Good morning everyone. You can go ahead and turn your
Bibles to John chapter 6. John chapter 6.
We're continuing our study in the Gospel of John to learn from
Scripture who Jesus is. And last week we saw how Jesus
is the judge of all for Easter Sunday.
And today we'll see how Jesus is the bread of life.
As you turn your Bibles to John chapter 6, I want to briefly
test you on what your acronym knowledge.
Do you know what these 4 letters stand for?
It's an easy one. AYCE.
All right. Yeah, we know it for those who
know what they are, and they know it so well.
Love to eat and love to eat a lot.
And the thing our family loves, it's a favorite birthday spot
for us to choose. Whenever there's a birthday, all
you can eat. The good, great thing is that
there's so much food, so much varieties, and it's just
unending. You can eat your fill.
The bad thing is that you have obviously a limit, whether the
limit to your stomach or the limit to the time, you can't
take it home. And the worst thing about it is
you will be hungry again tomorrow.
No matter how much you ate in that hour and a half time limit
you have. You stuffed yourself full.
You will surely be hungry again tomorrow.
And that's how, if you ever thought about that, that's how
we were created by God. We were created by God with a
hunger, with this physical hunger, and to experience
physical satisfaction as well as physical strength and physical
life when we eat. Have you ever imagined God could
have made us like walking trees where we could do our own
photosynthesis, grab, take the energy from the sun and turn it
into sugar that we can use. But He created us with this
physical hunger. Also that we could understand
Jesus and what He taught as He taught the crowds that He is the
bread of life, eternal life. Or you can eat.
Buffets remind us that we can be full on this earth, quite full
to be exact, but never satisfied, for that fullness
will shortly pass. And this is true as long as we
seek satisfaction for our souls from anything that's on this
earth, anything temporary that we seek to be fully satisfied,
we will be found wanting and sorely disappointed.
Whether it's seeking to be satisfied in that new job or
that next vacation or that particular relationship, as we
seek temporary things to satisfy our souls, we will not be
satisfied. Jesus today talks about this in
John chapter 6, and it's what it's about.
He reveals to us our hunger and true bread that can eternally
satisfy our souls and our desires.
And so consider that as we look through this fairly long passage
today, we'll be looking at this in three parts.
And if you're taking notes, these are the three points of
the sermon that follow the passage.
We'll see first how Jesus performed 2 more signs, then how
the people were still not satisfied.
Yet to Jesus, their unbelief was no surprise.
The Gospel of John is commonly called the Book of Signs.
He records 7 specific signs out of the many that Jesus
performed. We have looked at three of them
thus far, Turning the water into wine in chapter 2, healing the
nobleman's dying son who was in the next town over in John
chapter 4, as well as the paralytic man who was an invalid
for 48 years. These signs were meant to show
something beyond this miracle, which is why John calls them
signs. And today we'll look at two more
signs to see what we must learn from them and how they point to
Jesus. So first Jesus performed 2 more
signs. I'll be reading the passage
throughout the the sermon, so please follow along with me from
verse one. We'll look to verse 4.
After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of
Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a large crowd was
following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on
the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain
and there he sat down with his disciples.
Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews, was at hand.
So sometime has has passed and during that time Jesus continued
to heal the sick. He had therefore because of
that, as a result, a growing reputation and a growing group
of followers, wherever Jesus went, there was a crowd
following him, even if it was up to the hilly countryside where
there was no food. So this leads us to the problem
at hand, the similar problem you all have after Sunday service
ends, where are we going to eat for them, For us, it's the
problem of having too many options for them.
They had no options at all for they were in the wilderness.
So lifting up verse. So what does Jesus do?
Verse five 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?
He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
Philip answered him, 200 dinarai worth of bread would not be
enough for each of them to get a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to
him, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish,
but what are they for so many? Jesus here is testing his
disciples. Perhaps Jesus asked Philip
specifically because he would be familiar with that region.
They were near Philip's hometown.
So a test for Philip to consider all that he has seen about
Jesus, all that he has heard from Jesus teaching, all that he
believes about Jesus to be applied to a real life problem.
As one of the 12, Philip has gotten a front row seat to Jesus
and so he should know to rely on Jesus for help to provide.
Well, Philip responds, he doesn't even answer Jesus
question. All he needed to say was Jesus,
there's nothing here we need you to provide for us.
But instead Philip starts doing calculations as some of us would
when there's a problem, starts doing calculations.
