Has anyone here ever heard of the Atkins diet? It’s the new diet trend that’s sweeping the country. And the diet works like this: you can eat as much food as you want (within reason), but you have to avoid all carbohydrates and sugars. So, no more bread, no more rice, no more cookies, no more pasta, no more potatoes...anything with carbohydrates is out. But the good thing, is that of everything else, you can eat as much as you want. Now my parents are on the Atkins diet, and from their experience, I’d have to say that it works. Both have lost quite a bit of weight and feel much healthier. They are enjoying the benefits of a good diet. Well, today in our sermon, we are going to talk about a different kind of diet, one in which you can it bread. It’s called the “Jesus diet.” In our meditation this morning we are first going to see the heavenly ingredient of this diet and then we are going to see the eternal benefits that God wants us to enjoy, the eternal benefits of the Jesus diet.
I. Note its heavenly ingredient
But first of all, we should probably set the stage for what is going on here in the text. You see, Jesus a couple of days earlier had fed more than five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two small fish. The people were so impressed that they wanted to make Jesus their king–their earthly king who would free them from the oppression of the “evil” Roman Empire. But instead, Jesus sent his disciples to the other side of the lake and he went off secretly to a mountain to pray. Then later that night he miraculously met up with his disciples by walking on water. And so, the next day, when the people realized that Jesus had gone to the other side of the lake, they jumped in their boats and jet skis and hurried over to follow him, because they still wanted to make him their earthly king. And that’s when Jesus told them that they shouldn’t seek the food that spoils, but rather that they should believe in him the bread of life...
And that is the diet that we are going to talk about today, the Jesus diet. The ingredient of the diet...pure bread. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life which came down from heaven.” And what do we know about this bread? Well, first of all that he is true man. Jesus said in verse 51: “This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.” Jesus came to this world as a man to take our place under the law and to give his life on the cross for our sins. But this bread is also eternal, it is the bread that came down from heaven, it is the Son of God. And because he is God’s Son, Jesus’ sacrifice counts for the sins of all people of all time. And that is why he is the bread of life, because he came to give life and forgiveness to the whole world.
But we see here in our text that the “Jews” didn’t like what Jesus had to say, that they grumbled and complained. (It’s important to remember that John uses the word “Jews” for those who in their unbelief opposed Jesus. All of the original followers of Jesus, as well as Jesus, were actually Jews.) But anyway, some in their unbelief opposed Jesus. You see, they understood very well what he was saying, and they just didn’t like it. “How can this man, whose parents we know, whom we saw grow up with our kids, whom we went to school with...how can he be the one who gives eternal life?” As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians one, this message of the cross, this message of the gospel is foolishness to the world.
But Jesus’ response to their foolish unbelief points us to the truth about our diet, because the truth is that we aren’t the ones doing it. In a diet, usually the ones who lose weight are those who have stronger wills, who can stick to it, right? Well, the Jesus diet has nothing to do with our will or how strong we are, because by ourselves we don’t have the will or the strength to do anything good. You know, it’s so easy for us to think that we are doing so much for God. That we chose God, that we have stuck to it out here Pompanp even in the rough times, going to church, doing what God wants...that we are here because we have an iron will. But no, Jesus explains to us that “no one can come to him, unless the Father draws him.” The truth is that we are weak and helpless...Just look at all the times we get angry, have evil thoughts, the times lie, cheat on our taxes, misuse God’s name...even though we don’t want to. We don’t have much will power.
You know, we hear an awful lot down here in the Bible belt about, “making our decision for Christ” and about how you have to choose Jesus as your own personal Savior. Well, Jesus makes it very clear here in our text that no one can. Only God can draw us to him. In fact the Apostle Paul tells us that we are dead in our transgressions and sins. Apart from horror movies, when was the last time that you saw a dead person do anything for himself? We are incapable of even believing in God. But God draws us to himself through his Word. That is how we are “taught by God” as the text says. Through the means of grace...through his Word and Sacraments, God draws us to himself. He chose us, we didn’t choose him. We only have the ability to reject him. If we believe, it’s all God’s doing.
