Come, Eat, and Live

Come, Eat, and Live

John 6:35-59

Main Idea: Jesus is the satisfying, sovereign, and sustaining bread through His sacrificial life to all those that come to Him.

I. Satisfying Bread

John 6:35: 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.”

“The crowds are ready to believe that Jesus can give them what they want but they have not yet seen that He is what they need.”

~ Lesslie Newbigin, The Light Has Come

“Many follow Christ for loaves, but few for love; many follow him to be useful, not to be precious.”

~ Thomas Brooks

Jesus is satisfying bread because:

  1. There is no other bread like Him 

  2. He’s bread given from the Father (v. 32)

  3. He is the true bread from Heaven (v. 32)

 John 6:36: But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

II. Sovereign, Gracious Bread

John 6:37: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 6:44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

There are 2 impossibilities in 6:44

  1. No one can come to Jesus apart from God drawing 

  2. Jesus failing to raise up on the last day every person that God draws to Him

Genesis‬ ‭37‬:‭4‬: ‭But when his [Joseph’s] brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated Joseph and could not speak peacefully to him.

John 6:45: It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

“I asked for questions. One lady, in particular, was troubled. She said, "This is the most awful thing I've ever heard! You make it sound as if God is intentionally turning away men who would be saved, receiving only the elect!" I answered her in this vein: "You misunderstand the situation. You're visualizing that God is standing at the door of Heaven, and men are thronging to get in that door. And God says to various ones, 'Yes, you may come, but not you, or you, or you—yes, you may come, and you, and you, but not you, etc.' The situation is hardly this! Rather, God stands at the door of Heaven with His arms outstretched, inviting all to come. Yet all men without exception are running in the opposite direction towards Hell as hard as they can go. So God, in election, graciously reaches out and stops this one, and that one, and this one over here, and that one over there, and effectually draws them to Himself by changing their hearts, making them willing to come. Election keeps no one out of Heaven who would otherwise have been there, but it keeps a whole multitude of folks out of Hell who would otherwise have been there! Were it not for election, Heaven would be an empty place, and Hell would be bursting at the seams!" That does put a different complexion on the thing, doesn't it?”

~ Mark Webb, What Difference Does It Make?

III. Sustaining Bread

 John 6:37: ...whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

“They have been given over to Christ, and committed to His charge and care.”

~ George Hutcheson, Exposition of John

Jesus will not lose but keep:

1. The quantity of every soul and body of the believer

John 6:50: This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

2. The quality of our souls

IV. Sacrificial Bread

John 6:51: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Isaiah 53:5: But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities.

Revelation 7:9-10: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Hebrews 2:13: Behold, I and the children God has given me.

“And when the census shall be read of all the children of the living God, not one of the blood-bought and blood-washed shall be absent. They shall all come to Christ in heaven as they all come to Christ on earth”

~ Charles Spurgeon

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