Father in heaven, draw us to you. Please draw us to you just now so that we might worship you with all of our hearts. We’re done with mere knowledge and information, we long for Your Presence and Your Power. Lord we are drawing near to You just now, please draw near to us through Your Word and Your Spirit.
Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 6 this morning. Once upon a time, there was a man who had two sons, and the younger son wanted to go out and experience the world, so he asked his father for his inheritance. That was a slap in the face to the father, because a child never gets an inheritance until the parents die, so he is saying to the father, “I wish you were dead, I want my money.” So the father gives his son the inheritance and the son leaves and goes out into the big world, full of excitement and dreams and cash. And he makes friends easily and he parties and he experiences all that the world has to offer.
And then his money runs out, and so do his friends, and he ends up taking care of pigs to try to earn a living. One day as he and the pigs are sharing their lunch together, it dawns on him that he has lost it all, that his life is miserable, and that even the servants in his father’s house have it better than he does. So he decides to return, hoping only to become one of the servants. He knows he has squandered his inheritance and he knows he has shamed the family name, and he knows he is unworthy to be a son anymore. So he comes slinking back, fearing the lecture he is going to get. In his mind he hears people asking, “you lost it all? How could you do that? How could you live like that? How can you even come back here knowing what you’ve done to the family name?” He already feels the shame of his behavior and now he feels the disapproving eyes of all those he is returning to, and he braces himself for their mocking comments.
But in the distance he sees a figure coming toward him. As it gets closer he sees that it is his father, and his father is running toward him, and his arms are open and his eyes have tears in them, and the father nearly knocks him over and embraces him and holds him and kisses him. At first the boy is speechless, wondering if the father maybe has the wrong boy, and he begins to recount his list of crimes, stating that he has sinned against heaven and his father, and that he is no longer worthy to be his son, but the father interrupts him by shouting to a servant: “Jeb, bring my son some clothes, the family ring, some sandals, oh and Jeb, call catering, we’re going to throw a homecoming party like we’ve never had before. You see my son, my son was dead and now he is alive, my son was lost and now he is found.”
And Jesus Christ says in John 6:37, “whoever who comes to me, I will never drive away.” Whoever! No matter what they’ve done, no matter where they’ve been, no matter what they’ve lost, if they come to me, like this son came to his father, I will receive them and love them, and meet their needs, and never drive them away. My sermon this morning is simply called “Come to Jesus.”
Well we’ve been in John chapter 6 for one month now, having seen Jesus miraculously feed some 20,000 people with a few loaves and fishes in verses 1-15, then seeing Jesus miraculously walk on the water in verses 16-24, and then last week we saw Jesus’ miraculous teaching where He declared that He is the Bread from heaven. He said that just like God reigned down bread out of heaven for the Israelites when they were in the wilderness, so Jesus is the True Bread Who comes down from heaven to give life to the world, and that all who believe in Him will live forever. We saw that true believing in Jesus is defined by feasting on Him. And so He connects what He did in feeding the multitude with the reason why He came, to give His own life to save and nourish all who believe. So that what He did and what He taught correspond perfectly.
And last week we said that Jesus defines true believing in 3 ways: the first is feasting on Jesus. True believing is not merely assenting to some facts about Jesus, it is feeding on Him and drinking Him in.
Secondly, true believing is coming to Jesus. It is not merely acknowledging truth about Him, it is coming to Him. And finally true believing is looking to Jesus. It is looking away from ourselves, away from out efforts, and looking to a Person—the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we are going to study the second definition of believing; that true believing is coming to Jesus.
So let’s read in John 6. We left off last week with verse 35:
35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. John 6:35-39 (NIV)
We left off last week with the statement that Jesus Christ is really satisfying. That believing in Him is like enjoying a feast. We get that from verse 35.
But the Jews didn’t believe, even though they saw Him with their own eyes. And by the way have you ever said, or heard someone else say, “if I could only see Christ it would be much easier to believe in Him! If only I could see His miracles, it would be so much easier to believe.” Not true. Look what Jesus said in verse 36 “But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.” You see unbelief is rooted deep in the heart of human beings, and whether we see Christ with our own eyes or not our hearts are deeply prejudiced against believing in and submitting to Christ. We want to hold on to our lives, we will not confess our sins so that we could be pardoned, we will not surrender to God and come to Jesus. No, by nature we would rather hold on to our pride, and our sins than to believe in and come to Jesus.
And then Jesus says in verse 37: 37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” Ah, now we know why people come to Jesus. People who come to Christ are those whom God has previously given to Christ. Before the creation of the world God gave them to Christ, and they then come to Christ because God gave them to Christ. Ephesians 1:4 says “4 He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” I love this truth, because God doesn’t depend on the eloquence of the preacher, thank God, He just gives people to Jesus and they come to Him.
But notice our part is simply to come to Christ. “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” You see, true believing is not merely hearing the gospel and nodding our heads, tipping our hat to it, no true believing is when we come to a Person, to Jesus our Savior. I love it when Jesus was talking to His disciples, and He could practically feel how tired they were and how burdened by the Law they were, and He said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
But there is a huge problem here. I mean our part is to come to Jesus, but look at verse 44: 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Look at verse 65: “No one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled him.” Our part is to come but we can’t come on our own. Oh we could try. We could say, “I’m deciding here and now to turn away from my sin and come to Christ in prayer every day.” But we discover that our sin doesn’t let go quite so easily. We can decide all we want, we can sing “I have decided to follow Jesus” all we want, but then comes Monday and we soon discover that deciding and actually doing are two different things.
You see we can’t come to Jesus on our own because we’re spiritually dead. Ephesians 2 tells us that we are all born dead spiritually. We can no more come to Jesus than a dead body could get up out of the casket and walk over to the table for lunch. Being dead spiritually means we don’t want to come to Christ, we prefer our hobbies and our habits to Christ, life is just fine without Him, thank you.