And again, there is only one way to recieve this bread...You can’t buy it in the Publix. You can’t make it yourself. The only way to recieve Jesus, the bread of life, is through the means of grace, the gospel in Word and Sacrament. I’ve got a question for you. If you don’t eat for a whole day, how do you feel? Weak, tired, right? If you wouldn’t eat for a whole week what would happen to you? You’d get sick and maybe even die, right? Well, why then do we think that we can make it a whole week on the bread that we eat Sunday morning? We need to be in our Bibles daily to recieve the nourishment and strength that is necessary to make it in this sinful world. So read your Bibles. Attend Bible Study. Make use of the opportunities that God has given you to recieve the Lord’s Supper: the bread and wine, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, because through this sacrament God offers to us the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us on the cross. Through this sacrament we recieve in a very special way Jesus, the bread of life.
So, now we know the heavenly ingredient of the Jesus diet: Jesus, the bread of life. We’ve seen that there is only one way to recieve this bread of life and that is through the means of grace, the gospel in Word and Sacrament. But now that we are on the Jesus diet, let’s take a look at the eternal benefits that we enjoy because of it.
II. Enjoy the eternal benefits.
At the beginning of verse 47, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth..” In the original Greek, Jesus literally says, “Amen, amen,”-- what he always says when he’s about to say something really important. So listen up, this is important: I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. The most blessed result of being on the Jesus diet is this. We have eternal life. We have. It doesn’t say, “we will have.” It says that we have eternal life. It’s ours and nobody can take it away from us. Obviously we won’t enjoy this eternal life in all its fullness until our heavenly Father calls us home, but you can be assured that it is ours, because Jesus is the life-giving bread. Jesus said on the cross: It is finished. In Greek, that’s just one word. It’s the word that people in Jesus’ day stamped on bills when they were paid in full. Jesus was saying, “your debt is cancelled.” “Your bill is paid.” Your sins of pride, your sins of lying, of evil thoughts, of anger–those sins don’t exist anymore. Heaven is yours.
And so in our text, Jesus continues with an illustration to bring this point home, an illustration from the Old Testament. If you remember, God miraculously freed the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. But along the way to the promised land, the food ran out and the people began to grumble and complaine. They whined to God like spoiled children. But God in his love provided for them... Do you remember how? When the dew went away each morning, little pieces of honey tasting bread were left on the ground. Now the very first morning that this happened, when the Israelites left their tents, they said, “Manná?” Which in Hebrew means “what is it?” And that’s the name that stuck. The bread that God provided for them for forty years in the desert was called: Manna, what is it? But even though they ate of this bread that came down from heaven for forty years, they all eventually died. But with the Jesus diet, with this life-giving bread, we will never die. Death isn’t the end for us. Death has no power over us. We will live forever in heaven with God. Period.
And you know, there’s even more benefits of being on the Jesus diet that Jesus doesn’t even mention here in our text. With this diet we become strong. God gives us the ability to face the problems of this world with peaceful confidence. Jesus, the bread of life, gives us the peace that the world cannnot give. He gives us the confidence that everything that happens in this world is for our good. He assures us that he will be with us every moment of every day helping us. With this diet we have eternal life, strength, confidence, protection. It’s the diet to end all diets.
So, now I encourage you: let’s do better on our diet. You know, it’s so easy when a person is on a diet to skip a day, to falter, to make excuses. Let’s not do that with the Jesus diet. Recieve the nourishment that Jesus offers every chance you get. Attend worship regularly. Go to Bible Class. Study your Bibles at home. Have family devotions. You wouldn’t ever consider not eating for a whole day. So don’t malnourish yourself when it comes to God’s Word. Without the strength that it gives us, we won’t be able to handle all the problems and temptations of this sinful world. And so also go the Lord’s Supper every chance you get. Remember your baptisms. Even if you never could stick to any other diet, stick to this one. Because with the Jesus diet, the results are astounding. With the Jesus diet we recieve the strength to face any obstacle. With the Jesus diet, we get to live forever in heaven. Amen.
