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A history degree is useless… there is no future in it
You think gas and electric prices are high? Have you seen Chimneys? They’re through the roof!
Jewish institutions… and now he is moving into a section about the feasts…
You almost have to prepare yourself for what is about to happen.
John is so deep, it has so many layers of what is going on...
We are going to encounter some of this immediately this morning
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,
17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.
Augustine had this to say about this verse
Darkness was increasing, discernment was diminishing, iniquity was growing.
The disciples were freaking out dude. And this is the turn of the story…
19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.
So a man is walking out on the water…and this is something that skeptics question… this could never happen… no man can walk on water… and we would agree.. and we believe that he did it because he created it, there was no problem for him to walk on the thing that he created… Jesus Christ is God in flesh
20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
So look at what John is showing and not showing… John doesnt show that Jesus stilled the water… he just wants us to know that Jesus walked out on the water and he came to his people through the scary rough waters.... I want you to understand what this can mean for your life as well… Jesus can meet you in the middle of the rough waters.. he doesnt need to still them first… he can still come and meet you right in the middle of them
22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.
23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
So Jesus wakes up and goes and his disciples are with him… and the people wake up and think where did he go? ANd they follow him becasue they are excited about Jesus and what they have seen him do… and he is saying you aren’t coming to me becasue of me… but the things that I did for you… He is reminding us that we are not in this to get something from him…there isnt some ideology we are following but we are following a person...
“How many there are who seek Jesus to only gain some temporary benefit… Jesus is scarcely ever sought for Jesus sake.”
There are moments that change you immediately when you experience them and Jesus is telling him look what you saw hasnt changed you at all… your heart hasn’t been moved and persuaded to follow me.
Life has to realign becasue of that… what is an example…the first time you become a parent… the day you get married...
And Jesus is saying look the feeding of 5000 didnt do that for you… it didnt force you to realign your life to me.... you are just looking for your physical to get moved again… you aren’t allowing what happened to get you to see the bigger point and know who you are looking at....because wanting what Jesus can do for you and wanting Jesus are two totally different things.
And this is the problem I keep telling you I worry about with the american church, we want all the things we believe Jesus can do, but we rarely venture into actually wanting him
One of the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.
27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
This is our moment to a T we want things that get us satisfaction here and now… and God gives us the gift of overcoming ourselves… and we want things that will satisfiy us now… and JEsus is saying look the bread I will give wont just satisfy you for a couple of hours… it will fulfill you forever...
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
WE just left a whole section on sabbath and work… and here it gets brought back up again and we are asking waht kind of work we have to do… and here is the work that we must do… here is everythign that we can muster up for God… We have to believe in he whom he has sent… everything we can muster up we need to go toward believing in him who was sent… and waht God wants in us, is that we weill believe in the one that God has sent...
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.’ ”
Jesus is calling them on their motivations… they are basically saying, look waht you did yesterday was great, but you ahve to understand that what you did and waht Moses did are entirely different. During Passover… time of rememberance… remember the sprinkled blood of the lambs… that caused judgement to passover their homes… allowed them to escape and passover to the other side… it was a time to renew hope...
Moses who prayed for manna from heaven and he promised one would come after him…
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
They were waiting for one like Moses to come and show them what was coming… and they thought the second redeemer would come and cause bread to fall from heaven so it isn’t surprising that they are seeing these parellels
5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’
7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”
22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?”
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
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.’ ”
4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.
15 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon.
Obviously we can see what John is doing… he is showing us that the one that is to come is here in flesh… but look at the difference in expectations...
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.”
Jesus goes wait a second.. it wasn’t moses who provided, it was God… and he he is telling them that he is giving them true bread through the son… and THey were waiting for this manna to come down from heaven and he is saying it is here now...
And all their expectations for the moses to come Jesus is turning it on its head… and he is saying that Moses didnt even really do it that it was God...