And so Philip clearly did not pass the test.
He basically tells Jesus it's impossible to feed everyone
there. Even if I work for eight months,
everybody would get just a little bite.
Now Andrew, probably because he was from the same hometown as
Phillip, might have felt the need to contribute to this
problem solving situ scenario. So he maybe he started looking
around for someone who had brought food.
And there was a boy who had five barley loaves which were
probably and two fish, which was probably more a child portion of
bread and fish. So more like 5 small biscuits
and two pieces of fish. Still it was a hopelessly big
problem with very little resources.
So what does Jesus do? Look at verses 10 to 13.
Jesus said have the people sit down.
Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down about
5000 in number. Jesus then took the loaves and
when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who
were seated. So also the fish as much as they
wanted, and when they had eaten their fill, he told his
disciples, gather the leftover fragments that nothing may be
lost. So they gathered them up and
filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left
by those who had eaten. So here was a another miracle of
Jesus that nobody else could do. We don't know exactly how the
food was multiplied, but Jesus gave thanks and he just began to
distribute bread and fish to the crowd of 5000.
Maybe even more if we're not counting just the men.
Philip's suggestion would have given everyone a small bite.
That was his best answer. Would have taken maybe 8 months
to a year. But here Jesus immediately were
able to feed this crowd until they were satisfied.
It was a bread and fish, all you can eat in the wilderness and
somehow there were 12 baskets full of leftovers.
Jesus specifically told the 12 to go save the leftovers.
My wife needs to look at this passage carefully.
This is why we don't throw out leftovers in our home.
They had more leftovers than what they started off with. 12
baskets full of food after everyone ate to their full.
That was the miracle. Now as a sign, what is it
pointing to? What is the meaning of this sign
and did the people get it? Sadly, no.
See how the people respond in verse 14.
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said this
is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.
Remember back in verse four it was near the Passover feast.
Passover was the Jewish celebration where Israel
remembered how God saved them from Egypt.
God raised up a mighty prophet, Moses, to lead them out.
He he performed the the plagues on Egypt, the 10 plagues and he
led them through, let them through the Red Sea on dry land
and LED them in the wilderness where God provided Israel bread
from heaven. And while they were remembering
how God saved them from Egypt, here Jesus was proving by
experience that he could do the same.
After the people experienced the miracle feast, they saw
something in Jesus. Now they saw Jesus as fulfilling
the prediction, the the the prophecy that a prophet like
Moses would come. He was promised back in
Deuteronomy chapter 18. And while it is true that Jesus
fulfilled the role of a prophet, he came delivering messages from
God, teaching people. He lived in the pattern of the
prophets performing various miracles to authenticate the
messages from God. But Jesus is much more than a
prophet. He is much more than a miracle
worker who provides miraculously for people.
And we get the sense that the people are really hyped up here
about Jesus, but in all the wrong ways.
You see that in verse 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.
They wanted a prophet like Moses, but also a king like King
David who fought their battles victoriously against their
enemies. So they wanted and come to, they
wanted to take him, Jesus by force, make him king, meaning
they wanted another political hero, someone, someone of a
revolutionary who could free them from the Roman rule and
authorities that were over them during this time.
But that's clearly not what Jesus came to do, because
Jesus's Kingdom, as he would say later, as he drew near to his
death, he would say his Kingdom is not of this world.
He would not establish a Kingdom by overpowering other nations
with swords and Spears, but rather Jesus would humble
himself, receive a spear to his side, nails to his hands, thorns
upon his brow as he hung on the cross.
That's how he was going to usher in his Kingdom.
Jesus was not concerned with political situations, but rather
the conditions, the spiritual condition of people's hearts.
This makes him a far better king for us rather than the kind of
king these people here wanted him to be.
But because they did not submit to Jesus as he revealed himself,
as he was revealing himself. We know throughout that as we've
been going through this series, who Jesus is.
The people there heard and witnessed that for themselves.
But they we did not submit to who Jesus was, his identity that
he proclaimed, and so they missed out on knowing who Jesus
really is. It's tempting to make such a
mistake even today, when we insist Jesus to be the kind of
king that we want him to be. When we insist that Jesus should
be doing the things we want him to do for us.
But if we don't learn to see Jesus as who He says He is from
His Word, no matter how much we save, we follow Jesus, no matter
how much we consider ourselves to be Christian, we have it on
our name card, we will still completely miss out on who Jesus
is and therefore on what Jesus offers to us.
