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Chapter 12,. And he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went to another country.
When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son.
But those tenants said to one another, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
And they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk.
And they came and said to him, Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it. And they brought one. And he said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this?
They said to him, Caesar's. Jesus said to them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves his wife but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died, left no offspring. And the second took her and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all, the woman also died.
In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife. Jesus said to them, Is this not the reason you are wrong? Because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given into marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong. And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another. And seeing that he answered them well, asked him, which commandment is the most important of all?
Jesus answered, the most important is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandments greater than these. And the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one and there is no one besides him.
And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.
And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, how can the scribe say that Christ is the son of David? David himself and the Holy Spirit declared, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.
David himself calls him Lord, so how is he his son? And the great throng heard him gladly. And in his teaching, he said, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and light greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogue and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers.
They will receive the greater condemnation. And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.
And he calls his disciples to him and said to them, truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box, for they contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this text. And Lord, we recognize that just as the Pharisees and the Sadducees struggled with hypocrisy, Lord, we too struggle with hypocrisy. Oftentimes we are insincere in our devotion to you.
We're insincere in our worship of you. Lord, we confess these things to you. We confess our pride, we confess our selfishness, we confess our unbelief. Lord, as we worship you now, as we listen to the sermon, and as we hear your scripture proclaimed, we pray Lord that we would diligently listen and that the spirit of God would take your word from our ear to our hearts and would help us to apply this truth.
Lord, we pray that we would live out our lives authentically before you. Lord, we thank you for the example that we have in Christ. We thank you for the spirit who enables us to obey. We thank you for all of the great blessings that you've given to us in Christ Jesus.
Lord, thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.
Well, let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter six as we continue to consider this passage. It's gonna take us a few weeks to get through it. It's quite rich, it's lengthy, quite rich. Last Lord's Day, we began to consider this lengthy fourth discourse in this fourth gospel.
We read how Jesus initially rebuked the crowds who had sought him for they were seeking him with wrong motives. They were not seeking Jesus because they saw the meaning and implication of the signs, that is the miracles, that he had accomplished among them that testified to him.
Rather, they were seeking Jesus because they had been filled the previous day with bread and they wanted, once again, to have their needs met. And so they should desire him and seek him for who he is rather than out of the motivation what they might get from him.
Again, they saw him as one that would provide for their daily needs, those things that would sustain their physical lives. And so we read our Lord's words in verses 26 and 27. We addressed these last week.
Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set his seal on him.
And so the Lord rebuked them. They were coming seeking him for the wrong reasons. Now it's true that quite often the Lord will use our temporal concerns and needs in order to bring us initially onto him.
We get in such straits that we seek God, only he can help us. And so the Lord will use these things to initially bring us to hear him and look for him. But soon, hopefully very soon, we came to see him for who he is in truth.
We came to the time and place that we sought the Lord Jesus and trusted him for who he is, not simply for the things that we thought we could get from him, which again we see in this passage is not the kind of motive that should drive us.
The fact is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whom the Father has made to be the Savior and Master of sinners. We believe on him because we came to believe God's witness of his identity and his position as Lord.
We seek him for who he is, not for merely the things that we might get from him. These people wanted to be fed by Jesus just as they had been fed by him the day before. And Jesus indeed had food available for them, but food that would not merely sustain their temporal earthly lives.
He had food for them, which endures to everlasting life. Jesus could give them eternal life for the Father had sealed him. That is, the Father had authenticated Jesus through the signs, the miracles that Jesus performed.
He showed that the Father had given him authority to grant eternal life to those who believed on him as Lord and as Savior. Well, when these people heard Jesus speak of their need to labor for this bread, they asked him the question, what shall we do that we may work the works of God?
These Jews, just as all people everywhere, there is nothing unique about them, thought that eternal life was rewarded by God as a result of laboring, of doing, of meriting God's favor. What are the works of God that we should do them?
And again, this is the manner in which all religions of the world operate, as well as many, many who claim to be Christian. They ask, what works must I do in order to inherit eternal life? But Jesus answered them in John 6, 29, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent.
And so our Lord's response to them was that the work of God really could be understood in two different ways. The work of God that you're required to do is to believe on the Son. And then he also speaks about the work that God does in enabling them to believe on the Son.
And so Jesus was telling them of the one work that God requires of people, that they believe on Jesus. And then secondly, he's also speaking about the work of God that God does in people. And that is by his grace, he moves them and enables them to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, because salvation, of course, is by God's grace, not by man's work.
