WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:03.279 All right, well, good morning, Sacred Mission. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:05.040 Hey, my name is Justin. 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:10.240 I'm one of the pastors here, and it's my joy and privilege to be able to bring God's word to you. 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:18.879 This morning we're going to be wrapping up what is called the bread of life discourse in John 6, right? 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:26.480 And so we're actually going to be going all the way down through the end of the chapter in verse 71 this morning. 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:39.600 And as we wrap this up, what we've seen throughout John 6 is a very heavy theological chapter with inside the evangelist's gospel account. 00:00:39.840 --> 00:01:01.759 And we said at the beginning of this series that John is probably one of the most theologically driven authors of the Gospels because his end goal, as he quotes in John 20, is that all of those who would read this account would come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:19.760 And so he's almost putting forth not just a narrative of what Jesus did in his life, death, and resurrection, but he's also putting forth a theological argument for why making the claim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is true. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:24.719 And so John 6 is just rich in theological depth. 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:32.640 And last week what we talked about was a doctrine of the church called definite atonement. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:34.000 Definite atonement. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:42.959 And here's what it said Jesus said that I will have, I will keep, I will obtain or possess, right? 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.439 All that the Father has given to me. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:51.280 And this is the will of the Father, that I would not lose one of whom he has given me. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:55.519 And so we talked about what it what is that that the Father has given to the Son? 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:07.040 Well, it's us, it's those who would come to faith in Jesus, and the finished work of Jesus secures that we would be in him. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:12.639 And so there's this definite nature of the atoning work of Jesus. 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:30.479 And we talked about how typically in the church we will talk about how the cross, how the resurrection satisfies God and his uh desire for us to be known in him through his son, right? 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:37.120 It's satisfactory his death was to appease his justice against sin in man. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:41.199 But we rarely talk about the efficacy, right? 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:48.240 How effective was Jesus at accomplishing the will of his father? 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:53.120 And to see it come to fruition throughout the history of mankind. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:03:02.960 So when we look at redemptive history, was Jesus effective at accomplishing all that the Father had willed for mankind? 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:27.599 And so definite atonement says, yes, Jesus was not just satisfactory, satisfying in his crucifixion, in his atoning work on the cross, but he was also effective in accomplishing all that the Father willed, which was that he would not, Jesus, lose one of whom the Father had given to him. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.919 So one of our values here at Sacred Mission Church, right? 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:42.560 If you've been around for a while, it's probably familiar to you, but in case you're new, I want to kind of give you a glimpse of who we are and what drives us as a church body. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:48.319 And one of our core values is this devotion, word, and doctrine. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:55.439 Knowing God authoritatively through his word and in honor to the ancient church. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:04:16.000 See, throughout kind of evangelical history over the last couple, maybe hundred years or more, there has been this disdain and dismissal of the ancient church and what they have always believed, what the counsels and creeds and confessions had put forward as this is the faith. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:19.279 This is what we as Christians are supposed to believe. 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:28.399 Men gave their life that we might know the truth and we might be able to stand upon who Jesus is and what he's accomplished for us. 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:34.959 And so we've kind of gone off the rails into this whole venture of newness, right? 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:42.000 We want new revelation, we want new truth, we want new spiritual uh practices and disciplines. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:46.160 And what we've discovered is this we kind of stand upon this statement. 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:48.560 If it's new, it's not true. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:51.279 If it's new, it's not true. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.800 We've been going at this for a couple thousand years now. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:05:08.959 We've labored over trying to discover what is the truth of Scripture, what is the truth of the revelation of Jesus, and how are we supposed to submit to it as followers of Him. 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:20.879 So John 6 continues in this deep dive of theological uh uh uh discourse, reality that establishes and shapes doctrine for the church. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:22.800 And so we're gonna dive into it. 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:34.959 We're gonna discover another doctrine that the church has always believed throughout history, uh, that is going to hopefully help us, encourage us, and build our faith this morning. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:36.399 So let's dive into the text. 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:38.079 We've got a lot to work through here. 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:50.639 So, verses 41 through 51, as we start to approach the beginning of this, in the first 10 verses, what we're gonna see is this no one can come unless the Father draws them. