The Bread of Life (pt 1)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

No evangelism today. We went out last week and had some good conversations. We will pick it back up next Sunday

No prayer and fasting this week either.

INTRODUCTION:

The second half of John chapter 6 is a long and difficult. It is broken up into three sections. Each section presents to us a different kind of follower of Jesus:

(v 22-40) The crowd: those who were superficial and only after worldly things that Jesus could give them. They were miracle seekers, seeking only the desires of their flesh.

(v 41-66) The religious: These are called the Jews in John’s gospel. They have knowledge of God, even begin to follow Jesus, but when things got hard they fell away

(v 67-71) The 12 disciples: This is the inner circle of Jesus’s disciples. Those who are all in: (Peter, Andrew, Philip, John, Nathanael, etc).

And to each group Jesus addresses them separately, and specifically.

What we are going to do is break this chapter into three parts by each address to each group of people.

The Crowds

John 6:24–27 NASB95

So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”

Explanation:

The setting:

Jesus had fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish. He sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee in the boat, they faced the storm, Jesus walked on water, joined them in the boat and brought them safely to the other side.

We pick up now the next day, when Jesus encounters that same crowd that He fed because they were pursuing Him.

Now why were they pursuing Jesus? They were only wanting more bread! Jesus had filled their bellies the day before, it was a free meal, and now they’re hungry again and they want more bread!

AND Jesus knows this which is why He tells them, “do not work for the food which perishes”.

In other words, don’t invest all of your effort into searching for another meal that would only last a few hours. They searched, they got in the boats and rowed, and what drove them was their physical hunger.

They were wasting their lives on things that would perish.

Bridge:

I think this address to the crowds must also be an address to the church and for each of us to look at our own lives and evaluate where we put all of our effort into.

Do we expend all of our energy, all of our effort in things that are going to perish OR do we put the most of our effort, the best of our effort into the things that endure to eternal life?

Application:

How easy is it in the world that we live in, to make our lives entirely about temporal things?

What is the American dream? It is to have a good job, a family, own your own home, and be able to enjoy some retirement. Every part of this culture says that is really what life is about!

So people believe that lie and spend their entire lives and great effort trying to obtain those things. And what those people end up with at the end is really and truly nothing at all!

Matthew 16:25 NASB95

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

There is nothing wrong with working and providing food for your family and yourself. These things are part of the physical created world in which we live. Jesus is not saying to this crowd that it is wrong to eat bread, or to be hungry!

The problem they have is that they have completely ignored the spiritual realm that is standing right in front of them!

What they have standing right in the person of Jesus Christ is the very source of spiritual life, the Savior of the world who gives life to the world and all they can see is someone who can given them enough food to satisfy their hunger!

What we must never forget is that our feet are planted here on earth but our eyes are to be focused on eternity!

We are not to live as if there is no kingdom of God, no will of God, no Savior from God, and no eternal home.

QUESTION: If you took a survey of your life, would Jesus say you spend the majority of your life working for food that will perish?

In your mind right now just take out a mental pierce of paper and a pen and jot down some answers for me.

What is it right now that is your primary ambition in life? Is it to obtain worldly things or godly things.

Are you truly seeking God, or are you seeking the things of this world?

Where do you expend most of your effort?

I suspect if most of us were honest, that list would be deeply convicting, and it should be. Because if our lives are characterized by constant worldly pursuits, then Jesus is talking to us.

I’m sure you have heard of Dave Ramsey. He is the “Christian finance guru”. He has good principles, I have no problem with that. I use his budgeting app and it is very helpful. But one major point of disagreement I have with Dave Ramsey’s philosophy on life is it is all about money.

Just about every piece of advice Dave gives is about getting rich and having lots of money. Work work work your life away, save save save so you can be rich.

Do you know what is going to happen to Dave Ramsey’s life long effort when He dies? It is going to go to someone else.

Mark 8:36 NASB95

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

There are billions of people who expel all their effort into the things of this world, neglect God, die lose it all and their soul too. Don’t be one of those people.

What should we do instead? That’s what the crowds asked Jesus. If putting all of our effort into seeking material things is wrong, what kind of work does God want from us?

John 6:28–29 NASB95

Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

Explanation:

What did God want from them then? What does God want from us then?

We may be tempted to say that God wants us to share the gospel, and God wants us to come to church, and God wants us to put some money in the offering plate. And God wants us to be morally upright, not cuss, not drink, not hurt other people. God wants us to love other people!

BUT, those things do not save us! What God wants is this complete dependency upon Him in everything! The work that God wants from you is not to go do all these things, but to trust Him indefinitely in every situation and live your life out in that trust! We must look to Jesus as the very source of life, not one who can add on to the lives we have m

That’s it? All God wants us to do is believe in Jesus?

And we are tempted to say well that’s easy! All of us believe in Jesus or we would not be here! But that’s not the kind of belief that Jesus is talking about.

Look down at verse 36

John 6:36 NASB95

“But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.

These people are standing here, looking at the very Son of God, looking at God and Jesus says you still do not believe in Me.

We can at the very least conclude from this that to truly believe in Jesus is more than just knowing He is real. No one from this 5,000 would have said to Him, I don’t believe you are real Jesus. You are a figment of my imagination.

So what then does it mean to believe?

To believe in Jesus is to put your faith/trust in Jesus, to trust Him with your life. To see Jesus as your most desperate need, to follow Him is more important than everything else!

