The Work of God

John 6:25-71

Key Verse 6:29

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

Today we would like to think about the work of God. One may ask, "Where is God? I don't know what he is doing." Or another may say, "Oh, God does nothing, for he is dead." But when Jesus came, he revealed who God is and what God does daily. He showed before people that God is at work each and every day. He taught them that God is a living God and he demonstrated that as the living God, he is at work, not just on Sundays but all the time. What can he do today for you and for me? What difference does he make in your life and in my life? If he can do anything, how does he do what he is capable of doing? In the passage for today Jesus answers these questions.

First, God sent Jesus to give us eternal life (25-27,47).

Many people find the conditions of their lives less than satisfactory. In order to improve the conditions of their lives, they make all kinds of efforts. Yet despite their near super human efforts, still they find their lives unsatisfactory. In fact, after exhausting all of their efforts, they finally get exhausted and say, "Enough is enough." Then they seriously consider committing suicide as a way out. 

However, the first thing one must do in order to not only improve his life, but totally transform it to an optimum state, is to remember this: God sent Jesus to give us eternal life. 

Look at verse 25. “When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, ‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’” 

Imagine in your mind's eye you are around the Sea of Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee. Around this beautiful lake (which is still there in Israel) were many picnic areas. Imagine that you are in one of those picnic areas. Maybe it was covered with green grass such as the one we see at the Downey center. There Jesus and his disciples had just arrived. They got there by boat from the other side of the lake. But when they landed there, Jesus saw that a dusty cloud was rising on the horizon. Then there was a thunderous noise. The sound grew louder. And there was a stampede – not of wild animals, like elephants on the African prairie, but of human beings. Soon a huge crowd of people stood around Jesus. And they said, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

What did Jesus say? Look at verses 26-27. “Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’” This passage shows us that the crowd in the passage is representatives of those who try to improve their lives all in the wrong places. Oh, wait a minute. They did come to the right place, that is, the presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But they were there out of all the wrong motives. 

Again the first thing one must do in order to totally transform his life from that of utter misery to that of utmost bliss is to remember that God sent Jesus to give us eternal life. Jesus never came to do just a patch up work of the problems we have in life. Of course he does patch up. He can fix your problems that are here and there. Is anyone sick today, physically or spiritually? Yes, he is going to heal you today right now, if you mean business in getting healed through his divine presence of his Spirit! Is your heart aching in any way for any reason? Ask him for help, for he is going to bind up the wounds so that you would become completely sound. But remember this: He came to do for you far more than you can ask or possibly imagine! Speaking of this great work he came to do, Jesus declared to the people in front of him: "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you!” Let us focus on the two words: eternal life. He is not talking about just life, but eternal life! What then does eternal life mean? It sounds too vague! What is it all about? 

Second, eternal life consists in:

(1) The joy of salvation while in this mortal body (35);

(2) The deep rest in Jesus after the bodily life here on earth (39-40);

(3) The resurrected life at the last day (39-40).

When Jesus uses the term "eternal life" Jesus means the life that is without limit in all aspects of the word, not only in quantity, such as the time span and beyond, but also in quality, such as a sense of happiness. Again, when Jesus talks about eternal life, he means a quality of life which begins within us while in the body and in the eternity to come. As of now we are in a mortal body. When we die, what will happen to our life? It continues after our physical body collapses. Then if we die before the last day on which Jesus will raise the dead, we are going to go through an interim period. During this interim period we will be out of the physical body, but our soul will continue to be with Jesus in spirit. And it is moments of deep rest. Last Friday after a prayer meeting with Mother Barry in Chicago, together with his colleagues, one missionary went out to a Korean restaurant and had an eating fellowship. Then he came back to the Leningrad House in Chicago around 3:00 a.m. His stomach was full, but very quickly he fell asleep. Normally when your stomach is full, you end up having lots of nightmares. But he had a dreamless night. The next morning he woke up around 6 a.m. And he felt totally rejuvenated. Although he had just three hours of sleep, to him it felt like eternity. And during his sleep he had a moment of total relief. Such is the case with our life that is away from our physical body but at home with Jesus. Speaking of this concept, the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:8, "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." Then our life will become fully reactivated as Jesus gives us a resurrected body at the last day. This is the time when the real party begins. 

Concerning the supreme quality of the life Jesus came to offer, verse 35 says, “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.’” While he was physically alive, King David enjoyed this quality life in the Lord, so that in Psalm 23:1-6 he poetically described it by saying, "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

Most of us are young in physical age, so we are not that much excited to hear about the life after our physical death. But Jesus knows that what waits for us down the road is very important. So in verses 39-40 he keeps talking about it. Let us read this passage altogether. "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. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Thank and praise God who sent Jesus to give us eternal life not only in terms of an everlasting quantity of time, but the supreme quality of life.