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.879 No one can come unless the Father draws them. 00:05:55.199 --> 00:06:03.279 It starts off in verse 41 that the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:06.240 Now, this discourse has been long, right? 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:23.199 And Jesus has really been on this trajectory of teaching the people before him about who he is, why he's been sent from the Father, uh, that he was sent from the Father, and what he is accomplishing in his mission and work. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:29.920 And there's just been met with continual disbelief and this sense of disgruntlement, right? 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.279 That they they there's all this frustration that's building around. 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:37.519 And so we see the discourse escalating over time, right? 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:41.920 We're not seeing Jesus in chapter six necessarily teach anything new. 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:45.199 It's not that he's transitioned onto something new. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:50.639 What he's doing is he's allowing this conversation to continue to build and build and build. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:55.519 And we're gonna reach the climax of this discourse here at the end of John 6. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:57.199 But the Jews are grumbling. 00:06:57.680 --> 00:06:59.360 This is nothing new either. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:09.680 They've been doing this, and there's this sound that rumbles throughout the crowd of anger and opposition to what Jesus is saying, but not just to what he's saying. 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:13.360 We see here in the text that it's also to who he is. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:22.399 There's a sense of disbelief, not just because of what Jesus is saying, but because of the person of Jesus standing before them. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:27.839 He says, How can they say that he's how can he say that he's the bread of life that came down from heaven? 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:30.879 Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:33.600 Whose father and mother that we know? 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:36.879 How does he now say that I came down from heaven? 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:43.120 So you can see their confusion, you can see their disbelief ongoing. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:49.279 See, Capernaum was where they were at at this time. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:08:01.759 They had just crossed the Sea of Galilee after the feeding of the 5,000, and they find themselves in the city of Capernaum, and they find themselves in the midst of the synagogue there, and this is where this discourse is happening. 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:05.279 But Capernaum was uh Jesus' home. 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:17.120 After he had lived in Nazareth for some time, he actually established residence in Capernaum, and the vast majority of his ministry was done in the city of Capernaum. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:21.600 So when these men say, Isn't this Jesus, the the the son of Joseph? 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:22.560 Don't we know Mary? 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:24.639 Don't we know this guy and where he came from? 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:29.600 They're talking about intimate familiarity with his uh uh family, right? 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.759 We see actually in Matthew 9, 1, uh this. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:40.879 It says, uh, and getting into a boat, he being Jesus, crossed over and came to his own city. 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:41.919 That's Capernaum. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:43.360 That's what Matthew's talking about there. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:51.200 So it was so uh such a place of uh of Jesus' dwelling that Matthew refers to it as his own city. 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:55.039 And so this is where this familiarity's coming from. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:09:01.759 And in the midst of their grumbling and disbelief, Jesus commands them to stop. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:16.480 And he commands them to stop their grumbling in a way that communicates their very vanity and the attempt that they are making to apprehend any divine understanding of what he's saying. 00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:27.120 It's not so much anger, it's not so much that he's causing any sense of animosity, he's trying to help them understand, and he's labored in this. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:37.519 You can't reason this out, you can't just talk this over and come to the conclusion of divine revelation that I'm bringing here before you. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:39.600 Stop your grumbling. 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:44.000 Verse 44 lays this out as plain as we can possibly see. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:54.720 No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:10:03.919 No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:06.159 So let's take a moment and pause. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:07.840 Let's talk about something here. 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:11.840 Let's use two words, ought and able. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:13.919 Ot and able. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:26.000 There is a general call to all of mankind to repent of their sin and submit themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.240 That's the ought of the gospel. 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:31.919 What is your responsibility as an image bearer of God? 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:46.720 Your responsibility is to repent from your rebellion and enmity against your Maker and to submit to the Lordship of His Son, of whom He's given all dominion throughout creation. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:51.360 That's your responsibility, that's my responsibility, that's your neighbor's responsibility. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:53.440 This is the ought of the gospel. 00:10:53.919 --> 00:11:00.000 All men, meaning all of mankind, ought to repent and believe. 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:03.759 This is the general call of the gospel, we call it. 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:08.480 Yet we have this ableness factor, right? 