Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 37 - Predestination - Beholding God's glory.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 37 - Predestination - Beholding God's glory.  

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

The Spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing. This life is the very life that is Christ. It is the full glory of God.

 

Let's look at a scene that took place the day after our Lord fed the 5,000 and we will see the difference between death and life.

 

JOH 6:22 The next day the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone.

 

JOH 6:23 There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

 

JOH 6:24 When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

 

JOH 6:25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You get here?"

 

JOH 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.

 

Per usual, He doesn't answer their superfluous question. He points out that they have labored to cross the sea so they could get more of the best bread and fish that they had ever eaten. And, there is a more subtle hidden reason, there is rumor of making Jesus king of Israel in order to unite them against the Romans in order to end the Roman occupation and to restore the glory days of Solomon's kingdom.

 

The people seek earthly glory in Jesus, but His glory is from heaven.

 

JOH 6:27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal." 

 

As the glory on the face of Moses faded so food perishes and so the earth perishes to each of us when we die. He is not implying that eternal life comes to him who works. In this context work refers to that which you would work for and so it refers to a priority or a goal that is worthy of much work, but Jesus makes clear that He gives it to him who believes.

 

JOH 6:28 They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"

 

JOH 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

 

JOH 6:30 They said therefore to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

 

They want convincing. Apparently the miracles He has done in their sight so far was not enough.

 

Yesterday's miracles don't count for today when man is challenged today to entrust his entire life to Christ. Even for Christians, when they become wanting and feeling unfulfilled, they forget about yesterday's miracles.

 

Yet, God has fulfilled every Christian super-abundantly at the moment they became Christian through faith in Christ. The believer must remind himself of what he is and what he possesses in Christ. There will always be something to find in this world that will catalyze our appetites for it.

 

It is a part of the curse on the fallen human race that when the most pressing need in their life is fulfilled that they soon find another pressing need and this goes on and on.

 

[Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz] "Today is a good day. We look around like blind people who have recovered their sight, and we look at each other. We have never seen each other in the sunlight: someone smiles. If it was not for the hunger. For human nature is such that grief and pain - even simultaneously suffered - do not add up as a whole in our consciousness, but hide, the lesser behind the greater, according to a definite law of perspective. It is providential and is our means of surviving the camp. And this is the reason why so often in free life one hears it said that man is never content. In fact it is not a question of a human incapacity for a state of absolute happiness, but of an ever-insufficient knowledge of the complex nature of unhappiness; so that the single name of the major cause is given to all its causes, which are composite and set out in an order of urgency. And if the most immediate cause comes to an end, you are grievously amazed to see that another one lies behind; and in reality a whole series of others. So that as soon as the cold, which throughout the winter had seemed our only enemy, had ceased, we became aware of our  hunger; and repeating the same error, we now say: 'If it was not for the hunger!' But how could one imagine not being hungry? The Lager is hunger: we ourselves are hunger, living hunger."

 

The complex nature of unhappiness is that there is an endless line of causes just waiting to hear, "Next please." The believer's sole means of happiness is not the end of all problems but the glory of Jesus Christ.

 

JOH 6:30 They said therefore to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

 

JOH 6:31 "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.'"

 

In other words, yesterday's miracle was good, but the bread You created did not come out of heaven. A miracle from heaven is the ultimate miracle.

 

He is willing to walk with them along this path, but first He must correct one erroneous idea.

 

JOH 6:32 Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

 

JOH 6:33 "For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."

 

JOH 6:34 They said therefore to Him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread."

 

"Now that's the kind of bread miracle we're talking about. Give us some." This is actually more than they asked for. They asked for bread coming from heaven as happened in the wilderness, but Jesus offers them bread from heaven that does more than fill the stomach, it actually gives life from heaven. So Jesus obliges them.

 

JOH 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

 

Not only does this bread give life but it slakes all hunger and thirst. Notice that the one who comes to Him will not hunger and never thirst. All that is needed to fulfill the man is given at salvation.

 

JOH 6:36 "But I said to you, that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.

 

And therein lies the problem. The bread of life from heaven, the glory of God, has been in their midst for a while, but they have not believed Him to be that. If they did they would have life and they would be fulfilled by being entered into His glory.

 

The ones who believe in Him have been foreknown by the Father.

 

JOH 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

 

JOH 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

 

JOH 6:39 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing [complete the cross fully], but raise it up on the last day.

 

JOH 6:40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

 

JOH 6:41 The Jews therefore were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven." 

 

"Whoa, He went way too far. This is Jesus of Joseph and Mary from Nazareth. We know Him and His family and He did not come from heaven. We're ok with bread coming from heaven but not with a man. We really want that bread, but this is crazy talk."

 

Man wants earthly glory given freely by God, but so many of them don't want Christ.

 

Man will accept any material thing that falls from heaven. He will accept it from God as his own. Man owns and uses the "thing" that comes from heaven, but if a man comes from heaven then he cannot be owned or used; His origin shows that He is superior to all others, and that, man cannot accept. Man must remain his own god.

 

JOH 6:42 And they were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven'?" 

 

JOH 6:43 Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves.

 

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

 

JOH 6:45 "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.' [ISA 54:13] Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.

 

This is a Millennial promise which they all know as it is taught in the synagogues that when Messiah comes that they shall all be taught of God by Him and that the teaching would be etched on their hearts. He is revealing to them that the Messiah is here and He is indeed teaching them of God.

 

He is teaching them the gospel. The good news of the kingdom of God is among them. The Father invites them and they must come to Him.

 

JOH 6:46 "Not that any man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. [this may have been parenthetically added by John]