John chapter 6, verses 41 through 51. Hear the word of the Lord. So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 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. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. 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. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your holy word today. Thank you for Jesus, the true bread of heaven. Whom if a man or woman will believe in him, they will have eternal life. Lord, open up this portion of your word to us today and instruct us from your scriptures, we ask in Jesus, our Savior's name. Amen. There's some things in the world that have a powerful effect on people. Some of these things are good, some of these things are bad. Let's talk about some good effects, like certain drugs have been discovered that really help people. For example, in 1928, a band named Alexander Fleming is given credit for rather accidentally discovering penicillin, which was the first antibiotic developed for treating bacterial infections such as pneumonia and venereal diseases. This drug has saved millions of lives over the last few decades. But today I want us to consider the powerful effect on humanity, not of a medicine, but of a person. That is Jesus, our Lord, Jesus of Nazareth. Last week we saw, from John 6, 22 through 40, that Jesus is the true bread from heaven who gives eternal life to those who believe in him. Today the main idea is a related idea And that is that Jesus is the bread from heaven who gives life to the world. Now, you remember, as we were looking at last week, we considered the giving of manna and the wilderness that God sent to the Jewish people after they had escaped from Egypt for 40 years. Every morning they would wake up and there would be this white substance on the grass like dew, and they would gather it up, take it into their house, and cook it in various ways, and it sustained them with nourishing food for 40 years. But it was a temporary type of bread. After they arrived in the Promised Land, it stopped. Well, Jesus has been telling them that he, the bread that he gives, that he is, is not temporary, but it's true bread from heaven. He said, in verse 35, that we looked at last week, he said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Jesus had been telling the people that he was the bread of life. He was likening himself to the staple of life that people who lived in ancient Palestine during those days had for their basic food substance. It was common bread made from barley, for the poor people, or wheat. It was the basis of their diet. Jesus was saying, in a similar way but a spiritual meaning, that he himself is the person who satisfies not physical hunger, but the spiritual hunger of a person's soul. And those who believe in him, he keeps them alive spiritually. They have life, true spiritual life that will never end. They're kept alive and nourished by this living bread, this true bread from heaven, and this bread is the Lord Jesus Christ. By believing in him, As one's Lord and Savior, they receive life that will not end. Well, the average lifespan in America now is 77.28 years. Back in 1960, it was 70 years old. So you can see that over the last 54 years, if I'm doing my math correctly, that better health practices have led to a longer lifespan. But in the end, death still wins. It gets everybody. It gets you and it gets me. But there is a way out. There is an escape route and it's through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, this is such a great message of Christianity. Nothing like it is seen in the world. You remember that after her brother died, Lazarus, Jesus told his sister Martha, in John chapter 11, he said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this, Martha? She said to him, yes, Lord. I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. Hopefully, we can join in with Martha and say, yes, Lord, I believe also that you are the Son of God, that you are the resurrection and the life. Well, our passage today is telling us once again that Jesus is the true bread. He came from heaven and he gives eternal life to those who believe in him. Now today, I want us to look at this passage. Five things I want to bring out here. First of all, this bread that gives life, it's heaven sent, but it's earthly connected. And it's given to those, this bread that gives life is given to those whom the Father draws to the Son. And this bread that gives life must be believed and it must be eaten And this bread that gives life cancels the power of death. And this bread that gives life is the flesh of Jesus Christ. Well, let's first of all consider the bread that gives life is heaven sent, but earthly connected. They were grumbling about him in verse 41 because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They knew Jesus, they knew his family. He was in Capernaum on the north or on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. So they were familiar with his family. They knew his mother, his father, his brothers and his sisters. So they said, what do you mean, Jesus, you came down from heaven? We know who you are. You're a local person. But Jesus did come down from heaven. He came from a very high place. He came from heaven itself. You cannot come from a higher place. Well, what is heaven? It's where God dwells. It's the place of God's presence. It's the place where God has always been. There never was a time when God did not exist, when He was not alive in heaven. God had no beginning and no ending, as Psalm 90 says, Psalm 90, from everlasting to everlasting your God. Man's average existence in America is 77.28 years, but God's existence is unlimited. It is infinite. It's so everlasting that we cannot fully grasp It's everlasting, never-ending, always vibrant, always life-giving life. Let's read a bit about heaven. Jesus said He came from there. John 1, verses 1 through 3 