Therefore, Jesus here does not allow the crowds to define his
identity or his work or his purpose.
Jesus will reveal himself on his own terms.
We see that in verses 16 to 19. When evening came, His disciples
went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea
to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had
not yet come to them. The sea became rough because the
strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about 3 or 4
miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the
boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I do
not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him
into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to
which they were going. So imagine this picture of the
situation here. You know these men who became
Jesus 12 his closest disciples. They were fishermen in their
previous life. They were in their neighborhood
waters. They knew the, the, the, the
geography, the the waters. But it was dark and they were
struggling. Storm and strong winds were
blowing against them. And then suddenly they see Jesus
coming near to them, walking on the water.
Let's not try to make this any more easy to believe.
They were not on the edge of shore, Jesus on a shallow part
of the of the sea where he was actually walking on the sand.
But it looked like he was walking order.
No, there were somewhere in the middle, rowing miles into the
Red Sea, trying to cross. Could not.
And they see Jesus walking toward them like it's a stroll
in the park. So they're, they're afraid their
their fears, not because of the, the wind or the OR the storm,
but because of seeing something they they have never seen
before. A man walking on water, The
unknown when it is coming toward you, fills people with fear.
But Jesus calls out to them, do not be afraid.
He relieves their fears by getting into the boat with him,
and it says they were glad to take him into the boat.
Reminds me of that children's song that goes with Jesus in the
boat. We can smile in the storm.
That's what these disciples are surely doing.
And so what's the point of these signs as Jesus reveals himself
on his own terms? These signs show that Jesus is
God. These signs show that Jesus is
God. These so-called laws of nature
that bind everyone else. Here those laws actually bend to
the Creator who created all things.
Atoms and molecules and physics function the same way for
everyone else, but somehow they give way to Jesus.
Jesus multiplied fish and bread without ingredients, without a
factory production line. Jesus walked on water like we
walked into this room. There is no one like Jesus.
The conclusion must be that Jesus is God, for that's what
the signs point to. But though Jesus is infinitely
greater than us, Jesus chooses to be intimately with us.
He chose to sit down with the people to feed them.
He chose to get into the boat with his disciples to be with
them, to calm and relieve their fears.
Jesus enters in and he is with us in the storms of life,
whether they're storms of personal conflicts, financial
struggles, physical illness, loss, morning weeping friends,
as you face your storms, remember Jesus words.
It is I do not be afraid. And we know He is with us so
intimately ultimately because he suffered greatly and he suffered
so for us. It was not for his own sins he
suffered because he never sinned, but because of our sins.
He chose to suffer as he as he came to us fully God, fully man.
He chose to experience the worst of of the human experience,
betrayal, pain, humiliation, suffering.
And compared to many of our lives today, he's suffered more.
He's tasted suffering more than we have ever tasted in our
entire lives. He died for our sins so that we
could be in a restored relationship with God, restored
to that intimacy with our Heavenly Father.
Because He is fully God and fully man, Jesus is able to
empathize with our weaknesses. Hebrews, as it says in Hebrews
4, He who is infinitely greater than us is intimately with us.
This is what we are to understand of God as He reveals
Himself. These were the meaning of the
two signs He just performed to show people who He is.
But we see next that the people were still not satisfied.
Read verses 22 to 25. 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.
Other boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had
eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
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. When they found him on the other
side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come
here? We see this crowd trying really
hard to figure out where Jesus was, but not as much effort in
figuring out who Jesus was. They were following him first to
the east side, back to the West side of the sea.
Finally they started to go to Capernaum because that's where
Jesus stayed during his time of ministry.
They found him and they just wanted to know when they got he
got there. Well, Jesus doesn't answer that
question because it's of no importance.
Rather, he cuts to the real urgent matter at hand, to the
real reason why they're looking for Jesus.
Jesus says in verse 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. This was what's going on in
their hearts. The crowds missed the point of
the signs. They did not see what the signs
signified. They had their bellies full from
yesterday's lunch and all they wanted now was breakfast.
They did see Jesus as a Son of God, but they did see, they see
him. They saw him come in the flesh,
but he was more of like a celebrity chef who gave out free
meals. So Jesus challenged them, not
with a test of action like he did with Philip, but with a
listening test because he would tell them very clearly what they
needed. Verse 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 the Father, God the Father, has set his zeal.
The best meal that you have ever had may have been feeling
delicious, satisfying, but it was only for a moment.
