John- Believe in Jesus and live! Part 3—“The bread of life”
John 6:25-51
Have you ever had a friend or loved one in your life that you felt only gave you the time of day when they wanted or need something from you?
Maybe it was a coworker or team mate
That was trying to get whatever skill or gift you had
In order to get themselves farther along
We all know people like this
If we are totally honest, at some point in our life we may have been that person
I our study today we are going to see a whole big bunch of these type of people
People who are following
Or hanging out with Jesus
Just so they can get what they think they need
Once again If we are honest
We may have been here ourselves at one time in our life
Maybe we came to church for what church could give us instead of what we could give Jesus
What we could do for the kingdom
Maybe looking for acceptance from our brothers and sisters
Maybe looking for a safe place
Maybe for the food or in hopes of some sort of help with a situation
Make no mistake
Jesus says we are to come
And he does indeed want all to come
But
He wants us to come for the great things that he has for us
Not just the things we need at the time or think we need
Let me read for you a big chuck of scripture this morning
Then I will go back and paraphrase the story leading up to these verses
Then we can dig into today’s passage
John 6:25-51
25 They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. 27 But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man[a] can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
28 They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
30 They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? 31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[b]”
32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. 37 However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 Then the people[c] began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. 44 For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. 45 As it is written in the Scriptures,[d] ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)
47 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
Let’s back track just a bit
Last week we studied about Nicodemus and his night time meeting with Jesus
We saw how Jesus’ words began a change in his heart
After his meeting with Nicodemus Jesus and the boys
Left Jerusalem
They headed back out on the road to continue the mission
If you were here for our bible study last week you know that Jesus and his disciples were preaching throughout Judea and baptizing people
They had to go through Samaria and we studied about Jesus meeting with a despised Samaritan woman
And how our Savior touched not only her heart but the hearts of many who were considered to be outcasts
We learned about the true “living water “which is Jesus our Lord
As he left Samaria
Jesus did what Jesus does
He preached
He taught
He healed
And as a result many began following him
Soon he returned to Jerusalem where he continued with his ministry
And
His notoriety and fame grew
Now
Everywhere he went he was followed
People were crying out to Jesus
Trying to get to him
Trying to get what they thought they needed or wanted
Then we come to one of the most famous of Jesus miracles
The feeding of the 5000
Remember we have preached on this story a couple of times
The story is covered in all 4 of the gospels and we can learn many lessons from them
We do know that there were 5000 men
Including women and children most believe Jesus fee about 20,000 on that day
Ya’ll know this story
He fed them with just a few fish and some small loaves of bread
The people ate more than they had in days
Their bellies were full
They were satisfied
If we go back and read Luke’s account of this story we will see that Jesus
Had gone up to the mountain to mourn the death of his cousin John the Baptist
We see from Luke that John was beheaded by Herod
Hear me on this
Jesus knew John’s heart
He knew John’s eternal destination
He knew he had already gone home
But remember Jesus was fully human
With all the emotions we have
So he had gone off to be alone
To cry
To mourn
But
As is so often the case when someone has something that others want
Being alone is often not attainable
That was the case here
The crowds followed him
Jesus could have just slipped away
He could have just rode off
But once again Jesus does what Jesus does and he provides for the people’s needs
He performs one of his most amazing miracles and he fed them
All of them
With food left over
Now just before this miracle Jesus had sent his boys out on their own to get on the job training in ministry
And
They had come back
All jazzed up
Maybe just a bit full of themselves
A bit of the big head maybe
So Jesus sends them off to the other side of the lake
Which is the Sea of Galilee
By themselves
So he can be alone with his Father
But also to continue with his disciples training
Well ya’ll know what happened next
A big storm came up
The boys were afraid they were going to die
And here comes Jesus walking on the water and calming the storm
Once again Jesus is showing them to place their full trust in him
And he will deliver them
So this is where we are this morning
Jesus has gone off to teach and train his disciples
He has retreated from the crowds
But they followed him
The next day they realized he was gone and got into boats and cross over to where he was
The innocently asked him in verse 25
“Rabbi- teacher- when did you get here?”
A better question might have been
Jesus HOW did you get here?
You see they knew that the disciples had left without him’
They knew that they had left in the only boat
And
They knew there were not any other boats available
But now here was Jesus standing on the other side of the lake
Jesus is patient and he is kind
But
Jesus is not easy on these people this time
You see Jesus saw their hearts
He sees all of our hearts
He knew their motives for following him
And make no mistake,he knows our motives as well
So he says to them in verse 26
26 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.
