Satisfied in His Sovereignty

So, we’re back in the gospel of John these next four weeks, finishing up chapter 6. Then, once we get past Thanksgiving, we’ll kick off our Advent series as we prepare our hearts for Christmas. We’ll have our candlelight family service on Christmas Eve, and then we’ll be ready to close out the year.

Now, John 6 is a long chapter. We’ve already spent 4 weeks walking through the first half, and as we kick off the back half this morning, Jesus is pivoting from illustration to exposition. If you remember, John 6 opened with him feeding 5,000 men plus women and children from just 5 loaves of bread and 2 small fish.

Now, Jesus is starting to teach the crowd what it means that he doesn’t just multiply bread that lasts for a moment—he’s the bread of life that fulfills us for eternity. The last time we were in the book of John we ended with verse 35, and today we’re going to start with verse 35 because it’s the central point of the whole chapter. Jesus calls himself the “bread of life” and invites people to come to him.

So, really, over these next four weeks, we’re going to be diving into what it looks like to do just that—what does it mean to come to Jesus? How do we become Christians, not just culturally, but spiritually. Not just in our actions, but in our affections, down to who we are in our identity.

Christmas is coming fast. It’s a miracle, but Macie is genuinely considering letting us start to decorate our house before Thanksgiving this year. Prayer works.

But if I were to ask each of you in here this morning what it looks like to celebrate Christmas, I’m sure there would be some similarities, but there’d also be as many differences as we have people in the room. We all have our own traditions, from decorations to if we travel to see family to the music we listen to and the movies we love to watch and the food we like to eat. Each of us would talk about celebrating Christmas in a little different way.

And, unfortunately, that’s really common in the West for how people talk about the Christian faith as well. It’s tempting for us to want to personalize our answer to a question like, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” by emphasizing things from our background or certain beliefs or practices we feel either strongly for or against.

But while Jesus has uniquely entered the story of each of us who are Christians here this morning and met us right we’re at—while we might all have different testimonies—the Bible is still clear that there is one “faith that was was once for all delivered to the saints.” Scripture doesn’t give multiple answers for what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and like we’ll see this morning, it’s equally clear on the one reason why people are not followers of Jesus.

So, if you’re asking questions about the Bible and are curious but wouldn’t consider yourself a Christian, I hope over these next four weeks you won’t just have the opportunity to clearly explore what it means to follow Jesus—you’ll see his work to save you from your sin and draw you to the Father as he restores your relationship with him as something beautiful that helps you make sense of every other area of your life.

And if you are a Christian here this morning, then I hope these next four weeks can challenge you to think deeply about how the gospel is an act of God’s grace to you—from beginning to end—and by joyfully reflecting on what Jesus has accomplished for you and in you that you would grow in your understanding of him as you become more like him.

And I mean that, when I say that I hope you’ll think deeply about God’s grace over these next several weeks. Because it’s really easy—especially when you’ve been a Christian for a long time—it’s really easy to assume God’s grace and slowly cease to be in awe of it. Being a Christian might start to feel like just a part of your life and not the joyful, worshipful response of your life.

But Jesus doesn’t allow us to just breeze past the notion of God’s grace in our passage this week—he confronts us with it as he teaches on what we can’t do and on what he must do in order to bring us to him in salvation. The very idea of grace means that something has been given to us that we didn’t earn.

When your boss pays you for another two weeks of work, that’s not grace—that’s a wage. When I wake up my 3 year old son on a Saturday and tell him we’re going to play Mario Kart when I haven’t let him do that in the morning all week—that’s grace. He didn’t do anything for that. It’s simply a Father wanting to give a good gift to his child.

But then when we think of God’s grace, we can find ourselves distorting it to somehow make it still about our performance. I remember being very moved by how the late pastor Tim Keller reflected on this: He essentially said that every person in here knows someone in their life who isn’t a follower of Jesus.

You could think of one of those people right now. If you’re a Christian this morning, why would you say you’re a Christian and they’re not? You might say because I’ve trusted in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Well, why have you trusted in Jesus’ death and resurrection and they haven’t? You might say because you’ve repented of your sin. Well, why did you repent of your sin and they haven’t? You might say that you came to believe in the Bible. Well, why did you come to believe in the Bible and they haven’t? You might say because I was willing to explore it. Well, why were you willing to explore it and they haven’t?

