John 6:35-40 - ”Blessed Assurance” - Abundant Life (Gospel of John)

God's word

from the Old Testament,

Isaiah 55.

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the

waters.

And he who has no money, come, buy and

eat.

Come, buy wine and milk without money

and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that

which is not bread and your labor for

that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me and eat what is

good and delight yourselves in rich

food.

Incline your ear and come to me.

Hear that your soul may live, and I will

make with you an everlasting covenant,

my steadfast, sure love for David.

Behold, I made him a witness to the

peoples, a leader and commander for the

peoples.

Behold, you shall call a nation that you

do not know, and a nation that did not

know you shall run to you

because of the Lord your God and of the

Holy One of Israel,

for he has glorified you.

Seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the

unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the Lord that he may

have compassion on him

and to our God, for he will abundantly

pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares

the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the

earth, so are my ways higher than your

ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down

from heaven and do not return there, but

water the earth, making it bring forth

and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to

the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from

my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty,

but it will accomplish that which I

purpose and shall succeed in the thing

for which I sent it.

For you shall go out in joy and be led

forth in peace.

The mountains and the hills before you

shall break forth into singing and all

the trees of the field shall clap their

hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the

cypress. Instead of the briar

shall come up the myrtle.

And it shall make a name for the Lord,

an everlasting sign that shall not be

cut off.

From the New Testament,

the Gospel of John chapter 6, verses 35

John 6:35–40

through 40.

Jesus said to them,

"I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger,

and whoever believes in me shall never

thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me

and yet do not believe.

All that the Father gives me will come

to me, and whoever comes to me I will

never cast out. For I have come down

from heaven, not to do my own will, but

the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me,

that I should lose nothing of all that

he has given me,

but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my father,

that everyone who looks on the son and

believes in him should have eternal

life, and I will raise him up on the

last day.

This is the word of the Lord.

>> Thanks be to God.

Okay.

So, here we are I I going to end after

this and for 3 weeks, so the other

people won't re uh continue in John, but

I'd recommend you guys keep reading John

and see what you can get out of it while

I'm not there.

So, I'm going to start off with a quote

by a well-known atheist, Ricky Gervais.

Have you heard of Ricky Gervais before?

Very very very

bold and and he takes his atheism very

very seriously. He makes this comment.

You probably can you read it? I don't

know. I'll read it down here. Next time

someone tells me they believe in God,

I'll say, "Oh, which one? Zeus, Hades,

Jupiter, Mars, Odin, Thor, Krishna,

Vishnu, Vishnu,

Ra?"

If they say just God,

"I only believe in the one God. I'll

point out that they're nearly as

atheistic as me. I don't believe in

2,870

gods, they just don't believe in 2,869."

It's an interesting thought, right?

And frankly, it's hilarious. It throws

people off.

Like this is some great wisdom that he

has.

I can assure you it's not great wisdom.

And it's frankly not very logical.

If you really think about it, it would

be like saying

well, there's a princess Jasmine and

there's a princess Cinderella and

there's a princess

Uh what are some others?

Sure, you guys know them all.

And so we know all these princesses from

Disney, which we know are creations.

So then there mustn't be a princess

Diana.

I mean, come on, there's so many.

How could we have one?

Do you see?

I mean, it doesn't make sense. It's not

logical, but it does throw people off.

Because there is one problem

in belief and it's been around since the

ancient world.

We create too many dang gods.

We are idol worshipers. If you go in the

ancient world, I believe that they

studied humanity and it was actually

much more than 2,700. They had found

about 3,900

different deities

within humanity historically.

3,900

different deities.

And guess what?

Ricky Gervais was not the first one to

observe that there's a whole lot of

these gods.

And that's why he led and and why he led

him to his atheism. The ancient Greeks

their philosophers said, "None of these

gods are real because they're all too

human-like and there's too many of

them."

Surprises people that the ancient

philosophers of the Roman world thought

the same. All of the elites thought this

way, not the poor, but the ones that

could read.

They all had whether it was the

Epicureans or the Stoics, they all

believed that there couldn't be one god

because there was all these gods and how

would you know?

Remember when Jesus says to him, "I am

the truth" to

to uh pilot.

