the last day.

[11:49] So when Jesus says it is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God, that word all is not everyone on planet earth. We have to consider things in the context that they're written.

[12:03] Every man therefore that hath heard and has learned of the Father cometh unto me. Well, folks, a whole lot of people's heard of Jesus Christ, and they've heard of the Father.

[12:14] They've heard of scripture. They've heard of the resurrection. They've heard of the death and the burial. They've heard of the miraculous birth in Bethlehem. A lot of people have heard these things, but just to hear it don't get us saved.

[12:27] I mean, the gospel's been preached for 2,000 years now. A lot of people have heard it, but not everybody's been saved. Jesus says, every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me, hath learned, hath heard and hath learned of the Father.

[12:48] Now this being said, everybody can learn of the Father. Everybody can. They can learn from the Bible. Folks, I knew a lot about the Bible before I was saved.

[13:00] I didn't believe the Bible, but I knew a lot about it. But we can learn of the Father. We can learn through life experiences of the Father. We can learn through all kinds of means of the Father, but we have to hear and we have to learn of the Father.

[13:17] But Jesus says, they all cometh unto me. So we're talking about a specific group of people. That word all does not mean all of the population here. It can't because of the context that it is in.

[13:29] Because everybody, or not everybody, but most people have heard of the Father. They have heard of Jesus Christ. They have heard of the religion of Christianity.

[13:40] But Jesus goes on to say, and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Now, we can learn of the Father in one sense, the one that I just said.

[13:51] We can learn about God. We can learn about God, the Father. But what Jesus is saying here is learning by the Father. The Father is the one that's teaching.

[14:02] How does the Father teach? The same exact way that the Father says by drawing. He draws through the Holy Spirit. He teaches through the Holy Spirit.

[14:12] The Holy Spirit is used in both of those ways. The Holy Ghost of God is used to draw, and the Holy Ghost of God, he is used to teach the people of God and all these people, those that have heard, those that have learned by God of these things.

[14:29] They are the ones that come unto me, as Jesus says, or they come unto Jesus. Verse 46, not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

[14:43] This is a bold statement. But folks, Jesus Christ is speaking it. This is another reference to his own deity that he is making here.

[14:54] Chapter 6 is full of these references to the deity of Jesus Christ. He makes another one. He says, not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God. Well Jesus has already said that he is the bread that came down from heaven in this whole discourse that we're reading right now.

[15:14] So he's saying that only I have seen God when he makes this statement here, not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father.

[15:24] Jesus making this statement, I existed in heaven before this earth was ever made. I existed out there with the Father, and I have seen the Father, I have lived with the Father, I have been with the Father through all of eternity.

[15:39] This is what Jesus was saying, but he just put it in a tiny nutshell in verse 46 when he said, not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God.

[15:50] He hath seen the Father. But even here, the Father through Jesus Christ was teaching some of these people, and they were hearing were they not, but was the drawing there?

[16:03] Was the drawing there? And people might hear that and they might say, well, that's not fair. That's not fair that God wasn't drawing these people at this time, but they didn't just all flock to Jesus and God just save all of them at one time, whether it was a hundred, whether it was a thousand or ten thousand that were around.

[16:23] It's not fair. And I've said it dozens, maybe hundreds of times, what's not fair is Jesus Christ came here and died for my sins, him being a sinless person.

[16:35] That's what's not fair. God is God. Period. God is God, and that is something that the church has got to get in their head, and they've got to get that in their heart.

[16:46] God does not answer to you, and God does not answer to me. He is God. He can draw whom He will at whatever time that He will, and we have no say so in the matter whatsoever.

[16:57] He can do with whom, what He wants to at any time that He wants to. He is God, He is the Creator, He is the Maker, He is the Master of everything.

[17:09] And a big problem within the Christian church, now I'm talking about the Christian church, born again people, a big problem is they have forgotten who God really is, and we need to be reminded of that.

[17:23] That He is God, that He is the Creator, and that He can do whatever He wants to whenever He wants to do it. So Jesus here again making the statement for verse 46, not that any man had seen the Father, say he which is of God, he had seen the Father.

[17:41] Verse 47, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Well, hallelujah, praise God and amen for that verse. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

[17:54] Now there's a couple of things I want to point out in this verse, a couple of very important things I want to point out in this verse. I praise God for this verse, he that believeth on me, not he that believeth on me and his baptized, not he that believeth on me and this, or and that he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

[18:13] That word believeth, that little th at the end of it, that makes it present perfect tense. What's present perfect? Y'all hear me talk about tensions enough? That means it's a continual belief, it's a constant belief.

[18:24] This isn't seed that fell on the rocky soil. This isn't seed that the birds snatched up. This is seed that fell on good ground and produced fruit for the kingdom of God afterward.

