Why Did Jesus Come? He Came to do the Father’s Will (John 6:38-40)

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Advent: Why Did Jesus Come? He Came to do the Father’s Will (John 6:38-40)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 30, 2025

The Italian architect-believer, Fra Giovanni, wrote in 1513:

I salute you. There is nothing I can give you which you have not;

but there is much that, while I cannot give you, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.

Take heaven …

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in the present.

Take peace …

The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our

reach is joy. Take joy …

And so at this Christmas time I greet you with the prayer that for

you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.1,[1]

It is the Christmas season. This is tied to be the most important season of the year.

Oklahoma City made startling and shocking news Sunday morning, December 6, 1964. A thirty-one-year-old mother gave birth to a child on the sidewalk at the corner of Sheridan and Broadway. A curious crowd “watched without helping.” The woman and her baby lay on the pavement for about forty-five minutes in a temperature of about thirty-four degrees.

A visitor from Tulsa summoned a taxi. When the cab arrived, however, the driver refused to take the mother to the hospital. Then the helpful stranger called the police, to no avail. During the time the woman lay on the sidewalk, two patrol cars passed the scene and neither stopped.

A former state representative chanced that way, stopped and called the fire department for an ambulance. He also sent a man across the street to a hotel to borrow a blanket, but a porter refused him. Meanwhile, the rescue squad arrived. While waiting for an ambulance, Captain Bill Latham of the fire department and the former representative, Bob Cunningham, decided to take the mother and her child to the hospital in the latter’s car. And they did.

This unbelievable story, heralded across America Monday, December 7, and doubtless around the world, is reminiscent of what happened in ancient Bethlehem, when another woman was heavy with child. “And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).2,[2]

Why did He come?

As we begin this Advent season, I would like us to focus on why Jesus came.

Today, we will focus on:

Why Did Jesus Come? He Came to do the Father’s Will (John 6:38-40)

Next week: there will be a Christmas program, but I will give a meditation on Jesus became Like Us to Give Us Fullness of Life (John 10:10);

December 14, 2025, I will focus on Jesus Came to Bear Witness to the Truth (John 18:37-38);

December 21, 2025, I will focus on Jesus Became Like Us to Save Us (Hebrews 2:14-18);

Then, on Christmas Eve, we will discuss how Jesus Was Born to save us (Matthew 1:21; John 12:44-47).

