JOH 6:41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"
43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered.
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."

This portion of God’s word is the continuation of a discourse Jesus has been carrying on with the Jews who had followed Him around the area of the Sea of Galilee, primarily because Jesus had fed them with the loaves and the fishes.

And what had started out as a question from the Jews as to how Jesus got from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other without a boat has now turned into a very complex Theological discussion regarding spiritual bread.

JOH 6:32 "Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
34 "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

It appears these Jews wanted this bread from heaven, but when our Lord makes it clear that what He is talking about is not a bread which satisfies the stomach, but a figure of speech for spiritual life He gives, they put two and two together and realize that Jesus is saying that He is the One who has come down from heaven and that only through Him will they be able to have this life.

JOH 6:41 "At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

Once these people realized that they were not going to conform Jesus into their image of what they thought a Messiah should be, they entered into one of the oldest forms of self expression that this world has known; grumbling.

The very word has a sound to it that conjures up discord, disunity and complaining. In fact, even in the Greek the word conveys this feeling; Gogguzo. And it can be translated to murmur, mutter, say anything against in a low tone as if to confer secretly together.

And grumbling is one of those things the Jews had done very well from the very beginning of their existence as a free nation once they left Egypt. Right out of the box we read this.

EXO 15:23 "When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.)
24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

EXO 16:2 "In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD'S hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

EXO 17:3 "But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"
4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people?

Grumbling never solves problems, it only increases the problem. It does a very good job of pointing out apparent problems, but it is never willing to be a solution to the problem.

Anybody can complain; anybody can point fingers; anybody can look at the negative side of any issue, but to want to be a part of the solution takes work and often times takes faith; something Israel in the desert wasn’t willing to do.

Grumbling always undermines and is the cowardly way of making themselves feel important or above the one they grumble against. And it is something the Lord hates; so much so that when the Israelites continued to grumble against Moses and Aaron the Lord stepped in and pronounced judgment on them.

NUM 14:27 "How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.
28 So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say:
29 In this desert your bodies will fall -every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.
30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun."

God takes grumbling seriously among His people and Jesus takes it seriously here in our text as these Jews are now muttering under their breaths that they know better than Jesus and that He’s not all that He thinks He’s cracked up to be, as He makes such a bold statement as, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."

JOH 6:42 "They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

"Who does He think He is? He’s no better than us. In fact, we know who His parents are. We know that Joseph was His father. Their family grew up in this area and He never gave anyone the impression that He was some prince from heaven. What does He think, He’s God’s gift to men?"

Yes, He is. By the way, these Jews make it clear that they knew nothing about Jesus when they make the statement that Jesus was the son of Joseph. To the degree that Jesus was reared by Joseph, He was the son of Joseph. But we know that Jesus was not conceived by Joseph, thus not making Joseph his biological father.

And even if these Jews had heard that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit it is quite apparent that they would not have believed that report either. After all, no one is conceived by God. Really?

MAT 1:20 "But after he [Joseph] had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" -which means, "God with us."

It is clear that the Jews could have known that the Messiah had to be born of a virgin. They only needed to go to their own Scriptures and read it. It’s found in Isaiah 7:14.

But if they could grumble against the One who has made the claim that He came down from heaven, thus identifying Him as Immanuel, they certainly would have grumbled against His claim to be born of a virgin. But enough grumbling.

This is the heart of God speaking here. Stop murmuring in your hearts. Stop doubting that God loves you enough that He would make a way for you to have life. And stop murmuring about God’s plan to accomplish this salvation.

You see this is the real issue here. None of these Jews doubted for a moment that God was going to make a way for them to be delivered. Their problem was that they felt they knew better as to how God would do it. He would certainly bring this deliverer into the world as a Conqueror and King.

"This Jesus is just another peasant like most of us. Yes, He has moments of brilliance when He does these signs and wonders and God must certainly be with Him. But He’s obviously out of God’s will if He thinks that Rome need not be taken out of the way for Israel to be delivered."

It always amazes me when people dictate to God as to how things must get done. This is why I don’t get upset with people who come into the church and after a few weeks or months they’ve got it all figured out as to what we need to do to get people through the door, as if that’s the objective.

I’ve learned over the years that the objective is always to be faithful to God and follow where He leads. And as a leader I have to be sensitive to where God is going with this church. And though input from the body is vital, the buck has got to stop with someone, and for reasons beyond me, that someone is me. His word and His Spirit direct us. "Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord."

As long as we are willing to seek Him and do those things we have been called to do, with the resources He has provided at this time, He will be faithful to grow this church or any church He has put in place. It’s His church.

Jesus was making it clear that these Jews needed to put a stop to dictating to God how He works among men. And the inference here is stop grumbling and trust God.

JOH 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Now this passage can be taken a couple of ways, and both could be correct. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..."

We could say that no one will come to God unless the Father does a spiritual work in the life of an individual as He opens their eyes and regenerates their lifeless spiritual existence, which is to say that no one will come to God on their own because we are all spiritually dead. And since we can’t bring ourselves back to life God must step in and draw us to Himself.

And by the way, the word draw here in our text doesn’t suggest simply to lure someone with bait, as you would with fish. To lure fish with bait assumes the fish are alive and are able to respond to the bait.

The word draw here suggests to drag, but not in a bad way. It is a dragging or alluring in such a way as to bring us close to God with the idea of bringing life so that one can respond.

