Sermon: The Better Exodus with the Better Moses (Part 4) John 6:30-40
The Better Exodus with the Better Moses (Part 4)
John 6:30-40
Primary Truth Taught- Jesus’ ministry parallels Moses’ ministry proving that He is the Messiah/Prophet who was to come into the world.
Introduction
Deuteronomy 18:15–19 (ESV)
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
We are back at it again. We’ll see today the crowd that followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee. Remember why they followed Him? They are following Jesus not because they want Him and see Jesus as their treasure but because they see Jesus as useful. They want more stuff and more food not more Jesus.
John 6:26 (ESV)
26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
I want us to consider the truth of this passage today. There is an old saying that seeing is believing. However, that old saying is not true. Seeing is not believing. In fact, the very opposite is true, believing is seeing.
Today, we’re going to look at the same two groups we looked at last time. There is the crowd and there are the disciples. One group sees all the signs, miracles and healings of Jesus and this group remains unbelievers, they see and do not believe. Then there is the second group that believes and then sees and experiences the same thing as the first, however, because they believe, they see past the physical to the spiritual.
What is the difference? Why do the disciple believe and then see and the other group in seeing they do not believe?
Human Need Met
We must see past the blessings of God to the treasure of God. We must fight for belief. We must so order our lives that Christ becomes and remains all satisfying and all precious to us.
John 6:29 (ESV)
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
The fight for faith is a battle in which we all must engage so that this world does not become our treasure but Christ does.
Hear God’s Word for us today…
John 6:30–40 (ESV)
30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 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. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 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. 40 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.”
- Those Who See and Don’t Believe
30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
This crowd saw and experienced the miracles of Jesus firsthand. They ate the bread and watched as the sick were made well. They listened to Jesus teach and watched Him as He walked through the towns. They were part of His early ministry.
Look at verse 30…
30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
Why did they say that? I think the answer is rather simple.
Jesus, we would see and believe if you gave us more of that freshly created bread of Yours. You see what they were trying to do? They are trying to coerce Jesus into baking some more bread. Moses gave them bread in the wilderness…the meaning is that if You are greater than Moses, if You’re the prophet to come then You must be able to do better than Moses. He gave our fathers bread for 40 years while they were in the wilderness and so far, Jesus we’ve only been given one day’s worth. If you can give us more then we’ll believe.
Jesus very quickly corrects their lack of Scriptural knowledge. They were mistaken when they thought it was Moses who gave them the bread. It wasn’t Moses but God the Father. The manna was not about bread but it was about God. What should they’re reaction have been when the manna fell? Praise God, God is feeding us, God is leading us, God is caring for us, praise be to God!
That was not their reaction. Rather than praising God for His care they grumbled.
To show that this crowd is much like the crowd who followed Moses, John makes a very clear comparison…
John 6:41 (ESV)
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
Just like those who grumbled in the wilderness when God sent bread from heaven, this crowd grumbles when God sends the Bread of Life down from heaven. The comparison is quite amazing, both grumble at God’s provision.
This is the manifestation of their unbelief. They grumble just like their fathers did in the wilderness. They have the same unbelieving hearts and they react the very same way.
33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Do you understand what Jesus is telling the crowd and telling us? If my works are so amazing and miraculous what must I be like? If the finger of God that gives so great a provision of bread, what must God Himself be like?
By faith we must see that what God gives us in Christ is of infinite value.
I’m afraid that there are many today who think they are Christians who may not be. This passage shows us that the crowd followed Jesus they desired Him. They left their normal daily activities to spend weeks and months and some years with Jesus. They walked those hot dirty paths with Christ only to be told that their efforts were working for bread that perishes. Some were even called disciples but when they learned that Jesus came to give eternal life and not wealth and power in this life they left and followed Him no more. They saw the miracles and tasted the bread and wanted that more than they wanted Christ.
Are there things in your life you want more than Jesus? Are there things you chase after more than Jesus?
So here is a crowd who followed Jesus and sacrificed much to do so only to be disappointed and leave in the end. Did the mission of Jesus fail? Did the Gospel fall short?
Sir give us this bread. Sir be like Moses and give us more bread. Sir, it’s been a day now since our last meal, give us bread…To them the feeding of the 5000 was just about getting a free meal and nothing more.