William Shedd, who was a noted commentator of the 19th century, by the way, I read that he was a graduate of Andover Newton Seminary back when it was a Bible-believing institution, he wrote on the responsibility and opportunity for every sinner to come to Jesus Christ in faith.
And asking their question, the Jews intended to inquire of Christ what particular things they must do before all others in order to please God. The works of God, as they denominate them, were not any and every duty, but those more special and important acts by which the creature might secure the divine approval and favor.
And our Lord understood their question in this sense, and in his reply tells them that the great and only work for them to do was to exercise faith in him. They had employed the plural number in their question, what work should we do?
But in answer, he employs the singular. This is the work that you should do. They asked, what shall we do? That we might work the works of God as if there were several of them, more than one work to do.
And his reply, singular, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Jesus narrows down the terms of salvation to a single act, a single one, and makes the destiny of the soul to depend upon the performance of a particular individual act.
In this, as in many other incidental ways, our Lord teaches his own divinity, that he's God. If he were a mere creature, if he were only an inspired teacher like David or Paul, how would he dare, when asked to give a single word, the condition and means of human salvation, to say that they consist in resting the soul upon him?
Would David have dared to say, this is the work of God, this is the saving act that you believe in me? Would Paul have presumed to say to the anxious inquirer, your soul is safe if you trust in me? But Christ makes this declaration without any qualification.
Yet he was meek and lowly of heart and never assumed an honor or a prerogative that did not belong to him. It is only upon the supposition that he is very God of very God, the divine redeemer of the children of men, that we can justify such an answer to such a question.
Amen, William Shedd. I would make one qualification or correction, rather, of Shedd's comments in that paragraph. He wrote that the one thing necessary that Jesus requires was this. He makes the destiny of the soul to depend upon the performance of a particular individual act.
And that's not correct, technically. For our Lord was not telling these people to exercise a single act of faith, but rather, he was exhorting them to a lifetime of believing, not a single decision. A life governed by faith in Jesus Christ as God incarnate.
And so, in our notes last week, last Sunday, we emphasized that our Lord was very precise in the verb that he used when he said, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. Jesus was not saying that the work of God would be to produce a single act of faith on the part of those whom God will save from their sin.
The verb believe is in the present tense. And what Jesus was speaking about was a continuous believing, not a single act of belief. A continuous believing. This is the work of God's grace in the soul of the one he's purposed to save.
That by God's grace, he enables the sinner to become a believer, a continual, persevering believer in his son. It's much more than a single act of faith. And there's much error today among evangelicals because it's thought that a single act of faith is that which God requires and salvation results.
No, God requires that you and I be believers. Frankly, it doesn't matter what you believe 20 years ago. It matters what you believe today. And it matters what you believe when Jesus returns. Will he find you to be believing on that day?
He calls us to be believers in him. And this is what Jesus was saying and shed misstep at one point. Now, my way of reminder, we're using the following outline to consider this lengthy passage. First, doing the work of God, and we addressed that last week.
Secondly, God the Father sent Jesus to give eternal life to his elect, verses 30 through 40. Thirdly, the Father gives eternal life to the one who believes on his son, verses 41 through 51. Fourthly, no one has eternal life except through feeding upon Jesus Christ, verses 52 through 59.
And then lastly, only those enabled by God's sovereign grace will believe on Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Those are the essential major truths that are set forth here in John chapter six. And again, last week, we addressed verses 26 through 29, the first section of this division of our passage doing the work of God.
And today we're gonna begin to address this verses 30 through 40. I was a little optimistic when we began to prepare, thinking we'd get through these 11 verses, but there's no way that we're gonna do so, but we'll get a head start on it today.
And so let's consider God the Father sent Jesus to give eternal life to his elect. And so let's read these verses now collectively, and then we'll consider them individually. This is what Jesus said in response to them.
Therefore, they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
And then Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
They said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you've seen me and yet you do not believe.
All that the father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means 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 the father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day. That's a rich passage, and we can spend at least two Lord's days in these verses.
First, we see in verses 30 and 31 how the crowd challenged Jesus. Therefore, they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert.
As it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. These people did not believe that the sign that Jesus had given them the very day before was sufficient to convince them to believe on him. What sign will you show us now, today?
He had fed well over 5 ,000 of them with bread and fish, sufficient to satisfy them all. But this was a new day. They desired that he would do a repeat. They wanted him to do as Moses had long before done, to give them more bread, perhaps daily bread.