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:21.279 All who the father has given to me will come and can only come unless the father who sent me draws him. 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:24.559 Unless the father who sent me draws him. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:28.799 So the gospel call is the ought of man. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:33.679 The drawing of the father is the able of God. 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:36.000 The able of God. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:42.720 You see, God's sovereignty may have been implicit earlier in chapter six. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:47.919 See, we see in verse 37, all that the Father has gives me will come to me. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.399 There's this implicit reality of God's sovereignty in our salvation. 00:11:52.559 --> 00:12:02.399 But yet in this text, God's sovereignty no longer is implicit, it is explicit in his power to save sinners. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:15.039 You see, in the presence of a general call that all men ought to come, there is no biblical support anywhere that we see to show all men as able to come. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:18.799 We are unable to come to the Father on our own. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:24.080 And it's not just rooted in inability, it's also rooted in unwillingness. 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:29.840 Remember, John revealed we love the dark, we don't desire to come to the light. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:34.320 And in that, God has judged us in John chapter 12. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:49.039 We talked about this last week, that in that judgment of our affection for the dark, he has come with his own hand and blinded our eyes and deafened our ears, lest we turn and be healed by him. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:53.759 And so God has given us what we want. 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:57.679 This is his condemnation and judgment against us. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:04.320 At the end of time, all men will truly have what their hearts desire. 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:11.279 All men will have what their hearts desire. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:18.240 And so while there remains an ought, all men ought to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:23.279 There is absent within us an ableness to do so. 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:32.879 You see, Jesus, throughout this whole discourse in chapter 6, he only reveals man's inability apart from any divine intervention. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:36.720 It is the Father who gives us to the Son. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:40.159 It is the Father who draws us to the Son. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:44.399 And we're going to discover here that it's the Father who teaches us of the Son. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:50.960 It is all about the sovereignty of God and his power and ability to save sinners. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:57.440 He says, unless the Father who sent me draws him. 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:01.120 No one is able to come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:05.600 This this draws word, it's powerful. 00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:13.120 We would uh be unfaithful to the text to imagine some type of wooing of the father, right? 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:19.200 Some type of romancing of us that he might entice us to come to himself, right? 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:24.559 Like if he's like, hey, if I'll if you come over to me, I'll give you all this great stuff, it's gonna be amazing. 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.039 All you gotta do is come on, come on, buddy, right? 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:30.559 You ever try to get a toddler, entice a toddler, draw them to yourself? 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:31.919 Come on, I got this. 00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:34.240 Hey, maybe that's like more like a dog. 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:39.759 I don't treat my toddlers like animals, they're image bears, but you've done that, right? 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:42.240 And then you've corrected yourself, like, yeah, they're not my pet. 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:44.000 But uh, that's not what the father's doing. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:48.000 He's not trying to entice them, he's not trying to woo them to themselves. 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:56.960 There, there's two other times that this word uh for draws in the Greek elko is used with inside the New Testament. 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:00.320 We we see it in James chapter 2, verse 6. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:16.080 And in the context of it, he's correcting the church uh about their posture toward uh the affluent with inside their culture, and he says, Are these not the rich men who are dragging the poor into court? 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:19.360 Elko, dragging them into court. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:23.600 There's a forcefulness in the very nature of the word draws. 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:33.840 In Acts 16, verse 19, Paul and Silas, they are being dragged before the religious rulers because they're preaching the gospel within the city. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:46.000 This isn't a wooing, this is a forceful dragging, drawing, summoning of the Father to come to the Son. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:55.679 You see, the language of drawing that Jesus is using leaves no room for the questioning of its effectiveness. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:02.399 You can only come to me unless the father draws you. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:04.799 Because guess what? 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:10.639 Jesus isn't going to lose a single one whom the father gave him. 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:17.440 Those whom the father draws will surely come to the Son. 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:27.600 And then at the end of this, we see the absolute and definite nature of being drawn by the Father in the statement, and I will raise him up on the last day. 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:40.559 This is the kind of totality of the sovereign work of God to save sinners, that it's going to lead to the fruitfulness of Jesus' resurrection of our own flesh in his coming again. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:54.159 That it's so ensured that we would come to the Father in saving faith that in the end of time it is sure that our flesh will be resurrected by the power of the gospel. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:17:06.559 The Father draws those whom he has given to the Son, that they will know and experience not just part of salvation, but the fullness of it in the resurrection of their flesh. 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:09.839 Then we get down to verse 45. 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:16.400 So we see that the Father has given to the Son those whom would be saved. 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:21.119 We see that the Father draws to the Son those whom would be saved. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:26.000 Now we're going to see that the Father teaches of the Son those whom would be saved. 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:26.960 Verse 45. 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:35.759 What? 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:37.279 Comes to me. 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:38.960 Comes to me. 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.559 Jesus is quoting Isaiah 54, 13. 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:51.920 It says this all your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:58.240 All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and shall great shall be the peace of your children. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:05.200 Again, we see the all-encompassing reality of God's sovereignty in saving sinners. 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:16.799 Even the Father teaches them, his spiritual children who are adopted into his family by the blood of Jesus as a father should. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.559 He disciples them in such a way through the Spirit of whom the Son is. 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:30.240 And we see this most clearly, I believe, in the confession of Peter. 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:38.640 And so Jesus has heard about what people around Jerusalem and Israel are saying about him, and he questions his own disciples. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:40.319 Well, what are people saying about me? 00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:44.720 Well, some say you're, some say you're Elijah, some say you're Moses, some say you're this, right? 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:50.400 And then he looks at Peter and he says, Okay, but Peter, who do you say that I am? 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:54.079 And he says this in Matthew 16, 15 through 17. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:57.759 He said to them, But who do you say that I am? 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:03.440 Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:11.119 And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because you're brilliant and figured it out all by yourself. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:12.640 Right? 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:17.839 Because you're more spiritual than everybody else, and you get the words of which I'm speaking. 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:18.559 No. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:20.400 Go back real quick. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:22.799 I put a timer on that, and then it moved on me. 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:23.680 Let's go back. 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:26.319 I was making fun of Peter. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:37.920 Says, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:46.240 So here's what we see: the sovereignty of the Father instructing his children in who Jesus is, and this is the fruit. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:47.759 What's the fruit? 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:49.680 Right confession. 00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:53.200 That's the fruit, right confession. 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:55.519 What's John saying in chapter 20? 00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:01.200 I'm writing this gospel that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:10.480 How is one to confess such a thing unless he is instructed by the Father who loves him as one of his own children? 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:12.319 That's the fruit of it. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:17.519 That our confession would be faithful to who Jesus truly is. 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:29.599 God the Father lovingly and graciously draws men to the Son and in drawing them instructs them to behold and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:34.000 This is the beauty of his grace and loving kindness toward us. 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:37.359 Do you see in which way the Father loves you? 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:39.920 John has labored through this in his gospel. 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:49.359 He loves you so much that before the foundations of the world, he chose in his mercy and loving kindness that you would come to know his salvation. 00:20:49.599 --> 00:21:08.720 He sent his son to be born of a virgin to take on flesh, that he might dwell amongst us, that he might live perfect obedience to the Father, that he might die as a substitute in our place, that by his blood we might be purchased and ransomed from the entrapment and prison of our own sin. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:15.039 And the defectiveness of that work is that surely Christ would not lose us in that. 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:24.720 That the Father would draw us by his spirit and he would tenderly instruct us in who Jesus is that we might believe. 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:27.440 Man, God loves you. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:30.319 Do you understand that? 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:33.839 God loves you. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:49.039 If you are in Christ, you have experienced the eternal, transcendent, everlasting loving kindness of God. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:59.759 We who love the darkness, what was the purpose? 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:01.039 Of this work? 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:04.960 What is the purpose of God's sovereignty in saving sinners? 