Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE WORK OF GOD”
John 6.28-29
I bring a message from God’s Word using the same text as a sermon I brought to you in December of last year, John 6.28-29. Turn in your Bible to John chapter six. To refresh your memory, let me quickly review the events recorded through the first twenty-one verses of this chapter.
Not long before an annual Passover observance, the Lord Jesus Christ crossed over the Sea of Galilee to the Northeastern shore and settled His apostles not far from the shoreline but some distance up the steep incline leading to what we know today as the Golan Heights. His apostles expected a time of rest, but thousands of followers gathered, and the Lord and His men ministered to their needs. As evening approached, our Lord responded to the hunger of the multitude by querying Philip about feeding them, by taking some food Andrew obtained from a lad, by arranging for the crowd to be seated in an orderly fashion,[1] and by then feeding no less than 5,000 men with the five loaves of barley bread and two fishes handed over by the boy. Twelve baskets of food were left over, the 5,000 men plus the women and some children who were fed acknowledged the miracle, and also voiced that the Lord Jesus Christ was the prophet predicted by Moses.[2] Their reaction, however, was to consider taking Him by force to make Him their king, which notion He quickly dispelled.
If you are familiar with the passage, you will remember that He separated Himself from the crowd and then dispatched His apostles by boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to Capernaum. The crowd He had fed witnessed the departure of the apostles in the only boat available on the shore line while He remained behind. The apostles no doubt expected to quickly reach the other shore where they could then rest. Then darkness fell. A storm arose with contrary winds preventing any advance by the apostles in the small boat. Then, after 8 to 12 hours of rowing, the Lord Jesus Christ came to them through the darkness by walking on water. Imagine that! He even bid Peter step out onto the water with Him. Then He calmed the storm, and by means of yet another miracle, the boat was instantly delivered to their destination.
People came to the far side of Galilee by boats from Tiberias the next morning, and then took some of those who had been fed the afternoon before to where the Lord and His apostles had gone, wondering when they arrived how the Savior had managed to join with His apostles without access to a boat. Their curiosity and question introduced a long discourse that ends with John 6.59. The Lord Jesus did not explain to the curious how or when He crossed the lake. His walking on the water and the sudden arrival of the fishing boat to the shore were private signs for His disciples and no one else.
Verse 26 begins,
“Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you.”
These solemn words were voiced four times on this occasion. In this way our Lord drew attention to the importance of what He said, rebuking those who had gathered for their materialistic motivation and their lack of spiritual perception. The crowd saw a miraculous sign, but to them, it meant only an easy meal. They failed to see what the miracle of feeding 5,000 men signified.
When our Lord said, in verse 27,
“Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,”
He was encouraging the people to expend their efforts for what will last forever. Why so? Because
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,”
Matthew 4.4.
Physical food is so short-lived, but spiritual food means eternal life. The Son of Man (who has access to heaven, John 3.13) will give people this spiritual food, which is ultimately Christ Himself, according to John 6.53. God the Father certainly attested to the Lord Jesus’ claim that He is true heavenly “food.”
John 6.28:
“Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”
As I previously pointed out, we see here that people recognized the Lord Jesus was declaring that God had a requirement of them. They intended to fulfill God’s requirement if the Savior would inform them what that requirement was. Their mistake, of course, was to believe that they could please God and thus obtain eternal life by doing good works.
John 6.29:
“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
Our Lord’s response to their question was a flat contradiction of their thinking. They could not please God by doing good works. There is only one work of God, that is to say, one thing God requires. They needed to believe on, to put their trust in, the One the Father had sent.
Because of personal sin, no one can please God by doing good works for salvation. Ephesians 2.8-9 makes that clear:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Titus 3.5 also makes that clear:
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”
God demands that people recognize their inability to save themselves and receive the gift of His Son, Romans 6.23:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This is as far in our text as I want to take you, for now, John 6.29:
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
When I preached before from this text, I intentionally did not address the main thrust of the verse, which obviously has to do with believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, I sought to focus your attention on the last phrase of verse 29, where the Lord Jesus Christ, when He described Himself to His audience, said
“him whom he hath sent.”
