Whitehall Baptist Church
August 30th | John : Jesus is God | John 6:25-58
Hebrews 10:24–25KJV1900
Romans 15:13KJV1900
Psalm 8:3–4KJV1900
- How Great Is The Greatness Of God
Romans 14:8KJV1900
- Christ Our Hope In Life And Death
- Ancient Of Days
- Behold Our God
Hebrews 2:14–15KJV1900
- Living Hope
- JOHN 6:25-58 | COME, SEE, AND BELIEVEILLUSTRATION: Do you have a favorite preacher to listen to?Maybe for some of you that seems random… but maybe some of you have a favorite to listen to.When I was a teenager, my favorite preachers to listen to were screamersThere was one preacher who was an evangelist named Lou Rossi, and his tone of voice was constantly loudHe emphasized by speaking quieter.And then I changed to another favorite, and his name was Eric CapaciWhenever he preached you just always felt like he was your friend.And then one of my teenage favorites was one you have heard, Morris GleiserBrother Gleiser would preach and it was like he put his arm around you, punched you in the stomach, and then you walked away saying, “that was good, I needed that”When I knew God was leading me to be a preacher I used to pray, “Help me to be able to illustrate and tell stories like Morris Gleiser.”As I’ve gotten older, I enjoy listening to a variety of preachers with different styles.I love listening to Paul Schwanke with his northeastern accent and ability to make the Bible come to life.I love listening to John Goetsch, with his ability to quote the Bible like few others because he has somewhere between 16,000-18,000 verses committed to memory and he intertwines them with stories so incredibly.I don’t know if there is a Bible preacher I more enjoy listening to that Kurt Skelly, who we have scheduled to come out and preach next spring…God used a message from Brother Skelly to encourage me to stay in the ministry and not quit when I was struggling with God’s plan for my life.I could go on and on and on with preachers I love listening toAlistair Begg, Cary Schmidt, and on and on.But if I were to ask you who the greatest preacher to ever live was… there could be a variety of answersSome might say Charles SpurgeonMaybe Jonathon EdwardsDL MoodyJohn and Charles WesleyGeorge WhitefieldAnd if one of those were your answer, you would be wrongBecause without argument, the greatest preacher to ever live, was Jesus!EXPLANATION: Throughout the Bible we have various messages that Jesus preached.Many of them were outdoors like was the case in His sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7.Sometimes they were on the side of a hill or next to a lake, such as when he climbed on Peter’s boat and pushed off form the shore to preach His message.And then other times it was in the synagogue.Often the location determined the structure of the teaching.In His outdoor messages, sometimes He taught vast amounts of truth without interruption.But in other cases, especially at the synagogue, things were much different.People would gather, much as we do in our church services today.But there were a couple major differencesOne, the teacher would sit down and teachSecond, the people would ask questions as he was teaching.And that is exactly the scene we find ourselves in today.Now, I have to be honest with you this morning… I didn’t prepare this message.I didn’t come up with the points or the structure.In fact, I’m just going to repeat the message to you.But here is the good news… the preacher who preached it first, was Jesus.So you can mark it down, it’s a good one.But just like in so many of my messages, there were a lot of people that didn’t get it.And there are a lot of people that don’t get it today.So we are going to walk through the message that covers v.26-58 today, and we should wrap up by 4:30 this afternoon.This message that Jesus preached is both one of the most powerful, and yet controversial messages in all of the Bible, but certainly in the book of John.But as we read Jesus’s message in context, we can get a clear view and understanding of the message He has for us today!So grab your Bible and maybe a piece of paper, and let’s dive into a message preached by the greatest preacher to ever live.I. THE CONTEXTEXPLANATION: Jesus had just performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.It’s the most popular miracle as it is the only miracle recorded in all 4 of the Gospels.And while Jesus performed the miracle in part because He cared about the people and their hunger, His deeper reason was because He cared for their soul.The events of that day would serve as the object lesson for the message He was going to deliver the following day in the Synagogue.Over the past couple of weeks we have seen as Jesus began into this message, but for context and continuity, we are going to walk through this message from the very beginning.And the message began in v.26II. THE MESSAGE
