JOHN 6:41-51 PODCAST
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” 43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:41-51
These Jews who were conversing with the Lord Jesus illustrate they had so quickly lost sight of the feeding of the five thousand which had taken place just a day earlier. In fact, some of them had eaten the loaves and the fish. Now, they see Him as an ordinary man.
We live in a culture which is much the same. In our history, we have been influenced by the truth of God's word, and we have forgotten its impact. We live among a people who are skeptical of Christianity and its teaching. The reason for this is a lack of personal involvement. The average church has bowed the knee to the plans of man rather than the God of the Bible. Often, at the center of American Christianity is entertainment and we have to strain to see God and a clear declaration of His word. The average American Christian is poorly taught today.
In v.41 the people grumbled at the words of Jesus, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Had they encountered God, their outlook would have been different. They had a hard time understanding, understanding that God chose to come to earth as a man to enable us to know Him and His ways. They had a hard time squaring up the fact that the Lord Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. Their response in v.42 illustrates this point.
The words of the Lord Jesus in v.44 underlines the fact that it is not enough merely to hear the facts about Jesus or to believe that He was a miracle worker. There is more to it and that something more is the involvement of the Father in the opening of our eyes.
There must be an inner opening of the eyes and the ears of the soul, so that we begin to understand that He is the ANSWER, our ANSWER. This begins most often when we have been marched into the arena of the desperate. We will never be convinced the Lord Jesus is all we need until He is all we have. And, part of being "taught of God," of being "drawn by the Father" is that we see that we are involved in this process.
In v.45, the Lord Jesus tells how it happens: He calls it, "being taught of God." It is an opening of the understanding. It may happen suddenly, or it may happen slowly. It may happen very painfully. It happens not only to non-believers in order to draw them to the point of faith and conversion, but it happens also to Christians who need continually to be taught of God. Many have had the experience of hearing something they had known for years but had never really understood until something suddenly opened their eyes and they saw what it meant.
In v.46-51, we discover a two-step process by which God brings us to Himself. He draws us through painful experiences sometimes, through hurt and damage, through loss and disappointment, but also through joys, through unexpected blessings and pleasures. Some are drawn through the process of years, while others seem to be awakened suddenly, dramatically. It is all in the control of God. But having been awakened, then our responsibility is to believe, to give ourselves to Him.
The problem with these Jews was they attributed the provision of the manna to Moses. They thought as men and not as God. Although that manna kept them alive physically, it could do nothing for them eternally. These people were still hung up by ineffective symbols which they were relying on for faith.
Many trust the fact that they were baptized, that they joined a church, that they were confirmed as a child or hoping their goodness outweighs their bad. The answer is coming to the Lord Jesus and believing and depending on Him for time and eternity.
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