I pointed out that the phrase contains five words in English, three of which are the pronouns “him,” “whom,” and “he,” and also the words “hath” and “sent.” The Greek phrase, however, contains only three words, on, meaning “who,” apesteilen, a form of the word meaning “to send,” apostelloo, and ekeinos, a demonstrative pronoun meaning “that.” Very literally, this phrase means that one who was sent. Who was sent? The Lord Jesus refers to Himself. Who did the sending? That was God the Father.
The question, of course, is why? Why did God the Father send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be born, to live, and then to die for sins before rising from the dead and ascending back to His Father’s right hand? What was the point of it all? I often suggest that when you are challenged in your Christian life, you need to start asking why. But not why in a rebellious or lack of faith kind of way. Rather, ask why to be informed, to be reminded, to be comforted, and to be strengthened. It is a question that naturally arises from the Lord’s self-description at the end of John 6.29:
“him whom he hath sent.”
Why? Father, how does your Word answer my question concerning why You sent your Son? I need your answer to that question to strengthen the brethren, encouraging the discouraged, and comforting those of us who need it. God’s Word answers the question “Why?” in three ways, each of which is very simple and straightforward, with all three answers fitting together in a complimentary way: First, God sent His Son because it was the most immediate and best way for Him to be glorified. Second, God sent His Son to save sinners from their sins, to deliver us from the ultimate consequences of our criminality toward God. These two reasons for God sending His Son are the reasons Christians most frequently talk about, and pastors most often deal with, to teach people and preach about.
However, the third reason God sent His Son is also very important, and thrilling to contemplate. According to Isaiah 61.1-3, the Savior indicated He also came to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to open the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, and to minister to them that mourn, to replace the ashes of grief with beauty, to give the oil of joy to those who mourn, and to provide reason to praise for those with the spirit of heaviness.[3] In short, God sent His Son, and His Son came, to minister to those of us who trust Him.
Think about that for a moment. So many lost people who are confronted with the claims of Christ think only of what they imagine their duties and responsibilities will be as believers to live for Christ and to serve Him. And in doing so, they are put off by their fear of failing as Christians and somehow greatly disappointing God and Jesus Christ and their fellow Christians. This makes them not want to trust Christ. Perhaps that reaction is the wicked mind of the sinner seeking to justify his rejection of Christ. Or perhaps it results from the inadvertent neglect by the Gospel preacher to call proper attention to this third reason God sent His Son, which is to so wonderfully minister to us that some who are unsaved fail to recognize that the sinner come to Christ receives so much more from Christ than he could ever give as a Christian to Christ.
I will leave it to you to read Isaiah 61.1-3. But reflect on the reasons why God sent His Son as it applies to your proper reaction to the Gospel. God is glorified. That’s #1. Your sins are forgiven. That’s #2. And the third reason God sent His Son has to do with Christ’s ongoing ministry to those who are His own: The Savior preaches good tidings to us, binds up our broken hearts, proclaims liberty to us, opens the prison to we that are bound, proclaims the acceptable year of the LORD, proclaims the day of God’s vengeance, comforts all of us, and ministers to us when we mourn, replaces the ashes of our grief with beauty, gives the oil of joy to us when we mourn and provides us reasons to praise when our spirits are heavy. And if anyone has failed to make you aware of Christ’s ongoing ministry in our lives since our conversion, understand that it is we who have failed you in our neglect to sing the praises our wonderful Savior deserves. If you who are believers agree with me in this, let’s hear a good, hearty Amen.
What is today’s text, once more? John 6.28-29:
28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
In light of the reasons why God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, which I have just reviewed for you, and in light of what Jesus Christ has done to secure the salvation of your eternal and undying soul (His death on your behalf, His burial, and His bodily resurrection from the dead), what response is reasonably expected from you by God, demanded from you by God, and commanded from you by God? That you believe on Him whom God hath sent. Perhaps you don’t care that God is glorified. It may be that the forgiveness of your many sins does not much impress you. But how does the ongoing ministry of Jesus Christ to benefit and bless those of us, and only those of us, who believe in Him impress you? It should greatly impress you. Thus, it makes no sense whatsoever to reject Christ, regarding one’s self-interest and well-being. That seen, what is involved in believing on Him?
