Tomorrow's Sermon Notes: John 6:41-51 - What It Takes to Know
August 29, 2009
John 6:41-51 (King James Version)
41-The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
42-And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
43-Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
44-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.
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.
46-Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
47-Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
48-I am that bread of life.
49-Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50-This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51-I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Jesus is the bread of life.
He says it and the people dispute it. Here is their logic:
"He can't be special because he is from our home town and we know his folks. He's just an ordinary son of a Joe. If he came from Nazareth, how can he have come from Heaven."
Jesus answers that these folks will never arrive at truth the way they are approaching it.
The things He is teaching about life, eternity, and Himself cannot be known through mere human deduction. They must be God-taught.
"Stop murmuring among yourselves."
They had built a cluster of support and fenced it in to keep any contrary views out. They gathered in that circle and reinforced each others prejudices with skill and precision.
You need outside information. You need divine input. You need an expanded perspective and that can only come from the Father.
He shows the Father drawing a person to Himself and He declares that such a person will rise over death and shall be taught by God.
He makes another drastic declaration that everyone God teaches, who is willing to learn, will eventually come to Him. That person will eat the living bread and live. That person will believe and have everlasting life.
"Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. "
This is the problem and the opportunity. All humanity is limited in perspective and ability to deduce truth with what we can observe and manipulate. We need what theologians and the Bible call, "revelation." It is not that it contains no logic. It is not that it requires an abandonment of reason. It simply requires acknowledgment that no matter how sophisticated our knowledge, we cannot figure God out. We can't know everything. We can't even know everything about the things we think we know very well.
God has to meet us before we can know Him.
God chooses to meet us in the person of Jesus Christ who lays down His life for us.
Here are some lessons for us to consider:
1. Don't overlook the common place or despise the familiar. We may have spent our entire lives overlooking a treasure because we are simply viewing the surface of our surroundings. God is present in the mundane and unadorned "stuff of life."
2. Come to God to be taught. Whatever your level of faith ranging from no-faith to great faith, come to the Father. It may be as tenuous as "God, I doubt that you even exist, but I am open to being wrong if you can and will show me." There is no way to lose with that. You don't even have to tell people you "prayed" such a prayer.
3. Stop looking for all your feedback among people who already agree with you. I don't do that as a Christian. Why should you? I am in regular dialogue with non-believers. It does not shake my faith, but it challenges my thinking. Why should those who do not believe limit their opportunities to discover that there might be more than they have considered to this "God thing."
4. Follow truth, even revealed truth, wherever it leads. If you find yourself learning from God and that search leads to Jesus, do not hesitate to come to Him and partake of the bread of life ... and live.
5. If you are already a believer, struggling with your witness, discouraged because you feel ineffective, or frustrated because people do not see things your way, remember that God cannot and will not be left out of the equation. He is the one that draws people and teaches them to believe. You can relax as you bear witness and trust the same God that you are asking your friends to trust.
I am convinced that seekers find as Jesus promised. Let us be seekers, actively open to truth that may not be obvious to the naked eye and standing on tiptoe, looking at the window and down the street for what might be coming.