Better Bread

Intro.

Tell me something that you used to enjoy, which don’t anymore...

I think most people usually will out grow certain tastes or hobbies in their life. In fact, a lot of times, though we really used to enjoy something, we toss is aside and move on when that thing no longer serves us or meets whatever need or desire it was fulfilling.

For example, when a child is first learning how to read, they will first read picture books. Then, when the time comes they will pick up chapter books and never look back. Why? Because the picture books didn’t give them what they wanted anymore and they found something else.

We could also look at the relationships we have throughout our lives. As the old saying foes, friends come and go. I’ve had friends and girlfriends that came into my life for a season, and then we parted ways and never spoke again. I’m sure we can relate to this as well. Sometimes people are no longer on the same page, are no longer going the same direction, or the relationship is no longer healthy and supplying what good relationships can and should. At that point, they end when the needs aren’t met.

Another example is perhaps seen in the world in regards to jobs. We take a job or go into career fields that pay us what we need, that satisfy us in some way or another, and that helps us do the things in life apart from work that we want or need to accomplish.

What do all these things have in common? That when one thing doesn’t give us what we want anymore, we leave it behind for something else that will.

Steadfastness to Christ

John 6:32–42 CSB

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Therefore the Jews started grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

See, these are the same people, you’ll remember who the Lord blessed by feeding them miraculously from the bread and fish.

How many basket fulls did they take home with them?

What did that specific number represent?

That Christ is sufficient to meet all our needs.

Remember also that on the water the disciples are said to have not understood the miracle and were hardened of heart. So, too, were these poor wandering souls upon whom the Lord took compassion.

Jesus fed them, they tried to force Him to be their earthly king, and overnight He left to Capernaum. Then, they followed Him and the text says that they were seeking still more bread from Him!

John 6:26 CSB

Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Now, what I would like to hone in on this evening for us is to look at how finicky these people were towards the Lord. It mirrors how quickly we change from one thing to the other, and it is for exactly the same reason! John 6.27-29

John 6:27–34 CSB

27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.” 28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. 29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.” 30 “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” 32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

See, here, the people were excited about Jesus! Their excitement for Him was at least in some way carried over from the previous day when they were enamored with what He did for them, and they tried making Him king. Then, only a few moments later after Jesus instructs them about Who He is, that He Himself is the bread which give eternal life, they grumbled. Why? Because they now realized that Jesus was not What or Who they thought, and He wasn’t going to give the what they wanted from Him.

So often, people become enamored with their own idea of Jesus. Their own misconceptions of Him get their hearts engaged and they are excited over Who they expect Him to be. Then, they ask Him for something and they don’t receive exactly that; or, they are given something from Him which they did not want any part of.

People commonly ask why they must still suffer as Christians. They ask why Jesus didn’t give them whatever it was they asked for, if He really loved them.

One famous person who superficially wanted the Lord in this way said, “I have problems with Jesus because He wasn’t there for me when I called.” Translation: Jesus didn’t give him what He wanted, so suddenly that means that Jesus is someone he doesn’t like now.

When Jesus didn’t fit their expectation or fulfill what they wanted, they decided they didn’t want Him anymore.

That’s a pitiful way to approach Him, isn’t it? We ourselves must realize that if our view of God is not constantly being fixed and corrected by truth, we are not above this happening to us.

We ourselves have to be careful that we do not get so caught up in the things that we want to happen that we forget that God’s ways are much higher beyond our own, and that our humble prayer should always be “Thy will and not mine!”

See, Jesus isn’t going to give us everything that we ask for. Sometimes that’s because we ask for stupid things, sometimes that is because we ask, as James put it “to spend it on our passions” and we are sinful in our thinking.

Jesus said the “work” to receive the bread that gives eternal life is to believe in the One sent by the Father, because He came to do the Father’s will. Remember, the Son has that oneness relationship w/ the Father so that they are one in focus, and whatever the Father does is what the Son will do. We saw that in Chapter 5. Here we see it again, v. 38.

What does Jesus say that the will of the Father is?

That everyone who believes in the Son will have eternal life and receive be raised by Him at the end.

Jesus said again in chapter 5 that there would be two resurrections: One to death, and one to eternal life. This latter is what is given to those who have loved and believed in Christ.

John 6:37 CSB

37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

1 Peter 1:5 CSB

5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

These two verses are about the same thing: The faithful in Christ are guarded by God unto the salvation to be revealed at the end, the resurrection to life.

Tell me, which of life’s woes are weightier than the reality of our promised inheritance?

We work hard on earth, spending long hours over many years and through many a hardship to attain to a specific goal or position in a company. Why, then, would anyone deny our blessed Redeemer, Brother, and Master because of some hardship instead of remaining steadfast toward that goal?

Inventory

So, let’s take inventory of our own hearts.

Let’s ask ourselves:

How dedicated am I to Christ?

Do I vacillate in and out of faith depending on if life is good?

How important to me is getting what I want?

How important to me is God’s will and Kingdom?

Brethren, let us never so quickly forsake the Lord or waver in faith! It is to the faithful that God has promised eternal life, not to the “fair weather followers”. Psalm one says that the one who loves God and His commandments is like a strong, well fed tree, not a flimsy weed easily plucked.

Let God be your strength, let Christ hold you fast. Remember that none who belong to Him will ever be cast away by Him! As long as you and I remain faithful and steadfast, enduring to the end, Christ will still be there! May the beauty of the presence of our Lord, and the grandness of His companionship with us draw us ever nearer to Him. Stay faithful and run the course well. If you live by your faith, you have been promised that eternal inheritance, the resurrection to eternal life!