Eating is Believing

Eating is Believing

John 6:35-59

Main Idea: Jesus is the Bread of Life for today and tomorrow; therefore, come and eat.

I. Drawn by the Father (6:35-48)

“Jesus’ confidence does not rest in the potential for positive response amongst well-meaning people. Far from it: his confidence is in his Father to bring to pass the Father’s redemptive purposes: All that the Father gives me will come to me. Jesus’ confidence in the success of his mission is frankly predestinarian.”

~ D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (PNTC)

Summary of the section:

  1. The Father gives a specific group of people to the Son.

  2. The Son comes down from Heaven to do the Father’s will.

  3. The Father’s will is for the Son to lose none of them but raise them on the last day.

  4. These people come to the Son by looking at him and believing.

  5. The Son gives them eternal life.

  6. The Son will raise them on the last day.

  7. No one can come to the Son unless the Father who sent the Son draws them.

II. Sustained by the Son (6:49-59)

John 6:40: 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.

John 6:54: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

“Yahweh is Lord of History, who orchestrates and arranges the world as he pleases. He is never faced with a world that is not of his own making, and so does not need to adjust to it. Rather, he arranges the world to be just the sort of world he wishes to speak into.”

~ Peter Leithart, Creator

“Throughout chapters 2 and 3, the author carefully monitors the man’s ongoing relationship with his Creator through the theme of eating. At first, God’s blessing and provision for the man are noted in the words: ‘from all the trees of the garden you may freely eat’ (2:16), recalling the good gifts in chapter 1 and the pronouncement that all was then ‘very good’ (1:31). Then, in chapter 3. It was precisely over the issue of ‘eating’ that the tempter raised doubts about God’s ultimate goodness and care for the man and his wife (3:1-3). Finally, the man and the woman’s act of disobedience in Chapter 3 is simply though thoughtfully described as ‘she ate it … and he ate it.’ It is no surprise, then, that the author calls attention to precisely the aspect of eating in his description of the judgment on the man: (vs. 17). Such a focus on eating. Which seems to dominate the author’s depiction of the Fall, is connected with the author’s interest elsewhere in the importance of eating and its association with humankind’s relationship to God.”

~ John Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative

Isaiah 55:1-3: 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.

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