Though millions of people today claim to believe in Jesus, who are attracted to Jesus, yet Jesus Himself said that many are called but few are chosen, that many will seek to enter His kingdom but will not be able. Though many claim to be Christians, there is a tremendous difference between true and false disciples.  Two thousand years ago, even Jesus’ own family did not believe in Him and his own nation rejected Him and put Him to  death.  Even after feeding 15000 people and healing many of the sick in attendance, when He began to preach His gospel many of His disciples stopped following Him. John 6:66 says,“As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”

Those fair weather disciples who came for the miracles but left after the message were obviously superficial. They were disciples or followers in name only.  There were still the 12 however.  Christ’s inner circle.  And when the others left Him, Jesus turned to them and said, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”  Peter, acting as spokesman answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”  But even within the 12, Jesus said that one of them had a devil and would betray Him. 

So Jesus ministry was characterized by true and false disciples.  I believe much of Jesus’ teaching was to show a distinction between His followers, to separate those that followed Him for superficial reasons, and to develop true discipleship. Jesus seems to almost go out of HIs way to talk people out of following Him.  Let me give you just a few examples.  

To the 15000 people that had eaten the loaves and fishes that He had miraculously provided, Jesus said that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood. At another time Jesus told those who wished to follow Him to let the dead bury the dead, and not even go to their father’s funeral.  He told a rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor and then to follow Him. At another time He told a crowd that unless they hated their father and mother and family, and even one’s own life, they could not be His disciple.  Then He told them to pick up their cross and follow Him. He said in Luke 14:33  “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Jesus told others to leave their nets, their professions as fishermen, and He would make them fishers of men. 

I could go on and on. Jesus called disciples to abandon all that they held dear in the world for the sake of knowing Him.   I’m sure most of us would have responded to this call for drastic abandonment  with the response; “you lost me at hello.”  Unfortunately, this call to forsake all for Christ is not the gospel message of the modern church today.  We have changed the message to be as accommodating and appealing as possible.  We don’t ask for anyone to leave anything, but to come as you are.  We don’t ask for any sort of personal sacrifice; but say all God wants is a relationship with you because He loves you so much.  

If we are not careful, we find that we have redefined discipleship, if not even salvation.  We are guilty of twisting the Jesus of the Bible into a 21st century hipster Christ that people are more comfortable with.  Jesus becomes a non-condemning, non-controversial genie who is able to grant wishes upon our command and more importantly, places no demands upon us.  

But that is not the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus never presented discipleship as being easy.  The Jesus of the Bible talked about offering Himself as a human sacrifice for sin, and man’s need to repent for the forgiveness of their sins, and the people rejected Him.  When He condemned religious leaders of His day as hypocrites, in response they hated Him and plotted to kill Him.  So it says in 7:1 that Jesus avoided going to Judea, which was the seat of religious authority in Israel, because He knew that they wanted Him dead.  

His home by the way was in a small city called Capernaum, in Galilee, which had a population of about 1500 people.  We can assume that  it was the family home.  And so about six months after the feeding of the multitudes on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, His brothers come to Him and said, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”

From a logical perspective, what they said seemed to make sense.  It seemed to be good advice for how to raise up a ministry, or in Jesus’ case, how to get everyone to believe that you are the Messiah. But their motive was not really in the best interests of the kingdom of God.  The underlying motivation for their comments is found in vs.5, “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” So at this point,  even His own brothers were not true disciples.  They were perhaps willing to benefit from their relationship with Him if in fact He could pull off some sort of coup in the geopolitical realm.  But in fact they did not really believe that their own brother was the Messiah, much less the Son of God.

In chapter 6, you will remember, the crowds were taken back by Jesus claiming to have come down out of heaven, and they said in vs. 42, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”  And now in chapter 7, you have His brother’s agreeing with the crowd.  After all, they had grown up in the same house with Him.  They shared the same parents, or so they thought.  How could He have come down from heaven? 

Matthew’s gospel identifies His brothers. Matt. 13:54-58 “He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”  And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household. And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”

So from that text we know that the people in Jesus’ hometown didn’t believe He was the Messiah. And in John 7 we learn that even His brothers didn’t believe in Him.  That explains why they say, “IF you do these things show them to the world.”  They didn’t even believe that He had done any real miracles. 

There is a parallel here in the life of Joseph from the Old Testament.  Joseph was hated by his brothers, because they were jealous of him.  And so they scorned him and eventually plotted for his death.  Jesus’ brothers did not actually kill him, but they did reject Him and really wanted Him to get out of their lives.  He was an irratation to them.  And in like manner, Jesus’ greater brethren, meaning the family of the Jewish nation plotted His death.

But the Bible does indicate that Jesus’ actual brothers did eventually come to believe in Him, even as Joseph’s brothers eventually came to bow down before him.  But it was not until after Christ’s resurrection according to Acts 1:14.  Tradition tells us that Simon became a servant of the church for many years.  And James became the author of the book of James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and a martyr for the faith.  He describes himself in his epistle as “James a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ,” establishing Jesus as Lord, Messiah and equal with God.  Jude, the author of the book of Jude, describes himself also as a servant of Jesus Christ. And he writes about looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.  So His brothers eventually come to recognize Him as the Son of God, but at this stage they are filled with contempt and scorn for Him. Though they could claim to have a relationship with Him, yet they could not claim true discipleship.

Their suggestions are indicative of false disciples as well.  They basically are espousing the dogma of modern Christian evangelism; that if you are successful, if you have a big crowd, then you must be doing something right.  That’s why they wanted Him to go to Judea.  Why hide out in the backwoods of Galilee when the big crowds and the success was in Judea. If you’re really the Messiah you are going to have to become popular with the multitudes and accepted by everyone. But notice that’s not Jesus’ plan for taking over the world.  In chapter 6 Jesus spent about 2 days teaching the 15000 people.  But many of them deserted Him afterwards when they found out the cost of discipleship.  So for the next 6 months Jesus spent all His time primarily with just 12 guys – discipling them.  That was His plan for establishing the kingdom of God in the world.