And, you see, ultimately we’re left with only two options to explain the difference between us being a Christian and our non-Christian friends. Either the difference is something in me or it’s purely the grace of God. If it’s in me, then I’m saying that I was more willing, I was more open, I was more humble. The reason I’m a Christian and they’re not is because I’ve been something they’re not.

But that’s not a gospel of grace; that’s a wage for our works, and it’s not what we see in the Bible. What we see in our passage this morning is that the reason you’re a Christian is sheerly by the grace of God. Nothing in us brought us closer to God, but it was God who has drawn close to us. His grace, not our merit. Nothing we have done or ever could do would give us a leg up over over someone else. Who we are qualifies us to need Jesus; it does not advantage us over others with Jesus.

This morning we’re going to be looking at the sovereignty of God in our salvation, and if that term concerns you, then I want you to know that, at it’s foundation, it’s what we just described: we are saved sheerly by the grace of God. We can do nothing to merit God’s forgiveness over another person. There is no room for pride in our understanding of how Christ has saved us. It is all by his grace.

And we see this outlined for us in these six verses. In verse 35, Jesus teaches the crowd on what it means to be saved, and then in verse 36 he reminds us that not everyone is. Which is why, from verses 37-39, he dives into how God sovereignly works to make verse 35 a reality in our life, culminating with the sincere invitation of verse 40 that “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” So let’s start with what it means to be a Christian in verse 35.

John 6:35 ESV

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Verse 40 puts a bow on this section and clarifies that being the bread of life in verse 35 means that those who are in Jesus have “eternal life.” So, he’s speaking about our salvation here. And what does he say has to happen for us gain that eternal life? He explains it two ways: he says, whoever comes to him—whoever believes in him.

But, interestingly, he doesn’t tell us in verse 35 that if you come—that if you believe—that you’ll be saved. That’s not the way he puts it. Instead, he says you won’t hunger again. You won’t thirst. He’s drawing out the crowd’s focus throughout the entire chapter. Remember, Jesus miraculously fed them, and the next day they wanted more.

Whenever we get something we like, we always want more. I had lunch with one of our church members at my favorite Thai restaurant this past Wednesday. Then, I met a different church member at the same Thai restaurant for lunch on Friday. I got Macie a to go order, which she didn’t finish…so, I had it a third time for dinner that night. Same dish, all three times.

We’re always pursuing more of the things we desire most because they naturally fade away. We want to taste those flavors again; we want to relive that experience again. But here, Jesus flips the idea on it’s head. Jesus is the only thing, that when we desire him, when we come to him, we’re not left having to come back for more—no, we get to stay and be satisfied… forever.

We don’t have to keep being filled by something that dissipates. We don’t have to try to relive a past experience. Honestly, a lot of Christians are stuck believing that lie, thinking that if I just get baptized again, if I can just feel the Holy Spirit the way I did at that one Christian camp in college again, then I’ll be on the right path in my faith. But if Jesus saved you by his grace, then he will keep you by his grace (which we’re going to see him address in our next set of verses).

In verse 36, Jesus tells the crowd that they’ve seen him and yet do not believe. He’s saying that they haven’t believed in the way he just described in verse 35. They might have wanted him for his benefits. They might have hoped he would meet a physical need or served their own goals—but they were looking to use him and not to be satisfied in him.

Jesus is saying that’s not what it means to believe. And the crazy thing is that these people would have considered themselves followers of Jesus. They’ve called him “Rabbi”. They’ve see him as their teacher. They’ve watched him do miraculous things. And yet, Jesus says they do not have true, saving faith. They don’t really believe because they haven’t come to him to be satisfied in who he is as their Savior and Lord. They’re not looking to Jesus as the one to rest in. They’re seeing him as the one to benefit from.

And sure, I benefit from eating good Thai food. I had it more than normal this week. But I am not satisfied with just Thai food. I love other food. I get other cravings, and it’s nice to know that I can go back to Thai whenever I’m in the mood for panang curry again.