Our expectation of what happened with Moses is not enough… he is redirecting their eyes not to Genesis and Deut… but Isaiah look at this comparison
27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
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.
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Its actually the word that comes down from Heaven that most accurately represents the bread… and this is what John told us in chapter 1
34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
They think they are going to debate with Jesus… and Jesus says no no no… and they get so excited they say just give to me always… and here is the thing when we see Jesus doing great things this is our reaction as well… we just keep saying more more more.... once he starts its seems we want more and more of it.
There is this joy in the continual receival of what they are getting.. think about your kids… you throw them up and they just keep wanting more more more...
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.
Jesus has dropped the huge bomb on them… and here he finally declares himself to them as who he is… I am the bread of life… He is declaring himself to be the I am of exodus… he is saying the great I am is here… the ruler of all rulers is here in front of you.... one scholar… great not the ice cream… the cake… he said bread because it was essential to their diet… just like you need bread to surivive you need me more… some cultures maybe rice.... he said the one thing they thought they couldnt live without.. I am essential to your life.. I am exactly what you need… the I am is here… and no one has ever made such a claim… he is saying I am the one who did all of these things… I brought moses through it all… and he is telling us the same thing… you need me more than your next meal… you need me more than anything this world has to offer you...
Jeff Ruby.... greatest meal I have ever had…but 5 hours later I was still hungry… and jesus doesn’t leave you wanting… most of hte things we attach ourselves in this life are for self preservations...
Listen to what Jesus says to the women at the well… I will give you somethign to drink and you will never thirst… so the bread of life is the one that comes down and gives us everything we need.
There is somethign more important than our finances or even our help, its our sin.. .and so many of us have an intimacy with sin. and we have to have a more intimate relationship with Jesus than we do our sin,,, we have to move to that point in our lives… for us the bread of life… its very personal and consuming… the project of humanity today is we will keep evolving as long as I learn more because I can become the perfect person… we shoudl constantly be moved by the sin in our lives because it stops us from being more like Jesus.
And we cant be everythign we are called to be and everything Jesus wants us to be because of our sin and we have to deal with it and become more in love with Jesus tahn we are the temporary things that we think are actually fullling and pleasing us.
This isnt a mystical religion where we experience weird thigns, or intellectual where we just know things,ut it is personal, where we know him and relate and interact with him. Its a personal belonging to a God that has been where we have been. And the test for you is do believe in him personally do you worship him?
And God isn;t going to beg you to worship and have relationship with him… he realizes hsi greatness that all of creation revolves around an glorifies him. And he wants that intimacy from you with him
Its not a business relationship… its love and relational back and forth..talk about relationships with spouse etc
We cant just wait for the man on the stage to tell us things and allow it to be a second hand relationship… we have to actually know him.... a personal relationship… can you tell him about what you have been learning this month… Do you get together with him
Do you find times to reaffirm your love for him and hear his love for you are you willing to hear what he is telling you to do and follow him
Or is he just a mystical experience to you,,, is the bread of life something you only use for your own gain,, or do you need something more...
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.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
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.”
Here there is so much going on more than you can see at first glance.. all that he gives me will come to me… and I will never lose anyone… When was a time in the bible that someone was cast out and lost… and here is the very time we are talking about.... in the garden of eden…
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
She took and she died, and adam died, and so did humanity with them. Eat of it and you will die… eat of the world and nothign else and you will die...
To adam eat of it and die… to Jesus eat of it and not die… to enter into Jesus is to enter into the life we lost in the fall… we eat of it and we will live… I will not lose you
Eat of it and live… and what we see here when we sit back is they had a great expectioatn… they wanted another moses, but that wouldnt have been enough....
6:16-25 he is shown as a new moses leading through the dangers of life…
What you see here is that John himself created a story where if we enter into a realtionship with God we love him and do waht he said and trust his son in what God was supposed to be the mediator to the world… and in Jesus you eat and live and in the world you eat and die.. eat of it and you will live