As one wrote, let him give further evidence of being the second Moses. If Moses had given their forefathers manna in the wilderness, let the second Moses vindicate his authority in a similar way, not by a once-for-all feeding, but on a more lasting basis.
So it was a challenge they leveled to Jesus. Notice the people even quoted scripture. You see that? They said to him in verse 31, our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
The verse they referred to was Psalm 78 -24. And here is the larger context of that psalm in which this verse is found. And as we read this psalm, you'll see it was within the context of their rebellion and unbelief that God sent them this manna.
But they sinned even more against him by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. And they tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy. Yes, they spoke against God. They said, can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he struck the rock so that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide meat for his people? And therefore the Lord heard this and was furious. And so a fire was kindled against Jacob.
And anger also came up against Israel because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation. And yet he had commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven and rained down manna on them to eat.
And here it is. And given them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels' food. He sent them food to the full. And so this is the verse that the Jews quoted to Jesus. It was in the presence of rebellion on the part of Israel that God gave them manna through Moses.
And now these people in their unbelief toward Jesus were demanding of him that he prove to them his identity by repeating that miracle. Is it not amazing how often those in rebellion to God can justify their unbelief and sinful behavior by quoting scripture just as these people did?
I appreciated what John Calvin wrote about this. This wickedness abundantly proves how truly it is said elsewhere. This wicked generation seeks a sign. They had been at first drawn to Christ by the admiration of his miracles or signs and afterwards through amazement at a new sign.
They acknowledged Christ to be the Messiah and with that conviction wished to make him a king. But now they demand a sign from him as if he were a man unknown to them. Whence came such sudden forgetfulness?
But because they are ungrateful to God and through their own malice are blind to his power which is before their eyes. Nor can it be doubted that they treat disdainfully all the miracles which they had already beheld because Christ does not comply with their wishes and because they do not find him to be what they imagined him to be.
If he had given them expectation of earthly happiness he would have been highly applauded by them. They would undoubtedly have hailed him as a prophet and the Messiah and the son of God. But now because he blames them for being too much addicted to the flesh they think that they ought not to listen to him anymore.
And in the present day how many are there who resemble them? At first because they promise to themselves that Christ will flatter their vices they eagerly embrace the gospel and call for proof of it. Call for no proof of it.
But when they're called to deny the flesh and bear the cross then do they begin to renounce Christ and ask whence the gospel came. In short, as soon as Christ does not grant their prayers he's no longer their master.
And I think he described that situation quite well. So after the crowd challenged Jesus we read that Jesus corrected the crowd in verses 32 and 33. Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you Moses did not give you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Jesus told them, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven. And I could well imagine the objections that would immediately have stirred their hearts.
But the holy scriptures declare that Moses did so. But Jesus was of course speaking of the true bread to which the literal bread but symbolized and pointed. The bread of Moses that gave and sustained physical life for the Israelites was an Old Testament type of Jesus Christ, the true giver of life who is the anti-type in the New Testament.
Type in the Old Testament, anti-type in the New Testament. One pointed to the other. That the bread of Moses came from heaven was a type of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The anti-type who himself came down from heaven when he became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth.
Here Jesus was teaching his pre-existence as the eternal son of God who became incarnate. He was the bread that the father sent down from heaven. And it's speaking of him of course that he became incarnate assuming a human nature becoming the God man.
Now I want us to stand back a little bit and consider a very important principle of biblical interpretation that our Lord Jesus illustrates for us in this passage. He demonstrated for us this principle in these words.
Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. John 6 verse 30. I would advocate that the Lord Jesus gave us an example of how we are to read and interpret the Old Testament as Christians.
How was this? Well, whereas the Jews saw the record of the Old Testament in literalistic terms, they took the Bible literally. The Lord Jesus showed that the Old Testament pointed quite beyond itself to the spiritual reality in Jesus Christ.
And so if we were to state the principle of interpretation it could be stated in this way. The divine order is first the natural and then afterwards the spiritual. We would argue that that's a principle that is found throughout the Bible.
First the natural but it is a type that gives way to the anti-type that which is spiritual. That might seem rather obvious but in actuality not very many people take that principle to heart. The fact is the Old Testament is a historical record of God's dealings with the physical people.
Israel who were physical descendants of Abraham. God delivered the physical nation of Israel from literal bondage in Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness wanderings then leading them into the promised land as its inheritance.
Later God established a literal throne of David over a literal political national kingdom of David. But all of these persons and events were types which foreshadowed the realization of their anti-types in the New Testament.