Jesus’ commission is the same for us today; Matt. 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The command is not go into football stadiums and attract a huge crowd.  Nor to organize giant crusades and get a lot of people to walk the aisle and repeat a prayer.  But to make disciples, and teach them, notice that, teach them, to observe all that I commanded you.  Attracting a crowd is easy if you have enough money.  But making disciples is hard work.  It takes time.  It’s not done in a single outreach.  It’s not done in a short term mission trip.  It’s a long term affair. It’s teaching disciples to be doers of the word and not just hearers, not just superficial disciples.

Now the reason for His brother’s suggestion to go to Judea is because it was the time of the Feast of  booths, or feast of tabernacles.  There were three feasts which Jewish men were required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate.  The feast of tabernacles was one of those feasts, which lasted 7 days.  From a human perspective, it would have been a great opportunity for Jesus to appear before every able bodied man in Israel and start doing some miracles and show everyone that He was indeed the Messiah.  

That’s another indication of false disciples, by the way.  They are attracted by signs and wonders.  Great crusades happen in our country all the time which claim to be visited by signs and wonders.  One happened a few years ago in Los Angeles, the city of the angels.  And one of the organizers of that event claimed to see a giant golden angel up in the sky above the stadium as he was driving in on the freeway.  Their whole program was about signs and wonders.  One speaker proclaimed that everyone there was going to be able to walk behind someone afterwards and know everything about that person.  I guess that is what they consider a word of knowledge.  There were people who were acting “drunk in spirit” all over the auditorium, falling down and laughing uncontrollably.  

But the Bible warns about such signs and wonders as a means of leading people into a false discipleship.  Matt. 24:24 says, “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”  Jesus rebuked others who followed Him for seeking signs and wonders in John 4:48  Jesus said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.”  And Paul warned in 2 Thess. 2:9 about “the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”

Jesus is not interested in accommodating man’s agenda, even if it’s His own family members who are pushing it.  So He responds, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.”

There are a couple of points that need to be made concerning this important statement.  First of all, God has His own timetable and agenda, and we need to be aligned with it, rather than trying to get God to accommodate ours.  Jesus had an appointed time that He was going to go into Jerusalem and present Himself as the Messiah.  It would be 6 months later at the Passover Feast.  At that time, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowds celebrate His coming as the Messiah, the son of David.  A week later, He is crucified as the lamb slain for the salvation of the world.  That is the timing of God, and Jesus is in full agreement with that plan.  This was the plan of God before the foundation of the world.  And though it doesn’t look like it to His brothers or His disciples, all is going according to God’s plan.

Listen, I’ve said before that there is no safer place to be than in the will of God, and there is no safe place outside of the will of God.  It should be a great comfort to us to know that we are in the will of God, so that even when it seems like everything is going wrong, we can trust that God is in control, and He has a plan and things are going according to His plan.  If you are going to be a disciple of Christ, then you have to get in tune with the timing of God, and then trust in His sovereignty to accomplish His will in HIs time.  All our anxiety is usually because we have a different timetable and different expectations than God has.

Trusting God is hard work. Faith is hard work. The idea that faith is easy is contrary to scripture. It’s hard to walk by faith and not by sight.  I heard a story that illustrates trust.  It’s setting is back in the day when televisions still required antennas on rooftops.  Something that has gone by the wayside in the digital age.  But this man was up on his roof fixing his television antenna when he slipped and began to slide down toward the gutters. He tried to catch himself, but he went over the edge. He managed to grab hold of the rain gutter as he dropped, and he hung there, suspended two stories in the air. He didn’t want to look down, and in his desperation he cried out. “Oh, God help me!” And a voice replied, “I am ready to help you.” And he said, “Tell me what to do.” The voice asked. “Do you trust me?” He said, “Yes, I trust you.” The voice said. “All right then. Let go.” And the man asked, “Is there anybody else up there who can help me?”  Trusting God isn’t always easy.  Letting go of things we depend upon though is fundamental to really trusting in God.

Secondly, if you are on God’s timetable, doing God’s will, then you are in opposition to the world, and the world is going to hate you.  True disciples are hated by the world.  But contrarily, false disciples love the world, and so the world does not hate them.  Now why is this true?  Well, because if you are a true disciple, then you are in agreement with what Jesus said, “it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”  That’s it.  We call sin, evil.  And we testify that their deeds are evil.  

Let me tell you something that you need to really understand.  This is the defining point of true disciples versus false disciples.  The defining point between true and false disciples is their deeds.  Don’t get me wrong.  You are not saved by works, you are saved by grace.  But don’t get Jesus wrong either.  He said, you shall know them by their fruits.  The most damning statement of Jesus was toward false disciples, found in Matthew 7:20-23  “So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”  

So their fruits are the deeds that they did.  But notice that they did signs and wonders.  They even cast out demons and performed many miracles.  They named the name of Jesus.  And yet they were not true disciples because they practiced sin.

Now that is exactly what Jesus accused the Jews of in vs.19.  He said to them,  “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” They claimed the righteousness of the law, but they did not carry out the law.  They sought to kill Him, in opposition to the law.

Their hatred of Jesus was equal to murder, and so it beget a plot to murder Him, which was eventually fulfilled.  So if you are a true disciple of Christ, then the world will hate you.  That really is the irony of the seeker friendly church model, isn’t it?  That we would try  to ingratiate ourselves to those who really hate what we stand for.  Because what we stand for is the truth of God’s Word which declares sin as evil, and defines it by God’s law.

