What Is Believing? (Jn 6:48-71) Intro: Believing, we can have life in Jesus' name See Jn 20:31, 6:29, 3:16, 1:12.
Exposition 1. What does it mean to believe? (v48-59) a. Coming to Jesus (6:35,37,44,45,65,69, cf 6:26)
b. Eating & drinking Jesus (6:50-56) Calvin: "Faith alone is the mouth & the stomach of the soul. The result of such faith is that Jesus abides with the eater & the eater with Jesus."
Application: Difficulty & necessity of believing in Jesus Our entire lives, therefore, are to be redefined, redirected, & indeed, recreated, because we believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And faith is "the hand" by which we lay hold of Christ (Heb 6:18); "the eye" by which we look to him (Jn 3:14-15; Heb 12:2); "the mouth" by which we feed on him (Jn 6); & "the foot" by which we run to him (Prov 18:10).
Question: Is Jesus speaking about the Lord's Supper? No; but Jesus is saying the same thing in the Lord's Supper as he's saying here in Jn 6. Do not misunderstand like all the rest (Jn 2:20-21;3:3-5;4:14-15;6:52).
2. How do men respond to Christ? (v60-71) a. Some turn away in unbelief & perish (6:60-66) The more they understood, the less they liked about Jesus.
b. Some cling to Christ & live (6:67-69) The disciples confess that their lives, now & forever, are bound up with this man who's come from heaven & demonstrated it by his unlimited power.
c. Some follow insincerely & try to hedge their bets (6:70-71) There've always been people who, for some reason or another, want to be known as Christians, but whose loyalty is not given to Christ.
Conclusion We see here three responses, two destinations, but only one hope. What's yours? |