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Proverbs 15:25-33
25 The LORD will destroy the house of the proud,
But He will establish the boundary of the widow.
26 The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, But the words of the pure are pleasant.
27 He who is greedy for gain troubles his own
house, But he who hates bribes will live.
28 The heart of the righteous studies how to
answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.
29 The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the
righteous.
30 The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, And a good report makes the bones
healthy.
31 The ear that hears the rebukes of life Will
abide among the wise.
32 He who disdains instruction despises his own
soul, But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.
33 The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom, And before honor is humility.
Father God, pour out you Holy Spirit to those that are dear
to us. Pierce their heart unto repentance and salvation. In
Jesus
name we pray, Amen!
Gospel of John 6:30-45
NKJV
Last week we left off with the people of
the crowd and Jesus conversing about working the works of God. Verse 29 they
ask what works they could do of God. They were good people based on human
standards and because of this they wanted to do what would please God. They
thought they could find favor with God by doing works instead of repenting and
accepting Jesus as their Saviour. This is so true today also. Many people are
very good people based on their outward actions of kindness, generosity, and
loving nature but may not have that personal relationship with Jesus that they
need. Many people compare their lifestyle according to other peoples lifestyle
and therefore deem themselves good in God’s eyes. How about you are you like
the people Jesus is talking to? Do you see yourself living a life based on
God’s Word or the actions of other people? Okay, enough said, let’s see how
this conversation goes and if Jesus can convince these people they need Him as
their Saviour.
30 Therefore
they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and
believe You? What work will You do?
A
sign they ask for after just being fed with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish the
evening before. Is this the same crowd that was on the other side of the lake?
Are the people that are asking for a sign, new to the crowd? Are these
Pharisees asking for a sign because they were always asking for a sign and then
when they would witness a miracle they still wouldn’t believe. Jesus just told
them to “believe on Him” in the previous verse, but completely ignored what He
said. The gross ignorance of the people was astounding to say the least! But is
it any better presently?
31 Our
fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'HE GAVE THEM BREAD FROM
HEAVEN TO EAT.'"
Do you remember this verse
from last week? John
6:26 Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because
you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
Jesus
tells these people they seek Him because they “ate of the loaves”. In this
verse the people are bringing up the fact that their forefathers ate manna in
the wilderness that Moses provided. So is this the sign they are looking for, Jesus
to provide them with food each day? For some reason these people are comparing Jesus
to Moses. They are replying that Moses had accredited himself as sent from God
by giving Israel the Manna, as stated in Psalm 78:24, and that he had fed upwards of several
millions of people for some 40 years.
The
Rabbis taught that the former Redeemer, Moses, caused Manna to descend from
Heaven for them, and that the latter Redeemer, the Messiah, would perform a
similar Miracle. So this is what they were bringing to the attention of Jesus.
They
seem to not understand that the entirety of the 78th Psalm proclaims an
indictment against Israel’s unbelief at the time of Moses, and Israel’s children
were doing exactly the same, in the time of Christ.
32 Then
Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you,
Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true
bread from heaven.
Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you
the bread from heaven;
Here Jesus is telling the people that Moses didn’t give the Israelites bread
from Heaven, it was God.
But My Father gives you the
true bread from heaven; With
this phrase Jesus is stating that the bread He is talking about is spiritual
bread from Heaven, Himself, the Messiah. It is bread that will nourish the
spirit of a person for eternity if they will believe. The manna of Moses time
was only to sustain physical life.
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and
gives life to the world."
Here
again Jesus introduces Himself as the Messiah, meaning the bread of God from
Heaven that gives life to anyone that will repent of their lifestyle, ask for
forgiveness of their sinful life that has separated them from God, and then
allows Jesus to take control of their life.
34 Then they
said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
Even
though Jesus keeps telling these people who He is, the miracles seen, and that
by believing they can have eternal life, they refuse to admit that Jesus is the
one that can provide this. They continue to try without Jesus, which is
impossible! This is the reason for all the man devised religions in the world,
as well as each individual’s homemade religion and personal way of Salvation.
Many
in the world, when asked the question concerning Christ and Eternal Life, will respond
by saying, “Yes I believe,” but then proceeding with some self belief ignoring
the Bible.
35 And Jesus
said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who
comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
People
eat bread to satisfy physical hunger and to sustain physical life. We can
satisfy spiritual hunger and sustain spiritual life only by a right
relationship with Jesus Christ. Just as bread must be eaten to sustain physical
life, Christ must be invited into our daily walk to sustain spiritual life. The
Word of God is the bread we need to feed on each day. If we don’t know the Word
of God and what it teaches we will always be led by our fleshly wants and
desires down that wrong path that takes us away from God.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not
believe.
Jesus is referring back to
what He said previously in John
5:40 But you
are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. This all goes back to the fall of Adam
and Eve and why these people wouldn’t believe Jesus, and people of today also
won’t believe. They were both deceived by Satan and this deception was handed
down to us through no fault of our own. Deception is still present today
causing the majority of people to believe a lie and not the truth. We have a
choice to believe the Word of God or the word of the world.
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who
comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
All that the Father gives Me; This refers to all whoever they may be,
whether Israelites, Gentiles, Pharisees, scoffers, harlots, drug addicts,
adulterers, etc. No one is turned away!
God enables those who do
believe, He draws them to Himself by His Word and Holy Spirit; “He opens their
hearts to understand the Scriptures Acts 16:14; and He grants to them repentance, Acts 11:18; 2Titus
2:25.