The natural first and then the spiritual. The Old Testament contains historical physical realities that pointed to their spiritual realities in the New Testament. The natural order gives way to the spiritual order and when we read the Old Testament record we should consider what the persons and events pointed to in the New Testament record.
That's how we're to read the Bible Christologically. We read the Old Testament through the lens of Jesus Christ. Jesus told these people that Moses had given them bread but not the true bread. Moses only foreshadowed and foretold what God would do later.
In the events of Moses feeding Israel manna in the wilderness, God displayed that he would send his son into the world to be the spiritual source of eternal life to all who believed on him. First the natural and then follows the spiritual.
This might seem to be quite straightforward. Who would not accept this principle of interpretation? However there are many who refute the idea that we're to understand the Old Testament spiritually because they advocate that we are only to understand the Bible literally including the Old Testament.
In doing so they fail to apply this principle to their understanding of scripture. They say that the natural give way only to that which is natural and literal. They would argue for example God favored the physical descendants of Abraham in the Old Testament and therefore he will yet favor the physical descendants of Abraham in the New Testament and beyond.
The New Testament reveals however that whereas the Old Testament God favored Abraham's physical descendants, in this New Testament age God favors Abraham's spiritual descendants, those who have the same faith as Abraham.
In the Old Testament God favored those who are physically circumcised, but under the New Testament, that is the new covenant, God's favor is upon those who are spiritually circumcised, a circumcision made without hands.
Paul expressed it this way. Moreover brethren I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ.
You have the type and the anti-type, Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness and then Paul reasons, now these things became our examples.
To the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted, do not become idolaters as were some of them, as it's written that people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play, nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23 ,000 fell, nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents, nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer.
And then Paul makes this summary statement. Now all these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition. He's talking about New Testament Christians. Everything in the Old Testament was written for your instruction and admonition, mine as Christians.
And they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. The Old Testament needs to be read as Christian scripture, types and anti-types, their pictures, their demonstrations, their lessons on how we are to relate to God.
The Apostle Peter expressed it this way. Of this salvation, the Old Testament prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, Peter's talking to New Testament Christians.
Searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ who was in them was indicated when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them, that is to those Old Testament prophets, it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us, that's New Testament Christians.
They are ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. And so we are to read the Old Testament as written for Christian instruction.
This means that we are to look beyond what is literal and understand the spiritual meaning and application of the Old Testament record. We are to interpret the Bible spiritually, not literally or restricted to literalism.
And this is where so, so many evangelicals fail. There is a man, a couple of generations ago named John Wilmot. In Reiner Publications reissued his book, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote the introduction to it.
And he rejoiced at the fact that it was being republished. And in arguing for this principle of interpretation in his book entitled Inspired Principles of Prophetic Interpretation, he lays it out this way.
And he's really hitting on dispensationalists here by the way. We may understand therefore that literal existences created and ordered in the divine activity are themselves intended to serve spiritual ends.
And that there is a purpose sequence when it was written. That was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural and afterward, which is spiritual, quoting Paul in 1 Corinthians. It has been well said that error is truth pressed too far, which would indeed apply to some forms of what is called spiritualizing or fancifulness.
You know, he's setting apart, of course, the absurdities, the exaggerations of those who spiritualize everything. On the other hand, is there not a danger of pressing too far what literalizers extend the succession beyond the stated spiritual terminal of fulfillment?
In other words, they press the natural in the Old Testament beyond the spiritual fulfillment of the new to say that there's something yet coming that's natural again. This is what he's arguing. For this interpretation would appear to require a revision or addition.
Thus, first, that which is natural. Afterward, that which is spiritual. But again, after that which is spiritual has come, a reintroduction of that which is natural or literal. Does not the afterward denote the arrival of finality and the permanency of the spiritual?
Thus it is with earthly and heavenly things which our Lord spoke with the natural and the spiritual birth, John 3. The argument that persons place as events within the divine plan which have appeared in the first instance in natural or literal form being again spoken of futuristically must have a repeated natural subsistence.
There's no sound premise in the light of the order of succession quoted above. In this eschatological chapter, now that we're talking about the end times and principles of interpreting the Bible according for the end times, the statement appears to explain the principle of divine design.
Throughout the apostle's argument, there is no suggestion that a reversion to the natural state of things following the spiritual is to be expected. We notice, for instance, the first Adam and the last Adam.
The first man and the second man. These are all biblical expressions. Found in verses. Christ, the resurrection first fruits and they that are his. The natural body and the spiritual body. The earthly and the heavenly.
