And this is Leslie Curran saying hello and welcome in the Saviour's name to our Gospel Broadcast. I'm glad you're joining us today and here to let the Bible speak is the Reverend John Greer. I count it a great pleasure to come again with the Word of God.

I want to thank Mr Curran for his words of welcome and I want to welcome you also to the program today and I pray that as this broadcast goes forth you will find it beneficial and helpful. You may be a first-time listener and if that is the case, well we give you a special welcome or you may be one who has been listening for some time and that is also a matter of great gratitude as far as we are concerned. We thank the Lord for all those who tune in week by week and we thank you for doing so again even today.

On this broadcast I hope by the Lord's help to draw your attention to a verse in John chapter 6, the verse number 38, and it says for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me. There's no reference in John's Gospel to Christ's birth as such, that is in terms of the story that we have in Matthew and in Luke where many details are given of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but at the same time great stress is laid in this Gospel of John on the fact that Christ did come into the world. He entered into the world of humanity.

Various terms are employed that underline the fact of his coming into the world and we have one of them here in this verse where Christ says, I came down from heaven. Those words ring with much truth concerning the Lord Jesus. For example, his commission by the Father, it says I came down from heaven and then in the next verse he refers to the Father who had sent him and also in verse number 40.

So the Lord Jesus Christ in coming down from heaven did so because he was commissioned by his Father. He was sent by his Father to do the great work of giving obedience to the law and redeeming sinners by his atoning death. So there is his commission, I came down from heaven, but there's also here his condescension.

He says I came down and the word, the verb here, came down is actually one word in the original language and it refers to a descent. It means literally to descend and the thought therefore is of condescension. The Lord was willing to come down.

He willingly humbled himself. He left the splendor of heaven. As the old hymn says, he came into the world of darkness and sin and woe.

He gave himself over to death and to judgment, to all the sufferings of the cross and therefore what condescension it was for the Lord Jesus Christ to come down. He says I came down from heaven. So there is his commission, there is his condescension and there's also then his compassion because he came down for the sake of guilty sinners.

1 John 4, 9, 10, God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live here in his love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins and therefore there is the compassion of Christ. He came down sent by the Father. He condescended because of his great compassion for men and all their sin, men and all their need, men and all their wickedness and yet the Lord Jesus came down to save them from their sins.

Notice here the portrayal of his descent. This text is in a context where the concept of coming down from heaven is clearly in view, is very prominent and we find that there is a symbol used of this whole truth of the Lord descending from heaven and it's found in verse 31 where it says he gave them bread from heaven to eat. The reference of course is to the manna of which we read in the book of Exodus and in other places in the Old Testament and that was bread from heaven.

The Lord miraculously supplied his people with bread as they made their journey through the wilderness into the promised land. But the vital thing for our purposes today is to realize and is to see that that manna was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ as we learn from verse 32 where it says, my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. The word true simply signifies the fulfillment of what was typified by the manna.

Now the manna was a type of Christ for various reasons. It came down from heaven. It was able to meet the need of a vast company.

It was supplied miraculously. There are different details that show to us why the manna is a type of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and therefore he likens himself to bread in this tremendous chapter, John chapter 6. We find the chapter opening with the account of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and in that of course the Lord performed the miracle and in doing so he portrayed himself and really from that event

“This sermon welcomes listeners and focuses on John 6:38, where Jesus declares, “I came down from heaven.” It explains that Christ’s coming reveals His commission from the Father, His condescension in humbling Himself, and His compassion toward sinful humanity. Using the picture of manna—the bread from heaven—the sermon shows that Jesus is the true Bread of Life who came to meet humanity’s deepest need. His descent demonstrates God’s mercy, just as Bethlehem, the “house of bread,” became the place where the Bread of Life was given to the world. Ultimately, Christ came to do the Father’s will by giving His flesh, suffering, and dying to atone for sin, ensuring that all who trust in Him will never be lost but will find salvation and eternal life.”

More on this epiosde

from the event of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 he proceeds to give this teaching about the manna and it's being a type of him and his coming down from heaven to give life to men and therefore the whole chapter is dealing with typical truth. It's dealing with the picture of Christ, the portrayal of his descent from heaven and is setting it forth under these terms of bread from heaven.

Now let us think about that because that portrayal of his descent therefore underlines the mercy and the grace of God toward men. There's always a connection between the giving of bread and divine visitation. That's what we're noticing here, our divine mercy, divine grace.

Whenever God gives bread to men it's an act of mercy. It's due to the fact that in the heart of God there is this goodness toward his creatures and therefore he feeds his creatures and when it comes to mankind even though men reject him and they despise him and they insult him they are provided for every day. He meets the needs of their lives in terms of the food they eat and the clothes they wear, the possessions that they own, all comes from the hand of God Almighty because he is sovereign, he is creator and ruler of the universe and therefore nothing is enjoyed, not even the breath that we draw into our lungs, but it comes from the Lord himself and therefore when God gave bread from heaven it was an act of his mercy and his grace toward the Old Testament congregation and when the Lord Jesus came down from heaven it was in a very real way, in a very powerful way, the Lord portraying and setting forth the fact that he loves men, that he desires the salvation and the deliverance of those who are lost in their sin.

In Ruth chapter 1 we read of this idea of divine visitation and bread being combined. In Ruth 1 verse 6 it says that Naomi heard that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread and it was that message that moved Naomi's heart to rise up and return from Moab and get to Bethlehem. Now Bethlehem means the house of bread and there's a tremendous play upon the words therefore in Ruth chapter 1 she heard that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread and it was actually in Bethlehem that this miracle was taking place, that the Lord was supplying the need of his people and she rose up at that news and she went home, she went to Bethlehem and entered into the enjoyment of what was being provided in the goodness of God.

Bethlehem, meaning the house of bread, was of course the place where our Lord was born. So he who is the bread of life came down to Bethlehem, the house of bread, the meaning is that and it became a house of bread in the sense that since the Lord was born there, he was born to save, he was born to deliver men from their guilt and their sin. He came down from heaven and he came down as the bread of life.

What a marvellous portrayal this is of Christ and his descent from heaven and the point is therefore very, very clear that he came down to save the likes of you, he came down to give himself a ransom for many, he came down to save to the uttermost all those who are lost in their sin and who need a saviour. So there is the portrayal of his descent and then there is the purpose of his descent for it says here, I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me. So he came to do the father's will which was essentially to suffer and to die.

It says I am the living bread, verse 51, which came down from heaven. If any money to this bread he shall live forever and the bread which that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. When he talks about giving his flesh he simply speaks of his true humanity.

He speaks of the fact that he is the God man and as such he gave himself, he died on the cross, he paid the price for sin and in that way he gave himself, he gave his flesh, he gave his humanity over to suffer, to die, for its blood to be shed for the great purpose of making atonement for sin, satisfying divine justice and establishing a perfect righteousness upon the ground of which men can be right with God and be saved from their sins. So he came to do the father's will, namely to suffer and to die and thereby he saves the vilest offenders. He saves those out of the human race who are the worst of men.

Oh this is the glorious thing about the power of his descent. He came down from heaven to do the will of the father and then it goes on to speak in verses 39 and 40 that all those who are his, he will never lose one of them and therefore you have the power of his descent. Christ is a mighty saviour.

Get to him today and trust him for yourself and know the forgiveness of your sins.