- Seeing They Do Not See
35 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. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
Our Lord makes a very clear statement now. Now we see the manna discourse finding its end. Jesus is the end of the manna and bread teaching. My Father gave your fathers manna not Moses and my Father has sent down another Manna…Me! Jesus now tells us when we read about the manna in Exodus and Numbers we are to think of the better manna, namely, Jesus Himself. When we read the account of the feeding of the 5000 we are to think that if this miracle is so amazing how infinitely greater is Jesus Himself, the true Bread that gives life.
Here’s why we do not do altar calls in our church. Modern day churches have twisted the meaning of coming to Jesus. Now, most associate coming to Jesus as coming forward at the end of the service. That is completely unbiblical. Coming to Christ happens inside a person not something they do. Something we do is a work and salvation is not by works.
Salvation comes when we see Jesus as all satisfying. When the sinner finds in Christ more joy than the sin they so desire. That’s why Jesus uses images to teach us what coming to Him is really all about.
This image is bread. To this crowd who sought after bread He is the Bread of life. He is the One who gives eternal life not simply sustain life for a day like the manna did.
So many today have reduced coming to Jesus to an acknowledgement of a theological truth or making a decision to follow Jesus or coming to the front of the church. Coming to Christ is believing all He is and all He said.
Coming to Christ happens when God opens the heart to believe and to receive the Lord Jesus.
I want us to see that while belief is mandatory, true belief or faith is not possible for anyone on their own.
Here’s what the Bible tells us…
Romans 3:10–12 (ESV)
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Here is a truth we must see. Jesus tells us that whoever comes to Him will be eternally satisfied, eternally fed, eternally quenched and specifically eternally alive. Whoever believes in Him will be eternally saved. Giving the invitation to believe falls on deaf ears if that’s all there is. If there is just the plea to come to Christ there will be no response that is genuine. God must also be working to bring the hearer to life.
John 7:37–38 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus teaches us that coming to Him is believing all He says and is. The two parallel statements in John 6:35 are telling us the same thing…
whoever comes to me shall not hunger,
whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
So we come to Jesus by believing in everything He is and says. This is called saving faith.
Here’s the catch. Jesus says that all who come to Him will find eternal life. The Bible tells us that none come to Jesus. There are none who seek after God. So, lets be biblical and clear. If there is only the call to come to Christ no one would be saved. Praise be to God there is not only the gospel call but God grants the ability to respond to that call.
We must acknowledge the fact that no one can come to Jesus on their own. They are first dead in trespasses and sin and being dead spiritual they are unable and unwilling. The Bible is clear that people left to their own ways not only can’t come to Jesus because they are spiritually dead and all they see are earthly pleasures but this dynamic causes them not to want to come to Jesus. The reality is that they do not see Jesus as all sufficient and all valuable. The crowd represents all lost people who are spiritually dead and have no eyes to see or ears to hear. So, seeing they did not see and hearing they did not hear…to quote Jesus on another occasion.
If all we had was God’s offer of salvation then Jesus’ ministry and death would have been an utter failure. He would have come and died on the cross and no one would ever have been saved. With man is always eternal death and failure.
Aren’t you glad that our salvation is not up to us? Aren’t you glad that God took the lead? There is another part of the equation. Sin equals eternal death to all. BUT GOD…
- Those Who Believe and See
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 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. 40 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 one of the passages that teach us the wonderful life-giving doctrine of election.
Verse 37 shows us the two sides of coming to Christ. There is God’s part and then there is our part. We must be careful here not to allow one to overshadow the other because they both are equally true. In our man-centered modern church the emphasis is given to our role in coming to Christ. However, the Bible is very clear that God plays the initial and most vital role in salvation.
God’s Part…
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me…that’s how it works and that’s how it’s seen in the Bible. The doctrine of election is glorious. It’s the means that God grants sinners the ability to come to Jesus. All God has elected or chosen to save will come to Jesus…no more and no less. You see salvation from start to finish is a work of God.
Election is an act of God before the creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure.[1]
I want you to notice that the heading for the third point here is those who believe and then see. We cannot come to Jesus or we cannot receive Him by faith until God first works to bring us to life and God has already chosen who those people will be.