So Jesus did eventually go up to the Feast of Tabernacles, but secretly.  That means that He did not enter into Jerusalem with a big fanfare.  His family would have been part of a large caravan, and His coming would have been with thousands of pilgrims, which would have probably instigated some sort of great political, religious rally to make Him King.  But He was not interested in their agenda, He was interested in fulfilling God’s agenda. So He shows up midweek, without fanfare, and when they find Him, He is teaching in the temple.

But notice that there was grumbling going on amongst the people concerning Him.  Vs.12, ‘There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man’; others were saying, ‘No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.’ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.”

Notice that neither of those comments are the marks of true disciples.  Jesus was not just a good man.  Either He was God incarnate, or He was a lunatic.  Most of the world’s false religions say that Jesus was a good man.  But they fail to believe that He is God.  That He is alive, having risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.  And as such their belief is of no avail.  Believing that Jesus is a good man will not save you.  Of course, the other half of the people were under the influence of the religious leaders who were saying that He was a deceiver.  But neither group were professing saving faith, and neither group spoke openly about Him for fear of the Jews.  That word Jews is used of the religious Jewish leaders.  They feared being ostracized, or kicked out of the temple because of any allegiance to Christ.  

I believe the day is already here when being a true disciple of Christ will bring persecution in the social arena, when saying that certain deeds are sinful will cost you your job, or mean you are sued for everything you have and then some, or even thrown in jail.  That day is here.

So Jesus starts teaching in the temple.  And the Jews hearing Him, ask in astonishment, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?”  This is the great thing about preaching the Word of God.  It’s the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit working in us, in conjunction with the Word of God, teaches us the things of God, so that we have the wisdom of God.  You want wisdom?  Read the Word of God.  1Cor. 1:25 says, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Notice Jesus says in John 7:16-17 “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”  Jesus spoke the words of God.  When He rebuked the devil in the wilderness, He quoted from the Word of God.  This is the habit of Jesus when He preached.  And in the same manner I believe it’s a good idea for preachers to preach the Word of God.  Jesus goes on to say, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”  We have a lot of glory seeking preachers out there today who speak in order to glorify themselves.  They speak to gain a crowd, to please people, to entertain people.  And they fail to preach the full counsel of God.  Jesus testified that people’s sin was evil.  He preached the Word of God in it’s fullness.  Only when man is convinced of His sin does he come to know his need for a Savior.  And only when man has come to know Jesus as His Savior will he come to serve Jesus as Lord.

But here is the key Jesus gives us in those passages regarding true discipleship.  He says, “If anyone is willing to do His will, that is the Father’s will, he will recognize the teaching is of God.”  (my paraphrase) Here is the key to true discipleship.  You first have to come to a point of being willing to submit and obey the will of God, and when you do that, when you obey, then God will reveal more truth to you.  This is the principle I have mentioned so many times, that of progressive revelation.  When you are obedient to the light God has shown you thus far, then He will reveal more to you.  God’s word is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.  That means it’s walking revelation.  As you walk out the truth in obedience, God will continue to lead you.  Too many people want to see the light at the end of the tunnel before they start to walk.  That’s not discipleship.  Believe and obey.  Trust and obey, for there’s no other way. 

Well, there is more to this message that Jesus gives during the Feast, but it will have to wait for next Sunday.  In the meantime, I believe that you have been given enough light to start to be obedient to the light you have.  I hope that you will prove to be a disciple this week by your deeds and not just your claims on Christianity.  I hope that you are indeed a true disciple.  If not, then today is the appointed day of salvation.  Salvation is simply believing all that Jesus claimed He was, that He was the bread of life which came down out of heaven, that men might eat of Him and receive eternal life.  To eat of Him is to receive Him, as Savior and Lord.  To be willing to forsake the world, even all that life offers, in exchange for eternal life.  To be willing to take up your cross and follow Him.  True discipleship is not without a cost.  But the reward is worth it all. As Jesus said later in this sermon, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

We are considering today one of the great sermons of Christ. This message marks a turning point in the ministry of Jesus.  It reveals the moment when the multitudes that initially followed Him in response to His miracles, turned away and rejected Him when confronted with the truth of the gospel. Jesus was speaking to a large group of disciples, or followers, which included the twelve.  As verse 66 indicates, there were a large number of superficial disciples there, as well as His inner circle.  We know from studying the gospels that in most cases Jesus taught by using parables or metaphors, to illustrate spiritual principles.  For purposes known only to God, He said in Matt.11:25 that He spoke in such a way as to hide things from the wise and reveal things to infants.  And He does so in this sermon as well, especially by using the metaphor of the bread of heaven. 

So as we consider this sermon of Christ, we are going to break it down into 6 courses, in hope of helping us to better digest it.  We will look at the picture that Christ presents, the provision of God, the predicament of the people, the principle of salvation, the proposal to believe, and the profession of faith.  That’s our outline of Jesus’ sermon.

First then, notice the picture that Christ presents. Before we can go too far in the text we must recognize that Jesus is speaking metaphorically.  He is using a picture from the physical realm to illustrate a spiritual principle.  He did that also when He healed.  It was not simply to provide  physical healing, but to illustrate a spiritual principle.  So when He says He is the bread of life, we must understand that He is speaking metaphorically.  He obviously did not look like bread, His body was not actually made up of bread, and people were not being told to physically eat His body.  You would think it would be unnecessary to have to say that, but unfortunately, there are those who have misapplied certain verses in this passage as a result of a misunderstanding of the nature of a metaphor.