Jesus is calling them on their heart problem
He is letting them know that he knows they are following him for what they can get from him
That they do not really get who he is or why he is here
He says to them,stop worrying about the little things
To paraphrase
Stop trying to fill your bellies
Stop trying to get things for yourself
Open your eyes and see what I truly have to give
Open your eyes and your hearts and spend your time focusing on eternal life
Which---- I -----can give you
They answered his plea with
We have seen you do good things for God
We want to do good things too!
And
What Jesus tells them, I am not sure they completely understood?
He says in 29
“This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
Believe in the one he has sent
I am the one he has sent
Believe in me
Believe in me and live
That is what God wants
He wants you to love what he loves
He wants you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior
What they said to him next must have cut Jesus to the quick
Remember he was a man
With all the emotion and feelings of a man
And even though he was fully God
His human side
With his human feeling could be hurt
And they managed to do it
In verse 30
They asked Jesus to do a miracle so they could believe
Paraphrasing
“Jesus, show us a trick so we can believe you”
But it went way beyond that
Remember they had already see him feed 20,000 people
A true and magnificent miracle
They had seen experienced or heard about his healings
But now they asked him to show them a sign greater than the Manna that God provided in the dessert
They asked him to top the daily feeding of millions
Problem was
They did not understand scripture near as well as they thought
Because they claimed Moses had been responsible for the Manna from heaven
They completely forgot the fact that God had been the one who supplied this bread from heaven
And they forgot that the Manna only provided for their physical needs
They were saying
Jesus, if you are really him
Prove it
Show us that you are greater or more important than Moses
Give us a bigger miracle ----Jesus !!!!
Show us
What he said in return must have shocked them
They flat could not comprehend what he was trying to tell them
Verses 32-33
32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world”
Sounds a lot like when he told the woman at the well that he was the” living water”
Or when he told Nicodemus that he must be born again
At first they did not understand
Nick nor the woman at the well got it at first
Now it was this bunch that lacked understanding
They said “give us this bread”
They were still selfishly thinking of their bellies
Thinking physical filling not the spiritual filling Jesus was talking about
And
Jesus knew their hearts
He knew they thought he was talking about filling their bellies
When what he was really talking about was saving their souls
So once again Jesus teaches
He does not get mad
He just teaches
And
He tries show them the light
Verses 35-40
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. 37 However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
Jesus was telling them straight up
I am the “living water”
I am “the bread of life”
I am “the way”
I am “the truth”
I am “the life”
I am the Messiah you have been looking for
I have been sent by God to save humanity
They got hung up on a few things here
We often can get hung up in the same ways
See
They heard
“ I came down from Heaven”
But
They knew where he was from
They knew his Mom and Dad
So
How in the world can he say he came down from heaven?
You see
They were looking for something
Searching
But they were looking for what they could get
They were looking at Jesus for what he could give them now
Jesus then told them in verses 44-58
44 For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. 45 As it is written in the Scriptures,[d] ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)
47 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
52 Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.
53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”
This was hard teaching and many stopped following Jesus because of it
They would not or could not allow themselves to hear or to see
Many were lost and many still are for the same reasons
Many went away without the true gift that Jesus had to give that day
Many failed to believe
You see
They knew about Jesus
But did not know Jesus
And it is so sad that many today leave Jesus without the gift he desires to give
Last week I told you it really is simple
Believe in Jesus and live!
Jesus wants us to come to him for spiritual nourishment
He wants us to know that
Satisfying God does not come from the work we do but he belief we have
You see salvation
Spiritual; growth
Sanctification
Justification
Glorification all depend on one thing
BELIEF
Belief that Jesus is the messiah
‘Belief that is fully God and fully man
Belief that he came to earth as a man died for your sins
Belief that he was crucified
Belief that he was resurrected
And Belief that he is coming back for us
Believe and accept
The people on the far side of the lake that day got wadded up because he said you must eat my flesh and drink my blood
What he means is you must
Take him into your heart
Let him fill you just as bread and wine can fill your stomach
Jesus was saying to them
I am the bread
I can meet your deepest needs
And your deepest need is to be in fellowship with God just as he intended
He is saying
ONLY
I can give this to you
Trust me
Believe in me
And
Live!!
Jesus wants your heart
Not yours works
He wants you to believe in your heart
As our men come to pass out the bread and juice
Listen to the words of this song
Remember who Jesus is
Remember what he has done
Take this time to pray
Take this time to talk to Jesus
All he wants is for you to believe
All he wants is your heart
Song----Here’s my heart by David Crowder
1 Corinthians 11:23-24
On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.[a] Do this to remember me.”
EAT
25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.”
Drink
26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
Close from the heart
Pray