Third, eternal life comes through faith in Jesus (28-29)

How then can we avail ourselves to the eternal life found in Jesus? Look at verses 28-29. “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’” Jesus' answer here has two different meanings. The first meaning is, “If one believes that Jesus is the one sent by God, then the fact that he believes in Jesus as a man sent by God itself is the work of God.” In other words, one’s faith is the product of God’s work. Jesus said the same thing to Simon Peter when he made a confession of faith in Jesus saying, "You are the Christ." Upon hearing this confession Jesus said, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven" (Matthew 16:17). 

There is another meaning. That is, "If we want to experience the work of God, we better believe in the one he has sent." Tons of examples recorded in the Bible support this truth. For example, at the wedding at Cana, Jesus' mother and the servants who worked with her experienced the miracle of Jesus changing wash-water into choice wine. The banquet master did not believe in Jesus. But Jesus' mother and a few servants who obeyed Jesus' command believed him. Then they could personally experience the miracle. 

This miracle was the first of many miracles recorded in the gospels. What is true of Jesus and Jesus' believers in the past is true of today. Do you want to experience powerful miracles now? Have faith in Jesus Christ now! Does anyone want to make disciples as numerous as the number of stars in the sky? Have faith in Jesus the Son of the Almighty God! One missionary I know recognized that one brother suffers from a chronic problem of paralysis that he encouraged the brother to become a fruitful shepherd so that the brother would send out the greatest number of missionaries to all nations in the entire Christian history of the past, present, and future. Then this shepherd said, "Amen". But first things first, that is, establishing a house church. Building a house church requires two persons: man and woman. So let us pray that the Lord God would provide this man with a suitable helper, and establish a house church for him, at God’s right time.

Again, look at verse 29. "Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” Specifically, then, how can we secure faith in the Lord? How does it come? This question brings up the fourth point of this message.

Fourth, faith in Jesus comes through: 

(1) Listening to the Father; and

(2) Learning from the Father (45).

Look at verse 45. "It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me." Here, quoting from Isaiah 54:13, Jesus alluded to the fact that he himself is God who came to show God the Father to the Jews. In addition, Jesus shows us that we secure faith in him through listening to the Father and learning from the Father. Here two steps are critical: listening and learning. The order is also important: listening first, then learning second. Never the other way around. And we must secure the two steps fully. 

Listening is different from just hearing. Listening means making efforts to hear something. Making what? Yes, effort! One needs to make an effort to hear! One day Jesus was concerned about the religious leaders of his day exercising bad influence on his disciples. So he warned his disciples: "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." But at that moment the disciples had in mind the leftover bread which they forgot to bring. So they discussed this among themselves saying, "Why does Jesus talk about yeast? And what does he mean by it?" Then they concluded saying, "Jesus talks about yeast because we didn't bring any bread." This episode says that the disciples heard what Jesus said, but they did not listen to what Jesus said, and they did not listen because they did not make efforts to hear what Jesus was saying. What kind of effort should we make? Most of all, we must empty our minds – empty it of our own thoughts and ideas, our own emotions and desires. We must come to Jesus with a listening mind. 

Next is the learning process. What does learning mean? One of the meanings is internalizing what one listens to (such as personal knowledge about someone or something) so that the knowledge can make a difference to one's life first in his internal person then external person. This is like a man learning how to drive a car after passing a written test. And learning is not an easy thing. One person I know failed the driving test not once, or twice, but seven times. Another person I know failed RN exams not just once or twice, but 13 times. So is the case with faith in Jesus Christ. When we think about Abraham, it is not difficult to see that this man did not become a father of faith overnight. Oh, no. It was through him going through all kinds of faith training in the Lord that he was able to truly understand and practice what it is to believe in God the Father. Thus he "learned" faith; he became a believer, not by birth, but by learning – not in any divinity school, but from God the Father, all in the school of life! 

"Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me." In view of Jesus using the word "learns," we need to think about one more point about faith that comes through listening and learning, for this refutes the idea that faith is a blind commodity. Oh, no. Faith is not a blind proposition. It is an intelligent thing. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." This verse defines faith. The definition itself tells us that faith is a most intelligent thing. It is the smartest, brightest tool for us to work with, for it is this faith that penetrates through all the smoke screens, all the veils of all uncertainties, all barriers both visible and invisible, and thereby help us to be deeply convicted of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. How then can we gain this powerful tool? It is only through the process of learning from the Father. And the Father teaches us faith through many different devices, but most fundamentally and accurately, through the written words of God, namely, the Bible. It is for this reason that we encourage brothers and sisters to study the Bible, teach the Bible, practice the Bible, beginning with Genesis to Revelation, knowing that all the scriptures points to Jesus Christ.

