Hungry No More (John 6:26-40)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I hope you have your Bibles with you this morning, and I want you to find your way to the Gospel of John, chapter 6. We will be looking at verses 26-40.
This morning, we will begin a new sermon series, The Necessities of Life.
The Tragic Expedition: A Lesson in Necessity
In the mid-1800s, British explorers, led by Sir John Franklin and his crew, set off on a bold expedition to discover the Northwest Passage through the Arctic. Confident in their planning and technological prowess, they departed with fanfare and pride. But tragically, they made one fatal mistake: they underestimated what was truly necessary for survival.
Rather than stocking their ships with ample coal and food, the crew prioritized comfort and appearance. They brought fine china, sterling silverware, and even a library of books—but carried only a limited supply of canned food and no proper cold-weather gear. As the ice closed in and temperatures dropped, they were completely unprepared for the harsh reality of Arctic survival.
Months later, search parties found the remains of the crew. The ships were trapped in the ice, and the men had perished one by one—some from cold, some from starvation. Among their belongings were monogrammed flatware and silk garments—elegant, but utterly useless in the face of death.
Like those explorers, many today embark on life’s journey without the proper Necessities of Life.
There are basic necessities needed to sustain life, such as food, water, shelter, and clothing.
An ancient Chinese proverb lists the basic necessities of life as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea. Throw in some bacon and eggs, and I would agree with the Chinese.
But listen to me, we can pack up and store as much of these life necessities in the cellar of our home, hide them in a cave, or do with them whatever we want, but the fact remains, we are going to die.
In her best-selling novel, Nothing, Janne Teller wrote, “From the moment we are born, we begin to die.”
The Bible tells us that we are all sinners. We enter this world as sinners. Inheriting a sinful nature from our first parents, Adam and Eve. And the price for our sins, our unrighteous acts against our creator God, is death.
Therefore, Janne Teller is correct, “From the moment we are born, we begin to die.”
But I have Good News this morning. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Son of God, has come to this earth and gave His life as a ransom for your life.
Listen to the words of Peter, the Apostle of Christ:
Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
There is life, true life, eternal life found in Christ Jesus, and it is available to all who will believe in Him. This is the very reason John wrote his gospel account of Jesus. He says it right here in John 20:30-31
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may (Get this, Underline it, Highlight it, somehow mark it in your Bible) believing you may have life in His name.
Jesus is that which is truly necessary for survival!
Jesus is that which is truly necessary for life?
If you desire life, you must have Jesus!
Everything you obtain in this world will prove utterly useless when you take your final breath of air. Only one thing will prove necessary, and this is what we will be studying for the next few weeks—the Necessities of Life.
These necessities are found in the seven “I am” statements of Jesus, which John records for us. Our understanding of these seven I am statements will not only bring us to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life, but will also
provide us with the nourishment needed to grow,
provide light as we make our pilgrimage,
show the entrance into peace,
shelter from the storms,
prepare us for life after death,
give us an understanding of truth,
and we will find true life in Christ Jesus.
So you will want to bring your Bibles and take notes, because you will not want to be like the British explorers who underestimated what was truly needed for survival.
You are going to want to know what is truly necessary for life.
The first necessity is having food and water, which provides the nourishment needed for life.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”
Jesus is our source of nourishment, which is necessary to grow strong in our faith. We are going to need to seek Him. We are to be seeking nourishment necessary for life.
Seeking For Nourishment Necessary for Life
Seeking For Nourishment Necessary for Life
Have you ever gone to the grocery store and just watched how people shop for groceries?
Watching people shop for food interests me, and you can quickly distinguish the healthy shoppers from the unhealthy shoppers. Healthy shoppers enter Food Lion, and the first thing they do is scan their Food Lion card for specials. Then, they begin to circle the outside aisles of the store, seeking fresh produce, meats, fruits, and dairy products, seeking food that provides nourishment for their families. They only venturing into one of the inner isles to seek for a jar of pickles.
The unhealthy shoppers, well they are just the opposite. They enter Food Lion, cut through one of the vacant check-out aisles, and head right to the center of the store, seeking out their favorite bag of chips. Then, they move over a couple of aisles and seek out boxes of cereal. Rarely will they venture out into the outer walls of the store seeking something full of nutrition. They are in and out in a flash.
Now, as we seek the nourishment that is truly necessary for life, we must know where it is we need to be seeking.