In this message is the first of seven “I AM” statements of Jesus given to us in the book of John.  The purpose of course is to identify Christ as the Lord who appeared to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3:14, when the Lord answered Moses’ question of what is His name by saying “I AM Who I AM.”  There are seven of these I AM statements in the gospel of John, this being the first in vs.35, “I am the bread of life.” Then in John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”  In John 10:9, “I am the door.”  In John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd.”  In John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  And 7, in John 15:1, “I am the true vine.” 

Now in all those I AM statements Jesus uses metaphors to illustrate His divine character and purpose.  He was not literally a door, He was not literally a vine, not physically a light.  He is speaking metaphorically in all of these statements.  To say that He is bread is to use what is called a metonym for food, bread being the staple of man’s diet, which sustains life. Jesus is basically saying that I am the spiritual bread that gives spiritual life, which sustains all life.  

But the people continually seem to misunderstand  what He is saying.  The day before they had eaten bread that He manufactured out of His hands at the feeding of the 5000, and as a result they can’t seem to get beyond  physical bread. In fact, back in the 31st verse, we see them speaking of the manna, or bread, from heaven which Moses had given them for 40 years in the wilderness. In the same manner, they wanted Jesus to give them bread which they could eat for physical nourishment. We need to be careful we don’t make the same mistake and misunderstand the spiritual principle which was being taught.  We need to understand the picture that Christ presents; Christ is the bread which comes down from heaven, in that He is the source and sustainer of spiritual life which is given for men.  

Next, let’s look at the provision of God. Jesus is the bread of life which came down out of heaven. He came to be broken for man.  Notice how many times Jesus states this in His sermon.  He starts by clarifying  their comment regarding manna in vs. 32; “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”  But they still don’t get it.  So He continues to stress that He is the bread of life which has come down out of heaven.  Verse 38, “I have come down from heaven.” Verse 46, He says, “Not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God.”  He is saying He has come from heaven.  Verse 50, “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven.”  Verse 51, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.”  Verse 58, “This is the bread which came down out of heaven.”  

The bread of heaven then is is the provision of God. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, the bread of heaven, to the world, so that the world might have life by receiving Jesus.  Jesus is emphasizing what John said in his opening remarks in chapter one, that the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and in Him was life.  The plan of God from before creation was to select a people from the face of the earth to be HIs bride, and in order to accomplish that, it was determined through the foreknowledge of God to send Jesus from heaven to man, to offer Himself as an atonement for their sins, that they might be joined to God.  

So in the provision of God, the disciples were challenged to believe in the preexistence of Christ, having been in heaven, being One with God, and now coming down out of heaven to mankind.  And we also see the purpose of God, in sending Christ to be the provision by which man is reconciled to God. 

Notice the purpose of God in verse 32, “It is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.”  Verse 33, “The bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven.”  Verse 38, “I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  Verse 39, “This is the will of Him who sent Me.”  Verse 40, “This is the will of My Father.”  And again in verse 57, “As the living Father sent Me.”  So you have here divine preexistence and divine purpose.  The Father sending the Son and the Son’s obedience to the predetermined will of God.

Then there is the predicament of the people.  This is really a two fold problem.  The first predicament is that they cannot understand how Jesus can say that He has come down out of heaven.  After all, they say in vs.42, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”  Don’t forget that Jesus had grown up in this area.  Most of those people came from small villages, and so they would have known Him, seen Him grow up, known His brothers and His family members.  Remember we said that at the wedding in Cana it was probable that one of Jesus’ family was married there that day.  So He was already known prior to His ministry, and now to suddenly declare Himself to be  the Messiah, the Savior of the world, to have come down from heaven, to have seen God, and to be sent from God, would have been a pretty big stretch for their imaginations.  It wasn’t a logical conclusion for those people, in spite of all that Jesus had done.  

So how did Jesus answer that criticism?  Why not perform some undeniable sign? Why not call down fire from heaven?  That would probably at least scare them into obeisance.  Instead, Jesus tells them to stop grumbling.   Notice He says do not grumble among yourselves.  But who are they grumbling against?  I would suggest that it is Jesus they are grumbling against.  I think in effect they are saying, “Who does He think He is?  He puts His pants on the same way we do.  We know where He is from.  We know HIs family.  He is not better than we are.”  Right there, even before they walk away at the difficult statement about eating and drinking His blood they are already turning on Him.

So Jesus says, ““No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”  Now a lot of preachers want to get off the train right there and preach a series of messages on election.  And I could do that as well.  But Jesus is not necessarily presenting a side message here about predestination.  What He is doing is deflecting their criticism.  He is saying in effect; you cannot believe Me because you have not been taught of God about Me.  You don’t know what the Father has said about Me, and so you cannot come to Me. That’s a backhanded rebuke right there.  Because they thought they knew about God.  They thought they knew what the scriptures said about the Messiah.  But Jesus is saying they are ignorant of both.

I find that true today.  People think that they know about God.  They think that they know about Christianity.  But the truth is they have created a god out of their own imagination, which is subservient to what they think God should be like. They’ve substituted a different gospel according to their desires. And when a preacher such as I challenge those assumptions that they hold so dear, I become the object of their grumbling.  Their criticisms.  But as Jesus said, a servant is not greater than his master.  If Jesus suffered that criticism, then so will I.

The other predicament of the people is found in vs.52.  Their predicament is characterized by grumbling and now by arguing. “Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’” Now here is what Jesus had said which prompted this debate.  He said “I am the bread of life, I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”  And so their question is based in a literal interpretation of Christ’s words.  “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 

Notice how Jesus emphasizes this truth over and over again.  Verse 53, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourself.”  Vs.54, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.”  Vs. 55, “For My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink.”  Vs. 56, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me in and I in him.”  