Four comments:
LET ME BEGIN BY DESCRIBING WHAT FAITH IS
Hebrews 11.1 reads,
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
That is a wonderful description of faith, but it is not a definition of faith. What is meant here by the Greek word translated faith has to do with “believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted,”[4] with the notion of believing or trusting having to do with “entrusting oneself . . . in complete confidence.”[5] The best example of faith found in the Bible is none other than Abraham, who exhibited over the course of his lifetime four kinds of faith, trust, reliance, that corresponded to four phases of his and every believer’s spiritual life. Let me quickly review:
First, there was Abraham’s seeking faith. This is the faith that Hebrews 11.8 refers to:
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
I identify this as Abraham’s seeking faith because this is the faith he exhibited before he was justified in Genesis 15.6, as the Apostle Paul and James attest in Romans 4.3, Galatians 3.6, and James 2.23. Clearly, God’s Word shows that for about ten years Abraham had what the Bible describes as faith, faith that he exercised, but faith that did not save him did not result in his justification.
Next, there was Abraham’s saving faith. We know Abraham’s ten-year span of seeking faith did not save him because it was by means of his saving faith, recorded in Genesis 15.6 and referred to, as I mentioned, by Paul and James, that he was justified in the sight of God:
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
Let it also be observed that Abraham’s seeking faith was a faith that spanned roughly a decade, while his saving faith for but an instant resulted in him being forever reconciled to God through faith.
Third, there was what I identify as Abraham’s significant faith, or stupendous faith, for lack of a better term. If saving faith results in a sinner being justified in the sight of God, what I call significant faith or stupendous faith results in a believer being justified in the sight of men. This occurred when, 15-20 years after Genesis 15.6, Abraham offered up Isaac in Genesis 22, and is referred to in Hebrews 11.17 and James 2.21. His willingness to offer Isaac was proof to one and all of Abraham’s relationship with God that had been established in Genesis 15.6.
Finally, there was Abraham’s sanctifying faith. This is the faith by which the believer lives out his life on a day-to-day basis, maintains his reputation as a believer, and routinely trusts God for his provision, for his guidance, and for God’s ongoing supply of grace, as he anticipates God’s fulfillment of His promises. Hebrews 11.9-10 speak to Abraham’s sanctifying faith:
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
It may very well be that you have the seeking faith of the type Abraham had without even knowing what it is because you are here this morning. Should you trust Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, it will be using saving faith of the type Abraham displayed in Genesis 15.6 when he
“he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
LET ME CONTINUE BY DESCRIBING HOW FAITH IS GIVEN
I will declare what I do not have time this morning to prove, that faith is given and is never ginned up by any sinner. Ephesians 2.8, when rightly understood, establishes very clearly that faith is given, where we read,
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
Have I aroused your curiosity? Good. Briefly, some facts about this faith that is given by God:
First, faith is initially given by the Spirit of God. This is established in Second Corinthians 4.13 where we find the phrase,
“We having the same spirit of faith.”[6]
This phrase reveals that, as the Spirit of God is the Author of the individual’s new birth, also He is the Author of a person’s faith. When you have faith your faith comes, ultimately, from the Spirit of God.
Second, the faith the Spirit gives is faith that is given to someone using the Word of God. Romans 10.17 is very familiar to most of us:
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
James 1.18 also speaks to the role in salvation of the Word of God:
“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.”
Third, the hearing of God’s Word, usually through preaching. First Corinthians 1.21 is but one verse that establishes the importance of that means of grace known as preaching:
“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
Finally, the absence of faith. We understand that faith comes from the Spirit of God, as a sinner is exposed to the teaching and preaching of God’s Word, the Spirit of God using the Word of truth to bring about the new birth. Thus, we see the importance of getting as many people under the sound of the Gospel as we possibly can, because not everyone has faith, Second Thessalonians 3.2. And without faith in Christ, a sinner perishes.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO OBSERVE THAT FAITH IS A MEANS AND NOT A CAUSE
I feel compelled to point out something that is not the immediate discovery of studying this portion of God’s Word, though it bears directly on a correct understanding of what faith in Jesus Christ really is, and is but one distinguishing difference between the erroneous Roman Catholic understanding of faith in Christ and the well-established and correct Biblical understanding of faith in Christ.