[18:39] That's the type of seed that we're talking about. He that believeth, the seed that continues. He that believeth that folks are some people that rejoice in the light of Jesus Christ, just like they rejoiced in the light that John the Baptist was talking about for just a little while.

[18:52] They rejoiced for just a season, but then they faded away. And we read that on into chapter 6 here. We read about some of the disciples of Jesus Christ, not the 12 at this point, but some of the people that have been following Jesus Christ.

[19:07] They left. They left because he made hard sayings and they couldn't understand them. So those disciples left, they believed for a little while. The he that believeth, he that continually believes, that perpetually believes in Jesus Christ.

[19:22] He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. And again, that word hath, that is present perfect tense. Folks, the moment that I believed on Jesus Christ, the moment that God saved my soul and the Holy Spirit and dwelt me, I had everlasting life at that point.

[19:39] To this day I have everlasting life and I will have everlasting life on out into eternity forever and forever and forever. I don't have to wait on it.

[19:50] I have it right now. And people say, well, we have to die before we have that everlasting life. Not according to the words of Jesus Christ that I've read right here in chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, as well as dozens of other passages that we could cite throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.

[20:09] When we believe God, when we believe God, we have everlasting life. At that moment, we don't have to wait on it. So again, he that believeth on me, he that perpetually believes on me continually hath continually has everlasting life.

[20:29] Praise God for that verse. That gives me great comfort. I've wrestled a lot with salvation, with assurance of salvation, with knowing that I was saved and knowing that in a lot of that's background, a lot of that's my own thoughts.

[20:49] A lot of it came from Scripture, not completely understanding Scripture, especially Old Testament versus New Testament. But when you place the two of those things together and you realize that it's one harmonious book from beginning to end, it makes it a whole lot easier to see these types of things.

[21:12] The verse 48, Jesus says, I am that bread of life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat men in the wilderness and are dead.

[21:23] This is a very blunt, very potent statement that Jesus Christ makes here. Remember last week we talked about that and I brought it up just very briefly this morning how these people said, well, our fathers ate men in the wilderness.

[21:37] And they were comparing Jesus to Moses and the miracle that God wrought through Moses of the manna in the wilderness. Now Moses didn't go up in the sky and sprinkle the manna himself, but God told Moses what was going on and the people over when this first began, it said, when the dew raised up off the ground, they saw this substance on the ground and they said, what is it?

[22:03] What is this? We don't understand, but folks, that was God's miracle means of sustaining His people while they were out there in their wilderness travel. God did not just throw His people to the side.

[22:17] He didn't throw them out there and say, okay, you're on your own now and He doesn't do that nowadays when He saves a soul. He doesn't say, okay, I've saved you, the rest is up to you.

[22:27] No, God keeps us and God guides us and God helps us along the way. God directs our steps does He not. What is the way most often used by God to direct our steps?

[22:40] The psalmist put it the best when he said, that word is a lamp under my feet and a light under my path. You read the word of God and God will use His own word to direct your steps.

[22:51] He says, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, but then He had and are dead. In other words, yes, God sustained them and I have to wonder, and this is just me, if Jesus might not have been thinking in the back of his mind, yes, sure, I'll sustain them.

[23:09] I had my part in that as well, but He says, your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. God took care of them, but they still died, even though that was heavenly food that was raining down from an almighty God, that was enough to sustain them from day to day to day, if you remember the account of the Exodus and of the pilgrimage into the promised land, you remember in this account, God told him, he said, go out every morning, gather this manna up, except on the Sabbath day, don't do it on the Sabbath day, but the day before that, you gather up twice as much.

[23:49] But this is what would sustain them, but it was from day to day to day. Jesus here is telling these people, in not so many words, yes, sure, you're following your fathers, they did eat manna in the wilderness, and God did sustain them for that, but they are now dead.

[24:04] He says, I am the bread of life that is able to give everlasting life. Your fathers died out there in the wilderness 1500 years ago, basically is what Jesus is telling them.

[24:16] He says, but I am able to give everlasting life. I am the true bread that comes down from heaven or that came down from heaven. Verse 50, this is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat there all of and not die.

[24:30] So in verse 48, I am that bread of life. Verse 49, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. And verse 50, this is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat there all and not die.

[24:43] So he says, yes, God took care of your fathers, but they still died. But this, me, I am the bread that come down. I am the true bread that the father had sent, the father sent the bread to your fathers in the wilderness.

[24:56] But he has sent this bread that bread was nothing more than a picture of what I am. I am the true bread that is able to give you life and life eternal. Verse 51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

[25:09] If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will, which I will give for the life of the world. Verse 52, the Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

[25:24] And Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoetheth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

[25:41] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. I know that was a lot of reading. We'll back up for just a moment.

[25:52] But Jesus here, really, what he's saying, and a lot of people will make reference to this as far as communion, what we do in the churches today as communion. But folks, that's not what Jesus was talking about here.

