John 6:37-40 Why do people not believe in Jesus?

If all the people got so excited about eternal life, why did they not want to believe in Jesus?

Joh 6:35-36
(35) "I am the bread of life," Jesus told them. "Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.
(36) Now, I told you that you have seen me but will not believe.

We have seen that Jesus is the miracle – He is the Bread from Heaven – and that believing in Him is the work that gives Eternal Life.

(They had seen his miracles and heard his teaching)
1. Had Jesus just appeared one day in the middle of no-where and immediately claimed this?
a. No. He had been teaching among them for about 2 years already – the same amount of time that I have been teaching you for.
2. Had they seen Jesus miracles?
a. Yes. Water into wine. Feeding 5000. Healing sick and paralysed. Had told people their background without meeting them. Casting out demons. Saving people from death.

And even though many said they “believed” in Him, it was not true faith in that He was the Son of God – they put their faith in Him as someone who was going to save them from the Romans, someone who was there to give them what they wanted, and not what they needed.

Joh 2:23-25
(23) While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in him as they saw the miracles he performed.
(24) But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew them all.
(25) There was no need for anyone to tell him about them, because he himself knew what was in their hearts.

Why then, when Jesus revealed to them that He was the Eternal Life, did they not want to believe in Him and his words?

What makes the difference between those who DO come to Jesus and those who DON’T?

John 6:37-40
(37) Everyone whom my Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me,• God the Father takes people and gives them to Christ• These people will believe in Christ
• These people will never be sent away
(38) because I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
• Christ is here to achieve the Father’s will – to accomplish what He wants
(39) And it is the will of him who sent me that I should not lose any of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day.
• The Father wills that Christ will save all who believe in Him (those the Father has given the Son)
(40) For what my Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day."
• How does this happen?All who believe in the son will get Eternal Life. They will not be lost even though they die, because Jesus will raise them from the dead on the last day.


The answer to the question is:
1. People CANNOT believe by themselves.
They NEED the Father to make the first move
a. The people had seen and heard Jesus, but were still blind to the truth. They couldn’t accept it

(This is the answer - but it leads to more questions...:)

Is this unfair?
2. It is NOT UNFAIR.
The natural man is an enemy against God. Remember the first lesson from Romans 1?
Rom 1:28-32
(28) Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.
(29) They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip
(30) and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents;
(31) they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others.
(32) They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.

It is an amazing wonder that even though people are enemies of God, He still rescues some and brings them to Jesus. Even though they walk in darkness (just like I was), He opens their eyes and shows them grace – he saves them despite themselves.

Does that mean that it is all up to God and we are just puppets? Does it matter what we do? Have we got any hope of being saved?
3. We have every hope.
If we look to Jesus, believing in Him for Eternal Life, we will be saved.
Read verse 40.
If you have believed that Jesus is from God and you have made Him your Lord, He will NEVER turn you away. When Jesus comes at the end of the world, YOU will be raised to life by Him and taken to live with Him forever.

John 6: 28-36 Jesus the Bread from Heaven

John 6:28-36

Recap:They had been running after Jesus, enjoying his miracles and how He provided food and healing. But Jesus told them they were heading the wrong way! He said:

MEMORY VERSE:
John 6:27” Do not Work for (chase after) food that spoils, but WORK for food that endures TO eternal life…” etc –
Jesus had told them to Work for the Bread that never spoils.

JESUS – APPOINTED TO TELL THE TRUTH (WE CAN TRUST HIM)

WHY? Why must they do this?
BECAUSE: God the FATHER has set His SEAL on JESUS – the FATHER has approved JESUS and given Him the POWER to give men Eternal life.
(read 27b “which the son of man will give you because the father has set his seal on him)

Jesus was telling them that there is something greater than following after temporal pleasures. Jesus is approved by God to show them something greater. He will show them food that gives Eternal Life. He was calling them to listen carefully to Him and trust what He says.

Read v28
They say, “OK, we will listen. How can we WORK for this Food? You say we must labour for this Food that doesn’t spoil. How?” “What will be acceptable to God then, so that we can get this food!” “What must we be doing every day? We will even change our habits to get this food! It sounds like good stuff!”

Jesus answerS: God has sent you something – you must believe in it. The Work you must do is to BELIEVE in WHAT GOD HAS SENT to you. You need to always work hard at believing in what that He sent.
(Habitually keep on believing in what God has given.)

Now this got them thinking:
Food? Sent From God? Remember what Moses did in the desert? … “We want to believe in what God has sent from Heaven – we want to do the work of God. This sounds quite amazing, but what sign will you do for us so that we know you are talking the truth? Moses gave Manna. What about you? Show us.

JESUS – APPOINTED TO GIVE ETERNAL LIFE (WE MUST BELIEVE IN HIM)
“That’s right”, Jesus says, “but what has come to you TODAY is not from Moses. Sure Moses saw bread from Heaven, but TODAY God has sent TRUE BREAD from Heaven. THIS TRUE Bread from God is that which comes from Heaven AND GIVES LIFE TO THE WHOLE WORLD, not just Moses and the Israelites!”

They could hardly stand still “Master/Lord/Sir, always give us this Bread!”

“Wow! Our time has come! God has sent us Bread that gives Life! I definitely want to believe in this Bread!”
I believe that this is exactly what was going through their minds.
“Forget the feeding of the 10000! God Himself has reached down to us and saved us from death! God has finally saved us! He promised to give us a kingdom that lasts forever, and now it is here!”

But amidst the buzz and excitement and wonder of the prospect of Eternal life, Jesus spoke again, and broke the atmosphere:
GNB Joh 6:35 "I am the bread of life," Jesus told them. "Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.

Therefore, Jesus was saying to them:
“I am the One who God has sent from Heaven”
“The work that God wants from you is to believe in ME”
“I AM the One that gives LIFE to the whole WORLD”


Joh 6:36 Now, I told you that you have seen me but will not believe.

“But,” says Jesus, “although you said you wanted Eternal Life, you don’t want ME.”. There is no other sign to show you. The sign is ME – I am the sign, you must believe.

But I know you … you will not believe”

Application
I had asked myself what was Jesus’ tone in this discussion. Was he trying to be secretive and condemn them, or was He trying to lead them gently and show them the truth in a way they would understand.
We know that Jesus had compassion on the crowds – because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
This is the attitude of God toward all men.

And what is interesting is that people do not reject the promise of Eternal Life. They know they need it. They want it. They will dream about it and hope to have it. Jesus proved this. He showed the promise of God – LIFE – escape from death and judgement of sin. And they all wanted it. They jumped at it. They were ready to work hard for it. However, they would do anything to get it except accept that Jesus is from God. They were willing to pay great sums of money, but unwilling to trust Jesus.

Why is that the case? Why do so many people reject Jesus? Why don’t they believe? We’ll find out next week.
But let’s at least ask ourselves the question today:
HAS HE BEEN SENT TO TELL THE TRUTH?
HAVE WE TRUSTED WHAT HE HAS TOLD US?
HAS HE COME TO GIVE ETERNAL LIFE?
HAVE WE BELIEVED IN HIM?