What was his answer?

What is truth?

Because he's like

Ricky Gervais.

If there's all these truths out there,

if there's all these gods,

who knows? And he was an elitist,

Pilate.

So, how do we deal with this?

Well, first of all, we have to

understand there has always been one

religion that believes in only one God.

And it's the only religion in antiquity

that believed in only one God. And you

know what that was?

Jews. Jews, right? And they were very

odd in their world, and they were

persecuted for it because no one else

could understand them. Everyone else

believed in a multiplicity of gods

except for the philosophers.

And here these Jews held to this view

that this one God was not only the only

God, but he was the good God.

And they had been talked to and they

believed that God had spoken to them

through their scriptures.

Through the through the first five books

of the Old Testament, through the law,

and through the prophets that came

after, and the wisdom literature, they

believed God was saying something to

them. And every time there seemed to be

this reality that there was a promise

cuz Israel never became what it was

supposed to be.

It always was turning to the idols, and

there was always this promise something

more would happen.

And we see this, and they're called

Messianic texts, okay?

And what that means is these are

scriptures in the Old Testament that

they used

to point to what might one day happen.

And John in his gospel has been saying

Jesus is fulfilling all of those texts

that say who God who the deliverance of

God, the new Exodus. That's what they

called it.

And most importantly, there was one

area, and you should read by the way

Isaiah 40 to 66. It's called Deutero

Isaiah. And they cute they quote this

section of the Bible the New Testament

writers more than anywhere else.

In fact, one person called it the fifth

gospel.

And why that is is because those texts

are promising

the new Exodus and they're saying it's

going to come out like this. And what

John's gospel is doing is showing that

Jesus is fulfilling

these promises.

You'll remember back in the first

chapter if you guys have been following

along.

Remember when when John the Baptist

cried out about Jesus, "Behold the lamb

of God who's going to turn the sins of

the world. Just going to take away the

sins of the world." Remember that?

Well, that's right out of Isaiah 53.

Right in the middle.

And that's that whole suffering servant

song. He bore our transgressions. It

says like a lamb that that's was quiet

before slaughter. He was that lamb. So,

that was the first point. He takes

Isaiah 53. Then right after that we see

John the Baptist again and he says,

"There's the bridegroom." when he's

talking about

um Jesus.

And I and I'm just the best man.

Why that matters is Jesus goes and meets

the woman by the well and she starts

talking about her husband and we find

out later that she's had six.

And Jesus was there telling her she

could have new covenant life making her

the seventh, him the seventh, the divine

bridegroom. Well, in Isaiah 54, what

does it say? "I the Lord am your

husband."

Do you see?

So, he's fulfilled that. He says, "I'm

the one who's going to come sacrifice

and I'm the one who's going to reset

covenant."

And then today

we get to a text. And after you got the

how to this new Exodus would come

through sacrifice

and the promise of the fruit of that

sacrifice the new covenant represented

in the father or God being the husband.

Now you've got this invitation.

This is the third thing and it's in

Isaiah 55. So we've gone Isaiah 53 54

and now 55.

It says this.

Come everyone who thirsts.

This is the invitation to come into this

new Exodus.

Come to the waters and he who has no

money come by eat come by wine and milk

without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money on that

which is not bread and your labor on

that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligent to me and eat what is

good and delight yourself in the riches

of food.

This is the invitation to come and eat

and dine

with God.

And they were waiting for this

opportunity for this bread and wine to

come this water this living water to

come.

Well, Jesus has been hinting, hasn't he?

He's been hinting again and again and

again who he is but today now he quotes

this point-blank.

But he changes one thing.

He is the center.

Jesus said to them,

"I am ego a me."

That's just the name of God.

God the bread of life.

I am that one.

The invitation's here.

Whoever comes to me

shall never shall not hunger.

So the eating of Jesus is coming to him.

Eating of the bread is coming to him.

That's the metaphor.

And whoever believes in me shall never

thirst.

He's doing the invitation of the

promised Exodus and he's putting it

around himself.

That's incredible.

Everything the Jews had hoped for for

generations is now being laid out and

Jesus says, "Come to me and you can have

this stuff."

