Thanksgiving

John 6:25-6:35

Jn 6:25 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?

Jn 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

Jn 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

Jn 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

Jn 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Jn 6:30 They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?

Jn 6:31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jn 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

Jn 6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

Jn 6:34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

Jn 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Now in life I’ve learned that the the trouble with receiving something on a regular basis.

• Is That we come to expect it.

• This the biggest problem in the world today

• We have been blessed to live in a land of plenty

• And as a result we have become completely unwilling to give thanks to anyone for anything.

In our text today,

• We find the crowd questioning Jesus about how He is going to prove himself

• And they ask this again after feeding 5000 people with just a few loaves and fish.

• They’d had a need for food and Jesus saw the need and met the need.

• They’d followed Jesus all the way around the lake

• And rather than recognizing the fact that they were being offered the solution to a REAL need,

• They were asking yet again to have their need met.

And Jesus reminded them of the importance of what He was offering them

• Through his teaching and then He continues to teach them

• Through His ability to meet their need for food.

When the masses demanded food, he reminded them

• Of the fact that he was directing them to Spiritual food

• Through His teaching about heaven.

• When these Jewish listeners were trying to grasp what he was teaching them,

• He made a historical connection for them by referring back to the Manna

• That God provided from Heaven for the Israelites

• When they were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

Again, showing that God had met their needs when they needed it.

• Jesus turns the discussion to things of a spiritual nature

• And they asked him to provide “this food” for them.

• Jesus then told them that He is the bread of life.

• If they would just believe in Jesus they would never be hungry...

• At least not in things of eternal significance.

It’s sad when we as wayward children put other “needs”

• Ahead of this need for the bread of life that’s made known through Jesus Christ!

• Jesus is the only real need that we have to live a life of eternal blessing,

• And at the same time we pursue cars, homes and all manner of possessions

• And in the process we neglect the importance of giving thanks

• To the giver of all good gifts

• We have been blessed by God in so many ways

• That we cant even count them all

• We are a lot like the people in our text today.

• We want Jesus to give us one more thing...

• To give us one more demonstration of his power.

• It’s almost as if they were viewing Jesus’ ministry as a magic show

• And they weren’t satisfied with the things he had already done

• To demonstrate who He was

• And what it was that he had really come to do in their lives.

• They wanted another demonstration of his power

• So “then they would believe”

• It seems to me that it was well past time for them to believe in Him