Chapter 6 began with the feeding of the 5,000, but develops into an amazing chapter describing how you’re to come to Jesus for life. That is, you’re to come to Jesus for eternal life, and you will then be united to Jesus for all of this life and eternity.
But in some ways it’s a hard teaching, because people like to think they can make their own way to God, to eternal life. Many people have vague ideas of what heaven is, and what life after death might be like. But Jesus is crystal clear: Eternal life is only to be found in him without exception, and is available to everyone who comes to him without distinction.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church Wirral in August 2024. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Jesus came to you from heaven (41-51)
Jesus was quite clear with the people he was speaking to in John 6: He said he’d come down from heaven.
Read John 6:37-40.
Not only has he come down from heaven but he’s also telling you the will of the Father:
- That Jesus would keep all those the Father had entrusted to him, to raise them at the last day, and:
- That everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, raised at the last day. You!
But Jesus said all that in a synagogue in Capernaum – seemingly his home town as an adult. So they want to know where this local lad is getting his ideas! Read John 6:41-42.
But think about that for a moment. He has fed 5,000 men with next to nothing. They know he’s been healing and teaching and doing extraordinary things. Chapter 5 was all about how Jesus’ miracles were really signs to show that he’s been sent by God into the world. And yet these people are so fixed in what they think they know that they won’t listen to him – and see they’re wrong.
How can you know that Jesus was sent from heaven? By his miraculous signs – the biggest of all being his death and resurrection. That happened, and the universe became changed place.
But we’ve already had that teaching in John’s gospel, and Jesus doesn’t revisit it here. Instead, he explores for us why some people believe and others don’t.
Only those drawn by the Father
Read John 6:43-44. That’s an amazing statement in v44. You feel that you’re seeking truth, thinking about God, being drawn to Jesus. All the while, it’s God the Father drawing you! And you wouldn’t go to Jesus if the Father didn’t draw you!
Read John 6:45-46.
The Father sends the Spirit into hearts to awaken a sense of sin, guilt, need. He gives life and draws you to faith in Christ. It’s a work of God. Unless he does that work, no-one would be saved from hell at all.
You might have questions:
- “How can I be saved if I’m not chosen by God?”
- “How can I be sure that I am chosen by God?”
But you’re not called to be chosen. You are called to repent of your sin and look to Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life. Do that. Go to him. Pray to him.
The Bible is clear: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Evangelism and election
You might have questions about other people:
- “Should I bother evangelising if God is going to call people anyway?”
- “Do I need to keep praying for unsaved family and friends if God has already decided?”
Romans 9 and 10 have much to say about God’s purposes in election. He works with perfect grace, justice, and goodness in his electing power. But there’s also a clear call for people to hear about Jesus, and a clear call for people to go out and tell:
Romans 10:14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him?
Yes, God has elected whom he will save. And he has appointed you to take the good news about Jesus to those people. Even more, he will save some in response to your prayers. He binds his free sovereign purpose to your prayers. So pray.
Eternal life
So Jesus restates his teaching: Read John 6:47-50.
The Jews he was speaking to were thinking of Moses and manna in the desert. Jesus says they ate manna, and still died. Jesus is offering them (and you) himself, the bread of heaven.
Eat, and you will never die.
Another question: “Christians do die though, so how can he say we’ll never die?”
- Yes, of course Christians die physically.
- But that’s not the end – more like a beginning.
- True life is the eternal life Christ gives, which is to be alive in him. For the believer, that eternal life with Christ begins the moment you go to him.
- Every Christian in the room is already eternally alive.
So read John 6:51. What’s this about his flesh?
Come to Jesus today (52-58)
Remember John 1:1 and John 1:14:
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
- The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
When Jesus starts talking about his flesh in John 6, it’s worth remembering that he is the eternal Son of God made human. But the Jews in the synagogue that day didn’t grasp that. Read John 6:52.
They’d have understood he wasn’t suggesting cannibalism or anything of the sort – but what was he saying? He was invited them (and is inviting you) to come and eat!
Read John 6:53-55.
- Put John 6:54 alongside John 6:40.
- Eating his flesh and drinking his blood are metaphors for seeing him and believing in him, trusting him.
- His flesh speaks of his life – the God who became human so that he could die in your place, taking the punishment your sins deserve.
- His blood speaks of covenant – God spoke in the Old Testament how he would come with a New Covenant (testament), and he seals his covenants with blood.
So to eat his flesh and drink his blood is to trust in his death and life by faith, promised under his own covenant, sealed by his own blood.
So come and eat! Come and see Jesus, the God who came to save you, and trust him! Come to Jesus today!
