DRAWN TO

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

At this the Jews there began to grumble about Him because He said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven.”

They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me.”

John 6:41-45

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever heard of someone having a magnetic attraction to another?

It usually happens in a relationship between two people where one person or the other or both feel drawn together for reasons easily identifiable sometimes and sometimes not.

Given this, we could ask ourselves this question regarding any one person and their possible relationship with Jesus:

How is one drawn to Jesus? What is the source of the magnetic attraction that first brings a person to Jesus and then keeps them together with Him for all eternity?

Well, as we see in every other instance in the word of God, we need only turn to the scriptures for the answer. In this case, let’s look at the words from Jesus as He addresses the Jews in His company who have started to grumble and complain among themselves:

At this the Jews there began to grumble about Him because He said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven.”

They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me.”  John 6:41-45

The Jews present were exactly drawn to Jesus. Rather, as we see, they were too busy trying to discredit Him to even consider He was who He said He was, the Bread of Life that God had sent down from heaven to satisfy the hunger and thirst of anyone who placed their trust in Him, not just for the short term but forever.

It was all a little too much for the Jews to grasp by faith because they were nuking it all out in their closed minds. How could Jesus have come down from heaven when He was had parents (Joseph and Mary) that they knew. He was born of Mary and so how in the world does that connect to heaven. As they tried to reason, it all seemed so biologically and physiologically impossible.

Jesus, who knew their every thought, didn’t waste any time addressing the matter, and He didn’t beat around the bush about it either.

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” He said, before once again, trying to explain things to the Jews present. Perhaps if they heard something for the third or fourth time, the big light bulb of understanding would come on. And so Jesus said:

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me.” vv. 44-45

Here we get the answer to our earlier questions. For Jesus makes it clear that God is the source of the magnetic attraction between His people and His Son, the One He sent to be the Savior of all mankind. No One comes to Jesus unless God has first sent them His way. God is the Master of all things and He dictates everything. He has since the very advent of creation as He made everything we know, to include us.

God sends us to the Jesus and we are drawn to Him, pulled into a lifelong relationship with Him that includes being raised up with Him at the last day (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). And when we become drawn to Jesus then we find our way to the very God who sent us to Him in the first place. For Jesus made it clear that He is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

This was what the Jews were missing. They knew of God, they had been taught by God as they worshipped in the temple and synagogues but they hadn’t yet figured out who Jesus was in relation to Him. Unfortunately, the Jews had constructed a spiritual barrier that didn’t allow them to connect the dots between the Savior Messiah and the God who had sent Him, although the prophets had foretold Jesus’ coming.

Friends, I’m afraid that not a whole lot has changed since those first century days more than 2,000 years ago. People today still erect barriers that keep them from coming to Jesus, even though it is God’s desire for all to be drawn to Him. Perhaps this happens out of ignorance. Perhaps it happens because Satan is skilled in trying to keep the people of God from doing what they need to do to live with Him forever, exchanging His will for the will and way of the world and all its sinful trappings. There are certainly plenty of things the world outs out there for people to be drawn to.

And so with that, I ask you to assess where you are today.

Have you been drawn to Jesus by God and embraced the blessed attraction that leads to true life, not just now but for all eternity?

Or have you chosen to allow the things of the world to draw you away from Jesus, who was sent by God to save you?

If you’re in the latter category, I only ask two more questions:

Will it be worth it someday when Jesus returns and you are not raised up with Him to everlasting life? And will the things of the world you are drawn to now save you when the chips are down?

I hope you will carefully consider these questions before it’s too late and you find yourself on the outside looking in, shackled to eternal damnation when you could have had perpetual salvation.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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