The doctrine of election is God’s part. It is in the council of the Trinity. God alone is in charge of election. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me
John 1:12–13 (ESV)
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 6:44 (ESV)
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Man’s Part…
and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
Of all that the Father gives to the Son as His inheritance, as His people, all of those will come to Christ. Jesus tells us that all who do He will gladly received with open arms and with great rejoicing. Jesus will never turn away a sinner who has been awakened by God and sees in Christ an all-sufficient Savior.
So, God’s part is to elect and man’s part is to receive Jesus. Here the good part all who are awakened come to Jesus.
I want to finish this morning by, I pray, giving you more confidence in your salvation. I want everyone here today who have come to Christ biblically to have complete assurance of their salvation.
- God the Father gives His Son a people…[2]
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me
John 6:44 (ESV)
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:65 (ESV)
65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
- Because God the Father Gives Them to the Son, They Come
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me
All whom God gives the Son will receive Him, Believe on Him, come to Him and any other way you want to say it. All who belong to Jesus will hear His voice as His sheep they will follow Him they will love Him and depend on Him they will find treasure in Him they will find life in Him they will eat the bread of life and drink from the eternal well.
You came to Jesus because God gave you to Jesus.
Some will say yeah but what about my freedom what about my will? The truth is before we were slaves to sin. Before Christ you have no freedom, you’re enslaved and chained to sin. Sin is your taskmaster; you are a bondservant to sin. Then God opens our eyes and we see the glory of Christ and we freely run to Jesus.
C. Those Who are Given to Jesus and Come to Him are Kept
John 6:39 (ESV)
39 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.
We should see what’s going on here in this verse. The Father elects and gives the believer to the Son and Jesus says He will never cast us out. Jesus will keep us for all eternity. The Father gives and the Son keeps.
- The Giving and the Keeping are the Sovereign Will of God
Notice how many times the word will is used here…Jesus came to do God’s will…its God’s will that Jesus looses nothing… and it’s God’s will that everyone who receives Jesus will have eternal life.
John 6:38–40 (ESV)
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 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. 40 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.”
Why won’t Jesus cast us out? It’s the Father’s will that He doesn’t. There is nothing stronger and more stable than the will of God. Whatever the Father wills comes to pass.
Isaiah 46:8–10 (ESV)
8 “Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
- Why Does the Verse Speak in the Neutral Sense?
39 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
When God gives people to the Son He gives the entire person to the Son. The Son receives body and soul.
We are elected by the Father.
We are given by the Father to the Son
We are kept by the Son
And We are raised by the Son at the last day.
There comes a time when the believer, the one given and kept dies. How do we know that the Son, Jesus Christ keeps those who are believers and have died?
Listen to me; this will add so much to your assurance of salvation. Jesus so keeps us that He makes a promise to raise it up at the last day. What is the it? Jesus so keeps us that even our dead and decaying bodies will be raised. It will be raised at the last day. Beloved if you should die before Jesus returns He will still be keeping you. When that day comes your body will be raised and glorified and will be united to your soul because the Son has kept you safe and secure and He looses nothing, not your soul and not your body.
Application
Receiving Jesus and coming to Him is the soul made alive by God chasing after the most satisfying, life-giving person there is. All who the Father gives the Son, will come to Him. At the same time we are required to receive and come to Him. Have you come to Jesus? Have your eyes been opened and have you been made alive by God to see the all-satisfying Savior or do you still just want free bread?
I’m asked this question some when the doctrine of election is taught: How do I know I’m elect or not? The answer is very simple and it’s found in this passage.
John 6:37 (ESV)
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me,
If you come to Jesus you are elect.
So the reality is we do not need to trouble ourselves with am I elect or not…are my children elect or not? Those questions are in God’s realm not ours. Our concern is are you currently a believer? Are you currently growing as a believer? We must fight and battle for maturity as a believer.
Colossians 3:5 (ESV)
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Declaration of Grace
In the mercy and grace of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for His sake God forgives us all our sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ He gives the power to become the children of God and gives to them the Holy Spirit. May the Lord, who has begun this good work in us, bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
[1] Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem 670
[2] This section comes from a sermon on John 6:30-40 by John Piper