[26:04] He wasn't talking about a communion service, per se. He was making a statement to these people, you have to partake of the bread of life which the Father has sent down at this time.

[26:17] In other words, he's not saying, I want you all to take me up and I want you to start munching on me. That's not what he's telling them at all. He's saying you have to partake in my death. You have to partake in my burial.

[26:28] You have to partake in my resurrection. You have to partake of my body which I give over for the sins of the world. I've given my life, or I'm giving my life, a ransom for many.

[26:39] He's saying you have to partake in this, and you have to believe on these things. And we have to partake in his blood when he's referencing his blood here, saying, basically, this is true bread and this is true drink.

[26:52] This is true things that will give you true everlasting life. That's what Jesus is getting at in these verses, but he says for month, again in verse 55, or 54, I'm sorry, again he makes a statement, and I will raise him up at the last day.

[27:09] Folks, the only people that Jesus Christ is going to be raising up at the last day are those that have believed in him. They have believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they have repented of their ways, and they have been saved by Almighty God.

[27:22] Their heart has been regenerated, and they have been sanctified by God and consecrated by God for his service. So again, we're talking about a specific group of people here, not communion in general, because I'm telling you now there's been a lot of people over the past 2,000 years that have been unsaved that have partaken in the communion supper, in the Lord's supper, in church services.

[27:47] So Jesus is here saying, you take a little cup of the wine, you drink your, or you eat your little stale cracker, and you'll be saved. That's not what he's saying, but a lot of people see that.

[27:58] That's why Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and he said that a man should search himself, a man should look within himself, because if he takes up the Lord's supper unworthily, he'll be damned.

[28:10] And it's not because an unregenerate sinner has partaken in a communion feast, it's because they're depending upon that communion for salvation.

[28:22] That's why they would be damned. That's why he says, search yourself. Search inside of yourself. Make sure that you're actually saved before doing this. He that hath my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

[28:36] And this is the first mention in the Gospel of John that we have of mutual indwelling, of Christ abiding within a Savior, within the saved, and the saved abiding within Christ.

[28:50] And I'm glad that it's that way. I'm glad that I abide within Christ, and I'm glad that he abides within me. I mean, I'm protected from the inside out. And the lost world will look at that, and they'll hear a statement like that, and they'll say, well, what about disease?

[29:05] What about this problem? What about that problem? If Christ is in you, you shouldn't have that, folks. That's nowhere in Scripture. Nowhere in Scripture. These bodies are still corrupt. These bodies are destined by Almighty God to go back to the dust of the earth.

[29:20] And I've said it in here not too long ago. I'm glad that's the case, because I don't want this body to go back with me. I want the glorified body that is promised to me through the Scripture. I want that body to go with me into eternity.

[29:34] But again, this is the first mention in the Gospel of John when he says, He that heeth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I and him. It's the first mention of mutual indwelling there.

[29:45] In verse 47, as the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that heeth me, even he shall live by me.

[29:57] So again, making reference to his own deity as the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father. Now, he's not saying I live beside of the Father here.

[30:08] He's saying I live here. I'm here on this earth because of the Father. The Father has sent me. The Father is sustaining me while I'm here. I mean, folks, yes, Jesus Christ was God, and he was God coming to flesh.

[30:20] He was 100% God. He was 100% man. Yes, I believe all those things. The Scripture makes that very plain. But Jesus says here in his own words, I live by the Father.

[30:30] I am here and I'm living. I'm breathing. I'm living because that's what he has sent me here to do. And he is the one that's sustaining me and giving me the energy and giving me everything that I need to do so.

[30:43] So he that heeth me, even he shall live by me. So he that partakeeth of me, in other words. He that partakes in my death, my burial, my resurrection.

[30:53] He that believes on me. He that heeth my flesh, he will live by me. I will sustain him, in other words. Just as the Father is sustaining Jesus at this time right here.

[31:05] He says, I will sustain those that partake of me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead.

[31:16] He that heeth this bread shall live forever. And this is Jesus just basically summarizing everything that he just said. Everything we went over this morning from verse 41 on.

[31:27] This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna. He said, he's saying, I'm greater than the manna. I'm greater than the man Moses that was leading those Israelites through the desert.

[31:40] I'm greater than all of these things. Jesus is getting out here. He says, this is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that heeth this bread shall live forever.

[31:54] And then again, verse 49, these things that he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. And that just reiterates to me what we read at the beginning of this passage of scripture that the Jews that were brought up would have been the religious elite of that day or the religious leaders of that day because he was in the synagogue and they wouldn't have been necessarily.

[32:17] There may have been some of them that were in the general crowd out of curiosity of nothing else, but I guarantee they would have been there at the synagogue. That wraps up that little passage of scripture.

[32:30] Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that? God bless you all. I appreciate you. Thank you. God bless you all. I appreciate you.

[32:40] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[32:51] Thank you. Thank you.