My sermon notes for Sunday morning, October29th, these are my personal study notes and not a manuscript of the sermon. They are provided as an outline each week for our Tabernacle Church family. The church provides a live stream of the service each Sunday at 10:30 on Facebook. We also provide the services through YouTube by Sunday afternoon. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, Prayer List, and other resources at our Church Website.
John 6:35-40
INTRO
- The Lord’s Supper this morning.
- The Body. The blood
- The Cross. Our redemption.
- “I am the bread of life” is the first in a series of such declarations that are peculiar to this gospel (8:12; 10:7, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1[1]
- A PICTURE OF THE GOSPEL
JESUS – REDEMPTION
I AM
Moses – Exodus 3:14
He is God. He came to make all things new. He fulfills the OT promises.
- Manna – Jesus
- Moses – Jesus (True Redeemer)
- Temple – Jesus (where God meets man)
- Jacob’s ladder – Jesus (true stairway to heaven)
- Bronze serpent – Jesus (lifted up on the cross)
The Bread of life
- Just feet the 5000
- Bread is necessary for life
- Daily need (Give us our daily bread. Matt 6:9-13)
- He is signifying a spiritual bread
- COMPLETE SATISFACTION
- The HEART of the issue. Spiritual need
- Lost, Separated. Sin
- Matt. 4:4 – Man shall not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.
MAN – SEPARATION
Whoever comes to me… Believes in me
- The Gospel demands a response.
- Human responsibility
Repentance and Faith
- Whoever comes to me
- Shall never hunger
- Whoever believes
- Shall never thirst
GOD – RESTORATION
Because all that the Father gives me will come to me.
- The work of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel
- God’s Sovereignty
6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. This verse emphasizes the sovereign will of God in the selection of those who come to Him for salvation (cf. vv. 44, 65; 17:6, 12, 24). The Father has predestined those who would be saved (see notes on Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph. 1:3–6; 1 Pet. 1:2). The absolute sovereignty of God is the basis of Jesus’ confidence in the success of His mission (see note on v. 40; cf. Phil. 1:6). The security of salvation rests in the sovereignty of God, for God is the guarantee that “all” He has chosen will come to Him for salvation. The idea of “gives Me” is that every person chosen by God and drawn by God (v. 44) must be seen as a gift of the Father’s love to the Son. The Son receives each “love gift” (v. 37), holds on to each (v. 39), and will raise each to eternal glory (vv. 39, 40). No one chosen will be lost (see notes on Rom. 8:31–39). This saving purpose is the Father’s will that the Son will not fail to do perfectly (v. 38; cf. 4:34; 10:28, 29; 17:6, 12, 24).
John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), John 6:37.
From our human and limited perspective, we cannot see how divine sovereignty and human responsibility can work together; but from God’s perspective, there is no conflict. When a church member asked Charles Spurgeon how he reconciled these two, he replied, “I never try to reconcile friends.” It is the Father’s will that sinners be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9) and that those who trust Christ be secure in their salvation. Believers receive eternal life and Jesus can never lose them.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 312.
Whoever comes to me I will never cast out
- Adopted into the family of God.
- Loving, Nourishing, Cherishing.
This is God’s Will (plan)
- IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED!
I should lose nothing that He has given
- Hold, Protect
- Security and Perseverance
Raise it up on the last day
- Keeping the End in mind.
- Life in the midst of death
v. 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.
Looks and Believes
- His sovereignty and our faith
- “Intellectually harmonizing the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is impossible humanly speaking, but perfectly resolved in the infinite mind of God” John MacArthur
[1] Kenneth L. Barker, Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition: New Testament) (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 316.