Wednesday in the Word...John 6:37-47 says...

"Wednesday In The Word" will cover John chapter 6 and verses 37 through 47 which read,

v.37-40 - "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

I can't help but think of the thief on the cross when I read these verses.  It was "his" last day on the earth.  There was something that happened on "his" last day that effected his destiny on "the" last day when God will settle all accounts of those redeemed and unredeemed.  The thief on the cross beheld Jesus on that center cross and believed in Him as the one and only Savior sent by the Father to stand before him and the Father.  The thief asked to be remembered and Jesus said that he would be.  He would not be lost.  He would experience Paradise with Jesus.  

The harder part to grasp is that before the beholding and believing is an action taken by God.  God not only sent His one and only Son but He, the Father, also gives to Him, Jesus, those who will behold and believe.  

With God's sovereign ability, which supersedes and comes before our will, He has acted.  He loved us before we loved Him.  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  God is in charge of all things and included in the all things is our salvation.  Our human part is to respond to what He has already divinely done.  Many more things will come from sovereign God for us to humanly do because He, as God, commands us to do.  

Pastor John MacArthur says,

"Intellectually harmonizing the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is impossible humanly, but perfectly resolved in the infinite mind of God."

v.41, 42 - Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven."  They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?  How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven'?"

Jesus is speaking very authoritative here.  We shutter when someone speaks beyond what we think they should.  "Who are they to say that?"  We can easily do what these Jews were doing about Jesus.  "Don't pat Yourself on the back too hard Jesus, we know Your mom and dad and where You grew up."   I have experienced that this has hindered the passing of the baton of leadership in churches because the children are always seen as children even if they are 50 years old.

v.43, 44 - Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves.  No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day."

First we get a correction from Jesus about settling this issue through the avenue of grumbling.  You can sometimes get your way by grumbling but it is never a "win win" for everyone.  The squeaking wheel has gotten the grease but someone else had to get their hands dirty for that to happen.  It was not a joint effort.  One of the problems I have observed is that we get used to using the tactic of grumbling to get our way or to get things done.  Those changes don't last or they are always done for the sake of the other not grumbling again and not because it is the thing to do.  

Jesus comes back to the same message that He said before.  There is an action by the Father of bringing before Jesus those who will be saved and raised on the last day.  He continues to use those exclusive words, "no one, unless, I will."  There is also the proclamation again that He has come from the Father and actually sent by the Father for this purpose to them.  Jesus does not back away from this message even though they are grumbling.

v.45-47 - "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.'  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life."

Jesus quotes from the Old Testament, Isaiah 54:13.  It answers the question, "How are people drawn by God to Jesus?"  We are draw by God to Jesus by hearing and learning.  What are the ways that God gets our attention?  What life events does God use to make Himself known?  What people have been placed in our lives that have given us His words to ponder?  Again, our God is not only an awesome God, as the song goes, but also a very active God.  All those who come to Jesus have come to Him because God has intervened.  No one has come to Jesus when God has not intervened.  

One last point here is that when Jesus uses an Old Testament passage it is so great.  It allows us to then take the context of what He has said and apply it to that Old Testament verse.  Jesus is talking about salvation, eternal life, and now we can go back to Isaiah 54:13 and have a correct way to apply that verse.

"All your sons will be taught of the LORD;

and the well-being of your sons will be great." 

Jesus ends again with a common theme in the book of John, eternal life.  John 3:16 comes ringing in again and Jesus conversation with Nicodemus.  We are to believe to have eternal life and those who believe are those who God has intervened with hearing and learning to behold and believe in Jesus as God's Son sent from Him.  Let's hold the final part of this discourse until next Wednesday.  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, how we are seeing how active You are in the process of our salvation.  How You bring us to Your Son so that we behold Him and believe in Him.  Eternal life with You comes in no other way.  Help us today to proclaim You and be used of You so others hear and learn of what You have provided through Your Son Jesus Christ.  Amen."

Pastor Adam