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning. With God, all things came through him. Without him was not anything made that was made. The word here, as most of us know, is a reference to the second person, to the triune God, the Son of God, the one who reveals the invisible God to us. He's the living word. He speaks to us about God. He was always with God. In fact, He was God also. In heaven, there was God the Father and God the Son, and also, not mentioned here, but in other places, God the Holy Spirit. So Jesus came down from heaven. In heaven, He was with the Father and with the Spirit. They existed in perfect fellowship, perfect love. They ruled all things in heaven and the universe and their authority. But then something happened and the divine counsels of God, God the Son, the second person was sent down to earth. He came down from earth. How did this happen? John 1.14 says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The statement that Jesus came down from heaven carries a lot of meaning in it. Heaven's a place of perfect harmony, light, love and truth, but what is earth? Earth is a place of disharmony, of darkness, of hatred, of lies. Jesus came down from a place of perfection and beauty to a place of corruption and ugliness and sin. Why would anybody want to do that? because God the Father sent him on a mission. He came from a place where there was not a single spot of evil to a place that is inundated in evil. It was no light matter the very fact that Jesus, the second person of the triune God, the Son of God, was willing to do this. This was an act of great condescension. that is of his willingness to lay aside his heavenly glory and take upon himself a human body and live among sinners. It was an act of great humility. It's like you or I would be willing to humble ourselves and become a little insect, an ant, that crawls on the ground and lives in holes. The little creatures that get into your picnic lunch, on the blanket, if you're not careful. It's like if you agreed to become an ant and you lived among the ants, and you spent your days looking for food and carrying it back to the ant colony. Jesus didn't have to humble himself and come to earth, but he did it. Galatians 4.4 says this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. At just the right time in human history, God sent His Son, His eternal Son, and what does it say? He was born of a woman. You see, the eternal Son was connected with humanity. So Christ is heaven sent, but He's also earthly connected. What I mean by that is he took upon himself our full humanity, so in the same way he was heaven sent, he was earthly connected. He left heaven, he came to earth, he fully connected with us, and the fact that he took upon himself our exact human nature, exactly like us, except without sin. His origin coming to earth was different from ours, because his mother Mary was a virgin, and she was made pregnant by the Holy Spirit. The angel Gabriel came to her in Luke 1.35 and said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. He came down from heaven, and this is how he arrived on planet Earth. What's happening here? We read about this in 1 John 4, 9. God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Had He not sent His Son, we would not have life. 1 Timothy 3, 16 says, Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness, the mystery of God. He was manifested in the flesh. God manifested in the flesh. What's happening here? We read in John 3.16, God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 6, I believe, is an expanded elaboration of John 3.16, giving us more detail about the way and the purpose that God sent his son to the earth. He was heaven sent, but he was earthly connected. He was connected to his mother, Mary, quite literally in her womb through the umbilical cord. He received life and nourishment from her. Can you imagine the humility of the eternal word humbling himself to this state? He became a full human being, so the only thing that kept him alive was the umbilical cord that connected him to his mother's body. This is a true picture of the extent of Jesus' humiliation of full deity to adopting full humanity. Let me remind you, as I've done on several occasions, that in becoming a man, Jesus did not lose a single ounce of his deity. He always remained 100% God when he took upon himself 100% humanity. This is what we call the mystery of the incarnation. It's the great Christian doctrine of the incarnation. There's no other religion on earth that has this doctrine, this reality. It's unique to Christianity because Jesus is unique. And him alone is salvation. There's no name given under heaven anywhere on earth in the whole history of the human race by which a person can be saved from their sins except in the name of Jesus Christ. that reminds you of what Hebrews 2.14 says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. The Son of God took upon himself our flesh and blood so that he could die. in our place and destroy the work of the devil. Jesus Christ is heaven sent, but he's earthly connected. In John 6, verse 43 through 45, Jesus answered them and said, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 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. Second thing I want us to look at today is that the bread who gives life gives life. This life is given to those whom the Father draws to His Son. Verse 44 says, no one can come to me unless the Father draws him. Jesus is saying here that no one born on earth can come to Him. No one has the ability to come to Him. Why is this? Because all of us are alive physically, but we're born out of our mother's womb spiritually dead. We're alive physically, we're living and breathing and walking and talking, but in our inner being, in our hearts, we're dead spiritually as far as God's concerned. We're separated from God. We're guilty from Adam's