    1. Let’s look at the context.
    2. At the beginning of John 6, Jesus feeds the multitude.
    3. One source shares:
    4. …physical things we look to for meaning eventually fade. I love how C. S. Lewis put it: “I cannot find a cup of tea which is big enough or a book that is long enough” (cited in Hughes, John, 206). Do you know what he means? That which we think gives our lives so much meaning is never quite enough. We always need more, but even more won’t do it.[3]
    5. This is also recorded in Matt. 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; and Luke 9:10-17).
    6. In John 6:15, Jesus was concerned that they were going to take him by force. Jesus withdrew to the mountain by Himself.
    7. Later, Jesus walks on water in John 6:19-20.
    8. In John 6:26, Jesus begins a message to the people.
    9. The message is pointing to Him as the Savior.
    10. John 6:29 (ESV)
    11. 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
    12. They were focused on signs, but He was talking about believing in Him.
    13. This chapter has correlations to Numbers 11.
    14. John 6:30–34 (ESV)
    15. 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
    16. The manna in the wilderness is described in Numbers 11:7-9.
    17. In verse 32, John 6:32, Jesus says, “truly, truly…” That is saying, “amen, amen…”
    18. Jesus then points to the “true bread…”
    19. ESV SB: The true bread from heaven would be something that nourishes people eternally and spiritually and thus is infinitely superior to the manna given to Israel in OT times, which was able to meet only temporal, physical needs. Jesus identifies himself as this “true bread” in v. 35.[4]
    20. Then, look at John 6:35:
    21. John 6:35 (ESV) 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
    22. Jesus is now saying that He is the bread of life…
    23. Coming to Him means never hungering or thirsting.
    24. One source shares: I am the bread of life is the first of Jesus’s seven “I am” sayings in John. Subsequently he said he is “the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5); “the gate” of the sheep (10:7, 9); the “good shepherd” (10:11, 14); “the resurrection and the life” (11:25); “the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6); and “the true vine” (15:1). Apart from these sayings, there are statements where Jesus referred to himself as “I am” (6:20 textual note; 8:24, 28, 58; 18:5), a clear allusion to God’s identification as “I AM” (Ex 3:14).[6]
    25. Remember, Jesus had just fed the 5000. Also, in John 4, Jesus talked with the woman at the well regarding the water He gives.
    26. Now, look at John 6:36-37: John 6:36–37 (ESV) 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
    27. They see, but do not believe.
    28. When the Father gives people to the Son, they come to the Son and Jesus will not cast them out.
    29. This is about salvation.
  2. Jesus came to do the Father’s will (John 6:38).
    1. John 6:38 (ESV) 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
    2. Now, Jesus continues to build on Who He is and why He is there.
    3. Jesus did not come in the same manner as other prophets.
    4. Jesus came from Heaven (Phil. 2:5-11).
    5. Jesus came not for Himself. Jesus came to do the will of Him Who sent Him.
    6. Who would that be?
  3. The will of the Father is the salvation of those who trust in the Son (John 6:39-40).
    1. John 6:39–40 (ESV) 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
    2. Verse 40 tells us “Him Who sent Him” is the Father.
    3. Father God sent Jesus.
    4. Verse 39 shows that Jesus came, He was sent so that He loses no one that the Father has given Him.
    5. There is a picture of the Father giving people to the Son, to Jesus, and Jesus saving them.
    6. Jesus raises them up on the last day.
    7. How?
    8. In verse 40, we see how.
    9. We look to the Son and believe in Him, and we have eternal life. Jesus will raise us up on the last day.
    10. Starting in John 6:40ff, we see the Jews grumbling, not believing.
    11. They do the opposite of what Jesus said.
    12. They do not receive Him.
    13. This continues an amazing passage.
    14. C. Sproul shares:
    15. John 6:37 is a universal positive principle of the gospel, and the universal negative principle of the gospel is in John 6:44.
    16. John 6:37 is positive: 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
    17. John 6:44 negative: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
    18. One source shares:
    19. The believer’s security is founded on the Son’s faithfulness in doing the Father’s will.[7]
  4. Why did Jesus come?
    1. He came from Heaven.
    2. He was born and laid in a manger.
    3. Why, to grow up and save us.
    4. He was sent by God the Father to save us.

One writes:

Saint Augustine famously said, “You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.” I want to keep the spirit of his statement but tweak the words just a bit. If he was reading this passage, he might say, “You made us to hunger for you, and our starving souls find no nourishment until they feast on you.” Only Jesus can fill the emptiness inside. Only Jesus can quiet the growling of your soul. Only Jesus can give you life.[8]

In her syndicated column for November 11, 1971, Erma Bombeck reminded us that time hangs heavy over the heads of bored people, eludes the busy, flies by for the young, and runs out for the old. Perhaps we should view it, she counseled, through a child’s eyes.

“When I was young, Daddy was going to throw me in the air and catch me and I would giggle until I couldn’t giggle anymore; but he had to change the furnace filter, and there wasn’t time.”

There is always something else to do![9]

Remember to live in the moment now. But as we go through this Christmas season, I encourage you to remember that Jesus came to do His Father’s will. His Father’s will was to save us.

Look to Jesus and have life.

1 Christian Century Pulpit, December, 1957, “Greeting at Christmas,” by Fra Giovanni, AD 1513, p. 22. Permission requested.

[1] G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1986), 56–57.

2 The Daily Oklahoman, December 7, 1964.

[2] G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1986), 57.

[3] Matt Carter and Josh Wredberg, Exalting Jesus in John (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 152.

[4] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2034–2035.

[5] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2035.

[6] Andreas J. Köstenberger, “John,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1678.

[7] Andreas J. Köstenberger, “John,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1678.

[8] Matt Carter and Josh Wredberg, Exalting Jesus in John (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 155.

[9] G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1986), 346.

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