So now I just can hear it: thanks Mike, you’ve really made me feel better today. You’ve said, “my part is to come to Jesus,” but then told me I can’t do it. You’ve told me true believing is coming to Jesus and feeding on Him, but then said I’m spiritually dead and reminded me that dead spirits can’t do anything.” I’m so encouraged. I thought this was the church of the good news.
The good news in all of this is how God draws us. I invite you to turn over to John 12 and notice how God draws people: 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
Jesus is predicting His death on a cross here. And He says that the cross would be a kind of magnet; that the death of Jesus is what He uses to draw people to Himself. And you know, I sat down last week and started praying about how the cross draws us to Christ, and I started writing. I got a full page, I’m sure there’s more. The cross draws us to Christ because it tells us that Jesus death reconciled us to God. Sin had put us ad odds, made us enemies, and Jesus removed our sin and made God our Friend. The cross draws us because it satisfied God’s justice. Justice demanded death for sin, Jesus satisfied that requirement when He died for us. The cross draws us because it tells us that our sin has been atoned for, therefore our guilty conscience can be washed clean. The cross is a magnet because it tells us that the judgment of guilty people has been completely overturned, and that God justifies ungodly people now. It tells us that our sin is not only forgiven but annihilated. The cross tells us that our condemnation is cancelled because Jesus was condemned in our place, therefore the gates of hell are slammed shut to us, heaven’s gates are thrown opened wide. The cross is a magnet because it tells us that the devil was defeated and death was destroyed, and our eternal life has been purchased for us.
You see the cross is a magnet because it has power to draw people up and out of sin and a life of misery through the offer of full and complete forgiveness, of full payment for sin and of full acceptance with God. God draws us through the cross, and through His Spirit and when we are drawn to Him like that we come running. And we say I just want to see Him and be with Him, to look into His eyes and see His scars, and hug Him Who died for me, and never ever let Him go.
Yes, the cross is a magnet, it’s how He draws people, and I want to illustrate this for you and so I invite you to turn to 2 Kings chapter 6. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and I want us to see this picture of how the cross draws us. 2 Kings chapter 6 verse 4: “They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. (Now stop right there. The Bible is careful to tell us that this axe head is iron, and iron does not float, it sinks). "Oh, my lord," he cried out, "it was borrowed!" 6 The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. (Wait a minute, made iron float? Like the stick drew the axe head up to it?) 7 "Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”
So here you have an axe head that was sunk and lost. A man was cutting down a tree, the axe head flew off and fell into the water where it was sunk and lost. And the man using the axe head was concerned because he wanted to return the axe to its rightful owner, so the man of God said to throw a stick in, a piece of wood, part of a tree. And somehow God gave that stick the power to draw up the axe head, so that what was sunk and lost was found and raised up by the tree. Jesus says, “and I, when I am lifted up (on the tree of the cross) will draw all men to me.”
You know what true believing is? It is seeing ourselves as that axe head, sunk and lost in sin, condemned and helpless, and then coming to Jesus because He offers us forgiveness and peace with God and eternal life through His death.
By way of application this morning, have you come to Jesus like that? As one sunk and lost, as one condemned and helpless? Let’s do something right now. Think for a moment about your week this past week. Was there anything that kept you from coming to Jesus? If so, it’s time to get rid of that thing, and burn all bridges so you won’t go back to it. Illustration of farmer. Come to Jesus.
Oh if you do, He will never send you away. And I’ll conclude this morning with a most amazing thing Jesus says in John 6:37. He says “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” Jesus here is alluding to something here. He is alluding to the case of a person who is in deep distress and poverty. He’s starving and thirsty and in great distress. And he comes to a rich man’s house for relief, not knowing whether he will be accepted or chased out of the house. So he comes to this house in his torn rags, and the owner does not treat him with contempt, doesn’t ask him, “how’d you get yourself into this mess?” doesn’t tell him, “you need to make better choices in your life”, no he welcomes him, receives him kindly, and supplies him with food and clothing and all he needs. Jesus says, “whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” No matter how we’ve botched it up, no matter what we’ve lost, just come and you’ll be accepted and loved with an everlasting love.
That’s how we come to Jesus. Poor and needy, starving and thirsting, and we cast ourselves on God’s mercy.
If there is something in your life that is preventing you from coming to Jesus, won’t you get rid of it, turn away from it, cut it off and burn all bridges to returning to it?
I’ll close with this: in WWII when the marines captured the island of Saipan, the Japanese ordered the inhabitants to kill themselves by jumping off a cliff. I was in Saipan in 1984 and I was at this very hill where the Japanese ordered their own people to jump off and kill themselves. Hundreds of feet below are the rocks and waters of the beach. It’s a very steep drop off. American translators yelled through bullhorns that if those on the cliff would come to the U. S. side, they would be spared. They yelled 3 words over and over, “come and live.” And a few did. Most jumped.
Many respond in the same way to the gospel today. You see, at the cross God yells through a bullhorn, come to Jesus and live. Come and I’ll never send you away. Come and Live. And some come and find life here. And some don’t. Which is it with you?
Lord Jesus Christ, you are so amazing to us. You supply strength when we’re weak. You are available when we’re tempted. You sympathize and You save. You guard and You guide. You heal the sick, and cleanse the lepers and forgive sinners and discharges debtors and rescue captives. You receive sons who come back to you, and never drive them away. Your mercy is everlasting. Your love never fails. The heavens cannot contain you, and neither can my heart. You are utterly and completely irresistible. Of course we come to You, we can’t help it, You are so beautiful to us. If I could I would wash your feet with my tears. You are my King. And Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, and ever, and ever, and ever. Amen.