But true, saving faith does not treat Jesus that way. He’s not just something to enjoy for a moment and then return when you want him again. He cannot just be a great option for particular needs and circumstances that improves the meaning we’ve made for ourselves in life. He is our source of meaning and the lens by which we understand every aspect of our life.

We have more to talk about in our passage this morning, but I feel like I need to stop here for a moment just to ask the question, Have you come to Jesus to be satisfied in who he is, or are you currently more like the crowd just hoping he can be of benefit to you with what he does? Jesus says it is possible for us to see his works and still not truly believe.

You would think that if anyone would have been able to place their faith in Jesus, it would have been the people watching him perform miracles and teaching them face-to-face. When Jesus says in verse 36 that they’ve seen him and yet do not believe, you know the next question the crowd would have had in response: “Well then, how can we believe?”

That’s what makes the theology in verses 37-39 so interesting. Because Jesus doesn’t just teach on how God saves us from our sin in a vacuum. He frames it as the response to why people don’t believe in him—why people might come to him for a variety of reasons but don’t trust in him as their Savior and Lord—why they don’t rest from depending on themselves and creating their own meaning and instead find their satisfaction in him.

When faced with the problem of why all these people can see Jesus but don’t truly believe in him, Jesus points to how God sovereignly works to save us by his grace and accomplish for us what we cannot do on our own. Starting with verse 37:

John 6:37–39 ESV

³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

These three verses create a chain in God’s sovereign action to bring us to him and keep us in him. The first link we see is the start of verse 37: the Father gives us to Jesus. This is language that’s common throughout the book of John. In chapter 10, verses 28-29, Jesus describes his followers as his sheep who are “given” to him by the Father. In chapter 17, three times in his prayer Jesus mentions those who the Father has “given” him out of this world. The idea’s probably best summarized at the start of the gospel in chapter 1, verses 12-13:

John 1:12–13 ESV

¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Believing in Jesus is connected to the gift of becoming a child of God, and John says this gift is not because of our heritage or our performance or our will but because we have been born of God. Now, back to verse 37, Jesus says that those who the Father gives to him will what? They will come to him. Same word that we find in verse 35 when Jesus is talking about what it means to be saved.

And how many of those who the Father gives to the Son will come? How many will be saved? All. That Greek word is

πᾶς, which doesn’t have any other meaning. Every single person who is given to the Son by the Father, every person who is born of God, will come to Jesus and believe in him with saving faith. Just a few sentences later in verse 44, Jesus restates the same idea negatively, saying ,“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” It is that drawing, that giving, that results in our coming and believing.

Now, I know this produces so many questions in our minds, and the Bible answers many of those in other places—even just wondering what this means for free will and our ability to choose to repent and believe, which Jesus is going to address in verse 40. But when Scripture seems to say something we initially disagree with or that we struggle to understand and have to wrestle with, that’s not a bad thing—that’s an opportunity to learn more of the heart of our Creator.

And we’re going to dive into the specifics of what it means for the Father to give someone to the Son in verse 44 and the verses that surround it next week. But for now, I want to share two reasons why what Jesus teaches here is truly good news. First, if the Father has to give us to the Son for us to come to him with saving faith, and all of those whom he gives will believe, then that mean that our salvation rests in his ability and not our own.

That’s good news because it means no one is too lost, no one is too far gone to come to Christ and be saved. If it were up to us, then we would continue to fall short. But for the Father, no one is out of his reach. He is our hope, not only for ourselves, but for that person who doesn’t believe who you were just thinking of a few minutes ago.

And secondly, if our salvation is rooted in us being given to the Son by the Father, then it is assured as long as the Son submits to the will of the Father. Let me put that another way: if God is the start of our faith, then he is the strength that will sustain us in our faith.

If it were entirely up to us to come to him, then it would be entirely up to us to stay with him. But Jesus follows the statement that “All that the Father gives me will come to me” with saying, “and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Let’s look at that starting with the beginning of verse 37 again and continue reading.