It perishes, it does not last. You get hungry again.
So they should not keep working for what is at best temporary.
The challenge remains for us as well.
Are you working for the food that perishes?
Are you working for food that perishes?
What do you give your best hours to your best efforts?
Is it for that salary that you chase after?
Is it a luxurious, comfortable life?
Is it that relationship just a nice marriage, nice spouse,
maybe some nice kids with a nice house?
Those are not bad things in and of themselves, but they could be
if your heart is set on working for food that perishes.
What will happen one day when you lose that job or your
ability to work? When you get sick or your spouse
passes away, will you continue to follow Jesus?
Or were you following Him like these crowds were following Him
just for the things you could get from Him?
We should check our hearts now. Are you working for food that
perishes? Because if you are, you will
never be satisfied. Or instead rather, are you
working for the food that endures to eternal life?
Well, these crowds don't seem to be getting it.
See verse 28. Then they said to him, What must
we do to be doing the works of God?
Jesus answered them, This is the work of God that you believe in
Him whom He has sent, rather than having faith in Jesus to
receive the eternal food of eternal life that Jesus is
willing to give. As he said clearly here, if they
were listening carefully, all their attention is in their own
abilities to achieve the works of God.
Do you see that? Do you catch that in their
question? What must we do to be doing the
works of God as if you could be doing the works of God?
This is a hindrance for people. It comes as a common temptation
for Christians as well to rely on our own strength for our own
salvation. Like them, we overlook how the
Son of Man gives by grace when we believe by faith, because no
matter how hard we try or how great our achievements we
consider them to be, eternal life is a gift of grace, not a
payment for our efforts after giving such an invitation to
come freely, eat of, and receive eternal things without paying a
price. See how they responded in verses
30 to 34. So they said to him, then what
sign do you do that we may see and believe you?
What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the
wilderness as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven
to eat. Jesus then said to them, truly,
truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread
from heaven, but it my Father gives you the true bread from
heaven. What a tragedy in verse 30.
The sign that they had just seen the day before was not good
enough. It was not good enough for them
to believe in Jesus. And to such people who come with
such demands, nothing is actually going to be good
enough. We read earlier in our service
from Psalm 78, it's it's from a, it's recalling a time hundreds
of years earlier when Israel, when, when God provided Israel
daily the provision of bread from heaven, they called it mana
and they expected the prophet like Moses to come and do the
same sign again. So in other words, they were
saying, yes, Jesus, you might have fed us yesterday, but do
you remember what happened in Israel, in the wilderness?
They were fed every day for 40 years.
So now feed us again today, feed us again tomorrow and for the
days to come. Then we will believe in you.
They're stuck on physical bread, missing the spiritual lesson
that Jesus gives from physical realities.
Just like when Jesus told Nicodemus to be he needed to be
born again. Just like when Jesus offered
living water to the Samaritan woman, they're stuck on the
physical object, bread. So Jesus corrects them here.
Yes, Moses indeed was a great prophet from the Lord, but it
was not him who gave the bread. God gave it to them.
Just like how God provided them for them yesterday,
miraculously. Hint, hint.
They were to make the connection, but still nothing.
See the myths in verses 33 and 34.
Jesus said for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world. The bread of life is he who
comes out from heaven and and deeper than our need for
physical food and water. But like them, we can be so
easily distracted by our physical needs that we can
ignore, reject, even forget our spiritual need.
Our spiritual need to know God, to be in a relationship with
Him, and to be saved from our sins because our sins is what's
hindering us. It created this chasm that we
cannot cross to be with God. That's the reason why because we
could never reach up to heaven and attain heaven on our own
terms, Jesus had to come down from heaven to us because we
need to be saved from our sins. Sin is our rebellion against
God. It is our rejection of God.
Sin is how we somehow think that we have enough bargaining power
with God that if I do this for God, must be good enough for God
to do that for me. That is no intimate
relationship. It is a business transaction.
It is arrogance. It is a proud attitude before a
God that that only makes our sinful condition worse.
Thinking that somehow we can save ourselves, earning our way
because blinded by our sins, we think we need Our Daily Bread
more than we need God to forgive us.
We are more aware, more deeply aware of our physical, tangible
needs of food, water, clothing, shelter, relationships with
people, job, livelihood. We're aware of these things more
than our need for God and for the forgiveness of our sins.
But our eternal desire, it cannot be satisfied with
physical things like money, fame, or pleasure.