Now it’s apparent that the Jews stumbled over this saying.  From the perspective of the law, what Christ was asking them to do, even if it were possible, was reprehensible.  It was against the law.  What they were arguing about then is the same thing we might argue about.  In fact, I would suggest that the church has been arguing about the correct interpretation of this since the Middle Ages.  One of the main arguments of the Reformation was against the doctrine of transubstantiation which was and is practiced by the Catholic church, in which they believe the elements of communion literally become His flesh and blood, and by eating it, you receive remission of sin.  However, I don’t believe that this is a statement about communion, but it has been incorrectly interpreted that way for centuries, and consequently has given rise to the view  that when you eat the bread and drinking the wine of communion, you are actually eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus Christ.  

But my answer to that is to remind you of my first point; the metaphor of bread is the means by which Jesus  illustrates Himself as being offered by God to man to give life to the world.  It is a picture, a symbol, the same as the door, the vine, or the light was a symbol.  But the Jews miss the symbolism and are fixated on the literal, physical bread and blood, and consequently miss the truth in what Jesus is saying. And in like manner, those who misconstrue the physical eating and drinking as a means of the remission of sins are in error as well. So after hearing Jesus present the sermon, the people say, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”

And that leads us to the principle of salvation which Christ is declaring. Vs.61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble?” Notice that the disciples are still grumbling.  They are grumbling at the dual predicament that Jesus has generated by His message.  And so Jesus answers the first predicament, the one of His coming down from heaven, of His preexistence. He says in vs. 62, “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?”  He is saying, “Look guys, you have a problem with Me saying that I came down from heaven?  What are you going to do when you see Me going back up into heaven? Is that going to be a problem for you too?”  Of course, Jesus knew that He was going to ascend again into heaven after His resurrection.  The problem for those that rejected Him now would be that they would not be there to witness the ascension.  That speaks to the progressive nature of revelation, by the way.  To those that are obedient to the light that they have, God will give more light.  But if you reject the light God has given you, then you will not receive more.  God gives progressive revelation to those that are obedient, as they are being obedient.  What God had revealed to these disciples up to this point should have been enough to believe.  But since they don’t believe HIs words, and the signs which accompanied His message, they would not be given more.  

The answer to the second part of the predicament, that of eating flesh and blood is found in the next verse, 63: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” This verse is the key to understanding the symbolism of what Jesus was preaching.  Eating bread, even eating His flesh, profits nothing.  He isn’t speaking of eating literal flesh and drinking literal blood.  That has no benefit whatsoever.  Rather, it is the Spirit who gives life.  If you want spiritual life, then it must come from the Spirit of God.  It cannot come from physical things, it cannot come from physical effort, but it must come from the Spirit of God.  So obviously what Jesus is offering is not to eat of His physical flesh or to drink His literal blood, but spiritual life through the Spirit of God.

And what does that Spirit filled life look like?  Is it getting goosebumps and chills?  It is characterized by animal sounds, or speaking in tongues, or writhing in convulsions?  What constitutes the Spirit given life?  Listen to this: “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”  Man!  I hope you get that folks.  I hope you are not duped into thinking that the Holy Spirit gives life through physical convulsions or expressions.  But the word of God is Spirit and life.  That principle is stated by Paul to Timothy in 2 Tim. 3:14-17 “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,  and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  The word is life from God, the scriptures are God breathed, able to produce salvation which is spiritual life, and able to sustain that life by training us in righteousness, so that we might be equipped to live as God would have us live.  The word life there which Jesus uses is zoe in the Greek, not bios, which means organic life, but zoe which refers to the vitality of the soul, an abundant life in the spirit. So that is the principle of salvation: the Spirit gives life, and the words of Christ are spirit and they are life. 

Now then the fifth course; the proposal to believe. There are multiple aspects of what it means to believe in Christ. First in verse 35, He says, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me…” Listen, don’t get so hung up on the election of God that you neglect your responsibility in the matter. I don’t think we can fully understand the predestination and election of God.  That doesn’t mean we don’t accept it, it just means it’s above our pay grade.  But what we should understand is our responsibility.  So the first requirement is to come.  Verse 37 joins those two principles together saying, “All that the Father gives Me will come, and the one who comes to me, I will not reject.” So you don’t have to worry about whether or not you were elected for salvation.  If you come to Christ, He will not reject you. Period. Let God worry about God’s responsibility of divine appointment, and you just worry about your responsibility.  Come to Jesus. That is the invitation of Christ.  Come to Me.  All come.  The invitation is open to all who hear.

The second aspect of believing is to look.  Notice verse 40, “This is the will of My Father that everyone who beholds the Son…” Notice the word “everyone.”  There aren’t limitations here based upon our understanding of the doctrine of election.  All who come,  anyone who comes, I will not reject.  Everyone who beholds. He’s not talking about a cursory glance. I really think it’s similar to the idea found in Hebrews 12:2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.”  The word behold in the Greek means to look at intently, to examine, to study, to gaze on. Jesus is saying, look closely at Me.  Examine Me in the light of the scriptures.  He can accept that kind of scrutiny, in fact He desires it, because He knows it will produce faith in Him.

There’s another phrase that’s really critical as well.  Look at verse 35, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me will not hunger and he who believes in Me…”  He who believes in Me.  Verse 40, “This is the will of my Father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life.”  Verse 47, “I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.”  John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 20:31 says the same thing. The theme verse for the whole gospel of John, “These things are written that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing have life in His name.”  Salvation is about believing.   Another way to understand it would be John 1:12, “As many as received Him.”  You have to come.  You have to look.  You have to be exposed to the truth, but you must believe. 

