Sermon Tone Analysis

First preached Nov 2003

Introduction

Last week we looked into the first half of this dialog between Jesus and the Jews.

They had come in boats back to Capernaum and were astonished to find Jesus already there.

Their question “How did you get here?”

as someone has noted could be translated “Why did you leave us over there?”

They were going to arrest Him and make Him king.

Jesus instead of answering the question, tells them of their wrong motive.

They came only because of the earthly needs that were met.

He told them to labor for the food which does not perish.

He also told Him the only acceptable work was to believe on the One Whom the Father had sent.

Jesus finally tells them that He is the Bread of Life.

Those who wish to have eternal life need to come to Him for it.

But He also told them that He knew that they did not believe in Him.

Exposition of the Text

This week’s passage begins with the reaction of the Jews to Jesus’ claim to be the bread of life.

It says they murmured.

This reminds us of the wanderings of the Jews in the wilderness in the time of Moses.

They murmured bitterly about the manna and demanded meat.

From what is described in Scripture, manna was pretty tasty, kind of a honey wafer.

It wasn’t just bread, it was very good bread.

Yet the Israelites under Moses had the choice of eating it or dying of hunger in the wilderness.

It was the bread of life to them, take it or leave it, although it must be understood in the light of this passage that it only sustained their earthly existence.

It did not give them eternal life.

Those who ate of this bread all died, eventually.

Now the Jews were murmuring against the true Bread of Heaven, Jesus, Who came down not just to sustain earthly existence but to offer eternal life

.

The Jews thought they knew where He came from.

They reminded Jesus of His genealogy.

The gist of what they said is this: “You’re just the Son of Joseph and Mary.

We know/knew them both.

They were nothing special.

How is it that you then claim to come from God?”

Not everyone knew the secret of the first Christmas.

It was only revealed to a select few.

This is another use of irony by John.

The Jews think they know about Jesus and where they came from.

This shows how little use that worldly wisdom has in understanding the things of God.

No one can understand God unless God reveals it to them.

In verse 43, Jesus responds to the criticism by telling them to stop murmuring.

This should have reminded them of the cost their fathers had paid in the wilderness when the murmured against the manna, Moses, and God.

The New Testament Book of Hebrews reminds us that they failed to enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief and their carcasses rotted in the wilderness with a warning to Christians against falling into the same unbelief.

Jesus goes on to make a profound statement that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draw Him.

The Greek word for “draw” implies the use of force or compulsion.

This clearly shows how much the will of the earthly man opposes the will of God.

The unregenerate person is totally incapable of coming to Christ.

Were it not for the compelling grace of God, no one would come at all.

This should serve as a check against those who think they are in control of when they are going to make things right with God.

If God allowed this, then it would allow a sense of boasting on the part of the believer.

The believer must be reminded that “we are saved by grace through faith, and this not of ourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

So when in last week’s passage in verse 29 that the work of God is to believe one the One Whom God has sent, it must be even understood that this work isn’t so much a work we do as is done in us.

So when Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the Word tugs at one’ heart, that person is well advised not to wait but to come right away.

To not come would be to reject Him.

And to reject Him has eternal consequences.

This does not mean that God will not try again, but be warned.

God is in control, not us.

There is a word of assurance given here by Jesus.

The one who believes can be confident of eternal life.

Jesus, Himself, will raise the believer on the last day.

This strongly implies that the believer has real security.

The only way it would be possible to miss eternal life would be to lose one’s faith in Jesus.

If this faith were to be seen as God’s gift and not the works of men, then it could even be seen that to lose faith is not possible.

In verse 45, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah that all the people will be taught “of” or “by” God.

The Greek prefers “of” although by is certainly appropriate here as Jesus is God.

So both would be true here.

The believer needs to know about God, and only the One Who comes from God can teach him/her.

We are reminded of the promise of the prophets that in that day no one will need to be taught.

No one will need to say “Know the Lord” for all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest.

“Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” Jesus shows that all true knowledge comes from the Father Himself.

He does tell us that no one has seen Him or heard His voice directly, but nevertheless, He is the source of true teaching.

This means that if we are to receive this teaching, then we are going to have to come to it by means other that the Father’s audible voice.

The best source of this is from the lips of Jesus Himself.

Jesus knows the Father because He came from the Father.

He knows all about the Father.

So what he teaches about the Father is true.

Later in the gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that He who has seen Him has seen the Father.

In the same sense, He who has heard the words of Jesus has heard the words of the Father.

The Father is also revealed in the Holy Scriptures, but we must also be warned that the correct interpretation of Scripture does not come from human reason or judgment.

The correct interpretation of Scripture comes from the Holy Spirit.

Apart from the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to come to a right understanding of Scripture.

The Jews knew the Scripture as far as the words it contained.

But if they correctly understood it, they would have believed on Jesus.

Even the disciples did not understand it until after the resurrection when Jesus opened their eyes to it.

The Holy Spirit also comes from God, so the Holy Spirit knows the Father and the Son.

The same Holy Spirit who inspired the men of old to write Scripture also must inspire us to understand it.

There were many Rabbis in Jesus’ day who had their own schools and followers.

There were many private interpretations of Scripture as well.

The Rabbis were careful to cite sources in order to increase their own authority.

But we must remember that Jesus did not cite a single one of them except to refute their teaching.

Yet the people were astonished at His teaching because He taught as one having authority rather than like the scribes.

Jesus again restates that He is the Bread of Life.

The “I Am” of the statement takes us back to Exodus 3:14 where Moses tries to get a handle on God by asking His name.

God responded by asking why Moses asked for the name.

But He responded: “I AM the One Who is—Tell them that ‘I AM’ has sent you.”

This should remind us that it is more important for God to get a handle on us that for us to get a handle on God.

Yet God is gracious enough to let us handle Him to a degree.

We in this life are incapable of understanding all of God, but God gives us sufficient knowledge of Him through Jesus and the Scripture as correctly interpreted by the help of the Holy Spirit.

In the wilderness, the Israelites were hungry to the point of starvation.

There were not sufficient resources in the wilderness to feed even a few of them.

Were it not for the manna, they would have starved.