Corruption and incorruption. Mortality and immortality. This life and the life to come. Death and victory. With no reappearance of the former either in a millennial age or the eternal state. Very generally in scripture, we come upon this balancing or placement of opposites such as the first and the last.
The beginning and the end.
This world and the world to come. The time past and the last days. The old covenant and the new covenant. Take away the first, establish the second. Glory done away and glory that excelleth. The law of works and the law of faith.
The curse incurred and the curse removed. The law of Moses and grace and truth by Jesus Christ. Israel after the flesh and the Israel of God. Born of the flesh, born of the spirit. The letter killeth, but the spirit gives life.
The ministry of condemnation and the ministry of righteousness. The reign of sin and death and the reign of grace through righteousness onto eternal life. The heavens and earth which are now and the new heavens and the new earth.
He's saying that you have parallels, these doubles, natural and the spiritual in all of these different instances. And yet there are those who say no, natural and spiritual, but then we go back to natural because we argue that we take the Old Testament literally.
They don't see the Old Testament as Christian scripture. They see it as Jewish scripture, pre-Christian. And so they advocate if you wanna find Christian instruction, look to the New Testament alone because the Old Testament does not apply.
Well, what we're saying again is that here in John 6, Jesus illustrated this principle. First comes the natural, it's a type, but then comes the spiritual, the anti-type. First Moses gave forth that bread from heaven, that manna.
In reality, it pointed to the anti-type, God giving his son, his son sent into the world to become the true bread that gives life to the world. And so when we read the scriptures, we should understand the Old Testament events foreshadowed the New Testament realizations in and through Jesus Christ.
The New Testament explains how to understand rightly the Old Testament. The Old Testament meant what it said, but the New Testament tells us what it means. One cannot understand the Old Testament rightly until it's interpreted through the lens of the New Testament, that is its realization and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote of the Jews that they refused to believe on Jesus Christ, this is 2 Corinthians 3, that a veil covered their hearts, rendering them incapable of understanding the Old Testament scriptures rightly.
But when they turn to Jesus Christ in faith, when they see Christ in the Old Testament, then their ignorance and inability to understand the Old Testament is removed from them. The light of Jesus Christ sheds light of understanding on all scripture, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3.
But their minds, and he's talking about unbelieving Jewish people here who didn't believe the gospel, their minds were blinded, for until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ.
But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart, nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. We are to read the Old Testament physically, naturally, literally, but it portends, looks forward to the reality, the spiritual, the eternal, and it's all centered in the person of Jesus Christ.
Very important principle in reading the Bible. Sadly, however, many do not read the Bible that way, and they castigate us, accusing us of spiritualizing and not taking the Bible literally, and it's a real problem.
Well, let's return to our text. Again, Jesus declared, most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Jesus Christ declared, my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. Christ is bread to the soul, as literal bread is to the human body. Physical bread sustains physical life, spiritual bread, being Jesus Christ himself, gives and sustains spiritual life.
What do we mean by life? It's a life lived out before God, a life in fellowship with God, in accordance, a life lived out in accordance with God's will, being the recipient of God's blessing, of his provision and protection, and all of this comes through Jesus Christ alone.
Life before God is in Jesus Christ alone. Matthew Henry commented on these verses, that he, Jesus, is the bread of God, divine bread. It is he that is of God, bread which my Father gives, which he's made to be the food of our souls, the bread of God's family, his children's bread.
Levitical sacrifices are called the bread of God, and Christ is the great sacrifice. Christ, in his word and ordinances, the feast upon the sacrifice, that he is the bread of life, that bread of life, alluding to the tree of life in the midst of the garden of Eden, which was to add in the seal of that part of the covenant.
Do this and live, of which he might eat and live. Christ is the bread of life, for he is the fruit of the tree of life. First, he's the living bread, as he explains himself. I am the living bread. Bread is itself a dead thing, and nourishes not but the health of the faculties of a living body, but Christ is himself living bread, and nourishes by his own power.
Manna was a dead thing. If kept one night, it putrefied and bred worms, but Christ is everliving, everlasting bread that never molds nor waxes old. The doctrine of Christ crucified is now as strengthening and comforting to a believer as ever it was, and is mediation still of as much value and efficacy as ever.
Amen.
Matthew Henry. It said that Jesus Christ incarnate is the one who gives life to the world. Once again, Matthew Henry went on to write of the life-giving properties of the Son of God, that he is that bread of which the manna was a type and figure, that bread, the true bread.
As the rock that they drank of was Christ, so was the manna they ate of spiritual bread. Manna was given to Israel, so Christ to spiritual Israel. There was manna enough for them all, and so in Christ a fulness of grace for all believers.