sin, as well as our own sin, the older, the longer we live. We don't have the life of God with us. We have human life, but not God's life. And so we don't have the desire, the ability to come to God, to turn from our sins. unless something happens, unless God awakens us spiritually and gives us that ability. Why does one person believe in Jesus and another person does not? It's because one, the one who believes, has been awakened from his spiritual death and given spiritual life. This is the invisible work of the Holy Spirit. It happens to those whom the Father draws to the Son. This drawing work of the Father to the Son is accomplished through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Let me give you a couple of illustrations as to how essential the drawing work of the Father is. We have a little infant in the cradle. He reaches out and wants to come into his father's arms, but he can't do it. He doesn't have the strength. The father has to pick him up. The father has to draw him up. Then he can come to his father's arms. The father has to draw him up. Otherwise, he cannot come. Take another example. You have a big giant ship out on the ocean. There's a storm. There's a man who falls overboard in the storm. And he's desperately trying to get back. But he can't climb up the side of the hull of the giant ship. It's too slippery. It's too steep. He just falls back into the water. The only way he can be rescued is if a life buoy is thrown to him and those on board draw it up and rescue him. Otherwise, he'll perish. So, likewise, unless the father draws a person to Jesus, he will never come to Jesus. Now, this is not complimentary to human pride. We like to think we had something to do with our salvation. It's God's decision to save us. He enables us to respond. Jesus repeats this reality in verse 65. He says, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. The Father has to do something. The only way we can explain as to why a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ is if the Father It's God that has to pull us out of our captivity to sin and Satan. Out of the stormy seas that we were drowning in. And to set our feet squarely on the strong deck of the ship of salvation. There's an old gospel song that goes something like this, if I remember the words. I'm saved, saved, saved from this world of sin. bought by the blood of Jesus. I've been born again, hallelujah. I'm so glad that I found out He would bring me out by His saving power. That's right. He has to bring us out by His saving power. We call this the doctrine of effectual calling. It means the call of the Spirit. which issues forth from the drawing of the Father, it's always effective. It always accomplishes its purpose and goal. When the Father draws a person and calls him by the Spirit, that person will always come. It is the invisible work of God in the life of a human being. Now there's two kinds of calls that go out to humanity. One we call the general call, and one we call the effectual call. The general call goes out when the gospel is preached. When a preacher, we'll say, walks into a town, maybe in India or Africa where people gather at the town square, and he stands up against to preach the gospel, there may be 10, 20, 50 people listening. The general call goes out. God sent his son. He did great miracles. He was raised from the dead. He ascended to heaven. He's at the father's right hand. He died for sins. He's our only hope of salvation. The call goes out. But at the same time, there's an invisible call. when the gospel is preached. The Holy Spirit works within this invisible call. Matthew Barrett describes the general call and the effectual call like this. The calling of God is both general, the gospel call that goes out indiscriminately to all, and the particular, the effectual, spiritual call wherein the Father calls the elect to the Son the power of the Holy Spirit, it's simultaneous with regeneration. So the effectual call of God never fails to accomplish its purpose. We can see this in a physical way. When Jesus called his disciples to follow him, it always amazes me when I read this. Listen to Mark 1, 16 and following. Passing along the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Now how many of us would follow a stranger who told us that? But these men did. They were being called by the Lord Jesus Christ. Immediately they left their nets and followed him and going on a little further. He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother Who were in their boat mending their nets? Immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him Jesus called to his disciples was effectual They didn't hesitate they followed him That's a physical picture of the effectual call of the Spirit when the Father draws people to his Son by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus is talking about here today. Paul talks about this in theological terms. In Romans 8, verse 30, he says, those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. You see, before the calling woe is out, there's a predestination that happens in the eternal counsels and plan of God before the creation of the world. And in time, when the call comes, the effectual call, the person answers. Because the work of the Spirit is awakening him or her to Jesus Christ. Well, There's a third point here I want to bring out. And that is that the bread that gives life must be believed and eaten. Jesus says in verse 47, I believe it is, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. Now, how do you get eternal life? There's a qualification there. You have to believe. You can't say, oh, that's a nice story and go your way and forget about it. You have to believe it. And Jesus goes on to say in verse 50, this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I'm the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. So we have to eat. of the bread. We