John 6:37–39 ESV

³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

These verses tell us both why we can be saved and why we can have confidence we won’t lose our salvation if we truly have it. Jesus answers both in verse 38, and it’s the same message he’s shared multiple times so far throughout the gospel of John: the Son is committed to doing the will of the Father. It was the Father who sent the Son down from heaven to redeem his people, and so now it is the Son who works to keep his people.

My kids are old enough that they love to play hide and seek but young enough that they’re terrible at it. They might find a good spot behind a floor length curtain, but then Oliver will giggle the entire time he waits there.

There’s nowhere in our home they can go that I can’t find them; there’s no place they can run to in our house where I’d lose them. They’re not better at hiding than I am at finding, and they’re not better at getting away from me than I am at keeping close to them.

The same is true with our heavenly Father. No matter what we’ve done, no matter how we might be trying to hide, there’s no place we can go that he cannot find us—no place we can go where he would lose us because he is infinitely able to keep us, and he has promised to do that for all his people. Jesus says all that the Father gives him will be saved, and now he says with equal confidence in verse 39 that none of those given to him will be lost.

If Jesus had said we can’t lose our salvation solely because he loves us that much, then it might be fair for us to question that. “Like Jesus, have you seen me? I’m a mess. What if I do this or continue doing that?” And those things matter. If Jesus has truly saved you, then over the course of your life you’re going to see him increasingly change you. That’s promised in the Bible.

But what we read here is that our eternal security isn’t first rooted in Christ’s relationship to us; it’s rooted in God’s relationship to himself. And as long as the Son submits to the Father and the Father exalts the Son, he will keep us in him until we one day get to be fully united with him.

That’s the fourth sovereign link in the chain we see here at the end of verse 39 leading into verse 40. So, just to recap:

• First, the Father give us to Jesus.

• Then, those given to Jesus come to him.

• Next, those who come to Jesus are kept by him.

• And, finally, the last link: those who are kept by Jesus will one day be raised with him to eternal life.

The apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 1:6:

Philippians 1:6 ESV

⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Once again, it’s his work. Have you ever started a project around your house that you didn’t finish? Maybe you wanted to get into a new hobby like gardening, so you bought a bunch of plants, read up on how to take care of them, and started diligently doing the work.

But then a few months pass and you look at your beautiful little garden, and now it’s a wasteland. Everything’s died. If that was the case, what would you conclude? That you’re not a good gardener. That you don’t know what you’re doing.

If our salvation is the work that the Father has given to the Son, and he loses any of those that have been given to him, that reflects on Jesus. It’s to his shame. It would mean that he’s not that good of a Savior. It’s easy for us to think of the strength of our relationship with God through the lens of our own strength, but the whole point of the gospel is that we get to rest in his strength—his work.

He is the source of our confidence that one day he will finish what he’s started within us and resurrect our bodies to join him and enjoy him for all eternity. If you’re struggling in your faith right now, if you feel like you’re losing the battle against sin in your life, if you feel like you don’t know how to live in a way that glorifies God, the solution is not to double down on your own effort; it’s to fix your eyes on the beauty of your Savior and live in response.

If Christians receive our identity from him, then the only way we can faithfully live the Christian life is by continually looking to him—both studying him and savoring him, both growing to know him more and growing to love him more.

And that’s the invitation that’s been given to each of us. Nowhere in the Bible tells us we need to figure out if we’ve been given to the Son by the Father. That’s his work. No, we’re simply invited to come to the Son. Verse 40 as we close:

John 6:40 ESV

⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

In verse 36, Jesus said the crowd had “seen” him but did not believe. That word for “seen” literally just means to observe something. But that’s not the word we find here in verse 40. Jesus encourages us to “look” on the son and believe, and that word for “look” is more than simply to observe something. It’s to behold it—to look with understanding and reverence.

So, whether you’ve been going to church for years or have only been recently started exploring the claims of Jesus and the Bible—whether you feel like you’re close to God or far from him—the invitation is the same: come.

Come, behold Jesus and believe in his work rather than your own to make you right with God. Come, behold Jesus as your king rather than yourself. Come, behold and be satisfied in Christ.

Let’s pray.