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:18.559 It's this that we who loved the darkness would definitely and effectively be brought into the light of his son and know the joy of his salvation. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:32.559 He goes on through 46 and through 51, and he kind of reiterates a lot of the things that he's already spoken of in this bread of life discourse throughout John chapter 6. 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:39.519 But to highlight a couple things, Jesus again makes the claim to know the Father because he is from God, right? 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:42.640 He's making this exclusive claim about himself. 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:53.759 That there's no man uh throughout time and space who is able to instruct you in who God is from a place of intimacy, right? 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:55.119 From a place of intimacy. 00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:17.519 We don't want to dismiss the spirit carrying men along, writing down the revelation and proclaiming the revelation of God that he had given to them through his prophets, but we have to understand that there is no man from the place of intimacy, of beholding and knowing God, is able to reveal who he is, except for what? 00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:20.079 He who came down from heaven. 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:27.599 He, he who was in heaven, who was with God, who is God, is able to reveal to us who the Father is. 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:30.720 This is John chapter 1, verses 1 through 2. 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:33.039 We saw this at the beginning of the gospel. 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:34.640 In the beginning was what? 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:36.000 The word, Jesus. 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:39.440 And the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:41.519 He was in the beginning with God. 00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:46.160 So if anyone's able to reveal the Father, it's the Son. 00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:48.640 That's what Jesus is trying to communicate here. 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:50.880 He again says, I am the bread of life. 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:56.559 Whoever eats of this bread that came down from heaven will have eternal life. 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:04.960 But up until this time, that bread has in some sense been a spiritual mystery, right? 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:20.640 Because they kept relating it to the manna that came down from heaven in this Exodus story, where God supernaturally fed Israel in the wilderness as he was bringing them out of Egypt in the Exodus narrative. 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:24.240 But here, it's no longer going to be a spiritual riddle. 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:30.720 Jesus is going to emphatically and with clarity communicate what is this bread? 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:38.319 The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:40.960 This is the bread. 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:42.960 It's my flesh. 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:52.640 You see, the crowd was trying to discern, and they were trying to reason through what Jesus was saying. 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:58.880 But what we have to understand is that it was all an exercise in vanity. 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:01.200 They could not understand. 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:05.680 They could not have come to the Son. 00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:13.839 Because what Jesus tells most clearly, the Father was not drawing them. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:20.559 Look at verses 52 through 59. 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:24.880 We see, eat my flesh, drink my blood. 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:28.240 Eat my flesh, drink my blood. 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:36.640 The Jews, it says, then disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:37.920 Fair question. 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:39.119 I agree. 00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:44.799 But what it shows is again their inability to grasp heavenly truth. 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:47.759 This remains evident in the text. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:54.960 Again, Jesus isn't adding, Jesus isn't creating some new instruction or teaching. 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:59.759 He's carrying the same thing through, even though it is escalating. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:04.480 But they are still unable to understand and grasp this heavenly truth. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:14.720 Verse 53, so Jesus said to them, 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. 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:24.559 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:30.400 Jesus is at the height of this discourse with the crowd, right? 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:32.960 We've just hit the climax of this discord. 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:39.279 Unless you eat my flesh and you drink my blood, you have no life in you. 00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:45.039 How much further, if at all, could Jesus have taken the conversation? 00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:49.359 He uses this heavy and graphic language, right? 00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:58.079 Communicates that those who would have eternal life must take him into their innermost being. 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:07.440 And we see that Jesus is now working to reveal how he will give to us his very flesh and blood. 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:14.400 Right? 00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:26.319 That they might be able to feast upon his flesh and drink upon the blood that is poured out. 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:38.960 But the act of eating and drinking isn't literal, but it's alluding to the cross and that we who are his might behold and believe in him. 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:48.160 You see, it's through, it's through the act of beholding and believing that you and I eat and drink. 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:54.799 It is through faith that you and I partake in his death. 00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:58.880 And so Jesus is calling us to believe. 