We need Jesus, who is the bread of God, who has come down from
heaven to give life to the world.
And without Jesus we will never be satisfied.
Jesus now makes his spiritual truth even more clear, even
clearer. To help them understand, he
says, starting verse 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.
If you're not a Christian and you're with us here today, we're
glad that you're here. We want you to make sure you
look at verse 35 carefully and understand what it means to
follow Jesus, what it looks like to become a Christian.
It means that you are leaving behind dry, crusty old bread
crumbs from old bread of your old life, and you come to the
glorious banquets, all satisfying, fulfilling banquet
of Jesus Christ in new eternal life, because Jesus satisfies
alone. He alone satisfies our souls
hunger. I hope you see that it's clear.
Whoever comes is whoever believes.
This is what faith in Jesus looks like.
It's not just a simple yes to when someone asks you if you're
a Christian. It's much more than that.
It involves directing your mind, your thoughts, your heart, your
desires. Directing them to Jesus, Saying
to Jesus you ultimately need him more than anything else in this
world. Believing that Jesus alone
satisfies you more in real ways, in eternal ways that nothing
else can. It means that we don't go
looking for other sources to satisfy our souls because we
believe there is nothing else and no one else that can satisfy
us like the bread of life does. If you're not a Christian, we
pray that you will consider what you have now in your old life,
in your current life, in this way, in the old way of life, and
and consider what Jesus offers to you to see that it is far
better than anything else in the world where you don't have to
work for this bread because Jesus has done that work for you
on the cross by dying for your sins.
He simply invites you to come and feast.
What have you been working for? If it's not for knowing and
loving Jesus, it will not work out well for you in the end.
May today be the day of salvation as you come to Jesus
and believe and be satisfied in him.
We see also that salvation is a work of God.
It's a work of God's grace. But those at whose that's being
offered to them. But those who are still not
satisfied still did not believe. Yet to Jesus their unbelief was
no surprise. Let's see more what that means.
In verses 36 to 40, Jesus responds.
But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me.
And whoever comes to me will never, 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. Jesus here describes his mission
to save those who he whom he came to save.
So if the crowd saw Jesus and his miraculous lines but did not
come to faith, doesn't that mean his mission is in some way a
failure? And some people might ask that
if that was his mission, is in his mission some way, Didn't he
fail in this because people did not believe?
And was Jesus discouraged by their unbelief?
The answer is clear in 37. However, many people do not
believe God's saving purposes cannot be frustrated.
Jesus's confidence here is is not resting in the positive
response of people, but his confidence is in the Father who
will bring, who will accomplish, who will bring to pass
everything that the Father wills.
We see in verse 37, as we see this clearly in verse 37, all
that the Father gives me will come to me.
It's the language of predestination.
According to this verse, we see that there are those whom the
Father has given to the Son for salvation.
This is the doctrine of election.
Simply that God is the one who ultimately determines who will
be saved in Jesus Christ. It is God who ultimately
determines that He has decided it from eternity past before the
foundations of the world were set.
And so to be saved means God must choose you.
God must call you for you to come and to believe.
God is the one who chooses that. See that in verse 37 connecting
that to verse 35 for us to come and believe the spiritual
reality here that we see and from Jesus teaching and from
Scripture is that God is the captain of our souls.
God decides our salvation and this doctrine of election is in
no way meant to discourage us in our faith because as we come to
Jesus, we share in his confidence in the Father.
It is meant for encouragement. Jesus here is assuring those who
come to him with the warmest a welcome.
Whoever God has chosen, he or she will come to Jesus and Jesus
will never cast them out. Even if you are a great Sinner,
even if you are a heart haunted Sinner, even if you have a
terrible past, and even if you bring nothing good with you.
Jesus says, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
To add to that more encouragement in verse 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. 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. Jesus will not lose.
This adds to our encouragement. He will not lose what the Father
has given him to save the souls that he has saved, purchasing
them by paying off our debt of sin.
He will not lose them, not a single one.
And as he emphasizes that, he will repeat that he will raise
that person up, that soul up on the last day.
It's meaning means that we can, those who are in Christ, those
who he chooses to God has chosen to save, that we will stand on
that day of judgement, not by our own merit, for which we will
be punished for an eternity in hell, but we will stand in
judgement wearing the righteousness of Christ that we
put on by faith. This is the will of the Father.
Is there anything more certain, more sure, more unshakable than
the will of God who rules and reigns over all?