Going back to the metaphor of the bread, go to verse 50, and from verse 50 on is really the proposal to believe unto salvation from Jesus. “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat,”   Believing is eating.  Taking in, receiving, appropriating.  Verse 51, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”  Verse 57, “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.”  Again, verse 58, the end of the verse, “He who eats this bread will live forever.”  Eating the bread is a powerful metaphor that everyone should understand as believing or receiving who Jesus is and what He came to do.  You have to receive the truth about Christ.  It’s not enough to just believe He existed.  It’s not enough to just come to church  and listen.  You have to eat.  You have to appropriate. That’s what it means to believe.  You have to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior.  That’s our responsibility.

You not only have to believe in Him as living bread, you have to believe in Him as dying, which is represented by blood.  Verse 51, “I am the living bread.  I came down out of heaven.  If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”  There He’s talking about giving up His life so that we might have life. But listen to what He says in verse 53, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourself.”  54, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.”  Verse 55, “For My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink.”  Verse 56, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me in and I in him.” 

Blood is simply a metonym for His death, as it is throughout the New Testament. You must believe in Jesus as the preexistent Son of God who came into the world and is the source of spiritual life, eternal life, and you must believe in His sacrificial death in order to be saved.  As bread, He gives life.  As blood, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness.  Blood, then, speaks of His death by which He makes a sacrifice for our sin.  

That brings us to the last point, the profession of faith. When the disciples hear the words that Jesus says, they do not accept it.  They say this is too difficult for us to accept. Vs.66, “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” So Jesus turns to the 12 and says, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” And Simon Peter, speaking on behalf of the 12 gives the quintessential profession of faith in vs.68, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

What a great profession of faith! First of all, note that even though it was a difficult statement, Peter recognizes that there is no where else to go because these are the words of eternal life. I find that so many people today are seeking for a more palatable gospel.  And so when you speak of judgement, of sin, of the wrath of God, of repentance, of obedience, they don’t like the sound of those types of doctrine.  So they turn away.  They walk away, looking for something more palatable, something that is more appealing to the flesh. They want a taste of religion but still to be able to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. But the fact is, that the truth is life, and anything less than the truth is a lie.  It’s like taking your prescription if you are seriously ill.  You have to take it all, if it is going to have the desired cure.  I will admit, there are some difficult things in the gospel.  It’s not easy to renounce the world, to give up sinful habits that you enjoy.  It’s not easy to let go of the pursuit of fame or wealth in exchange for life in the Spirit.  But death to the flesh is the way to life.  And if you don’t accept it all, then it’s not going to be effective.  There is no half truth and no half gospel.

And notice also that Peter capitalizes on what Jesus said earlier in vs.63 which says, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Peter reiterates that in his profession; “You have the words of eternal life.”  He believes the word of Christ.  Secondly, he believes in Christ.  And what exactly does He believe?  He believes and has come to know that Jesus is the Holy One of God.  That’s a tremendous statement of faith.  That is saving faith.  That is faith whereby God imputes righteousness to our account.  

Peter and the disciples don’t know everything yet.  But as I said the gospel is progressive.  God is willing to take the faith of a child and develop it to mature faith.  But we start with what light we have been shown.  And as we are obedient in faith to that light, then He will show us more light.  Sometimes we have to believe what we don’t understand in order to gain understanding.  In due time, Peter and the apostles would see everything clearly.  But for now, they understand enough.  They understand that Jesus is holy, that He is from God, that He preexisted with God, and that God had sent Him to earth so that we might have eternal life.  They believed that He was the source of life, and that His word was the bread of heaven by which life is sustained.

Listen, Jesus spoke this sermon 2000 years ago, but today I believe God has spoken to you through His word, and as a result, God has given you a proposal; to believe in Christ, to receive Him as your Savior and Lord.  I trust that you have made a profession of your faith in response to that proposal; That He is the Holy One of God, that He is the source of life, even eternal life, and that believing in Him, you will trust Him for the salvation of your soul.  That is only made possible by the fact that Jesus offered Himself as our substitute, bearing our sins upon the cross, so that God might transfer our sins to Him, and Christ’s righteousness to us.  If you believe that, and receive that, then you have eternal life.  Note that vs.54, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, HAS eternal life.  Not will have, but has now.  It is the present reality of your salvation. Eternal life begins today if you receive Him today.  I trust that today is the day of your salvation. 

Faith is the most desirable characteristic of a person that would be approved by God. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. The most exceptional attribute of the life of Abraham was his faith.  Abraham is presented in chapter 11 of Hebrews as perhaps the greatest champion of faith in all of the Bible.  The apostle Paul in his writings gives Abraham as the supreme illustration of salvation, saying four times, that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.  Abraham believed God. Not Abraham believed in God.  The devils believe in God and tremble, but they are not saved.  Abraham believed God.  He believed God’s word.  And it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 

So Hebrews lists three examples of the faith of Abraham as exemplary.  The first was when God told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He show him. And Abraham believed God and went out, not knowing where he was going, but believing what God had promised him. 

The second example of faith was the birth of Isaac.  God had promised that from his seed would come a nation, from whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.  And so Abraham believed God and waited for 25 years for the son of promise to come.  He waited beyond the normal childbearing years of both his wife himself, until Hebrews says his body was as good as dead. And when all natural hope was gone, then God supernaturally caused Sarah to give birth to a son whom He named Isaac.

The third example of faith presented in Hebrews was Abraham offering up Isaac to God as a sacrifice, according to the word of God.  Hebrews summarizes it this way, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten [son;]  [it was he] to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.”  He considered that God is able to raise [people] even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.”

Now it is to this third example of faith that we look at today, and in so doing we learn much about the nature of faith, the nature of worship, and the nature of atonement.  