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:26.400 And your life is going to come at the expense of the loss of mine. 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:32.960 He says in verse 55, For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:39.359 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:43.759 Abiding is a very core theme throughout the book of John. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:53.039 And Jesus is showing the intimacy, the oneness that establishes through our faith in him. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.200 It communicates this permanent remaining, right? 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:04.319 It is I in him and he in me that causes us to abide in him. 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:09.440 And it goes back to, I believe, John 6, verse 37. 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:13.440 What was Jesus' promise to those who were listening in the crowd? 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:18.400 Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:26.960 I will have all that the Father gives to me, and those who come to me, I will never cast out. 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:39.920 He's showing this reality of this abiding nature through faith that Jesus is unable to cast us out because he cannot cast out himself. 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:43.359 It is he in I and I in him. 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:54.559 It's the supernatural reality of this unity of person that refuses to create any separation. 00:29:54.799 --> 00:29:58.000 What can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord? 00:29:58.160 --> 00:29:59.119 Nothing can. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:02.400 Can Jesus cast himself away? 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.960 Can Jesus separate from himself? 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:06.240 No, he cannot. 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:27.200 And when we feast upon his flesh and drink of his blood through beholding and believing in him, there is this beautiful, abiding unity that is in us, that is for us, that refuses to create separation from our Savior. 00:30:28.319 --> 00:30:39.279 Verses 57 through 59 we see, as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:41.200 This is the bread that came down from heaven. 00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:43.680 Not like the bread the fathers ate and died. 00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:45.839 Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:50.640 Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:56.400 I love this because Jesus never loses sight of mission. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:30:59.039 He never loses sight of mission. 00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:04.880 In fact, he exhausts in some sense his passion and purpose and mission. 00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:08.240 As the living Father has sent me. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:10.480 He was here for one purpose. 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:13.759 His face was set like a flint, the scriptures say. 00:31:13.920 --> 00:31:22.079 There was nothing that was going to deter him or cause him to create or experience mission drift, right? 00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:24.720 He was focused, he was purpose. 00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:30.079 He says, apart from him, we have no life in us. 00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:37.920 He is the spiritual blood of the church that is given to us through the physical cost of his very body and blood. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:42.480 We can have no life in us apart from him. 00:31:43.119 --> 00:31:51.599 And Jesus has made it as clear and as startling as possible as what it will take to come to him and have eternal life. 00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:54.720 Eat my flesh, drink my blood. 00:31:55.440 --> 00:32:01.599 And this statement is going to be proven to be too hard for many in the crowd to receive. 00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:04.720 This is where we come to the end of John 6. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:12.880 John 6, verses 60 through 71, we see turning away from hard truth. 00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:16.160 Turning away from hard truth. 00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:18.079 Verse 60. 00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:25.599 When many of his disciples heard it, meaning the statement, Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. 00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:28.240 They said, This is a hard saying. 00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:30.079 Who can listen to it? 00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:36.400 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do you take offense at this? 00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:41.279 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:44.160 So the disciples hear what Jesus is saying. 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:46.160 And we have to understand something here. 00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:48.240 This isn't just the twelve. 00:32:48.559 --> 00:32:59.599 At this point in time, the disciples was a little bit more of a generic term for all those who would have at least made the self-claim that they were following after Jesus, right? 00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:09.039 And so we could imagine a multitude of people who are following after Jesus, witnessing his miracles, and listening to his teaching. 00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:12.160 And they say that this thing is too hard a saying. 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:13.519 Who can listen to it? 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:17.440 And Jesus says something, I think, extremely profound here. 00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:20.000 He says, You think that this is hard? 00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:23.359 You think this is hard to hear and listen to? 00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:26.400 You think this is offensive? 00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:31.519 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:43.039 You see, Jesus is alluding to his glorious ascension, but not without first ascending to Calvary. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:50.400 You think it's going to be hard to hear the words, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life. 00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:52.960 You don't know what's coming. 00:33:54.319 --> 00:33:57.599 You don't understand what I'm going to have to go through. 