Note: It’s worth saying that Jesus isn’t speaking directly about the Lord’s Supper here – and certainly isn’t referring to Roman Catholic mass. These words help you make more of the Lord’s Table, but that’s not Jesus’ primary purpose here.
Union with Christ
He calls you to come and eat, so that you will come and live!
Read John 6:56.
This is another astonishing statement. When you eat his flesh and drink his blood – when you look to him and believe in his saving work – you’re changed. He comes to dwell in you, and you live in him. Theologians like to call it your union with Christ. You in him, him in you. It’s a one-way change: Whoever comes to him he will never cast out, so you have eternal union with Christ.
That means he walks with you every day. And the bread of life will nourish you every day.
Question: “What does it mean to be nourished by Jesus every day? How does it happen?”
- Food gives you energy and strength. Good food is delicious and good for you.
- The Bible is God’s revelation of Jesus to you, just as Jesus is the revelation of God to you.
- So read about Jesus, meditate on him, desire his presence.
- Be with him in prayer. Make Christ the object of delight in your prayers (not simply a transactional meeting, but a relational meeting place).
- Learn to lean on him for help; he will help you.
- That is nourishment. Supernatural help in time of need.
Eternal union with God
So come and life in eternal union with God.
Read John 6:57-58.
We read in chapter 5 about how the Father has given the Son “life in himself.” Eternally, the Father simply exists, while the Son is eternally proceeding from the Father, given life in himself from the Father.
So what Jesus says in v57 is breathtaking. Those who believe are given life by the Son – because the Son is in you who believe. The Son has life in himself from the Father. You are given life in Christ, drawn by the Father to the Son!
You might think this is just abstract theology with no purpose.
But it’s immensely practical. Your life is an outworking of the depth of your experience of God. If your understanding and experience of him is shallow, your witness and godliness will be too.
Practical outworking
Some examples:
- Holiness of Life. If you have come to Christ for salvation then he is in you and you are in him – you have union with holiness.
- So there’s no place for coarse language, getting drunk, or sexual immorality (including porn).
- You should be working to become more in tune with the holy God who dwells in you.
- Strength in hard times. Everyone has tough periods in life. For some, that is there life. How can you go on?
- Knowing that this isn’t all there is, you have hope.
- Knowing that Jesus is with you, giving you life, you put one foot in front of the other, and keep going.
- Best of all, you know he’s bound by his love to the Father to keep you and raise you perfect on the last day.
- Compassion for the lost. All this thought about what you’ve been saved from, knowing you don’t deserve God’s grace, ought to make you want to proclaim Christ.
- You know God came into the world to save sinners.
- You know he loves the world.
- So it’s natural that your union with Christ would result in you also loving the lost.
- So you pray, and witness, and weep.
Where else could you go? (59-71)
Unsurprisingly, the grumbling continues. Read John 6:59-60.
Those around Jesus had reached the stage of plain refusal. Jesus was asking too much of them, it seemed. Though to think that means they’re not listening to what he’s inviting them to: Eternal life.
Read John 6:61-62.
The thought of going to Jesus as they could see him was offending them. So what would they make of a crucified Messiah? Paul would later say, “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23).
But Jesus’ emphasis on his flesh points out that it’s precisely through his physical death on the cross that we can be forgiven while God remains just to punish every sin – taking it himself.
Read John 6:63-64.
Your own works of flesh are no help at all. You need spiritual change, if you are to be saved. So the Spirit of God is the only one who can do that work, sent by the Father to draw you to Jesus. The Spirit gives you life as you come to Christ.
Jesus then summarised, and a sad thing happened:
Read John 6:65-66.
Walking away from Christ
Which gives us another question: “What about Christians who fall away?”
Many of us know people who once said they were Christians but who have left the faith and gone away.
Put simply: If you are united to Christ by faith, that’s his work and he will never let you go. If you aren’t united to Christ by faith, but you’re just drawn to Christians and church – without saving faith – it’s inevitable that you’ll fall away when hard times come. That’s a double offence to God.
Many Christians have periods where they are backslidden – the Lord will restore them. How can you tell if someone has walked away unsaved or are simply backslidden? You can’t. So pray for them and love them.
Because there’s nowhere else to go. No other saviour. No other bread of life than Jesus.
Read John 6:67-71.
- Judas was not elected to eternal life. He was never a believer, despite being so close to Jesus for 3 years or so.
- If you’ve never trusted in Christ, Judas is a warning to you.
Where else could you go?
Jesus is the bread of life who came to you from heaven.
So come to Jesus today: Eat, and live, enjoy eternal union!
There’s nowhere else. Trust in Christ for eternal joy starting now.