34
John 6:38-40 JESUS AND THE FATHERS WILL
Introduction:
In
our previous text Jesus said that all that the Father
had given Him would come to Him. He was talking about
people coming to Him by faith and trusting
in Him for the
salvation of the soul. Before the foundation of the world,
God the Father had planned that He would
send Jesus to the
cross to suffer for lost sinners and that
all who would
trust in Him for salvation would be
saved. Therefore, even
before these future believers in Jesus
were ever born, God
the Father, knowing that they would
believe in Jesus, gave
them to Jesus for salvation and safe
keeping.
I.
Jesus having come down from heaven
Our
text today follows up on that line of thought and
speaks of Jesus doing the will of God the
Father. V. 38,
"For I came down from
heaven..." In keeping with the will
of God the Father, Jesus came down from
heaven to this
earth.
As Spirit God and as the Second Person of the
Trinity He had been upon the throne of God
in heaven along
with God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit. As an eternal
being, He had always been there. But at the time which God
the Father had appointed, He came down to
earth and was
carried in the womb of Mary until the time
of His birth.
As
the time of His birth approached, God caused Joseph
and Mary, who lived at
Bethlehem in Judah where, according to
prophecy, He was to
be born.
Even as a tiny babe, Jesus was Deity God. He was
Deity God born in human flesh. He was one of the Holy
Trinity born in human flesh.
Jesus
would live on earth about thirty years before his
ministry began. Then He would spend about three years
preaching and performing miracles showing
clearly that He is
the Son of God. He would take a few men who had been saved
and baptized under John the Baptist
and organize a small
group of followers. That small group of followers was a New
Testament church. Other church of like kind would later be
organized.
As He preached souls were saved and He baptized
lots of people.
Everything
that Jesus would ever do would be important
to us.
But the most important thing that He would ever do
was to go to the cross and come forth from
the dead. His
death would be required to pay the redemption
price for the
souls of men. His resurrection would be required so that He
could save others. A dead man could not save anybody. In
our text, as well as in other places in Scripture, Jesus
said that He came down from heaven to the
earth. Even
secular history records that He lived on
earth. The Jewish
historian, Josephus, among others, tells
about His life and
His death here on earth.
II. Jesus, not come to do His will, but
the will of God the
Father
(V.
38), "...not to do mine own will , but the will
of him that sent me." Jesus did not come down to this earth
just to do His own will. He had totally submitted His will
to God the Father. He was totally willing to do whatever
the Father wanted Him to do. He was not in the dark as to
what the Father wanted Him to do. He knew exactly what the
Father wanted Him to do. But even though He knew in advance
that the Father wanted Him to die on the
cross, He was still
willing to do it. In no way was He opposed to doing what
the Father wanted Him to do.
He
did not make that transition from heaven to earth in
order to do that which He wanted to do
so. He came because
God the Father sent Him. He came at the Father's request.
We
can be sure that the Father did not send Him without
backing Him up. The full power and authority of God the
Father in heaven stood behind Him in all
the things that He
would do.
V.
39, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent
me..." Starting in verse 39 and
extending into verse 40
Jesus began to tell what the Father had
send Him to do. He
tells what the Father wanted Him to
accomplish in His
mission to earth. He does not give all the details, but He
does set forth certain things that the
Father assigned Him
to accomplish.
III.
The will of God the Father for Jesus
Listen
to the assignment that God the Father gave to
Jesus.
(V. 39), "...that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing..." God told Jesus that He wanted
Jesus to lose none of those people whom He
had given to
Jesus.
Keep in mind that God the Father had given certain
ones to Jesus on the basis of His
foreknowledge of their
faith in Jesus. Romans
them He did predestinate to eventually be
conformed to the
image of Jesus.
That
is, God has plans involving the here after for the
future believers in Christ. God has planned that in the
hereafter, they will all be in glorified
bodies likened unto
the glorified body of Jesus. Over in I John 3:2, this same
writer penned these words. "Beloved, now are we the sons of
God, and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be: but we
know that, when he shall appear, we shall
be like him; for
we shall see him as he is."
To
put it simply, God has plans that all who would
believe in Jesus would spend eternity in
glory with Christ.
He does not want any of them to fail to
make it to heaven.
He does not want anybody who is ever saved
to ever be lost
again.
He has assigned Jesus the task of saving all who
come to Him trusting in Him for the
salvation of the soul.
He has also assigned Jesus the task of
keeping them saved
after they are saved. The Father told Jesus to lose nothing
out all of all those whom He had given
Him.
Jesus
also tells of another assignment. (V.
39),
"...but should raise it up again at
the last day." God the
Father has not only assigned Jesus to save
and keep all who
come to Him trusting in Him, but He
assigns Him the task of
raising them all from the dead.
This
would be an impossible task for any man to
accomplish by human wisdom and human
power. Men speculate
that some day scientists will be able to
bring man back to
life again, but there is no scientific
evidence that this
will ever happen. There is certainly no Biblical evidence
that man is ever going to be able to
accomplish such a feat.