00:33:57.839 --> 00:33:59.599 That's going to be offensive. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.960 And we see the offensive nature of the cross of Jesus. 00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:09.679 And that all throughout Jesus' ministry, we see people leaving him, right? 00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:16.880 We see people turning away and walking the other direction because of what Jesus says, or because of what Jesus does. 00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:19.840 But at the cross, there's no one. 00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:31.920 He's completely abandoned to such a degree that not only has his followers turned their back and walk away and denied him, but his very Father turns his back on the Son. 00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:35.920 Jesus is utterly isolated and abandoned at the cross. 00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:38.159 You think this teaching was offensive? 00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:40.719 Wait till you see what's going to happen here. 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:46.719 This is going to have to come at the very expense of my own flesh and blood. 00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:48.960 Do you get this? 00:34:52.079 --> 00:34:56.320 Verse 63, it's the Spirit who gives life, he says. 00:34:56.800 --> 00:35:00.480 The flesh is no help at all. 00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:04.239 Listen, here's what he's saying. 00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:16.079 There is nothing in us, intrinsic within us as mankind, that is able to produce life. 00:35:17.519 --> 00:35:18.800 We can't. 00:35:19.679 --> 00:35:28.880 Because of our sin nature, because of our rebellion against our maker, we are only able to produce death. 00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:38.880 We live in a culture of death that is working as hard as it possibly can from their own flesh to produce life. 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:41.280 And look at the fruit of it. 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:43.840 Look at the fruit of it. 00:35:44.079 --> 00:35:46.559 They are only able to produce death. 00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:47.039 Why? 00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:49.760 Because the flesh is no help at all. 00:35:49.920 --> 00:35:53.199 It's only the spirit that can produce life. 00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:04.239 The words that I have spoken, he says to you are spirit and life. 00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:09.119 You see, we are powerless. 00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:13.119 Our flesh is of no avail here. 00:36:13.599 --> 00:36:16.239 It cannot hear the word of truth. 00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:20.960 It takes offense at what it's perceived to be hearing. 00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:25.840 And the end result of it is that it lapses into unbelief. 00:36:26.719 --> 00:36:33.360 And this is what we see throughout John 6, is what we see as we come to the conclusion of this bread of life discourse. 00:36:33.679 --> 00:36:41.280 That man's inability to produce life produces unbelief. 00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:54.320 Jesus does not explain why some believe and others don't in any reference to the will of man. 00:36:54.880 --> 00:36:55.519 Never. 00:36:55.760 --> 00:36:57.440 Read through John 6. 00:36:57.840 --> 00:37:14.880 As he's, and we've labored through this over the last several weeks, as he's trying to communicate who he is, why he has come, what he's going to accomplish, he's met time and time and time again with unbelief from his audience. 00:37:15.199 --> 00:37:25.599 But he does not say that this presence of unbelief is because some choose him of their own will while others do not. 00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:39.840 That it's somehow intrinsic within you, of your own value structure or your own sense of understanding that you have chosen to believe in me, and these others are turning away because they haven't. 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.079 No, he always points to the sovereignty of the Father. 00:37:44.239 --> 00:37:45.280 What's his purpose? 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:49.599 What's his reasoning of why he keeps encountering unbelief from the crowd? 00:37:49.920 --> 00:37:52.000 Because they are not his. 00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:12.960 Why did I say no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father? 00:39:13.199 --> 00:39:14.320 For this reason. 00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:18.960 Because your flesh cannot produce life. 00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:22.480 Verse 66. 00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:27.199 And after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:34.239 Jesus will experience, like I said, many turning away from him throughout the rest of his gospel ministry. 00:39:34.639 --> 00:39:37.199 Verse 67 through 69. 00:39:37.360 --> 00:39:40.239 So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away as well? 00:39:41.519 --> 00:39:44.239 Simon Peter, you gotta love this dude, right? 00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:47.440 He answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? 00:39:48.400 --> 00:39:51.199 You have the words of eternal life. 00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:57.440 And we believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. 00:39:58.159 --> 00:40:05.039 No one has come to know Jesus' life-giving word would ever forsake him. 00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:07.280 This is what we see in Peter. 00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:08.559 You want to go too? 00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:13.280 I'm not going anywhere because I see who you are. 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:14.960 I get it. 00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:18.800 I've been shown, I've been revealed to me. 00:40:19.199 --> 00:40:20.000 You are what? 00:40:20.159 --> 00:40:21.119 The Holy One of God. 00:40:21.280 --> 00:40:22.159 We talked about this. 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:34.960 How do we see evidence and fruit that the Father has chosen us before the foundation of the world, that he has given us to his son, that he has drawn us to his son, that he has instructed us in his son? 00:40:35.360 --> 00:40:36.800 Right confession. 00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:41.760 You, Jesus, are the holy one of God. 00:40:42.639 --> 00:40:44.320 That's the fruit. 00:40:45.440 --> 00:40:51.599 And when someone has been ransomed, they're not going anywhere. 00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:54.559