John 6:25–27 KJV 1900 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.We walked through these verses a few weeks back, so we wont belabor the point of these verses.The people came looking for a meal… Jesus clarifies that was their intentions in v.26.And the point of the entire message is given in v.27“You are seeking for physical food to fill your bellies, and I’m offering spiritual meat that will fill your soul.”Jesus is trying to get them to look up and see Who He is in light of the Scriptural promises of a coming Messiah.But the only thing the people sitting before Him could see, was that their stomachs were rumbling for more food.And then we step into the rhythm of His message:He would give a truth, they would respond, and then He would answer again.John 6:28 KJV 1900 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?They were amazed by the miracle Jesus had done the previous day, but they viewed Him as simply a good man… not God in flesh.And so they are asking Jesus, “teach us to do your tricks.”“You say that you are doing the works of God when you give us the bread… so teach us how to do the works of God.”They are still thinking with their earthly minds.And so Jesus answers them once again with a spiritual answer:John 6:29 KJV 1900 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.One preacher said it this way… “it is incorrect to say we aren’t saved by works… the key is it isn’t by our works, but rather by Jesus’s works”Jesus tells them, “if you want the bread I’m offering, it isn’t by your works, but by believing in my works!”And this is the core of the message that we are going to find repeated throughout this chapter:They had come, they had seen… but they hadn’t believed.We will come back to this in just a minute when Jesus does.Once again, these people just don’t get it:John 6:30–31 KJV 1900 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.This is maybe their most stunning admission in the passage.They look at Jesus and they say, “We will believe you if you show us a sign”“What proof do you have”“If we see, we will believe”But that isn’t how faith works is it?Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1900 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.Faith is trusting beyond our doubts, and we are promised that one day, our faith will be made sight2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV 1900 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)1 Peter 1:8–9 KJV 1900 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.But these guys had it backward… Show us a sign and then we will believe.The problem with sign seekers is they are never satisfied.They never have enough proof, they always want more.ILLUSTRATION: In Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus.They both die and Lazarus goes to heaven but the rich man is tormented in hell.And after he begs for Lazarus to be able to come and just come him a drop of water from the tip of his finger, and asks another question.Luke 16:26–30 KJV 1900 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.He begs, if you would just send someone from the dead, then my family would believe… if they just could see!Luke 16:31 KJV 1900 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.Do you know what Jesus was talking about when He said they had Moses and the prophets?They had the word of God… but if they didn’t believe God’s Word, they would never be convincedBecause believing requires faith!And by the way, guess what, Someone did rise from the dead… and they still didn’t believe!Because believing requires faith… not sight.They wanted a sign… give us proof.Not to mention what Jesus had done the day before… but it’s never enough for sign seekers.John 6:32–33 KJV 1900 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.We talked about these verses last time, they were still focused on the things.They had the wrong Giver (Moses not God), the wrong Tense (what happened back in the day, not what God was doing today), and the wrong Bread (physical, not spiritual)John 6:34 KJV 1900 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.They answer Jesus with a sarcastic answer… “Sound delicious… heavenly even… we’ll take some of that bread.”“In fact, we’ll take that everyday”John 6:35 KJV 1900 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.This was the “I AM” statement that once again identified Himself as GodEveryone there would have thought back to who they deemed as the great prophet… Moses standing before the burning bush.“I AM that I AM”God the self existent one!And here Jesus identifies Himself as the “I AM”7 Other times, Jesus would identify as the “I AM” in the Gospel of John along with an attribute they could understand.Here in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life”John 8:12 KJV 1900 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.John 10:9 KJV 1900 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.John 10:11 KJV 1900 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.John 11:25 KJV 1900 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:John 14:6 KJV 1900 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.John 15:5 KJV 1900 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.Here Jesus tells them, I Am the bread you need!