I Am The Bread Of Life | John 6:22-40
Sermon Transcript
Good morning. Good to see you. Well, you may have heard me talk about how I have two daughters that are both cheerleading this year. One's on JV, one's on varsity, and the younger one's on varsity, and the older one's okay with that, because the younger ones just spends a lot of time doing it, and she's real good, but they're both good. And so we were at varsity JV game at Somerville last week, and I'm watching my older daughter, 10th grader, you know, cheer, and I went to concessions, and I got me this Powerade, and I was drinking it, and she's watching me drink that Powerade, and she's like, and she's kind of mouthing to me, like, I was like, I don't think I can get up and get you something. And so my wife was away game, so she was home with Johnny. We don't bring John David to away games. And so he said the house, I said, She's asking me to go get her a power I don't know if I can do that. Should I do that? So she kept saying, so at halftime, you know, they came up and talked to their parents. She says, I said, we don't have water. She's I don't want the water. I want that power you're drinking. So Lynn got her a Powerade, right? Says, Okay, go ahead and she because she's out there sweating and it was hot. It's okay. I got her one she she was happy. Well, then this past Friday, the varsity team was a West Ashley, so I'm down there watching my younger one cheer, and she looks at me and she says, I said, what she's saying? Cheeseburger. I was like, cheeseburger. And Abby goes with this, like, what's she saying? She's like, cheeseburger. She's never asked me for food before. I was like, what now? She had told me what they were supposed to have as a meal, and it wasn't a lot. And apparently no one liked it. And so I said, Okay, I'll get you a cheeseburger. So went all the way down to the concession stand, got a cheeseburger, walked back, and the way the stadium was set, you could kind of get right there near the field, and they had all their backpacks line up on the fence. And so I just walked up to the fence with a cheeseburger, and I stopped at the first backpack, and she went, one of the next to him, went all the way down till I got the one she went, and I pushed my hand over there and stuck it in their backpack. I was supposed to do that. But then at halftime, I've never seen so many cheerleaders just eating cheeseburgers and hot dogs. They were just all eating like they had never eaten before. And I was thinking, you know, the football team usually has a team meal, but I don't know what happened, because it was away game, but they didn't, they weren't. But they didn't they weren't feeling I never seen so many cheerleaders eating so much food all at once, and they were hungry. So it was kind of funny. So I guess now I'm not just watching them cheerlead. I guess part of my job is to get them food during the middle of the game. I don't know, but that's happened so. But you know, hunger can put us in all sorts of moods, especially for doing athletics, especially for burning a lot of calories. You can understand why. And you know, I've never, ever spent as much time watching the cheerleaders at a football game that I do now. These are my daughters, and I never realized just how much they're moving and how much they're dancing and cheering, they really never stop. And so I felt bad for them as they burn so many calories. But hunger can put us in all sorts of moods, burning calories if we're really hungry, if we haven't eaten in a while, and we're looking at a passage today where Jesus is dealing with the aftermath of him feeding the 5000 people, you know you can feed them. And then there's the aftermath, there's what's next. And people were coming to him for more food, possibly, and for more blessings. And so after feeding this general public while he was teaching, they were still confused as to what was his primary mission. So we're going to see today how Jesus subverts. So when I say the word subverts, what I mean is overturns or topples or brings down. Jesus upends he. He subverts things in our lives, ways of thinking in our lives. He subverts them. John, chapter six, starting in 22 but actually it's a long passage, so I'm just going to read before our prayer, 35 through 40, starting at verse 35 you it. 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. But I have 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, 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, 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, Father in heaven. We, thank you for bringing us here today, Lord. We thank you for this time of year where it gets a little cooler and people do travel, and people do fun things, and they and they watch football. They getting involved in sports and athletics. And it's a busy time of year. We thank you that we can always come and worship you like you've commanded. We can always get a blessing, Lord from doing what you've called us to do. And so Lord, as we look at this passage today, that we would have an understanding, a better understanding, of what it means when you say, I am the bread of life, and how you change our lives through that truth, Father, I pray that I would say the words that you once said. I pray, Lord, that You would fill me with your Spirit and that those here today would receive your word, your bread, that you give them today, Jesus' name, amen. Today, I'm going to show you three things in our lives that Jesus subverts, that he topples, that he flips on its head, if you will. Number one, Jesus subverts expectations. He subverts our expectations. Verse 22 tells us on the next day, well, the next day, what the day after he fed the 5000 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. So the day before this passage picks up, Jesus had fed 5000 people, and afterwards, his disciples crossed the sea of Galilee, but Jesus stayed behind. But during the night, however, Jesus famously walked on the water, across the sea to the boat with the disciples. There's this situation where where Peter called out to Jesus and tried to walk to him, and his faith, his faith faltered, and he and he sank into the water, and Jesus got him by the hand and pulled him into the boat, and they all crossed over to the other side. Look at verse. 