As we begin chapter 22, many years have transpired since the birth of Isaac.  Some commentators believe that Isaac would have been a teenager about 17 years of age.  Some think that Isaac might have been as old as 25 years. I don’t know the correct answer, but let’s take an average and say he is about 21 years old.  He is a young man.  Abraham is about 120 years old by this point. Nothing is mentioned in this chapter about Sarah, but she would have been about 110 years old.  But the thing that should be especially noted is that Isaac was physically equal to or stronger than Abraham would have been at this time in his life, and well able to resist Abraham physically if he would have wanted to.

It’s also noteworthy that there has been over 20 years of God’s silence up to this point.  Prior the Isaac’s birth, God had been silent for 13 years.  I find that significant in light of many Christians that seem to hear a special message from God every other day.  They are always wanting to tell people what God said to them, as if they are so important that God speaks to them all the time in an audible voice, and with much more regularity than He ever spoke to Abraham or Moses.  I would suggest to you that in our times God has spoken fully and completely in HIs word, and He speaks primarily through His word. So if you are hearing voices then you probably should go see someone about that.  Abraham and Moses did not have the written word of God.  We do, and it is sufficient for every need, that we may be fully equipped for every good work.

Now let’s read the word, starting in chapter 22, vs 1.  “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.”

First note that the scripture says that God tested Abraham. God didn’t tempt Abraham, he tested him.  A test is not designed to make one fail, but to make one grow. It is meant to reveal. And in this case, God means to test Abraham’s faith, to stretch it, to grow his faith, and to reveal his faith. And I would suggest that this test wasn’t just for Abraham’s sake, but for Isaac’s sake, and for Sarah’s sake, and for our sakes. 1Cor. 10:11 says, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

The soteriological implications of this test are indicated in Hebrews, as it says Isaac was a type.  That means that Isaac was a type of Christ.  And while that aspect of this test are very important, and we will get to that, it’s also important to learn some principles from Abraham’s response.

So notice Abraham’s response to God’s call of “Abraham.”  He says “here I am.”. That indicates a willingness to serve the Lord. It’s like roll call.  The teacher would call your name and you would say, “present.” Or “here.” I remember when my youngest daughter Melissa was very young.  She was very high spirited, to say the least.  And I would sometimes reprimand her in a very stern voice, “Melissa, stop that!” That often had no effect, and so I would say with an even harsher tone, and at a much higher decibel, “Melissa! Do you hear me?” And her lip would start to quiver, and she would answer, “Hear me.” I don’t think God was calling Abraham to reprimand him.  But Abraham showed by his immediate and submissive reply a willingness to obey the voice of the Lord.

God said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”  There is a principle of hermeneutics which is known as the principle of first mention. That is, that the first time a word is used in scripture gives us some sense of the definition of that word. And there are a few words in this section that we find for the first time.  For instance, this is the first time that the word “love” is used in scripture.  And we learn here that Biblical love has in it the element of sacrifice.  The Greek word in the NT we often find used for love is agape.  And agape means sacrificial love.  Love in this instance in Genesis is used for the love of a father for his son.  But again, it’s a sacrificial love.

Interestingly, God uses this statement to speak of Isaac as Abraham’s only son, even though Ishmael was also Abraham’s son.  Perhaps because Ishmael was not the son that God had promised.  And also by this time Ishmael had been sent away, and so he was not the son of the covenant that God had made concerning his seed. It also is a picture of God sending His only begotten Son to die on the cross.  John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

However, what God was asking Abraham to do must have seemed completely contrary to the promise that He had given Abraham.  God had specifically said to Abraham that he would have a son from his own body, by His wife Sarah, that he should call his name Isaac, and that from Isaac would come a nation of descendants, though whom all the nations would be blessed.  So God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son was counter to what God had said would happen.  

However, that knowledge did not mean that Abraham was free to disobey. In those dark hours before the dawn, Abraham must have wrestled with this dilemma. And the only answer that he must have come up with was that if God wanted him to sacrifice his son, then God had to raise him from the dead.  Because the promise of God was irrevocable.  And Abraham knew that God could not lie.  God would keep His word.  Though this command seemed contrary to every thing that Abraham believed to be true, yet somehow God would be able to accomplish His word in spite of what seemed like the exact opposite.

God also told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mt. Moriah, on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.  This mountain is none other than the same mount that Solomon would one day build the temple on.  And so on that mountain in the future there would be thousands of lambs slain for the atonement of the sins of the people.  That mountain, by the way, was a three day journey for Abraham and Isaac.  One Bible scholar suggested that in Abraham’s mind, Isaac was already dead those three days, as he considered the terrible fate that lay in store for Isaac. 

Vs 3 “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.  Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”

Notice that the scripture does not say that Abraham said anything to God after His command.  Abraham’s obedience was not by giving lip service, but getting up early in the morning and going to the mountain as God had said. I think if I would have been in Abraham’s place, I would have argued with God, pleaded with God, and then when that failed, I would have tried to delay going for as long as possible.  But Abraham does none of those things.  He gets up early. Abraham probably had not slept any more that night after God spoke with him, and so as soon as it was feasible, he got up and started his journey.  And notice that there is no record of how Abraham felt about this whole deal. His feelings are not taken into consideration.  Rather, in faith, he obeyed.

On the third day of traveling Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance.  Little did he realize that what he saw what would one day be Jerusalem, the capital of the nation that he was promised, and he saw the mountain that the temple would be erected upon. But he did recognize the site for the sacrifice that he had been told he must make.