That is how sure we can be of our salvation.
So come as you are, with your guilt, with all of your shame,
with all of your sin, with all of your past, you come as He has
called you, and as you come, He will never cast you out.
There is no sin. He will not forgive if you come
to Him. Children, I want to make this
exceptionally clear for the teens here.
You must come to Jesus, not just come to church services.
You must come to Jesus. You cannot borrow or claim the
faith of your parents. You must come to Jesus.
As you hear His word respond, respond with trust and
dependence upon Jesus your Savior.
So here was Jesus teaching them, explaining the mysteries of God
to them after demonstrating the power of God before them.
How about their response now? Unbelief verses 41 to 42.
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread
that came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How does he now say, I have come down from heaven?
Now we can't blame them, can we? If a man in your neighborhood
that you knew growing up began to declare himself as God, we
might all be soon calling the police on this man.
Jesus in their eyes was too human for them to believe that
he came from heaven. This corrects any wrong teaching
that Jesus would just came as a spirit.
He was just like a image or a phantom.
No, he was so human that people couldn't get over that fact.
And this still is a reason why people choose not to believe
today, because they think Jesus was just another nice person,
just another good teacher, just another social worker, like any
other nice, good, kind person we know.
But we must come to grips what Jesus is actually saying that he
is totally human. He has he he is like us, but he
has come from heaven means meaning he's also totally God.
They thought Jesus had normal human parents like the rest of
us. They just didn't know and
understand that his father was God the Father in heaven.
And so he continues in these passages, if you're counting
seven times, how he says he has come down from heaven, He is the
bread of life, of eternal life that has come down from heaven.
He has come down from heaven over and over again.
Verse 43, Jesus, answer them, do not grumble among yourselves,
because that's all that they were doing.
Verse 44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
So Jesus, humanity was not the only reason for unbelief for
these people. Another reason we see here is
their depravity. It's in verse 44 and we can
compare it to verse 37. That same.
It's from there as we compare it to verse 37, the same truth in
verse 44, but in verse 37, in verse 37, it's stated
positively, right? All that the Father gives me
will come to me. But in verse 44 it stated
negatively, no one can come to me unless the Father draws him.
No one is able to. No one has the ability to
because in our natural condition, our starting point is
not that we have a little desire for God and that we just need a
little bit more of a spiritual help, a little bit of a boost
from God, a little bit of a recalibration, a few degrees to
get us on the right path to God and to our salvation.
But that's not what Jesus teaches.
He highlights that we are unable to come to God entirely.
Catechisms of all that highlight this that we by nature are prone
to hate God and neighbor and that we cannot make payment for
our sins by ourselves. And so instead we increase our
we daily increase our debt that we have with God.
So here are the spiritual truths that we ourselves, we are held
responsible by God to come to Jesus and believe in him.
We are the ones at fault if we don't do that because we are the
ones in sin, we are the ones in need, we are the ones that are
blind, and we are the ones that are spiritually dead.
Yet we also acknowledge that we cannot come to the Father unless
we cannot come to Jesus unless the Father draws us to Him.
And so, in order to believe the doctrine of election, we must
absolutely be humble and honest in our ability to come to God
and to believe in Him. Left to ourselves in our own own
efforts, we would never be able to do this.
We ought to confess that even the greatest efforts of
godliness are still like filthy rags before our holy God.
No matter how much we want to get some of the credit for our
salvation, we cannot. We must not.
And rather, as we look at verse at these verses 3744 that that
speak to us the the the the mysteries of God and our
salvation. We must be moved to worship that
those who were saved were chosen for no reason in ourselves, but
purely by the grace and mercy and love of God.
We sang this in our in the in the song today.
Were you to count my sinful ways, how could I come before
your throne? Yet full forgiveness meets my
gaze. I stand redeemed by grace alone.
It is by grace alone we have been saved because God drew us
in. How did He do that?
God drew us in by His Word. Read verse 45 to 48.
It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by
God. Everyone who has heard and
learned from the Father comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from
God. He has seen the Father.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal
life. I am the bread of life.
The Father draws us in by the truth of His Word, His Word that
is so good, so true, it cuts deep into our hearts, yet
comforts us with the gentlest of love and mercies.
So even as you hear hard teachings of Jesus today, if
your heart is not resisting, but rather you feel like your heart
is melting, you know that you are safe in the hands of a
sovereign God. His drawing people is powerful,
and He is drawing you in by His Word to come to Jesus yet again.