He must be the very source of life—more than money, more than food, more than self-fulfillment—Jesus must be absolutely necessary and we cannot live without Him.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NASB95

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We are saved by grace. Grace is a gift. You do not earn grace. It is given

BUT we are saved through faith. That is the channel by which God saves us. He does not save us because of our faith, He saves us through our faith but because of grace

The only thing God requires of us to have eternal life is to put our complete trust in Jesus. HAVE YOU DONE THAT? IF THERE TANGIBLE PROOF IN YOUR LIFE THSAT YOUR TRUST GOD WITH IT ALL?

If so then you have eternal life. If not then you are outside the Kingdom of God!

Salvation is an act of God working in conjunction with the faith of man

John 6:37 NASB95

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

Explanation:

“All that the Father gives Me, will come to Me”

That is, all that God has called will come to Jesus.

This is the first side of the coin of salvation. Our salvation begins with God. God is the one who initiates the heart to heart to believe and respond the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“And the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out”

That is that anyone who wants to come to Jesus, He will not turn them away. This is the second side of the coin: the human responsibility.

Man must respond by coming to Jesus by faith and trusting Him with their lives.

Both of these are essential to being saved. It is God that calls, it is God that saves, it is man that responds to that call by turning fully to Jesus and trusting Him.

Application:

There are many things in Scripture we are not going to understand such as the doctrine of predestination. And we will never fully understand it in this side of heaven. But in no way does a lack of human understanding give us the right to reject it.

An essential part of believing in Jesus, is believing what Jesus said. Isn’t that what this bread of life discourse was all about? Hearing Jesus’ words and either accepting them or rejecting them. If the Word of God teaches it, then you can and must be willing to bet your life on it.

I witnessed to a Jehovah’s Witness this past Sunday. They do not believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, one with the Father, eternal, equal with God.

I did not argue with my own words, but simply showed Him the Word of God. After I showed him several verses teaching the full deity of Jesus, He said you’ll never convince me. And I told Him, it’s not my Words but God’s and you will stand before Him one day and it will be His Words that you will be judged by.

Human understanding of the deep things of God is not a qualifier for belief. To believe is to accept what God says despite our understanding or experience.

Application:

Jesus promises here that whoever who comes to Him, He will not turn away

You may be sitting here wondering if God is calling you. Or if God has chosen you. Or if God would even consider you. Or if you have done too much that there is no way God could forgive you.

You can stand on His promise that if you come truly and genuinely, that He will not turn you away. If you want Jesus, you can have Him.

John 6:31–35 NASB95

“Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

What is the promise to those who come to Jesus?

He will never hunger or never thirst again.

Jesus is not saying we will never physically hunger or thirst again, but that our deepest hungers and thirsts for more in this life are fulfilled in Jesus Christ

The reason people put their whole life focus on the things in food, or jobs, or wealth, or relationships is because they have this hunger deep down inside of them that they are trying to satisfy.

They pursue and labor and struggle and some devote their entire lives to the things that perish just hoping that at some point or when they have enough that hunger will be met and they can say, “I am truly satisfied”.

But the truth is, that point will never come. That house or farm will never fill that deep hunger. That spouse or that position will never give us the feeling like we have finally arrived and need nothing more. The truth is, we never reach that point in anything physical because what is deep down inside of us is a spiritual need for Jesus Christ and that need will never be met until He has all of us!

When one comes to Jesus fully and without restrictions, at that very point in time he becomes truly satisfied. And good earthly things still happen, people accumulate things and so on, but everything falls short of His life in Jesus.

And sometimes God has to teach us that again and again. So maybe this is a reminder for you today, that if whatever it is you are pursuing is going to bring satisfaction you are wrong. For nothing, I mean nothing will bring satisfaction to your soul other than full snd continuous surrender to Jesus Christ.

Jesus will never lose a soul that has truly trusted in Him

John 6:38–40 NASB95

“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 of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

Explanation:

“All that He has given Me I lose nothing”

That is everyone who has been called by God to come to Jesus, will remain with Jesus. There is nothing in Scripture that says one could lose their salvation, and here is a direct primrose from Jesus that all are safe and secure when in the hands of Jesus.

So what do we say when one begins to follow, maybe even seem to have experienced some transformation and then fall back into a lifestyle of sin, back into the world?

It is simply this, that they had never been saved in the first place. What they had was determination to be faithful, but determination in itself is not enough. No one can follow Jesus faithfully unless He has been born again by the Spirit.

It is not by man’s might that we stay in Christ, it is by God’s might that we remain. If it were up to us we’d all fall away, but since it is dependent upon God, none will be lost.

Application:

I remember when I came to Jesus, this was one of my fears that I would never make it. I had tried to straighten up before and always failed. So I did not tell anyone really what I purposed in my heart to do.

But what I learned was when I put my trust in Jesus, something changed inside of me and even when I was holding on by a thread, God would not let me turn away. He compelled me, strengthened me, gave me the faith to believe in Him and remain in Him. He held me and never let me go.

And he will do the same for you, if you will come to Him. But let me caution you before you make such a great decision. Coming o Jesus is to come and give everything to Him. Nothing can be held back from Him, even the secret things no one knows about is not giving it all. But if you would give it all, everything everyday He will give you everything.

CONCLUSION:

Are you living by faith right now?

I want each of to just think about our lives honestly. What we do each and everyday.

Does your life model one who truly trusts in Jesus.

Maybe you need to make changes today.

Maybe there is a hunger inside of you that you are trying to fill with this world that can only be filled by Jesus

Come and trust Him today.

~PRAYER~