He that gathers much of this manna will have none to spare when he comes to use it, and he that gathers little when his grace comes to be perfected in glory shall find that he has no lack. You see the application here, he goes back and forth between the manna and Christ in many different ways.
In fact, in every way that the manna is depicted in the Old Testament, he sees is realized in Christ. Manna was to be gathered in the morning, and those that would find Christ must seek him early. Manna was sweet, was agreeable to every palate, and to those that believe Christ, he is precious.
Quoting Peter. Israel lived upon manna till they came to Canaan, and Christ is our life. There was a memorial of the manna preserved in the ark, and so of Christ in the Lord's Supper as the food of souls.
And so there again, you see the richness of the Old Testament record coming out, not merely as a literal historical record, but as it beautifully portrays and illustrates Christ to us. Jesus Christ is the key to the scriptures, and it takes the veil away from a person's eyes so they can read the Old Testament rightly.
Jesus declared to them, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven. Again, Jesus was referring to his incarnation. He, the eternally begotten Son of God, who is God himself, came down from heaven when he assumed the human nature wrought in Mary's womb.
To his divine nature was added our human nature, and he became both God and man in one person. The Son of God is this life-giving bread sent from the Father in order to give life to the world. And it is so that Jesus Christ gives life to the world.
The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. All are spiritually dead in the world, and unless and until Jesus Christ gives them life. We were born into this world, separated from God, born into this world in the state of spiritual death.
God had told Adam and Eve that on the day that they broke his law, eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. And the day they ate of that tree, they died spiritually. And the day they ate of that tree, they began to die physically.
But when a man or woman comes to believe on Jesus Christ, thereby returning to God in repentance from sin and faith in Christ, it's though he that was lost was found. He that was dead has come to life.
And this is what the father said of his prodigal son who returned to him humbly, looking for his father's mercy. The father said to the prodigal's brother who resented his brother's return, it was right that we should make Marian glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found.
We read in the last chapter of John, these words of Jesus, most assuredly, that is back in John chapter five, the last chapter before what we're dealing with now, John six, most assuredly say to you, the hour is coming now is when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.
He's not talking about physical resurrection here, he's talking about spiritual resurrection when we became Christians. For as the father has life in himself, so he's granted the son to have life in himself.
And it's given the son him authority to execute judgment but also because he is the son of man. And so here are the dead, the spiritually dead everywhere. We're spiritually dead in our sins unless and until the Lord Jesus issues his command for us to become spiritually alive.
And he can do this because the father has authenticated him, set his seal upon him. We believe on Jesus and his life feeds and sustains us in faith unto our final salvation because he calls us forth from spiritual death on the spiritual life when we were converted.
Let's be very practical here and apply it to ourselves. And particularly if you're one here that's not a true Christian, and I'm sure there are some among us that are in that state. Do you hear Jesus the Lord calling you back from the dead?
Calling you to true life that he's intended for his people, a life of peace and joy and freedom and liberty of conscience, free and full forgiveness of sins, deliverance from all condemnation of every sin and the resource of him to be delivered from the power of sin that currently holds you?
Do you hear the Lord calling you to lay aside your sins and come on to him? Do you think to yourself, this isn't just a man standing up there in front of this church. I hear God calling me through Jesus Christ to come on to him.
I hear it in the words of scripture. Yeah, it's being mouthed by a man, but I hear God calling me. Oh, I can remember the time when that occurred to me. Yeah, it was the words of a man. I would say through gospel tracts, words penned in a little gospel tract, but it was God just as surely calling me to salvation through Jesus Christ.
Well, if you sense his call, do not hesitate and do not procrastinate. Own him as your own. Confess him before others. Come and eat of this bread that the Father sent down from heaven. Feed in faith upon Jesus.
That is, believe on him wholly and fully, not just as the Lord, but believe on him as your Lord and your Savior as you surrender your soul wholly onto him. Let us take to heart the Lord's words through his prophet.
As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. Why should you die, O house of Israel? Why should you die when you have such a feast available sitting before you?
No one need go from this place this morning without Christ. The only thing that disqualifies you from coming to Christ is if you don't see yourself as a sinner. If you see yourself as a sinner deserving damnation,.
You're qualified.
If you see yourself as hungry, come to Christ. You don't have to clean up your life or make all these promises to clean up your life and qualify yourself to come to Christ. You come to Christ as a sinner and he'll do the rest.