In the first part of John chapter 6, we find Jesus miraculously feeding 5000 men, not counting women and children, with five barley loaves of bread and two little fish, much like two sardines. When some of the people saw the miracle, they began to say, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” And the crowd was becoming a little dangerous as they rushed to take Jesus by force and crown Him King.
Jesus, seeing what was beginning to take place, rushed the disciples into a boat and sent them across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum while He went up the mountain alone to pray. As we continue to read, we find that Jesus came to His disciples early the next morning while it was still dark, walking on the water, got into the boat with them and immediately the boat was on the other shore at Capernaum.
Then we read in verse 24 that the people began seeking Jesus, and when they found Him, notice what Jesus said to them.
I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
They cut right through the empty check-out lane and went right for the physical aisle, seeking food that could not provide the nourishment needed for life.
Yesterday Jesus had fed them, get this, barley loaves and a couple of sardines, staple food. It was not a Captain George’s seafood buffet. No doubt that a miracle had taken place, and the food was good, and the people ate until they were satisfied. But now the food was gone, and they were hungry again, and they were back in the middle of the physical aisle seeking more of the same food that would not last, would not be able to provide the true nourishment needed to survive.
Do you know Jesus did not come to save the world from the growing food problems? Jesus did not come to the world to heal the lame, blind, diseased, and sick people in the world.
Jesus said that as long as we are in this world, there is going to be hunger, sickness, and death.
Jesus miraculously fed the 5000, healed the lame, gave sight to the blind, healed the sick, and raised the dead to provide signs, signals for us to know that He truly was who He claimed to be.
The Son of God who came to this earth to cleanse you of your sins and offer you eternal life, life beyond the grave, beyond the physical life here on this earth.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote,
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
If we desire to become healthy and strong in our faith in Jesus we must seek the nourishment needed in the right aisles, and the aisle that contains the nourishment truly necessary for life is Jesus.
And let me fill you in on a little secret, listen to the words of John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Now skip down to verse 14:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
The Word was with God
The Word was God
The Word took on flesh and dwelt with us
Jesus, the Word of God, God Himself.
Do you want Jesus?
Do you want that nourishment that is truly necessary for life?
Then you better be seeking nowhere else but right here in God’s Word and eat it up. It is here that you find eternal life.
Not only are we to seek the nourishment necessary for life, but we must also labor for the nourishment necessary for life.
Laboring For Nourishment Necessary for Life
Laboring For Nourishment Necessary for Life
Jesus says in verse 27 that we are not to work for food that will only perish, but we are to work for the imperishable food.
I do not want you to misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. To many people, just like the people during the days of Jesus, still seek the works that must be done to receive salvation.
The Bible is clear that salvation is a free gift from God. There is nothing you can do upon your own merit to receive it.
Every one of us here this morning are sinners. We have sinned against God, and our sins have created a great divide between us and God, and as hard as we may try, there is no way we can cross that divide.
Only God Himself could ever provide a passage across so we may once again have a relationship with Him and He has done that through His Son Jesus.
The Bible says that it was Him who loved the world, His creation that had become enmity toward Him, it was Him who gave His Son to become a ransom for our sins, to bridge that divide that had separated us from Him and if you would just believe in Him, His Son Jesus, then you may have eternal life, you may come across the divide and enter into His Kingdom.
But here is the problem. The problem is that the enemy has deceived every good Baptist, every good Presbyterian, every good Methodist, every good evangelical Christian that it is all just a free gift of God, believe and receive your get out of hell free card and sit back and enjoy life.
There is a phrase that is a widely recognized American idiom, “Freedom is not free.”
Freedom comes at a cost, and we take this weekend to remember that cost, the cost of all the lives of our loved ones who gave their lives to defend the freedoms that we enjoy today.
Your freedom from sin came at a cost, a very high cost, and you are not just to sit back and thank God for the free gift of eternal life.
What would happen if you were to decide that you were going to take life easy simply? Quit your job. Seek pleasure and live life without a care in the world? I’ll tell you what will happen, you are going to starve, you are going to lose your home, and have nowhere to live. You will lose the basic necessities to sustain life.
The same will happen if you decide not to labor in your belief in Jesus.
James said,
“You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
The multitude of people were asking Jesus what work, what labors, they should do so they may be doing the works of God, the things pleasing to God. And Jesus answered and said to them that there is only one work to be done that is pleasing to God and that is to believe in Him whom He has sent. But they could not get past the physical, they still desired the perishable, seeking a sign from Jesus. They desired for Jesus to do something, to feed them again, just like Mose fed them in the wilderness with manna.
