41 At this the Jews 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 him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns 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 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
John MacArthur had several good points in his sermon, Appropriating the Bread of Life.
Jesus tells the crowd over and over again that your souls are hungry, God sent food, I'm that food
MacArthur makes the point that we all experience hunger, we recognize it for what it is, and we eat to satisfy that hunger. And if we're stuffed, the thought of any other food is nauseating and downright repulsive. It's the same thing spiritually. We do recognize a hunger within our souls. But if we fill it with worldly pleasures and love the evil we've stuffed ourselves with, the thought of the bread of life will be repulsive to us. I think the reverse would also be true - if we recognize our spiritual hunger for what it really is, and fill ourselves with Jesus, we will also be so full that everything evil will be repulsive to us.
He also points out that what we eat becomes a part of us. But we have to actually eat it. Same thing with the Bread of Life. We have to actually receive it. Christ may be presented to me in all His beauty and glory, I might even respect His perfect life, I might admire His wonderful person. I might be touched by His unselfish love. I might even cry real tears over His death on the cross. But it's only when I take Him in that He comes into me and dwells in me and becomes what I am.
He also points out that eating is personal. You can't eat for anybody else, and nobody else can eat for you. Same thing spiritually. You can't make that choice for someone else, and nobody can make that choice for you. It's personal.
And Jesus promises that if we eat the Bread of Life, we will receive abundant life (v53), eternal life (v54) and a bodily resurrection (v54), and we become one with Him (v56)
V44 is another one of those election verses. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Same with yesterday's passage in v37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
In John 10:26-27 it says but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
John Piper says (emphasis mine) The decisive cause of whether we believe on Jesus, whether we hear his voice and follow him is: Are we part of his flock? Are we “of God”? There is a decisive act of God to make us part of his flock; and because we are part of his flock, we hear the voice of Jesus and believe. “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me” (verse 27) is the same as saying: All that the Father gives me will come to me (6:37), and those whom the Father draws come to me (6:44). When we come to Jesus, we come voluntarily and freely. We want to come. And behind that change in us is a decisive work of the Father...
If we come to Jesus, it is because the Father drew us—which none of us deserves. And if we don’t come to Jesus, it is because the Father left us in our rebellion—which all of us deserve. And there is no fatalism in the Bible. We are responsible to come to Jesus. He is calling you to come right now.
God's election. Man's responsibility to choose. Both preached as biblical truth. We cannot understand how they intersect, but we believe they do, because God's Word says it is true.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 6:60-71
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