The days of Isaiah's promise is here.

Unfortunately,

they're not really into it.

For Jesus says, "But I say to you that

you have seen me and yet do not

believe."

Remember that was the one work of God

they had to do. Do you remember last

week?

They had to believe.

That's the line in the sand

of whether you're in or you're out.

You know, we we talk about all these

different theological concepts and we

like to have them, but here's really the

fundamental in and out of Jesus' people.

Do you believe or don't you?

It is no longer wrapped around Gentile

and Jew.

It isn't.

It's no longer wrapped around male or

female, no as much as we like to fight

about stuff like that.

It's no longer wrapped around our

economic system or where we live. It's

always will be from now on

what side are you on?

Do you believe

or not?

And he's looking at those Gal- Galileans

who are around him saying, "You don't

believe."

Now, it can seem to them that perhaps

he's a failure then if they don't

believe in him.

But he stops right away and says,

"But hold on.

All that the Father gives me will come

to me."

What he's really saying there is

he hasn't given me you.

It's a real slam.

And whoever comes to me, I will never

cast out.

Now, what's interesting here is he

locates the

genesis of salvation on where?

God.

And all the Father gives me

will come to me.

It's not on us, is it?

Don't worry, I'll get to it.

And whoever comes to me, I will never

cast out. For I have come down. This is

the important point. I have come down

from heaven.

I have come down from heaven not to do

my own will,

but the will of him who sent me. So, he

has a job description.

This is what he's supposed to do. What

is that? But to do the will of him

that's supposed to. Now, the Jews

thought the will of the Messiah was to

be to do the will of God, which was to

destroy the Romans, right?

But listen to what he says the will of

God is.

And this is the will of him who sent me,

that I should lose nothing of all that

he has given me. These words are

incredibly assuring.

That it's God's will

that he will never lose those

who have come to him.

Why is it so assuring?

Because there's not one of you have not

felt

like you have done something so wrong

that God

has abandoned you.

But if you read this closely,

it says for it's the will of the Father

that I shall lose nothing of all that he

has given me.

And then the second part's even more

powerful.

This is his will for the people he wants

to believe including us.

But raise it up on the last day. It is

God's will

to give you eternal life.

It's not Jesus I have to. They tried

really hard.

It is his character to want to give you

resurrection life.

Think about that.

For this is the will of my father, he

says again, that everyone who looks on

the son

This to behold the son is to look upon

him and it's always to look upon him on

the cross, remember?

That sees that as their salvation and

everything and believes in him should

have eternal life.

That's his will. That's God's will.

It's not our will. I want eternal life.

It's God's will you get eternal life.

And I will raise him up on the last day.

God's will

is to make sure that God that that Jesus

does the action so that no one will be

lost.

God's will is that you be saved.

God's will is that you will be there in

eternity with him and have eternal life.

That's God's will.

Why did I just emphasize that?

Because most people like Ricky Gervais

do not see God in that light.

In fact, most people in the church don't

see God in that light.

They feel very satisfied when they're

told how great a sinners they are

because at least they can do something

perhaps to get right.

The idea of the angry God, the God

that's staring down at you, who is

saying you blew it again, that's our

tendency, folks.

Our tendency is not to see God as

somebody who really wants to be with us.

We see God as somebody that's so far

beyond us

that if somehow it's a miracle that a

few can get in.

And it's been preached from the pulpit.

And we preach against sinner and sin

because of that. And we're very

concerned about sin and sinners because

we know that God really doesn't want to

have you there, but if you do the right

things,

you might get it.

Here's how I know that's not God.

He come down.

This is the truth, folks. I have studied

religion my whole life, and there is

never

ever

ever a time that there's a God like

Jesus.

I've read Hinduism. I've read Buddhism.

I've read Islam.

I have read all kinds of stuff. I've

even read pagan mythology from the

ancient world.

There is no God who comes down and

empties himself and becomes like a

slave.

Not one.

They are the Hindu avatars. They come in

and they take over a body, but they're

really still God. And they come around

people and act like gods. There's Thor

and Zeus and all of those guys, and they

might interact with their created order,

but it certainly

doesn't take away their divinity.