Jesus is the manna that comes down out of heaven. He is the imperishable bread that we can partake of and receive the strength needed to believe and do the work of God, bringing life to the world today.
And the work we are to be doing is the work that Jesus began. We are to build on that foundation, the cornerstone, by Going and making disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that Jesus has commanded us to do, believing, knowing that all authority has been given to Him both in heaven and on earth and that He is with us even to the end of the age.
And let me show you one more thing, the most important, we are to seek the nourishment necessary for life, we must also labor for the nourishment necessary for life and lastly, we must be willing to receive the nourishment necessary for life.
Receiving Nourishment Necessary for Life
Receiving Nourishment Necessary for Life
We have seen that we must seek the nourishment necessary for life. We’ve been told to labor for that which is eternal. But ultimately, we must be willing to receive it.
Jesus says in John 6:35
I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
This is Jesus’s invitation to you, and it comes with a promise.
Jesus is not simply offering you bread. He is the bread!
He doesn’t point you to the nutritional aisles of Food Lion; He points you to Himself.
And here is the beauty of it all: when you receive Him – When you come to Him and believe in Him – your hunger is satisfied. Your thirst is quenched.
It is not a temporary satisfaction like the bread and fish from the day before. This is eternal, life giving nourishment.
No more wandering. No more hunger. No more emptiness.
When you receive Jesus, He fills you with what is truly necessary for life: forgiveness, purpose, identity, and eternal life.
So many people struggle with this idea of simply receiving. We want to earn it. We want to work for it. We want to bring something to the table.
But Jesus makes it clear that salvation is not about what we bring to Him – It’s about what He gives to us.
Look at verse 37:
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
Do you know what that means?
That means that if you come to Jesus, He will never turn you away.
You don’t have to worry about whether or not you are good enough.
You don’t have to clean up your act before coming to Him.
You don’t have to worry about whether or not you have done too many bad things.
If you will come and receive Him, He will receive you, just as you are and He will create you to be what He desires you to be.
Why? Because it is the will of the Father.
“For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will”, Jesus says in verse 38, “but the will of Him who sent Me.”
And what is the will of the Father?
That of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. That everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
This is the great assurance of our faith:
When you receive the Bread of Life, you receive eternal life—and you can never be lost. You will be raised again at the last day.
This is the nourishment your soul has been starving for.
This is the bread that lasts.
This is the food that never perishes.
This is the gift that you do not earn—but humbly receive.
So I ask you this morning:
Have you received the Bread of Life?
Have you come to Jesus?
Have you believed in Him—not just with your head, but with your heart?
If not, don’t wait. He is standing with open arms, ready to receive you. And if you will come, He will never cast you out.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we close this morning, I want to return to the question we’ve been asking:
What is truly necessary for life?
Those men who set out to discover the Northwest Passage through the Arctic had everything but the one thing they truly needed. They died with silverware in their hands and books in their cabins—but without food in their bellies. They died with treasures that couldn’t save them.
Don’t let that be you.
Maybe you’ve been chasing after perishable bread—things that never satisfy.
Maybe you’ve been laboring and working, trying to earn God’s approval.
Maybe you've been hungry in your soul for something more—and you know today that it’s Jesus you’ve been missing.
Friend, He is here, and He is calling you to come.
If you’ve never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do that right now. You can receive the Bread of Life this very moment. If your heart is stirring, if you feel that tug—don’t ignore it. That’s the Holy Spirit inviting you to come and receive Jesus.
I want to invite you to bow your heads,
As Greta comes and begins to play our Hymn of invitation
if you’re ready to receive Him, you can pray this simple prayer—not because the words themselves save you, but because you are seeking Him with your heart
With you heads bowed pray this prayer after me.
Lord Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner.
I have chased after the things of this world that do not satisfy.
I believe that You are the Son of God,
that You died on the cross for my sins,
and that You rose again to give me life.
Today, I turn from my sins, and I turn to You.
I receive You as my Lord and Savior.
Fill me with Your Spirit.
Help me to live for You.
Thank You for loving me.
Thank You for saving me.
In Your name I pray, Amen.
Lets stand and sing our hymn of invitation Hymn #631 We Utter Our Cry.
And as we sing if you prayed that prayer for the first time, I invite you to come forward and make that public confession that you have today received Jesus as your personal savior.