However,  the comment Abraham made to his servants is one that I do not want you to gloss over.  First of all, this is another first mention.  This time it is the word worship.  Worship means something very different to modern Christian congregations today.  If you ask people today what worship means, they might singing praise songs, or seeking God’s presence, or seeking God’s power.  But for Abraham, worship meant sacrificing his son.  Worship is loving God, and loving God is being obedient to God.  The prophet Samuel said, ““Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” 

But there is another element of Abraham’s statement to his servants which bears mentioning.  He says “ I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  Abraham believes that both he and Isaac will return to them.  And I believe that Abraham believed this with all his heart.  Otherwise, no parent could do what he did.  Even the most devout man could not take his son to a mountain and slay him and then burn his body unless he believed with all his heart and soul that God would provide a way to sustain his life, or raise him up again to life. Abraham had faith in God.  He believed God. He believed what God had promised. And so he has confidence that they both will return.

Heb 11:1-2 “Now faith is the assurance of [things] hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the men of old gained approval.”

After leaving the servants we read in vs 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.  Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.”

Isaac as a type of Christ is also shown by the fact that Abraham laid the wood for the altar upon Isaac’s back.  And Jesus also carried the cross on which he was crucified.  Abraham carried the fire and the knife.  In Isaiah we are told that it pleased God to crush Him, putting Him to grief.  God slew Jesus upon the cross as a sacrifice for sinners, even as Abraham carried the instruments of the death of his son in his hand.

In this passage we hear from Isaac, who has a faith of his own to be tested.  He asks, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” I suppose we must take this to mean that up to this point, Isaac still had no clue that God has chosen him to be the offering. But I think the realization must have come soon afterwards, as he considers his father’s demeanor.  Abraham had unquenchable faith, but that doesn’t mean that he had an unflenchable countenance.  I am sure that it would have been all that Abraham could do to keep from sobbing as he heard Isaac’s question.  And the text says the two of them walked on together.  That statement is repeated twice.  Some commentator say that indicates agreement between them.  I don’t know.  I think it is just measuring out heartbreak one step at a time.

But Abraham’s answer to Isaac is prophetic, in more ways than one.  He says, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”  I don’t think Abraham expected God to provide a ram stuck in a thicket. I think Abraham fully expected to have to slay his son, and that God would raise him from the dead. But one way or another God would provide, and ultimately, God provided through Abraham’s seed the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Jesus was the Lamb of God that died in our place, so that we might have life, even as the ram would be a substitute for Isaac that he might live.

What we see here a remarkable picture of the work of Jesus at the cross, thousands of years before it happened. The son of promise willingly went to be sacrificed in obedience to his father, carrying the wood of his sacrifice up the hill,  with full confidence in the promise of the resurrection.

Vs 9 “Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.  Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind [him] a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”

It’s really remarkable to notice the unsung faith of Isaac.  Somewhere between the walk up the mountain and the building of the altar, Isaac must have recognized that he was to be the sacrifice.  And yet we are not told of Isaac resisting, or of him arguing with Abraham.  We are not told this, but it must be that Abraham finally explained to Isaac God’s command for him to sacrifice his son.  And yet obviously Isaac believed God and submitted his life to God’s will. God had not spoken directly to Isaac.  God had promised Abraham, and Abraham relayed God’s promises to Isaac.  And yet still Isaac believes.

That’s a similar faith to what we are supposed to have, isn’t it?  We have not personally heard Jesus teaching in Galilee.  We did not personally see His miracles.  We were not eyewitnesses to His majesty.  But we believe the testimony of eyewitnesses.  We believe their word which they wrote,  and we believe it as being inspired by the Holy Spirit.  So we risk our lives, we put our very lives at stake based on their word as being the word of God.

So much is made of Abraham’s faith, and as it should be.  But we should also consider Isaac’s faith, who submitted his life to his father’s word as the word of God.  Jesus also seemed to give much credit to those who would believe afterwards, saying to Thomas in John 20:29  “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed [are] they who did not see, and [yet] believed.”

 I’m sure Isaac helped build the altar, laid the wood upon it, and then climbed up on it, submitting himself as a sacrifice.  Amazing submission and obedience on the part of Isaac.  I’m sure he could have easily escaped. I’m sure that most men would have tried.  But Isaac submitted to the will of God and believed that God would raise him from the dead.

So Abraham lifts the knife up in the air, readying the downward plunge into Isaac’s chest, and suddenly God calls out, “Abraham! Abraham! “ God waited until the very last moment to arrest Abraham’s intention.  God is rarely early, and He is never late.  But we must be sure to wait for the timing of God.  

God said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  When God asked Abraham for the ultimate demonstration of love and obedience, He asked for Abraham’s son. When God the Father wanted to show us the ultimate demonstration of His love for us, He gave us His Son. We can in effect say to the LORD, “Now I know that You love me, seeing You have not withheld Your Son, Your only Son from me.”

1John 4:9-10 says, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.”

So God provided a substitute sacrifice for Isaac. “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”  God still required a sacrifice, but He provided a substitute to die in Isaac’s place.  God was showing Abraham how He would one day bless the nations of the world through Abraham’s seed, who was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  And I think that God was showing Abraham and us, the terrible cost of such a sacrifice.  We tend to think too lightly of what it took for God to send His Son to the cross than we should.  But Abraham having to slay his own son revealed the reality of the tremendous price of that sacrifice.

Vs14 Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh, The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”  As the scripture says repeatedly, salvation is of the LORD. He is the author and finisher of our salvation. God will provide the means for our salvation, through the substitution of His Son in our place.

Vs 15 Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven,  and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son,  indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.

The angel of the LORD s a reference to the pre Incarnate Jesus Messiah.  He who was speaking is the One who would be the substitute provided by God in place of sinners. And because He was able to fulfill that prophecy perfectly, He was able to confirm the prior promises made to Abraham concerning his seed who would bless all the nations of the earth. Jesus swears to the irrevocability of this promise, because He is the One who will carry it out.