There is no God like Jesus Christ.

And I'll tell you what else, these gods

are to be afraid you should be afraid of

because these are the gods that will

smite you with the lightning.

You know where that lightning comes

from, right?

Comes from Zeus.

Doesn't come from Jesus.

So, next time my wife says to me,

"You're going to get get hit by

lightning." I'm going to say, "No,

that's pagan."

She does say that to me sometimes.

This God is incredibly different than

those other gods

that Ricky Gervais mentioned.

For this God has come down

amongst us and emptied himself.

We so often in the church of the West

believe in the gods of the West. We

believe, and we almost can't help it,

that God is a God who's about success

cuz we're about success, right?

We can't help ourselves to think that

God is there to make our happy life

because that's the promise

of the false god of our world.

We want a God who sits there and is way

above us

that we can reach for.

Not one that came down and often when

we're looking up for that God, we don't

see the God below us.

Brennan and Manning said, "He is the

only God man has ever heard of

who [snorts] loves sinners."

The gods, the false gods, the gods of

human manufacturing despise sinners, and

it's true.

But the father of Jesus all, no matter

what they do. He is love. Love enough to

come down

and be amongst us.

His will is to save us.

You have to hear that.

You think it's your will to save

yourself.

If it was up to you, you'd fail.

The only reason you're sitting here, oh

believer, is cuz it's his will

that you be saved.

So, what is the will of God?

Well, we hear it again today here.

But again, I want you to understand that

this is something you really need to

think about.

It is a daily thing that you are going

to get attacked about cuz it's something

I know about you

because I'm one of you

is you are going to sin. Did you know

that?

Anybody know that?

That you're going to sin a lot.

You're not going to walk out of here 5

ft off the ground.

You're not going to go out and heal the

world.

And if you don't believe yourself, just

go start driving in traffic for about 10

minutes.

And you're going to find out that you

know what? I ain't so hot.

I've done that where I preached a sermon

and I feel so good about myself. I have,

so many times.

And I'm driving home and someone cuts me

off and something comes out of my mouth

and I'm like,

Anyone else?

Or how about when you have kids getting

ready for church?

The thoughts that come out of your mind

I did it.

Trying to shove them in those car seats,

I can tell you some not Christian things

came out of my mouth.

I lost my shoe. I don't want to go.

Let's be honest. Let's just be honest

with ourselves.

Full of sin, man.

And what the devil does

and he does it well and I think it's his

number one move to Christians

is you're not loved.

You're not cared for.

You don't belong.

Look at your past.

Look at what you've done.

And then we get down.

And then pretty soon we think, and this

is his goal,

I don't belong here with these religious

people.

What he won't show you is how dark they

are.

So people stop going to church. That's

his goal.

They stop praying to God

because they've been put down

and they start to believe a lie, but

he's created an idol, a different god

than this.

Philippians tells us, no, Ephesians

tells us in chapter 6 that we need to

put on in spiritual warfare the helmet

of salvation. It's such a powerful

powerful image.

Cuz the helmet protected your head and

your brain

from the flaming

lies of the Satan.

Well, here's what I'm going to tell you,

my folks. That god that is telling you

you're no good, that you don't deserve,

you don't belong, is the false god,

Satan. It is the accuser of the

brethren.

I promise you.

I love what Luther said in talking in

the first person of God speaking about

this exact situation. I am more

trustworthy than your heart

and conscience are.

I, being God, will not cast you out.

Your conscience lies to you

when it suggests that you must fear me

as a judge.

How many people

go to church on Sunday

terrified of the God they claim to

worship and just hoping he'll somehow

let them in?

Rather than embracing the God whose will

is to embrace them and give them life.

I used to teach I used to preach in a

church which was full of older

Presbyterians. And we used to have the

communion table come up and

Presbyterians would very much warn you

if you weren't right, don't take

communion. That was the way it used to

be. And I would watch these wonderful

saints walk in and they would see that

communion table and their faces would

drop.

Because what they saw in that was

judgment.

Not the forgiveness of sins.

It was heartbreaking.

Pastorally it destroys.

