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No One Can Come to Me Unless…
John 6:41-47
Introduction: Possibly one of the most difficult principles for religious people to accept is that it matters why we follow Jesus and how we go about following Jesus. Consider the following:
- 6:26 Jesus rebuked the crowd for following him because they were filled by the food he provided instead of seeking him for the true, eternal bread.
- 6:36 Jesus accused the crowd of not believing in spite of the fact that they had believed he was the “prophet” and desired to make him king. Just as in 2:24, it matters why we believe.
- 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” When we pause and give some thought to this statement, we may be shocked to realize there is only one way to come to Jesus – the Father must draw us. That eliminates every other way of coming to Jesus. You cannot come to Jesus your way or for any reason different from being drawn.
- Therefore, here is our wake-up call boldly spoken by Jesus directly to us and every person who has ever come to Jesus. Were you drawn by the Father? Or asked another way, why did you come to Jesus? What caused you to come?
- Identifying the Problem
- Did these Jews desire to follow Jesus? Yes, that has been quite evident. I am often asked the question, why didn’t the Jews accept Jesus? The answer is fairly obvious. He was not the Jesus they desired. They would have happily accepted Jesus if he conformed to their preconceived desires of a messiah.
- It is such an interesting phenomenon that is common among humans. We want to be saved, but we want our salvation to fit our lifestyle and by a person who does not require anything of us.
- These Jews are exactly like millions of people today. The majority grumbles at the true Jesus and invents a kinder, more adaptable Jesus, a Jesus who fits their perception of what he ought to be. Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5 is a perfect parallel. He was in a panic to have his leprosy healed. But when Elisha told him to dip in the Jordan River seven times, he hopped in his chariot and rode away in anger. I see that same anger, and stubbornness repeated over and again today for the same reason: Jesus is not who people would like him to be.
- They don’t want to be saved the way he has commanded.
- They don’t want to live the sacrificial lifestyle he gave as a pattern.
- They don’t want to worship as he asked.
- They don’t want to give up their favorite sins. Etc. etc.
- Let’s take this a step further. Should these Jews have been expected to believe that Jesus was Messiah/God who had come down from heaven? Please consider, if you watched a man feed around 10,000 people in the middle of a wilderness from five loaves and two fish, would you listen to him when he said he had come down from heaven! Of course, but the key is will we listen to the following words “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”?
- One other problem: Their unbelief is drawn from a conclusion about Jesus based on limited knowledge. (They didn’t know Jesus background nor have an understanding of the prophecies) To them, he is just the carpenter’s son and his brothers are all here. In other words, he came from a natural birth in a natural family and therefore his claims cannot be true. It is that same ignorance of the truth that is killing people today and can easily kill us. Superficial knowledge is dangerous. Inherited knowledge is dangerous. Knowledge based on what someone has told you, is dangerous! God requires seekers, from the world & from us. A man who can feed 10,000 people deserves a fair investigation!
- They Will All Be Taught by God
- Even though the message is serious, there is humor in this text. The Jews are grumbling about Jesus claiming to be the true bread that has come down from heaven. Jesus’ answer is not to explain himself further, but to simply say, the only way people come to me is if the Father draws them. Implication: the problem is, you obviously haven’t been drawn!
- First, apply Jesus’ statement to every person who has not come to Jesus. Why haven’t they come to Jesus? Why haven’t they given their life to him? They have not been drawn by the Father.
- But why haven’t they been drawn? Verse 45 tells us plainly: they haven’t been taught by God. Simply put: God teaches, and everyone who has heard & learned will come to Jesus. They will come to him because they have been drawn by his words.
- Let’s further add to this by being impressed with why Jesus used the word “draw.”
- Many commentators often struggle with this word, claiming that God gives certain individuals a special inward call to draw them to believe. But the text makes it clear that the drawing happens through being taught of God. But taught what? What is it about being taught of God that would cause a person to be drawn to Jesus?
- Isaiah 54:4-14 is the quotation from 6:45. The text pictures Israel as a forsaken wife because of her adultery. But God, as her husband, has great compassion and shows everlasting love, thus drawing his people back to him. This has always been God’s picture of our salvation – he demonstrates his great love, melting our hearts and causing us to return to him.
- Hosea 3:1-2 further illustrates the point:
“And the Lord said to me, ‘Go, show you love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes. So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.” - John 12:31-33 states it clearly: “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I , when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.” Therefore, God is drawing us by initiating his love for us. 1 John 4:19, “We love him because he first loved us.”
- Conclusions that Demand Our Attention
- Jeremiah 31:33 “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts…for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.” The idea that in God’s new covenant his laws are written our hearts indicate a deep desire to please God and follow his laws. That “all will know him” speaks of the intimate knowledge that only a husband and wife have.
- There is only one way to come to Jesus, drawn by the Father in the teaching of his word. This completely destroys the various ministries invented by churches in order to draw people to God. It also destroys the idea of individual Christians trying to bring people to Jesus by offering money or other physical incentives. Being taught of God through his word, is the only draw.
- This defeats the idea of baptism as the primary emphasis of coming to Christ. To simply convince a person to be baptize to have their sins forgiven leaves out being drawn to Jesus by a knowledge of love of him.
- Further, the need to be drawn by the Father explains why we do not read of child baptism. Please consider that everything a child knows about God has been told to him/her. A child is not baptized on the basis of a personal, independent study of the scriptures in order to come to know and love God. At best, it is proof-texting commandments. Commandments such as “do this” and “don’t do that,” are fairly simple for child and adult. But when God said in Jeremiah/Hebrews that “all shall know me from the least to the greatest,” he was talking about a knowledge that goes beyond commandments and answering questions in a Sunday School lesson book. This is a knowledge that causes love and desire for God. It is mature, like the love of a husband and wife. It is not infatuation, as in Junior High.
- Consider, how knowledgeable were these Jews on the scriptures? Quite knowledgeable, right? But had they really heard and learned from the Father? Were they drawn to God and drawn to Jesus? No. You see, if your approach to the scriptures is to simply find out what commands “Master God” has demanded of you, you will never learn about God and thus never be drawn by him and never love him.
Berry Kercheville