Message Notes

SUNDAY SCHOOL SPECIAL 8 August 2021

Text: John 6:30-40

Subject: Evangelism

Focus: Sad reality of Rejection

INTRODUCTION

1. What Evangelism is:

a) It is bearing witness (Acts 1:8, 2:32)

b) It is speaking of the Lord Jesus (Acts 2:22-28)

c) It is exhortation to believe (Acts 2:40)

2. What Evangelism is not:

a) Compelling people to believe

b) Converting people

3. Evangelism: God’s part

a) The Spirit of God will bring regeneration (John 3:3; Titus 3:7)

b) God will grant grace for salvation (Ephesians 2:8)

c) The Lord Jesus will give sonship (John 1:12)

4. The reality 

a) Not all will believe

b) Not all will receive

c) Some will reject and walk away (John 6:66)

RESISTANCE TO THE GOSPEL

1. Challenging what the Lord Jesus taught

a) Asking for a sign from the Lord

“What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?” John 6:30

i) The sign-miracles of the Lord Jesus were not enough for some

ii) They demanded another Sign

iii) They demanded to know what “work” the Lord Jesus would do

b) Moses as the benchmark

“Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” John 6:31

i) Remembering the Wilderness journey

ii) The children of Israel ate manna

iii) He (Moses) gave them bread from heaven to eat

2. Correcting a wrong understanding

a) Not Moses

“Moses did not give you the bread from heaven” (John 6:32a)

b) God the Father

“My Father gives you the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32b)

3. Expanding from the material to the spiritual

 The bread of God

“For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” John 6:33

a) There is manna

b) There is “the bread of God”

c) The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven (Reference to the Lord Jesus)

d) He gives life to the world

MISUNDERSTANDING AND MISAPPLICATION

1. What did the people really hear when the Lord Jesus spoke about “the bread of God?”

2. They responded not to what the Lord Jesus said and meant, but what they desired in their hearts.

“Lord, give us this bread always.” John 6:34

a) They were thinking of physical bread

b) They asked that this bread be given to them… always!

3. There was:

a) Misunderstanding

b) Misapplication

AN IMPORTANT EXPLANATION

1. The Bread of life

“I am the bread of life.” John 6:35a

a) The bread of God

This is not a reference to physical bread

b) This is to be understood figuratively

This is the spiritual bread of life

2. Coming to the Lord

“He who comes to Me shall never hunger,

and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35b

a) No hunger

If one were to come to the Lord

b) No thirst

If one were to believe in the Lord

c) Complete in the Lord Jesus

“And you are complete in Him” Colossians 2:10

3. The problem of unbelief

“But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe” John 6:36

a) The multitudes had seen the Lord Jesus

b) They had seen His mighty miracles (Matthew 11:5)

c) They had marveled but had not believed (Matthew 15:30)

THE WILL OF GOD

1. The Father will bring some to the Lord Jesus

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” John 6:37

a) The Father is involved

b) He will bring some to the Lord

c) None would be rejected

2. The Lord’s commitment

a) He came from heaven not to do His own will (John 6:38a)

b) He came to do the will of God who sent Him (John 6:38b)

3. God’s will made clear

a) All who are given by the Father

b) None would be lost

c) That soul would be raised up at the last day (John 6:39)

4. Wonderful assurance

a) He who sees the Son and believes in Him (John 6:40a)

b) That person will have eternal life (John 6:40b)

c) The Lord will raise him up at the last day (John 6:40c)

CONCLUSION

1. The Gospel was presented simply and wonderfully

a) Believing

b) Eternal life

c) Resurrection

2. Yet, some would reject the Gospel

a) In favour of old but wrong beliefs

b) In preference for the material