have to eat of Jesus Christ. He says, if anyone eats, he will live. We must eat of the bread. We must believe. We must respond. How do we respond to the call of God? Well, some people in Jerusalem over there at Pentecost heard the general call of the gospel that Peter was preaching, and evidently the Holy Spirit was calling them also. They said, what should we do? Here's Peter's answer, Acts 2.38. Repent. This is your response. Repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So this is how they were to demonstrate eating of Jesus Christ. They believe in him. They repent of their sins and they go into the waters of Christian baptism. Showing that they were serious about their belief in Jesus Christ and their commitment to follow him. Baptism is the chief way that we respond to the call of Jesus Christ. Titus chapter 3 verse 3 says this, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. So this washing of the Holy Spirit, this regeneration was happening. And these people in Jerusalem that day, they want to know, what can we do? How can we be saved? Peter said, repent, be baptized. You have to eat of Christ. You can't just walk away. from the feast of heavenly foods is set before you. We have to eat of it. We have to eat of Him. We have to take of Him. Paul, when he wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, he thanked God for them. Chapter 1, verse 2, saying he was praying for them. And when he prayed for them, he remembered something about them that was so evident to him. He says, I remembered your work of faith, and your labor of love, and your steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, For we know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. It was evident to Paul that God was doing something in these people's lives. Their lives were being changed. They went to work for the kingdom of God in faith. They labored in love. They had steadfastness of hope. So we must believe in Christ. Paul said in Philippians 2, verse 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. So God is working in His people At their initial salvation, He continues to work in our lives. And we work with Him. We devote ourselves to the guidance and ministry of His Spirit. Now, there's a fourth thing that I want to bring out here. The last thing here. And that's the last verse. Verse 51. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. So the bread that gives life cancels the power of death. Hebrews 10.10 says this, by that will, the will of God the Father, we've been sanctified that is set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This is fundamental to the Christian faith. There was an offering of a body, a physical body. Christ's suffering on the cross was necessary for the payment of our sins. He says, the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He didn't say it's my teaching, which is important, but it's my flesh. My death on the cross, that's what's gonna give you life. You all are complete persons, body, soul, and spirit. Jesus is saying, I came to die for you in the totality of your humanity, that's why I became a man. So that you can be redeemed and saved in the totality of your person. There's no other religion like Christianity. What it offers to the believer, a never-ending existence in the presence of God in our full humanity, spirit, soul, and body, resurrected. Hallelujah. Amen. The Buddhists don't have this hope. The Hindus don't have this hope. Isaiah. Well, let me go back to this. Colossians 1.22, Paul says, he has now reconciled you in the body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Paul stresses the reconciliation happens because of the body of his flesh through death. These bodies are important. They're gonna be rescued and saved and resurrected. We serve God in our bodies now. 2 Timothy 1.10, the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Hallelujah, there's life and immortality. that awaits those who believe and eat of the bread of heaven. Paul quotes from Isaiah 25.8. Isaiah 25.8 says, He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. Paul quotes that scripture in 1 Corinthians 15.54. He says, Death swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where's your victory? Oh, death, where's your sting? The sting of death is sin. That's what's killing us, right? Sin. The power of sin is the law. But, there's a big but here, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory, gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the bread that gives life. This bread that gives life is heaven sent, but it's earthly connected. It's given to those whom the Father draws to the Son. It's an effectual calling. If you're a believer and follower of Jesus Christ today, you owe him a great debt of gratitude, because he awakened you and me out of slumber of our sins into his eternal kingdom. If you're not sure whether you're a believer in Christ, whether he saved you, he gives a great promise here. He says, those who come to me, I'll never cast out. His arms are open for those who will come to him. seeking his salvation. And so, to have eternal life, we must believe in Christ, we must eat of him. Salvation is by faith through grace, with commitment that accompanies that. There must be response. And then, the bread that gives life produces life through Jesus' death. The necessity of Christ atoning death. What a great Savior. What a great salvation. Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven. He's the bread that gives life. Let's give thanks for Him and partake of Him continually. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for this true bread from heaven, the bread that gives life to those who believe. Lord, evermore feed us with this bread. Strengthen us with this bread. Cause our hearts and minds to rejoice in your love and peace through the living bread of Jesus Christ. Thank you for him. In Jesus' name, we pray.