“What your body desperately needs for life is food… what your soul desperately needs for eternal life is the bread of life, and I AM that bread!”I am your salvation!John 6:36 KJV 1900 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.Once again, Jesus brings in their core problem… “You’ve seen me, but you don’t believe in me”The evidence is all there… the Bible points to Jesus as Messiah… but they don’t believe it.John 6:37 KJV 1900 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.Jesus tells them,V.36, You’ve seen me but you don’t believe in me.They had claimed to follow the Heavenly Father… and yet they were missing JesusAnd Jesus tells them in V.37, “If you would simply believe what the Father has said you would have arrived at Me.”Because any true understanding of the Bible will lead people to Jesus.Throughout the entire OT, people were being pointed to the coming Christ.It was like a giant sign pointing people, and drawing people to the moment when Jesus would come of the scene they could say, “Here He is!”And so Jesus is saying, “You claim to follow the Father, but those that truly follow the Father arrive at Christ.”And Jesus promises when they believe what the Father says, they will come to Him, and they will never lose Jesus.John 6:38 KJV 1900 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.Once again, Jesus emphasizes: I came down from heaven… My plan is completely in harmony with the Father’s planTo know the Father’s will and the Father’s Word is to arrive at Jesus!John 6:39 KJV 1900 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.Jesus says, if you do believe what the Father has said, you will arrive at me, and when you trust me, I will save all of you!It’s a complete salvation!Jesus doesn’t save you until you make a mistakeJesus doesn’t save you until you clean yourself upHe saves you completely, and He doesn’t miss any part of you!And I doubt that He did it, but wouldn’t this have been a great time for Him to pull out one of those 12 baskets of fragments and say, “See… I didn’t miss any broken fragments yesterday… And I won’t miss any of the fragments of your life either!”2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV 1900 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.1 Corinthians 7:23 KJV 1900 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.Jesus paid full price for all of you!And He will take every part of your life and use it for His glory someday!John 6:40 KJV 1900 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.Here Jesus lays out His three point message…You’ve ComeYou’ve SeenNow Believe!And you can have everlasting life!He makes it so simpleHe’s laid out the groundwork and connected the OT dots for them.It’s all pointing to Jesus!!!Now believe!John 6:41–42 KJV 1900 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 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?They don’t believe… instead they start to talk amongst themselves.It’s like what some of you do during the message, when you start whispering amongst each other and it makes me nervous.They start murmuring and complaining amongst themselves, and their complaining is because they still didn’t get it!They were caught up on one thing Jesus said:They couldn’t understand that He said “I AM the bread”They start to say between themselves: “We know who He is and where He’s from.”They still saw things with their earthly visionJohn 6:43 KJV 1900 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.Stop talking…I’m pretty sure in the Greek Jesus clapped His hands to get their attention.John 6:44 KJV 1900 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.“You aren’t getting this because you don’t understand what the Father already told you.”“Because if you simply understood what God said in His Word you’d be drawn to Jesus.”There are some who have twisted the word, “draw” to mean “dragging” people to God.People can only be saved if God “drags” them to Jesus.ILLUSTRATION: At home we have a light on our porch, and when we turn that light on bugs swarm around the light.Now no one says, the bugs are being drug to the light!We say “the bugs are drawn to the light”But when the light is turned off, the bugs aren’t drawn there anymore.APPLICATION: When the light of the Word of God is clearly seen, people are drawn to Christ.The better you get to know the true Jesus of the Bible, the more you want to know the Jesus of the Bible!You are drawn to Jesus!EXPLANATION: And Jesus is saying here, if you truly understood what the Father has said, you will be drawn to Jesus!The proof is found in the very next verse!John 6:45 KJV 1900 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.The OT prophets under inspiration of God wrote and prophesied of the coming MessiahAnd if the people truly learned what the Father had taught them, they would come to Jesus!They would be drawn to the truth… to Jesus!John 6:46 KJV 1900 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.Jesus once again emphasizes Who He is and where He’s from, and that gives His Words the authority it does.They thought they knew where Jesus came from, but they were wrongJohn 1:1–3 KJV 1900 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.John 1:14 KJV 1900 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.Colossians 1:16–17 KJV 1900 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.Jesus didn’t start in the stable as a baby… He is eternal God and that’s what gave Him the authority to say what He was saying!And then in V.47-51, Restates His message in simple statementsJohn 6:47–51 KJV 1900 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 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.There