His work in you is secure to save you, to sanctify you, to
give you eternal life. But for those who remain in
unbelief, there is a seriously scary end of eternal death.
We see that in verses 49 to 51. Your father ate the manna in the
wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes
down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
And the bread that I will give him for the life of the world is
my flesh. If you remain in unbelief today,
you have nothing of assurance. You have nothing to hold onto.
You will face Jesus at the end of your life, not as your
Savior, but as your Judge, and you will not be able to stand
under the crushing weight of God's wrath that you rightly
deserve for your many sins, even if just for one sin.
Adam was cast out of God's presence in the Garden of Eden.
How much more do we deserve to be cast out from God for our
many sins? If you remain an unbelief, you
have no hope. There is no other hope other
than to look to Jesus. But again, the good news is, if
you feel the weight of that panic, of that unsettling
feeling in your soul as you realize what will happen to you
when you stand before God, that is still a good sign to praise
God for. Because as you're hearing His
words, He is, He is drawing you. He is calling you to turn away
from your sins and come to Jesus in faith.
Do so today as God draws us. We can overcome this unbelief,
this sin that keeps us from God, whether it's Jesus's humanity or
depravity. We can overcome as God draws us
because His Word is powerful and effective even when we are
offended by God's Word, even if we are offended by God's word.
See this in verse 52 onward. The Jews then disputed among
themselves, saying, how can this man give us this his flesh to
eat? So Jesus said to them, truly,
truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man
and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise Him up on the last day.
For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and
I in Him as a Father living Father sent me, and I live
because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, He also
will live because of me. This is the bread that came down
from heaven, not like the bread of the bread the fathers ate and
died. Whoever feeds on this bread will
live forever. Jesus said these things in the
synagogue as he taught at Capernaum.
Let's make sure we follow the logic of Jesus teaching here.
In summary, he taught that God will give you true bread.
He offers true bread from heaven.
And then he said I am that bread come from heaven.
And then he says the bread is his flesh.
And then finally he says, you must eat my flesh, and on top of
that, drink my blood. We can understand their
unsettled confusion from the provocative language.
It's it might even feel disgusting.
Yes, if your mind is set on the physical realm, it might even
sound like Jesus is promoting cannibalism in that way.
It felt gross and gory and wrong all all the much more because
for the Jews, blood was a sacred thing.
God forbade them to eat the blood several times.
He gives that command throughout the Old Testament.
But what they needed to understand was that Jesus was
continuing to describe using physical objects, describing
what faith looked like a spiritual reality.
Having faith again is not just agreeing with Jesus just to say
yes to the yes or no questions about Jesus.
Faith is about coming into relationship with him with a
desire to know him and love him. And that desire continues to
grow and grow and over over shadow any other desire that you
may have. Faith here is also like
spiritually eating and drinking, personally taking and embracing
Jesus and His words into our very being.
It's believing that man does not live by bread alone, but man
lives on the very words that come from the mouth of God.
That's what faith here is like. So that as Jesus, as we come to
him, he, we abide in him. But Jesus also abides in us.
That's what he says in verse 36. Wherever feeds on my flesh and
drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
It's that kind of deep intimate relationship that we have as we
abide in Christ and he in us. We have to to understand that
this is what faith is really like, to say that we have faith
in Christ. Some people reading this
passage, they claim that this teaching is about taking
communion and then they wrongly teach that taking communion
today will save you from your sins.
That's not true. Nothing, again, nothing we do
can save us, for it is God's will and work to save.
As we have seen earlier, and in the response to God drawing us
by His word, we believe and receive by faith our salvation.
The whole of our salvation from start to finish is a gift of
God, the grace of God. And we will say that over and
over again because we're prone to forget.
While here it might sound like communion if you look carefully
at what Jesus is saying. It's not directly teaching about
communion, obviously, because the Last Supper of Jesus did not
happen yet. But here it does reveal the true
meaning of the Lord's Supper clearly, that Jesus would indeed
give up his body. He would indeed pour out his
blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
He who lived the perfect life, being fully God and fully man,
who did not deserve to die, yet He chose to die the death we
deserved, all for us in our place.
Communion indeed points to what Jesus has accomplished in his
body on the tree. It does point to the true
meaning of the Lord's Supper, clearly.
But it's for us to see Jesus's work again on the cross, and
with it, another invitation of Jesus in verse 58.
Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
They just need to look to Jesus and believe, and all that Jesus
promises them would be theirs. But even for Jesus disciples who
once had decided to follow Jesus, this was hard to accept.
Let's read verses 60 to 66. When many of his disciples heard
it, they said this is a hard saying.
Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in Himself
that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to
them, Do you take offence at this?
Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he
was before? It is a spirit who gives life.
The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to
you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do
not believe. For Jesus knew from the
beginning who those were who did not believe Him, who did not
believe, and who it was who would betray Him.
And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me
unless it's granted Him by the Father.
After this, many of his disciples turned back and no
longer walked with him. Many of even own disciples found
what Jesus was teaching to be a hard saying, perhaps hard to
understand, but even more so hard to accept.
Who can accept a teaching like this?
But the hardness was in their hearts and not in Jesus
teaching. They had their own ideas about
the way to God and they're not going to be convinced out of it.
And so it was offensive to them. The word in the original words
is it's hard to describe, but in a way it's it can understand it
as scandalously offensive. But if this was offensive and
scandalous, the cross would be even more scandalous and
offensive. This is what he's referring to
when he says when in verse 62. What if you were to see the Son
of Man ascending to where he was before the scandalous thing of
the cross to accept that Jesus to to accept that we are in
sinners, that we are sinners in need of great help.
We cannot help ourselves that Jesus, we needed Jesus to come
and die for us. And then he would rise again on
the third day from the dead ascending into heaven.
All of that would be preposterous to them.
But Jesus continues to say in verse 63, these are the words he
says these words that I've spoken to you are spirit and
life Again, Jesus inviting them that what he has spoken has the
power, though his words have power to give eternal life to
forgive sins. Yet many were turning their
back, no longer walking with him.
Let's look at the last final verses starting in 67.
So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well?
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of life, and we have believed and come to
know that you are the Holy One of God.
Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you the 12 and yet one of
you is the devil. He spoke of Judas the son of
Simon Iscariot, for he one of the 12 was going to betray him.
What Jesus is doing here is not only pointing to how he would
suffer and die, but how difficult it will be for them to
continue following Jesus. Many might get hyped up about
him, excited about what Jesus could offer to them.
But when they come to the heart to accept sayings of Jesus that
are offensive to them that declare there are that that that
we are sinners depraved, unable to save ourselves, that we have
to come and and eat of Jesus and to trust in him alone.
And these miraculous things that Jesus said on the cross and at
the empty tomb and at his at his ascension.
He was reminding his disciples, challenging them.
It will be difficult to follow, especially when you see many
others no longer walking with him, but to then, but even then,
even when we see those who have profess faith, those whom we
look up to walk away from Jesus, what will we do?
Will we, will we try to calculate, minimize who Jesus
is, to make sense of him, or really humble ourselves at his
word? To say Jesus, you truly have the
words of life. To whom shall we go?
Will we sound and act like the crowds, challenge Jesus,
demanding of him? Or we speak with the words of of
Simon Peter, words of worship, humility, surrender?
What will you say? How will you respond to Jesus in
this world where there's many things competing for our souls
to try to satisfy us, to offer full satisfaction, will return
to Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life, who gives eternal
life. Look carefully at His signs,
look carefully to His Word, and be deeply encouraged that His
Word is able to draw us in so that we may come, turn from our
sins and believe in Jesus Christ so that we too may feast and
dine with Him forever. How will you respond?
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the words of eternal life that you have made available to
us. You have preserved for us the
words of Jesus Christ, words that He spoke that were true
then and still remain true today.
Will you help us to be? More and more satisfied in you
alone may our desire for the things of this world be
swallowed up where we see it rightly in its place, where none
of these things of this world should be central in our lives,
but rightful in its rightful place.
Be used for the glory of God. You should be central, Lord.
You should be our satisfaction, so would you satisfy our souls,
perhaps for the first time, for those who are here who do not,
who have not believed before, and satisfy our souls yet again
with joy and pleasures forevermore that you provide
from knowing you and trusting in you.
We long this for ourselves and for more people to come and know
and believe in you. Jesus, the bread of Life, who
has come into the world to give eternal life, who will not lose
anyone that the Father has given to him.
He will be deeply encouraged by your by your word, and then
encouraged to go out, live it and share it all for your glory.
We thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
Let's take a moment now to personally reflect on God's word
and that was preached to us. Take a moment to do so before we
close out in prayer in in song and prayer together.