23 other boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. And 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, and when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, when did you get here? They knew that he hadn't been on the boat with them. Rabbi, when did you come here? How did you get here? They didn't understand how he had arrived. Their expectation, rightly, was that he was still on the other side somewhere, maybe all by himself, as he would normally do. We don't know. But they expected to see the disciples, but they didn't expect to see Jesus, because they knew that he Jesus, because they knew that he went on the boat with them when they left. So when Jesus was with the disciples, then their expectations of what they were going to walk into was toppled. It was subverted. It was upended. They were destabilized. They were a little confused. If you followed Jesus for any amount of time, you know that's how he operates. He subverts our expectations. He he topples our expectations for what He has planned in our lives. We might have had a grand plan for our lives when we were young, in high school and college, in 20s and 30s and whatever, we had a grand plan for our lives. And then things change, and Jesus gets involved and he and he subverts and topples and changes things, not because he wants us not to have our dreams or not because he's he's some kind of mean God, but because he knows what is best for us, as he's working things out for our good and his glory so he topples our expectations, expectations we have for our families. Yes, five years ago, almost six John David was born. It had been seven years since I had a baby. I had my whole life planned out. We got the news it was pregnant. We were alone because all three kids are in school. They're in school age. It was a Friday morning, and we just stared at each other for three hours in silence. Well, what in the world? What are we going to do now? And I said, I don't know. I was going to be 50 when the last one graduated. Now I'm going to be 57 I hadn't planned on that, so I spent all weekend replanning the next 20 years of my life. But you know that little rascal is a blessing, and that little rascal is probably going to take care of me when I get older, because older three probably won't at all just telling you he is a caretaker. He's a little hard to deal with, but he loves his dad, he loves his mom, he loves his siblings. He wants to make sure our needs are met, even as a five year old, right? So I know there's a blessing there, but that's what God does. He he topples our expectations, for our families, for our employment. Maybe there's a job that you never received or a job that you lost, you understand what happened. You don't know. He subverts our expectations for what we think he has planned for even his church. All of us in here have an idea of what we think First Baptist Church month's corner should be like and act like. And do? We all have our own preferences, but Jesus ultimately steers the ship because it's his church. It's his mission, and we're just going along and carrying that out. Pastor Tim Keller says the gospel of Jesus subverts all of our expectations about power, privilege and prestige, it invites us to embrace a radical humility and selfless love that shocks the world and transforms hearts. See Jesus subverts our expectations by demanding that we love others more than ourselves. He subverts our expectations by showing us that we are to be fulfilled in Christ and not being fulfilled in our own desires, not being fulfilled in our own achievements. He teaches us to do things that we may not want to do, to care for those that are unfortunate or less fortunate, to care for those that are oppressed. He tells us to treat others with compassion, to treat others with forgiveness. And ultimately, Jesus teaches that we are to surrender our own desires, our own plans, to God's will and trust Him daily in his guidance for our lives. Jesus subverts our expectations for what we think we know about him and what he wants for our lives. Secondly, Jesus subverts desires. Jesus subverts our desires. Verse 26 says, 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. You're looking for me because I fed you, and you're looking for more. He calls them out for what they were looking for. He says, You're not looking for the Messiah. You're looking for a handout. You're looking for someone who will benefit you. So he says in verse 27 do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to an eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you for on him, God, the Father, has set His seal. He says, Don't live for temporary earthly blessings and pleasures. He says, You're chasing the wrong food, you're chasing the wrong fulfillment. You're chasing the right man, the right God, but you're asking for the wrong thing. He then introduces himself as the source of their fulfillment. So verse 28 they asked for guidance. They said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? They're saying, how do we live? Right? How. To leave you right with God. He says in verse 29 This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He has sent. He says, The best way you can live right is first to believe in God who sent me So verse 30, 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 man in the wilderness. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. What proof they say? Do you have that you are the God? When God has sent What proof he just fed 5000 people with a little bit of bread, a little bit of fish, and they're asking for more proof. They say Moses displayed proof that he was a prophet, because Moses fed them in the wilderness. But he corrects them, because they're giving the credit to Moses. Look at verse 32 he said, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you that bread, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. He says, God fed them, and he feeds us now he is the provider of all of our needs, both physical and spiritual. Maybe you've heard the story about three old friends who were shipwrecked on a deserted island after nearly a year of being castaways, a bottle floated up on the beach. One man opened it and out popped a genie. Obviously, this isn't a real story, but anyway, out popped the genie, granting one wish to each of the three friends. The first one said, I wish I were back home in my hometown, poof, he was gone just like that. The second friend said, I wish I were back home in my hometown too, the same town they were from. Poof, he was gone just like that. Some of you wish you wish you had a genie throughout the day, don't you? The Third Man, though, is more deliberate. He told the genie he wanted to think about it a bit longer to make sure he didn't waste his wish. So he spent two months of isolation on the island thinking about what to do with his his wish. And he says, you know, after these two months, I've had a long time by myself, and I've realized how much I miss my friends. I've been so lonely here without them. So I wish my two friends were back here with me. Poof. You. Can imagine their look on their face. We all have misplaced desires that we use wrongly. Clearly, the answer was for him to go to them right, misplaced desires, not for them to come to him. He missed his friends, and the genie gave him his wish, but he's still stranded. Now, sometimes we come to God with requests of misplaced desires. We have a desire for something we ask for it in the wrong way, and in God's grace, he often does not give us what we ask for in our misplaced desires. If that was a good God, a good Genie, he would not have given him that wish. He would have transported him back to the hometown to be with his friends. But we serve a God who's not a genie, amen, he's far too gracious. Forgive us the silly things we ask for sometimes, there's several common desires I want to give us that Jesus subverts for us, that he topples first one is this ambition, a desire we have ambition. What are you or what have you been ambitious about? Jesus wants us to have ambition for him. He wants us to strive to be like him. He wants us to take that God given desire to do well and use it for His Kingdom. You know, when John David was born, I got a chance to be a better father than I was the first three times. I mean, I mean, they're still, they're all teenagers now, but they're still young, but especially when they're young, I wasn't looking for that. Was looking for that. And so I often feel like I'm he's my grandchild, because I'm older, and I realize now some of the things that other three that I was too hard on them really didn't matter, you know, despite why he's so spoiled. But you know, you can be ambitious about the things that the Lord you didn't know you're going to be ambitious about, and whatever he gives you is what He wants you to be ambitious about. But he wants you to be ambitious. For him and our spiritual benefit and for His Kingdom. Secondly, what about the desire for revenge? Little Johnny told me a few weeks ago that one of his siblings did something to him, and he said, I'm going to get my revenge. I said, No, you're not. You're not going to get your revenge. We don't do that. So I talked to him, how God does that for us. You're not you can go be a consequence for you. Vengeance is the Lord's. It's not ours. Are you okay with that? You know, Jesus clearly tells us that when we're hit on the cheek, we turn the other cheek. I still struggle with that. I don't want to turn the other cheek. But you know what? My desire is misplaced. My desire is filled with sin. Jesus says, one on one, not corporately, not talking about war theory and this kind of thing, but one on one, dealing with people. He says, you let the Lord handle it. You turn the other cheek. Jesus wants to subvert our desire for revenge this way. Third, recognition. We all have a desire to be recognized for something in some way, maybe recognized for our achievements, maybe recognized for our works, for who we are, for what we've done. We all like a pat on the back. We all like a thank you. It's normal, but that shouldn't be what drives us recognition from people. Should not be what drives us to be successful every day. He wants us to take that desire for recognition and be satisfied with our identity, being in who he is, not in who we are, because who we are is what he created anyway. I didn't ask to look like this. I didn't ask to have the brain I have. He did not consult me on that he's created us to be who we are for reason, and we need to be okay, to let that recognition be part of our identity and who he is, not who We are. Fourth, greed we are to view money, resources, wealth, popularity, things like this through a different lens, that consuming function that we want to consume things, and we want to gather things and get things that so much of our advertisements telling us that we need. You know, I'm told every day things I need that I didn't know I needed. I need that I make my life so much easier. I can have that for just three payments of 1999 man, we're told this all the time, but we need to use that, that consuming desire, to consume things, to consume the Word of God, to to consume Jesus, what he's what he's called us to do. And finally, fifth, security, he upends our expectations and desires for security. Your desire to be secure in your life, to be secure in your finances, to have secure relationships with people that you can trust. Your desire to be secure in these area areas is a desire that God has given you. There's a reason you have those desires, because God's given it to us. He wants us to feel secure in our life. He wants us to feel secure in our finances, in our relationships. He says, though, that he feeds the birds of the air. How much more value are you than they He clothes the lilies of the field. How much more value are you than flowers? Jesus