But the second way in which this passage might be taken is that Jesus is now coming to these people to do this very thing; to draw them to the Father, which is to suggest that these people might be capable of recognizing this drawing and then are able to see their need and embrace Christ.

One view says that men cannot spiritually see and must be drawn by the Father in such a way as to receive sight from Him before they can see, while the other view says this message of hope is not given in vain and that men are responsible to embrace this life and capable of hearing and seeing this message before God does a work in their hearts.

As I said last week we can be assured that if anyone looks to Christ by faith they have the assurance that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. He will raise us up at the last day. That’s a promise.

But the truth is that the Scriptures also teach us that there is a problem with men wanting to seek the one true God on God’s terms. This doesn’t mean people don’t seek God. Just look around the world at all of the different religions. They all claim to be seeking after God. Does this make them all right? Are there many paths to God? Of course not.

And so, there is a sense in which men have the capability to seek spiritual things. However, the spiritual things men seek after are determined by their spiritual leanings, or nature. And the spiritual leaning of all men is quite clear.

JOH 1:4 "In him [Christ] was life, and that life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

JOH 3:19 "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil."

Now, let’s put this into our own experience. If a person is physically blind and cannot see, you can shine a light into a room all you want and they will not recognize it. It doesn’t mean that the light is any less effective for lighting that room, but there is no need for that light if you’re blind.

What has to change is for the person to receive sight to appreciate and respond to that light.

This is true in the spiritual sense. If mankind is spiritually blind then what needs to change is for them to receive the kind of sight which would enable them to see the light and respond to it.

This is where God comes into the picture. Just as Jesus gave sight to the physically blind throughout the gospels, our Lord also gives sight to the spiritually blind as only He can. Once this sight has been given by the Holy Spirit, people can now see the light and be drawn to it and embrace it by faith.

Paul also gives us a very vivid picture of man’s inability to embrace spiritual things from the one true God.

EPH 2:1 "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."

If we are dead in our sin then do we have the ability to give ourselves life? Of course not. But if this is true then we must ask the question, if we are dead in our sin, do we have the ability to even seek after such life?

Think about it. If you get a chance today go visit one of the local Funeral Homes and ask if you can speak to any of the corpses, not about giving themselves life, but just seeking the possibility of having life, and then get back with me about the results.

Let me save you some time. None of the corpses even know you’re talking to them about life or death or anything. There is no life there. Unless someone outside of themselves can bring them life they won’t even be able to discuss the situation.

What God tells us is that unless He brings life to our spirits we will remain dead in our trespasses and sins and will only seek those things we desire, which is darkness. And this is why Paul makes the statement he does, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to the church at Rome.

ROM 3:10 "As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

This is not the language of exaggeration. What God means here is exactly what He says. No one wants God as God has revealed Himself.

And yet, no one can come to God with the excuse that He hasn’t clearly revealed Himself to man.

ROM 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Man has been given every opportunity to know this one true God. But instead what has man done? He has sought every god in the universe except the one true God. Why? Because man prefers a god of his own choosing, in his own image, for his own purposes.

The problem is there is only one God. And if man would have life eternal then he must embrace this one true God by faith. But if man is dead in his trespasses and sins, if he loves the darkness rather than the light, if he does not seek God, how will he ever have this life?

Only as God opens the hearts and minds of people to receive Him. What a gracious and merciful God we have who is not only willing to do this but has actually done it. You and I are a testimony to His love and grace.

This is why we have nothing to boast in when it comes to our salvation. None of us can say, I’m better than someone else because I had the wherewithal to know that I must seek after God. It simply isn’t true; because you and I were spiritual corpses. But Christ raised us from the dead. He has brought us into the light.

This is what makes our salvation so amazing. Though we despise God by our very natures, He still loves us. Though we go after anything in this world but the one true God, He still seeks us out.

ROM 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"

We have no righteousness of our own. We have no life of our own. In fact, left to our own we will receive only what we deserve; the wrath of God. But praise God, our Lord loves us too much to allow us to stay in that state. Even when we were His enemies; even when we were fighting against Him, He reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son and subsequent resurrection from the dead.

And because of the life of the Son we too can have life in Him. And this is the message to the world that we must give. Some might argue that if men won’t come to God unless the Father draws them, then it is useless to even declare the gospel of Christ to them.

Not at all. God still commands us to take the gospel to the very ends of the world. He came to die for the world. He desires that none would perish.

Arthur W. Pink makes a very interesting comment in his commentary on John regarding this passage. He says, this. "If the unsaved today would only believe God when He says that the sinner is lost, he, too, would call for a Deliverer. If I cannot come to Christ except the Father draws me, then my responsibility is to beg the Father to draw me."

And what are we told in this very gospel? "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." (JOH 6:37)

Men are still responsible to seek the Lord, and yet we’re told that they won’t seek the Lord. What must be done? God must do a work in their lives and open their hearts to the truth.

Does this make God unjust? May it never be. God still commands all men to seek Him and gives this promise.

ISA 55:6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon."

We may not understand all of the ways of the Lord as it pertains to our responsibility to seek Him and yet the truth that none seek Him. But the bottom line is that God is gracious to send us His Son to pay our debt as He calls all men to repent of their sin and embrace Christ for forgiveness and salvation.

And as believers we have the privilege and the responsibility to take the means of bringing people to Christ as we share the gospel of our Lord and Savior. Salvation is of the Lord. Praise God!

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