You have to be willing, of course, to yield to him as your master and your savior, but you come to him as someone who's hungry, broke, needy, bankrupt, dead, and you come to him as the bread of life who gives life.
Well, the crowd requested a continual supply of this bread. Wow, that sounds like a favorable response. They said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. They wanted this bread from heaven that would enable them to live forever.
However, it had not yet registered in their thinking that this bread was Jesus himself. They're still thinking in physical terms. In fact, there's a vague sense of something great and good being close at hand and a vague desire, you know, a wish expressed to have it.
They seem to express desired willingness, but they did not see all that was involved, nor did they understand fully what it would mean to them. There's a parallel here, by the way, with these people here in this room.
Verse 34, and the woman at the well in Samaria, back in John chapter four. As one pointed out, like the Samaritan woman who said, sir, give me this water. When she heard Jesus speak of the living water, which he could give, the congregation responds to his words about the true bread with an eager request that they may receive this bread forevermore.
But they still understand his words in a material sense. He therefore uses a new form of word to make his meaning plainer. And there are those who may come along with us for a while, for they had come to Christ on their own terms, not God's.
They're not true believers. And even our Lord had some, even many at times, he did here in John chapter six, who claimed to be his followers. They were zealous, seeking him out. But again, the only reason they followed him because they thought of all the temporal and physical benefits that would come their way by doing so, as one wrote.
So captivating is this description of the bread of God, verse 34, that it draws even from these unspiritual people the request that Jesus give them this bread. They do really want this bread. They are impressed by its great desirability, but the emphatic adverb evermore, in our translation, it's always, betrays the fact that they still think only a bodily bread that will obviate their baking, their buying from time to time, that they can eat constantly without effort whenever they grow hungry.
They saw in coming to Jesus, life's gonna be a lot easier, a lot more pleasant with him on our side, him being our king who can feed us every day. They were not seeking him for who he was, but for what they could get from him.
And therefore, they'd only string along as far as they feel rewarded for their efforts. But that's not why or how we're to believe on him. We're to believe on him for who he is. He's the Lord whom the Father sent from heaven.
He's the master, he's the savior. Well, now Jesus declared himself to be the true bread from heaven, verses 35 through 40. We're not gonna get very far in here. We'll have to wrap things up. And we'll continue next week.
This is a rich paragraph. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst. I said to you that you've seen me, and yet you did not believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means 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 the Father who sent me that of all he's given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Very rich paragraph. Many important assuring words.
The first he declared, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. You notice the uniqueness of that statement that we've already pointed out in the past. He declares that he is the great I am. I am the bread of life.
Later on, I'm the light of the world. I am the resurrection of life. That I am is a declaration that he is the God that revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. I am. I'm sending you Moses to Egypt, and here Jesus is making the claim he is God himself.
He's the Jehovah of Old Testament. The bread of which he speaks is not something like the manna which they can pick up and eat. It's nothing less than himself, God. His I am is a soundly emphatic statement, and in this context has overtones of divinity.
This is the first of seven such emphatic statements in this gospel, I am. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. We saw back in verse 20, the same chapter, although the place is debated by some commentators, the phrase, the Greek phrase, ego, a me.
The ego is the personal pronoun I. A me is the verb to be.
I am.
And it's commonly found in John's gospel. After declaring himself to be the bread of life, he makes this very profound statement in verse 35b. He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst.
We can't conclude today without addressing this. This is one of the, in my mind, one of the most comforting, blessed words of God that you could possibly have for you as a troubled soul that may be in fear of losing out, or some wrongly think they can lose their salvation.
This verse makes that impossible. There is in coming to know Christ a great settling of the soul. There is available to the true child of God, if he's thinking and acting rightly, a peaceful satisfaction in his soul that no one can take away.
And here it's likened onto having just had a full meal, satiated with fine drink, and the sensation of that fullness never goes away. You're never hungry, you're never thirsty again. Our Lord could not have been stronger in his affirmation of this spiritual reality.
So I wanna provide some words of a Greek grammarian. And you're not gonna understand the terms, I guarantee you. You're not gonna understand the terms and everything he's saying, but I hope you get the lesson that he's stressing here.
Emphatic negation is indicated, and then he uses the two words here, ume. That's kind of like a no, not, if we were to translate it into English. Ume, plus the erotic subjunctive. I'm not even gonna go to explain what that is, verb tense and mood of the verb.
Or less frequently, ume plus the future indicative, future tense indicative mood. And by the way, that's what we have in this verse. Notice what he says, Daniel Wallace. This is the strongest way to negative something in Greek.