It is going to take the power of God to
bring the dead back
to live again. Jesus is Deity God and possesses all the
power of God. At the appointed time, He will bring all of
the redeemed from the grave.
I
would like to point out that there is more than meets
the eye in this statement. It also involves the safe
keeping of the spirit after it leaves the
body. The spirit
leaves the human body at the point of
death. The Scripture
says that the body without the spirit is
dead. At death the
body goes to the grave. The spirit goes somewhere to await
the resurrection. Some of the saved have been dead a long
time.
That means that their spirit has been gone out of the
body for a long time. The spirit of the saved must be kept
somewhere while the body awaits the
resurrection.
The
spirit of an unsaved person goes into a place of
horrible torment. It goes to hell. But the spirit of a
saved person goes into the Paradise of
God. Jesus told the
thief on the cross who trusted in Him,
"Today you will be
with me in Paradise." Jesus keeps all
of the saved safely in
Paradise while waiting for the
resurrection. Then when He
starts back to earth at the end of this
age, He will bring
the spirits of the saved with Him to be
re-united with their
bodies and their bodies will come forth
from the grave.
Listen
to I Thessalonians 4:13-17, "But I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
them that are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others
which have no
hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with
him.
[He is going to bring the spirits of the saved with
Him.] For this we say unto you by the word
of the Lord, that
we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord
shall not prevent them which are
asleep. For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the
dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we
which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with
the Lord." Jesus is not going to lose even one of
spirits
of the redeemed. He will bring them all back with Him when
He comes.
Then
those spirits will be reunited with their bodies
and their bodies will come forth from the
graves alive. I
said that Jesus will not lose one of the
spirits of the
saved.
Neither will He lose even one of the bodies. No
matter what burial that person had. Whether buried at sea
or on land. The dust from their bodies will come forth
alive again. Not one will be lost to the grave. V. 40,
"And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son, and believeth on him,
may have
everlasting life..."
IV.
The faithfulness of Jesus to do the Father's will
(V.
40), "...and I will raise him up at the last day."
Jesus is faithful to do the Father's
will. He will do all
that the Father sent Him to do. He will not fail in one
thing which the Father told Him to do.
He
will save the one who trusts in Him for salvation and
He will raise him up at the last day. When Jesus raises him
from the grave all the danger will be
over. From this point
forward there will be no more danger. In I Thessalonians
4:17 it was said, "...and so shall we
ever be with the
Lord." Before the resurrection, the spirits of the
dead
saved are with the Lord in Paradise. When He come down to
the earth they will still be with the
Lord. When they are
resurrected, the saved will be in their
new bodies which are
like the glorified bodies of the Lord and
they are with the
Lord.
According to I Thessalonians 4:17 they will ever be
with the Lord. They will be with Him on earth during the
Millennium. They will be with Him in the new earth after
the Millennium is over. They will ever be with the Lord
forever.
V.
How this applies to you
Now
what I want you to see is how this applies to you.
If you have repented of your sin and
trusted in Jesus Christ
as your Savior, then you are saved and
have everlasting
life.
Listen again to verse 40 of our text, V.
40,
"And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son, and believeth on him,
may have
everlasting life: and I will raise him up
at the last day."
If
you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you
have it made. If a tree falls on you and kills you before
you get home from this service you have got
it made. You
have everlasting life. You will be in that number when
Jesus raises the redeemed from the grave
in the resurrection
of these just. If you die with a heart attack or with
cancer or whatever the cause of death, you
have got it made.
God told Jesus not to lose one of those
who trust Him as
Savior and Jesus is not going to lose
one. If somebody
shoots you to death with a shotgun, you
still have it made.
If you are killed in a car wreck, you have
it made.
Now,
please do not misunderstand me. I do not
mean that
you will be free to go out and do just any
kind of sin under
the sun and be free from chastisement . You
can sin again
and you will sin again in the outward
fleshly man, but when
you sin the Lord will chasten you. The Bible teaches that
God chastens every child of God for his
wrong doings. But
even though God chastens you, Jesus is
still not going to
lose what God has told Him not to
lose. He is still not
going to lose even one who has trusted in
Jesus as Savior.
He has saved them and He will keep them
saved.
I
do not know how you feel about it, but I think that it
is great to know that you are saved and
that you are saved
forever.
It is great to lie down at night and know that if
you die before morning that you are right
with God. It is
great to not have to worry about where you
are going to
spend eternity when you die. I think it is great.
If
you have never trusted in Jesus Christ to save your
soul I want you to see how this text
applies to you. It
means that you can come to Jesus in
repentance of your sins
and ask Jesus to save you. It means that you can place your
destiny in the hands of Jesus and stop
trying to save
yourself.
It means that you can trust Jesus and Jesus alone
to take care of the destiny of your
soul. And it means that
when you do trust Jesus then Jesus will
take care of the
destiny of your soul that you will be
saved.
Conclusion:
It
also means that since you can trust Jesus this
morning, you can be saved this morning. Would you like to
do that?
Will you do that?