The Bread of Life
080726 The Bread of Life
Jn. 6:48
Tim Franklin
Introduction:
· John six is an interesting chapter. It is one of those chapters that is loaded with sermon material and often gets preached that way. I want to look at the entirety of the chapter today because of the beauty of the context.
· Multitudes followed him but did not know why. John 6:2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. NKJV
o They followed because they saw signs. Signs are teasers that are meant to draw you in. We are declaring a 21 day fast in August starting the 11th.
o IE Every time I fast I notice billboards for restaurants and food. Those billboards are signs that are teasers that are attempting to draw me into their place of business.
o Signs cause us to stand in wonder and in that wonder seek to know more. They draw us in.
o There are a multitude of reasons why people follow Jesus. Jesus had one in mind.
· Jesus then performs a magnificent miracle reflective of the Israelites wondering wilderness experience. With five loaves and two small fish he feeds 5,000 men and their families. With 12 baskets of bread left over. Cool!
· Jesus goes away for the night and the next day He is on the other side of the lake. The crowds find Him and the big dialogue begins. The crowds are following for the wrong reasons. Vs. 26. They want bread! Jesus wants them to see Him as the Bread of Heaven that they might live forever.
1) They Worked for the Temporal
A) Work—What does Jesus mean by work?
i) Ergozomai-to labor, to toil, to expend resource and energy to obtain. It is what God commissioned man to do by the sweat of his brow in Genesis as a consequence of his sin. Gen 3:18-19 the ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, planting and tilling and harvesting,sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
ii) It is to labor to get a return or a wage.
iii) We expend so much energy on things that have little eternal value/so little return.
(a) The key is the expending of energy—emotional, physical, and at times spiritual energy. This is what wears us out, leads to depression etc. because at the end of the day we have so little to show for our efforts. Look at the crowds. They brought their children miles over rough terrain to get another piece of bread. Only to have to walk back and be hungry once again.
(b) Ie. I get tired when I expend energy. The older I get the more I try to work smarter so as not to expend energy because I know it is so precious. I want my life to count. So many work hard the first part of their lives to ‘get ahead’ and in the second part they realize that getting ahead does not really matter and many people start living for different reasons.
B) What are temporal things?
i) We work for the basics/necessities. These are called needs—food, shelter, clothing. Your father knows you have need of these things.
ii) We work for the pleasure/comforts—all the above only better. The deceitfulness of riches and the lust for other things. James 4:1 where wars come from. 1 Jn. 2:16.
iii) We work for that which is not eternal—the things that rust, tarnish and wear out.
(a) Matt 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. NKJV
(b) John 6:27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, NKJV
2) The Work of God is to Believe
A) Our work is to believe in Him whom He sent vs. 29
B) Our work is to believe for that which is eternal
C) Why is faith work?
i) Faith is not reason. At some point you have to cross the boundary into the realm of the spirit where things are known only by faith. All arguments for God end at the point of faith. It is the point where you lose control.
ii) Faith trusts what it cannot see based only on what has been heard. That is work. It takes emotional energy to make that jump.
iii) Faith has to be built.
(a) Each man is given a measure of faith. Romans 12:3. We all have a starting point in faith given to us by God.
(b) It Takes time to build on it. Ro. 10:17
(1) You have to hear
(2) You have to grow. Ie. I had to the hear the Gospel many times before I said yes to God.
iv) Faith is not natural for fallen humanity. Fallen humanity is always trying to save itself.
3) He Who Believes Has
A) 6:27,47 Everlasting life.
i) Zoee-Greek for life. Real life, genuine life, whole life, abundant life.
ii) Aionios-Greek. Perpetual, used of past and future life. Continuing. Without beginning or end.
B) Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. NKJV
i) Saved –the implication once again, as we saw last week. If we are being saved, then we are being saved from something. What?...
(a) We are being saved from sin and sin’s affect.
(b) Sin implies punishment for crimes committed. Guilt is associated with this.
(c) Sin Affect is sickness, disease, depression, oppression, death, decay, etc.
(d) Sin is everything that Everlasting life is not.
ii) We are saved by grace. Grace is God’s ability in me to do those things that I cannot do in and of myself. I can’t save, heal, or deliver myself. That is God’s ability.
(a) It is grace because I am getting something I do not deserve.
(b) It is grace because I can’t earn it.
(c) It is grace because it is God’s ability.
(d) It is the grace that makes the eternal life or everlasting life possible.
iii) Through faith! There it is again!
(a) Believing is the portal through which saving grace is obtained!
(b) You can’t get saved without it.
(c) Faith is the way you get it.
(d) Faith is trusting. It is not a onetime event but a daily moment by moment lifestyle.
iv) It is a solid future hope.
(a) Last Days-Jesus makes reference to the end time so often yet we read right over it. Jn 6:39, 40, 44 ; Eph 2:7.
Conclusion:
· At the end of this discourse Jesus states: He who eats this bread will live forever. If you are not living forever, you will be dying forever. Jn 6:58.
· Then he asks: vs. 61 Does this offend you? People get offended at the teachings of Jesus for many reasons. If you get offended you are moving away from God, not closer to him.
· If you want what He offers you have to come in faith. Knowing Hebrews. 11:6 that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
· The devil and his cohorts were devising plans to get people to reject the Gospel. "Let's go to them and say there is no God," proposed one. Silence prevailed. Every devil knew that most people believe in a supreme being. "Let's tell them there is no hell, no future punishment for the wicked," offered another. That was turned down, because men obviously have consciences which tell them that sin must be punished. The concave was going to end in failure when there came a voice from the rear: "Tell them there is a God, there is a hell and that the Bible is the Word of God. But tell them there is plenty of time to decide the question. Let them 'neglect' the Gospel, until it is too late." All hell erupted with ghoulish glee, for they knew that if a person procrastinated on Christ, they usually never accept Him.
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