Fifth, faith in Jesus must result in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (48-58).

Many people think that eternal life is like an apple, which falls from a tree right into their mouths even without themselves having to do anything. They think that all they need to do is to lie down underneath an apple tree and wait for the apple to fall right into his mouth. 

But the Bible teaches us that the fruit called eternal life grows on a tree called "an intimate relationship with Jesus' Christ". How can we get into the relationship with Jesus?

According to verse 45, the first thing we need to do is by faith in Jesus we must “come” to Jesus. But this is not enough. It is just the preparation. Before one is able to eat of the fruit called "eternal life," one must first eat a special value meal called Jesus Christ! 

Wow! Jesus, a special value meal?! What kind of meal is that? Let us read verses 48-58 responsively. This passage says that like any value meal sold at fast food stores like McDonald, the special value meal from heaven called Jesus consists of two components: Jesus' flesh called real bread and Jesus' blood called real drink. And there are no french fries. As the passage says, people in the audience grumbled about this teaching thinking that Jesus meant cannibalism. But Jesus did not come to promote cannibalism. And he says in verse 63 that what he had said has a "spiritual" meaning. 

What then is the meaning? The answer is simple: He wants to be "inside" of us. It is just as you eat a value meal, and that value meal – such as a small coke, a quarter pounder burger, and fries – get inside of you, and blend into your flesh, blood, and bones, so also Jesus wants us to consume him so that he would be inside of us. How can Jesus be inside? He can be inside of us through the Holy Spirit who is Jesus' fine replacement. Later, Jesus explained to his disciples this concept by saying in John 14:20, "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." After the Holy Spirit coming upon him on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter also explained the same concept by saying in Acts 2:38, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." May the Lord bless us to repent of every hint of sin. May the Lord baptize us with the baptism of his Spirit and with the fire of heaven! May the Lord bless us to live in this blessed relationship so that all of us would walk with Jesus Christ in one spirit! 

Sixth, the relationship with Jesus is:

(1) A living (or "life-giving") relationship (57);

(2) An on-going relationship (58); and

(3) A spiritual (and physical) (62-63) relationship.

Look at verse 57 again. "Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me." God is the God of the living. In him there is no hint of death. The Bible says that God is spirit. (John 4:24) As God's Spirit, also known as the Spirit of Christ, resides in a man, the man starts living a life in the true sense of the word living. 

Look at verse 58 as well. "This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." As in verse 57, here also the word "feeds" is repeated. The expression "feeds on" indicates that daily we need to breathe in the life of Jesus as the Risen Jesus continuously breathes it into us. The Apostle Paul explained this concept by saying in Romans 1:17, “For in the gospel [i.e., Jesus Christ] a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” Let us say altogether: "by faith from first to last." 

This practically means that we should not live as a part time believer but a full time believer. We must live in Jesus from Monday to Monday, night and day, from day one of our life in Jesus till the last moment of the day when we breathe the last breath of our life here in a mortal body.

 

Seventh, what if one does not believe in him? (70)

The passage for today begins and ends with two tides – the incoming tide and the outgoing tide. At the outset of the passage a huge number of people streamed towards Jesus. But in the end, like a tide they all ebbed away, one by one, and two by two. Then only Jesus and the Twelve remained. But Jesus knew that soon one more would leave. Who is he? Judas Iscariot. When Jesus asked the disciples, "You do not want to leave too, do you," Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." But Jesus knew that one more person would leave, that is, Judas Iscariot. Indeed, Judas left. Why did he leave? Maybe he loved money more than Jesus. But we don't know for sure. 

Here is, however, a question which is far more important than the question of why one leaves Jesus: What will happen to him? Well, what is going to happen to him later is determined precisely by who he is now. As Jesus observed, what then is true of him? Here is a very dreadful words that came from Jesus' mouth. Let us read verse 70. “Then Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’” Judas Iscariot may have looked nice and smooth. On the surface he might have looked like even a better disciple than all the rest. But Jesus said of him, "a devil." If he is a devil, what will happen to him? He is bound to go the way of the devil. This shows us that rejecting Jesus is not such an attractive alternative. 

In conclusion, we learn that Jesus is the only way to eternal life. All other ways will lead men to eternal damnation. There are no other alternatives.

One word: The work of God 

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