Will come to Me; This phrase is stating that they would
come to Him because they believed on Him. To come, implies our need of help
like being ill and needing a physician. We go to them because we have
confidence that he can help us overcome our illness, we trust the doctor. The
sinner comes to Jesus feeling that he is poor, and needy, and wretched, and
casts himself on His mercy, believing that he alone can save him.
And the one who comes to Me I will by
no means cast out; Everyone
that comes, that is, everyone that comes humbly and feeling that he is a lost
and ruined sinner. This invitation is open to anyone that will come. It shows
the unbounded mercy of God; and it shows, also, that the reason, and the only
reason, why men are not saved, is that they will not come to Christ. Of any
sinner it may be said that if he had been willing to come to Christ he might
have come and been saved. As he chooses not to come, he cannot blame God
because he saves others who are willing, no matter what their sins are, and they
are made partakers of everlasting life.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but
the will of Him who sent Me.
Jesus'
purpose was to do the will of God, not to satisfy His human desires. We should
have the same purpose.
Jesus
came as part of God’s plan of salvation. He gives hope to the lost that there
is something more spectacular than what we are living here on earth. It is
through Him that we can come to for this Blessed Hope, and only Him.
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He
has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
This is the will of the Father
who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing; Meaning everyone who believes in Him, or
all who become Christians.
Jesus
affirms here that He will grant those that remain faithful eternal life whether
alive or dead. The thought being is the Christian will die; his body return to dust;
yet he will not be destroyed. The Redeemer will watch over him, though in his
grave, and keep him till the resurrection of the just. This is affirmed of all
who are given to Him by the Father, everyone that believeth on him shall have
everlasting life.
Note:
With the human trait of choice whether saved or not saved, it does not mean
that once a person is saved they are always saved. Just as we have a choice to
come to God, we also have a choice of leaving God.
But should raise it up at the
last day; Meaning the
Day of Judgment. The Jews thought that the righteous would be raised up at the
appearing of the Messiah. Jesus directs them to a future resurrection, and
declares to them that they will be raised at the last day, the Day of Judgment.
It
is also believed and affirmed by some Jewish writers the wicked would not be
raised. Therefore, to speak of being raised up in the last day was the same as
to say that one was righteous, or it was spoken of as the special privilege of
the righteous. Here Jesus debunks another Jewish belief that doesn’t set well.
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who
sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise
him up at the last day."
Simply
put, anyone that sees or reads of the miracles Jesus performed, and believes in
Him will have eternal life, and will be raise up on the last day. What a
guarantee this is, alleluia! Those who put their faith in Christ will be
resurrected from physical death to eternal life with God when Christ comes
again (1 Colossians 15:52; 1
Thessalonians 4:16).
41 The Jews
then complained about Him, because He said, "I am
the bread which came down from heaven."
This
verse tells us the people completely understood what Jesus was saying, but
didn’t believe a word of it. They were murmuring which was one of the greatest
sins of the Jewish people dating back to the wandering in the wilderness. The
next verse tells us why.
42 And they
said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we
know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down
from heaven'?"
How Jesus was to come was all recorded in
Isaiah. Had they known Isaiah
7:14,
they would have understood the manner of His Birth; had they known Isaiah 9:1–2, they would have known that it had been
prophesied that the home of Jesus would be Galilee; had they known Isaiah 61:1, they would have known the type of
Ministry the Messiah was to have, which Jesus was fulfilling totally. These
people were not of the Word, even though they claimed to be; consequently, they
did not know Him, because they did not know what the Word said about Him.
43 Jesus
therefore answered and said to them, "Do not
murmur among yourselves.
Being
all knowing Jesus knew what they were thinking and saying. Their murmuring
showed their disapproval and rejection.
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.
The
thought is that all initiative toward Salvation is on the part of God toward
the sinner and not from the sinner himself. Without this “drawing of the
Father,” which is done by the Holy Spirit, no one could come to God, or even
have any desire to come to God. When God see a person seeking the truth with
their heart, He will draw them with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Again
Jesus states for the 3rd time in this chapter, He will raise up Born Again
Saints on the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT
BY GOD.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to
Me.
Jesus
was alluding to Old Testament , books of the Prophets, in which all people are
taught directly by God (Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:31-34). He was stressing the importance of
not merely hearing or reading, but learning and believing. We are taught
by God through the Bible, our experiences, the thoughts the Holy Spirit brings
to us, and relationships with other Christians. Are you open to God’s teaching?
Do you live by all of what the Word of God states?
“Shall be all taught by God”, this explains the previous verse. It is
by the teaching of his Word and Spirit that men are drawn to God. This shows
that it is not compulsory, and that there is no obstacle in the way but a
strong voluntary ignorance and unwillingness.
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created that
are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All
things were created through Him and for Him.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God."
The Lighthouse
Full Gospel Church
Sinners Prayer; Pray this, and if you
believe it with your heart, Jesus will save you!
“Lord Jesus I know I am a
sinner. I confess my sins to you; I am
sorry for my sins; I repent (Meaning, desiring to turn from a sinful
lifestyle.) of all my sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness. I believe that only you can forgive sin. I commit my life to you and ask you to come
into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from
my sinful lifestyle and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and
right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you are
the Son of God; the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and my
Savior.” I believe this and have faith
you will make a new person out of me, by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in my
heart and lead me in a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.”
(John
3:16,17; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8;
10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10;
1 John 5:11-14; 1:6-10) (Sin: Rom. 1:22-32; Gal.
5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-7)
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