is the secure person to hold on to. He wants to be your security. I'm so happy gas prices are low, and I praise the Lord for it. But if they are high, I'm still praising the Lord for it, because he is my security. Can't put your security in any person, any promise someone gives you any government, and at some point we do have to trust leaders, and we certainly get the right to vote, and we need to, but ultimately, our security is in the God that created everything there is, and he created me, and he created you to be here in 2024 For living the life he wants you to live. Rick Warren says this, Jesus does not ask us to abandon our desires, but to redirect them. He invites us to exchange our selfish desires for his selfless desires, to trade temporary pleasure for eternal fulfillment and to find true joy in serving others rather than serving ourselves. Jesus subverts our often sin tainted desires, and that's a good thing. And finally, number three, Jesus subverts our beliefs, our beliefs, not talking about Christian beliefs. I'm talking about our wrong beliefs that we have about things in the world and even the Lord and things of God. Verse 33 for the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, Sir, give us this bread. Always. He's explaining that he is all they need. And he's using this metaphor, as he did, to explain this. He said this before he says, I'm the bread of life and, and I'm the door and, and I'm the Good Shepherd. And we know that he was not literally any of these things, and they didn't get it. They're only thinking about their temporal needs, their worldly needs. So then he has to explain the metaphor which defeats the purpose of a metaphor. And he says verse 35 I am the bread of life. It's me, Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. He says, you're worried about filling your bellies. He says, Come to me. You don't have to worry about it anymore. I will provide for your physical needs and your spiritual needs, he says, in verse 36 but I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. He says, Here I am, I am, I am the spiritual bread. You've seen me do all these things, you've heard me teach, but you still don't believe. We've seen God work, and we're not believing. So he says in verse 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to me, Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. He states that those who are drawn to him by God will be accepted by him, will be welcomed by him, and he'll never reject or turn away those who are seeking him. He's never going to say, Nope, get your life together first, then come back. Nope, give a little bit more over here. Nope, you did that thing 20 years ago. Nope, you did that thing last night. Nope. He says come and makes it clear that God's will, ultimately is what leads people to salvation. Why? Because the way to salvation is God's idea, not man's. We don't get to decide how to be made, right? With God, amen, we don't get to decide the way to salvation. He didn't consult us in that when he had the Trinitarian communication between the Father Son the Holy Spirit, they didn't say, Hold on. Let me go ask pastor Charlie over here, how he thinks it should be done. No, he says Jesus is coming and he's going to live a sinless life, and he's going to die for the sins of mankind, and he's going to be buried, and he's going to be resurrected, and all he put their belief in him that will be the way to God. We don't get to decide that. We don't get to decide the purpose of life. We don't get to create our purpose, our role in this world. When Jesus starts talking about the divine plan of salvation, we must accept it or reject it, that's it. And he says, If you seek it, I'll welcome you. I'll give it to you. And so he ends with this, For I have come down verse 38 from heaven not to do my own will. Now this is incredible. Jesus is saying he's not even doing his own will. He's doing the Father's will. We could discuss this for days what this means, but he says, I am doing the mission that God sent me, verse 39 and what's the mission? What's the will that I should lose? Nothing of all that he's given me, but raises 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, if we die before Christ comes back, when he comes back, we're going to raise right out of that grave. Some of you will be near each other over there at the St John's. Be all over the place, and we'll be raised up. What a glorious, glorious reunion that is amen. God's will is that those who believe in Jesus will be saved only those, only those who believe in Jesus. We cannot like this, and we can whine that it's not fair, and we can walk away, like so many others have walked away from the gospel. But it doesn't change the truth that the same God who created us made a way to salvation through his son Jesus. Jesus subverts our beliefs, but what he's doing is he's just getting us in line with the way things are and who he is, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your grace and your plan of salvation. And so many people come to what we call religion, or so many people come to to god of some sorts looking for some type of truth, looking for some type of a way to live. And we can be so misguided, and you'd very clearly say, I am everything you need. And when we give our lives to you, Lord, you change our lives. You topple those understandings we have, those ways of life. You put us on a new path, a better path, a path of fulfillment, as we follow your will Lord, as we close our time together today. If there's one in here that's never placed their faith in you, that you would do what you promise is that come to you today, you would accept them. You would receive them, Father, as we leave here today, let us remember that when times seem tough to us, when there seem to be obstacles in our way, that it's all part of your path for us, you have a will and you have a plan we're going to trust you. Trust you are our good shepherd, the one that leads us the bread of life. Lord, we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name Amen.