We need these texts and we need to read

them for so we have a better helmet of

salvation to never let you go. Do you

know what that means? There's a reason

why he might want to, but he never will.

Because he you will do things

that even anger him or more grieve him

likely.

But he says that's my will cuz he's

love.

So what is the will of God on a positive

note? I love this quote by Karl Bart.

It's from the humanity of God, a book

you should read.

God wants man to be his creature.

And I want you to list this as this is

what he wants you to be.

God wants man to be his creature.

Furthermore, he wants him to be his

partner.

There is a causa dei

in the world. God wants light, not

darkness. He wants cosmos, not chaos. He

wants peace, not disorder. He wants man

to administer and receive justice rather

than inflict and to suffer injustice.

He wants man to live according to the

spirit

rather than according to the flesh.

He wants man bound and pledged to him

rather than any other authority.

He wants man to live and not to die.

Because he wills these things, he God is

Lord,

shepherd, and redeemer of man,

who is in who in his holiness and mercy

meets his creature,

who judges and forgives, rejects and

receives, condemns and saves. That's our

God.

That's what he wants for you.

And he's the God of heaven and earth.

There's no one above him. Satan has

nothing on him. So, you don't think the

God that has all power can get you

there?

I will let none

slip from my fingers.

And guess who gets to come, by the way?

Whosoever.

That's the people who get to come.

No, I don't believe in a limited

atonement.

I believe he died for the cosmos.

And here's the mystery that you can't

come without calling him, but then he

says, "Come and come to him."

Here's the mystery you're going to have

to deal with. The will of God is that he

will call you,

but also he's saying to you, come to

him.

And you're going to have to do that,

deal with that. God is sovereign and

humans have responsibility. I don't know

how to figure it out. By the way, if

somebody tells you they do, they're

lying.

John's gospel, right in this verse,

has the call for people to come,

believe, and then tells them, well,

God's in response to the whole thing.

Right in this verse, and he seems

comfortable with it.

But here's the truth, folks, that's so

incredible this God. God's will is to do

this, and he's never going to turn

anyone aside, and anyone can come.

It doesn't matter your background, it

doesn't matter your bloodline, it

doesn't matter anything about you.

Anyone can come, and anyone can come

back.

Anyone can come.

If you're feeling distance, anyone can

come back.

Anyone can turn around. It's called

repent.

But you won't repent to a God you think

is mad and angry

and a judge. You only repent to some God

like this. Do you know how I know? Cuz

in Romans it says,

kindness and kindness leads to

repentance.

Alister Begg, can't get much more of a

Calvinist than this guy, and he says,

every human being without any exception

whatsoever is entitled to come to Christ

and trust him as savior.

Anyone.

It is the most open religion, too.

And the funny thing is,

whether we like it or not, they don't

have to do the religious things we tell

them they have to do.

They have to do those after, cuz we like

to do them.

But I've met so many people who have

encountered Jesus Christ and guess what?

They hadn't even been baptized.

They didn't even know about the

sovereignty of God.

They didn't know the four spiritual

laws.

They didn't even speak in tongues.

They didn't know who

Barth or Luther or Calvin. And yet they

came to the Lord.

Cuz he called them.

Anyone can come.

And if anyone can come, that means

anyone may come.

And this is why we're called

to go out and share.

This is why he's given us that mandate

to be unafraid to go and tell people

around us that there's a God whose will

is to love you, to save you, and give

you eternal life.

Hm.

So what is this eternal life?

Eternal life for a lot of people

is kind of misunderstood.

Many years ago, when I was a new

Christian,

I had heard that eternal life was going

to heaven when you died. Did anybody

ever hear that?

And heaven, as far as I could tell, was

up in the clouds.

And you kind of had no body, and you

kind of floated off into this body, and

then you got a I don't know how without

a body this happened, but you got a

harp.

Which really troubled me cuz I'd heard

the harp, and it was not my favorite

instrument.

So I was told if you believed in Jesus,

you go to heaven when you die, and if

you

don't believe in Jesus, well, you go to

the other place, the escalator down.

And it looked a lot like medieval

Catholicism, and I didn't want to go

there, so I decided I want to go

up.

What a shock it was to when I learned

that biblical promise is nothing like

that.