is a name for the preparation and study of God’s Word and the preparation to preach the Bible and it’s called Hermenuetics and HomileticsOne of the core lessons you learn is the process of message delivery:Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. And them tell them what you told them.Here’s where I’m going, Here’s the message, Here’s what I saidAnd that’s exactly what Jesus has done… All the way back in v.27, He told them what He was going to tell themThen in v.29-46, He told themAnd then in v.47-51, He told them what He told them.And in v.51, He invites them to receive the bread He’s offering… He’s going to give his “flesh” for the life of the world.And they still don’t get it.V.52, Now they are arguing amongst themselvesJohn 6:52 KJV 1900 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?“That doesn’t make sense! He said we have to go bite Him”They were still thinking horizontally not thinking verticallyHe talks about spiritual bread, they think about physical breadHe talks about His deity, they see His humanityHe talks about eating flesh, taking Him in spiritually, and they see cannibalismV.53, “Let me add a little more… you don’t just have to eat my flesh… you have to drink my blood!”John 6:53 KJV 1900 Then 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.He wasn’t saying “take a bite out of me”… His physical body was standing in front of themHe wasn’t calling them to be vampiresIt was a metaphor… figurativeOur Catholic friends, have missed the context of the passage and have taken these verses out of the context and used them to teach a false teaching called transubstantiation, where they teach the little wafer becomes the literal body of Jesus and the cup everyone drinks from becomes the literal blood of Jesus.They have to crucify Jesus over and over and over again…That wasn’t at all what Jesus was saying.Just like He has taught through the entire message, giving them metaphors and figurative language trying to help them to comprehend that while they desperately wanted bread for their next meal… Jesus offered something so much greater.But they were so caught up with their horizontal thinking, they were missing the spiritual application.And we know that’s what Jesus was saying because He tells them in v.63, John 6:63John 6:63 KJV 1900 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.It isn’t about physical bread… it isn’t about eating my flesh and drinking my blood… it’s about the spiritual sacrifice I am going to make for you and you have to believe it and receive it!Put on your spiritual eyes for understanding!Hebrews 9:22 KJV 1900 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.Yes, Jesus’s body had to be broken…Yes Jesus’s blood had to be shed!And Yes you have to trust, believe in the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross as the satisfactory payment for your sins to have eternal life!Just like physical bread gives us physical life, so receiving the spiritual bread of Christ is what gives us spiritual life!And so in V.54-58, Jesus summarizes for this already confused group, “If I’m not dwelling within you, you don’t have eternal life.”John 6:54–58 KJV 1900 Whoso eateth 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. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.Not your way… your way lead to death!He that receives me God’s way, My way, shall live forever!Just like physical bread must be within you, so must you have Jesus dwelling within you!CONCLUSIONAPPLICATION: So what does all this mean for you?Quick application and we are finished…Have you simply come and seen… but never believed?These people had come to the synagogue and they had seen Jesus… but they didn’t believe on Him.In fact we will see next time one of the saddest verses in all of the Bible, “John 6:66John 6:66 KJV 1900 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.They refused what Jesus was offering.And could it be that you have come to the right place, you’ve seen the message that points to Jesus, but you haven’t believed?Why don’t you put your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ today.Believe on the simple Gospel message Jesus gave in John 6:40John 6:40 KJV 1900 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.It’s God’s will and desire for you to be saved from your sins, why don’t you trust in Him today.That was the message from the greatest preacher to ever preach.And most missed it in Jesus’s day.Today, I pray that some will get it!Come, See, and Believe! John 6:25–27KJV1900
John 6:28KJV1900
John 6:29KJV1900
John 6:30–31KJV1900
Hebrews 11:1KJV1900
2 Corinthians 5:7KJV1900
1 Peter 1:8–9KJV1900
Luke 16:26–30KJV1900
Luke 16:31KJV1900
John 6:32–33KJV1900
John 6:34KJV1900
John 6:35KJV1900
John 8:12KJV1900
John 10:9KJV1900
John 10:11KJV1900
John 11:25KJV1900
John 14:6KJV1900
John 15:5KJV1900
John 6:36KJV1900
John 6:37KJV1900
John 6:38KJV1900
John 6:39KJV1900
2 Corinthians 5:17KJV1900
1 Corinthians 7:23KJV1900
John 6:40KJV1900
John 6:41–42KJV1900
John 6:43KJV1900
John 6:44KJV1900
John 6:45KJV1900
John 6:46KJV1900
John 1:1–3KJV1900
John 1:14KJV1900
Colossians 1:16–17KJV1900
John 6:47–51KJV1900
John 6:52KJV1900
John 6:53KJV1900
John 6:63KJV1900
Hebrews 9:22KJV1900
John 6:54–58KJV1900
John 6:66KJV1900
John 6:40KJV1900