Let me state clearly that no sinner is justified because he believes in Christ. Think about this as you read those passages in God’s Word that bear on this issue and you will soon see the issue. Faith, in and of itself, is not something that wields power. Faith is a confidence, a conviction, a persuasion. As well, faith must have a proper object, with saving faith having for its object the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is trusted. Confidence is in Him. The Roman Catholic Church views faith somewhat differently than it is taught in the Bible. Catholicism views faith is meritorious, as being both the creation of the sinner and as being the cause of a sinner’s salvation, as though God rewards a sinner’s belief in Christ with his soul’s salvation. Not so.
Rather, according to Scripture every sinner who is justified is justified by means of his faith in Christ. The Bible teaches, contrary to Roman Catholicism, and as the Reformers rediscovered at the time of the Protestant Reformation, that God gives faith as a means of giving salvation, making salvation through faith in Christ the gift of God and not of works of any kind. That reality can only be true when faith is rightly seen as something other than the cause of salvation. God does not save sinners because they believe in Jesus Christ. Rather, God saves sinners by means of their faith in Jesus Christ, meaning that faith does not have to be strong to save. It is Jesus Christ Who is mighty to save, even when the sinner’s faith in Christ is like the slenderest thread of trust in Him. And this is borne out by Christ’s parable in Mark 4.31:
“It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth.”
Saving faith can be small, and weak, and slight because it is not the strength or size of one’s faith that is important, but the Object of your faith, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is mighty to save all who come to God by Him.
I CONCLUDE THAT TRUSTING CHRIST IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
The Bible teaches that this span of life you are presently living is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away, James 4.14. Will your life be relatively long or relatively short? Only God knows. Therefore, you’d best be about the business of using the time allotted to you to prepare for eternity, and this is best done by recognizing two realities to act upon:
First, you and only you are responsible for your sinfulness. You did not decide to be a sinner; you were born sinful. It remains that your sinfulness is your responsibility and only yours. Does this seem unfair? Too bad. It is a reality. Therefore, come to grips with the certainty that you will be judged for your sins unless someone else is judged for your sins.
Second, you and only you are responsible for your response to the Gospel. There are only two possible remedies for your sinfulness. Either you will spend the ceaseless ages of eternity paying the never-ending price for your sins against a holy God, or you will spend the ceaseless ages of eternity enjoying the blessedness of the forgiveness granted you when you trusted Christ to pay your sin debt to God by responding to His Gospel offer with faith. Is your mother or your father a believer in Jesus Christ, having trusted Him for salvation full and free? Wonderful. There are many blessings enjoyed by the son or daughter of a believer, and by the friends and loved ones of believers. But that does not mean your sins are forgiven or that you will enjoy eternity in heaven in God’s presence. This is because you are responsible for your sins. No one else can address your sin issues for you. And you are responsible for your response to the Gospel. No one can trust Christ on your behalf. So it is up to you to consider and respond to the Gospel claims of Jesus Christ. It is up to you to trust Him by faith.
Remember, in our text, the Lord Jesus Christ told the multitudes that followed Him the next day to the other side of the Sea of Galilee
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
What does God want? What does God expect? What does God demand? Thousands wanted to know. And you need to know. What God wants, expects, and demands is for you to believe on Him who He sent, for you to believe on Jesus Christ, His Son who He sent to die on the cross of Calvary for your sins.
I urge you to consider the claims of Christ that are found in the Bible. There you will find that He is reliable, trustworthy, and able to save you from your sins. Then, I plead with you; trust Him as your own personal Savior.
__________
[1] Mark 6.39-40
[2] Genesis 49.10
[3] Luke 4.18-20
[4] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), page 818.
[5] Ibid., page 817.
[6] John Gill, The Baptist Commentary Series Volume I, John Gill’s Exposition Of The Old And New Testaments, Vol 8 (Paris, Arkansas: the Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc., reprinted 2006), pages 781-782.
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Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church