In other words, you couldn't say it any stronger than what is stated here. One might think that the negative with the subjunctive could not be as strong as the negative with the indicative. However, while ume plus the indicative denies a certainty, the subjunctive denies a potentiality.
In other words, it's not even possible, it's not even potential that this could happen. The negative is not weaker, rather the affirmation that's being negativized, or negatived, denies a potentiality.
The negative is not weaker. It's not less firm with the subjunctive. It rules out even the idea of a possibility. Ume is the most decisive way of negating something in the future. What does that mean?
Emphatic negation is found primarily in the reported sayings of Jesus, both in the Gospels and the Apocalypse, that's the Book of Revelation. Secondarily, in quotations in the Septuagint, that's the great translation of the Old Testament.
And outside of these two sources, it occurs rarely, as well, a soteriological, that is, having to do with salvation. Theme is frequently found in such statements, and notice, especially in John, which is negatived.
What is negatived is the possibility of the loss of salvation. In other words, Jesus is saying, there's no way ever possible, it could ever happen, that you'll ever hunger and you'll ever thirst after you believe on Jesus.
In other words, there is no possibility, no way you can ever lose out and lose your salvation if you come and feed upon Jesus. From the lips of Jesus recorded in John 6 .35, we have his promise of the impossibility of a person who truly comes to faith in him to ever lose his salvation.
It cannot happen. Jesus went on record here to declare the eternal security of the true believer. To teach that a true Christian can lose his salvation after having come to Christ in true faith would be repudiating what Jesus taught in this verse.
It would require Jesus to have said something like this. He who comes to me may perhaps never hunger. He who believes in me may perhaps never thirst. No, in the strongest terms possible in the Greek language, John recorded Jesus' words, he who comes to me shall never hunger.
He who comes to me shall never thirst. And then our Lord declared these words to this gathering. But I said to you that you've seen me and yet you did not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will in no, by no means or in no wise cast out.
Jesus declared they didn't believe on him even though they saw him. This would suggest they saw him and many miracles and signs he performed yet they did not believe. And of course what is true of them is true of all people everywhere.
Sin is rendered as not only unwilling but unable to believe on him. It takes a work of the grace of God. It takes a work of the Father who calls them and summons them to come unto Jesus. Here are the words of one who wrote of this spiritual inability to come to Christ.
We have further proof of human depravity from the aversion of sinners to come to Christ. They're invited to come, persuaded to come and are assured that they shall find pardon, acceptance and salvation but they cannot be induced to come to him.
And why will they not come? It's because he's not willing to receive them or because there's anything in him to prevent them. No, it's because of the deep-rooted depravity in their hearts. The heart is averse to all that is good and therefore rejects the Savior and turns away from him.
Hence he complained in our world how often would I have gathered you even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings and you would not. You will not come to me that you may have life. What more need be added?
Man turns away in proud disdain from all the blessings of the gospel and the glories of heaven brought before him and rushes on with steady purpose to damnation. Light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
Oh, to how many in this land may it be said they hate knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of his counsel. They despised all his reproof. This is the nature of the beast, isn't it?
We're sinners. Can no one therefore be saved? Well, they most certainly can be saved but it will be wholly due to the sovereign grace of God. He chose specific individuals out of fallen humanity and gave them as gifts to his son.
If you're a Christian, God the Father gave you to his son and eternity passed. Put your name in there. I gave to my son you. Put your name in there if you're a Christian or if one day you are going to become a Christian.
The Father gave you as a gift to his son and then he sent his son on a mission. You go save them. And the Holy Spirit committed, I will apply the benefits of Christ's life and death. I will inform them, illuminate them and incline their heart to come on to you.
And so the Father saves his people. They will come. And then he mentions those who come to me, I will in no wise cast out. We emphasize that emphatic negation. You'll never hunger. You'll never thirst again.
It's not possible. The same form is here in this verse. It's an emphatic negation. I will by no means cast you out. He couldn't have said it any stronger in the Greek language. It's not a possibility.
You come on to Jesus and you're in. He'll keep you. He'll feed you and guide you onto your eternal home. That's a blessed promise, isn't it? Why would you go without? Why would you refuse to come on to him?
It's folly. It's madness. It's sin to refuse to come on to him in whom all these blessings are so available to sinners. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word and for the glorious promises in Jesus.
And we pray, Lord, that you would help each and every soul here to be satiated by feeding upon him in faith as the life giver, Father, sent by you. And so help us to go forth, Lord, in believing and trusting and confessing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.