“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up in the last day.No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day.
6 sermons cite this verse
… from heaven? They're going, this is Jesus? He's saying he's not from heaven, he's from Nazareth. And Jesus says, stop grumbling among yourself. 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. No one has seen the father except the one who was from God. Only he has seen the father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. …
… for shouting to you. come. Look at this verse, John chapter 6, verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. I love this because the only reason why you and I get to show up today to the gospel of grace is because the Father sent his Son, and his Spirit is drawing us close to God. There is nothing about God that wants you to be far away from him. But the heart of our father wants you to be close to his son, Jesus. That's why it's an invitation. And some of us have been looking at that invitation for far too long. Some of us have been looking at that invite going like, I don't know if I'm at a place right now where I can really reply. You ever get an invite to a party and you look at you like, I don't want to seem desperate. So I'll just wait a couple of days to reply. …
… He puts it on them. Come to me, He says, and if you refuse to come, that's on you. But then he says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And then he promises, I will draw all people to myself. In other words, it's all on God. It's all on us. Some might call it a paradox. Two truths, intention that don't seem to add up. A paradox doesn't make sense computationally, but it can be an accurate description of real life experience. Let me give you an example. I experienced a similar paradox in the field of military aviation. Military aviation, where it's sometimes said takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory. Some of my most formative experience as a young adult occurred in a military aviation training environment. For two years, I served as a parachute instructor in the Air Force. I've made 400 parachute jumps, and I've taught others how to jump from airplanes at the U.S. Air Force Academy Jump School, which is the only schoolhouse in the world where the students first jump from an airplane is unassisted freefall, which means that when your jump master signals you to stand in the door with an 85-mile-an-hour wind in your face and a plane full of fellow students watching on your right and a one-mile drop to your left, it's on you. …
… Here's where Jesus rests at this sad reality of defection. He was saying, for this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father. that is a powerful statement. This salvation is all a work of God. Go back to verse 37 of John 6. All that the Father gives me will come to me. Verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And here for the third time, he says the same thing. No one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. This is where you resolve this, in God's sovereign will, in God's sovereign will. The bottom line for you and for all of us is, do you believe, right? Some of you have not believed. You don't believe the words, the words of the gospel, the words of sanctification, the words of truth. But others of you believe, and for you the word is life. …
… here's what He said. He said, no one, in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Well, who is it that draws him? It is the work of the Holy Spirit in this life that draws a person to, listen, to even desire to be saved. It is His work. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, let me show you why that's true. In Ephesians chapter 2, for example, if you turn there for a moment, look at a couple of verses here. Because here, Paul describes the condition of the unbeliever. And he puts it this way. He says, for example, in this second chapter, he says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience. …
… Me. And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The Jews then complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven? Jesus therefore had answered and said to them, Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. …