The biblical promise is one thing.

That one day Jesus is going to return.

Do we all agree with that?

And he's going to raise the dead.

Well, there's going to be raising the

dead.

That's one assumption right there.

There's bodies to be raised.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

When Jesus rises from the dead, is he a

ghost?

He's got a body.

And then he walks around, and as this

resurrected being he can eat, right?

He also can walk in rooms that are

locked, so something else is going on

there.

They can talk to him.

They can engage and love with him.

Whatever this resurrection life is,

there's continuity.

I have a

a promise for you, my friends.

On that day when he returns, you will

not be less bodily.

You will be resurrected from the dead.

Now, then I had all kinds of these

questions.

Well, okay, if I have bodies raised from

the dead, where is everybody going to

live on Earth?

And this has troubled me because I

started to understand that's exactly

what anastasis means, raised from the

dead.

And then Rick Watts, and it was one of

the greatest gifts at Regent College,

the prof would come up to you. You could

tell I was wrestling with this.

I mean, floating off into the

netherworld made sense, you know,

Neverland.

But actually resurrection in this world,

why would I even want that? This world

sucks.

And Rick came to me and he said, "Emery,

what's bothering you?"

And I told him exactly what I told you.

And he smiled and he said, "It's not

going to be anything like this even

though

we will have bodies."

You see that day

when resurrection comes

all of those hopes that are squished

all of those things you've longed for

that seem like they've been lost forever

all of those relationships that have

fallen

and seemingly are destroyed forever

are made new.

Sin no longer has a place.

You'll be in a place as he said he

looked at the flowers outside Regent and

he said, "Do you see those flowers?"

And he goes, "I imagine in the

resurrection they will be renewed and

they will be so beautiful we could stare

at them for days."

Whatever the resurrection is, it says

Paul says we are no mind can grasp

no heart can get what's coming for us.

So when you hear the promise of

resurrection life, it's not just like

this life moving on. It is every promise

that God has given will be fulfilled and

you will see people that you've lost.

And you will be

in a world

where your life, that part of you who's

always wanted to be there will be

fulfilled.

And those things you've grown about

yourself will be gone and you will be a

different person.

And it's his will

that you get that.

And he wants you to live now with that

truth

towards that.

Justice, love,

mercy. That's all it's going to be

about.

And the most incredible thing

in that world is we will have Jesus.

We will talk to him.

We will dine with him.

Tim Keller said, "But resurrection is

not just consolation, it is restoration.

We get it all back.

The love,

the loved ones,

the goods,

the beauties of this life,

but in new unimaginable degrees of glory

and joy

and strength."

The truth is, folks, we do live in a

broken world right now, and we're

broken.

And the good news of this, this is the

assurance we need to hear.

My will

is that I'm never going to lose any of

you. That none of you will get slip out

of my hand.

My will

is that I'm going to renew all things.

And when I renew all things, my will is

that you're there.

So, the next time you hear in that voice

that God doesn't care for you or you've

blown it too much,

read this text.

Speak it and believe it.

And then say, "Get behind me, Satan."

Cuz he's a liar and he's a thief.

And he's out to destroy your peace and

joy.

And then walk out of there with the Holy

Spirit and have joy no matter what your

circumstances because this is your end,

guaranteed.

I don't envy Ricky Gervais.

I pity him.

For his unbelief has no life.

And it certainly has no future life.

And if somebody here doesn't believe or

is watching online,

let me tell you right now,

you don't have to do anything else

but come to Jesus.

Believe in Jesus.

And his will will be done.

And you will be there at eternity.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, you are so good to us.

It's unbelievable that we can put our

trust in a God so worthy.

A God who promises and sealed his

promises on a cross.

On death on a cross that we would be

forgiven.

Who rose so that we would rise one day.

Pour your Holy Spirit, protect us, help

us to have the shields of salvation on

our heads.

Help us to know the truth of what your

will is cuz you said it clearly here.

This is the promise.

And for anyone doubting here, we ask

your Holy Spirit to pour over them.

Pour over them and remind them

that they are children of God and their

destiny is not death.

Their destiny is resurrection life in

your kingdom.

Amen.